Darwin Read online

  Now she was ready for the next step in her career. She wanted to head out into space and help prepare unexplored sites for colonization. It would be challenging, she knew that. Spending months on end in desolate climates, facing the unknown, would not be an easy undertaking, but she thrived on the idea of being a pioneer and leading the way. Just like her father had done before her.

  Besides, the human race had no choice but to expand its borders. Earth’s capacity to sustain mankind had been reached long ago, despite the fact that science and technology had overcome most problems of living in previously uninhabitable regions on the planet. But as with all things, the technology that had helped man, had also become a hindrance. The prosperous Earth had become too prosperous. Populations grew, industries boomed, and environmentalists raced to revitalise the parts of the Earth that humanity had ravaged on its way through.

  The great minds of the day were forced to find a solution. The Space Duty arm of the UNF was born, and exploration began into colonizing outer space. For the last thirty-five years, the UNF Space Duty Division, with international government and conglomerate assistance, had been setting up outposts and space stations off Earth; pockets of human existence, like small floating cities. Each had a scientific code name, such as “Z106”, but had also been given a common name based on something historical or mythical, such as “Station Pegasus” or “Station Magellan”. It had taken time to convince Earth dwellers to embrace the future and take to the stations, but eventually their popularity had grown.

  As space living became a reality, the UNF decided to expand their realm and conquered the Earth’s moon. Several colonies were established under the purification and gravitational domes, using convict labor. Over time this, too, proved so successful that they turned their gaze to Mars. On January 12th, 2059, the first spaceship arrived. A settlement was established, using convict labor, in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Once complete, the entire populations of Earth’s maximum security prisons were transferred into a state-of-the-art penitentiary there that became known as “Hell Town”. The UNF then set about using the convict labor to help run expeditions to the south, and began to develop the Mars Docking Station and the two civilian settlement colonies—Elon and Brahe —that now existed. So successful was the conquering of Mars, it was widely rumored that the UNF had begun planning a massive expansion of settlements there.

  The adrenaline spiked through Carrie as she thought about the possibilities. She checked her watch, took a deep breath, and made her way back to Command.

  *

  Carrie waited patiently in the reception hall of Command. The receptionist had checked her in with a Lieutenant McEvoy, then told her to take a seat. She hadn’t been seated long before she heard the Tube open and saw a Space Duty uniformed, dark-skinned woman, with long, braided hair make her way over to the reception desk. Carrie heard McEvoy’s name mentioned and figured she must be here for the same reason. She eyed the woman curiously. She looked fit and strong, maybe mid-to-late 20s. Carrie saw the receptionist motion over toward the seats and the soldier turned and headed her way.

  They locked eyes and gave a polite nod. The new arrival sat down a couple of seats away, and the silence and minutes ticked by. Carrie busied herself looking around the grand reception area. It was wall to floor marble, white with gold flecks, shiny and cold. The large UNF shield insignias for Earth Duty and Space Duty were positioned on the wall behind the receptionist, beneath a glorious, protective Pegasus. The winged horse, the perfect choice of mascot for the UNF, representing both land and sky. To the right of the reception there was an elegant rocky waterfall, surrounded by lush greenery. The sound of its running water soothed her. She glanced up at the ceiling, which was shaped like a pyramid, and had glass on one side for the natural light, then she looked over to the wall of elevators and wondered what those inside were doing and where they were going.

  The Tube beeped again and a tall, slim, redhead appeared. Both seated women watched her approach the reception desk and heard McEvoy’s name again. Another one! The redhead, also dressed in a Space Duty uniform, made her way over to the chairs and, as she did so, the dark-skinned woman stood and offered her hand to shake.

  “Hi, how you doin’?” she said with an American accent. “I’m sorry I overheard, but you’re here to see First Lieutenant McEvoy? I’m Corporal Sabrina Colt.”

  The redhead nodded, smiled, and shook her hand. “Sergeant Sarah Packham,” she said with a crisp English accent.

