Alpha Wing

by Marco Frazetta

  “At least do it quick,” I said defiantly, awaiting the new hole about to be opened up above my aorta.

  “What kind of a warrior doesn’t put up a fight first?” asked a voice behind me. It was soft and low, feminine. For half a second I thought it was Drasheel, but the voice was all wrong. Still, it was familiar.

  “Stone.”

  The knife rescinded. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “How the hell did you find me?”

  “Shit, I don’t know, Derringer. I mean, I mostly just sat around and made googly eyes at your pretty face when we were learning about tracking techniques.”

  “But, how? How could you take the risk of going AWOL just to come find me?”

  “I’m not AWOL, Max. Because there isn’t any ship to desert. The Hammer is gone.”

  “The Gix,” I said.

  “How did you know?” asked Harley. My vision was right after all. Jackal and Knight, Nitro. Celeste. “They’re all dead?”

  “I was out on reconnaissance when the ship got hit, but I’ve never known the Gix to take prisoners.” I crumpled to the floor. Everything that I ever cared about. All that I’d worked for. The woman I was destined to be entwined with. All gone in a flash. Whatever else this life had to offer me, it was becoming clear that being a fighter pilot in the Federation wasn’t entering into the equation. I thought of Celeste, watching as that flash wiped out the Bridge and her along with it. I was holding onto Harley’s pant leg and without wanting to I started to break down and cry.

  ‘Derringer,” she said, trying to console me, “it’s okay. I...I know what she meant to you.”

  I pulled myself together. Even for the woman I loved, I couldn’t just cry on the floor like a child.

  “Listen,” said Harley, “there’s a full-scale war started out there. We need to get you back to the fleet. With everything that’s happened, I’m sure they wouldn’t turn down a crack pilot like you, regardless of what you’ve done. You’re too valuable to them now. Come back with me and throw yourself on their mercy.”

  It made sense. My squad may be gone, but I was still a fighter. And the stakes were never higher. But something told me that it wasn’t the way. I wasn’t about to walk away from that fight, but becoming just another cog in that machine didn’t feel like the way forward.”

  “No. I’ve been through all that. There’s nothing left for me to go back to. You’re the only one I still have any connection to from that life.”

  “What are you saying? Derringer, you’re choosing exile here. If the Federation does find you out here they aren’t going to be too fucking understanding. You’ll be executed as a deserter.”

  “You took the same risk, coming out here to find me.”

  “Yeah, so I could bring you back,” she said, resentfully. “I don’t know if I would have bothered if I had known that the famous Clockwork was going to go native among a bunch of thieving space pirates.”

  “It’s not like that. I’ve seen things here. Things that I can’t explain. Like how I knew about the Gix. These people have a kind of a spirituality that’s forbidden in Unity. I feel stupid for even saying it out loud, and I’m sure you can’t understand what I mean. But there’s something here, Harley.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “There’s something wrong with Unity. You know it too.” She bit her lip. Of course she’d questioned the rules, the servitude. The brutality of reprogramming people who strayed too far outside of the norm. Hell, she had always been a bigger rule Derringer than me. I knew I could appeal to her sense of justice and remind her that whatever else it was Unity was not just.

  Harley plopped down on the bed. “So where the hell does that leave me?”

  “You can stay here too. These guys...well, they’re thugs and I don’t trust any of them any further than you could throw a grapefruit on Talos 5. But their leader, Teru, he’s trustworthy. I think. He’s a kind of mystic. But not some crackpot. I’m talking about the real deal. And I think I’ve finally earned their respect. They won’t mess with you.” She bridled at this and I quickly realized my error. “Anyway, you don’t need my protection because you’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself. Clearly.”

  “You’re goddamn right,” said Harley, letting a smile slip across her face.

