Generational Ship Blues, Page 2

smirk: “There is one way... and you're not the only other person who is curious. But I have to know your on-board before I tell you anything further.”

  I thought to myself was he serious? Just what was this "way" to get the information? And who else was "curious?" I had to acknowledge that nothing this exciting had ever happened in my life. Questions spun in my head, was he talking about mutiny? I had to know more.

  “You say there might be a way to save all these thousands of people?” I asked. “That we might not have to go through with these culls anymore?”

  “Yes," he stated.

  “Alright then,” I answered. “I'm in.”

  As Justin gave me a quick rundown of the plan, I had to admit it sounded like it could work. They had been working on this plan for years and had many people in on it. Justin's role was just a small, yet key part in a larger plan. And with some luck, thousands of lives could be spared. We checked our watches and continued to the lift. While the doors closed, I exhaled the most satisfying sigh of relief in my life.

  The lift opened, we nodded and exited into a long hallway. Halfway down the hall were the two large doors to the conference room and at the far end of the hallway was another door leading to a stairwell. We walked casually down the hall and turned to enter the room.

  Justin looked me in the eyes: “Just be ready... everything should be in place.”

  “I'm ready,” I said more to reassure myself than anything else.

  “Good,” replied Justin. “Ten minutes.”

  With a comforting pat on the shoulder I opened the door and we entered the conference room. There was a large round table, with seats for a hundred, the representatives of every sector in the Habitation Section. On the far side of the table there was a raised platform, and there sat the Minister of Popular Harmony and his aides. Most of the other PPO's had already arrived and I gestured Justin towards our seats. Shortly after we took our seats, four more entered and everyone was now present.

  The Minister rose and addressed the room: “Let the record show all Officers are now present. I now call this the 25th Decennial Population Council to order. We shall begin this morning with an overview of shipboard population and resources.”

  With that the lights dimmed and a large orb descended into the middle of the room and flickered to life. Slowly rotating, the orb began to display information.

  One of the ministers aides began to speak: “As you can see ladies and gentlemen, shipboard population now stands at 262,498 persons with 5297 persons pregnant. This represents an effective population of 267,795. The projected birth rate for the next decade is roughly 8.7% with a projected death rate of only 4.5%. The carrying capacity of the ship is rated for only 250,000 persons. Obviously, this is unacceptable. There is much work to be done today.”

  I hadn’t thought it would be this bad. We were going to have to decide on which 30,000 people to kill. If I had any reservations about Justin's plan, they disintegrated immediately. Just then, Justin tapped quietly on his watch. Any second now I thought to myself.

  As the aide continued his speech, a low vibration swept across the room, followed by two much stronger ones. With that, the lights went dark and people began nervously chatting to one another as emergency lighting kicked in. It's happening, I thought to myself.

  “Everyone, everyone please... remain calm,” said the Minister.

  A few moments later the door burst open and a team of armed guards appeared in the doorway, several entered the conference room while others appeared to be taking up defensive positions in the hallway.

  “What's the meaning of this?” queried the Minister.

  “Terrorist attack sir!" replied the guard. "Three bombs, they took out the transit hub, Capital Police HQ and most of the Ministry sir”

  “Which Ministry?” asked the Minister as the guards urged everyone to get up and follow them.

  “This Ministry sir, most of the building at ground level has been destroyed. The government believes this meeting was the target sir, we're here to get you to safety. Follow us please.” Instructed the guard.

  With that the room emptied into the hallway as the guards ran ahead towards the stairwell. Another loud boom resounded through the hall as broken overhead lights showered sparks down upon us. I looked to Justin and he gave me a reassuring nod as though all was going to plan. The guard was talking hurriedly into his radio.

  The Minister approached him and demanded information: “Where the hell are we going? If there’s an ongoing attack out there where the hell is safe?”

  “Shuttle from the Command Section coming in for extract sir," the guard replied. "We're getting you all out of here.”

