Free Ark-13: An Odyssey by B.B. Gallagher

as long as I could remember. But what is there when the here and now are gone?
    No one thinks about what comes next anymore. Well with the end in sight, I looked around and wondered if there was an afterlife. Mine, for the time being, would be spent on a space station perpetuating the human race. But I remember thinking, 'where are all of these people going?'
    Are they going to an infinite state of nothingness or to some heavenly oasis with naked baby angels playing harps on clouds?
    It's probably neither. But it has got to be something....
    I think it is fair to say that there has to be meaning to all this. This life doesn't just amount to being destroyed by a floating rock. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Isn't that what Newton said? Well, what's the reaction to Armageddon? What's the reaction to death? If nature is a series of causes and effects then what is death the cause of? We tend to think of death as an effect of a life well lived, but every effect just becomes another cause, just like a domino falling into another domino and into another and into another...
    As I was watched the birds circle overhead and the sun glimmer over the harbor from the same bench I had sat so many times before, I realized that this was not the end. It was only the beginning.

Chapter 18
Day 21
    “You sayin’ we got a GENESIS rat among us?” Elijah asked in the clearing of the cornfield to the group through his respirator.
    “I mean that GENESIS has sent a message to colonist #309, whoever that is,” Danny explained. The others were assembled and floored by the news.
    “What?!” Coop grumbled. “They are spying on us? Are the cameras and armports not enough?!”
    “Does anyone have any idea who it could be? Has anyone been suspicious?” Lucy asked.
    Everyone exchanged glances with each other, but no names came to mind.
    “We have to be on guard,” Danny explained. “And we can’t recruit anyone until we have the X drive data map. We are going to have to be extremely careful with our selection.” The Insurgents nodded in unison and then turned their eyes to Jake for instruction.
    “We move tonight… But our plan has changed, something has come up… more enforcers have been recruited and they will be standing guard at the Archives. So, we are going to need to make a diversion. There was a supply drop this morning so Eclipse will be busy. I think if someone causes a ruckus up there, it will draw the guards from their post, leaving the all clear for our hack. Coop, are you up for it?” His eyebrows rose along with his shoulders.
    “Absolutely! What kind of ruckus?” Coop asked with eager anticipation.
    “How would you like to get in a bar fight with Jim Booker?”
    Coop smiled wide.
    ⊶ < > ⊷
    The third floor of the Ark held a recreation center, complete with a fitness center, court, lounge and Eclipse, the Ark’s nightclub. Eclipse was a dark bar, lit up in different colors. Music sounded over the speakers, muffling all conversations around. There was a series of tables and chairs, lining the circular platform on which the central bar stood.
    The bar was operated by Luke Payton, a handsome man of his late twenties. He had a calm cool to him and eyes that rendered the females of the Ark defenseless. His jovial charm uplifted the party and discouraged any alcoholic sulking.
    Coop Nolan ascended the neon steps to the central platform where an electronic dance song thumped over head. He waved to a few of the patrons and approached Luke, slapping down a currency note on the bar.
    “Luke, how you doing?” Luke turned to Coop, revealing his baby blues eyes illuminated in the club’s light.
    “Hey! Coop… what’s it going to be?” Luke laughed, filling a cup of the only liquor they ever had in stock.
    “The usual!” Coop quipped.
    “Here you go, buddy!” Luke slid the Ether across the bar into Coop’s hand. Coop nodded a ‘thank you’ and danced toward the tables, as well as a fishing