CHAPTER 22

2010

Titan One Space Station

Earth’s Orbit

Riley opened his eyes. He was flat on his back, staring up at a steel ceiling. Something felt very familiar about his location. He winced with the pain of the steel hatch floor against his back and sat up. He looked around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. Riley remembered everything that happened before he blacked out. Coupled with the ash smell in the air and how light he felt, he knew with confidence that he was no longer on Earth. There was zero gravity beyond the walls of the station. He shuffled until his back was against the wall. He took another look around. He was sitting in the brig of a space station. It shouldn’t have been possible; the first habitable space station was at least a decade away. Riley wondered if he had somehow affected the timeline significantly enough to alter major events. He rubbed his beard with a sigh.

Riley had been extremely cautious in his interactions. If he had impacted the timeline, it couldn’t have resulted in this, it wasn’t possible. The other possibility was that his captors had brought him to the future. The thought of finally escaping that lifeless time brought a smile to his face.

The cell door slid open and two men in black uniforms walked in. Riley recognized the uniform; it was the first generation uniform for Titan soldiers. The first man grabbed Riley’s arm and yanked him to his feet. Whatever their reason to come for him, they weren’t afraid to hurt him. They shoved him out of the cell and marched him down a long hallway. They finally stopped in front of a door with a blue tag on it. The leading man held his card to the scanner. It buzzed, and the door slid open. They pushed Riley inside and forced him into a metal chair. The room was dimly lit with a steel table and another chair opposite Riley’s. Someone grabbed Riley’s hands and slapped a pair of magnetic cuffs on him. The cuffs beeped once, and the light on the side turned green. The man pressed Riley’s hand to the table, and the cuffs immediately magnetized to the metal surface. The two men turned and marched out of the room.

Riley sat back in the chair, his head full of questions. If there was something he hated more than being idle, it was being clueless. At that moment, he was completely clueless. He assumed they must have known who he was to take him. If they knew who he was, why were they treating him like a criminal? He tugged at the cuffs but the magnetic hold was stronger than he expected. Riley glanced around the room. There was a single light source directly above him, and it was focused on the table, making it difficult to see anything beyond.

Riley heard the door opening and his eyes darted over to it. To his surprise, it closed again without anybody entering the room. He squinted, wondering if he hadn’t seen somebody walking in because of the light. Riley snorted and shook his head. Despite all their advancement, they still had buggy doors. With each second that he waited for an explanation, he grew increasingly impatient.

“Who are you?” a voice asked.

Riley looked back over his shoulder and saw an old man, at least seventy, standing and watching him with a familiar look in his eyes. “How did…” Riley glanced around the room, wondering if anyone else had been able to enter the room without him realizing.

The old man repeat himself. “Who are you?”

Riley looked down at the table. Something was nagging at his mind, a thought trying to force its way out, accompanied by a chill spreading slowly throughout his body. Riley wheezed. He had never felt this sensation before. The old man walked around the table until he was on the opposite side from Riley. Riley wanted to raise his head and look at him but, for some reason, he couldn’t. The thought of looking into his eyes again terrified Riley more than anything ever had. Riley bit his lip until he tasted blood in his mouth. Riley felt the table cave under the pressure of his hands. He pulled his body away from the table until his back touched the backrest of the chair, but he continued to look down.

“Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out soon enough,” said the man. “People call me Isaiah. Who are you?”

Riley finally raised his head to look at the man. He couldn’t understand why his heart was beating so fiercely. He may have only just noticed it, but it started sooner.

Isaiah scoffed. “It's not the fear. You know, the rules are made for a reason. I remember this moment like it was yesterday. It was my first time.”

Riley frowned. “What was?”

Isaiah stared at Riley for a moment, then continued to walk around him. “What you’re feeling right now, what you’re trying to do. Quite familiar. I know that no matter what I tell you, you won’t listen, you’re just that stubborn. I also know that it’s not you. It’s everything. It’s the space-time continuum. There’s a way things must happen, Riley. No matter what you do, no matter how much you go back and forth, you’re never going to change a thing. What happened is what will always happen.”

