by J D Huffman
Angel stood upright after finishing her drink, which Sasha caught in the periphery of her vision. As Angel stepped away, picking her tools up from the shelf next to the faucet, Sasha took her place and leaned down to get her own ration. Putting her tools where Angel’s had just been, she positioned her mouth near the end of the pipe, pulled down the lever that would unleash the flow and let it spill into her mouth. She assumed the water came from melted snow, and that might have helped explain why it was so cold and tasted so fresh, at least to the extent it didn’t take on the metallic flavor of the pipes it passed through. She felt it slide down and cool her body from the inside out, a welcome relief from the hot work of mining. Just as she’d gotten into the rhythm of drinking from the spigot, it shut off abruptly. A voice crackled over an invisible speaker, “Move along!” She did so, turning around to see Fred. He nodded to her knowingly, and she nodded back. Everything must be ready with William. Good. Those cargo ships will be here in a few days and it will be the beginning of the end for the Totality.
She retrieved her tools and headed for the doorway, the others already making their own exits. The moment Sasha made it out of the dispensary, the lockdown alarm sounded. Again? Why?? She spun and saw the dispensary door slide shut, and then the same happened for the latrines and the main mine shaft, just like last time, leaving only their sleeping quarters open. She knew it meant they were to be punished again. Her thoughts immediately went to why, and it didn’t take her long to guess. Someone talked. Someone must have talked.
This time, she didn’t care what they did. She wouldn’t stand by and let them torture her, or anyone else. They’ll have to kill me. She took up the spot in front of her alcove just like before, gently placing the tools in the depression behind her where she normally slept. She hoped they wouldn’t notice. Let one of them get close to me. I’ll slice his neck open. She watched as everyone else stood nervously in their own designated spots. What she noticed was that, out of all of them, Janus looked the least frightened. How can he not be scared? He’s the biggest coward around here. Her eyes narrowed. It had to be him. There was no other explanation. He must have told them what we’re planning and they promised him something. Idiot. Whatever they promised, he’ll never get. He’s a slave, just like the rest of us. They’ll tell him whatever riches and luxuries and privileges they promised him are right in the next room, then shoot him in the back. That’s the Totality for you. How could he trust them? How could he betray his own kind like that? I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him. She started to take deep breaths to avoid lunging at him immediately. The last thing she needed was to have the Totality happen upon her already killing someone else. They were the real enemy, not Janus. He’d get his due, in time.
The Totality arrived single-file, stepping into the sleeping area and guarding each of the slaves, with the overseer waiting in the doorway again. She wondered if they did it exactly this way every time, in every mining unit. “I noticed none of you put your tools back,” the overseer accused. “I suggest you all make an accounting of them immediately. Hold out your hands and give up any equipment you are holding. If you do not comply, capital punishment is authorized to be carried out immediately.”
No, Sasha thought. They’re not going to kill me here like I’m some kind of animal. She watched as Angel, Tau, Serim, Demeter, Janus, and Fred all handed over their tools in an orderly fashion. They held out their hands, the Totality took the tools, then holstered them on their own belts for safekeeping. “Where are yours?” the Totality standing before her demanded.
“I must have left them on the shelf in the dispensary. I’m sorry,” she said with the most sincere voice she could manage, holding up her own hands to illustrate that she was unarmed.
The overseer jerked his head to the left, in the direction of the eating area. “Go check,” he ordered. Sasha’s guard moved past her and then around the overseer to verify her claim. With each of the guards focused on the slave in front of him and the overseer’s attention on the guard he’d sent to look for Sasha’s tools, she saw her moment to strike. Quickly swinging her hands behind her to grab her plasma-blade and pocket pick, she charged the nearest guard—Angel’s—and pulled the trigger on the plasma-blade right as she pressed it into the flesh of his neck. He screamed, his rifle making an upward arc as he involuntarily fired it, Angel diving onto the floor an instant after the scream, narrowly escaping getting cut apart by the Totality weapon.
Complete chaos followed.
