10 - 'Sacrifices'
Luther had spent only three days in the cells for his insubordination, and Julia couldn't help but think that it wasn't nearly long enough. In fact, the imprisonment barely seemed to faze him. He sat now at the Chancellor's right hand, addressing the rest of the Council in a cool and collected voice.
"And so I put it to you, to us, that we have a very difficult decision to make. We need time that we simply don't have. Oxygen is running low. Sacrifices need to be made."
Julia gave him a hard look from the Chancellor's left. "You make it sound so simple, Luther. But the sacrifice you're suggesting is the murder of three hundred and twenty citizens. This is no trivial thing."
"Julia, I am not blind to the reality of this. I know what this would mean for our people."
"Your people?" Julia scoffed. "The same people you were so hell-bent on lying to mere days ago? Tell me, Luther – what lies will you tell your people when you're herding them into Section 17 to die?"
The Chancellor cleared his throat, and Julia felt a touch on her hand. Kevin was studying her closely. She returned his touch and tried to dial back her anger. The pause was long enough to allow Luther his rebuke.
"Councillor Seabrooke," he said, condescendingly. "Surely you don't think I would let these people die without recompense? We will be asking volunteers to enter Section 17 for the cull. If they find themselves able to make the sacrifice, their families will be awarded a healthy addition to their credit accounts. Their children and families will want for nothing."
"An empty promise if we do make it to the ground," Julia remarked. "What good would credits be on Earth? Surely the best reward would be having their loved ones there with them to celebrate the return to our planet?"
"We can debate the finer points of this all day," the Chancellor finally said. "This, I agree, is a moral grey area. But as far as I can see, our choices at this late stage are limited. Making a sacrifice of three hundred now will allow another month of oxygen for the rest of us here on the Ark. That could be all the time we need to find our way down to the ground."
"I notice you're including yourself in the survivors," Julia said, narrowing her eyes at him. "There hasn't even been a discussion as to whether we should be five of the three-hundred and twenty."
Nathaniel could have only looked more indignant if she had slapped him. "I'm the Chancellor. Without me, these people have no leader, no guidance, I-"
Beside her, Kevin leaned forward in his chair. "With all due respect, Nathaniel, there are people who could step into your role. After we'd sung praises of your heroic gesture, of course. It would be a brave act no one is likely to forget in this time of crisis."
The Chancellor's face grew stormy. "One more word like that, Kevin, and you'll be the next one tried for insubordination."
"Kevin does raise an interesting point," Luther smiled venomously, and Julia knew she wouldn't like what he had to say next. "Perhaps it would increase the morale of the population if the Council made its own sacrifice for the cause. Maybe if one of our own offered to enter Section 17 of their own accord? Say, for instance, a council member with a life-limiting illness?"
Under his stare, only one thought crossed her mind. Alfie. Would he ever know what became of me?
Kevin rose up in his chair, face red with rage. "Luther, if you keep talking to my wife like that, I'll throw you out of the airlock myself."
"Council, please!" Nathaniel demanded, his hands striking the table. He let the silence settle before resting back in his chair. "It's obvious that we have a lot to consider, and quickly. We will deliberate for a day and no longer. By then, I will have reached a concrete decision and we will have chosen an inspiring way to let the people know we are with them. We reconvene tomorrow."
No one spoke as they filed out into the hallway. Kevin offered to push her wheelchair but she waved him away as kindly as she could. One display of weakness in front of Luther and she was done. He was a predator, just waiting to sink his teeth into her if it only meant he could secure his place as the next Chancellor.
Mercifully, Luther stalked away without so much as a word. Kevin left her too, citing his need to return to the science station. She was alone only for a moment before someone came jogging towards her.
"Councillor Seabrooke?" The boy who spoke looked only a couple years older than her son. He bore a long, white lab coat with patches of gray and held an electronic tablet in his right hand. The attire was typical for a medical apprentice. "Dr Arnold is requesting your presence in mission control immediately."
"Do you know under what circumstances?"
"He did not tell me, Councillor."
She nodded her consent and began to follow. The boy looked nervously around the empty hallway, and shortened his strides awkwardly to allow Julia to keep up with him. He cleared his throat and glued his eyes to his tablet just before leading her through a lounge inhabited by residents who were chatting and dining.
Julia couldn't help but feel the stares of each and every person they passed. All of them dropped their conversations and slowed their chewing to watch them walk through. She had been the harbinger of their fate, and they scoured her face as though hoping to read the solution between the worry lines in her forehead. The boy seemed determined not to notice the attention, but still itched nervously at his curly hair.
The boy dropped behind her as they came towards the exit. She felt a small push on the back of her chair that helped them escape the stares even faster, and they were once again engulfed in the solitude of another vacant hallway.
"Your name is Loren, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am. Loren Matthews of Siegfried and Jenna." His voice was casual, but he still did not look up from his tablet. He clicked and swiped ably with his left hand as a deep furrow formed in his brow.
"May I ask what you are doing on your display, Loren?"
The boy finally snapped from his trance to look down at her. "Oh, pardon my distrait, Councillor. These days it seems I choose to be constantly on the job."
Loren held his tablet out for Julia to see as he scrolled through a dozen young criminals and their projected vitals. "I'm in charge of monitoring females fifteen and under on the Earth mission; the smallest of the demographics because of my apprentice status."
Loren enlarged the tab of a young, dark girl with curly hair. "I'm keeping a close watch on this one. Sascha. She's been showing spikes of stress for the past few days. Connecting their data to a definite cause is like trying to solve a puzzle with a missing piece. With the communication system down, we have no way of knowing if these are symptoms of thriving, or of harm." Loren minimized Sascha's display and held a door open for Julia to wheel through.