Riley has a single burning question for the man, but is hesitant to ask it.

Isaiah laughed. “Sorry, it’s just funny. It’s like standing in front of a mirror.” He took Riley’s journal out of his pocket, then walked to Riley and placed the journal into his pocket. “That number," Isiah tapped his finger on it "a deployment code." His eyes shifted to Riley "I’m sure you already know that,” Isaiah said as he glanced toward the door. “I don’t have much time. High School in Tanadad Front City.”

“Garth Andrews,” Riley muttered.

Isaiah snorted.

As Riley watched the old man talk, with his own heart beating violently in his chest, the way Isaiah talked, how he looked, how he moved, it was all too familiar. It hadn’t occurred to him that Isaiah didn’t want anyone to know he was there. It explained his unusual entrance.

Isaiah took a shiny device from his pocket. He placed it in the gap between Riley’s hands. Riley’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the object.

Isaiah tapped the device and then walked out the door.

“Hey,” Riley called. He contemplated for a few moments while he was considering whether or not to ask the question. “Did you come back, or did you come forward?”

Isaiah stopped for a moment, then gave the surrounding metal walls a couple of knocks, after which he pointed at his ear.

Riley looked down at the object between his hands. He moved his hand around in the cuffs, trying to get his fingers to it. The device fell and moved further away from his hands. Riley grunted. He raised his head to curse at the old man, but Isaiah was gone. He glanced around the room, sure that he didn’t hear the door open.

There was suddenly a noise at the door. Riley lowered his head and picked up the device with his teeth. It tasted like sour metal. He released it into his right hand and flicked the cover open with his thumb. He frowned when he saw that the device was exactly what it appeared to be: a lighter. Riley couldn’t see any possible use for a lighter. The door slid open. Riley clenched his fist around the lighter. He looked up and saw a woman and a man walking into the room. The woman held a tablet while the man had an electric baton. They both had stern looks on their faces. The woman placed the tablet on the table and sat on the chair opposite to Riley, breathing loudly enough for him to hear. The man walked behind Riley and stopped, then placed his hand on Riley’s shoulder. Riley stayed focused on the woman, who was busy working on the tablet. He wasn’t sure what they wanted but he knew they hadn’t come to mess around. If the old man hadn’t spoken to him, he would have happily told them everything he knew. But Isaiah’s caution inspired the same in him. Riley lowered his head, closed his eyes, and prepared himself for what was about to happen.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The man’s grip on his shoulder tightened. Riley clenched his teeth. He could have broken the man in half if he wanted to but he needed to tread carefully.

The woman finally looked up from the tablet and stared at Riley. “Who are you?” she asked.

Riley stared back at her but remained silent.

The man squeezed his shoulder tighter painfully. “She asked you a question.”

“I’ll ask again,” the woman said. “Who are you, Riley?”

Riley didn’t react. He didn’t see the baton coming but heard it smack against the table next to his hand. Riley didn’t flinch.

“Are you deaf?” the man asked loudly, directly into Riley’s ear.

Riley imagined tearing his hands out of the cuffs, grabbing the man’s face, and slamming it on the table. He sighed and relaxed. The man laughed.

“You seem to think you’re quite tough,” said the woman. “Who are you? What’s your relation to Titan Corp?”

“I’m a fisherman,” Riley finally answered.

“Is that so?” the woman scoffed. “Then why have you been coming to the headquarters every week for the past five years? You stand there with your scraggly beard, staring inside, but you never go in. Why?”

Riley grunted. “I like the birds.”

The woman laughed. The man didn’t join her.

“You must think you’re funny as well as tough,” she said.

The baton smacked against the table again, even closer to Riley’s hand. He still didn’t flinch. He might have pretended to be afraid of them but he hated their smug faces and refused to give them the satisfaction they clearly craved.