Sasha didn’t quite follow it all. Once Angel’s guard hit the floor, she went for Demeter’s, who barely got turned around before Sasha jammed her pocket pick into his throat. She let go of it and then knocked the rifle out of his hand, more quickly this time around so there were no stray shots. She failed to notice Tau’s guard leveling his weapon, however, and it took abrupt intervention from Tau to tackle the man to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fred move faster than she could have imagined, disarming the guards in rapid succession and using them as shields when the overseer tried to take him down with a sidearm. Serim, Janus, and Angel kept to the floor, at least until the initial fracas died down. Once Fred reached the overseer, he knocked the Totality down with a swift blow from the stock of an appropriated rifle. All the commotion drew the attention of the guard who’d gone to check the dispensary, and he was greeted with a plasma-blade to the face, courtesy of Sasha. Ignoring the disarray of dead and bleeding bodies on the floor, she stepped with one foot onto the overseer’s chest as the Totality stared up at her waveringly, reaching for something near his waist. With the swift work of her hand tool, the overseer moved no more.
With an expert quickness, Fred picked up each rifle, removed a couple of parts with his hands, made some small adjustments, then distributed them to his unit mates. “The inhibitors that allow them to only be operated by Totality have been removed,” he explained. “We can all use them now.
With a deadlier weapon now in hand, Sasha went around to the rest, putting two shots into the head of each. She noticed Angel cringing at the sound of each blast, the hollow pop that accompanied the rapid energy discharge that was powerful enough to overwhelm the entire body’s electrical system and burn it out like a simple fuse. This brought the acrid smell of burning flesh, which made some of them turn up their noses. Sasha noticed that Demeter seemed unbothered by the violence, holding his weapon at the ready. “We’re revolting, aren’t we?” he posed, coming face-to-face with Sasha. She looked to Fred, who was busy digging up the remote communicator from the corner, where he anticipated the Totality wouldn’t find it. He held it up and returned her gaze.
“Now is the time,” he said simply.
Sasha nodded. He triggered the communicator, knowing it would remotely activate the carrier signal override and prevent the Totality here from calling for help from the other mining facilities on Actis.
Since it was likely Totality security personnel were audio-visually monitoring all of this, everyone knew that what followed had to be communicated and carried out in silence, so the Totality would be uncertain what they were doing. No sense in telling them our plan. They’ll just have to watch as it unfolds. But there was a bit of unfinished business to attend to first. She stepped over the bloodied and burned bodies of the guards toward Janus, who’d curled up into a ball once the violence started and was just now reforming himself into a human shape. She jammed the business end of her rifle right into his gut. “Give me one good reason not to pull the trigger,” she snarled.
“You think I betrayed you?” he gasped, indignant. “Why would I do such a thing?”
“I don’t know, Janus. Why would you? When have you ever helped us? When have you ever done anything but run like a fucking coward? What else did you tell them?”
She knew everyone else’s eyes were on her and they stood still as statues. She wondered if they thought she might turn her weapon on them next. But Janus is the only one here I don’t trus
t. They should know that. I’ve never been fond of him. You can never count on him to do anything. They have to know he’s of no use to us and probably a danger, as well. But what if they don’t know? I’ll kill him and then they won’t trust me. I need to hold off.
“I didn’t tell them anything—” he protested before she cut him off by ramming the rifle into his belly. It knocked the wind out of him and he fell onto his rear, coughing to regain his breath.
“Shut up,” she ordered. “I suggest you stay here. I think I might be making a mistake by not killing you right now. If it turns out I am making a mistake, I’ll correct it.”
He stared up at her, his eyes conveying that he absolutely understood her meaning.
She turned to the others, tilting her head toward Angel and Serim before leaving. The two of them followed her, though Angel looked uncomfortable carrying a rifle. They spotted the broken cart right where they’d left it, just inside the large metal door that sealed off the end of the main shaft. Serim knelt down and held the corner where one of the wheels had broken off while Sasha grabbed it from the front and Angel took up a position next to Serim. Angel pushed, Sasha pulled, Serim kept his corner off the ground. They moved faster than Sasha expected, especially given that the cart had a decent-sized pile of crystal dust and an assortment of fragments, none of which were especially light, and the cart itself was rather heavy. Even so, they got it up the ramp, moved it past the dispensary and living area, and stopped a couple meters short of the security door. Sasha and Serim went to work patting the dust around the door frame, but it didn’t stick well. Serim winked at her and then spit onto the frame before tossing another handful of dust at it. This time, it stuck.
