Domus Read online

  I smile at my friend. “Pilot Racker, I hope you are well rested after CETI’s autopilot because you know what comes next. Steer this bird closer, keeping the same line until we enter Domus’ orbit. Suspend us once you do, and wait until Doctors Yun and Barros give me word on the ground.”

  Racker smiles and nods at his order. He is only a skinny man and kind of goofy. Our time in space has been the unkindest to him - his hair has greyed and receded, and I’m sure his front two teeth have grown even more. He is the only male to struggle with his chosen one. Evangeline is more interested in Simon, but only to spite Sarah. I hope that she will see just how great a man Racker is.

  Evangeline is the only Seeker left before me now. Her eyes are always flickering around the room, and her false laugh escapes too often, mostly at Simon’s awful jokes. I smile. “Doctor Nikosa, as you were. Make sure everyone is fit and ready to go. Make sure we are all focused on the tasks.”

  “I will, Cap,” she says sternly. She always has an icy presence around me, cold and uninviting.

  “Oh, and Evangeline, can you do me a favour? Smile once in a while. We are nearly home.”

  This is it. This is the moment we have all been waiting for. The Marauder begins to descend closer and closer to the planet, her engines silently running on the power of the new Sun.

  We are nearly home, our new home.

  I had a religious friend back in my old life. He told me that our old life was “creatio ex nihilo,” Latin for ‘created out of nothing.’ I asked him what this life will be, and he said “creatio ex material,” which means to be created out of some pre-existent matter.

  He was right. We will shape our future here, not chance or divine intervention. We hold the future.

  I am ready to land on Domus.

  Pilot James Racker

  “Talk to me, CETI.”

  “Pilot Racker, the thrusters are engaged. We are currently five kilometres from active orbit. Conditions outside of the Marauder are calm and currently free of micrometeoroids and space matter and will be for some time. We have reached the optimum distance for the Dweller to descend to the crust.”

  “Thank you, CETI. Apply the air brakes, and keep us in suspension. I’m handing control over to you. I guess we will have to wait for the Cap to give the word now.”

  “Thank you, Pilot Racker.”

  The view outside of the window is really something to behold. I woke up this morning, and I just wanted to crawl straight back under the covers. I didn’t want to face anything or anyone, but now there is a real buzz. The blood in my veins feels warm again, and it’s all thanks to the view.

  Domus really is the twin of home. I remember my first dummy mission out into space when I first joined the Seeker Project. After pissing my pants and crying for a while, I managed to orbit the moon and come back using the new tech. That is when I saw it—the view as I returned. It was like a brilliant blue marble and full of life and wonder. And I can see the same thing now.

  I just wish Evangeline was here to share it with me.

  She is the only failure of the Project so far. Well, her and poor Doctor Lawson, God rest his soul. I cannot blame Doctor Spielerbürg and his team for the mismatch - they were on a tight budget and timeframe, and we were only matched based on a few personality questions.

  Besides, it is only half a failure, the half coming from her side. I mean, I am not the one saying no here.

  There is a rumble from the Marauder’s underside, and two probes shoot out towards Domus in a spiralling motion. I press my hand to the cold screen and watch until I lose them through Domus’ cloud layer.

  “Probes away,” fizzes CETI’s voice over the speaker system. “Status is on-going. Reports will follow shortly.”

  I leave the bridge and her black walls, floor and ceiling. It is dark in every room on the Marauder, thick black to absorb more of the solar energy. The walls and floor are always warm and the air artificially cold. Being on board is comparable to being locked in a fridge as it passes through a furnace, in pitch black for twenty years. But all that is about to change.

  I head towards the spiral staircase at the centre of the Marauder. Her kite shape is thicker in the middle like a piece of ravioli. The centre stairs connect all the wards on the entire ship, with access to the bridge sitting at the very top.

  There is excitement in my body now, not self-loathing and despair. I take the winding stairs down two at a time. I pass by the loading bay and Simon smashing at part of the Dweller pod with a ratchet. It scares me to think that we have to enter Domus’ orbit in that thing, and I’m sure he knows what he is doing, but Simon’s thinking sometimes appears to descend into a ‘hit it and see’ type of engineering. The Cap swears by him though, and that is good enough for me.

