Lost Ark Ch. 02

Ford already has some ideas on how to control the clones in future generations.

Danton closed the log, staring for several long seconds at the blank screen. Was Lissa in danger? The log had been written four hundred years ago. Whatever peril the scientists faced had played out centuries earlier. But Danton had accidentally hatched Skye. What if he had unknowingly hatched more dangerous clones as well? The display, when he had accidentally hatched Skye, had suggested other tanks had been opened as well. Unsettled by the thought, he explored the rest of the residential wing.

In addition to Nkosi's suite, there were three smaller quarters. Danton struggled to recall how many people had been in the room in Bauer's first video. Had it been seven or eight? There had only been four in the doomed escape pod, which suggested that either there had been another escape pod, or some of the scientists had remained in the habitat. The smaller chambers were still quite nice considering the usual standards of space travel. Each had a modest ensuite bath, bed, compact sitting area, and a shelf for mementos. And in each case, the closets were relatively bare, as if someone had packed and left. Danton was considering the implications when he heard the chime from his datapad. He returned to the airtight door.

Code found after testing 57% of possible combinations. Ready to unlock.

Beyond lay a short hallway with a door at the opposite end, and two on the left. Danton tried the first and found himself in a room that was a hybrid of lab space and living area. Five of the clone tanks occupied one side, two of which were open. The other side contained a doorway, a shower, and a rack with linens. The floor was wet. With a growing ache in his gut, he walked through the doorway.

Whatever Danton had expected to find in the next room, weightlifting wasn't it. Two identical men, surely clones, were taking turns working out on a compact resistance training machine. Both were taller and considerably more muscular than Danton, and each wore only a towel around his waist. They ignored him.

The room was the same one that Lissa had fallen into. As she had said, it was surely Bauer's personal quarters. Not only was the room itself massive, but everything in it from the imposing bed, to the conference table, and the indulgent shower was noticeably more ostentatious than the other suites. Bauer was a man accustomed not only to luxury but status. No one entering the room would have mistaken him for anything less than the boss.

"You found me." Lissa, who was seated at a computer terminal, barely spared Danton a glance before returning to her work. It wasn't difficult to figure out what had happened. He didn't know where the clones had come from, but given their ambivalence to his presence, they must have had sex recently. Danton couldn't stop a surge of anger. Lissa had been so sanctimonious about his liaison with Skye but had committed the same supposed transgression just a few hours later. Danton readied a righteous comment but just as quickly he choked it back. There was real peril here.

"Lissa," he said softly. He crossed to where she was seated. "Lissa, we should go. These guys are dangerous."

"I know," Lissa said. She was concentrating on the terminal, her brow knit with frustration.

"Good then, let's-" Danton began.

"But they're okay for now," Lissa cut in. "And I really need what's on Bauer's terminal. Can you help me?"

Danton shot a quick glance back at the clones, then at the archaic terminal. "Probably, but it could take a while. We don't know how long these clones will ignore us."

Lissa turned again, her eyes pleading with him. The anger she had kept just beneath the surface for the past two days was gone. For a moment she dropped her guard long enough for Danton to see how desperate she was, desperate for a win, for something to call her own. There was a vulnerability in Lissa's expression that Danton hadn't seen in months. "Please," she said. "Bauer is the key to this whole thing. This may be our only chance to get what's on his terminal."

"Fuck," Danton muttered. "Okay, change places with me. Quickly!"

As Lissa leapt from the seat Danton took over. He popped open the interface kit and placed it close enough to the terminal for the short-range radio to work. The kit beeped, then quickly ran through frequencies until it found one used by the terminal. "Okay," Danton said, "let's hope Bauer was sloppy with his passwords."

The industrialist had, in fact, been sloppy. After less than a minute the interface kit found the password: BauerPauer. While Lissa rolled her eyes, Danton keyed in the password and started a download.

1% copied.

"This radio was never meant for bulk file transfer," Danton explained.

Lissa nodded mutely. The two took turns shooting nervous glances back at the Rods while the copy crept along.

"You want me to get your mom?" one of the clones was asking his twin, who was setting up for bicep curls.

"Yeah, do you mind?" the other clone replied. He started his set, curling more weight than Danton could dream of. "I just got your mom. She's kinda wore out."

