Off
World
by
Kimberly Adkins
Genre:
SciFi
73
pages
Does
space make you paranoid?
Was
The Corporation harboring a dark secret on the off world mining
colony to protect their bottom line?
Christopher
Carter loved to explore. He was a specialist in his field back home
on earth, and travel to a moon that orbited a gas giant 120 times the
size of his home planet was the opportunity of a lifetime.
This
would be his first deep space assignment, and he'd wanted this
contract more than anything else in the world; except for his family,
of course. And he didn't have to choose one or the other.
It
was amazing how things worked out --Until they didn't.
Everyone
was hiding something at the facility, and it didn't take long to
figure out they were hiding it from him. Unfortunately for
Christopher, the truth would prove to be far more horrifying than
anything he could ever have imagined.
**Only
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Stasis
Sickness.
Bile
burned the back of his throat. It gagged him. He'd trained for this,
and somewhere in the back of his foggy mind, Christopher knew that.
Breathing was the key. Utilize short inhalations through the nose,
expelling from the mouth. The respiration exercises happened
automatically. His brain knew what needed to be done to keep him
alive.
He
couldn’t stop his body from shaking. The metal table beneath his
back was cold. No creature comforts on the transport ship, not for
deep space travel. Only the basic necessities would be allowed on
board to keep the load light. Some of the crew on this mission
elected to stay awake for the eight months of travel required to
reach the crucial mining facility. He remembered opting for stasis
now, knowing the bare living conditions they'd be subjected to for
the long haul.
They.
Oh
man, how could he have forgotten? His family made the trip. Sudden
images of them seared across his brain like postcards on a slide
show. His stomach clenched painfully. Are they suffering the same
symptoms? How could he have considered doing this to them to begin
with?
Loved
them...didn't want to be apart from them. Am I really that selfish?\
His
vision was dark, but he could hear others in the room. Their whispers
hung in the air, negative with discord. “He shouldn’t be here;
not with his condition. I was against this from the beginning.”
“The
corporation decides who will be required at the facility. Now get
over it and do your job quietly, like everyone else here.” A deeper
voice snapped back quickly. We’re they referencing him? He couldn’t
be sure of anything coming out of stasis. But that wasn’t his
priority.
"Where
is my family?" He choked out the words, gripping the sides of
the table. He still couldn't see anything, just the outline of vague
shapes, but he was getting up anyway. His distorted vision could have
been the sickness or anxiety - he wasn't a medical expert, but it
didn't really matter. His wife and two daughters were the only
concern.
"Corporal
Carter, please remember your conditioning. You must remain still
until all of your senses adjust. You know that." A stern female
voice instructed him. Firm hands held him down. He didn't appreciate
it.
"I
asked you a question." His voice was clearer, now. For all he
knew, they hadn't understood him the first time. The attendant had
addressed him by his military title, but he recalled this was a
private operation. Well, as private as any company could get. The
military had their hands in everything that was worth anything, back
home on earth and as far as they'd gone in the galaxy.
"Cindy
and the girls are fine, Christopher. They've already been out of
stasis for 24 hours, and they fared a lot better than you, actually.
None of them came out with side effects. I'm sure the children are
tearing up the recovery room as we speak." Her lips pursed
together when she spoke. The way she'd said children
was
off, like it was distasteful to her. So, she didn't like kids. He
didn't feel like he was high up on her list, either.
"Let
him sit up if he wants to, Doctor Larson. He's a tough guy. That's
how they make 'em in the Marines." Things were coming into focus
and he could make out a second figure beside the table when the man
spoke. It was the same guy who laid the hammer down on the doc a few
minutes ago, by the sound of it. He looked military. The way he
carried himself, the hair cut, all said he'd been in the service.
Hell, maybe still was.
Finally,
someone who might understand.
He
struggled to rise, and wasn't sure he could do it after all. Forget
that thought. He asked for it, they gave it to him - like hell he was
gonna give up now. He pulled himself up into a sitting position, and
his vision dimmed again. His muscles were weaker than anticipated.
The suspension nanites had kept him on ice, so to speak, but he
hadn't come through it as well as he'd hoped. The cryo bots in his
system were deactivated now, but it still gave him the creeps,
knowing they were floating around in his body. He should've stayed
awake.
"I
want to see them, now." He didn't mean to bark at the woman, but
it came out nasty. He was going to need to try harder. "Please."
"Obviously
it’s your call, Captain Reynolds." Christopher almost smiled
when the doctor turned to the Military man with a frown. Glad he had
someone besides Nurse Ratchet making the calls. She was just doing
her job, but he needed to get moving.
"Readings
look good. He's stable. As far as I can tell, there's only going to
be one problem."
"Just
one?" Sarcasm dripped off her tongue. She was already beginning
to remove the wires and pads stuck to his body. As far as he was
concerned, nothing was going to stand in the way of his family
reunion.