  Evangeline is with him. She is always with him. Does she not know that his chosen one is Sarah and that they actually have a lot in common? Evangeline should spend her time on the bridge with me, but I can’t force her. I’ve come to the conclusion that she is only good to look at, not to talk to or share with. Simon can have her.

  At home I couldn’t get the girl, and I still can’t even when one has been handpicked for me. I know it is a confidence thing. I curse Doctor Spielerbürg every day for not sending a female that likes the shy, retiring type like me.

  I carry on down the stairs and try ignoring Evangeline’s giggling from the loading bay. She never giggles like that around me. At least Doctor Yun is always a possibility now. Doctor Lawson is still warm in the vacuum of space, and I am already thinking about moving in on his chosen one. Get a grip, Racker.

  I reach my destination - the observation wing, one floor above the living quarters.

  Doctor Yun and Doctor Barros are already racing frantically from one screen to another and back again. Doctor Yun’s face has started to perspire slightly, and her bun has wilted so it sits halfway down her head. She has looked more and more stressed since we lost Lawson; dare I say even depressed.

  Doctor Barros shows no such weakness. She continues with her usual ballsy attitude. Out of all the females on board she is certainly the most ‘traditionally’ attractive. Her skin is so supple and exotic, though I know she would eat me alive.

  Captain Reed is here, too, waiting anxiously for the results, as am I. A change of scenery might lift the mood and my chances with either Yun or Evangeline. Hell, Domus might even have a tunnel of love I can sail them both into and see which one comes out the other end in my arms. I already plan to grow my own tomatoes from the stock of seeds we brought; neither will be able to resist my marinara sauce.

  “Status report,” barks Cap Reed. Only silence responds. “Status report now, Doctors!”

  Yun stops her screen hopping. “There are differences to home, Captain,” she squeaks. “Domus has only just left the super continent stage. She has many land masses but separated only by relatively thin channels of surrounding seas. The continents back home had passed through this break up millions of years before we left, back when dinosaurs still roamed.”

  “So what is the problem?”

  “No problem, Captain. It just led us to plan more carefully, but we have chosen the continent we feel will best support our chances and provide us with everything we need without being too large for our small team to map up quickly.

  “Our probes are approaching the cloud layer now. Early signs seem good so far, the temperature of the atmosphere is accommodating, but we will soon find out about the composition of those clouds; in three… two… one… the probes are through the clouds safely.”

  “What are they made of?” I find myself asking in wonder but out loud. I push my thick glasses back up my nose. “Can the Dweller pass through them without us being cooked alive?”

  Doctor Yun smiles at me. Smiles, and what a smile it is. She has certainly retained the innocence and the cuteness of youth the best out of all of us. “One moment, Racker,” she says. “CETI, please, can you read the findings of the atmospheric outer layer?”


  “I will with pleasure, Doctor Yun. Domus’ clouds are 99% H2O, 1% other minerals. The clouds are in the form of water vapour speckled with ice crystals.”

  Captain Reed smiles. “Can you answer me this, CETI? What are the clouds composed of back home?”

  “Of course I can, Captain Reed. Those clouds were once 99% H2O, 1% other minerals. Human involvement shifted the balance to add pollutants to the formula. The clouds there were once nothing more than water vapour speckled with ice crystals. This outer layer is very safe for entry.”

  “You hear that, Seekers? Those clouds are not the same as the ones we had back home, they are better. They are the same clouds our earliest ancestors could look up at and enjoy. This is it.”

  Yun moves across to another station. “Do not get too far ahead yet, Cap. The probes are about to land on the crust. The surface composition and stability will determine whether landing is possible. We will have touchdown in five…”

  I hold my breath.

  “…Four…”

  I wish Evangeline was here with me.

  “…Three…”

  Evangeline comes down the stairs behind me the moment I thought it, side by side with Simon as they enter the observation ward. I turn and smile at her, but she pays me absolutely no attention. All eyes are fixed on the screens except for hers and mine. Hers are fixed on Simon’s arms in his tight rugby jersey and mine are on hers.

