Nabukko, page 11
I did as commanded, setting the canvas bag on top of my dull green blanket. I remained standing, however. I wanted to show that I still had some self-authority in light of my coming confessions.
Gia jammed the door shut and spun around to face us. “You told Merula three months. Was that a lie?”
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
“Were you at your own ship or colony before you journeyed this way for three months?” she asked.
“And why did no one come with you?” Eoghan added.
Now it would get dicey.
My eyes met both of theirs. I opened my mouth, but paused a moment before answering. “I don’t know.”
Gia narrowed her eyes. “Come again?”
“I can’t answer that. Either of those questions. And yes, that’s a can’t not a won’t, before you ask.”
Eoghan’s eyebrows rose. “So, you can’t answer . . . because you don’t remember?”
Eoghan was oddly quick about catching that. How strange.
Gia’s stare was sharp, her eyes like razor blades. The energy in the room was practically humming. I still didn’t understand it, but my revelation meant something to them. Something big.
“Yes, Eoghan. I only have memories from the past three months. I don’t know why they stop three months back. I don’t know what happened before then, and I don’t know why I’m here. In fact—” I paused, embarrassed for some reason. “I don’t even know where here is—what planet this is.”
Gia and Eoghan shared another glance. What weren’t they telling me?
“You—you don’t know which planet this is?” Gia asked, astonished.
I narrowed my eyes. “No, I don’t. And I don’t want to hear any lip about it.”
Gia threw her hands up in defeat. “I wasn’t asking derisively. I just—I mean that’s unusual, right? I get the memory loss, but you should at least remember that—”
“What?!” I gasped. “What do you mean ‘you get the memory loss’?”
Gia chewed on her lip, casting another glance at Eoghan.
Gia finally sighed. “Merula is going to have my head for this,” she muttered. “You aren’t—ack, you aren’t the only one who has . . . memory problems, Eff.”
If my eyes got any wider, a spaceship could land inside them.
I looked back and forth between Gia and Eoghan. “You’re not telling me . . ."
“Unfortunately, yes,” Eoghan said. “Gia, me, everyone from the Nabukko—we all have the same problem.”
“None of you can remember anything before three months ago?” I asked, almost elated. It was selfish of me, but I found comfort in knowing I wasn’t the only one with this unexplainable problem.
Eoghan cocked his head. “Well, sort of. I think you might have some sort of variation of, well, whatever this is. You see, no one from the Nabukko can remember what happened three months ago, just like you, but, unlike you, we seem to remember things before then.”
“What do you mean? That still doesn’t make any sense.”
“We all have clear memories of our duties onboard the Nabukko prior to the Obliviation,” Gia said. “We were surveying the Delta Trianguli binary star system. No one remembers any problems with the ship. No alarms, no warning signs. Then we all suddenly woke up on this planet. I say ‘woke up’ figuratively; we weren’t asleep. We just regained awareness.”
I sat down on my bed. “What happened? Did your ship crash or something?”
Gia shrugged. “It appeared so, but . . .”
“What?” I asked, my breath hitching.
Gia shook her head. “Nothing. Yes, our ship crashed. Not everyone survived.”
“That’s why there are only four hundred of you when there are supposed to be five hundred?”
Gia and Eoghan shared another look. “Yes.”
“Was Merula the captain?”
“No, she was the first officer. The captain was one of the ones who died.”
“Oh.”
We all sat in silence for a few moments, each lost in our own thoughts.
“Gia?”
“Yes?”
“So . . . what planet is this?”
“We aren’t one hundred percent positive, but we think—”
“And you were chiding me about not knowing,” I muttered.
“Do you want to know or not?”
“Sorry, yes. Please continue.”
“As I was saying, we aren’t one hundred percent positive, but we think we must be on some undiscovered habitable planet around the orange dwarf star in Delta Trianguli.”
My brows scrunched together. “But that doesn’t make sense. The other star in that system is a yellow star. We would be able to see it! All we have is Jupe, and I know he’s not a yellow star.”
“Jupe?” Eoghan asked.
“It’s what I call the Hot Jupiter in this system. It takes the place of a moon in my mind.”
Gia shook her head. “Without proper equipment, we can’t really tell if it’s a Hot Jupiter or the main sequence star.”
“The stars in the Delta Trianguli system are closer together than Earth is to Sol!” I shot back. “We would definitely know if it was the other star!”
“What other explanation is there, Eff?” Gia asked hotly. “That’s the system we were closest to. That’s what makes sense.”
“It may make logical sense, but it’s not what we see. Therefore, it can’t be right. I don’t know how, but we aren’t in the Delta Trianguli system.”
“I wish our damn equipment would just work!” Gia nearly shouted.
Eoghan placed a comforting hand on Gia’s shoulder. A smidge of jealousy passed through me before I got hold of myself.
“Eff,” Eoghan said. “Do you remember anything about where you were before . . . this? Where your ship was?”
“I—no, I don’t.”
“Nothing? Come on, there’s got to be something. Anything.”
“I’m sorry, Eoghan. I don’t know why I can’t remember anything from before.” I balled my hands into fists. “It’s not fair! I just don’t get it. What happened to me that didn’t happen to the Nabukko?”
