Colony One by E. M. Peters Page A

different than anyone else he had ever met.
    He turned the page to find similar pictures of men and women with their families, all working no matter what age. It seemed to be a series she did. It progressed into a different story, photos of gatherings came next, then portraits of people as they stood in crowds listening, or standing in front of crowds speaking.
    Niko came to a photograph that evoked an instant memory. It was a close up shot of a young man with his filter pulled away from his mouth and nose. His mouth was open, frozen in mid shout. On instinct, Niko turned to the next page to find the same subject hunched over in mid cough, a stark contrast from the image of defiance on the previous page.
    “I saw this on the viewer.” Niko pointed to the young man. “I saw this protest on the news. I heard what he said. You were there?” He sounded surprised, but he shouldn’t have been considering what he already knew about Finn.
    She nodded and her tone was solemn when she confirmed, “That gathering was not dispersed peacefully and that young man did not make it out alive.”
    “That’s too bad,” Avery commented dismissively, tossing her apple core into a nearby waste bin. Her voice forced Niko and Finn to look up, “But it does remind me. I was just looking up coverage of the launch of Colony One.” She pulled out her handheld glass device and set it on the table. She tapped the interface a few times and a projection hologram of the footage sprung from the glass device, hovering over it like a cast of ghosts.
    Makenna looked up from her project and the Doctor stopped what he was doing to watch the image. They had all seen the speeches and the footage of the ship taking off, but what was playing on Avery’s handheld was different.
    “Lieutenant Dilyn, can you share with us your thoughts on this historic voyage?” A reporter asked one of the passengers who was about to board Colony One. She avoided the question, looking nervous, anxious or both.
    “Me too!” Another passenger put in. When the group saw him, they all immediately looked at Niko, then back to the projection. “I’m here to make all my family and friends proud. What we’re doing is important and necessary to humankind.” The man on the projection said and Avery paused the image so that he was frozen temporarily in time.
    There was stunned silence for a long moment, until – “That’s you!” Charlie exclaimed, pointed at the image and fixed Niko with a meaningful look. The projection ghost-like figure had exactly the same features as Niko – the dark curly ringlets for hair, right down to the bump on the length of his nose. Most striking were the eyes and the voice, which were identical. The man in the image – Luca – had jovial eyes. Not something anyone had seen on Niko, but they were remarkably similar in color, depth, and intensity.
    Niko smiled and laughed, “Everyone has a doppelganger.” He said dismissively.
    Finn was shaking her head, looking from the projection to Niko and back. “Normally I would agree, but…” she trailed off, feeling that he was uncomfortable. It was clear Avery had an agenda and Finn wasn’t sure she wanted to help.
    “I just happened to have access to Colony One’s manifest,” Avery said as she sat back in her chair and fixed Niko with a meaningful look. “His is listed as last name ‘Andris.’”
    The images Avery had played made a crushing anxiety build in Niko. Even with her expectant eyes on him, he felt himself losing the fight to stay in the present as the memories came flooding back.
     
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    Since his work was in the astronomy field, Niko had been the first of the two brothers to hear of the Colony One mission. Luca, while being an intelligent person, did not have the penchant for the sciences like his brother. He liked people, which oftentimes did not pay the bills. Despite his disinterest of academic fields, Luca was incredibly jealous when he heard that Niko had been