“I deserved to know. None of you had the right to keep that from me!”
Instead of the anger or regret Connor had expected to see on her face, there was only disappointment and rejection. He realized then he was past the point of no return. Even if he wasn’t broken, he couldn’t turn this around. She was gone. Forever.
“I’m sorry,” he said, humility dampening his voice. “I always appreciated everything you did, but I just couldn’t…” He searched for just the right words. “Things just weren’t the same anymore.”
“I know that Connor,” Charisma said equally as quietly. “And I am sorry we didn’t tell you, but it was for your own good.” She stepped close and looked deep into his eyes. “Dr. Needles told me to expect a change. But you never changed back. After that incident, you became darker. I can see it when I look at you. You aren’t the Connor I used to know.”
Charisma suddenly turned away and started filling her arms with seemingly random supplies. “It’s not that you killed Durand. I can’t condone killing a defenseless person, but I also can’t say she didn’t deserve it. It’s the fact that you could kill her, or that you could kill just anyone in that compound…” He watched silently as she paused to draw a quiet and gentle shuddering breath. “I realized I couldn’t ignore that you’re no longer the man I loved. That man had died at Sanctuary. I can’t live with a stranger.”
He didn’t say anything at first. Deep inside, he’d known for quite a while, even before she did. Connor used to be an extrovert, craving the attention and companionship of numerous friends. Or, at least, as many as he could get.
After Sanctuary he’d become almost an introvert. Being around two or three people was difficult, more than six made his skin crawl. Even Charisma, whom he’d loved, was only a stranger in his world now. He wanted to love her, to hold onto that one true thing he once had. But he finally understood that he’d been avoiding her because he’d known all along. That love died with the old Connor on Sanctuary.
He continued to watch her silently for another minute. Then he turned and walked to the doorway. He paused after opening the door and looked back to the woman who was still facing the counter. Her shoulders moved not as silent sobs, but as someone who was focusing on controlling their breathing. “I understand,” he said softly. “And I’m sorry.”
Chapter 29:
Connor rested in his hammock in the complex’s geothermal energy processing room, something he’d been doing a lot of in the last three weeks. Surprisingly, tensions between him and Charisma had eased quickly in that time. The awkward civility between them had almost passed from their interactions. He’d even stopped avoiding the woman. Now they were work-friends, perhaps even actual friends.
But that didn’t mean he was going to give up his little paradise. Tons of drinks, relative solitude, and an amazingly comfortable hammock kept him in the geothermal chamber as often as possible. Even the oppressive heat wasn’t enough to tarnish this silver cloud.
At the moment, Connor stared at the watered-down drink in his hand. He’d only made it a few minutes ago, and yet the room’s heat already melted almost all its ice. He tipped his head forward for another tiny sip when the door opened. In walked Akshay wearing a thin blue tank top and tan boxers. He held his own drink in hand and was eyeing it curiously.
“Hey, Connor,” he said as he heaved himself into his own hammock. “What did you make?”
“Mint julips.”
“Mint julip, huh?” he said. Akshay’s voice was even, but he eyed his glass unconvinced. After taking a sip, though, a smile spread over his face. “Not bad. We’ll have to add these to the rotation.”
They lapsed into silence for a while, the gentle sound of the machinery sending Connor off to sleep. He’d only just started a wonderful dream about a game of strip poker involving Rana, Danielle, and several other beautiful women he seemed to know yet never met before, when the intercom shattered his bliss.
“Hey, Akshay and Connor,” Jackie’s voice boomed. “We have an incoming message.”
Both men groaned as they pulled themselves onto the metal catwalk. Five minutes later, they stood at the back of the communications room. Charisma worked the communications, with Jackie and Danielle right behind her. Danielle had been on her feet for the last few days, Charisma and Jackie working hard with her on rehabilitation. Looking at the curvy Chilean now, it was hard to believe she’d been in a cast just a short time ago.
Charisma fiddled with the controls, trying to get the static on the monitor to clear. “I thought you fixed this,” she said.
