Read Online The Darwin Effect by Mark Lukens - Free Book Online Page B

that?”
    Ward barked out a laugh and stabbed another piece of the meat into his mouth and chewed.
    Sanders stared at him with disgust.
    “Hell,” Ward said as he continued talking around a mouthful of food. “Maybe it would be better to be like Butler. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.”
    Sanders was about to respond to Ward, but she snapped her mouth shut like she didn’t want to talk to him.
    Cromartie could tell Sanders was steeling herself, doing her best to control her temper. He was sure it was something she’d had to do often as a cop in the streets of Los Angeles. He looked from Sanders to Ward. “What good is it doing us for you to be so angry?”
    Ward chuckled as he sucked at his teeth. He pushed his metal container of food away and locked eyes with Cromartie. “What good is it doing us to sit around here waiting to waste away and die? What good are your little meetings doing us?”
    “We could think,” Cromartie said. “We could come up with some ideas.”
    “Ideas about what?” Ward asked, still chuckling. “About a way out of this? There is no way out of this. We’re in the middle of space. Too far from our destination. Too far away from Earth, an Earth that’s been destroyed by nuclear war.” Ward looked up at the ceiling. “If that stupid computer’s even telling us the truth.”
    “Maybe MAC is malfunctioning,” Cromartie said. “But maybe there’s some kind of way around MAC so we can get back into cryosleep, some kind of override or something.”
    Ward sighed like he was trying to discuss something with a child. He looked up at the ceiling again. “MAC! Good morning!”
    “Good morning, Ward.”
    “MAC, can I ask you a question?”
    “Certainly, Ward.”
    “How do we get back into cryosleep?”
    “I’m afraid that’s not possible. This ship is not equipped to reinstate cryosleep.”
    Ward looked at Cromartie with a smug smile, satisfied with himself. “MAC controls this ship. There’s no way around him, and none of us are going to get back into cryosleep without his help.”
    Abraham exhaled an annoyed sigh. He sipped his coffee and then tried to coax Butler into eating another bite of food. “Cromartie’s right … you’re not helping.”
    Ward ignored Abraham and looked right at Cromartie. “There’s a question we haven’t asked MAC yet.” Ward sat back in his chair and looked at the rest of them one at a time. “A very important question.”
    “What’s that?” Cromartie asked as he tried to control his anger, much like Sanders was doing.
    Ward looked back up at the ceiling. “MAC, it’s Ward again.”
    “Yes, Ward.”
    “I have another question for you. Do you think you can answer it?”
    “I will do my best, Ward.”
    “How much food do we have on board for us to survive? The six of us.”
    “Ward, what are you doing?” Cromartie asked.
    “We need to know,” Ward snapped at Cromartie, and then he glanced at the others as they waited for MAC to answer.
    “Based on the average two thousand five hundred calorie diet, my calculations for survival for six humans comes up to seven months, two weeks, and five days.”
    Ward looked at Cromartie with a victorious grin on his face. He raised his arms out in a “told ya” gesture. “Look at the food in the freezer and the storage cabinets. It doesn’t take a genius to see that there’s less than a year’s supply of food on this ship. That’s because we were never meant to be awake during this flight, only right at the very end.”
    Sanders stood up and pushed her metal container of food away. She stared at Ward. “You’re an asshole,” she said and stomped out of the room.
    “That computer fucked up and woke us up early, and I’m the asshole?” he called after her.
    Ward looked at everyone else in the dining area. “I’m just trying to face the reality of the situation here, that’s all.”
    Rolle got up and took his empty food container to the counter. “I’m going to check on Sanders,” he