Jackson turned and put his hands up in a guard. He reached forward with his dominant hand and flattened his palm, bending the fingers into a “come and get me” gesture. All right, then.
I ran at him and drew the knife back to stab at his chest. He deftly sidestepped the strike and grabbed my wrist, using my momentum to throw me past him. I hit the floor hard, knife skittering away from me. One of the soldiers picked it up and tossed it back to me as I stood. This time I put my hands up and waited for him to come to me. I knew absolutely nothing about fighting but I could see how he used his body type to his advantage, keeping his weight low and his punches quick. He landed a couple of good strikes to my ribcage and I fell back, clutching my sides and making a show of how badly it hurt.
Concern washed over his face and he stepped toward me and I kept my face screwed up until he was in range. Before he could react I shifted my weight onto my left foot and launched my knee into his solar plexus. He spun and dropped to the mat, gasping. “Fuck!”
The assembled soldiers broke out in roars of laughter. I couldn’t resist laughing myself as I reached down to help him up. “A year of self-defense classes, Jackson.” I smirked. He shot me the finger and laughed. He turned towards his trainees and gestured wide-armed towards me.
“As I said, realize that your opponent has the capability to surprise you, no matter what you think.” The soldiers who had gone quiet erupted in laughter again. “That’s enough! Get back to your duties and we’ll pick this up tomorrow.”
23
Cady
Ted Cady fought off a large yawn as he executed yet another walk around the ship. He discreetly checked his watch and reminded himself that he was only putting himself through these “inspections” to ensure that everything would be in line for the engine test tomorrow afternoon. He took special care to check in with each of the guards stationed in the area to shore up the feeling of his authority. Though he wore simple black fatigues none of the soldiers questioned his being there. He looked official, had clearance to be in the area, and sounded official, so they assumed he was official. It helped that many of them had been asked to pull double shifts lately. Even the most dedicated grunts got tired.
He nodded to one of the men standing near an entrance to the ship.
“All right, son?” He nodded to the man. The soldier didn’t reply, his gaze steadfastly forward but gave Cady a nod. He doubted that he was much older than any of the men standing before him but projecting an air of age and experience only enhanced the deception. It really wasn’t their fault, Cady thought to himself. They were good people doing their jobs. If he had any other choice, he wouldn’t want anyone hurt. But these were drastic times. Decisions had to be made. In any case, he’d arranged a distraction so he didn’t have to put a bullet through any of these men himself.
On queue, a loud alarm blared throughout the grounds.
“Stay here, sir!” one of the soldiers instructed him. He heard shouts and calls over the radio. Someone was trying to breach the perimeter. The assembled soldiers ran to support the troops at the fence. Only one man stayed behind, maintaining his position. As soon as the men were gone, Cady approached the remaining soldier guarding the door. He stiffened almost imperceptibly and gripped his rifle a little more tightly. Good. The whole thing would be easier if the men were intimidated by him.
“It all right if I make my way inside?”
The soldier looked hesitant. “I’m not sure if that’s the best idea, sir. No offense intended but I wouldn’t want you to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
My sentiments exactly. Cady thought.
“You are absolutely right. I promise that I’ll keep to myself. I want to get out of the way so you boys can do your jobs.”
“I suppose you make a point,” the soldier said. His face said that he wasn’t entirely convinced but he stepped aside and gestured the head of security past him. Cady flattened himself against a wall as another group of soldiers ran down a hallway. He passed through a few halls until coming upon an antechamber to the engine room of the ship. He stuck his head around the corner and noticed that there were still two soldiers standing near the computer system responsible for showing engine status. He waited for a few minutes to see if they too would be drawn to the alarm but had no such luck. He withdrew and thought. There had to be some way to get them to move. Then it hit him.
“Excuse me, fellas,” he called, clearing his throat as to warn the men of his presence. “I’ve been sent to tell you that you’re needed outside.”
“You’re not Army,” one of the men stepped forward, his hand straying closer to his sidearm. Cady held up his hands and backed up a step.
“You’re right, I’m not. I’m AstroTech security. But the guy who sent me to fetch you is most definitely. Scary son of a bitch too. Wentworth, I think his name was?”
He’d pulled the name off a roster for one of the brigade combat teams on guard duty. Major Wentworth was one of the higher-ups in their unit, and it looked like the ruse was working. Both of the men turned to each other and raised their eyebrows. They approached Cady and one of them grasped his shoulder.
“Thanks, mate, we appreciate it. We wouldn’t want to piss off the Major. What was your name again?”
“Smith,” Cady said. “Alan Smith.”
“Thanks, Smith. You stay safe in here, all right? We won’t let any of those bastards make it that far.”
“I’m sure you won’t.” Cady nodded and smiled. Once the men were gone he pulled a small flash drive from a compartment in his uniform. He turned the thing over in his hand before interring it into a slot near the computer. “Damn shame that this is all going to go to waste,” he muttered to himself. “Boss coulda had two ships instead of one. Ah well.”
