Sightless: The Survivors Series #2 Read online

  Riki Lala scrolled through her console before looking up.

  “You want something more concrete than an estimate based on their starting location and expected date of arrival? We can try to pick them out, but from this distance and at this speed it’ll be like searching through a haystack for a molecule of dust,” she said.

  “Quade, is there anything on the Incubator resembling the Agarthanons enough for us to run tests against them? Maybe they are susceptible to energy weapons, radiation, or something else,” Loris asked, but Quade shook his head.

  “There’s not a single specimen of any species that the Detonans created on board.”

  “But there are tools and other materials used in the production of organic life forms, right?” Lala asked with uncharacteristic fervor. “It seems evident to me that the Detonans are sure to use this technology to rapidly rebuild the population of their race, and we had better do the same if we can.”

  Loris stared at the long face on the monitor, wondering if they’d stumbled upon an incredible resource. Maybe this is why Quade took such an interest in that giant ship to begin with.

  “Is it possible for us to create more people? How would that even work?” he asked.

  Quade held up a finger and the image shook. He appeared to detach the camera and then carry it down the hall. They passed strange fixtures in the wall that might’ve been methane drinking fountains, more dead bodies, and long stretches of sloping hallways, which seemed to be the Detonans’ preference over stairs because of their awkward, lumbering gait.

  The camera eventually settled in front of a doorway that had been propped open with a bar. Inside were pods similar to what Loris had seen on the planet behind the sun, small oval shapes attached to blocky, black machinery, but behind were larger tanks hooked up to tubes running out of the walls. It was hard to tell until Quade got closer, but the tanks had a soupy liquid inside that was partially composed of thicker gelatinous masses.

  “From what I gather, the magic of life happens in these containers, and to be clear I use that phrase facetiously because of how mechanical the whole system is. I haven’t been able to look into it as much as I’d like because of everything going on, but as best I can tell, humans or Silica or Detonans can be constructed out of whole cloth at any stage of development,” he said.

  Loris gaped at the tanks, struggling as he waded beyond the obvious observation that a fully grown human could fit inside. If they actually went through with creating more people, he wondered whether they would have falsified memories of a childhood that never existed or if they’d know they were born fully grown. In either case, what would that do to a person?

  A comment from Sonia Firth demonstrated that he wasn’t the only one with deep qualms.

  “Can we talk about the ethical dilemmas of conjuring up a new person? Is that something we should even be doing? Would it be right? It doesn’t seem like we should subject anyone to this kind of unnatural creation,” she said.

  “There’s nothing natural about any of us. From what I’ve heard, our entire species got started this way,” Kelly Reid said.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Quade said. “Their records indicate that although they experimented with humans made whole like this, once they had settled on a design they actually used something called a Catalyst, maybe in the form of a virus, to spur the evolution of primates on Earth into our current form.”

  For Loris, it seemed the disturbing truths the Detonans had in store for them were impossible to count.

  “What have you learned about how these tanks work?” Lala asked.

  “There are really two parts of this entire thing. There’s the chemical synthesis of organic matter that develops into a living, breathing being, but even more important is a strange and obscure system for programming creatures with their tendencies and behaviors. As best I can tell this is how instincts, knowledge, and the seeds of personality are instilled. There’s plenty of documentation on the chemical formula of humanity, but there’s almost nothing about wiring the brain of a human or any other species,” he explained.

  “You said it was programming. Isn’t that your job?” Panic asked, seeming hurt from their earlier exchange. Quade assumed a tired look.

  “There’s no algorithm for the essence of humanity. We could make something that looks like a human but behaves exactly like a duck if that part of it doesn’t come out just right. For me, that makes the entire endeavor too risky. Trying to make people without having all of the components in proper order is a recipe for disaster.”

  Loris lowered his head and rubbed his eyes. They had months of waiting until they arrived at Nova and couldn’t afford to ignore any opportunities available to them, especially when so much of what they knew about the universe was bending into knots. These were things humanity should’ve had centuries to discover, but instead it was all being thrown at them at once.

  “The Detonans aren’t going to hesitate to use this technology to rebuild their population. The more people there are, the more likely they are to survive, even if some of us have to know we were conceived in a bowl of soup. The least we can do is try to figure out the formula for human behavior that the Incubator is looking for, and I know just the person with the right expertise.”

  Loris left the conference room feeling better than he had during the heat of the meeting. Even if so much was new to him, so much was the same. They were going to find a way to survive, no matter what was thrown at them. They would find a way to prevent the Detonans from rebuilding their strength. Humanity would defeat them for good and stop them from ever torturing another species again.

  In the meantime, he had another interesting task to hand out, and with any luck it would work out better from the get-go than promoting Panic to Chief of Defense. Loris searched the medical wing, the work stations, the libraries, the mess hall in vain. It wasn’t until he felt like he’d searched the entire station and was about to resort to contacting her over the com that he wandered into the gymnasium and found Brina on a mat holding herself up sideways by one leg and one arm.

