The countdown continues! Restitution, Space Colony One book seven, is this week’s Saturday Snippet again. Let’s find out what happens in the next part of the epic adventure of humanity’s first deep-space colony.
Missed the beginning of the story? Read part one here.
Chapter Three
The problem with having your pick of alien technology, Wilder had discovered, was that a lot of the time you had no immediate use for it. She’d come to regret her decision to ask for one piece of top tech from each member of the Galactic Assembly in return for a working a-grav generator and specs. A new world for the Concordian colonists to inhabit would have been a better price tag to put on her invention. Planets hospitable to life were scarce, and planets that would sustain humans were probably even rarer, but if the friendly aliens had pooled their knowledge and resources, they might have found something suitable.
As it was, she had loads of tech she barely understood and mostly couldn’t use, and the colony was stuck on a planet devastated by a viral biocide. Not only that, the prospect of the Scythians’ return hadn’t gone away. She’d thought she was being clever, like the person who, when the genie gives them three wishes, uses their first wish to ask for infinite wishes. But she hadn’t been clever, she’d been dumb. The allure of new, fascinating, secret technology had seduced her, causing her to neglect the immediate needs of her fellow humans.
Yet it wasn’t all bad. Before leaving Concordia, the Fila had explained how their starship jump engines worked, though it had taken months of work to figure out their translation, and now she knew how to stop the jumps from being dangerous for humans.
Or, rather, she thought she knew. She wouldn’t be certain until they’d run a successful test. The test subject would have to be a human volunteer. No animals larger than a microbe now lived on Concordia except for people and Piddle and Puddle—and she was certainly never going to risk their lives. But perhaps a few creatures with natural immunity to the killer virus had survived out in the wild somewhere. Perhaps they could catch one and—
The lab door opened and Dragan entered, panting. He lived five klicks from the research center and ran to work every morning. Dragan was one of the original team who had been working on the a-grav drive, like Niall Cully. Dragan’s pseudonym to maintain his anonymity had been The Artist, a much more grown-up and sensible alias than her own, Deadly After Midnight. She cringed when she thought about it. Still, Dragan was in his thirties and she’d been just a kid.
“Hi,” he said after catching his breath. “Did you arrive early or have you been working all night?”
She yawned and stretched. She had to think for a minute before answering, “I got here a couple of hours ago. I woke up while it was still dark and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I came in.”
“Was it a blast of insight that woke you up?”
“Huh! No. Just anxiety, I guess.”
The work to develop the jump drive had been painstaking. There had been no brilliant breakthroughs allowing them to leap forward, just slow, steady progress, detail by hard-won detail.
“Don’t worry,” said Dragan. “We’ll get there.” He stepped into the bathroom to shower and change.
The next person to arrive was Niall. He’d undergone a growth spurt in the two years since Wilder had first met him face to face, and he didn’t show any signs of slowing down. His personality changed, too. She rarely glimpsed the eager young kid she’d met just before she’d gone with the Fila, Quinn, to the Opportunity. Niall became quiet and serious. She guessed seeing his mother killed by the biocide had something to do with it. That, and the time afterward he’d spent helping a group of vulnerable people survive while the deadly virus spread over the land.
He gave her his usual gruff greeting and immediately settled down at his interface to begin work.
She checked the time. She was expecting a new arrival today, now they were finally getting down to the nuts and bolts of constructing the starship that would take some colonists to Earth.
As if summoned by her thoughts, Aubriot walked in.
She stood up. “Welcome to the team.”
“No problem. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into this.”
Niall’s head jerked up. He stared at Wilder questioningly.
“He’s going to help with the installation of the Parvus’s weapon,” she explained.
“I didn’t know we were installing a weapon,” said Niall. “Who made that decision?”
“Me, of course.”
“Just like that? Unilaterally? I thought we were working together on this project.”
“We are. I…” she hesitated “…I didn’t think anyone would object.”
