Foreign Distrust (The Expedition Book 1) Read online

  She muttered something in Japanese then said, “I do, when the need arises. An empty planet means so many possibilities. I’ve been able to go through all the old research left behind by the tech companies. It means lots of late nights reading.”

  Pierre knew what she meant. When the human population left, many companies abandoned everything they’d built behind. Especially ones that wouldn’t profit on Mars. Several major tech companies stayed intact, but they had special contracts with the scientist on the ground to continue to manufacture and send materials they’d need. Others knew the cost would be too high. Many of Canada’s towns had buildings full of old data, records, things Pierre didn’t find interesting, but many of his colleagues did.

  He spent most of his time instead out in nature. Enjoying the peace and quiet of it all. The solitude. As much as he loved his children, his wife, he was never one to mind being alone. When he had a family, there wasn’t much time allowed for that if any. His days were usually spent dealing with the farm and then three kids who thought they had a horrible life. Who always wanted something more.

  That’s what these Mars people felt like to him. Needy children. Always needing something.

  “Pierre? Are you still there?”

  “Hmm? Oh sorry, Ayako. Just letting my mind wander I guess.”

  “I can tell. Well, I will not keep you any longer. I know you have your scheduled phone call with the rest of the Americas soon.”

  “Yes, always a pleasure to chat with them,” Pierre said with a genuine smile. Even though he liked being alone, he was still a family man at heart. It was a ragtag group of people left on this Earth, but he planned on keeping them close, keeping them like a family. In the end he hoped it would help ensure they all stayed honest with each other. “Until we speak again, Ayako.” He bowed his head again and she mirrored him before signing off.

  Pierre left the communications room and headed to his private quarters. Like everywhere else in this compound, there were several plants and potted trees in his room. He liked having nature with him wherever he went and hoped this save the Earth project actually did something. But he knew people were hard headed and lazy. They’d been forced to move the entire population to another planet and still he saw the greed on people’s faces. He thought by now there would’ve been some mutual goal within all the nations to just become a nation of one. To work together. NASA had become the new UN and kept everyone’s comings and goings in check at least.

  They controlled the space station still above Earth and orbiting Mars. No one left the planet unless they gave them permission. They had shuttles to travel back and forth, but only a few ships that had been modified to be used in the utmost urgency. They were armed with high tech lasers, ready to take down any ship that was not authorized. It was a delicate balance they had going for them. One person not playing along was just asking for trouble.

  “Pierre,” Tracy said knocking in his open doorway. “Message from the colonies.”

  “Oh what do they want now?”

  “They’re requesting we try and double the crop yield…and start planting ASAP.”

  Pierre stared at her. “I must have heard you wrong.”

  Looking pissed herself, she set the paper down on the desk in front of him. “Afraid not. The population has been steadily consuming more each month. We have to find a way to increase the yield we send to them.”

  “Are they sure it’s being consumed,” he asked quietly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean,” he whispered, glancing out the door. Quickly he closed it then turned back to the reports. “There is no way that number of people could go through a food supply this easily. It’s being rationed, isn’t it?”

  “So what, you think the rations are off,” she asked slowly. “I checked all their calculations and their predictions are correct.”

  “Based off of false data,” he countered. “We will do as they ask, but there’s something else going on here. I’ll bring it up with the others tonight.” He flipped through the rest of the pages and messed up his already messy brown hair. “Haven’t these people learned anything about gluttony?”

  Tracy laughed bitterly. “Course not. They’re problem was solved. The entire world got moved to Mars. For them, nothing’s changed.” She said she’d be there later for the phone call and headed out the door.

  Pierre wanted her to be wrong. He wanted people to understand the dire straits they were in, but Tracy was right. Their problems had once again been presented with a magical, instant solution. Nothing had changed.

  Nothing ever would.

  ***

  Ayako signed off with Pierre. The second his face was gone, her smile fell from her face as she turned to the men behind her. “Well?” Her dark eyes bored holes into the men as they hurried to check the output and give her the results.

  “It was successful,” one of them finally muttered quietly. “Just like all the rest.”

  “Perfect,” she purred and stepped down off the platform in the center of her lab. “Begin to run the program. Record and download everything.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this,” the other asked.

  Ayako turned and glared at the man. He flinched, but then her face softened and she went to him, swaying her hips as she did so. “Are you worried about getting caught,” she asked, running her fingers down his cheek.

  He pushed his glasses back up his nose and smiled. “No…no that’s not it. I just don’t think you want to turn on the rest of the world. Considering how few of us are left.”

  She sighed then grabbed his chin hard in her fingertips. “I am doing this to keep us safe. You understand that, don’t you? We must keep our heads on straight and know exactly what’s going on.”

  “But they’re your friends.”

  “No,” she said, releasing his face angrily and storming out of the lab. “They are nothing, but pawns to be moved across my chess board.”