  Her smile was like a crescent moon.

  “Brina, I’ve been looking all over for you. You’re going to play a vital role in the repopulation of our species!” he said as she took a seated position and gave him a wary look.

  “That’s kind of a weird way to put it, don’t you think?” she said, muting his enthusiasm.

  “How should I have put it?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Congratulations. I’m so excited. Isn’t this amazing?” she said, tossing her arms up.

  “Well it is, but wouldn’t it make sense for me to tell you what it is before I congratulate you for it?” he asked.

  “You don’t need to tell me. I already know,” she said. That really threw Loris for a loop, and he peered hard at her.

  “How could you already know what you’ll be doing?” he asked. She cocked her head and sucked on her cheek as she looked him over.

  “It’s not that hard to figure out. I’m not the first person to have done it,” she said, forcing a chuckle from Loris. He wondered who else had been using Detonan technology to manufacture additional individuals.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “No, I’m not. What kind of game is this?” she asked.

  “Yes, you are,” he insisted.

  “No, I’m not. I’m pretty sure I’m not the first person to become pregnant, unless you mean on this station since the catastrophe, and even then I doubt it.”

  “Wait, what?”

  Loris felt like he was falling and only just realized it.

  “It’s kind of a secret, so don’t tell anybody, but there’s a couple on the maintenance staff who is probably expecting.”

  “No, the other part. You’re pregnant?”

  The expression on Brina’s face changed from skeptical to something much closer to shock.

  “You mean to tell me you didn’t know? Then what were you talking about?” she asked.
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  “How could I have possibly known that?” he asked. His head was spinning and he was glad there weren’t any other people in the immediate area.

  “I thought the alien boy told you. That’s how I found out. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but I was already in the medical wing, so I decided to get it checked out. It’s ridiculously early, but what can I say? It’s happening,” she said.

  Loris was dumbstruck. The thought of being a father in the midst of everything that was going on was too tough an equation to figure out. He stood there with his hand on his forehead while she sat with her legs crossed on the mat.

  “That’s incredible!” he said, trying to project positivity despite his uncertainty. “No, the boy didn’t say anything to me. Nice of him to tell you and not me. He really is a trickster.”

  Brina shook her head as if to wash away the whole misunderstanding.

  “If you didn’t know, then what did you come to me for?” she asked.

  Loris took a deep breath, finding it difficult to get his thoughts back on the task at hand after finding out she was pregnant. It seemed a little strange that when the news broke they didn’t jump into each other’s arms or kiss, but that was the way she was.

  “I came because I need your help expanding the human population, and I don’t just mean by being pregnant. Trynton Quade is on the Detonan’s ship trying to figure out how their incubators work. He has a good handle on the chemical processes involved, but there’s no data stored about human behavior. I figured that our top-notch psychologist would be up to the task of filling in the blanks,” he said.

  She seemed a little less joyful about his revelation than he was about hers. Her lips pursed and she glanced at the floor before glancing up at him. She got to her feet and crossed her arms.

  “Fill in the blanks about human behavior? What does that mean, exactly?” she asked. Even this basic level of scrutiny began to surpass Loris’s understanding.

  “I’m not completely sure. What I can tell you is that we need an algorithm for the essence of humanity that would allow the human beings made to be fully realized individuals that are just like us,” he said.

  Brina continued to look at him without responding for a moment.

  “We’re making synthetic people, and you want me to make sure the brain works. And how am I supposed to do that?”

  “You’ll have to talk to Quade about it. I assume there’s some kind of program you’ll use. It’ll require some time on the Incubator. The ship is close to the Magellan. We’ll just need to sync our deceleration to transfer you over there. That won’t take long.”

  “I see. The human brain is a pretty complicated thing. How long do I have to do this?” she asked.

  “We really don’t know what’s going to happen once we reach Nova, so it’d be best to finish off then. I’d say about four months.”

  “And what happens if I make a mistake?”

  Loris tried to give her a reassuring look, sensing her reluctance over the whole thing.

  “Then the people we make don’t behave like people. They’d be different in some way depending on what you did.”

  Brina nodded and raised an eyebrow.

  “Let me get this straight. You want me to re-create every aspect of the infinitely complex human mind from scratch in four months using who-knows-what program, and if I make a mistake, these newly living things will be irreparably impaired or deformed for their entire lives. And if that wasn’t enough, you want me to spend all my time doing it on an alien spaceship with only the eccentric computer research and engineering team to keep me company. All while experiencing the nausea of early pregnancy.”

  For some reason her air-tight argument and list of concerns made him smile. They were going to have a brilliant baby.

  “Do you see how well you just made me feel embarrassed and ashamed? You’re going to be a natural at this,” he said. “But we just want to see if we can figure out how this part of it works. There’s no expectation that we’re actually going to start manufacturing people soon or even ever. We need someone to explore how it works. Plus, from what I gather, there aren’t any stairs on that ship. And I’ll come visit when I can and check on you over the com all the time.”

