Critical Path

Charlie turned and grinned before opening the door. “It’s them; Mike and the others are here.”

Denver placed the tea on the table and rushed to the door. Down the three tiers and in the courtyard area he watched as an adapted harvester and three hover-bikes landed. Mike and Mai got out of the harvester and whirled around, taking in the sight of Unity with their usual curious expressions of wonder and awe.

Ryan, their guard, had made his way down the steps toward them. When he got to them, he turned and pointed up at the cabin. Denver and Charlie waved down at the others. Layla, Maria, Mike and Mai set off, escorted by Ryan, and joined the others in the cabin.

As they all made their greetings, Charlie and Mike and Mai were especially pleased to see each other. They arranged the furniture around the small table so that everyone could sit down as they discussed the plans and what was needed.

“So this is what they need, eh?” Mike said, scanning the datapad of parts and blueprints Hagellan had given to them. He read the details, humming and nodding his head as he took in the information. “As alien as they are, their power sources still work with our known physics, and it’s quite self-explanatory why this ship of theirs won’t work.”

“It might need calibration, assuming we can recover the parts from the wreckage,” Charlie added.

“They’re providing some of their junior engineers to help,” Denver said.

“Good, good,” Mike responded as he tapped a finger against his lips, thinking over what was required.

As he and Charlie got further into the discussions of how the repairs to the Unity ship would happen, Denver caught Maria staring at him. He got up and joined her and Layla on a beaten-up old sofa. “You okay?” Denver asked.

“Yeah, just nervous about all of this,” Maria said. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”

Denver looked to Layla. She gave him the tiniest of nods. “Okay,” he said, “let me give you the tour of the place.” He stood and held his hand out for Maria. She took it and helped herself up. She carried a shoulder bag as Denver led her into the bedroom. Closing the door behind him and leaning against it, he bent down to Maria and whispered, “What is it?”

She lifted the bag from her shoulder, placing it on the floor. From within she pulled out a modified croatoan pistol and pushed it to Denver. “Here, Mike wanted you or Charlie to have this,” she said with barely a whisper.

“What is it?”

“It overpowers the alien beads—blows them up. It works in short range and has to be directed, but he assures me if you need to kill a croatoan quickly, this will do the job.”

Denver weighed it in his hands. It appeared as though Mike had lightened it, as it felt at least half the weight of a regular pistol. But then, the barrel had a small dish shape on the end, so it appeared there was no need for a magazine. “Thanks,” he said, hiding it under the bed, covering it over with a blanket.

Maria remained in place, poised but seemingly unable to get whatever it was off her chest.

“Was there something else?”

Maria sighed. “I don’t know. It’s this whole thing. It just feels so… overwhelming. Mike and Mai discovered some video from an old harvester. It showed another planet being harvested. There are hundreds of them out there—all branched off from this gate world. It just seems this mission isn’t just about Earth anymore, you know? I can’t help but think of all those other worlds that would benefit if the croatoans couldn’t get there anymore.”

Denver saw the weight of her argument press upon her and heard it in her voice. This extra news, to him, only made him more motivated to do all he could.

“I understand,” Denver said. “But you don’t have to worry. We’ll do the best we can.”

“It’s not just that,” Maria said, coming closer to him.

“It’s what, then?”

“I want to help, but I just feel so useless. I don’t feel like I belong anymore. I don’t even know who I am… there’s these clones, you see, and I—”

“I know,” Denver said, hugging her. She clutched him tight and buried her face into his chest. From over her shoulder he saw the closet door open a few inches and the face of Maria’s clone, the one in the robes, look out. Denver shook his head slightly and mouthed, “go.”

The clone stepped back into the shadows and closed the door.

“I ought to get back to the others,” Maria said. “You do what you have to do,” she said, looking to where he had stashed the weapon.

“I will. I appreciate it, really.”

Denver opened the door to let her out and followed her into the living room. A couple of small croatoans, the engineers working for Hagellan, had arrived. Ryan stood guard by the door, his hands on his rifle as the group discussed the plans.

“So what’s next?” Denver asked.

Mike stood up and clutched the datapad and a number of loose sheets of paper. “A road trip,” he said.