  Chapter 3

  Sarah sat at the computer and started to check the updates from the rest of the compounds across the world. Everything seemed to be on track for their next scheduled delivery. Canada was in charge of the major food supply though Noah Walker was her resident agricultural expert. They had greenhouses stretched across Kansas that Noah looked after, though at the moment he wasn’t on planet. He’d been called to help them start working on the greenhouses on Mars and making sure everything was started correctly. In ten years, they wanted to be able to mass produce crops there as well as getting regular supplies from Earth. It was a lofty goal and Sarah knew exactly what Noah would do. He’d roll his eyes, mutter about impossibilities then go and cook something to make himself feel better. The thought made her smile and she hoped he came back home soon. Everyone missed the large man who spoiled them with good cooking.

  She checked over the other shipments of raw goods and those produced by India and Japan. They were in order from what she could tell. This one great shipment. That was how the system worked now. The one main shipment from Earth and one main order from Mars was how they were able to get materials back and forth. If they were scheduled correctly, it was enough to get the people of Mars by until the next shipment was ready. It was too expensive to keep going back and forth unless the company was loaded enough to purchase their own rocket fuel and ship to get them back and forth. So one shuttle, one shipment.

  The time frame of travel had at least been cut down by the new way to travel, but the journey was still long and dangerous. Leaving one atmosphere to enter another then back again. Sarah always told the guys who did it they were crazy.

  She’d never tell anyone, but when she’d been chosen to stay behind she’d wanted to cry for joy. Leaving the planet terrified her beyond anything else. The thought of possibly blowing up and being scattered all over the globe was not something she wanted to picture. Gave her the shivers just thinking about it. Mason on the other hand, she was sure he’d love to get the hell off of Earth. She glanced be
hind her and rolled her eyes. He was once again using the steel doorframe of the main communications room to do pull ups.

  “Seriously Cujo,” she called over her shoulder. “Do you have to do that here?”

  “The call…will be…coming…in soon,” he said as he lowered himself each time before dropping to the floor, his heavy boots making a racket on the grating. “I have to be here for the call.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t have to act all macho man.”

  “I’m not. I’m keeping in shape in case-”

  “In case of what? You think a pack of wolves are going to evolve to the size of horses and try to kill us all? Come on Mason, there’s no zombies, no enemies. Just us and nature. Learn to relax a bit.” She scrolled through several more messages and heard his heavy steps headed towards her.

  “There will always be enemies.”

  “Oh yeah? Where? You think Pierre and his Canadian farmers are going to try and invade finally?”

  “No, but the others might. This would be a prime time for Russia or Japan to take over.”

  “Take over what? There’s nothing here to take over any more you idiot.”

  “Hey, I didn’t ask to be here, Brant, but if I’m going to be then you’re going to take me seriously.”

  “Or what? You don’t have any authority to order people around on this compound. You’re here to be a watchdog, nothing more. Get out of my face,” she snapped when Mason didn’t move from beside her.

  “I thought you liked me being this close to you.”

  She whirled around in her chair and glared at him. “Not when you’re being a dick. Now move. The call’s going to be coming in soon and I have to check our communications.”

  When he didn’t move, Sarah just rolled her chair around him over to the other workstation. Except she hit his foot and he muttered a curse as she smirked and kept on rolling. She pulled up the main communications computer and started to run the usual program check to ensure a quality signal. The video popped up showing her the room she was in, but it was fuzzy.

  “Damn, antenna must’ve been bumped again.”

  She got up and made her out of the lab, telling the other tech she’d be on the roof. Making sure she had a radio, she headed back out of the room, down the corridor then up a set of stairs towards the roof hatch. Mason was right behind her as always. He was like a very obnoxious dog with a bone. When they started a fight, he had to be the one to end it. Or at least annoy her to no end until she gave in. She chewed on her tongue when she heard him pull himself up onto the roof and stomp across the metal shingles to get to her.

  The roof was covered with solar panels, leaving just enough room for people to walk single file through them to get to the antennas they used to help with communication. All the major radio towers had been taken down and each compound was given one small antenna to pick up signals from the major NASA towers set in place at strategic places around the globe. There were definitely far less than before the move happened but that also meant signals weren’t always easy to pick up if there were storms or interference of some kind. Sarah glanced up to the top of the small antenna and frowned. The antenna was a bit crooked at the top.

  “Damn it.” Sarah pulled off her jacket and tossed it aside.

  “Uh, what are you doing?” Mason watched her grab the antenna and start to climb her way up. “Brant! Get back down here!”

  “Have to fix the antenna. Our signals will just get worse until I do.”

  “But it’ll still work, right? Just get down here before you fall.”

  “I’m not going to fall. But if I do, you’ll catch me before I land on the solar panels and break my back.”

  “How can you be so sure? Maybe I want you to fall?”

  She grunted as she pulled herself up and focused on getting to the top. There was no ladder to get up there. She had to use the rungs of the antenna. They were still wet from the recent rain and one slip, she could go sailing off the edge of the roof. It was a ways down. The fall might not kill her, but it would hurt like hell. As she glanced up to see how far she had to go, she felt her boot slip on the rung and she dangled by her hands for a second.

  “Jesus! Brant, get your ass down here now!”