“I did,” Jackie said, then lowered his voice and added, “I think.”
“You think, culeado?” Danielle shot at him with a grin. All he could do in response was shrug and shoot a grin back.
When the screen cleared up a few seconds later, they were shocked. The image on the screen wasn’t Krieger. It was Nataliya Petrenko.
“Glad to see you all!” she said through the intercom. Her face wore a strained smile. “I hope you’re prepared to leave. I’m on the Fleet cargo ship Ilmarinen. It’s scheduled to resupply the base on Zlotoff IV. One of its shuttles will touch down outside your haven after its supply run. Expect them in about thirty minutes. This is our only chance to get you out, and if you’re not outside waiting, they’ll have to leave you behind. Do you understand?”
“We got it,” Rana said. “We’ll be there.”
“I’ll see you when you get here,” Nataliya said. Her eyes flicked to Danielle. “It’s good to see you back with us, Lieutenant Tejeda.” The screen went dark.
“Fuck me, we’re actually getting off this bloody rock!” Jackie said with a grin.
“Starting to worry?” Danielle asked with a victorious smile.
“You kidding?” he asked, elation clear in his voice. “I was getting ready to put down roots. You know, a nice two-story igloo with matching picket fence.”
After a round of laughs, more from relief than his joke, each rushed out to collect their possessions for their evacuation. Thirty minutes later they stood shivering in -45 degree weather, waiting on their rescue. Even with their protective gear, fingers and toes were numb within five minutes. By the time the darkened spot that was their cargo shuttle appeared against Zlotoff’s dark clouds, Charisma had them stomping and clapping to reduce the danger of hypothermia and frostbite.
The landing shuttle kicked up a cloud of snow so thick that they almost lost sight of each other. Using the sound of the engines as a guide, the group made their way to the frozen skin of the shuttle.
“Close that blasted door!” screamed a man’s voice from the front of the ship as the last person climbed aboard.
Jackie pulled the ice laden door closed as the others looked around the cargo shuttle. Its bay was almost empty, only a few boxes and crates cargo-netted to its walls.
“Dick!” growled the voice from the cockpit again. “It’s fucking cold out there!”
“Y-yes it is,” chattered Charisma making her way to the cockpit. “Thanks for the pickup.”
“I was in the neighborhood,” the man said with a grin. Then he raised his voice so the rest could hear. “Best find something sturdy to hang on to. We got to get back up to the Ilmarinen in a hurry.” Not waiting for a response, the pilot gunned the engines for liftoff.
“Uh… why is that?” Akshay asked, a sense of trepidation in his voice. He’d put his back to a crate, interlacing his arms into the cargo net that held it in place.
“Zlotoff base sensors will have been tracking me since I left the Ilmarinen. They’ll have noticed I landed here after off-loading and are probably suspicious.”
“Combine that with the loss of several high value targets and the assassination of their former commander, the base will send an assault craft or two to investigate,” Rana whispered.
“That would be bad,” Danielle called back.
“That was my thinking,” the man said with a grin. He accentuated his point by pouring more energy into th
e engines. The cargo shuttle shuttered with the strain on its engines, and the passengers were flattened against whatever they lay upon. When empty, the shuttle’s powerful engines could pull just over seven G’s of pressure during acceleration, and their pilot was squeezing every ounce of speed out of the engines he could.
“By the way, my name’s Charisma,” Charisma said as she fought to buckle herself into the passenger seat. What normally would be a simple act took a great deal of effort at the equivalent of 7 times the Earth’s gravity.
“I know,” their pilot said. “I voted for you. Good to see you all made it. My name’s Patrick Spotted Eagle.”
“Sounds native,” Connor called from the back. “Do you come from New Aotearoa?”
The colony of New Aotearoa was founded by a conglomeration of Maori and Hawaiians who wanted a land free of Imperial bureaucracy and dogma. They spent a great deal of effort and resources to build a society that would respect their indigenous rights. In time, the colony grew into a haven for natives from numerous Earth cultures that were or had been down-trodden. The term ‘native’ came to be accepted slang to identify anyone who came from New Aotearoa.