"I'm sure there's nothing to be concerned about," Julia began her rehearsed spiel. "There's been nothing to suggest…"
"That's bullshit," she heard Loren mutter under his breath.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, err - no offense, Councillor Seabrooke, but what you say is bullshit. There have been numerous… numerous casualties." Loren gestured to the two tabs darkened on his display, two young girls without heart rates, their images filtered to black and white like the ghosts they now were. The boy's face fell in shame.
"I know I shouldn't feel at fault. There is nothing I can do. If I see their stress spike, I suppose I could engage the emergency adrenaline shot in their trackers, but… I don't like playing God, Councillor."
Loren quickly squeezed the six-pointed star that hung from a gold chain around his neck. It seemed to be the only reason he was able to keep a steady voice throughout his heavy words.
"You're right, Loren. You're not at fault, and I don't know what's causing these readings. That's the honest answer. Without those radios we're as good as blind to what's awaiting them down there. But, it could also be a flaw in the tracking system, please remember that."
Loren sighed, gluing his eyes back to his tablet and beginning a new sequence of swipes and clicks. "Though I am a promoter of faith, I'm not sure it's the tracking system that's flawed."
They passed a large window as they neared the medical bay. This side of the station offered the best vantage of Earth as it shone like a beacon just below them. From the way it spun, slowly, without consequence, she would never have believed the horrors that it housed.
"We may need to hurry. Dr Arnold seemed pretty anxious to see you, and I'm eager to record Sascha's readings. Her hydration levels suggest she might've found water. Same with Alexa, Carey, and Judith. Would you like me to-?"
She kept her hands turning firmly at her wheels. "No, Loren. I'm fine. Thank you."
The headquarters for the Earth mission was milling with people from many different sectors. Engineers, medics and analysts alike busied around huge screens that dominated the main wall, each one displaying the names, photographs and life signs of the hundred young prisoners down on the ground. Some were greyed out, just like the two girls on Loren's display. They had a heavy white 'x' through their image that might as well run right through the heart of each parent who had suffered the terrible loss.
Julia scanned the screens for familiar faces. She found Willard Dawson, the Chancellor's son; Flo, who had once worked in sick bay, and her twin sister Aggie from engineering; even Marlow was there, whose pretty face made her sick with guilt. Her eyes whirled around again, not finding Alfie.
Someone grabbed her by the shoulders. "Julia, listen to me..."
It was Dr Arnold. She didn't need to listen to him. She heard his voice, heard his tone. Somewhere behind her she heard Loren stifle a sharp gasp.
"No," she said.
Then she found him. Alfie's face, her son's face, greyed out, pallid and cold like a corpse. His vital signs were stagnant, dead. Just like him.
"No," she said again. Her shoulders began to shake, and the hands that held her shook with them. Then she was crying, and someone was pressing her oxygen mask between her fingers. She sucked in the air hungrily, unsure if the pain in her chest was her illness or the feeling of her heart breaking. Loren was fumbling with a control pad to disable Alfie's screen so she could no longer look into the darkened eyes of her lost son. Her only son.
Dr Arnold was talking to her, but not a word he said registered. Alfie was gone. He was dead, and it was all because of her. The last thing he'd ever remember of her was the fact that she had disowned him. Would he ever have believed that none of it had been her idea? None of it. Not even for a moment had she wanted to forget her fierce and brilliant son, no matter what cruel fate befell him.
"How long…?" she gasped in short breaths.
"His tracker cut out a few hours ago. We… we wanted to be sure before we called you in here," Dr Arnold explained.
"How…?"
"We don't know. But it was sudden. There was some activity in his last hour – an accelerated heart rate, some neurological responses to pain, but nothing enough to, well…"
The doors of the medical bay slid apart, and someone entered. Suddenly Julia was aware that Kevin was behind her. Someone must have called him too. She was surprised he even came, but of course he would have had to see for himself.
Hastily, she dried her face and disguised her heaving breaths with more gasps into her oxygen mask.
"When?" Kevin barked, emotionlessly.
"A few hours ago," Dr Arnold replied. A tense silence settled into the room, as though no one knew whether to comfort Kevin on his loss or to congratulate him for finally being free of his life-long burden. Loren hung his head over the control pad, left hand on his necklace, and eyes closed tightly to the rest of the room.
"Come on, Julia. Let's go home," he said, finally, and he began to wheel her chair away, out of the door.
"Wait!" she cried, pulling on her brakes. Sharply, she stopped right in front of Loren. The tears were shining sympathetically in soft green eyes. She held her hand out to him, and he took it without a moment's thought.
"I am so sorry," the boy said.
For once he was actually looking her in the eyes. "Can you give us a moment?" Julia asked Kevin who was hovering beside her like a shadow.
Her husband nodded brusquely and went to wait outside. Others in the medical bay seemed to remember themselves and carried on with their work. Julia took her chance and pressed something into Loren's palm.
"There's only one way to find out what's happening to your subjects, to my son, and that's to see for yourself."
"What? How could I possibly…?"
"You care about them. I know you do. You'll find a way."
She wheeled herself away, before she lost her nerve. She went to the door, to the light bright world where Alfie no longer existed and she, really and truly, no longer had a son. Kevin waited, indifferent, a column of stone in the midst of this emotional storm.
She could feel every pair of eyes in mission control on her back as she told him, loud enough for everyone to hear: "Tell the Chancellor that I'm volunteering for Section 17. I'm ready to make my sacrifice."