Chimera 🌈 [ONC 2024]

12: Humanity

A seed ship. God, the Arcadia was a seed ship. Suddenly, so much made sense. Valkyrie's insistence on classified information. The small crew. Even the name of the damn ship and the little drawing in the crew's quarters. It must have been a sketch of the planet they were travelling to, where they hoped to deposit the embyros.

But with every bit of information that slotted into place, Leanne only thought of more questions. Could it truly be possible? Transporting embryos seemed a strange method for potential colonisation. And she knew of no habitable planet within knowledge that would fit the requirements for a new settlement. The BASE still viewed Mars as the crux of their work and had not looked beyond the solar system. They had no means to even escape the bounds of the sun. It still took months to reach Mars, hence why Helios had been built: a halfway point for astronauts.

But this ship, this Arcadia with its dreams of a new world, had achieved its hopes – or at least, it had tried. Whatever it had been attempting to fulfill, the ship had returned. Perhaps Ryan was right: they had not liked what they had found. Maybe the crew had put themselves back into cryo, setting their co-ordinates for home.

That must mean that the Arcadia left decades ago... And began her return journey— Leanne did not know. She could not wrap her mind around it.

And the idea of Valkyrie, suffering from some kind of amnesia, dark spots in her processors and memory... She had been tampered with and perhaps it had affected the mission.

As soon as Leanne and Ryan had left the centrifuge, they had decided to reveal the knowledge to the BASE and to Nerio. The incident had transcended political wrangling now and they both agreed they were out of their depth. This was a matter for the Director of the BASE back in Krasnoyarsk; only she would know the procedure of what to do next.

Perhaps the Director already knew of the Arcadia. There were webs within webs in the BASE, a labyrinth of secrets and classified information which Leanne had never questioned. She did not want to. But neither had she ever thought she would be wrapped up in the sticky threads. All she wanted now was to get out.

But, after informing a shell-shocked Jakande and Roth, she felt the tug inside of her again. The drive to know more. To follow this thing through to the end. To prove that she was not simply a cog to be thrust into position. She had started this mission, with Cliff at her side.

She would finish it.

So, as Ryan investigated the centrifuge and tried to fiddle around in Valkyrie's mind, Leanne attempted to access any ship's logs. She worked and worked until her eyes grew heavy and her head could no longer stay upright. Hours and days of exhaustion and adrenaline crested over her. The urge to rest itched at her but she had to keep going. Her next attempt could be the breakthrough. She could understand the Arcadia in a second if she could just stay awake. Ryan would help her and they would see and then the BASE wouldn't think she was so expendable and then...