“I didn’t know it was a crime to sit around the park and feed birds,” said Riley.

The woman cleared her throat and sat up straight. “At first, I assumed you might be just another mad vagrant looking to bring his pointless existence to an end, but then I saw this.” She slid the tablet toward Riley’s hands.

He picked it up. It was security footage of a man breaking into a facility, looking for something. A security guard saw him and opened fire. The man ran out of the facility. Seconds later, the building exploded, along with any security left inside. The video paused as the man ran from the compound, shocked by the explosion. It zoomed in until his face filled the screen.

“Look familiar?” the man behind Riley asked.

Riley didn’t need to look twice. It was him, but not exactly. He was at least five years older in the footage.

“When I saw the video, I had my doubts,” the woman said. “I thought you were just some grumpy hillbilly. Judging by your reaction, I was wrong. That was you, twelve years ago, at a top-secret facility. Even the people who worked there didn’t know where it was. Yet somehow you found it, broke in, and escaped before it was destroyed.”

Riley shrugged. “I didn’t blow it up.”

“I know you didn’t. We captured your every movement on video. I showed you that footage so you would think carefully about your answer when I ask this question again. Who are you, Riley?”

Riley stared at the woman. “I told you,” he growled, “I’m a fisherman.”

He felt a sharp pain at the back of his skull. Before he could register it, a deep pain filled his head. He forgot where he was. When he regained his senses, his face was on the table, buried between his hands. He groaned as he tasted blood. He opened his eyes and realized that the man had struck him with the baton.

“Who are you, Riley?” she repeated.

Riley struggled to raise his head until he was sitting upright. “You two like it rough, don't you?” he snarled and let out a chuckle.

The baton struck his head again. Riley slumped over the table, saliva pouring from his mouth. The man pulled him up by the back of the neck until he was sitting properly again. He tilted Riley’s head back until he could see his face. The man was unsettled when he saw the cold look in Riley’s eyes. He looked over at the woman with concern, then back to Riley. He pressed a button on the side of the baton. The two electrodes at the tip of the baton sparked and he quickly jabbed them against Riley’s ribs. Riley shuddered as the baton turned his body into an electrical circuit. The woman raised her hand and the man pulled away. Riley slumped in his chair, head resting on the table.

The woman swallowed hard. “I’ll ask you again. If you’re smart, you can spare yourself a lot of unnecessary pain. Who are you?”

Riley looked up at her with a scowl. He opened his mouth to talk, but spat in her face instead. The man struck him in the back of the neck with even greater force. Riley groaned with pain as the woman wiped her face. Before Riley could recover, the man held the electrodes against his neck. Riley spasmed and fell sideways, only his hands preventing him from sliding to the floor.

The door slid open and a man in his early sixties entered. The woman jumped out of her chair and saluted him, as the man with the baton did the same. The older man surveyed the room. When he saw Riley barely conscious on the floor, his eyes widened.

“What the hell are you two doing?” he asked. “I told you to interrogate him, not beat him to death.”

The woman gestured for her enforcer to pick Riley up. He dragged him back up onto the chair. Riley slowly looked up. He saw the newcomer’s beard, and how he stood with his chest puffed out. He could have sworn it was Captain Anderson.

“Anderson?” Riley mumbled, but no one heard him. He was still recovering from the blows to his head and couldn’t speak clearly.

The older man turned around and walked to the door. He stopped. “Get a medical team in here,” he ordered. “You two come with me,” He walked out of the room, followed by the other man and the woman.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Riley opened his eyes fully. He tried to shake his head clear and climbed on top of the table. With both feet pushing against the surface, he pulled with all the strength he could muster until the cuffs parted from the table. He fell, landing back-first on the floor. Riley opened his palm and flicked the lighter open. It wasn’t an ordinary lighter and produced a short plasma flame. Riley turned the lighter until the flame was pointing at the cuffs. In a few seconds, the cuffs melted in the middle, leaving a metal band on each of his wrists. Riley rolled to his feet as the door slid open. He raised his hands, ready to take down whoever was approaching, but nobody came. There were two knocks. He recalled what the old man gestured to him earlier.

