Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

“How did you end up being farmers?” Mary asked, a hint of laughter in her voice.

“I still work for the colony, obviously, but we wanted more. When Dean was born, we left the house we’d built in the city and gave it to a younger couple just starting out. We wanted to be away from the noise and people for once.” Magnus set his hand on Nat’s, squeezing it lightly. “She deserves a quiet place to raise a family.”

“You both deserve it,” I said.

We sat in the living room for hours, talking about all the stuff between their landing and now. We drank to old times, we picked away at a light dinner, and before we knew it, we were all tipsy and exhausted. I asked Magnus to pass word to the crew that we would see them in the morning, and Mary and I headed to the guest room Natalia demanded we stay in.

Mary was already breathing deeply as I pulled the blankets over my shoulders. I heard the light pitter-patter of footsteps approach our room, the door squeaked as it pushed open, and I recognized the sound of Carey jumping onto the bed. He came over to me, sniffed my face, licked it, and curled up between my legs.

I slept like I hadn’t in months.

F rom the helicopter, we got a much better view of the settlement. We’d been so distracted when we’d lowered in our Kraski ship that none of us had caught a good look at Terran One. Now, flying over at a low altitude, I could make out all the different farms, then neighborhoods, as we headed for the base. Fields of varying colors stretched out beyond the horizon, a grid of sustenance and prosperity.

Magnus pointed landmarks out to us. He also described how each neighborhood had all the necessary supply stores, hospitals, and schools, so the locals didn’t need transportation to other areas. It reminded me of old city planning for lower-income areas. They wanted everything necessary along a bus route or within walking distance. For a colony, it made a lot of sense.

It blew my mind to see how far they’d come in just seven years. The amount of work that must have gone into creating what we were looking at had to come at a price. Magnus assured us that they owned worker robots for much of the labor.

In the distance, I spotted a large mountain, pristine lakes mottling the landscape near it, and I knew where I wanted to visit first. I wondered if there was anything resembling fish in that water.

We neared the base, a large structure by the landing pad we were at the day before. As we settled toward the ground, I spotted my friends near a bay door. Clare, Nick, and Slate stood looking no worse for wear, and I silently thanked whoever was listening for bringing them back in one piece.

“Time to make history,” Magnus said, opening the heli door. Mary got down, I ran out after her, and we jogged toward the building. The copter lifted and left us in silence after a few minutes.

We greeted our crew, Mary going for hugs with the two men we’d left in space, me following suit with what started as a manly back pat but escalated into a ‘thank God you’re alive’ embrace. “Everyone okay?” I asked, getting assurances that they were.

Slate grinned at us. “I was having fun up there. I think someone needs to train those pilots better.”

“Speak for yourself. Those guards were ready to rip my head off,” Nick said. Now that we were just a few feet apart, I noticed the red lines in his eyes and a bruise on his cheek.

“Did they hurt you?” I asked, anger boiling under my skin.

He shook his head. “No worse than I’d expect. I’ll be fine. I’m just glad the call came in when it did. I think they were ready to push me out an airlock.”

“I heard the news but wasn’t going to believe it unless I saw it,” a new voice said, coming from the doorway. “If I live to be a hundred, I doubt you’ll find me more surprised again.”

“President Dalhousie!” I called, happy to see the woman who made all of this happen.

She fluttered my comment away with a flick of her wrist. “No more ‘President’ for me. Just call me Patty, please.”

Patty had been a fit, healthy fifty when we’d last seen her, but the woman before us had been through a lot. She looked like she’d aged twice as much as Magnus. She was now a small gray-haired woman, but the fire in her eyes was still burning bright. Her once long hair was cut shorter, giving her a grandmotherly look.

“I’ve been filled in by the others, but come on in. We need to talk.” Patty hugged us tightly and turned, leading us into the large base through a steel door with guards at it.

“Still need guards?” Mary asked.

“This is a colony, not Utopia. Humans will always be humans, and yes, we do still need policing, and a military for space and New Spero,” Magnus answered for her.

We were led down a wide hallway, which ended eventually, and we turned left past a door that required Patty’s thumbprint to open. We found ourselves in a metal corridor, and I had flashbacks to climbing the tube on the Deltra station, Bhlat clomping around trying to kill us. Mary seemed to notice a change in me, and she grabbed my hand.

The corridor went on for a couple hundred feet or so, at an ever-declining angle, before opening into a large, cavernous room. Screens were set up at numerous long desks, with a massive screen front and center, where it looked like they could air multiple feeds at once.

“What is this?” Clare whispered, stealing the words from all our mouths.

“This is New Spero Central. We have feeds from all major centers here, and we watch for anything out of the ordinary.” Patty walked toward the front row of desks, where five workers sat, headsets on, screens showing various city shots and views from fence lines.

“You spy on everyone?” Slate asked. The question was so unlike the soldier, I hoped his being around me for a few months hadn’t made him question authority. Or maybe it was a good thing for the man who’d obeyed someone his whole adult life to be a free thinker.

“We don’t spy on them. This is a new planet. We watch for anything that might pose a threat to the people. We’ve saved countless lives with our perimeter cams catching predators lurking too close to villages and cities,” Magnus said, and I felt better about it all. If my old friend was behind it, then I would blindly follow his lead.

“What kind of predators?” Mary asked, stepping forward to squint at the screen’s images.

“Daniel? Can you bring up the feed from 1179, please?” Patty asked, pointing at the large screen in the front of the room.

It showed a snowy landscape, the area fenced with a twenty-foot-tall barrier. Red lights blinked on the concrete fence posts. It took a minute to see them, but once I did, they were everywhere. They were white, almost blending in with the snow. I couldn’t tell how tall they were, but they had to be four feet at least. The camera zoomed and paused to show us three of them in a cluster, reminding me of a cross between a lizard and a wolf. Long thick tails left lines in the snow behind them, powerful snouts sniffing the air.

“Holy crap,” Slate said, unblinking as we watched the video. It started up again, and we watched as they approached the fence, trying to touch it but getting shocked by electricity. A couple of them repeated the effort and failed, but were still moving, as if the shock was nothing more than an annoyance.

One of the creatures ran over to a concrete fence post, which was at least three feet wide. Another one stepped up, and they used each other to lift themselves up, until there were three of the animals stacked on one another, the top one jumping and grabbing hold of the top.

“We lost twenty people the first night we met these guys. That’s why we watch the feeds live.”