Good idea, she thought, If a bit disgusting. She couldn’t deny his in-the-moment cleverness, though. She started spitting, too, this time rubbing it along the frame so there’d be a nice slick coat for the dust to stick to. She also took the little fragments and placed them within the small square window that the Totality peeked through before entering, figuring that would be another weak spot in the door to exploit. Once they had enough of the dust and crystal pieces in place, they stood back and Sasha aimed her rifle. She fired first at the little bits in the window, which sufficiently blasted out the clear membrane, then placed a few shots around the perimeter of the door. The dust ignited beautifully, its blue-green flame tracing all the way around like glowing snakes. A few seconds later, the flames went out and Sasha turned to Serim and Angel again. She went for the cart and the other two helped her move it forward. Let’s see if we can do this without getting tripped up by that damn broken wheel. With the three of them simultaneously pushing and slightly lifting, they rammed it into the dark metallic security door, knocking it loose and putting a decent dent in it. Sasha had expected it to break clean through and hadn’t properly braced for a stopping impact, banging her shoulder hard on the edge of the cart. She winced but quickly suppressed it, exchanging smiles with Serim and Angel, all of them knowing that they weren’t finished. They pulled the cart back in unison and went for it again. This time, they let go just before hitting the door and watched as the cart banged on through, the door falling completely from its frame and planting itself flatly on the floor in the outside corridor. “Let’s go!” she called out, drawing the others from the sleeping area. The rest came out to join, each of them sporting a rifle except for Demeter, who had two.
“Thought you might prefer I hold onto Janus’,” he said with a subordinate nod.
“Good thinking,” she agreed. “But he’s going to be dead weight if he’s unarmed.” She pushed past everyone else, who’d come to gather around the doorway she and the other two had just opened, coming face-to-face with Janus. She stared into his eyes as fiercely as she could manage. “I’m going to trust you with the overseer’s weapon. It should keep you safe even if it’s not going to run down hordes of Totality. Protect yourself. If I see you do anything the least bit suspicious, you know what’ll happen.”
“I do,” he breathed, ducking down and to his right to pull the small gun from the overseer’s corpse.
Sasha caught up with Fred who’d taken the lead as they moved past the remains of the security door. They stood in a narrow corridor that was clearly much better kept than their own accommodations—the metal was polished, clean. The walls were smooth and clearly marked with directions to various other parts of the facility: general operations, crystal processing, docking ports, resource management, and a few other mining units. Colored stripes ran along the wall for each category, and Sasha guessed that if she followed a particular band it would lead her straight to the appropriate area. Good of them to give us directions, she smirked to herself. She glanced up at Fred. “How many Totality do you think we’ll be dealing with?”
“Fifty. Sixty. That would be quite standard for this sort of facility.”
“Counting the eight we just took out?”
He shook his head. “That was total complement, so we could deduct the ones already fallen.”
“Good, so we’re already whittling them down.” She turned to face the rest and raised her voice. “Here’s what we’re doing. We take this entire complex. We know there are other mining units doing the same work we’ve been doing. Slaves, just like us. They’re going to be free or we’re all going to die together. We’ll go to the main operations area first and take control from that central location. Once we’ve done that, we’ll probably have to split into smaller teams and clear out whatever Totality remain. Locking down the docking ports is a priority—we can’t let any Totality escape. If you catch any of them trying to use their little magic tricks, shoot to kill. Don’t take any chances. We don’t know which of them can do that and which ones can’t.” That much was true. She recalled the one who’d made the buildings crumble when she was a child, simply by moving his hands. Fred told her some Totality had abilities like that. They could create fire, shake the ground, move objects with their minds, create illusions with light and sound. He’d even heard of some who could read the thoughts of others, but had never confirmed such a thing from his own experience. He spoke to her of magic before, and while she didn’t entirely believe it was real—her father had always assured her that “magic” was nothing but a poor excuse for the truth—she’d certainly seen things she couldn’t explain. She could not afford to risk the Totality pulling surprises on them. They were outnumbered, at least until the other mining units were freed, and if the Totality put down the revolt it seemed certain they would all die, and not at all unlikely that many other slaves would be punished to maintain order. The thought of such responsibility made her feel as though the entire planet bore down on her, trying to crush her with its unfathomable mass. She had to be stronger.
