by J D Huffman
“Where’s everyone else? They aren’t dead, are they?”
Demeter shook his head. “No, they’re trying to free the other mining units. There are hundreds of slaves at this facility who are still confined to their own areas. Oh, you might want this back.” Demeter held up William’s sidearm. “Found it near you after you got beaten up,” he smirked. “I don’t think hand-to-hand is the way to go.”
“Yeah, thanks,” William coughed, taking the weapon into his grip.
The Totality continued to advance against them. William and Demeter fired furiously into the group of approaching enemies, the flurry of energy blasts in such close quarters making the air thick with an electric scent. William could hardly see anymore, thanks to the blood and the constant flashing. He shot into those gray uniforms whenever he saw them, whether it did any good or not, trying to rush past them to join Sasha, wherever she was. But the Totality wouldn’t let him through, physically blocking him, and the last thing he saw was a rifle stock coming directly at his face.
Chapter 11
Superficial
Sasha stood in the general operations center of Totality Mining Colony #992, Outpost #4, surrounded by corpses. Her body shook, making it difficult to move her fingers along the controls, but she did her best to make an assessment of their situation. She first noticed that main power was offline, and had been for some time—the whole facility had been running on backup power, with all non-critical functions shut off. She didn’t know if the fighting throughout the complex had taken out main power at some point or if there was another explanation. She did make note of the fact that communications were offline, including the automated transponder that William had been tasked with overriding. Does that mean they never got a signal out? Let’s hope so. But we need to get power back quickly or the other outposts will figure out something is going on.
Things had grown quiet since she and Demeter took out the last batch of Totality in this part of the complex. With control from general operations, they could monitor and manage almost any part of the entire outpost, but that only worked with full power. On backup power, many things didn’t work—including the security doors for the other mining units. From a Totality perspective, it made sense. The last thing you want if there’s a power breakdown is to let all the slaves loose. Unfortunately, this meant Fred and the others were on a hopeless errand. She turned to Demeter. “Do you have things under control here?”
“I believe so,” he said flatly. “However, Chief Pearson needs medical attention,” he added, gesturing toward the man’s prone body. William had been beaten and battered quite thoroughly and Sasha knew Demeter was right: the man needed help. But so did the slaves still stuck down in their holes. They have to come first. “A lot of people need help right now. I’ll send Angel up as soon as I find her. She can set him up in the infirmary. What I need you to do is monitor from here. The second power comes back, open the security doors on all mining units and announce that this facility is under our control—no more Totality. Once everyone knows what’s going on, we can talk about what to do next.”
“What are we doing next?” Demeter asked.
She detected the challenge in his tone and returned the attitude accordingly. “There’s still a cargo train coming in a few days. We need to be ready for it.”
She proceeded with haste through the complex, slung rifle bouncing against her back as she jogged, following the stripes on the wall toward the mining unit access level. She could only see properly when the red emergency lights came up all the way. Just as quickly, they would fade and she had to take it on faith that she wouldn’t trip and break her neck when it was dark. The general operations area remained lit but, as far as she could tell, everything else either got dim light or the pulsing red emergency lights.
As she explored, she heard nothing in the way of fighting, which she took as a good sign. She had full confidence that Fred could manage things, wherever he was. She was less certain about the others. She found herself hoping, in some small way, that Janus hadn’t made it out. She couldn’t prove he’d betrayed them, but she knew he had. Since killing him herself would be bad form and counterproductive to the purpose of her revolt, a convenient death would serve nicely. But when did I start thinking of this as my revolt? It isn’t mine. It belongs to all of us, every person the Totality has ever enslaved. That’s who we’re doing it for. Some will die, there may be some we never get to free, but we have to try everything we can. Always fighting, always struggling. There is no history—the crystal fire took that from me. There’s only the future. The future we will all build together.
As she approached the lower levels where the mining units were, she slowed down and took deeper breaths, not wanting to wear herself out before she arrived. A puddle of melted snow on the floor illustrated the blood caked on her face by way of reflection, and she recalled the encounter that must have put it there. One of the Totality had pulled a knife when she drew close, and for once her small, nimble frame gave her the advantage, letting her slip out of his grasp, twist his wrist so he released the blade, and allowed her to slice his throat open. She remembered a spray of blood from that, and it must have gotten on her face. She recalled the taste, the iron and salt, just like human blood—she’d tasted her own enough times, instinctively licking from wounds when she inadvertently scratched her arm against a jutting crystal. She sometimes asked herself how different the Totality truly were. They looked human. They spoke like humans, bled like humans, died like humans. She’d never seen them eat, but then she’d never seen them enough to have observed that in the first place. What she knew that made them different were the abilities she’d witnessed—the building-shaking, and the light in the face coming from nothing but a bare hand.
She was no closer to knowing why the Totality were different, what truly made them feel entitled to enslave other humans, as if they were so unique themselves. It’s just “magic,” as Fred says, but to me it might as well be some kind of technology. It only needs understanding, not to be shrouded in mystery. There are times I wish that troll would simply open up and tell me everything he knows, but he holds back as if the truth would be too difficult to bear. After what I’ve seen and done in recent days, though, is there anything I couldn’t bear?