  “…Two…”

  This is it. I break away from Evangeline’s blue eyes, and I can hear my heart pounding, beating harder. I can hear my pulse in my head louder than house bricks tumbling down concrete stairs.

  “…One… and touchdown, we have touchdown.” Yun moves to another screen. “Probes are intact. I am switching on their recorders now. Doctor Barros, are we live?”

  “They are transmitting, but the impact seems to have dislodged both visual cameras. I am getting atmospheric reports, and everything is coming back green. Temperature is a warm seventy one Fahrenheit, or twenty one Celsius for our resident Englishman. The crust is hard and stable. I am switching on the audio. CETI, please relay the live audio.”

  A noise comes over the speakers, and I finally release my held breath. I can hear sea, I think, or maybe a river. It’s the sound of water trickling and running. And there is the buzz of an insect, a fly or maybe a ladybug. I can hear birds chirping in the sky and the relaxing rustle of leaves on a breeze—all the sounds of home. I imagine me having a picnic with Evangeline, no Doctor Yun, no Evangeline; hell, why not both? I picture all three of us having a countryside picnic under that huge sun.

  Those of us in the room cannot contain our jubilation. There are Seeker high-fives and whoops all around. Simon lifts Evangeline off the floor, and then Sarah, too, who has now come to see what the cause of the noise is. That limey son-of-a-bitch has two girls, and I can’t even get one! I move towards Yun, and she moves away to congratulate Barros with a hug.

  Everyone in the room is ecstatic, all of us except Captain Reed.

  He moves past the jubilation and presses a few buttons on one of the consoles. Without a word spoken, he leaves. The Cap takes the stairs up, probably to the bridge. If he hopes no one has seen him, then he is wrong, because I have. I leave the cheering at my back, and I follow him.

  I find Captain Reed on the bridge just staring out at Domus. “What is it, Captain?” I ask him. “You don’t feel good about this?”

  “It feels good, Racker, too good to be true. There is one part of the Seeker Project that I have not disclosed to all of you. It was an overlook of Doctor Spielerbürg, his team, and I. I’m sure Simon and Sarah have noticed, but if they have they have kept it quiet so far. It is something that we must all consider.”

  “What is it?”

  “Doctor Spielerbürg and his team designed the most state of the art Dweller for us. It has everything we need not only to survive, but to thrive. It is a hub of sorts, a home in itself. It is secure, stocked with food and seeds, it can drill for water, and it has a purifier and heating. There is even an armoury with fully charged weapons when we decide to hunt for our food.”

  “I know all this, Cap. It was written on the contract forms we scribbled on when we signed our lives away to the Seeker Project. So what’s the problem?”

  “They only designed it to land, Racker, not to come back. If we land on Domus, the Marauder has to stay here to act as a satellite. And there is no way we can get back to it.”

  “You are confusing me now, Cap. We all knew this was a one way journey. I’m not expecting to sail home in the Marauder, so why will we need to get back to it?”

  “Like I said, it all sounds too good to be true. We could land on Domus today and be killed in our sleep by ghosts or worse tomorrow. This is not something to take so lightly, Racker.”

  “With all due respect, Cap, we have no other option. We all know that Yun has been stealing supplies, and homesickness is kicking in for all of us. And that homesickness is long overdue, Cap, twenty years overdue. I don’t think we could manage another two years drifting around space, let alone twenty. And you have to think of our age - soon we won’t have the ability to start again.

  “You’re right, Cap, it is a risk. The whole Seeker Project was a risk, but we knew that when we all signed up. And you knew that when you signed up to lead us.”

  “And I don’t want to lead people to their death, Racker. We have already lost Lawson, and I don’t want to lose another Seeker.”

  “Then I’ll tell you what, Cap. I’ll stay up here. I will stay on the Marauder and wait for your signal. If you give me the thumbs up from down there, then I will come down for good in one of the escape pods. You give me the thumbs down, and I will land this bird, pick you up, and we can get the hell outta this solar system.