  ‘We’ll stick together. After everything that’s happened, I don’t think we should separate. I’ll talk to Teru. Maybe I can convince him that this is his fight too. You should see the way these guys fight. Guerilla tactics in close quarters combat.” I didn’t mention the fact that the men they were killing were Federation guards, but I supposed that she probably could have connected those dots on her own anyway. “If they refuse, we’ll proceed on our own and find a way back to the Federation. I’ll face the consequences of whatever I have coming to me and take full responsibility for delaying your return.

  Harley mulled this over, pulling her short blonde hair back and resting her neck against my pillow. After a while, she conceded that it didn’t make much difference at this point whether she returned right away.

  “Good, so it’s decided. You’ll stay.”

  “I have to say, I didn’t know if I’d ever find you, Clockwork,” said Harley, “And it looks like now I never will.”

  “You may be right,” I said, “but I think maybe for the first time you’re getting to meet Max Derringer.” She turned her head and closed her eyes. I decided to lie down on the floor beside the bed, wanting not to complicate things between us any more than I already had.

  “Do me a favor,” I said from the floor, “don’t disappear in the night and leave me a a wooden sculpture that frames me for a murder as a parting gift, okay?” Harley laughed out loud.

  “That been happening to you a lot lately?” she asked.

  “You’d be surprised,” I said. If you’ve ever had to sleep on a floor, you know that it doesn’t win a lot of points for comfort. But maybe it was the after effects of the drugs or the news that my entire former life had been wiped out, but that night I slept like a stone.

  “No,” said Teru.

  “No? Just like that?” I couldn’t believe that the conversation was ending before it had even began. “I know that you have no love for the Federation—”

  “—they are the enemies of everything that we hold dear here,” said Sladurr. “If they are being attacked by the Gix it’s good news for us.”

  I saw that I needed to change tactics. “Okay, fine. So you want the Gix to just take over? The Federation is a bulwark against them. You all know that. Besides, how exactly are you going to keep on raiding when there’s no Federation to raid or attack from. I’m asking you to act in your own best interest. Not theirs.”

  “Our interest is us not gettin’ killed in a fight we can’t win,” said Charmer. A murmur of assent passed through the crowd.

  “What about you?” I asked of Crazy Larry. “You were a Space Commando,”

  “Yeah, and I was sent to reprogramming, same as you. Funny how I don’t see you rushing off to rejoin the ranks.” He had a point there.

  “You can’t hide here. One way or another this fight is coming to you.”

  “So, we play one side against another. Use the fact that they’re both weakened as an opportunity to raid them both,” said Sladurr. This brought a cheer to the crowd. I looked to Harley who wore an “I told you so” look on her face. But then I had an idea. A raid could be useful.

  “You’re right. So we raid the repramming center again. Strike a blow against the Federation and swell your own ranks too.” This seemed to go over well with the crowd. It was an objective they could all agree to and it still served my ends too. We’d have to get more people who had some reason to fight the Gix, and I figured that those people getting reprogrammed would still hate the enemy more than their own military government. Hopefully. It was a detour, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do. Better to set the Wings of Dawn on an evil mind control station instead of a supply caravan,
or worse a civilian transport.

  “All right, we’ll liberate the reprogramming center. Let’s fly.”

  “You’re okay with this?” asked Harley from the Whiplash. It hadn’t occurred to me how she would feel about such an overt crime against the Unity government.

  “What they are doing in this centers is wrong,” I said. “Believe me. I have personal experience to back it up.”

  “I understand. But why start here? You said you’d be willing to return to Unity.”

  “Yes.”

  “And this is what you had in mind? Breaking into one of their most secure facilities?”

  “Well...the Wings of Dawn have done this before. So it seemed like a natural start.” I hoped she believed me. I hoped that I believed myself. But I rationalized that this really was a step in the right direction. After all, there would be more people liberated from that prison who could now make their own choices about what side they fought for. And that was better, right?

  “Tread carefully,” called Sladurr. “We’re approaching the prison.”

  I could feel Harley tense beside me. “We’re going to be fine.”

  “Just tell me that I don’t have to kill anyone from our side,” she asked, raising her pistol in anticipation. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure which side I was on anymore.