She caught up to Serim and Angel attempting to manually pry a security door. “How’s it going?” was how she chose to announce her presence.
They both turned away from the door and smiled when they saw her. “Glad to see you’re still with us,” Angel said cheerfully. “We weren’t sure if you and Demeter made it to the control center.”
“We did, but main power is down,” Sasha explained. She pointed toward the door. “There’s no way you’re getting that open by hand.”
Serim sighed and pulled himself away. “You think so? I was hoping I could short out the locking mechanism from this side but I think you’re right. The Totality set these things up so they bolt shut when the circuit’s open. It looks like they don’t take power to lock, just to unlock.”
“Totality zealousness,” Sasha agreed. “Do you know if anyone’s working on the power?”
Serim shrugged. “I sure couldn’t tell you.”
She sighed, rubbing her temples. “Okay, let’s do it this way. Angel, there’s someone up in the general operations center who is badly hurt. Please get him to the infirmary. Have Demeter help you, if necessary, but don’t keep him away from operations for long. After that, scout around for anyone else who might need medical assistance. You know the infirmary equipment better than any of us, so we’ll use that.”
Angel bowed obediently. “I can do that.” Without further prompting, she scampered past Sasha, on her way to Demeter.
“Serim, let’s go see who else we can find,” Sasha suggested.
After a few corridors and a dozen or so Totality bodies, they came upon Tau, Janus, and several other people who were clearly slaves—giv
en away by how they were dirty, poorly fed, and shabbily clothed. Sasha looked down the hall and saw the security door had been blown from its hinges from the outside. She turned up an eyebrow and glanced at Tau. “Did you blow that open?”
He nodded, the corner of his lip turned up painfully. “How’s the arm?” she asked. He shrugged indifferently, so she moved on.
“How did you get through that door? Is it something we can do for the others?”
He shook his head. “It was a fluke. I got a shot right into the energy cell of a Totality’s rifle. That’s my guess, anyway. It made quite an explosion. You can see it dented up the floor, ceiling, and walls.”
Sasha took a quick survey and realized he was right. “So it blew up the Totality and took off the door at the same time?”
“Looks that way. Everyone else was standing back from it so no one got hurt, fortunately.”
She smiled. “Good job. Look, I can see you’re in pain. Get up to the infirmary so you can get something for that. Angel should be there soon to help. I’ll take it from here.”
Reluctantly, he picked himself up from the floor and left. She turned to Janus. “Were you any use at all here?” she rasped.
“You only gave me a pistol,” he reminded her, making a helpless shrug. “I put down cover fire for Tau while he did the real work. Is that good enough for you?”
No, “good enough” would be you, face-down in a pool of your own blood. “Fine. Thanks for helping.” She looked over the others who’d just been freed from their unit, stepping toward them. They were sitting lined up along the wall, some clearly shaken and scared. Among them were two obvious adolescents, three adults roughly her own age, and a woman who was considerably older, her hair long since gone to gray.
“Are you all okay?” she asked sincerely, getting down on one knee so she could see them at eye level.
One by one, she got their names. The adolescent boy was Julian, and the girl’s name was Freida. Julian explained that they were siblings from a world that sounded similar to Sasha’s and had arrived when they were a bit younger, but not so young they didn’t remember the journey. More childhoods stolen by these monsters. The adult men were Stefen, Ira, and Thul. They had little to say except that they, too, had grown up in Totality captivity. “And we’re ready to kick some fucking ass,” Ira added. She certainly appreciated the sentiment.
When Sasha asked the elder woman how she was doing, accompanied by a gentle touch to the arm, the woman briskly threw it off and snapped at her, staring into her with steely, emerald eyes. “You think you’ve done us a great service, don’t you? What do you think’s going to happen when you drive off the Totality and free everyone? Do you think there will be enough food, water, medical supplies, houses, land, everything? Do you think there’s a future for us? Let me tell you: we were put into bondage because there’s not room or resources for so many people. The Totality give us a purpose, without which we would be long dead. All you’ve done is hasten our deaths and made them that much more agonizing. When the Totality take this place from you—and they will take it—we will all suffer the consequences. I will beg to whatever gods still exist that they take me quickly, and hope that they have mercy on those of us who know their place.”
Sasha recoiled, speechless. What argument was there to have with someone so opposed to everything she sought to achieve? She faked a smile at the gray-haired woman. Anger welled up inside her and she had to suppress an urge to shout back at her. She hoped that anyone who thought that way might eventually come around, but she figured she’d never win them over by returning such hostility. I doubt she’ll be the last slave to oppose me, though.
Extricating herself from the encounter, she stepped over to Serim. “Can you keep an eye on this group?” What she meant was, “Can you keep these people under control?” She wasn’t certain what sort of trouble they might get into, but she didn’t yet know if she could trust any of the other slaves. She trusted those from her unit—all but Janus. She couldn’t say the same for any of the others. In time, she could learn who was trustworthy and who needed to be regarded with suspicion. For the moment, the latter approach served as a sensible default stance.