  “Let’s face it, if the human race depends on Evangeline and me then we are already screwed. Besides, what’s a few more days floating in this black coffin, eh?”

  “Are you sure about this, Racker?”

  “I’m sure. Just don’t tell the others that I chose to do this. I don’t want their pity or for Evangeline to feel bad - it is not her fault she was chosen for me. You just tell them that the Project always intended for me to stay here until I had the all clear from you on the ground.”

  “You are a good human, Racker. It is a shame Evangeline cannot see that.”

  Good, or completely crazy.

  Simon Farrell

  Evangeline is still hovering around the loading bay. It was fun at first, flirting with the two girls, but Evangeline is starting to do my bloody head in. For twenty years I have been playing them off, but Sarah was always going to be mine in the end. Evangeline has other ideas, though, and I cannot help but feel I have gotten myself in too deep.

  And Evangeline has really upped her game since CETI announced we were only a week away all those long days ago now. Sarah and I do not get a second to ourselves.

  Not that I can blame Evangeline. Racker is a weasel of a man to have as your chosen one. If he was the last Seeker alive he wouldn’t have it in him. Still, I can’t moan. If I do ruin things with Sarah then at least I have a backup in Doctor Nikosa. I have seen the way Doctor Yun looks at me now too.

  “I’m going to go and check our supplies in the med-bay,” announces Evangeline. “Unless I can be any help to you here at all, Simon?”

  Sarah has heard enough. “We are fine,” she snaps. “Will you please leave us be. This Dweller has to be prepped to perfection. One bolt, one screw, one hairline crack, and we will all cook alive on entry.”

  Evangeline finally leaves. She has the stubbornness of her Russian ancestors, but it is still no match for the big mouth from Alabama. I’m not entirely sure what has gone on between those two, but it is certainly bigger than just a squabble over me. There has been a tension between them since the first day of the Seeker Project.

  “Why do you encourage her?” asks Sarah. Her brown eyes are colder than wet mud. Sara is attractive, not as attractive as Evangeli
ne with her bright blue eyes and dark hair, but she holds her own. I have more in common with the girl from the Deep South, though, and enjoy her company more. We are sporty, competitive, and hot-headed.

  “Encourage her?” I ask with my best shocked face. “We are just friends, Sarah. You are my chosen one, you know that.”

  “Well, I don’t feel like I have been chosen for anything. You say I am your chosen one, but you don’t make me feel like it.”

  “Look, I’m just trying to get on with everyone here. Down there it’ll be different, you’ll see. Down there we will have our own space, just me and you in our quarters. I won’t have to worry about the others and their feelings. Just me and you, I promise. Now can you pass me that wrench?”

  The bolt tightens to the end of its thread. The Dweller is almost ready to carry us to our new home.

  I had helped design this thing back home. Doctor Spielerbürg’s team and I had the prototype built in just one week. The Dweller is an unfoldable hub, a flat-packed home and tech centre. It has four separate house areas, a botanical garden ready with seeds, an armoury, an attachment to drill down into any deep water table for a constant supply, and a heating system.

  The Dweller is everything we need and more. It can sustain us for years even in the harshest of climates, and Domus seems anything but harsh. By the time her stores are depleted, we should be well enough developed to find and grow our own food.

  It was my idea for the armoury. Doctor Spielerbürg and his team seemed to share a notion that any planet we landed on would be free from any hostile organisms. They expected the same life as home and nothing more, nothing else. I explained that even if we did find one identical to our own that we would still need to protect ourselves from lions and tigers and crocs. Mankind depended on it.

  Doctor Spielerbürg agreed and delayed the Project for the creation of ammo-less weapons and an armoury. Sarah and I helped develop the weapons with the rest of the team. The weapons we have are not guns and bullets of old. Physical ammunition runs out, and it would be hard to find or create more on an alien planet. Instead, we used the same tech from the Marauder’s lightsail system; captured solar energy that can be emitted in condensed beams or bolts of pure energy. They only need a small amount of solar power, and they have been on charge for the entire journey.