  As Loris hoped, something about his enthusiasm rubbed off on her. Her stern countenance broke, revealing something warmer beneath.

  “Maybe I should be more positive about it. Unlike being pregnant, this is something no one has ever done. Lucky it’s me getting to work on this rather than someone who’d be irresponsible about it, not to mention oblivious to the consequences,” she said.

  “So you’ll do it?”

  “I will, but I expect a steady supply of chocolate to get me through.”

  CHAPTER 4

  An alarm ripped Loris from sleep about halfway through their journey to Nova, immediately sending him into a panic. Discovering that it was only his alarm and not a ship-wide emergency calmed him only slightly. He tapped his wristband to access the com, trying to shake off the grogginess and splitting headache.

  “We’ve detected something on the long-range scanners. You need to come down here,” said Sonia Firth, who frequently took the helm during the off-shift.

  Loris threw on his uniform and made the trek over to the bridge, unable to even guess what they might be running across.

  “Tell me it’s something good,” he said after striding through the doorway.

  “Do you want me to tell you that, or do you want the truth?” she said.

  “Tell me what it is,” he said, shaking his head. Firth adjusted a console to show him the scanner readout.

  “There’s a squadron coming directly at us, but based on the imaging scan, we’ve never seen ships like these before,” she said, flipping the screen to display fuzzy shots of a few medium-sized warships and some fighters, totaling a dozen vessels in all. They all had oval shapes and at least one ring around them, but there was something Loris noticed that wasn’t wholly unfamiliar.

  “These boys are a long way from home,” he said, catching an inquisitive glance from Firth. “It’s the Silica. You can tell from the asymmetrical formation. They always have a dominant side.”

  The hard look on Firth’s face was one born out of the basic truths that every Unified officer understood about the Silica. Any attempt at talking was useless. The only thing to do was get ready to fight.

  “Do you think they finally learned how to improve their ships, or were these somehow given to them by the Detonans?” she asked.

  “That’s a good question,” Loris said. “I’ve got another. Have the Silica been attempting to chase us ever since we left Earth’s remains, or did the Detonans call them to aid in their defense?”

  “You’ve got me. In either case I don’t think they’ll tell us,” she said.

  “More troubling is their flight path,” he said, locking eyes with her. It didn’t take her more than a second to put together where they were probably coming from.

  “Nova.”

  A few warships would make short work of the Novan encampment from above. If they decided to land, even a handful of those hard-bodied monsters could do tremendous damage to a community with only sticks and stones on hand for defense. It was a grim twist to their mission that they could be spending months traveling to meet up with the bulk of the remaining humans in the galaxy only to discover they’d been wiped out well before the arrival.

  But there was no way to know until they reached Nova, and in the meantime they had to find a way to get through their old enemies.

  “How long until we intercept the squadron?” he asked.

  “A couple of hours,” Firth replied. There was a chance they could adjust course in time to sneak around them, if the scanning abilities of their new ships weren’t all that much better than the old, but that wasn’t how Loris preferred to deal with the Silica. Anything other than annihilation was too good for them.

  “Send the alert to the rest of the fleet crews and the station’s
defense team. We’ll start decelerating now and once we get in range we’ll scramble the ships with backup from the Magellan. Let’s not take any chances here. Blow them away quickly so we can get on to finding out what happened to Nova.”

  Until the moment Loris walked into the docking bay to board the Cortes, his mind kept spinning in circles around what Quade had told them about the Silica. The Detonans had engineered them for the sole purpose of antagonizing humanity, hindering their existence in a vain effort to wipe them out. Weirdly, Loris tried to consider what it would be like to have an urge to kill an interplanetary species and have it be the dominant force driving his existence.

  The more he thought about it, the more he resented the Detonans for it. Not only had those slimy methane breathers corrupted the minds of their silicon creations for no discernable purpose, it also warped every human who hated the Silica, when it really wasn’t their fault at all.

  Panic met them at the airlock, visibly sad not to be boarding with them. Redhook would be taking her place in the cockpit of the Cortes with Loris and Lopez.

  “We’ll have your back from up here,” she said, putting a brave face on it. “They won’t know what hit them.”

  “Sounds good. I’m not interested in giving them a chance to show off their fancy new toys.”

  The three men boarded the ship and prepared for takeoff. Another reason they wanted to end the fight quickly was because they would be shorthanded. The Balboa was still tied up with the Incubator, leaving their fleet reduced to the Cortes, the Hudson, and the da Gama, a vessel originally designed for storage and trade that had been converted into more of a fighter since the destruction of Earth. Now it was outfitted with nearly as much weaponry as the Cortes, and its flatter shape made it somewhat harder to hit.

  Once they detached, the Cortes led the charge toward their unexpected targets. They were in deep, empty space with nothing even remotely close to consider. Loris kept a close eye on the radar. They were slowing down to intercept as well.