Serim took her meaning. “Yes, ma’am.”
She turned to Janus. “Come with me.”
The slender man who always looked like he was squinting stood up and did as he was told, accompanying her. She didn’t bother to tell him where they were going. She intended to search the facility from bottom to top until she found Fred. If Janus complained, well, she could claim she ran into a group of Totality who’d somehow been missed, and his body would go nicely with a pile of dead Totality. Stop that, she told herself. If he makes an openly aggressive or dangerous move, do something about it. If he doesn’t, don’t look for ways to get rid of him. It’ll be possible to do that soon enough, when we leave this planet. He can go somewhere far, far away from me, completely of his own accord.
Many more minutes of searching brought them to the main reactor area, where she finally located Fred. He was doing something to the reactor controls, a set of panels next to the reactor itself. The facility’s powerplant comprised a tall, wide central cylinder surrounded by several smaller ones, connected by pipes and wires. She had no idea how any of it worked, but clearly Fred know a thing or two. “Having fun down here?” she quipped, striking a pose with a hand on her hip. Her annoyance was more for show than anything. She assumed he had a purpose.
“Ah, glad you joined me,” he beamed. “I take it the fighting has ended?”
“Yes. Main power is down. That’s why I went looking for you. I should have known you had something to do with it.” She stepped closer, watching him move his eyes over the controls and adjust them in what looked to her like a completely random sequence.
“If you are suggesting that I cut the power, you are correct.” He retrieved the remote communicator from his pocket, pointing out that it flashed no more. “While combating the Totality, I noticed that our override signal terminated. I assumed this to mean William had ‘terminated,’ as well—or least his ship did. The Totality getting a distress signal to one of the other outposts was not acceptable, so I rushed here and cut the main power.”
“You know how to do that?” Sasha wondered why she even asked. He seemed to know all sorts of things she wouldn’t expect a slave to know the first thing about. “William is alive, by the way. Hurt, but Angel is taking care of him.”
“I am happy to hear our newfound ally survived. It has been a dangerous day for all of us.”
“Some more than others,” she smirked. “Nobody tried to stop you in here?”
“Oh, I had minor resistance.” Without looking, he pointed to his right, and in the far corner Sasha could make out a couple of uniformed bodies clumped together, likely beaten to a pulp then dumped on top of each other.
“When can you get the power back up? I’m tired of barely being able to see anything.”
“Any minute now,” he promised. Then, waving toward a panel on the nearby wall: “You will want to contact whoever is in the general operations center as soon as I have power restored. The other Totality outposts will demand a status report. I suggest offering them a plausible excuse for our lack of power.”
Sasha didn’t care for him speaking to her as if she was stupid. She shrugged it off. “A short in the power management system? Will that do it?”
He nodded. “That should suffice. Those take a little while to track down and repair. Remind Demeter that he need not respond via a visual channel—audio will do. He can claim the defect in the power system is not yet resolved, so we are not back to full power.”
“You really thought this through,” Sasha commented.
“I had time to ponder it while everyone else was fighting,” he said in a curiously jovial tone.
“Yeah, lucky you. You only had to kill two Totality,” she rolled her eyes. “T
hanks for making the rest of us do the dirty work.”
“I could have left the power on and this entire facility would be swarming with Totality from the other outposts by now,” he reminded her.
“Right.” She stepped over to the communications panel, keeping her eyes on Fred. “Let me know when the power’s b—” Before she could finish her sentence, the red emergency lights were replaced with something much brighter—and whiter. She had to squint. These lights were much more intense than what the Totality provided down in the mines. She pressed the button marked for communication with the general operations center. “Demeter?”
“Sasha?” his voice crackled through.
“Yes. Fred got the power back on. The other mining outposts will try to contact us. You need to keep them away from here.”
“Yes, I know. There’s already an incoming communication. Stand by.”
She heard another voice that must have been coming from the main comm station in the general operations center. “Outpost #4, this is Outpost #9. Report status.”
She listened in as Demeter responded. “This is Outpost #4. We had a power fluctuation and our communications were down. All is well now.” Demeter, by Sasha’s estimation, managed to emulate the dialect he heard without too much trouble. He must have a knack for languages. He learned to communicate with us quickly when he first arrived, too, as I recall. That might be a very useful skill later.
She put the thought aside for the moment and focused on listening to the conversation going on far away from her, physically, yet it felt so close she could almost sense the Totality on the other end scrutinizing them. “Then why can’t I see you?”
She’d almost forgotten about that. Good, he knew not to show his face—they’d see his slave scar immediately and we’d all be fucked. “Uh, maybe not ‘all’ is well just yet. Repairs are ongoing.”
The voice on the other end grew more skeptical. “What kinds of repairs? And where’s the Outpost Manager? You don’t sound like Driscoll.”