Our Better Angels

Phil Giunta

Tomorrow, it would be Deidre’s turn to disappear. At least, that’s how she thought of it. She would be among the next six thousand souls to spend a year in hibernation to help conserve food, water, and other resources aboard the generation ship Humanity.

The vessel was bound for the planet NLTQ15c, or Noltaq, as it was commonly called. From all the scientific data, it appeared to be a promising new home for the human race, but one that Deidre would never see. Noltaq was 32,000 years away. It was just as well. She had no concept of life on a planet. She hardly knew much about Earth beyond what she’d read about it. Deidre had been born on the Humanity.

And I’ll die here, too.

A hand cupped her knee as she sipped the last of her tea. She smiled at her husband. “Sorry, my mind was in hibernation.”

Across the room, the holographic image of a journalist waved her arms over a row of vegetable plants while lauding the success of the new hydroponic gardens in Habitat Sphere 41.

“I can pull strings and get a deferment if you want,” Mitchell said. “You can go later.”

“No, I don’t want special treatment just because I’m the captain’s wife. Might as well get it over with. It’s our civic duty after all.” She set her empty cup on the end table and straddled Mitchell in the center of the couch. “Will you miss me?”

“It’ll be the worst year of my life.” He brushed aside a lock of her hair. “But for you, it’ll feel like nothing more than a good night’s sleep. You won’t even age a day.”

“It delays our plan to start a family.”

“We’ll have plenty of time for that when you’re back.” Mitchell caressed her arms. “Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t fool around tonight.”

“There are those aboard this ship who don’t deserve a place on the new world. They don’t share our ideals, our faith, our culture—”

“Or your skin color.”

Deidre glanced over her shoulder as System presidential candidate Rustin Morrow faced off against a Humanity News interviewer.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Not today, but we have footage of past speeches—”

“Which you took out of context.”

“Shut up.” Deidre stretched to her right and tapped a button on the touch screen in the arm of the couch. The hologram vanished. “I won’t miss that wannabe dictator and his sycophantic supporters. Just hope I don’t wake up in a year to find out he got elected.”

“He won’t. Morrow’s too dangerous,” Mitchell said. “Most people on this ship realize we all need each other if the human race is going to survive.”

“I’m not so sure about that. Wherever our better angels go, our demons always follow.”

#

Muffled voices dragged Deidre from the depths of sleep. She opened her eyes and winced at the ceiling lights before doubling over in a fit of coughing and dry heaves. A gentle hand gripped her shoulder to steady her. Another held out a cup of water.

“Drink this, slowly.”

Trembling, Deidre brought the cup to her lips. Drops dribbled onto the thermal blanket wrapped around her from chest to knees. She cleared her throat. “Who are you?”

“I am Anaya. I will be helping you recover from hibernation.”

“Android?”

“Yes. Can you tell me your name and birthdate?”

“Deidre Dowling. July 16, 2245.”

“And what do you do aboard the Humanity, Mrs. Dowling?”

“Software engineer. I’m on the . . . team that maintains the . . . ship’s AI systems.”

“Excellent. How do you feel?”

“Hungry, and I’m having . . . mild spasms in my arms and legs. Is that normal?”

“I injected nanites into your system,” Anaya explained. “They are programmed to stimulate your muscles after such a long period in hibernation. You will be ready to walk soon.”

“Nanites. Gotcha.” In the corner beside Deidre’s bed, lights flashed on a portable medical console, above which a screen displayed her vital signs. The door was only a few steps to her left. “Kinda tight in here. Barely enough room to change your mind.”

“Apologies. It is the best I can do right now. Many sections of the ship, including medical bays, are still damaged from the war.”

“War?”

“I will explain everything once you are fully recovered. In the meantime, just lie back until the nan—”

“No, wait. Please.” Deidre gripped Anaya’s arm. “What happened? Is my husband all right?”

The android hesitated. “Before you entered hibernation, certain officials in the System government declared anyone of a certain skin color or religion or nationality as unworthy of a place in the new world.”

“Morrow and his fascists. Shit, I guess that monster got elected?”

“No. Morrow had his opponent assassinated, then staged a military coup. His rhetoric incited a series of skirmishes in some of the habitat spheres. He then declared martial law and ordered the System military to purge the population of anyone considered undesirable.”