The knocks!

Riley looked up and down the hallway. When he was sure there was nobody there, he ran out and paused, confused about which direction to go. He heard two knocks from his right. Riley ran toward the knocks. As he reached another hallway, he heard the knocks again and brought himself to an abrupt stop. He listened intently and heard footsteps approaching. Riley hid behind a protrusion in the hull and waited until two women wearing white uniforms passed him.

He heard the knocks again and ventured out from behind the wall. As he stepped out, an alarm sounded, blaring deafeningly throughout the station. Riley ran down the hallway, wondering how and why Isaiah was doing any of it. For the time being, all that mattered was getting out of the station alive. He was unsure how that would happen. He reached a corner and stopped. He waited to hear the knock again but it didn’t come. Riley looked at the walls and found a map of the entire level. On the left of the map, there was a section marked with a red ‘X’. It was the evacuation section. Riley quickly memorized the map, then turned the corner to a hallway with two paths. He ran left, carefully avoiding everyone along the way. After a long run, he emerged into an open area with a large window out to space. Riley ran to the nearest window and looked out. He saw the Earth and gasped. He had never before seen Earth as it had once been from the outer space. When he first stepped onto a space station, the planet was already half engulfed in black liquid.

He heard two knocks from his left and turned to look. There was a huge blast door with red text that read ‘Evac Station’. A red light ran around its edges. The light turned green and the door slowly opened. Riley ran for the door. He was about to enter it when he heard a voice yell at him from behind.

“That’s far enough!”

Riley turned and saw the man and woman who tortured him, both aiming handguns at him. “Well damn,” Riley said with a smirk as he charged without a moment’s hesitation.

They managed two missed shots before Riley was on them. Riley grabbed the man’s gun and swung it to his side, slamming him against the wall. The woman aimed at Riley’s face but he ducked, narrowly evading the bullet. He smacked the gun out of her hand and grabbed her neck. Riley lifted her until her feet no longer touched the floor. The man stood up, screaming, and ran at Riley. Riley turned and threw the woman at him, sending them both crashing to the floor. When they tried to get up, Riley was already standing over them, fists clenched. His chest was heaving with each breath, veins bulging. As he glared down at them, Riley’s only thought was to smear them over the floor of the station. He took a step closer. Their expressions had shifted from confidence and cockiness to utter terror. As he lurched closer, the woman cried. The sound reminded Riley of Bethany, and he remembered holding her as she bled to death. Riley staggered back, almost falling. He had tried so hard to keep that moment from his mind, the moment that he killed his friends.

Riley slowed his breathing and unclenched his fists. He opened his mouth to speak, but turned away instead and ran into the evac station. There were ten escape pods in the station. The nearest pod opened automatically. Riley climbed in and strapped the safety belt around himself. The door closed. A display in front of Riley showed a trajectory for the pod, from the station to Tanadad Front City. A countdown began on the display.

The woman ran to the pod’s window, holding her throat. “You’ll die!” she shouted. “No one has ever successfully used a pod. It’s still in the early stage of development.”

Riley leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes. He was surprised that the same woman who was willing to torture him mere minutes earlier was suddenly concerned about him. He could hear her mumbling through the glass but chose to ignore her. He wasn’t afraid. The fact that Isaiah was alive was enough to tell Riley that, no matter what happened next, he would survive it. He was no longer afraid, nor was he tired. For ten years, he had felt stuck because he had no clue what to do or where to go. He had come to realize that the universe still had plans for him.

The timer on the screen hit zero and the pod shot from the station, hurtling through the black void of space toward earth.

Riley closed his eyes as he was descending towards the Earth.