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  LIFER

  Beck Nicholas

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author makes no claims to, but instead acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the word marks mentioned in this work of fiction.

  Copyright © 2014 by Beck Nicholas

  Lifer by Beck Nicholas

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Month9Books, LLC.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Published by Month9Books

  Cover by Victoria Faye

  Cover Copyright © 2014 Month9Books

  For Mum. In my heart always.

  LIFER

  Beck Nicholas

  Chapter One

  [Asher]

  I mark my body for Samuai.

  My right hand is steady as I press the slim needle into my skin. It glints under the soft overhead light of the storage locker, the only place to hide on Starship Pelican. Row upon row of shelving fills the room. Back here I’m hidden from the door.

  It’s been seventeen days since Samuai passed. Seventeen days of neutral expressions and stinging eyes, waiting for the chance to be alone and pay my respects to the dead Official boy in true Lifer fashion. With blood.

  The body of the needle is wrapped in thread I stole from my spare uniform. The blue thread acts as the ink reservoir. It’s soaked with a dye I made from crushed feed pellets and argobenzene, both swiped from farm level. The pungent fumes sting my eyes and make it even harder to keep the tears at bay. But I will. There will be no disrespect in this marking.

  My slipper drops to the floor with the softest of thuds as I shake my foot. I raise it to rest on a cold metal shelf. Samuai always held my hand when we met in secret, but I can’t bear to examine those memories now. The pain of him being gone is still so fresh.

  The first break of skin at my ankle hurts a little. Not much, since the needle is nano-designed for single molecule sharpness, and it’s not as though I haven’t done this before. Recently. The tattoo for my brother circles my ankle, completed days ago, a match for the one for my father. My memorial for Samuai had to wait for privacy. The blue spreads out into my skin like liquid on a cloth. The dot is tiny. I add another and another, each time accepting the momentary pain as a tribute to Samuai. Soon I’ve finished the first swirling line.

  “Are you mourning my brother or yours?”

  My hand jerks at the familiar voice, driving the needle deep into the delicate skin over my Achilles. Davyd’s voice. How did he get in here so quietly? I wince, clamping down on a cry of pain. No tears though. Nothing will make me disrespect Samuai. I remove the needle from my flesh and school my features into a neutral expression before I turn and stand to attention.

  “Davyd,” I say by way of greeting. Despite my preparation my throat thickens.

  My response to him is stupid because he looks nothing like Samuai. Where Samuai radiated warmth from his spiky dark hair hinting of honey and his deep, golden brown eyes, there is only ice in his brother. Ice-chiseled cheekbones, tousled blond hair, the slight cleft in his chin, and his gray eyes. Eyes that see far too much.

  But he’s dressed like Samuai used to dress. The same white t-shirt and black pants. It’s the uniform of Officials, or Fishies, as they’re known below. He’s a little broader in the shoulders than his older brother was—to even think of Samuai in the past tense is agony—and he’s not quite as tall. I only have to look up a little to meet his gaze. I do so without speaking.

  I shouldn’t be here, but I’m not going to start apologizing for where I am or his reference to my forbidden relationship with his brother, until I know what he wants.

  “Is that supposed to happen?” He points at my foot, where blood drips, forming a tiny puddle on the hard, shiny floor.

  His face is expressionless, as usual, but I can hear the conceit in his voice. I can imagine what the son of a Fishie thinks of our Lifer traditions.

  Today, I don’t care. Even if his scorn makes my stomach tighten and cheeks flame, I won’t care. Not about anything Davyd has to say.

  “It’s none of your business.”

  One fine brow arches. Superior, knowing.

  He doesn’t have to say the words. The awareness of just how wrong I am zaps between us. Given our relative stations on this journey—he’s destined to be a Fishie in charge of managing the ship’s population, and me to serve my inherited sentence—whatever I do is his business, if he chooses to make it so. He’s in authority even though we’re almost the same age.

  In order to gain permission to breed, Lifers allowed the injection of nanobots into their children. These prototype bots in our cells give our masters the power to switch us off using a special Remote Device until our sentence is served. At any time we can be shut down. I’m not sure how exactly, only that each of us has a unique code and the device can turn those particular bots against us. It’s an unseen but constant threat.

  I keep my face blank and my posture subservient, but my fingers tighten around the needle in my hand. How I long to slap the smooth skin of his cheek.

  For a second, neither of us speaks.

  “Your brother or mine?” he asks again. Softly this time. So low, the question is almost intimate in the dim light.

  I inhale deeply, welcoming the harsh fumes from my makeshift ink. The burning in my lungs gives me a focus so the ever-present emotional pain can’t cripple me. My brother and my boyfriend were taken on the same day, and I’m unable to properly mourn either thanks to the demands of servitude.

  I can’t let it cripple me. Not if I want to find out what really happened to Zed and Samuai.

  “Does it matter?” I ask. Rather than refuse him again, I twist the question around. He would never admit to having interest in the goings-on of a mere Lifer.

  “No.” His voice is hard. Uncaring. He folds his arms. “But it’s against ship law to deface property.”