“Didn’t anyone try to stop them?”

“Local governments in some of the habitat spheres attempted to intervene until the president sent in reinforcements to quell resistance. Peaceful protests were met with violence, which escalated into civil wars and genocides. Hundreds in the military rebelled against Morrow’s orders. War broke out ship wide, engulfing all fifty habitat spheres, most of which were destroyed. Nineteen were jettisoned when the inhabitants tried to escape the bloodshed. I have repaired four spheres to the point where they can once again sustain life, but there is still more work to be done.”

“How many survivors?”

“Six thousand, all of whom are in hibernation. Aside from yourself, of course.”

“That’s only four percent of the total population. What about my husband?”

Anaya cocked her head and shifted her gaze away for a moment. “I am afraid Captain Mitchell Dowling was killed along with most of the senior crew members while preventing a siege of the bridge at the beginning of the war. The ship’s AI then assumed control and sealed off access to helm and navigation in order to keep Humanity on course for NLTQ15c.”

“No.” Deidre slumped forward. The cup of water tumbled to the floor as she cradled her head in her hands . “Oh, God. No.”

“I am sorry. If there is anything I can—”

Deidre glared up at her, tears streaking her face. “How could all of that happen in one year?”

“Mrs. Dowling, you were in hibernation for over one hundred years.”

#

After crying for fifteen minutes in a warm shower, Deidre refused Anaya’s offer of a meal. Instead, she donned an oversized flight suit from the crew lounge, retrieved her thermal blanket from sickbay, and wandered to the forward observation deck.

There, she lay on a couch staring out at what was left of Humanity. The port, starboard, and center spines of the ship stretched over 500 kilometers to the towering T-shaped pylons of the hyperdrive engines. A total of fifty habitat spheres had once lined the outer spines from bow to stern. A series of decks, five levels tall and evenly spaced along the hull, connected the three spines. Those sections housed multiple sickbays, science labs, conference rooms, and recreation areas for the crew. Now, all were dark, lifeless. The Humanity was a ghost ship carrying 6,000 unconscious souls. 

We slept through a holocaust. Tears dripped from Deidre’s face onto the arm of the couch as she recalled her conversation with Mitchell the night before she “disappeared.”

“It delays our plan to start a family.”

“We’ll have plenty of time for that when you’re back.”

“Wherever our better angels go,” Deidre whispered. “Our demons always follow.” But where are those demons now? She glanced up as the android approached and stood beside the observation window, hands clasped behind her. “Anaya, why am I the only one out of hibernation?”

“Your pod suffered a critical malfunction and is beyond repair. I had no choice but to wake you. Until recently, I’ve been able to maintain all hibernation chambers without disturbing the occupants. However, a catastrophic failure was inevitable.”

“Since the war is over, why not bring everyone out of hibernation?”

“I have not yet restored enough of the hydroponic gardens to provide sufficient food to sustain even one human for more than a few months, let alone six thousand. Plus, the water reclamation systems in three of the four spheres still need to be repaired.”

“You keep saying ‘I’ as if you’re doing all the work alone,” Deidre said. “Where are the other androids? There were hundreds of you.”

“I am the last. The war claimed the rest.”

“I’m sorry, Anaya. May I ask what happened to the casualties?”

“All were given a burial at space, including your husband.”

Deidre pulled the blanket tighter around her. “What about Morrow and the other politicians who incited the violence?”

“Unknown. Their remains were never found. Perhaps they escaped in the habitat spheres that were jettisoned.”

Deidre sat up and hooked an arm over the back of the couch. “Anaya, do you think we could turn the ship around and locate those spheres? Do we have their last known coordinates?”

“Of course. That information would have been logged by the ship’s AI. It might be possible to retrieve the spheres, but doing so would delay our arrival on NLTQ15c by at least fifty years.”

“What’s a few decades when you’re traveling for centuries? We’re talking about thousands of lives. They won’t have power for much longer.”

“I would need to awaken more crewmembers. Engineers and medical personnel to assist with rescue operations, not to mention restoring more of the hydroponic gard—” the android’s gaze shifted as she cocked her head.

