End Horizon

7. Mark

THREE YEARS LATER...

It wouldn’t be the first time that night that Mark tried to shake off what he had seen while trying to sleep. So many questions rattled around in his head for which no answers were able to quiet them. He had excuses, sure, or told himself none of this was a problem, but something had been going on. Behind his back, that’s how he saw it. His son was an adult and could make his own choices, which was just why Mark tried to fight him on becoming some guinea pig for the Drone Development Project . Risk of injury, even death, and Mark would be holding it over himself for the rest of his life.

Audrey had taken his place the second he had left the lab and Mark hadn’t thought twice about her concern until he turned around not three seconds to see them standing together. Close together. Hands over clumsy drone hands. There was a prickle up his spine but of course he said nothing. Trent Corley, despite his newer buggish appearance, is an adult. He can take care of himself .

Mark sat up.

Audrey had been the only other one in their “original group” that had seen the onboard destruction, the first death of Trent. She had been the one to pull Mark away from his darker thoughts mere days after witnessing the end of his own son, when they were safe, sound, and reunited. There had been little time to properly grieve. Somehow, he had managed, or had been able to cope on a thin line of acceptance. She was a friend, he trusted her, but wouldn’t one of them have said something?

“None of your damn business,” he said aloud to himself, staring across his cabin. The light above him flickered on as it sensed his waking body and he knew he wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep this way. His coat was pulled on and the collar pushed aside, before he ducked out into the hallway to figure shit out on his own. As he always did.

The technology they had now may have been advanced for their time but their quick adaptation hurtling thousands of miles per hour through space had hardened even the most novice of scientists. It had been about two years since the ship’s departure into space with the crew’s refusal to look back. About ninety stayed onboard, with the addition of seventeen drones whose former lives ranged from pilots to astronomers, the latter of which had been an ordeal to organize. Their recruitment had been hasty but those left behind were left in good reason.

This was a military ship now, not a public residency.

Four wings were added into the ship since their departure. The cannons that Rose had managed to summon or create from the depths of the ship’s internal mechanisms were able to join and separate to either up their fire-power or aim fore and aft. What they would need a goddamn cannon for had been their initial thoughts before they quickly realized the threat on the further horizon

What had once been the open floor for their map and “war-room” discussions had adjusted itself to a respective size to contain a round table of crew members. Behind the consoles and their map rose a new stairway that led up into what could only be called the cockpit. There were no controls up there but upon the introduction of two pilots, it provided a holographic two-man rule setup. Each pilot would put one hand on their respective console, acting as their own key to activate. They were partners and required to look out for one another, train together with both the mechanics of flying the actual ship and a plan between tankers.

What had acted as gruesome silos to contain human bodies, long since evacuated, now housed the shells of feeler drones, once it had become obvious that while they could be activated with the injection of a human brain, even with exposure they remained unpredictable and deadly. The hulking mass of biomechanical muscle amid all these lifeless, squid-like bodies, were the remains of an alpha tanker. Many had said in the following days of the initial invasion, there had been dozens scattered across cities and streets, thought to be giant beasts of their own. Only one pilot had ever been designated within, and she had long since been made an example of.