The Circadia Chronicles: Omnibus: The Complete Colonization Sci-Fi Series by Heather Heckadon (portable ebook reader .txt) 📕

Smith has prepared the virus, we will administer the warning notes. We will wait a week. After the week is up, anyone still in the camp is fair game. Fair?”

Everyone nodded.

“It takes a little bit for the virus to take. We will also wait for that. Once the virus is in full swing, we initiate all other plans. We begin drawing them out of camp, while they’re sick. Weak. This is when we beat them. We will have to be careful to keep our distance of course, but we’ll be catching them while they’re vulnerable, which is what we need,” I said. “We’ll discuss the details of the other plans as we set them up and prepare. Until then, we have a general idea.”

“What about back-up?” Jane asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We have the softphone. I know there’s a reason we got it. What’s the plan there?” she asked.

Chapter Seven

“Well, we tried calling. For what, I’m not exactly sure," Garrett said in frustration. "We thought we could get ‘back-up,’ but the assholes back on Earth are supporting Leslie. The government down there says there is no government on Circadia, so they have no jurisdiction to help. They basically told us to fend for ourselves. We even sent the video sequence of Leslie shooting people and you confronting him, but no one seemed to answer or care. It let us know, though, that whatever we do up here, there won’t be consequences for down on Earth. Same as Leslie. We have it on record so they can’t touch us if we ever need to go back.”

“Go back?” Jane asked. “Is that what you guys are thinking?”

“No!” Spencer said. “Not at all, but it’s always an option.”

“Is it?” I asked. “How would we get back there? I mean, when did you guys talk about this? Are there people who want to go back home? Do you?”

Garrett calmed me by putting a hand on my shoulder. “No one’s going anywhere,” he said. “It’s just a contingency plan if something goes wrong. If we can’t win, or we need to get away, we just wanted to know if it was going to be an option. That’s all. Just checking our options.”

“So, now that they said we wouldn’t be breaking any laws and we know we would be allowed back, how would we even get there?” I asked. “I don’t know if you remember very well, but when we came here, our ship broke into a bunch of little pods, so we aren’t going anywhere. They were supposed to send a ship up for our return, but it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen anymore. Right?”

“Well,” Garrett said, “when the planet went dark before, I got worried. I was working with the space team pretty closely, and they let me in on a few concerns of theirs at the time. Seems they had a contingency plan of their own if things went south.”

“How so?” I asked.

Four men approached us and held out hands for a shake and introduction. The men all wore glasses and held notebooks. Some twiddled their thumbs, notebooks under their arms and dripped perspiration from their foreheads. They seemed nervous.

“This is the space team, or what’s left of it anyway,” Garrett Said. “Like I was saying, they told me of their contingency plan. At the time, it would’ve made people nervous, but now, we’re glad they did what they did. They stole parts off of our old pods and created a ship.”

“What?” I asked. I looked to the men and they looked ready to be scalded. “I’m not mad, that’s awesome! When did you find time to do that?”

Each of the men looked at each other quietly until one of them spoke. “We started as soon as we landed. We gathered parts off the pods and started building in the woods. We figured no harm no foul. As long as no one knew about it, it wouldn’t create any panic or worry, and we used parts no one needed. It was just backup, in case something happened. It’s done though. It’s launchable, if we need it.”

“Well, I hope we don’t need it,” I said. “But it’s always nice to have options.” I shook the hands of the men standing in front of me and they took a sigh of relief. “Do you guys know how to fly the thing?” My curiosity was killing me.

“Well, we think so,” one of them said. “To be honest, though, we won’t know until we give it a try.” He shrugged. I thought about the circumstances under which we would have to use the ship, and it would be a last-ditch effort anyway. They would be our only shot, so I didn’t mind if they weren’t exactly sure.

“How many people will fit in the ship?” I asked.

They all looked down at the ground simultaneously. The bravest spoke quietly. “It will hold about eight people. Tightly.”

Garrett cut in. “I don’t plan on going back to Earth, ever. This is my home now. I won’t be getting on that ship, ever. Even if it’s just a contingency plan. A backup plan. I’m not getting on that ship. We are either going to win this war, or I’m going to die. I can’t go back to Earth.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Tired of the corruption. The greed. All of it. I need a different life, and if I can’t have it here, I would rather die than go back there. I was so upset when I was sent here in the draft before, but now there’s no way I would go back. Seeing what has happened here, and what our planet has done and refuses to do just makes it concrete in my mind that this is the better place. This is my home.” His words dripped with conviction, and I knew I would never be able to convince him to leave, even if we needed to. It broke my heart a little bit but ignited a fire. A fire only