Welcome aboard the Brahma!
Now a century out from Earth and en route to HD 133600, a remarkably Sun-like star and planetary system in the constellation of Virgo, the Brahma is the last, desperate, crowning achievement of human civilization and engineering. A massive three-hundred-kilometer long modular mega-ship, a gigantic ark in space consisting of two hundred and sixteen separate habitat pods, each the size of a small city, at launch Brahma carried two million passengers and crew, along with everything their descendants would need to build new lives on the worlds of HD 133600.
For the Brahma is a generation ship: all the original passengers and crew who left the Earth a century ago are long since dead. Everyone now on board was born on the ship; most will probably die on it. If their mission succeeds, their children or grandchildren will live to see the light of HD 133600.
Right now, the Brahma seems to be on-course and everything appears to be working as designed. The ship is cruising serenely at just slightly below c, a tribute to the engineers and craftspeople who designed and built her a century before. Many on board pray daily that the ship contains the best of humanity, and not the sorts of politicians, criminals, cultists, crazies, and dishonest leadership their ancestors thought they’d left behind…
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Episode 6: “The Silver Lake” • by Jason Burnham
Leo was finally tall enough to climb up on the scaffolding of pipes overlooking Smoketown’s largest empty lot. From there, it almost looked like there were creatures swimming underneath the silver lake he had painted on the exposed plastisteel. With a reputation for being the grimiest and grungiest of all two hundred passenger-containing biopods attached along the Brahma, their generation ship, Smoketown needed a few aesthetic touches to improve its standing.Leo figured the illusion of movement under the paint was probably just from all the pollutants in the air, but the silver paint did sometimes behave… oddly. Like when it turned from room temperature to warm whenever it touched his skin, then seemed to hop off onto whatever he was painting, like it had a mind of its own. Or when he’d painted so much he thought the cylinder should have run dry, but there always seemed to be more.
He was on the scaffolding to make sure the small, pool-sized lake looked good and it did—it just needed one more touch-up at the edge and he’d be done. He hopped down and dipped his brush into the top of the metal cylinder which held his special silver paint. Leo wasn't entirely sure it was paint because he couldn't read the strange, non-Basic letters on the side, but when he'd found the leaking canister in the abandoned tunnels beneath Smoketown with Billy and Johnny, he’d thought the color was perfect for a lake painting. Prone to spinning spooky stories and telling tall tales, Billy guessed it was a leftover canister from an unidentified object that had caused a shuttle explosion. Johnny said the paint looked an awful lot like engine fuel. Leo didn’t think either of them had any idea what they were talking about.
Leo liked the tunnels because the air was cleaner in them than it was in Smoketown. It made his asthma feel better, even though he wasn’t totally sure what triggered his asthma in Smoketown. When he’d had his first asthma attack, Linh, who ran the orphanage in which he lived, told him asthma meant he had to make sure to do big, deep breaths when he felt like he couldn’t breathe. His breathing felt fine now, relaxed as he hopped from the scaffolding and prepared to continue with his lake painting. Linh was nearby fixing a pipe, but she’d been so busy Leo didn’t think she’d seen him since she’d come in a few minutes before.
Just as he dipped his paintbrush into the canister, the door on the opposite side of the bulkhead slammed open. Leo shrank behind a nearby radiator as a man in a security uniform with a blaster in his hand burst through the door. Linh looked up from the partially-repaired pipe and the man locked eyes with her.
"Where are you hiding the stolen materials?" he shouted.
Leo couldn’t make out the name on the man’s uniform, but he could see his jaw muscles viciously grinding his teeth though.
Linh brushed aside a mass of tangled, curly hair from her face and glared at Teeth Grinder. Leo wished he could be as calm under pressure as her.
"We told your superiors none of the paint was stolen. I’ll refer you to Captain Mediretta’s report for more complete..."
Teeth Grinder spat across the furthest shore of Leo's painted lake, and where it landed, there was a brief flash of light that neither Linh nor the man seemed to notice. Haven’t seen that before, Leo thought. He tried to blend into the shadows behind a radiator—he didn’t think Linh or the man knew he was there.
Linh stood her ground. “Would you like a mop to clean that up?”
"Tell me where the stolen materials are. Or else you and,” his lips curled in an evil smile, “the orphans are going to suffer.”
Leo’s heart raced. He wasn’t brave enough to stand up to the security officer, but he couldn’t let anything happen to Linh or the younger kids either. If only the man didn’t have a blaster, he knew Linh would handle him herself. But since the man did have a blaster, he had to help. He took a step forward.