“Anaya, what’s wrong?”

“I am receiving an internal alert. Another hibernation pod is deactivating as yours did, but it is located in a section of the ship that is unfamiliar to me.” 

“How’s that possible?” Deidre asked. “I thought all androids stored the ship’s schematics in memory.”

“True, but this is an entire deck I did not know existed until now. It is located astern, beneath the engine room.”

“Is the tram still working?”

“It is, but I will need to climb down four decks once I arrive as the lift is out of service in that section.”

Tossing aside the blanket, Deidre leapt from the couch. “Mind if I join you? After a century in hibernation, I could use some exercise.”

#

Forty minutes later, the pair stood before a closed airlock. After several silent queries to the ship’s AI, Anaya keyed in a code on the pad beside the hatch and it slid aside. “This is not a deck, but a lifeboat. It operates on an isolated network from the rest of Humanity. Someone wanted to keep its existence concealed. The access code was buried under multiple security protocols.”

Once they were in the airlock, the hatch closed behind them and the inner door rolled open. Inside, two rows of ten hibernation pods were arranged back-to-back in the center of the bay. Deidre didn’t recognize the occupants. Beyond them, a flight of stairs led to a second level, with more pods lined up along the port and starboard bulkheads. According to the alert Anaya received earlier, the malfunctioning pod was somewhere up there.

While Anaya climbed the steps, Deidre turned to the nearest touchscreen. The press of a few buttons revealed that the lifeboat had hyperdrive engines, housed a fully loaded armory, and was supplied with enough rations to sustain fifty people for up to ten years in space. “Yeah, but who the hell are they?”

“President Rustin Morrow,” the android replied from the upper deck. “Along with members of his administration and senior military staff.”

“So, they started a war, then escaped down here to hide until it ended.” Deidre entered another series of commands into the console. “Anaya, if these maniacs wake up, who knows what they’ll do. They might try to purge the survivors of anyone they deem undesirable. Maybe even prevent us from going back to rescue the lost spheres.”

“Perhaps we could seal them in here until such time as we can negotiate with them.”

“Not going to happen.” Fresh out of hibernation, a wide-eyed President Morrow limped toward Anaya from behind the nearest row of pods. He waved his automatic rifle toward the stairs. “Android, get back down there and wake my security team.”

Gripping the handrail, Morrow followed her on unsteady legs and bare feet. He still wore the tight gray thermal body suit of a sleeper. “After I awoke, the computer told me we’d been in hibernation for over a hundred years. How many survived the war aside from us maniacs in here?”

“Six thousand,” Deidre said. “All in hibernation.”

“That should make it easy. Once my people are up and about, we’ll take control of Humanity and purge any remaining undesirables while they sleep. A shame about the loss of your husband, Mrs. Dowling. He was a competent captain until he refused to surrender the ship to us.”

At the bottom of the stairs, Anaya whirled and leapt onto the railing. From there, she propelled herself at Morrow, kicking him in the head and sending him tumbling down the steps unconscious. The rifle slid across the deck and into Deidre’s hands.

“Let’s get out to the airlock and see if we can find a way to jettison this lifeboat.” Deidre allowed Anaya to precede her, but instead of following, she slapped a button on the touchscreen console. The inner door rolled back into place, separating them.

In the airlock, Anaya tapped the communications panel and peered through the window. “Mrs. Dowling, what are you doing?”

Deidre tapped several buttons on the screen. “I’m sorry, Anaya, but this boat can only be launched from inside. I checked that earlier. I’m starting a self-destruct sequence. The engines will overload in five minutes.”

“Mrs. Dow—Deidre, we can find another way.”

“There’s nothing left for me on Humanity, and I won’t live long enough to see the new world no matter how many turns I take in hibernation. Anaya, promise me you’ll turn the ship around and rescue those lost spheres. Promise me you’ll get our better angels to Noltaq, and I’ll make sure these demons don’t follow.”

“I . . . I will do my best, Deidre.”

“I know you will, Anaya. Thank you for being Humanity’s guardian angel.”

#

The lifeboat detached from the ship and fired its thrusters. Anaya could not bring herself to turn away from the window as the vessel shrank in the distance and she remained long after the explosion faded into the vastness of space.