8% copied.

While the transfer program ran, the clones kept up their routine, boasting and trading insults in between sets. Danton took the opportunity to brief Lissa on what he'd found.

"The far door," Danton said softly. "It was locked with a code. It looks like they locked the door you and I first found, then later the outer one that I just came through. I think they were losing control."

"Nkosi was adding programming to the clones," Lissa said. "It sounds like it didn't necessarily go as planned."

The sounds from the weight machine subsided. When Danton looked back one of the clones was eyeing him suspiciously. For a gut-churning moment, he thought one or both of them would approach, but suddenly the other clone slapped his twin on the back. "You done, bro? Want me to get your purse?"

"Fuck you, stubby," came the swift retort. The clones once again faced off.

34% copied.

A quiet fell between Danton and Lissa, a product of the tension that still hung between the two, compounded by the palpable danger in the room. Then, just when he thought that the silence would hold, Lissa spoke.

"I had to," she whispered.

It took Danton a moment to grasp what she meant. "Oh?" he asked, unable to prevent a touch of sarcasm from his voice.

"Yes," Lissa responded, narrowing her eyes. "I'm serious, Kyle, they might have hurt me."

Danton sighed. "Yeah, I know," he admitted. "I read Nkosi's notes. That's why I want to get out of here. At some point, those two are going to get bored with their bro act."

"And when they do we'll run," Lissa said, "I promise. But this could be my only chance to get Bauer's notes, his logs."

"Yeah," Kyle grunted. He wanted to point out Lissa's earlier righteous tirade, but the truth was he had fucked Skye out of pure lust. Lissa might have enjoyed her session with the Rods, but she hadn't necessarily sought it.

51% copied.

"Hey." One of the Rods stood from the bench. His skin glistened with perspiration, but he had lost interest in working out. "You two!"

"Fuuuck," Lissa hissed.

Danton quickly retrieved his datapad and the interface kit. His eyes sought the door he had entered through but he was too late. The Rods were blocking the way.

"Hey, hey... yeah." Danton was desperate to buy time. "Right, we'll just go." He took a step toward the door, but one of the Rods moved to block him.

"I don't think so," the clone said. He punched a fist into the palm of his other hand, the sound echoing through Bauer's suite.

Danton's head spun, looking for a way to get past the men. From their size and strength, he doubted he'd be able to overpower one, much less both of them. Then he remembered something from Nkosi's log.

"Hey," Danton said, trying to add a note of authority into his voice. "That door!" he said, pointing to the opposite wall. "You need to guard it with your life!"

The nearest clone stopped in his tracks, but the other didn't seem convinced. "Why?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Again, Danton struggled to remember Nkosi's log. "Are you a man? Are you a son of this clan? Then fight! When the triads break through that door will they take your sisters, or will you fight?"

"Clan honor!" the nearest Rod bellowed. He swaggered to the far door, pressing himself to one side, ready to ambush any would-be trespassers. After only a moment's hesitation, his twin joined him.

Danton gave a significant look at Lissa. He inclined his head back toward the now accessible escape route. "Clan honor!" he echoed. "I'll get our brothers. We'll make a stand!"

While the Rods flexed and posed, Danton darted through the door to the tank room, into the hallway, and out to the residential wing. Lissa scrambled to keep up while lugging her pack. Wasting no time, Danton closed the airtight door and set a random code. They were safe.

"Fuck," Danton groaned.

"Fuck," Lissa agreed.

***

-Lissa-

"They didn't just disappear," Lissa said.

The explorers didn't eat or sleep well. Although the kitchen that Kyle had passed through earlier was partially stocked with unopened food containers, neither of them felt like testing centuries-old supplies. Once again they ate from the rations they had carried on board. And while the mattresses in the scientists' quarters were comfortable, both Sloane and Kyle were on edge, hearing menace in every stray noise. The next morning they sipped instant coffee and guessed at the fate of the habitat's occupants.

"No," Kyle agreed, "they didn't just disappear." He unwrapped a Froot™ snack and began to nibble on it listlessly. "They might have escaped in a different pod, or perished here."

