Citadel: First Colony by Kevin Tumlinson Read Free Book Online Page B

They had just crashed on an alien world—a world where he was prepared to spend the rest of his life. A world that represented a fresh start. “Welcome home,” he said quietly, as the group began the hard trek back to camp.
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    “ T here are supplies and tools inside the module,” Mitch reported to Captain Somar. “It’s likely they’re still in good shape. Most of that stuff was sealed in individual fireproof containers.”
    Somar nodded, glancing up at the gleaming tower that loomed above them. It seemed to Somar to be a majestic thing, every bit as regal as its name implied. “The Citadel module almost made its landing, it seems.”
    Mitch glanced up as well, squinting in the bright light that reflected from Citadel's solar coating. “The safety system kicked in and righted it. Plus, Reilly dumped everything the module had into pushing back against gravity. It slowed us enough to make a semi-decent landing. But the crew chamber is part of the shuttle. It was supposed to release from the module before it landed. That’s our link back to the orbital platform, if it survived.”
    “Why didn’t the shuttle release?” Somar asked. “It seems unlikely that its systems would fail at the same time as these other mechanical failures.”
    Mitch looked around to make sure no one was paying close attention. “You’re right,” he said to Somar, lowering his voice. “It’s too much of a coincidence. The whole colony ship comes off of the lightrail too close to a planet’s surface, the release clamps fail, and the shuttle doesn’t detach? That’s a pretty long string of failures.”
    Somar looked again at the Citadel module. The shuttle that formed the top portion was pointing prominently toward the sky, as if yearning to launch. “Once we have a base camp established and the wounded are tended to, I’d like you to examine the shuttle. We need to know if there has been sabotage.”
    “It’s almost a sure thing,” Mitch said intently.
    Somar sniffed and shook his head. “May the Creator help us if we have a saboteur among us. Worse still to have one who is at peace with dying himself.”
    Mitch nodded. “Well, I’ll figure out what the story is with the shuttle, but at least Citadel seems to be intact. More or less.”
    The module did seem to be in decent shape, as Somar allowed his gaze to move from the shuttle to the base of the structure. “Take someone with you, and retrieve the supplies and tools.”
    The engineer nodded and was turning to leave when Somar added, “And Mr. Garrison?” Mitch turned. “If there are weapons on board please secure them.”
    Mitch paused briefly, then nodded again and was gone.
    Somar looked around at the crew of humans he was now commanding. This was by no means going to be easy. Many of them were injured beyond the abilities of the Blue Collar field medic, some of the White Collar physicians were among the injured and dead, and there was apparently an enemy in their midst. Add to that the open bigotry that many of the humans felt toward him, and Somar’s isolation was nearly complete.
    There was something else, as well. It had nagged at him for a while before he’d finally begun to put the pieces together. The Blue Collar crew was tending to it’s own, as was the White Collar crew. There was a definite division in the group—to the point that Somar could see a physical line of demarcation as the groups of blue-clad crewmembers lay apart from the more casually dressed White Collars.
    There was a growing division in the ranks.
    In this situation, on an alien world, with so many injured and the odds stacked so high against them, division was one thing that could not be tolerated. They would all have to work together for their common good. The question was, how could an outsider such as himself ever hope to lead a group that was divided even amongst their own?
    “Captain?” a woman’s voice said from behind.
    Reilly, the ship’s pilot, was