"What does all this matter to you?" Linh said, looking around slowly. Leo guessed she was trying to find something to disarm the man.
Teeth Grinder pointed the blaster at Linh. "Because we're trapped on this ship until long after I'm going to be dead and I'm goddamn sick of it. If I bring contraband in, I'll tell them it's separatist related and they'll give me some money so I can drink. Maybe then, this place’ll look nicer when I can’t see straight.”
Linh didn't respond.
Leo noticed a ripple move across the lake where the man had spat. He wished he had been able to read the writing on the cylinder. Maybe Billy or Johnny’s theories about the silver substance had some truth in them—paint shouldn’t move like that.
“Did you not hear me?” Teeth Grinder shouted and stepped toward Linh. “Where is the stolen paint?”
Was Linh was covering for Sam, the two-meter gentle giant whose size made him intimidating? Still, Sam was the person you called if a security officer needed scaring off, especially one asking about the paint Sam denied keeping hidden in Smoketown.
Through gritted teeth, Linh spoke. “It’s behind the radiator.” She gestured precisely to where Leo was standing.
Leo froze. She doesn’t see me or she wouldn’t have pointed him this way. What if the man came over? Would he have the courage to stand up to someone with a blaster?
“Attagirl.” Teeth Grinder walked toward where Leo was hiding.
Leo’s breath caught in his chest. Not now asthma. He knew if he didn’t slow his breathing, he might pass out. He did his best, but he couldn’t stop the wheezes as they came out—panic rose up within him. He watched as Linh silently crept behind Teeth Grinder, all the while looking into the scaffolding at something.
“What’s this?” Teeth Grinder suddenly loomed over Leo. He ground his teeth at him. “Another sewer rat.” He glanced at Leo’s hand, which still held the makeshift brush with silver liquid dripping from it.
Leo raised the brush as if to strike the man.
But Teeth Grinder was too quick. He grabbed Leo’s hand mid-swing. “Think you can just steal from the ship, huh?” He snatched the brush and threw it across the ground. “I’ll teach you a lesson.” Leo flinched away from Teeth Grinder. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw what Linh had been watching in the shadows of the scaffolding—Sam.
There was a bellow from above. Sam’s dark, massive figure leapt from the scaffolding and knocked Teeth Grinder to the floor.
Leo watched as the man quickly recovered and swept Sam’s legs out from under him. Sam landed on the ground with an oof.
Leo saw an opportunity. It meant he wouldn’t be able to finish his lake, but the canister the paint had been sealed in was big enough that it could probably knock the wind out of the security man long enough for Sam to contain him.
Leo grabbed the cylinder and swung it with all his might, paint spewing from its opening onto Sam, the man, and Leo himself. Teeth Grinder howled at the impact. The precious silver liquid warmed Leo’s skin, then leapt from him onto the man. Even the paint on Sam swirled off him and onto Teeth Grinder.
“Leopold!” Linh shouted. Leo ran to her welcoming arms.
Sam kicked the guard, then stomped on his hand to separate him from his weapon. As Sam went to grab the gun, the entire area lit up in a flash of silver.
“Get out of there, Sam!” Linh cried.
Across Leo’s suddenly luminescent lake, Sam sprinted toward them as they huddled as far as they could from its shores.
A string of curses and shouts came from the man as the paint spread across his uniform. He took two steps forward and the silver lake flared again.
“What’s going on?” Linh whispered to Leo.
Leo shrugged. He was too busy watching the ripples of water flowing across the lake toward the man.
In the light from the lake, fear washed over Teeth Grinder’s face—the man was frozen in place.
A wind arose from the silver waters and a screech erupted from the ground that was so loud, everyone’s hands went to their ears, even the man’s.
But Teeth Grinder’s hands only stayed over his ears for a second because six massive, silvered talons erupted from the surface of the lake and pierced through his arms, legs, and torso. Blood splattered over the surface of the silver water.
Leo stood transfixed, watching the spectacle that had come from his lake. And as quickly as it had started it was over.
The man’s blood and body disappeared beneath the surface along with the talons that had eviscerated him. The waves calmed into a glassy surface, then slowly began to lose their luminosity until the floor was nothing more than the coat of silver paint Leo had laid down.
Linh shuddered and shook her head. “How are we going to explain that to Captain Mediretta?”
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Jason P. Burnham loves to spend time with his wife, children, and dog. Find him on Twitter at @AndGalen.
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