"Or they could have relocated to one of the other habitat segments." This was Sloane's favorite theory. The habitat ring was composed of three different segments, like unevenly cut pieces of pie. She and Kyle had been dropped off on the largest, but it wasn't clear if or how they might reach the others.

"Sure," Kyle sighed. They had reached the end of the habitat segment where Sheen had dropped them off a day and a half earlier. "They might, somehow, have made it to one of the other segments. But we have no idea if they did or didn't, and no idea how. And Lissa, we're closing in on the first recovery window."

Kyle was right. The mission design allowed for two recovery windows, opportunities for the shuttle to extract them from Ark I. The first, and easiest, was rapidly approaching. The ship and the planet were on nearly identical stellar orbits, with Kaybe slowly overtaking Ark I. A shuttle launched within the next two hours would have a short journey to make the pickup. With each passing hour afterward it would become increasingly more difficult.

"Okay," Lissa said. "We have two hours, right?"

"I'm sure Sheen would appreciate a bit of advance notice, but yes."

"So let's at least try. I'll review the materials you copied from Bauer's terminal. See if there's a clue there. You can revisit the habitat schematics, see if there's a way to reach the other segments. If we both draw blanks then we'll ring up Sheen."

Kyle shrugged. The two had been at odds for much of the mission. Sloane wondered if, like her, he was fatigued not just from poor sleep, but the tension between them. "Okay," he said, "two hours."

While Kyle connected his interface kit to the access panel, Sloane returned her attention to the list of files downloaded the evening prior. Most were useless, either fragments of files that hadn't finished copying before they had fled, or bulky system files that contained only indecipherable gibberish. Sloane plowed her way through them, hoping for something that would provide a clue about what had happened to Bauer and his team. After almost an hour she came across a promising video log. With a nervous click, she played it.

Bauer faced the camera in what clearly was his suite. Sloane recognized the bed in the background, but Bauer himself no longer resembled the upbeat showman from the previous videos. He looked angry.

"These children!" he muttered. "What did they think, that this is some kind of game and they can yell for their moms every time they stub their toe? Of course shit happens, of course there are setbacks!" He shook his head as if trying to master himself. "When we sealed off the first half of the habitat we lost access to Li's and Ford's suites. When I asked them to double up they all turned ten years old again, arguing over who would get the bigger bed."

Here Bauer leaned back with an exasperated sigh. "Nkosi has a good point though. We also lost access to lab space. Most of the equipment is duplicated, but not everything. I can already hear the complaints that they won't be able to continue their work. We're only two months out from reaching Kaybe. When the colonists arrive there will be pressure to join them on the surface. That's obviously not going to happen. We need a product ready for delivery, and frankly, we aren't even close. The only solution is to relocate to segment two and continue our work there."

"The second segment..." Bauer trailed off. "I guess it won't be a waste after all. Thought I'd be able to put a second team in there but that didn't happen. At least now we have a fully-equipped space to relocate to."

There were several other intact files. Sloane was eager to explore them but had already used up half of the time remaining until the launch window. She flagged them for later review and turned to Kyle. He must have sensed her movement, waving her over before she could speak.

"Look," he said, pointing to his datapad, "I think there's a way."

"A way to reach the other segments? I think that's what they did."

"Yeah, I overheard part of the video. Check this out." Kyle turned the display her way, eager to share his discovery.

He continued. "Here's the segment diagram. You remember it from when we first came aboard, right?"

Sloane looked at the diagram laid out like three uneven slices of pie. "Yes. We're in the largest one. You said they were completely separate from each other."

"They are. For some reason when the habitat was designed it was as three separate segments. They're physically isolated from one other, each with their own environmental, atmospheric, and plumbing controls. No doors or airlocks connect them."

"So how do we get from one to the other, do a spacewalk?"

Kyle gave her a sharp glance. "I thought about that, but it's too dangerous. We don't even know if each of the segments has its own airlock. But look at this." He zoomed in on the point where their segment pressed against the next largest, then focused on the curved outer edge. Just outside of both segments, a thin band circled the entire circumference of the habitat.

"What is that?" The band looked too thin to be habitable, more like the peel of an orange than the flesh within.

