The Colony by Nathan Hystad

Author:Nathan Hystad [Hystad, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

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“It’s not working,” Mary said, trying to send a communication.

“This isn’t terrible.” I relaxed, leaning into the seat beside my wife. “We’re making good time. Soon we’ll be at Ebos, exploring with Hugo. Don’t worry about contacting the Alliance. If Death’s Maiden escaped, you can sure as hell bet she’s not causing trouble. She’s probably hiding, ordering in takeout and catching up on the latest season of Intergalactic Dating.”

Mary laughed a little too loudly. She was nervous. I could tell it pained her to lose contact with the board and our daughter, but things like this happened on starships. Especially ones we were less than familiar with. “We should have taken the Kraski ship,” Mary muttered.

“Maybe you’re right, but there’s no sense in wishing for anything different. We’re here in the Cyclone, and nothing changes that.” I saw Hugo operating on a dash console behind us on the compact bridge. “What are you working on, son?”

“Trying to find out why the comms are down,” he answered.

“Is that so?” I raised an eyebrow, grinning at Mary. “You think you can do it?” I rose, stretching my back, and crossed the bridge. He’d popped a device panel off and connected an analyzer to its processing core.

“I’m close. If I didn’t know better, this has been manually modified.” Hugo didn’t look up while he spoke, just kept testing things with his remote tablet.

His comment rankled my mind, sending a ripple through my memory, but it was gone in a flash.

“If you figure it out, there’s an extra ice cream after dinner with your name on it,” Mary said from the pilot’s seat.

“I’m thirteen, Mom. Don’t assume sweets are the key to my heart anymore.” Hugo finally diverted his attention from the panel. I had the urge to slam it closed and order him to his quarters. It made no sense. I shoved it aside, feeling a headache emerging.

“But you’ll take the ice cream?” Hugo’s mom asked.

“I’m not dead.” Hugo’s tablet beeped, and I almost grabbed it from him. Instead, I stepped away, sweat beading on my forehead. Ovalax was awake, trying to stop Hugo for some reason.

“I think I might know what happened,” I managed to croak out.

“Dad, are you okay?” Hugo abandoned his station. I viewed his tablet, fighting to keep myself from thrashing it.

Mary was there, her hand cool on my cheek. “Dean, you’re clammy.”

“Check the footage. These Cyclones have internal cameras. They should have been running this whole time,” I said, sliding my back down the wall. I landed on the floor, and Hugo stared at me, concern etched deeply on his face.

“Dad?”

“Go. Load the feeds. A couple of days ago. Three, maybe. After the news from the board came in.” My head beat fiercely, and my vision began to blur.

Mary stayed with me, but Hugo obeyed my demands. I saw him selecting the camera feeds. It revealed all three of us on the bridge, then Mary and me. And then I was alone. “Stop there. Play it.”

I didn’t have a memory of this, but I could tell I’d done something bad.

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