Gia started pacing around the room. “Well, you didn’t just pop into existence on this planet. You had to have come here in a ship. There aren’t many moon bases or orbital stations out this way, so it’s unlikely it was just you and a personal cruiser. Really, I wouldn’t expect anything less than Neptune Class. But I suppose a Venus Class might be able to make it out here.” She threw a look of disgust at me. “You probably would do something dumb like coming all the way out here in a Venus Class.”
I shook my head. “Neptune Class? That’s massive, though! The only ship larger is a Colony Class!”
“What? Eff, I was joking about you being dumb. Don’t go and prove me right like this,” Gia sassed.
I glared at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Seriously?” Gia said, her mouth ajar.
I nodded, my glare slipping a bit.
“Are you sure you went to the Academy?”
I folded my arms. “Oh, shove off, Gia.”
Eoghan’s chuckle broke the light tension in the room. Gia let out a few laughs herself, and I may have even smiled myself.
“Okay, okay, now that we’ve all had a good laugh at my expense, can one of you please explain things?”
“Well, for starters, we don’t use ‘Colony Class’ anymore. That’s Saturn Class now,” Gia said.
No more Colony Class? That was a quick bureaucratic change. It hadn’t been that long since I’d gone to the Academy, based on my age at least.
“And Neptune Class is a fairly standard Academy vessel. The Nabukko was Neptune Class,” Gia continued.
That explained why there was so much material to use for their camp.
“I guess there have been a few changes since I was there,” I offered lamely.
“Uh-huh,” Gia said, peering at me.
“Also, a colony ship isn’t the largest,” Eoghan chipped in. “Jupiter Class is. Although those are the military war horses. Won’t see any of those out here either.”
“Why not?”
“They’re all closer to the Academy and the other Institutions, and guarding planetary borders of course, but that’s a given.”
Nothing Eoghan had said was a given to me. It wasn’t unusual for the Institutions to have military ships of course, but I thought all they had were Venus Class. And planetary borders? Maybe he was just lumping the terrestrial planet colonies and the moon bases together. Lazy phrasing, that’s all.
But I kept my mouth shut about it. I didn’t want to appear even more like an idiot than I already had.
“I must have forgotten more than I realized,” I said with a shrug.
“What do you remember?” Gia asked.
“No beating around the bush with you, is there? I wouldn’t mind a touch of empathy either, considering that you also have memory loss.”
Gia snorted. “Not as bad as you. Get off your high horse.”
“Only once you get off yours,” I countered.
Gia’s smile reached her eyes. “You know, I think I might actually be starting to like you, Eff.”
“Ooo, way to insult me. Someone, please, hold an intervention!”
Gia laughed as she sat back down on her bed next to Eoghan. “Okay, but seriously,” she said. “Can you really not remember anything before the Obliviation?”
“Is that what you all are calling it?”
Eoghan shrugged. “I think it sounds too dramatic, but—”
“What happened is dramatic. It fits,” Gia interjected.
“But Gia’s already coined the term. So, yes, that’s what we call it.”
“Well, before the ‘Obliviation’, all I have are scattered memories. Little snippets of a professor at the Academy, my parents playing music and laughing, me studying star charts, but it’s all mixed together. I can’t tell what order things happened. I make judgments based on what would make sense, like obviously my Academy memories are more recent. And I do know lots of intuitive things, like Earth and its history, how to operate equipment, what materials colonists should have on a mission, you know—that kind of stuff.”
“That’s so strange. How come your brain got all fried?” Gia asked.
“'Why was your memory loss a lot less selective?' is what Gia means to say. Politely,” Eoghan amended.
I waved him off. “It’s fine. And yeah, that’s essentially the question, isn’t it? I don’t remember being on the Nabukko—”
“We would recall if you were a crew member,” Gia stated.
“Exactly. So, I think we can assume that I, and possibly my crew, somehow encountered the same fate as the Nabukko, but something was different enough for your crew so that you didn’t lose all your memories,” I pondered.
“Do you think it’s some sort of black hole phenomenon?” Eoghan asked.
“There aren’t any registered black holes in this sector,” Gia said.
“That we know of anyway,” I pointed out. “It could still be a possibility, but that doesn’t explain the memory loss.”
“Alien life form?” Eoghan suggested.
Gia and I both looked at him. Gia opened her mouth to protest but then reconsidered. “We don’t know of any aliens, especially ones that could do something like this, but, as Eff said, it could still be a possibility.”
“Unfortunately, I think our list is summed up by that statement,” I said, pouting.
“It’s a rather large coincidence, don’t you think?”
“I can’t recall any other reported incidences of this happening to a civilian or Academy ship,” Gia offered. “I wish we had access to our databases, though. Maybe there’s an obscure reference in there.”
Eoghan looked over at me. “Eff, you don’t think . . ."
“What?”
“You don’t think that maybe you were on a colony ship? You seem to know an awful lot about practices of colonists.”
“He’s got a point,” Gia stated.
I threw my hands up. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Throw it on the list of ‘it’s a possibility’, but wouldn’t I remember that at least? Being a colonist basically takes up your whole life just in preparation.”