She continued. “There’s good news, though. We have outside help. A friend with a small ship should be causing a distraction on the surface right now. That will help us get into the operations area and take it from the Totality.”
Everyone but Fred offered stunned reactions, trading confused glances with one another. No time to explain right now. It will just have to wait. She gestured forward, weapon pointed straight ahead. “Let’s make the Totality regret ever abducting any of us!” They all cheered and rushed ahead as a group, and despite the soreness of Sasha’s body, the hunger and thirst that lingered from the rationing, for the first time in her life she felt as if she was in control of it. If she lived, it would be because she fought. If she died, it would still be because she fought—because she chose to fight. And the choice is all that matters.
Chapter 10
Death from Above
The insistent beeping of the command console woke William from a light sleep, causing him to lurch forward, disoriented for a few moments. The thought coalesced as his brain fog cleared. The signal! But it’s a few days early. Did something happen? Something must have happened. Scrambling from his seat, he went outside the ship and once again dusted off the window
s and moved the snow away from the engines through a combination of his gloved hands and booted feet. The process took a few minutes, which he hoped wasn’t so long it doomed Sasha and the others. It’d be really sad if they all died before I even got off the ground. They must have started the false signal early for a reason. Did the Totality find out what they were planning? What if it’s just a ruse to flush me out so the Totality can kill me, too? Ugh. No time to worry about that. I can’t take the chance that this is the real thing and let everyone down. Time to take out some Totality.
Once he finished clearing the snow, he climbed back into the ship, shut the hatch behind him, and spun up the engines. As the ferry ship slowly lifted from the ground, he powered up the vessel’s meager weapons. The specifications available in the ship’s database didn’t make him optimistic about how much damage he could do without getting killed. Ferry ships were light and maneuverable and those were the only good qualities of note. “Maneuverable” was, of course, a relative distinction. If the Totality had proper fighters or interceptors, it wouldn’t stand a chance. Nothing Fred told him gave him reason to believe the Totality had such defenses on Actis, though. Reflecting on Lexin’s technological capabilities, he had a feeling a moderately-advanced Lexinian superiority fighter could take down one of these things, albeit only in the lower atmosphere. Lexin’s spacefighters weren’t all that well-developed, and he had little doubt a ferry ship like this could easily knock his homeworld’s largely-experimental spacefighters out of the sky. This ship might be the weakest thing the Order has to offer. Who knows?
The weapons charged up as he flew toward the surface complex: two light laser cannons, a plasma cannon, and a mass driver which came with very little ammunition. He figured he’d use the last one first, exhaust the ship’s most powerful weapon right away in case he didn’t get the chance to use it later. He got a better look at the surface complex as he approached, with the best image appearing on his tactical screen, as it hid all the snow and atmospheric interference to clearly reveal the outlines of the buildings and point out the weapon emplacements. He targeted those first, the six towers designated to watch the sky. He let the ship’s computer handle the aiming and firing while he did his best to remain a hard target, diving toward the complex then bearing hard to one side. The mass driver took out one tower and William saw it explode in a hail of fiery debris before a second one was struck. But then he heard energy pulses coming far too close to his own ship, some of them near enough he could hear them scorching the hull. His evasive flying avoided direct hits but some of them were far too close. He pulled the throttle back slightly, trying to buy a little more maneuverability at the cost of speed, and the mass driver’s thump thump thump stopped when it ran out of ammo, right as a third weapons tower went down. That one was cut right through the middle of its structural skeleton, so it lurched forward and plunged nose-first into the ground, firing a couple more uncontrolled shots directly into the dirt for lack of anything to restrain it. The energy buildup underneath was too much, and the whole assembly exploded, hurtling debris across the open space William might have called a courtyard if not for being buried in snow. Several pieces of wreckage made pings as they struck the hull, causing William no small amount of worry as he wondered if any of them could pierce the ship’s woefully light armor. The specs mentioned “metallopolymer deflective coating,” which sounded fancy enough, but without a frame of reference he didn’t know if that was the Order’s way of saying “cheap, half-assed garbage” or “state-of-the-art in structural integrity protection.” All he knew was that, thus far, the humble ferry ship had held up in a rather one-sided firefight.