  The two women looked over at Carrie, sitting there in her Earth Duty uniform.

  “Are you here to see McEvoy, too?” Colt asked

  Carrie gave a nod, stood from her chair and offered her hand. “Corporal Carrie Welles.”

  Colt shook Carrie’s hand, and then Packham.

  “So …” Colt began as they all sat, “do we have any idea what’s going to happen today?”

  They shook their heads, but Carrie noticed the other women’s eyes seemed to sparkle with just as much intrigue as she felt.

  “So, you’re obviously British.” Colt looked over to Packham.

  “Yes,” she replied, “I’m from Oxford. And you? I mean, you’re obviously American …”

  Colt smiled. “I was actually born in Barbados, but spent most of my life in Orlando, Florida.” She turned to Carrie. “And you?”

  “Australian. From Brisbane originally.”

  Colt chuckled. “Well, this really is the United National Forces, isn’t it?”

  A smile curled at their mouths.

  Carrie thought the two women seemed alright, but until she knew why they were all here, she couldn’t relax.

  *

  Harris sat in the empty room looking over the three women’s profiles. Isaack was right, they all looked pretty good on paper. Sergeant Packham, 29, had a good clean flight record. She’d trained with both the British RAF and at NASA, scoring top marks during her training maneuvers and impressed her superiors while based in Russia during her time on Earth Duty. Since joining Space Duty she’d had successful stints on some of the space stations, then on Mars, and seemed to be doing well until she applied for a transfer a month ago. Now she was here.

  Corporal Colt, 27, also had a good record. She’d trained with Special Forces in the US and then did time in East Africa and China on Earth Duty. She appeared to have a flair with electronics, and in particular with explosive devices. She entered into Space Duty only four months ago and had been based on a UNF cargo runner called Andromeda, taking supplies to all the outposts. She’d requested a transfer to a more “active” posting. So, now she was here.

  The last of the women, Corporal Welles, 28, was the daughter of retired Australian UNF Space Duty colonel, Jeffrey Welles. Harris undertook a brief search on the UNF portal to ensure it was indeed the same Jeffrey Welles that he thought it was. And he was correct. Her father was the Col. Welles, one of the Originals; the first group of Space Duty soldiers there’d ever been. He’d been at the forefront of the space station migration, the Moon colonization, and the early days of the Mars colonization. All three waves. It made Harris wonder if this was why she’d been selected to take part in this PR exercise. The daughter of an Original continuing the tradition and flying the flag for the UNF. What a PR story that would make.

  Regardless, she’d impressed her superiors with not only her excellent marksmanship, but also her determination and drive to succeed. Although she’d started out later than most, she was coming to Harris after several years on Earth Duty, mainly based in Indonesia, the South Pacific and Antarctica. Just recently she had been specifically called in on the Santos mission and according to her file, it had been her bullets that took down the rebel leader Jose Gardos and five other rebels, after a ten day standoff in Madrid. She had not yet been inducted into Space Duty, which was a concern, but she was about to get a quick initiation.

  Harris was torn away from the e-file by a knock at the door. He heard the beep of the security card s
wipe and the door opened to reveal First Lieutenant McEvoy.

  “Captain Harris, I have Sergeant Packham, and Corporals Colt and Welles for you,” he announced.

  “Show them through,” Harris ordered, closing down the file and putting it to one side.

  He stood and watched the women carefully as they entered. They marched straight ahead, single file, then turned to stand in front of him and saluted. They had passed their first test.

  He stared at each woman for a moment as they stood in the lineup. He towered over them, which was not uncommon for him with most people, but compared to his soldiers on the Aurora, they looked minuscule. As well as visibly lacking in strength they didn’t particularly look like the kind of hardened soldiers that would cause fear to the likes of space pirates, either. They were all quite feminine and attractive in the flesh, and could’ve just as easily replaced Veronica out on reception. That’s what concerned him. He could just picture the reaction of some of his men.