“Sounds like you didn’t think at all.”
She blinked. Why was he being so rude?
“Let’s see what Dragan has to say,” said Niall. “Is he here yet?”
“Hey,” said Aubriot. “Wilder’s the one in charge around here, isn’t she? What she says goes.”
Niall replied without looking at him, “Thanks for your input.”
An awkward pause stretched out. Niall continued to glare at Wilder, his lips set. She stared back helplessly, wondering what she’d done wrong. She wasn’t very good at dealing with people. Machines and processes were far easier to understand.
“This is stupid,” said Aubriot. “Tell me where to sit, and I’ll get st—”
Dragan appeared, his hair still damp from his shower. He halted, taking in the scene, looking from Aubriot to Niall and Wilder. He said hi to Aubriot and then turned to Wilder. “I didn’t know we were going to have a visi—”
“He isn’t a visitor,” Niall interrupted. “He’s going to be working with us on the project. Installing an apparently much-needed weapon.”
“Oh? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“I thought so. It’s the first I’ve heard of it too.”
Wilder looked at Aubriot pleadingly, hoping he would be sensitive to the tension his arrival had caused, wishing he would leave so the three of them could discuss the problem she’d created. Niall was right. She should have consulted with him and Dragan, but she genuinely hadn’t imagined they would mind. Should she gently ask Aubriot to give them time to talk it over?
“Look,” said Aubriot, “you’re going to need defensive weaponry on that starship. It’s a no-brainer. Who knows what you’ll find each time you complete a jump? What if you stumble into Scythian territory or encounter a different hostile species? If we can’t defend ourselves, we’re lambs to the slaughter. So let’s forget about your stupid office politics and get started. Is this seat empty?” He gestured at Dragan’s desk.
“Uh, no,” said Wilder. “You can sit there.”
He walked to the place she’d indicated, sat down, and turned on the interface. “I’m pretty familiar with the plans already, but I’ll check them over and get up to speed.”
“Wilder,” said Niall between his teeth, “can I speak to you?”
Aubriot was either oblivious to the anger in Niall’s tone or very good at ignoring it.
Feeling forlorn, Wilder followed her friend into the passageway.
“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed as soon as the door closed. “I really didn’t—”
“So you already said. That doesn’t change the fact that now we’re stuck working with him.”
“I don’t understand what your problem is. Isn’t he right? We do need some kind of space weapons, and the one the Parvus gave us in exchange for the a-grav device is perfect.” Strictly speaking, it was the only weapon they had, and part of her reason for wanting it was her desire to make use of the alien tech she’d bargained for.
“How is it perfect?” Niall asked. “It might be incredibly powerful, but you have to be near a sun to use it.”
“No, we don’t,” she replied excitedly, delighted at the opening to explain her reasoning and defuse his ire. “That’s the beauty of what I had in mind. You see, as well as the Parvus’s weapon, we can use the energy storage cell with a gigantic capacity I got us. We can gather energy for the weapon from the sun before we set off. If we end up in a battle, we’ll be ready.”
Niall’s expression softened a fraction. He was, after all, a scientist at heart like her. As she’d predicted, the awesomeness of the tech and the utility of its deployment was appealing to him.
She continued, “I really am sorry I didn’t ask you and Dragan before inviting Aubriot onto the team to help with this. But he does know about this stuff, more than anyone else in the colony.”
“Maybe, but he’s also a complete prick. You know that, right?”
“I do know what he’s like, yes.” Her memories of traveling to and from the Galactic Assembly’s space station were vivid. Aubriot had been almost unbearable to live with, and the long duration and boredom of the space flight hadn’t helped. She hadn’t been aware his notoriety had spread so far, however. “Can’t you just try to get along with him for the next few months?”
Niall didn’t answer. He narrowed his eyes at her and returned to the workroom.
Thanks for reading this week’s Saturday Snippet. Restitution goes live on 15th May 2022. Read part four here.