  Everyone who heard must have had the same stunned expression as I had. The Command Section? They're taking us there? I had seen the shuttles soaring overhead throughout my life, but they only came sporadically to pick up command recruits. Now we're really going there. We were ushered up the stairs to the 1st sub level. It was in worse shape than where we came from, but apparently had a route towards the extract point. We went down another long hallway and the guards radio chattered. They told us to get down. I saw flashes of light and the crackle of gunfire coming from the end of the hall. After a tense minute, the radio chattered again and we were guided through the scene of the firefight. Around ten passengers were dead in the hallway around our feet. We hurried past while many of us covered our mouths with our shirts.

  Justin was beside me and whispered quietly: “Patriots...”

  We rounded a corner and saw a group of the guards gathered beside the door to another stairwell leading up to ground level. Another guard ran down the stairs and gave them a thumbs up.

  “Alright, everyone up the stairs quickly and stay low!" yelled the guard as he slotted a fresh mag into his weapon. "Shuttle inbound!”

  We scurried up the stairs and outside into a courtyard, several more bodies were scattered around the area and more guards were in various defensive positions. Another boom sounded, but this one was the sonic boom as the shuttle zoomed into view overhead. It quickly slowed as it neared and we watched it descending towards us. Sparks flashed off its fuselage as it was hit with small arms fire. They're certainly putting on a good show I thought to myself. A blast of wind washed over us as the shuttle quickly came to rest in the courtyard. The large cargo door on the aft of the shuttle opened and a ramp slid out to the ground.

  Two men appeared at the top of the ramp and motioned everyone aboard. We packed into the cargo bay of the shuttle as quickly as we could and held on to anything we could reach. Within seconds, all were aboard. I shuffled closer to a small porthole and peered out as the shuttle lifted off. No gunfire this time, only the sound of the engines as they quickly powered up. As the ground zoomed out all around me, I saw the wreckage of several buildings down below... and then with a flash we soared away down the length of the ship towards the airlock to the Command Section.

  Justin leaned in towards me and chuckled a little: “Hehehe... knock knock.”

  “All those men...” I responded. “It was just a show to get us out?”

  “When we arrive, just follow my lead," Justin said as I nodded in agreement. "We'll find our chance to break away from the group and get the answers they deserved.”

  We could feel the shuttle slowing down, and soon after I saw through the porthole that we had arrived at the wall separating the Habitation Section from the Command Section. What came after this point no one really knew for sure. The ship appeared to have entered a smaller hangar bay and hovered there for a minute. All we could make out were they grey metallic walls a few meters away from the wings of the shuttle. Then we proceeded through a tunnel which seemed to be made of a transparent material of some kind. Beyond that was a field of darkness speckled with faint points of light, wait, were those... stars? Before I could answer myself the ship entered another bay area similar to the first. Everyone looked ar
ound unsure of what would happen, but relieved to be out of the danger zone. There was a curious silence as everyone took in as much of the strange surroundings as they could see out the portholes. The loud clanging of a large metal latch opening reverberated through the shuttle, and we entered a larger hangar area, wherein other shuttles sat and people moved about on the deck.

  The intercom activated with a blare and what must have been the pilot's voice came over, “Passengers prepare for immediate landing and debriefing. Remain calm and follow all instructions you are given.”

  With that the shuttle settled abruptly to the deck. Justin and I looked at each other as we prepared to enter these new foreign surroundings. The cargo hatch of the shuttle opened and people began filing out, being ushered on by deckhands as they stopped to take in this new environment. It was a vast metallic deck, stretching to each side and curving up at the edges with more shuttles parked on each pad. This must be the docking ring of the ship, I concluded. We walked further away from the airlock, towards what could only be the entrances deeper into the Command Section, escorted by several unarmed crewmen. There were plenty of pallets, parts and ships around for cover if we wanted to make a break for it. I looked over at Justin and apparently he had reasoned it out.

  “If we get bogged down in corridors and tiny