A line of text appeared on the computer’s monitor with a request for confirmation. Cady’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for an instant before typing Y.
“That’s that, then,” he said, dusting his hands off.
He left the ship to return to where the soldier stood near the entrance. “Hey, what’s the story, soldier?” Cady said, injecting a slight waver into his voice. After all, the big brave soldiers were doing their jobs. He was just a glorified security guard.
“False alarm it would seem, sir. Some clown flew a goddamned toy drone into the defensive net and it set off the alarms. Probably a reporter hoping for a close-up. We shot it down.”
Cady forced a laugh. “Bet it would be fun to use those things for target practice, eh?”
The soldier smiled. “You got that right, sir. It’d be a hell of a lot more satisfying than the stuff they’ve got us practicing with.”
Cady gave the man a solemn nod. “It’s obvious that you boys are doing fine work here. Well done.” He made a show out of stretching and checking the time. “I’m about done here. I think I’ll call it a night. That’s a good job today, son. Get some rack. Big day tomorrow with the engine test and all.”
The soldier nodded. “Good night, sir.”
Yeah, tomorrow would be a big day, all right. But not the way anyone thought it would.
24
Alexandra
I sat in the command center of the alien ship, balancing my tablet on my knees as I scrolled through e-mails. No matter the state of this project, the number of notifications in my inbox seemed always to double overnight. My watch’s alarm went off and I closed out the e-mail application and pulled up a stream of live TV. The human ship’s main engine was being tested today and David and I had decided to throw ourselves a little viewing party.
Jackson came in and I motioned for him to come over and watch the show. The President was seated in the Oval Office, broadcasting from Washington while the engine test was conducted in Florida. She was giving a speech, looking for all the world like this was the best day of her life. I had to hand it to her, the whole event was doing wonders for morale. The speech was interspersed with clips of cheering crowds. Feeds were coming in from Times Square,
Vancouver, and the Vatican where simulcasts of the engine test were being broadcast.
“Today is a historic day not only for our country but for the human race.” She spoke directly to the camera from the Oval Office, a broad smile lighting her face. “Today we will take the next step in human settlement. Today’s test will ensure that the starship Maine is ready and able to carry humanity to the stars.”
I snorted. From the way she spoke, you’d think that we were about to set off on a grand intergalactic voyage, not picking and choosing what little of humanity would survive.
“Maine? Seriously?” I rolled my eyes.
“Something funny about the name?” Jackson asked.
“The Maine was blown sky-high in Havana harbor back in 1898. Not exactly the name I’d pick to inspire hope.” He laughed.
“You just know that some staffer at the White House suggested that one to the generals to fuck with them.” He laughed. “Gotta get your kicks where you can these days!”
“Of course. You’d think that they’d run it by somebody before putting the name on the thing but I guess the world is too busy ending for them to double-check.” It felt good to laugh, especially at such a silly thing. The poor President must have had no idea of the context. A ship of the dead, indeed.
The camera cut from the President’s speech back to the ship, where steam rose from the launch pad. Small drones were visible circling the vessel and feeds from the observation platform were interspersed with aerial shots of the massive craft. The countdown started from five minutes to launch.
“Cute speech,” I declared, turning back to Jackson. “Does she actually think that people are going to forget the reality of the situation? It’s not as if the ship is going to save humanity. There are berths for a couple thousand, at most. She’s planning on picking the best and brightest, especially those who are able to reproduce.”
Jackson made a noncommittal noise in his throat. “Erm, Alex,” he said quietly. “You understand that Ka’thak and the council think the world of you. Everyone understands that you have been following orders and don’t hold you personally accountable for any of the negative consequences. If you ask, I’m sure that you’ll be offered a berth on their ship. You’ve certainly more than earned it.”
I felt a swell of pride at hearing his remarks. “It’s all right,” I responded, sighing. “The President has already informed that I will be serving out the remainder of my indentured servitude on humanity’s ship. I’m not worried about it, as much as I hate the idea. I have a significant moral compunction against killing billions of people.”
He was silent a moment. “I understand that. But is there any other choice?”
“With all the effort being poured into the ship, have any other options even been explored? There must be some other way, something that we haven’t thought of or explored.” I drummed my fingers on my leg. We had run so quickly headfirst into the lifeboat option that I had to comb through my memory to see what we had missed. The tragic thing is that I couldn’t think of a single thing. I hated it when I couldn’t think of a better solution. I shared this with Jackson and he sighed.
“Don’t worry, Doc. It’s going to be rough but we’ll get through it together. I’ll set my mind to it,” he said softly. He put a hand on my shoulder for a moment but took it away when he felt me tense.
We turned our attention to the monitors as the countdown continued. I heard the familiar ramblings of mission control as they ran down their list of pre-flight checks. When the timer reached fifteen seconds the engine firing sequence started. Flame spewed from the engine cones and dust was blown high around the launch site. The scale of the thing was staggering. Instead of the five engines I was used to watching as a girl, there were twelve. It was larger than life. Humanity’s last hope.