  But Sarah wasn’t a quitter. She might be scared to death of flying, but climbing she’d become a pro at. Had to around the compound. Sometimes they just didn’t have the materials needed to get somewhere. She was the smallest one there and agile enough to get up the walls, the roof, and the antenna. She took a deep breath as she felt her hands slip and found her footing with one boot then the other. Once her body was pressed safely against the cold metal rungs, she gave herself a second to refocus then kept on climbing.

  “Brant! Someone else can do that!”

  “No actually they can’t! I’m the lightest one!”

  It was funny to watch him freak out when she put herself in danger. It was the only times she got to see under the shell of cockiness he put up around himself. Most people on the compound didn’t like Mason. The only person besides Sarah that really tolerated his shit was Pierre, but that man loved everyone. He was kind of the dad of them all now. It was nice to have someone like that around and help keep them all in check.

  When she finally reached the top, the wind was still blowing from the storm and the antenna wavered just a bit. Sarah bit her tongue and focused on the task, ignoring the blood pounding in her ears as her body filled with adrenaline. Her hands shook and she had stop for a second until they stopped. It looked like something had definitely hit the antenna. Probably a bird. She wrapped one arm around the metal rung then reached into her back jeans pocket and pulled out some pliers. All she had to do was bend it back enough to get the signal right.

  “I think you got it Sarah,” one of the tech guys said over the radio.

  She tucked the pliers back in her pocket and reached for the radio. “Good. Anything else I need to do while I’m up here?”

  “Yeah, not fall.”

  “Funny. Real funny.” She tucked the radio back in her flannel shirt pocket. The view from this high was breath taking, staring out over the forest and at the mountains nearby. Below her, Mason called for her to get a move on, but she was enjoying it too much.

  “Seriously Brant! Get your ass down here!”

  “What’s your hurry?”

  There was a loud rumble of thunder and a huge gust of wind blew across the roof of the compound. Sarah yelped as she held onto the rungs tighter as the antenna wavered back and forth from the force of it. She felt her grip slip as she tried to climb back down. One hand, then her feet ‘til she dangled by her left arm. Mason was beneath her and the thunder rumbled again as lightning flashed. It was now or never.

  Praying she landed right, she let go and fell through the air to land right in Mason’s arms. He caught her with oomph, and then with her still in his arms, darted back towards the roof hatch as more lightning split the sky opened in sharp, blue streaks. He made sure she climbed in first then quickly followed. The second both their feet hit the metal grate he yelled at her.

  “Damn it Brant! You can’t keep pulling stunts like that!”

  “Why not? You caught me, didn’t you?”

  She walked away, shaking out her windblown hair before he could say anything else. Clenching his fists and his cheeks flushed red, he followed behind, teeth gritted and jaw tense. They made it back to the communications room just as the call came in from Canada.

  Sarah told the techs to answer it and turned around to face the large holographic screen in the center of the room. It allowed the caller to see everyone in the room and made it a bit easier for the large calls when more than one person from each compound needed to be present.

  “Ah Pierre, how are you this evening,” Sarah asked brightly.

  “Very well, though you look a bit red. Are you alright?”

  “Always such concern.”

  “She climbed the damn antenna as a storm was coming in,” Mason snapped as he leaned aga
inst the desk, muscled arms crossed tightly over his chest.

  “Had to fix the signal. And I made it down just fine, didn’t I?”

  “Are you going to tell him how?”

  Pierre smirked. It was like listening to two children bickering, though in this case he knew why they did it even if they were too blind to notice. He tugged at his beard and knew eventually they would catch on. “What did you do to piss him off now?”

  “I may have fallen off the antenna-”

  “You did what!” The smile disappeared from his face and he raised a brow, looking the part of an annoyed father getting ready to ground his child.

  Mason chuckled as Sarah cringed then shot him a glare. “Look, I’m alright, but the signal had to be fixed. Didn’t want to lose you on this call. Not when we need to run numbers. Is there something off about yours? I saw the data.”

  Pierre nodded then frowned when he glanced at his screen. “Emmanuel is late again.”

  “Course he is. I’ll get him on the call,” Mason said. “The psycho chemist.”

  “He’s not psycho, he’s just a bit…eccentric,” Sarah said trying to defend the man. Mason’s pecs twitched as he turned away from her, but didn’t say a word. “You’d be a bit crazy too if you were on a compound by yourself.”

  “Not my fault,” Mason argued then started to call down to the South American base, wondering what the crazy man was up to this time. He just hoped he’d stopping talking to walls and seeing ghosts. Every time they talked to him now it was about the ghosts that filled his compound. But it wasn’t ghosts. It was just guilt. Sarah and Mason had tried to tell him over and over again it was his guilt he kept seeing. But Emmanuel didn’t listen to them. He was too busy listening to the ghosts.

  Chapter 4

  Emmanuel stared at the tiny metallic particle through his microscope. He adjusted the knobs, zooming in until the focus was just right. There was such beauty in the tiniest of parts and all he wanted to do was continue to stare at them. Day after day. It was better than looking at the stars. The stars only reminded him of one thing.