The Darwin Elevator

Chapter Thirty-nine

Anchor Station

12.FEB.2283

Ten minutes into Tania’s jog through the quiet, curved hall of Black Level, the emergency alarm wailed.

The pulsing screech of the alarm ripped her from a hard-won state of meditation. She took an awkward step, and tripped. Her palms burned on the carpet as she tried to break her fall.

“Can I get no peace?” she muttered to herself.

She saw no smoke in either direction, felt no rush of escaping air. No immediate danger, then, and the revelation only increased a sense of dread. Memories of the subhuman outbreak weeks earlier flashed through her mind.

She scanned the curving hallway and spotted an access corridor to Gray Level nearby. A quick run and she reached it, and found the connecting bulkheads still open. Interlevel access would be blocked during decompression or fire. A security situation, however, required the opposite—the guards on duty needed unfettered access.

All the official guards were locked in their quarters, except a few who had been convincing in their willingness to join the Platz side in this conflict.

Tania turned and raced back to her quarters. A few other researchers were poking their heads from darkened rooms, eyes bleary and confused. She ignored their questions and reached her door, where she found Natalie knocking on it.

“There you are,” Natalie said. “What’s going on?”

“I’ve no idea, let’s find out.” Tania unlocked the door and rushed inside, leaving it open behind her. Natalie followed her in.

The terminal on the desk chirped loudly before Tania even reached it. She flicked the monitor on as she sat down, then tapped the keyboard to answer the call.

“I’m here,” she said.

From the other end of the connection she heard shouting, confusion. Battle. The screen indicated the call was originating from the storage area on Red Level, all the way at the other end of the station.

“… through the airlocks …” A garbled voice was full of panic. “… can’t stop …”

“Slow down,” Tania said. “I can’t understand you.”

She heard a series of shouts and rustling, then a loud click. The connection went dead.

The alarm stopped, too.

Tania tried to reestablish the connection, but it failed with an error. She tried the security desk to no avail.

“Fighting … my God, Nat, there’s fighting.”

“We’re mutineers,” Natalie said. “What did you expect—”

“I never wanted anyone to get hurt.”

“The feeling is mutual, hon.”

The room fell silent as Tania struggled to think of a plan. She felt Natalie’s expectant gaze. Everyone on the station would be thinking the same thing, awaiting her orders. Watching how she handled herself. Pinning their hopes on her. For better or worse, Tania had become the leader of their little rogue nation.

Tania thought of the island of Hawaii, trees and birds and insects. Not the hell they’d landed in, but the idyllic version she’d glimpsed from above. She’d give anything to be there, far from this sterile place, this situation—

“We should get to Green Level,” Natalie said. Her steady voice like the tug of gravity.

“Yes,” Tania said. “You’re right. The comm is dead. We should find Karl—”

“No.” Natalie gripped her shoulder. “The lab. We need to suspend our program. Encrypt the data. Secure it.”

“Then what?”

“Hide somewhere. Wait for this to be resolved.”

Tania shook her head. “That would look great on my leadership résumé.”

“‘Strong aptitude in avoidance and stealth techniques.’”

“Very funny,” Tania said.



Tania led the way, creeping along the wall, eyes glued to the “horizon” of the hall, which curved up and out of view about one hundred meters ahead. They encountered nothing but silent halls along the way, a fact that made Tania all the more concerned.

Upon reaching the door to the computer lab, Natalie stepped ahead of her, key card ready. “I’ve got it,” she said. The door clicked open and she stepped aside.

Tania pushed the door open to a dark room, allowing light from the door to spill in. A thousand blinking pin lights from the numerous terminals floated in the blackness like stars. She rushed inside and heard Natalie follow.

At the back of the lab she ducked inside the private research room, went straight to the terminal, and unlocked the screen with her passphrase.

The monitors began to come to life.

“I left the hall door open,” Natalie said, and dashed back toward the front entrance. “Be right back!”

Tania started to tell her not to bother, but everything about their situation vanished from her mind when the giant displays on the wall came to life.

The day before they’d determined that the Builders’ ship would arrive imminently, and after some difficult math and a clever bit of programming by Natalie, pinpointed where they thought it would settle into geosynchronous orbit.

Tania had worked late, long after a droopy-eyed Natalie had retired. She’d tapped into an old Platz-owned mapping satellite, overridden its routine task, and directed it to the opposite side of the planet. Borrowing some pattern recognition code from one of Natalie’s brilliant scripts, Tania had instructed it to watch for the new shell ship and relay a video feed back to her.

The image brought a smile to her face. “Nat,” she whispered. “We were right. We did it …”

A shell ship like the first, perched high above the Earth. Tania squinted, and covered he mouth to stifle a gratified laugh.

At the tip of the shell ship, sunlight glinted off the thin thread of an Elevator cord.

Another space elevator, Tania thought. A new one. A fresh start. She saw no sign of the other, smaller objects, but that was a problem for another day. Clearly they’d sent no invasion fleet, no doomsday device.

She realized tears were streaming down her face.

“Come see, Nat!” Tania shouted.

Her assistant had been gone too long. Scouting the hall, maybe. Or—

“Hello, Miss Sharma,” a man said, behind her. “Come see what?”

She didn’t recognize the voice. It meant trouble, that much she knew. Tania’s precautions for working in secret paid off as she tapped a single function key. A script she’d created immediately blanked the screens and began to encrypt and hide all the data.

“Oh,” the man said, “you shouldn’t have done that. Step away from there.”

Tania turned to face him and took a step to her right. “It was just a simulation,” she tried.

The man had a gun pointed at her and held Natalie by her elbow. Nat’s eyes were firmly on the now-blank screens. She’d seen the image; she knew what the Builders had sent.

A half dozen other people in the room all wore black uniforms and carried weapons.

“Who are you?” Tania asked. “What do you want here?”

He walked casually to stand in front of her, and she tried to muster a defiant glare. “I’m told you’re in charge here,” he said.

Tania’s nostrils flared. She kept her jaw firm, said nothing.

“I was just about to get on the intercom,” the man said, “and invite you down. Thanks for saving me the wait.”

“What do you want?”

He ignored the question and shifted his attention to Natalie. “Who are you, sweetheart?”

“Natalie Ammon.”

“Ah yes,” he said, “Alex sends his regards.”

“Tell that pig to piss off,” Natalie replied.

“What—” Tania started. She stopped herself, realizing who stood in front of her. Russell Blackfield. Tania had not met him during her detention in Nightcliff, but she had no doubt he had either ordered or knowingly allowed her treatment there.

Natalie’s comment flustered him for the briefest of seconds. “I’ll relay your message,” he said, rather lamely to Tania’s ear.

“Leave her out of this,” Tania said. “What do you want from me?”

He maintained eye contact with Natalie for a moment, sizing her up, then turned his focus on Tania.

“Two things,” Russell said. “First, I’d like you to get on that intercom and tell the station that I am now in control. Your laughable security ‘force’ has been relieved.”

Tania swallowed. “And second?”

Russell smiled. “You’re going to tell me all about the research you’ve been doing for Platz. I hear it’s fascinating.”