  “Remember, we’re liberators. You don’t have to anything you don’t want to. Just take care of yourself in there.” Grraccccch! I heard the gut wrenching sound of metal on metal. Everyone flew forward in their seats from the force of the impact against the bay doors of the reprogramming center. A moment, the door computer’s algorithm putting up a fight, but not nearly strong enough.

  “Let’s move! Go! Go!” Bodies spilled out of the Whiplash like a flood from a broken seal.

  The military must have learned a thing or two about raids since our last one, since we entered a shower of laser fire from the moment we stepped onto the station. Behind me, I heard the gurgles and groans of my fallen compatriots hit in the scatter fire.

  “Harley!” I checked my back, worried that I might lose her in the throng. Then I looked ahead. She slid to the floor, firing as she fell in a graceful but deadly assault, killing two men in quick succession. She propelled herself off the ground with a roundhouse kick and she was up and running again. Damn.

  Zzzeert! Zzzert! Two quick bursts of energy barely missed my head and I raised my XU-41 Stinger and laid down some cover fire. With the hangar clear, a small contingent stayed behind to hold it while the rest of us broke off into smaller groups and pressed forward. Even the second time around it wasn’t easy navigating in the warren of hallways that made up the reprogramming center station, but flashes of insight snapped back to me. Teru, Harley and Crazy Larry were at my back.

  We came to a fork in the hallway, and I held up a fist, signalling for them to hold and hug the wall. I carefully peered around the corner. Three guards were standing, heavy rifles at the ready, scanning for any sign of trouble. Two more were behind the glass in the center itself. Poor bastards had no idea what was about to descend on them.

  The reprogramming holding area was the shape of spoke of a wheel with four hallways meeting in the center. Almost impossible to defend. I signalled with my hands to signal that were going to surround and then blitz from several hallways at once. I went first, laying down some cover fire that wounded one of three and sent the others two scrambling to cut me off. Then, I took cover while Teru and Harley doubled back to take the opposite hallway. I waited thirty seconds, then sent some sharp blasts, distracting the foolish guards long enough for the others to move in for the kill.

  It was almost two easy. Then, it wasn’t.

  With the guards dead, I deactivated the automatic locks and it was time to make our way through the cells. The first guy we found was pretty far gone. He must have been in for longer than I was, because after we pulled the plug he turned into a quivering bowl of jelly, cowering on the floor.

  Harley leaned down and tried to bring him up to consciousness. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. Can you tell me your name?”

  No response at first. Then, “Doyle” said the quivering ball. His shoulders were freckled and his unkempt firy hair matched his, wild disconsolate eyes.

  “Don’t try to remember too much yet,” said Harley, trying to reassure him. Just know that we have people with us who have been through what you have. You’re going to be alright. We’re getting you out.” It was refreshing to see this side of Harley that I hadn’t before. Nurturing, her gruff and self-assured armor was cast away.

  Confident that she could handle Doyle, I headed to the next cell. Then, the next, trying to bring the poor souls lost in a torrent of confusion and repression collect enough of themselves to follow us to safety.

  But I couldn’t have guessed what awaited me in the final cell. The door whooshed open revealing a female prisoner. She was completely naked, revealing what would have been a ravishing body if it weren’t so malnourished and pale. Greasy black hair hung over her face, obscuring her darkly and giving her a haunted look. The metallic tentacle of the machine above was on, an intracerebral drip filling her mind with the poison that they Unity government saw fit to feed her. I shot the panel with my rifle and it sparked and winked out. Then, I approached this woman, cautiously removing the tentacle from her forehead.

  She sat erect, in spite of the deleterious effects of her physical and mental confinement. Her breasts were pert and round, and her firm thighs told of a body that was once treasured as well as strictly disciplined by its owner.

  “Can you hear me?” I asked her gently. She shuddered, drew in on herself. She must have been terrified by the sudden stimulus.