"Because
of his reaction to the stasis, he'll have to get in the chair. No way
he can walk." He followed the Captain's glance to a wheelchair
parked in the corner. Did they seriously expect him to get in that
thing? He had his pride.
He
was gonna have to show them what he could do. His legs felt like
logs, which didn't stop him from using his arms to propel them over
the edge of the table. They went, alright. And the rest of him
followed right after, spilling to the floor with a smack. It didn't
hurt. He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Wow,
pride literally does go before a fall. He felt like a jackass. From
the look on Doctor Larson's face, he guessed that's what he was.
Captain Reynolds was different, though. He had respect and
understanding in his eyes. He could get along with this guy.
"I
can take him to the recovery room." The Captain walked beside
him once he was in the chair, a remote in his right hand that
propelled the equipment. It didn't make him feel less like a cripple.
"You
know, I have to admit it's nice to have you on my team." He
talked to him without looking down. Normal. Equal. "We get the
scientists in by the dozen, but rarely a military man. I hear you are
a field specialist with the mining equipment we're using at this
camp."
"Yes,
Sir." It was a natural response. He didn't even know if it was
appropriate.
"You
don't have to do that, here. This is a private sector contract."
Captain
Reynolds was right, of course, but it easily could have been a
different story. He'd been a lifer, for sure. A Career Marine in
every sense of the word. He didn't know he was lonely, he didn't even
understand what he was missing until Cindy came along. He'd never
realized the kind of love he felt for his wife existed, couldn't have
imagined it in a million years until he saw her face for the first
time. Whoever would have thought a guy like him would have something
like that in his lifetime? Not him. Not ever.
"Here
we are." The door swept open automatically and the chair took
him through the entryway first. God, had it been eight months since
he'd seen Cindy and the girls? It felt like hours to his brain, but
somehow his body knew.
The
room was empty. It felt
empty.
Was this some kind of joke? His hands began to shake, chest
tightening to a stranglehold around his lungs. No, this couldn’t be
happening. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d had an episode.
All the years his family helped him with his struggle, and he was
regressing now? Christopher suddenly felt unsafe, trapped. He buried
his face in his hands, breath shallow and jagged, and couldn’t
remember a time when he wasn’t cold and alone.
"Daddy!"
Their cries hit his ears first. Something clicked in his head and he
looked up. Tears streamed down his face. He didn't know how to turn
them off. He didn't know how they got there to begin with. His arms
wrapped around the two young girls as they planted kisses on his wet
cheeks. His heart pounded painfully in his chest. He'd never been on
an op that came close to impacting him like this. He didn't know if
he could take it. And then Cindy appeared. There was no angel in
Heaven that could have been more beautiful than she was at that
moment, with her long, blonde hair spilling over her white robe. The
smile on her face told him everything he needed to know.
Christopher
knew then why he agreed to take his family into deep space, exposing
them to the myriad of deadly complications that came from suspension
travel and off world habitation. He needed them, and he would do
everything in his power to protect them while they were here. He'd
been trained to assess any situation and his eyes took them in, one
by one. God, they were perfect. Not a dark circle under a single eye,
not a moment of flagging energy as his daughters held hands, circling
around the chair while they sang a song.
Was
this normal? Was he lucky?
"Babe,
come here." He held out his hand to Cindy and she slipped onto
his lap. His legs were still numb, but he felt her. He felt her all
over and he found he desperately needed her all of a sudden. His
cheeks flamed - did anyone else see? Could they tell how badly he
wanted his wife? He buried his face in her hair, inhaling deeply. How
much time had passed since they'd been together?
The
doctor reappeared and her face was stony with lack of
expression."Let's get you to your quarters on base. Normally
you'd be required to stay on the ship to monitor your recovery a
while longer, but for some military intelligence reason that defies
explanation, you've been cleared to disembark."
It
almost seemed as if she were trying too hard not to register a
reaction to his family, ignoring their presence altogether. It
wouldn't hurt her to have a heart - even a little one. He resented
her, but maybe she was just jealous. Maybe she'd wanted to bring her
loved ones and was denied.
Well,
let her be that way. It shouldn't bother him in any case, and he
didn't know why her behavior set his senses on alert, but it did. He
was uncharacteristically emotional at the moment, but he still knew
it wasn't a good idea to piss off one of his co-workers on day one.
The feeling will pass, surely, once the debilitating effects of
stasis were gone. And his hands were steady again.
Kimberly
Adkins is an author and artist who spends her spare time working on
worm hole theories so she can go back in time and enter Star Gate’s
‘Get in the Gate’ sweepstakes as many times as it takes to
win.
Q:
Tell us something interesting about you that most people wouldn’t
know?
A:
I have a Cylon toaster in my kitchen. So far, it hasn’t convinced
any of my other appliances to revolt against me and assume control
over the destiny of mankind. I guess I’m lucky there. It does burn
‘Frak Off’ onto my toast every morning, though.
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