Gia shrugged. “Think about it.”
“Yeah, fine. Speaking of colonists,” I continued. “Did the Nabukko crew ever plan to colonize near Delta Trianguli, or somewhere else?”
“No, we were just surveying. We’re not colonists,” Gia said.
“That’s a long time for just a survey.”
Gia frowned. “Are you familiar with the length of our mission or something?”
“No, I just meant the travel time . . .” I trailed off at their confused looks.
“Never mind. Forget I said anything. You know, maybe I do have brain damage or something.”
“Too bad the medical scanning equipment won’t work. I’d love to place a bet on that.”
“Thanks, Gia. Full support, I see.”
As we chuckled, Eoghan stood up. “Thanks, Eff,” he said, his expression almost grave. His sincerity took me off guard.
“Um . . ."
“I—we—understand why you were hesitant to mention this. But I feel like we can finally get somewhere now.”
He really believed it, too. But I wasn’t convinced it would be all rainbows and roses from here. Although, I think I gained another ally at least.
I turned to Gia. “You have to tell Merula.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, I do.”
“When you do . . .” I hesitated, unsure how to say what was on my mind.
Gia seemed to understand, though. She nodded. “Don’t worry, Eff. I think she’ll come around to Eoghan’s way of doing things. Just keep us in the loop if you remember something else. Anything could be important.”
“I will,” I said, hesitating. “So . . . in three months, no one in Nabukko had any theories for the Obliviation?”
“Oh, we’ve had theories, but we can’t test anything. Can’t communicate with the Academy or even a damn orbital station. Honestly, you were our first lead.”
“That’s got to be disappointing.”
“We’re not disappointed that you’re here, Eff,” Eoghan said. “In fact, even with your memory loss, we have a bit more information to go on! We are better off than before.”
I smiled warmly at him. He was too nice, too eager to provide a positive outlook. And it was wonderful.
Eoghan suddenly jumped up. “Oh! We were supposed to meet Benedeck a while ago.” He gave me a sheepish look. “Although this conversation was obviously more important.”
“I’ll take her—sorry, you—to Benedeck. He won’t question it,” Gia said. Whoa, a bit of honesty and I got a cordial Gia. I think I could live without the suspicious, scowling version of Gia from here on out.
“Let’s go,” I said, hoisting my backpack on but leaving the canvas bag on the bed.
Gia gave me a look. “You can keep your stuff here, if you want. I promise I won’t steal anything. And neither will anyone else. We don’t do that here.”
“I’d like to keep it with me for now. But thanks,” I added.
She shrugged.
“I’ll catch up with you two later,” Eoghan said with a smile. He seemed rather chipper. Probably because Gia and I were nearly getting along.
We waved goodbye at the dorms, Eoghan heading off to the guard station and me and Gia toward the Government building.
Chapter 10
“So, there’s not any crime here?” I ventured as Gia and I made our way to the Government building.
“There’s . . . not much. We still operate like a crew for the most part. Duty roster, shifts, officer ranking—you know how it is.” She paused to look at me. “I assume, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I do have flashbacks of being on a ship, being part of a crew. They just aren’t . . . very corporeal.”
“Well, we also have a brig in case any issues come up.”
“Oh, that’s right. Lethia mentioned Le—“ I cleared my throat. “Keir and Raud going to the brig.”
Gia cringed. “We don’t need to talk about that. So immature.”
“Keir or Raud?”
“Mmm.”
Gia knocked on Benedeck’s door on the bottom floor of the Government building. It swung open on the third knock.
“Oi, gal! Martel’s been awaitin’ since ta star eloped!” Benedeck said.
Gia held up a hand. “It’s fine, Benedeck. I needed to speak with Eff after her meeting with Merula.”
Benedeck scratched his beard. “Choot! Can’t mess with yer orders, ma’am. Martel! Jump an’ skimper out ta door, lad!” Benedeck hollered, looking back over his shoulder.
Martel soon appeared in the doorway and gave a quick wave. “Hello, Eff. Pleased to see you again. Gia,” he said, giving the tall woman a nod. “Thanks for the company, Benny. I’ll stop by again tomorrow.”
“Ain’t a tee-tot, lad. Be gazing at cha’ gals later,” Benedeck said before the door shut with a thud.
“Eff, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Martel. I’ve got some reports and important conversations to attend to,” Gia said, already walking away.
“Cheers,” I called after her.
“Do my eyes deceive me, or does Gia hate you less now?” Martel asked with a twinkle in his eye.
I gave him a lopsided grin. “I must have finally won her over.”
“I’m impressed.”
Martel swept his arm out toward the greenhouse. “Shall we tour the Horticulture District?”
“Yes, please!” I felt giddy about getting to see the plants close-up.
Martel smiled. “Plant aficionado, are you?”
“Uh—just a hobbyist.” I liked Martel, but I didn’t want to repeat my whole memory loss conversation with him. Plus, I didn’t know if Gia wanted the rest of the camp to know yet. When I could, I liked to err on the side of caution.
“No matter. You must be decent enough for Benedeck to assign you to foraging duty.”