“I’m native alright,” Spotted Eagle said, “but not from New Aotearoa. My family stayed in the American South Dakota. But now, I live there.” He pointed at a long rectangular ship floating in the black of space, the name on its side lit by flood lights: Ilmarinen.
Spotted Eagle kept the shuttle at max acceleration until the last minute. Connor and Jackie, who’d thought that simply placing their backs against the wall would suffice to deal with the acceleration, suddenly found themselves propelled forward as the reverse thrusters kicked on full. They flew through the bay, Jackie to thump into Rana and Connor to slam into a forward wall.
“Everything alright back there?” Spotted Eagle called back.
“Don’t know about anyone else,” Jackie called back, his head in Rana’s lap, “but I’m good.” She glowered at the grin on his face. Connor’s response came in the form of a pained growl.
Minutes later, Spotted Eagle landed the cargo shuttle in a ship’s bay that strongly reminded of the Prometheus. Their pilot bid them farewell, saying he needed to work on maintenance and paperwork for his shuttle. Outside, Nataliya Petrenko was waiting to meet them.
“Good to see you all again,” she said, motioning for them to follow. “Please follow. The captain’s insisting on speaking with you.”
“Any idea what about?” Connor asked.
“The base started jamming our communications as soon as the shuttle diverted,” she responded. “I assume it’s about that.”
Nataliya escorted them through the ship to meet the captain, although she hadn’t needed to. The Ilmarinen might have been much newer and more advanced than the Prometheus, but its layout was almost exactly the same. Connor could have found his way to the bridge with his eyes closed. He couldn’t help smiling as the nostalgia about his old home brought fond memories.
A pair of emerald orbs from the corner of Connor’s eye broke his nostalgia. Nataliya was looking at him as they walked, her face a mix of concern and relief. She felt the same artificially created yet intense familial bond that he did.
“I’ve been worried…” she started. “I mean, I didn’t know…”
Connor reached out and gave the woman’s hand a fond squeeze. He could understand how she felt. Being an only child himself, the bond they shared confused and befuddled him as well. “I’m glad you’re ok as well,” he said softly. She responded with a warm smile.
All heads on the bridge turned to the odd visitors, but Captain Chen directed them immediately into her office. Once inside, the captain leaned her fists on her desk, back to the group. “Would anyone care to tell me just why our instillation on Zlotoff IV is jamming our communications? It’s a pretty extreme reaction for diverting a transport.”
“I’m sorry, captain,” Nataliya started. “But I strongly suggest we jump before…”
“No!” Captain Chen growled as she turned to the group. “I want to hear if from…” She trailed off as she saw Charisma. “Councilor Adams? I thought you were away for an emergency session at a secured sight.”
“I’m guessing it was Rhondak who said that?” Jackie asked.
Captain Chen’s eyes narrowed at him.
“Not long after I was assigned to this post by Rhondak, Captain Durand tried to have us murdered,” Charisma said. “When that failed, she captured Danielle and tortured her for information. I’m sure that Rhondak was behind it all, but we can’t prove it.”
“And I’m to take you at your word of that?” Captain Chen asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s exactly what your brother Donnie has been trying to tell you,” Nataliya said. “He’s smuggled you files on Admiral Rhondak’s treachery. You’ve seen the evidence of bribes, payouts, abuses of power… You even told me that you’ve noticed him maneuvering his people into positions of power for some time now.”
Captain Chen looked the tall Ukrainian in the eye. “Would having him as the new emperor be so bad? A powerful leadership might just give us a chance to turn the tide of this war.”
“The Ka’Rathi are advancing on all fronts,” sighed Nataliya. Exhaustion was clear on her face. “If you can call what we have fronts. At the moment the remainder of the empire consists of several dozen small collections of ships, mostly civilian, and random helpless outposts. With a few exceptions, our infrastructure and shipbuilding capabilities have been crippled. Our enemy is simply too numerous, too well positioned, and too powerful. Our only chance is to negotiate, but that won’t happen if the Admiral’s junta is successful.”
