Future Winds by Kevin Laymon Read Free Book Online

shared their small living quarters with a couple hundred other people. Labeled block sixty-five, it was one of a couple hundred thousand that resided within the ship. Block sixty-five were assigned to construction labor like most other blocks aboard New Horizon. Their first task when they arrive would be to lay the foundation for the first future city, Liberty.
    Four navy security guards, wearing white and green armor, were assigned to their block. They strapped themselves into the walls near the exit. A sharp squeal overtook the living quarters the two boys shared with all the other civilians as space began to bend, hiss and cry around them.
    This was no drill we are actually warping , Ness thought, I mean, technically, we have been warping since shortly after departing earth, but the gate on the other end is active and pulling us at a much faster rate now.
    Lucas began to vomit and cry below, but the noise the small boy emitted was seemingly silent, overshadowed by the squeal the ship made as it accelerated at unimaginable speeds through the galaxy.
     
    ***
     
    Aisha sprinted ahead of the two men, partly from excitement and partly from desire to beat them to reach the large carrier that had landed ahead. Her drone, Pisces, orbited around her as she ran and this forced a smile on her face.
    If this were indeed a race, Tyler and Aries would be in second place at a steady but light jog, and the large brute Abram would come in last, panting, as he struggled to keep up.
    She stopped short at one of the carrier's main doors. The thing was massive, one of the biggest structures Aisha had ever seen in her life. Behind multiple feet of solid steel were a little over two million lives packed into a vessel manufactured originally to transport half that amount.
    “Hey, open up,” Aisha yelled with no response.
    She picked up a rock and tossed it. The rock slammed against the hull of the ship but the sound was mostly insignificant. Like a pebble being thrown at a passing train. It would be impossible for anyone inside to hear her. What she did was mostly out of amusement for herself.
    “Don’t go scaring them off now,” Tyler said with a chuckle, joining her from behind.
    “Maybe they realize this hot desert is no place to call home,” Abram panted out as he approached, sweat beading down his face.
    As if on cue the large, broad blast door began to open: hydraulics sprayed air and dust in all directions. This time the three of them were wise enough to cover their faces. The dust settled and down the platform walked a woman. Her armor was colored blue which meant she was a high ranking commander of some sort. Her stripes and badge coated along her chest confirmed as such. She was of grave importance. Two men escorted her down the platform. Equipped with high powered energy rifles their armor was colored blue and white, meaning they were only a single rank below Aisha, Abram, and Tyler.
    Aisha dropped her smile and joined the other two with a clean emotionless face that reflect obedience. Together they formed a horizontal line, straightening their backs, and saluted. All three drones dropped to the ground to the rightmost side of the soldiers they were assigned to, for this was a custom.
    “At ease, soldiers,” the woman consoled in a thick British accent.
    She took a long, heavy breath of the fresh air and exhaled as her eyes thoroughly scanned the distant horizon. Something about the skew of reddish color this planet gave off awarded the barren desert of rock and dust a certain sense of beauty.
    The woman then squatted down to the ground to grasp some of the soil in her hands. She watched it spread between her fingers and fall to the ground.
    She began to smirk “So here we are, the edge of the galaxy on a prayer, to grow beans in the desert.”
    “I am no farmer ma’am but I am willing to bet you got all kinds of advanced gadgets on that ship that could grow fish in a tube,” Abram conveyed.
    This turned her smirk into a