  It takes a heartbeat, and then I realize I’m the property he’s talking about. My toes curl because my fists can’t. I see from the flick of his eyes to my feet that he’s noticed. Of course he has. There’s nothing Davyd doesn’t notice.

  It’s true though. The marks we Lifers make on our bodies are not formally allowed. It is a price we pay for the agreement signed in DNA by our parents and our grandparents. They agreed to a lifetime of servitude, and their sentence is passed down through the generations for the chance at a new life on a new planet. I am the last in the chain, and my sentence will continue for twelve years after landing.

  We Lifers belong to those above us, body and soul, but no Fishie or Naut—the astronauts who pilot the ship—has ever tried to stop the ritual. In return we are not blatant. We mark feet, torsos, and thighs. Places hidden by our plain blue clothing.

  If the son of the head Fishie reports me, it will go on my record no matter how minor the charge, and possibly add months to my sentence. A sentence I serve for my grandparents’ crimes back on Earth after the Upheaval. Like others, their crime was no more than refusal to hand over their vehicle and property when both were declared a government resource.

  I swallow convulsively.

  I don’t want that kind of notice. Not when we’re expected to land in my lifetime. Not when I hoped to find answers to the questions that haunt me.

  The first lesson a Lifer child learns is control around their superiors. I won’t allow mine to fail me now.
<
br />   “Did you want something? Sir?”

  If there’s a faint pause before the honorific, well, I’m only human.

  He lets it pass. “The Lady requires extra help at this time. You have been recommended.”

  “Me?”

  His lips twist. “I was equally surprised. Attend her now.”

  The Lady is the wife of the senior Official on board the Pelican, and both Samuai and Davyd’s mother. She’s a mysterious figure who is never seen in the shared area of the ship. I imagine she’s hurting for her dead child. Sympathy stirs within me. I’ve seen the strain my own mother tries to hide since Zed died, and I don’t think having a higher rank would make the burden any easier to bear.

  It’s within Davyd’s scope as both Fishie-in-training and son of the ship’s Lady to be the one to inform me of my new placement, but I can’t help looking for something deeper in his words. There should be a kinship between us, having both lost a brother so recently, but Samuai’s death hasn’t affected Davyd at all.

  “Who recommended me?”

  He shrugs. “Now. Lifer.”

  I nod and move to tidy up, ignoring the persistent pain in my ankle where the needle went too deep. My defiance only stretches so far. Not acting on a direct request would be stupidity. I will finish my memorial for Samuai, but not with his brother waiting. It’s typical that Davyd doesn’t use my name. I can’t remember him or his Fishie friends ever doing so.

  It was something that stood out about Samuai from when we were youngsters and met in the training room. It was the only place on the ship us Lifers are close to equal. I was paired to fight with him to first blood, and he shocked me by asking my name. “Asher,” Samuai had repeated, like he tasted something sweet on his tongue, “I like it.”

  In my heart there’s an echo of the warmth I felt that day, but the memory hurts. It hurts that I’ll never see him again, that he’ll never live out the dreams we shared in our secret meetings. Dreams of a shared future and changes to a system that makes Lifers less than human.

  When I’ve gathered the small inkpot and put on my slippers, I notice a smear of blood on the slipper material from where I slipped earlier. It’s the opportunity I need to let my change in status be known below.

  “Umm.” I clear my throat. Please let the stories I’ve heard of the Lady be true.

  “What?” asks Davyd from where he waits by the door, presumably to escort me to his mother. The intensity of his gaze makes me quake inside. It’s all I can do not to lift my hand to check my top is correctly buttoned and my hair hasn’t grown beyond the fuzz a Lifer is allowed.

  “My foot attire isn’t suitable to serve the Lady.” I point to the faint smudge of brown seeping into my footwear. It is said by those cleaners who are permitted into the Fishie sleeping quarters that the Lady insists her apartment be kept spotless. She’s unlikely to be pleased with me reporting for duty in bloodstained slippers.

  Davyd’s jaw tenses. Maybe I’ve pushed him too far with this delay. I hold my breath.

  But then his annoyance is gone and his face is the usual smooth mask. “Change. I will be waiting at the lift between the training hall and study rooms.”

  He doesn’t need to tell me to hurry.

  He opens the door leading out into the hallway and I expect him to stride through and not look back. Again he surprises me. He turns. His face is in shadow. The brighter light behind him shines on his tousled blond hair, which gives him a hint of the angelic.

  “Assuming it’s my brother you’re mourning,” his voice is deep and for the first time there’s a slight melting of the ice. “You should know…He wasn’t worth your pain.”

  Chapter Two

  [Blank]

  I awake naked, walking.

  Midstride, I stumble, awareness flooding my senses.

  I squeeze my eyes shut, protecting them from the rising sun’s glare, and cover my ears to block the whine of distant machinery. I inhale, and grimy smog fills my sinuses and coats my tongue like a thick city soup. There isn’t enough oxygen.

  Gasping, I bend at the waist. Fall to my knees and black gravel bites into the tender skin. The plastic shrub I use for support is cool and spongy. I cough up a globule of soot-covered phlegm.