  “I won’t hurt you. That’s over. Can you understand me?” she made no sign that she could hear. “I need you to follow me. Can you do that?”

  She raised a dainty porcelain hand to her face and brushed away the curtain of her hair.

  “Celeste?” I mouthed. It was her. She looked blanched, weak but quickly regaining cognisance.

  “Derringer,” she said, slowly becoming more sure of herself. My mind reeled. How was she alive, and what was she doing here?

  “I saw what happened,” I told her, “I saw the attack by the Gix.”

  “How?”

  “Never mind now. Do you remember how you got here?”

  She searched her fragile mind for clues. “I was the one they blamed.”

  “The Federation? It was a surprise attack. You couldn’t have known. You did everything you could.”

  “No. No, they said it was me,” she said. Tears started to form at the edge of her eyes. “They made it my fault.” She was shattered. I took her in my arms. She sobbed against me. All that she’d sacrificed, the loyalty she’d always shown. It had meant nothing. All they saw was a failure and the need for someone to pay. I was more sure than ever that the Federation that I’d served, the ideals I’d been raised to believe in all my life had been a lie.

  “Derringer!” called Harley from two cells away, “we have to move!”

  I took Celeste’s face in my hands. “Come with me. I’ll keep you safe.” She rose unsteadily to her feet. The door whooshed open and there was Harley. She saw in an instant what had taken me so long.

  “The commander. But, why?” she asked.

  “This is just what they do. I’m starting to wonder if the military is even worth saving.” Harley struggled to process this, just as I did. Even for the two of us, born into a rigid caste system with harsh discipline always looming over our heads this seemed extraordinarily cruel. What if they really were no different than the Gix, deep down? Just one senseless, all-consuming force meeting another?

  “Teru! I called. “We need some help here!” then, to Harley, “let’s see if we can find something to cover her with.”

  BOOOOM! I was thrown to the floor by the force of the shock, smacking my head against the cold steel. Blood spilled down the left side of my face as I rose to my feet.

/>   “Celeste! She was beside me, stunned or injured from the blast I didn’t know. I screamed, trying to compete with the ringing in my ears. I shook her, desperate to rouse her. “Harley!”

  She was beside me in an instant, mostly unscathed by the impact. Teru too was fine. Harley turned on him. “What the hell are they thinking, launching grenades inside a space station?!”

  “It wasn’t us. Something is bombarding the station from the outside.” I took Celeste and scooped her up in my arms.

  “Is she alright?”

  Her neck was limp in my arms. “Celeste!” Harley reached over and opened her eyelids. They were responsive to the light. She squirmed, then her eyes fluttered. “She’s alive,” Harley assured me. “If we want her to stay that way, we have to move.”

  WAAAAP! WAAAAP! WAAAAP! WAAAAP! The station was losing air rapidly. If the whole tin can depressurized, then we were all about to be sucked into the vacuum of space.

  “Larry? Charmer? Fuck!” I tried hailing the Wings on my HUD, but there was nothing but static on the line. I ran harder, trying to channel my frustration into movement. Besides the three of us we now had Celeste and the guy from the cell.

  “Not that way!” I cautioned Harley.

  “This is where we came through. I’m sure of it.”

  “The whole lower half is depressurizing. We’re gonna have to find a workaround. Teru, any suggestions?”

  “There’s an insulated service shaft we’ve used before. We can crawl through it back to the Whiplash.”

  “What makes you think the Whiplash isn’t what just blew up?” asked Harley. She had a point, but we didn’t have any better way of getting out of there, and we couldn’t afford to stand around and deliberate.

  “Where’s the service shaft?”

  “Follow me.”

  The reprogramming station’s klaxons continued to wail as we navigated around hallways strewn with debris. We turned a corner and found what had been the observation platform. Below us were the rows of cell blocks all arranged in the same wheel and spoke pattern we’d seen on the lower level. The cells were empty, but there was movement in the hallways. I saw bulky humanoid figures running in formations of threes, fanning out to look for survivors to terminate.