Jupiter's Halo Book Two: The Fall

Chapter Seven

The sun was shining high in a blue sky and the long grass tickled her skin as she let her hand brush the tall stalks. The air was warm and calm without a breath of wind. Iasa lifted her face to feel the heat of the sun caress her skin.

She smiled at the feeling, knowing it was just a dream but enjoying it all the same. In the distance, she could hear muffled bird song but around her, in this glade surrounded by distant trees, all was quiet and peaceful.

This was the place she came to collect her thoughts and find the calming silence within. It was difficult with the distractions of the world pulling at her attention. She needed this time every now and then to find herself. Without it, she would fall too far from her centre, from her purpose.

Iasa looked up into the clear blue of the sky. The sight of it never failed to draw her breath and incite a feeling of wonder. To think this had always been the ceiling humanity knew. How could anyone stare at such natural beauty and feel the urge to leave it behind? She would never understand man’s desperation to reach for the stars. There was nowhere else in the universe that compared to this. And yet they’d ignored it. Poisoned it, then left it all behind.

Iasa felt the longing and the anger start to compete. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply and letting the crisp air fill her lungs and clear her cluttered mind.

Now was not the time for those feelings. It was nearly time to make a change, but not yet. Wheels were already in motion. Plans had been made. She knew her part, understood it entirely and trusted herself to do what needed to be done. The end was the goal. It would be worth it. Worth everything. Anything.

She opened her eyes and took a long moment to let them linger over the beauty around her. The blue of the sky, fading into lighter and lighter shades as it dove to the distant horizon. The green of the leaves on the trees, swaying slowly in the breeze that whispered across their tops but failed to reach the ground. Somewhere, out of sight, a brook bubbled and splashed with the joyous tinkling of freedom. She breathed deeply again. A smile broke her lips; one of anticipation. It was all so close now. So close.

Iasa sighed and closed her eyes again. When she opened them the sun was gone, the long grass and the birdsong too. In their place was the dirtied grey interior of the station’s simulation ring.

It was the only place of respite available to her on this god's forsaken tin can she had the misfortune of being tasked to protect.

The simulation ring was of an old design, requiring her to attach her comms link to the synaptic enabler via a lead, instead of simply remoting in.

It had required a small surgery from the stations senior medi-tech, Masj, to allow her to use it at all. Plug-in comm links had been outdated before Iasa was born. The operation and discomfort was the downside. Getting the ring almost exclusively to herself was an upside she considered entirely worth it.

She didn’t know how old this station was, but from the look of the place, she’d guess it was at least one hundred years Martian Standard, if not more.

The ring she’d been using was little more than a body harness suspended between three curved arms that stood from the grimy floor. To use it she had to wrap the harness about her from waist to shoulder, plug the enabler into the adapter socket that Masj had carefully fitted behind her left ear and let her weight be taken by the supporting arms.

She knew she must look a fool to anyone who cared to watch her sessions. The link created by the ring effectively shut down her body’s movement while she was in the simulation. Inside her mind she could run and jump, even fly if the fancy took her, safe in the knowledge there would never be physical danger. If the fancy took her she could walk from a cliff edge into roiling seas and come out not just unscathed but dry to the bone.

In the real world, having her arms and legs flail wildly in a confined space could lead to any number of injuries. Iasa knew the reasons behind it, but she’d seen others mid-session, lying back or slumped forward in their harnesses. Their feet lifted from the ground giving them the look of a puppet with its strings cut.

She reached up gingerly, her arms stiff from the period of disuse and pulled the cable from the small socket behind her ear. There was a moment of cold and she shuddered briefly as it flowed through her body, causing the tiny hairs on her arms to stand, raising pimples across her skin.

She waited for the feeling to pass before unclipping herself from the harness. She was spending too long in the ring. She knew it, but the intoxicating pull of its promise was too much to ignore. Soon she would be without it. Soon the escapism it offered would be gone, along with all the things she hated or had learned to tolerate over the last two years. It would all be gone and, but for the ring, she wouldn't miss a single part of it.

Iasa consoled herself with the knowledge it wouldn't be long before she didn't need it anymore. The ring offered a peace she knew she wouldn't find again, but there would be something, well, not better exactly, but certainly better than the real-life alternative she had endured up to now.

>“Hornwood, I’m out.”“What have I missed?”“It’s been pretty busy,”“Cross and I had to see off a pirate incursion about an hour in, then the lab rats got feisty and Billings was forced to go all alpha male on their arses to get them back in line. We had a sighting of possible intelligent alien life and the crew got so excited they had to hold a mass orgy just to spend all their nervous energy. Frankly, I’m surprised you didn’t hear it!”“So nothing then,”“Pretty much.”“And how much of the cycle have you spent drooling over that young comms op?”“Haven’t seen her about much today. Think she’s on a rest cycle. And I don’t drool. I simply appreciate her form is all.”“I’m sure you do appreciate her form.”“And how’s that going for you? Three months now right? Has she said a word to you yet? Has she responded to your appreciation with anything other than abject fear?”“I think ‘abject’ is pushing it a bit. She’ll come around. They all like a bit of danger, these young, sheltered ones. Sooner or later curiosity will get the better of her and then, well… you know how it goes from there.”“Too late. You’ll have to chalk her up to experience.”“They’ve sent the Call. It’s time.”“Understood.”“Are they ready?”“They will be.”“Be on your mark in ten minutes. We’ll be moving quickly once it starts so you won’t have long with the pods.”“I’m already moving.”<

Iasa felt the shiver of excitement pass through her. This was it. Everything before had been leading up to this moment. All the preparation, all the waiting. This was just another step, by no means the end, but finally, they were doing something.

There would be sacrifices, unfortunate losses she would have preferred to avoid, but she couldn’t save everybody. Her team would be the biggest loss. They had skills and experience she could use. They were an asset of such great value, but they were stubborn, blinkered, naive. They wouldn’t understand the cause. They couldn’t. Too mired in the dogma of the Deorum to see the truth.

If they couldn’t be educated there was only one other option. It was a shame, but she knew it was necessary. She would not punish herself for doing what had to be done.

Now wasn’t the time for regrets. It was time for action.

Iasa walked briskly from the simulation ring and out into the wide corridor leading to the trans-terminal. She moved quickly, her steps hastened by her growing excitement. She had two stops; two tasks to complete and then they would be clear. It was a simple plan. Simple enough to limit the risk of failure, but Iasa knew nothing was ever full-proof. There would be complications, of course, but she would handle them. That’s what she did. That’s why this part was up to her. Why she’d been chosen.

She reached the doors to the terminal and waited for them to open, fighting the impatience that made her nerves jangle and her legs quiver.

The terminal opened and Iasa stepped inside. This was it. There was no going back now. She thought idly as the doors hissed closed that she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to.