“More than that, the people have voted for a new council,” Charisma stated. “And now that the new elected Council is cemented, a council that will challenge Rhondak’s power, he takes it upon himself to sequester them away in an unknown location against their will. Does that sound like a man that deserves your loyalty?”
Captain Chen looked them each in the eye before circling her desk to sit in her chair. She wore a look of helplessness and worry, the look of someone who’d whose life had been rocked. It was a look Connor had seen in the mirror too many times before.
“Ok, maybe Donnie was right about some things,” she said at last. “But that doesn’t mean he was right about a civil war.” The woman was still grasping for straws, desperately reaching for the one tenuous thread that might still hold her empire together.
“Your Fleet cargo ship is having its communications jammed by a Fleet run installation,” Nataliya said. “Do you really think that will be the end of it? How long before they launch an attack?”
The captain gave a sharp bark of derisive laughter. “Fire on us? For simple smuggling? Don’t you think you might be exaggerating?”
“They’ve tried to kill us once,” Rana said. “I’ve little doubt they’ll try again. No matter what it takes, the admiral cannot afford to lose track of Charisma. And since he can’t be sure what she’s told you, I’d expect a wing of fighters.”
“What if I were to turn you all over?”
“They still won’t know what you’ve been told,” Connor stated. “They can’t let this ship leave orbit.”
A voice from the communications panel on the captain’s desk interrupted.
“Captain,” came the voice from her intercom. “Fighters have been scrambled from the surface and are transmitting on old style radio waves. They’re demanding the return of the newcomers and the surrender of the Ilmarinen. Their weapon systems are targeting us.”
“Understood,” Captain Chen whispered into the communications panel. For a moment, she stared in amazement at the gathered. Then her eyes shifted to her hands on her desk, gazing at them as though she was seeing something on them the others could not. “The jump coordinates I received,” she said. “They aren’t really the location of Admiral Rhondak’s fleet, are they?”
Nataliya shook her head. “I’m afraid not. It’s the first step in e
nding this war quickly. Once at our destination, we’ll dock with another ship and you will receive further orders.”
Captain Chen stood and walked to the door, pausing just before opening it. “I don’t know how many of my crew will support your little rebellion.”
“It’s our rebellion,” Nataliya said.
“No,” she said. “I’m only in it for my brother.” She opened her door and rushed onto the bridge. Akshay was careful to nudge the control panel on the wall, keeping the door open.
The Ilmarinen’s bridge was alive with activity. Each crewmember worked feverishly at their console, their eyes occasionally glancing to the main viewscreen at the front wall. On it was the planet of Zlotoff IV, a cold white rock in the chill of lonesome space. Closing fast on the Ilmarinen’s position were twin fighters from the surface of the planet, their outline an artificial scarlet by the enhanced display. The air was thick with tension, as was the Captain’s voice.
“How far out are the fighters?” Captain Chen asked as she sat in her command chair.
“Twenty-seven seconds until firing range,” answered her tactical officer. The balding man was sweating profusely, his scalp glistening in the bridge’s hard light.
“Transmit our jump orders and open communications,” the captain commanded. A woman to her left pressed a series of buttons on the console before her and nodded.
“This is Captain Lian Chen of the Ilmarinen,” she said. “We are under orders to regroup with the fleet at an undisclosed location. I demand you return to base and reestablish our communications. I repeat: you must disarm your weapons and turn back to Zlotoff base!” The woman’s voice was calm, but it carried a distinct urgency.
“Negative, Ilmarinen,” came a response from the ship’s communication system. “Until your ship is searched for contraband, you will power down your engines. Should you resist in any way, we will open fire.”
Captain Chen ran her thumb across her throat and the communications officer pressed a button. A tone indicated the comm system was suspended. “Status of the jump engines?”
Echoes of Avarice Page 27