"I didn't know at first either," Kyle admitted happily. Some of the man's boyish charm, so long dormant, was re-emerging. "Turns out to be a reclamation ring, a combination of solar collector, sewage field, and farm."

"Sewage and farm?"

"Yes," Kyle continued, oblivious to Sloane's discomfort. "Sewage goes in to feed an algae farm. Carbon dioxide is converted to oxygen, and fresh water is returned."

"But Bauer's team was eating preserved food, not algae."

"Sure," Kyle agreed. "There weren't that many of them and they had lots of storage space for rations. Plus, I think we've seen that no one on that team signed up for algae burgers. The algae farm concept was meant for longer voyages with more people to feed and less room for supplies. Bauer and company weren't in that scenario."

Sloane pulled herself together before she could fall into a rabbit hole of what it would be like to eat sewage-fed algae. "So how does this help us?"

"The band circles the entire habitat," Kyle explained. "There are maintenance access points for each segment. It will be cramped, but if we enter the band from this segment, we should be able to get to the others."

The timing would be tight. "We have forty-five minutes before the launch window. How long will it take us to find the access point?"

Kyle grinned at her. "You're practically sitting on it."

What Sloane had mistaken for an oddly bulging pantry at the edge of the kitchen turned out to be the access point. Kyle explained. "An airlock has to be more than two meters long in order to hold a person of average height, their pressure suit, and the doors at each end. Given how thin the outer band is, it's not practical for an almost three-meter-long airlock to protrude into it. It's more like stepping into a closet."

"Is the band pressurized?"

"It can operate without atmosphere," Kyle explained. "The liquids are contained in sealed systems which only need sunlight and power. But, it's designed to be pressurized for maintenance purposes. Let's see." Kyle verified the pressure of the airlock using the external panel, opened the door, and tossed in the remote sensor. "Here you go," Kyle said, smiling at the device like one might a pet. The inner door clicked shut.

Sloane checked the hour. If the band was habitable they would have enough time to notify the camp that they wouldn't need the shuttle. Kyle seemed to be enjoying the challenge of navigating between the habitats. The longer his excitement lasted, the more likely he would accept another day or two on the ship.

"This will take a few minutes," Kyle said. Then, after a pause, he added, "How will you write about it in your journal?"

"Write about what?"

"Our, uh, 'sessions', with the clones." Kyle was smiling faintly.

"Oh." Sloane hadn't given the matter any thought, but it did present a challenge. She could write the story of Bauer and his team in a scholarly fashion, describing their adventure from a purely historical perspective. Or, she could write their story alongside that of her and Kyle. To do so would be more engaging, but would require her to own up to the sexual aspects. "I don't know. Would you mind if I did?"

Kyle was still smiling. "Could you not use my name? You could say, 'A mission specialist I know well.' or something like that."

"'A fellow explorer who valued hands-on learning.'"

Kyle snorted. "Right! Just so they don't know it's us having all of the clone sex."

Sloane was about to make another quip when Kyle's datapad beeped. "It's the sensor," Kyle said. "Let me see. It's cold, worse in there than it was in this segment when we first came aboard. But there's breathable air, and no sign of toxins or radiation."

"Can you turn on the heat?"

"Yes," Kyle said. He jabbed at the datapad, swiftly navigating through a series of menus. "But I don't think it will help much. The heating system is pretty weak."

"But we can survive it long enough to reach the next segment?"

"Yes. Dragging our gear with us through the band is going to be sweaty work anyway."

"So... we're doing it?"

"Yeah, sure," Kyle said. He didn't even roll his eyes or throw up his hands this time. "You'll get your story."

"And possibly more clone sex."

"Promise?" Kyle asked.

While Sloane messaged the Odysseus camp that they wouldn't require immediate pickup, Kyle wrestled their gear through the airlock and into the band. When he came back out, his expression was strained.

"The air is cold and stale in there, fuck. And cramped. We'll have to crawl."

"Fun," Sloane said, carefully gauging Kyle's level of discomfort.

"Oh, it'll be fine. Let's just not linger. I'll go in first, grab my gear, and head for the next segment. When you come through, your bag will be behind you. The strap is long enough that you should be able to pull it along." With no more guidance to offer, Kyle entered the airlock and dropped into the band. Sloane followed.