Carrion Crew

20

Three outposts, two caravans, and one town. Kourtney stopped at each one and asked for news of Ash and Twist. No one had seen a boy and girl traveling alone, but one woman at a dingy outpost told a rumor that sounded like the Drifter.

“Was cuttin' up north for Tennessee.” The woman was missing several teeth.

“How long ago was this?” Ulysses asked. 

“Night after that big fight,” the woman said, giving Ulysses a friendly smile filled with awkward holes.

“Two days, then?” Kourtney asked.

The woman glared at her. “It's what I said.” She turned back to Ulysses. “It was heading toward that big asteroid hit.”

“Astroid?” Ulysses asked.

“As I heard it said, anyway,” the woman replied. “But you can't never know what's true and not. I'd say we're about a hundred miles away, so if you add up the lies...”

“What lies?” Kourtney asked.

“It's an old saying,” said Scout. “When a story starts traveling, it wears a lie for every mile it goes.”

“That's a simple way of saying it,” the woman scowled.

Scout frowned. “I couldn't remember the rhyming version.”

“An asteroid,” said Ulysses, removing his glasses and wiping them thoughtfully on his shirt. “Or something else. Maybe--”

The outpost woman was leaning in greedily so as not to miss the good gossip. “Go on.”

“Yes, let's go,” Ulysses said, turning for the hauler. “We shouldn't stand around wasting time spreading rumors.”

Ulysses took the wheel of the hauler. Kourtney didn't protest, too distracted in the same way as the woman at the outpost. Whatever Ulysses hadn't told the woman, he hadn't told them either. So Kourtney re-opened the discussion with a hard punch to his arm. 

“Ow! Hey! I'm driving!”

“You know something and didn't tell us,” she accused. “You know everything that's going on with the Drifter and that astroid, don't you?”

“No!” Ulysses said, holding up his arm to ward off any more punching. “I don't know anything! I just had an idea. I don't know anything for certain.”

Hobo leaned forward from the back seat. “What did you figure out?”

“I thought,” Ulysses explained, “if the Drifter is going to the astroid, maybe that's where it came from initially. Which means that the impact being reported probably wasn't an asteroid.”

“A hundred lies,” Scout mused.

“Misinformation,” Ulysses corrected. “I'm thinking there was a crash. A ship.”

“What?” Hobo asked. “You mean like a space ship?”

“Yes,” said Ulysses. “I've been trying to think of who has the resources and tech to build something like the Drifter, and who would need a vehicle like that.”

“It isn't Allied or Confederate,” said Kourtney. “They throw all new tech and resources into building new armor. They've got the carrion crews to retrieve material.”

“Exactly,” said Ulysses. “So we're looking at an off-world party. The New Progressive Order.”

Everyone in the hauler glared at Ulysses. NPO was almost a curse word.

“Why them?” Kourtney asked.

Hobo answered, “Because it's always them. NPO is the universal boogyman.”

“Most of the Order's founders were on the design teams that created the mechs the Allied and Confederates are using now,” said Ulysseys.

“Is that bad?” Scout asked.

“Yes,” said Ulysses, “because the NPO wouldn't be here on accident. If they're on Earth, they're here to check on their old research centers.”

Kourtney shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “What research?”

“Reconstruction,” said Ulysses. “I don't know much about it; it's kind of a myth. But it was the backbone of the NPO's existence.”

“Wait,” said Hobo, “do you mean that thing that was supposed to solve all of the world's problems?”

“Project Recon would have been the platform from which to launch humanity into a new age.” Ulysses shrugged. “I suppose it still was, just not the way the NPO hoped.”

“What happened?” Scout asked. Why didn't it work?”

“It did,” Ulysses replied. “But the technology was also difficult to work with. And dangerous. The Alliance was formed to shut the project down, so the NPO left the planet.”

Hold on,” said Kourtney. “You're saying that the reason people started leaving Earth – the whole evacuation mentality – that was because of Reconstruction experiments and not resource scarcity?” She shook her head. “And what does any of this have to do with my sister and Twist?”

“I'm getting there,” said Ulysses. “The evacuation mentality was a result of resource scarcity. But that fear didn't come until the NPO decided to leave, because they were the ones who were coming up with solutions for the impending shortages. That's part of what Recon did. After they left, the Alliance decided to make sure they weren't going to revive Project Recon to make dangerous weapons and bring them back to Earth. As the issue expanded, the NPO sponsored colonization projects, so the Alliance had to send out more ships. In an effort to ground further NPO launches, the Alliance published a survey that stated that Earth had the resources to allow only eighty-five percent of the global population to get off world. The remaining fifteen percent would languish in poverty. But even with that published, the Alliance began a program of aggressive expansionism in an attempt to block further NPO colonizations. Then... cue the panic.”

“But what about Ash and Twist?” Kourtney insisted.

“That's a little more uncertain,” said Ulysses. “But if the NPO has come back to Earth, I think it's because of old Project Recon research. Reconstruction is the solution to all resource shortage. It's like the alchemy of this age.”

“Make anything you want out of anything you have,” Scout said.

The others stared at him, then Kourtney looked to Ulysses for confirmation. Was Scout being intuitive or presumptuous?

“That's about it,” said Ulysses. “Elemental reconstruction at a sub-dimensional level. Rearranging the smallest configurations of matter so that it becomes a different kind of matter altogether. You could even turn lead into gold if you wanted.” He laughed a little at his own joke. “But Project Recon was started with something else in mind: the reversal of decay.”

“But that's completely against the natural order of the universe,” Kourtney protested. “It isn't possible.”

“There's a rumor that it's been done,” said Ulysses. “But when it happened, it created a chain reaction of chaotic material mutation. The reaction was contained, but that's what prompted the banning of Reconstruction experiments.

“So we have the NPO with dangerous research, some of which is rumored to have continued after their departure, and the Drifter collecting salvage, most likely for repairs.”

“Repairs to spacecraft with salvage?” Hobo asked.

“Sounds sloppy,” said Kourtney.

“Exactly,” said Ulysses. “Desperate. They're looking to get away as fast as possible, so it's not likely to be good for us. Or anyone who might interfere.”

“interfere, like chase down their salvage collecting craft?” Kourtney asked.

“Yeah,” said Ulysses. “Like that.”