  Sergeant Packham was of reasonable height, at 5' 10", but she was too slim for a soldier. Corporal Colt was shorter at 5' 7", but she did have the best build of the three. Corporal Welles was even shorter and had a petite build. Again, he pictured the reaction of his men, and it mostly involved laughter.

  “At ease,” he ordered, his voice devoid of any emotion. He wasn’t happy about this late change to his team, but he had to accept it. Whether this was a babysitting job or not, he made a promise to himself to treat them no different than the rest of his men. If they wanted in, they would have to do it his way.

  The women each took a seat on the opposite side of the table to him. He eyed the three of them again, studying their faces. They each made good eye contact. He liked that.

  “My name is Captain Saul Harris,” he began. “Today you will be joining my team on the UNF Aurora, as a test case, for a one-off mission. We leave this evening at 1900 hours. You will need to be at Dock 559 by no later than 1500 hours. You will be briefed and meet the rest of the crew then. Are there any questions?”

  He noticed a spark of excitement light up their eyes.

  “No, sir,” Colt and Packham shook their heads.

  “Sir,” Welles began, her voice sounding a little unsure, “does this mean I’ve been accepted into Space Duty?”

  “Well, you can’t fly on my ship if not, so I guess that would be a yes,” he said, in a slightly mocking tone.

  The expression on her face showed regret for asking the question. “Yes, sir.”

  “Someone will be down shortly to take you to administration where you will complete the final authorities for your transfers,” he told them. “They will then send you onto Stores where you, Corporal Welles, will collect your new uniform and any other items you may require for this mission,” he continued. “After that, you will need to go home, pack your stuff and be down at Dock 559 by no later than 1500 hours. Are we clear, soldiers?”

  “Yes, sir!” they chimed in unison.

  “Good,” Harris said flatly, then gathered up his things and exited the room. He was a matter-of-fact kind of man and felt there was nothing more to be said at this stage. He wasn’t going to pretend to be thrilled that they were part of his team, but he would be professional nonetheless. He knew his men probably wouldn’t take too kindly to the change in lineup. The team worked well as it was, and it could be a bad thing to mess with a winning formula.

  Besides, three attractive women could prove a distraction. It was fairly common thinking that men instinctively felt the need to protect female soldiers more so than their male counterparts in a life and death situation, making the male soldiers that much more vulnerable. This could not and would not take place on the Aurora, he told himself. Test case or not, if they wanted to be part of his team, they were going to work as hard as the men, fight as hard as the men, and if it came to it, die as hard as the men.

  *

  Carrie smiled subtly to herself as that adrenaline spiked through her again. She stood in her apartment eyeing her new Space Duty uniforms. The first was an “official” service uniform that consisted of a smart-looking light gray blouse with matching skirt, which had the electric blue UNF Space Duty Division insignia over the left breast. Similar to that of Earth Duty, the insignia held an image of the Earth within a shield, but where the Earth Duty Division had the Earth surrounded by a laurel wreath, the Space Duty Division had the Earth surrounded by stars. The second uniform was the “general” combat uniform, consisting of gray cammo pants and a matching variety of gray tops: singlets, T-shirts and long-sleeved gray cammo shirts, all with electric blue stitching and the UNF insignia.

  As if determined to thwart her eagerness, the time dragged. She’d packed within minutes, doing so lightly. Restless, she sat on the couch in her apartment and looked over at the photo displayed on the wall beside her LCD screen. It was a picture of her parents, laughing and fooling around, happiness splashed across their faces. It had been taken only days before her mother had passed away. She often stared at that photo and wondered: if only they knew? But there had been no way of knowing. Her father had left for a conference in Poland the day after that photo was taken, and her mother was dead two days after that.