  Still short of breath, I climb to my feet with stiff, aching muscles. Where am I?

  Better question: who am I?

  A glance down tells me I’m male, but beyond that the answers start to form, but slip away before I can grasp them. I’m left with the barest outline of an echo of a memory.

  Everything I need to function is there, but ‘me’ is missing. Whoever the hell he was. A nearby sign tells me I’m in a preserved garden. So I can read. I continue trying to assimilate everything. The surrounding walls stretch high above me, bordering a small patch of cloudy sky above. The opening makes me feel exposed. Unsettled. It is a sensation probably made worse by my lack of clothing.

  Briefly there’s a woman on an overhead walkway. She is older, wide-eyed at my nakedness, and then gone into one of the buildings. A belated surge of embarrassment sweeps through me, staining the skin of my upper body red and heating my cheeks.

  I shiver when the heat fades. The wind chills my hairless skin. I need to find something to wear. In my search, I’m drawn to a clearing in the middle of the garden. Here, the noise is muffled and the metal structures and imitation trees with their plastic scents give way to a huge, dark red, weathered tree trunk, encircled by fortified glass. I look up, way up, to where green leaf-dotted branches stretch out like a twisted staircase to the sky.

  It’s alive.

  I press a hand against the glass and imagine I can smell its fresh scent. Here and there small lower branches are stunted and shriveled, the glass cage obviously not designed for growth. Shriveled like I’m going to be if I don’t find clothes soon. I shake my head, bumping it against the cool glass. Fine water droplets inside run to the small patch of soil at the base of the tree.

  Water.

  I need water.

  On the other side of the tree, dirty liquid trickles over a path of rocks to wet the soil. With urgency I couldn’t muster before, I stumble on shaky knees toward the source. I notice white, dry spots on my hands, elbows and knees.

  I haven’t had water for days. The thought arrives and then lodges in my brain as fact.

  I collapse at the edge of a small, murky pool. The brown surface shows the sky far above and a young man. Me. I scan my reflection. Shaved head. Dark, shadowed eyes. Skinny with prominent cheekbones. Nothing special. No spark of recognition fires within me and I avert my gaze from those eyes then lower my head to drink.

  Before I can slake my thirst, I see the body.

  Blinking, I peer into the gloomy spot in the middle where the shadows from the buildings are at their deepest and vines trail from overhanging rocks. The half-submerged figure doesn’t move. Only wrinkled toes, decorated in a swirling pattern of blue ink, rise clearly from the water.

  This isn’t good.

  I wade in, my chest constricting as the icy water envelopes my feet, then my ankles. It’s knee deep when I reach the feet. I touch the cold, waxy skin of those patterned toes and a shudder spreads through my numb body. Any thought I could save them disappears. Swallowing bile, I grab a foot with each hand and drag the body to land. It’s heavy, way heavier than it looks. My muscles protest the work, but I have to do something about it.

  Once the body is out of the water I can see it’s a young boy, on the edge of adolescence. He’s pale with blue lips and only the whites showing where his irises should be. His head has been shaved, leaving only dark bristles.

  The constriction in my chest cramps tighter. I have to close my eyes to press my fingers against the purple bruising on his neck to be sure.

  No pulse. No life.

  My thoughts swirl like the pattern on the boy’s toes. What happened? It doesn’t look natural. Are they coming back for me?

  Blood and feeling ret
urn to my extremities. Escape. I need to get away from the crime.

  My crime?

  I pause and then dismiss the notion. I have to believe I didn’t kill this boy, but I can’t afford the time to mourn him either. Now is all about survival. I move to slide him back out of sight when the rough material of his jacket stops me.

  He has clothes and I need them.

  I feel like I should hesitate more, but survival rules. I strip the body of his zipped jacket and blue pants. I leave the boy in a t-shirt and underwear for modesty and try to cover him as best I can. The items are heavy and wet in my hands. I gag, unable to bring up anything from my empty gut other than the taste of bile as I wring as much water as I can from the garments.

  Once dressed, I hesitate. I need to get outside these walls, find food and drink, and then figure out who I am. Still, I linger. It’s harder than I expect to leave the boy. “You are not my problem,” I growl to the shape in the shadows.

  The garden is secluded. I’ve seen nobody since the elderly woman above. I can stay here, report the body to the authorities and maybe be accused of a crime I didn’t commit. With no memory I’d make an easy fall guy. Every time I think of authority a heavy weight on my chest makes it hard to breathe. There’s too much I don’t know.

  “Sorry kid.”

  A rusty padlock secures the first door out of the garden, but the next hangs on one hinge. It’s open. The heavy wooden door, with its peeling brown paint, moves freely. Beyond is a dark tunnel with faint light at the end. I pause at the entrance, my reflection stretches out on a shining, sticky stone floor. Then I stride into the squelchy darkness without looking back.

  Bang.

  I spin and drop to a crouch. My hands fly up to protect my face.

  I’m tense. Ready to fight. The hammering of my heart makes it hard to hear but I hold perfectly still, listening for a possible attacker’s next move. I scan the framed garden behind me. There’s a gust of wind and the big wooden door bangs against the concrete wall behind.