I had only been half-listening to the simulcast radio chatter but the change in tone made me sit up and give it my full attention. Something was wrong.
“Flight, please confirm all engines firing.” A male voice came over the radio. I expected the monotone so common to mission command but this was different. The voice over the radio wavered ever so slightly.
“That’s a go, all engines firing. EGIL.”
“Flight, this is PROP, please be advised. Fuel consumption is well above the predicted rate. Recommend full engine shutdown. I repeat, recommend full engine shut down immediately.”
“We’re taking a look at that now, PROP.”
Was it me or did the men on the radio sound scared? What were they scared of? The whole thing looked pretty routine to me, just a scaled-up version of what I expected. The cones of flame coming from the engines went from yellow, to orange, to blue. The hull of the ship started to rumble. The countdown was up to fifteen seconds now.
“Flight, we have to scale back that engine!”
“PROP, we—“
The radio transmission cut off and suddenly, there was no ship. A massive explosion filled the screen, the sound nearly deafening, even through the tablet speakers. Flame and ash swept across the small body of water between the observation platform and the launch site. We heard a brief scream and the camera went black.
I closed and re-opened the stream. Nothing.
The ship was gone.
25
Jackson
“Captain.” I stood and snapped to a salute at the doorway to Ka’thak’s quarters. His back was to me, a flexible screen spread across the table in front of him.
“Come in, Jackson,” he said.
“Captain, do we have any idea what happened?” After the fires had died down, the site had been locked down. Aerial surveillance showed…not a lot. The hull was still partially intact but most of it was scattered in pieces across several miles.
“Right now, I don’t particularly care, Lt. Colonel.” Ka’thak snapped. He grimaced, turning towards me. “No offense meant.”
“None taken, sir. I know where our priorities have to be.” Duty was duty after all. My concerns about my fellow man had to take the back seat.
“What we can see from our flybys and the human surveillance drones is that this kind of failure is statically unlikely to the point of impossibility,” Ka’thak said, swiping the screen to bring up footage of the smoking remains of the ship. “Our systems have been tested beyond any standards you would have had here on Earth. To re-route that much power…it doesn’t happen naturally.”
“We thought it might be sabotage,” I stated. “Even if the engines had suffered a catastrophic failure, they should have just blown the engines, not the entire ship. Not like this.”
“Whatever—or whoever—did this can do it to us, too. I’m finished waiting around for the humans. We will be launching as soon as we can. We will orbit the Earth for a day or two so we can ensure that our systems are working as expected, and then we’ll depart.” His jaw was set and he shifted slightly from leg to leg. Tension expressing itself through his physicality.
I had known this was coming, but it still hit me harder than expected. In a day or so I would be saying goodbye to my home planet, forever. That was not insignificant. I had no doubts that my place in this society included leaving, but hearing this made it very real.
“Is there anyone you’d like to see before we go?” Ka’thak asked. “I can send along a solider to retrieve your things from your home if you’d like.”
Was there anyone I wanted to see? I thought about it. My family thought I was dead. I hadn’t been one much for girlfriends, and I wasn’t married. No kids.
“No, sir,” I said. “I’ve said my goodbyes already.” Somewhere in my head, a little eight-year-old boy cried out in fear, but I held him and quieted him. I also felt like I was being pulled in two directions. As much as I wanted to pretend as if it was as easy as putting on a different uniform, leaving the rest of humanity to die rankled. I hated to admit it but in some ways, I still felt as though I had a duty to the human race. You can’t be raised for thirty-four years with one set of society and rules and flip
a switch to let that all go. No matter how I felt, my course was set. I had made that decision months ago. My debt to these people was lifelong.
“The social worker may come with us, if she wishes. She has earned my respect, and that of the council. I am not yet sure of what role she can fulfill on the ship, but we find something for her to do. She’s smart. I’m sure she’ll be finding her way quickly enough.” His voice softened a little bit and he chuckled.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Thank you, sir. I will call Alex and extend to her the invitation. I’m sure she’d be thrilled to get away from all the bureaucrats and bullshit. If there’s nothing else right now, sir, may I be excused?”
“You are dismissed, Lt. Colonel.”
I nodded and went back to my quarters to call Alex. God only knew how the woman was doing this moment. As soon as the ship blew up she had been called to Washington, whisked away in an Army helicopter. No good deed goes unpunished. When all this was over we both deserved a little rest.
The video call rang.
“David?” Alex’s face appeared on screen. She was still dressed in the same clothes I had last seen her in and she slurped what I assumed was coffee from a cheap disposable cup. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, we’re all right here, Doc. Ka’thak and the council are understandably freaked out. They’re planning to launch the ship as soon as possible, so—“
Alex’s eyes widened and she shook her head, coughing and making a subtle slashing motion across her neck as she pretended to scratch an itch. She then turned from the camera. “Excuse me for a moment please, Madam President.”
Keeping her eyes turned away from the screen she pulled a set of earbuds from a pocket and put them in. “That’s better. Can you hear me now?” she asked. I cursed to myself mentally. I should have known that she wouldn’t be left alone.
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