  It was sad to think that no matter how advanced mankind had become, humans could still die in automobile accidents. Human error was something that no-one could ever erase. You couldn’t control the fact that a man could turn off his vehicle’s intelligent autocruise control system, take his eyes off the road and take a corner too fast, and drive head on into an innocent woman on her way home from dropping her daughter at school. And so, at fourteen, Carrie had lost her mother, and her father had lost his wife.

  Deep down she knew that was the moment her father changed. The hero, the Original soldier, seemed to grow old almost overnight. After her mother’s death, he sent her to live in a boarding school and she saw even less of him, if that were possible. She figured he was running away, trying to escape the pain by keeping himself busy. She understood it to a certain extent, but at the same time, part of her felt abandoned.

  Her father grew to become a mystery, held together only by fond memories from her childhood of target practice, talking in secret codes, and inspiring transmissions sent from space. That spark he lit in her childhood, despite his absence, had not diminished. The lure of space was irresistible, and her father’s success the cherry on top. He’d left his mark on this world as a respected space pioneer; now she felt compelled to do the same.

  After working on Mars for a while after her mother’s death, she guessed that her father finally realized he couldn’t escape the pain or the loneliness. Tired and dejected and somewhat resentful of the military, he resigned and returned to Earth, just as his little girl was making plans to explore new worlds herself.

  It was a surprise to her that, despite his years of service, despite raising her like he did, he’d initially discouraged her from joining the armed forces. When she’d wanted to enlist straight from school, he’d refused, arguing that he wanted her to experience life outside the military first. After much debate with the ex-colonel, she’d reluctantly agreed to work “normal” jobs in administration for the first couple of years, and she could barely manage that. The pull was too strong. It had never been far from her mind, and all it took to convince her in the end was an offhand comment from an old ex-soldier who’d seen her down at the local shooting range one day. He happened to witness her shoot, eyed the target she’d hit, then shook his head and said, “Jeez, you’re a bloody good shot, love. The army could do with someone like you!” The very next day she applied to join the Australian Army.

  Her father wasn’t happy, but he’d managed to hold his tongue. She’d wanted to talk to him about it, why he was so against it, but that just wasn’t the way they were. They never discussed the things that lurked beneath the surface. He was a soldier through and through, always on guard.

  Her father knew she’d been promoted to Earth Duty a few years back, but
she’d never told him about her application for Space Duty because she knew, deep down, the gap between them would widen with the news. After all, despite the distance between them, she was all he had left since her mother had passed away. But she knew the time had come. It had to be done.

  And so Carrie sat there, planning the conversation with her father in her mind. She would do it the Army way, soldier to soldier. She’d just tell him like it is. There would be no questions. She had been accepted into Space Duty and she was going. He couldn’t say or do anything about it. He had done it, and now so would she. It was that simple.

  Spurred on by some imaginary courage, she picked up the phone and called him. At this time of year, he would be at his holiday villa in Florida. She tried the numbers she had for him, but they went through to a message service. Where is he? I can’t just leave him a message telling him I’m heading into space tonight! She did leave a message, but only to ask him to call her. She looked down at her watch. 13:08. There’s still time. He’ll call back. It’s okay.

  She stood and walked around her apartment, one last time. She double-checked the windows and doors were locked, then surveyed how neat and tidy everything was. Everything was in its place. Everything was under control.

  Now she just needed her father to return her call.

  *

  Harris felt somewhat better now that he had eaten, although there remained a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was pinning it on the hangover, although his mind did wander briefly to thoughts of Sibbie and Etta and that strange dream again. He shook his head. Damn that whiskey!

  He’d been reading over the e-file that Colonel Isaack had given him. The station itself, Z076—known as Darwin—was located, as the colonel had said, in the outer realm of the UNF Space Zone, which covered all the inhabited area of space to date, radiating out from Earth as far as the Mars orbit. The station was positioned not far off Mars, and given its close proximity to The Belt, it was an area generally avoided, as few recognized civilian flight paths ventured that far. Nicely placed for something so classified, he thought.