Darren Wearmouth - The Critical Trilogy Box Set

He moved to the rear of the truck, opened the door and pulled out a rucksack filled with ropes and climbing gear. “I’m going down there.”

BEN HAD vague memories of being in the elevator as a frightened teenager. More like Déjà Vu than a physical recollection. The slight rock before perceiving motion. A strip of blue lights attached to a wall panel, changing tone as the cab moved between floors.

He felt a slight sense of weightlessness as they started to descend.

Ethan crouched in the corner, rubbing his palms on his forehead.

“Hey, you just might be the first member of the Ops Compartment to use this thing twice in a day,” Ben said.

“Or maybe the first in a century,” Maria said.

Ethan lowered his hands. “You’ve never been to stasis before?”

“First time for all of us. I doubt they’re expecting technical experts,” Ben said.

“Who’s in there? I mean, who got lucky enough to sleep their way through this?” Erika said.

Ben heard rumors of rich celebrities, politicians and corporations buying or imposing their way in. It was always that way on the ship. He wasn’t sure he believed it. What use would an ageing rock-star be when trying to build a new civilization from the ground up, compared to a talented tradesman?

“Who cares?” he said. “It’s just our job to make sure they get there alive, isn’t it? We won’t be around to see the results of their work. This is our work.”

“Did Jimmy tell you anything else about this procedure?” Erika said.

“I’ve told you all I know. That’s all he knew. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to happen.”

“What about the segregation? The flu…”

“All that’s probably out of the window when the shit hits the—” Maria said.

The elevator juddered to a halt.

Maria took a sharp intake of breath as it jerked up. A cherry red, thimble shaped light above the door flicked on and gave off a waspish electric buzz. The door swished open.

Ben shuffled his way to the front of the group. “Follow me.”

He stepped out of the cab into a dimly lit metallic corridor, leading to another airlock with a glowing keypad next to it. Ben’s breath froze in the air. Goose bumps formed on his limbs. He tried to remember Jimmy’s directions.

Ethan hugged himself, put his hands under his arms. “I’ve never felt cold like this.”

“I doubt any of us have,” Erika said.

Ben shook his head. “Me neither, but it has to be this way.”

He’d always been in a regulated temperature, although his recollections of childhood were limited to a few flashbacks, all of the same thing: controlled atmospheres, comfortable, unremarkable.

They could have at least given them proper suits to wear in these emergency situations. He doubted he could work for long in the Stasis segment when his fingers became too cold to even feel.

Another thought came to him as he remembered Jimmy’s procedure for entering the airlock. As a disobedient child, he had been dragged away, kicking and screaming, never to return to his classroom.

The children were told by the teacher every day that any misbehavior would lead them to being fed to the ship’s monster. Those kinds of myths are hard to remove.

Looking back now, Ben hoped that one day he’d get chance to meet the teacher again, and give him some lessons in attitude realignment.

He retrieved the stamped code from his pocket and started to punch in the numbers. It wasn’t like the warm loose mechanism in the Operations Compartment. Each button required extra force to snap inwards.

“I bet Jimmy’s pissed. Imagine, on the day you retire, all this happens. All those years on the job and nothing interesting happens,” Erika said.

“Jimmy won’t be the only one. Remember, I said this only happens in an emergency. Let’s make sure we do a good job. Don’t want them thinking we’re a bunch of clowns.”

The group collectively murmured approval.

After depressing the last button, the countdown timer started at five seconds.

The airlock door hissed open.

Ben stepped into a small room, facing another larger door.

“Door closing,” a computerized female voice said.

“Come on, get moving,” Ben said, urging the others inside.

Erika was the last through. She screamed and dropped to the ground as the door slammed against her trailing leg. It opened a few inches, crunched against her ankle.

Ben forced his shoulder into the gap and shoved the door with both hands. “Pull her through.”

Ethan and Maria hooked their arms underneath her shoulders and dragged Erika back. Ben jumped to the side and the door thudded shut.

“Goddamn, that’s a bit vicious,” Ben said, testing the door.

The room was twice the size of the cab, and was lit by a single red light on the ceiling. Through the gloom, he could see Erika squeezing her eyes tight, gritting her teeth, breathing in sharply.

“Are you okay?” Maria said.

“Does it… does it… look like?” Erika said.

“How bad is it?” Ben said. “Can you stand?”

“I don’t know. Give me a minute.”

He checked the larger door. Felt around its edges. No keypad. The other side was the same. No internal way to get out of the room.

“What the hell? This isn’t like what Jimmy told me. Something’s wrong here” Ben said.

“Maybe it’s controlled from the other side,” Ethan said. “They might get a notification or something that we’re here?”

“Perhaps it’s the wrong door?” Maria said. “Could it have been possible to have come into the wrong one? I mean, it’s all our first time down here.”

“No,” Ben said. “I don’t screw up like that. I remember his exact words. This is definitely the airlock to the stasis chamber.”

Maria had her arm around Erika. She glanced up at Ben and shrugged.

“Looks like we don’t have a choice,” Ben said. “Hopefully they’ll be here soon.”

“You know what?” Maria said. “The Ops Compartment seems comfortable compared to here. And I thought we pulled the short straw.”

Erika groaned, rubbing her ankle. “Tell me about it.”

Ben hoped the first person they encountered would be sympathetic, and take Erika away for treatment. The last thing he wanted was for word to get around that their team wasn’t capable of making it through a couple of airlocks.

Especially on his command. He’d worked hard throughout his time and didn’t want any blemish on his record. Or worse: have to go visit the superiors. He remembered one guy, Brad, who screwed up. No one ever saw him again. Must have been transferred, but no one knew for certain.

Just another of the many mysteries of life on the ship.

However, this was a chance for the team to prove themselves outside their enclosed domain. Maybe they’d land better job roles. Go up the levels, remove some of the restrictions of working in Ops.

He also wanted to find out if they were really being watched. There were so many stories that they were always monitored.

He considered it might just be a case of a rumor to keep the workforce from slacking off, which he could understand. When you were relying on people to maintain a generation ship over the centuries, you didn’t want a group of ill-disciplined people putting everything in jeopardy.

“Hey, what’s this?” Ethan said.

He leant down and picked up a thin piece of metal.

Ben instantly recognized it by its shape. It was in a letter ‘J’ cut from a foil tray that their food came served in. Jimmy’s bookmark.

“That’s Jimmy’s. He’s been here too,” Maria said.

“Must have dropped it on his way out,” Ben said.

“Don’t blame him. He’ll have a real bookmark,” Erika said. “Can you help me up?”