by J D Huffman
He shook his head. “We never restored power to those.”
“Why not?“ she blurted, though she was more lashing out than asking a serious question—she already knew why.
Fred answered anyway. “We were more concerned with feeding and treating everyone, and cleaning up the facility. Making the surface weapons functional was a low priority, and we did not have time to do it.”
“That ship’s going to be in weapons range anytime now,” Serim said, his voice shaking.
Sasha checked the screen for the locations of the other three ships. They were all hovering off to the side of the outpost, near the machinery warehouse. She opened communications to all of them at once. “Cargo ships: does anyone aboard know anything about the weapons on your ships? If you do, come forward and do something about the incoming cargo ship! It’s going to tear this facility apart!”
Several long seconds passed. They made no move to attack, though they did begin to bank away from the outpost. They’re leaving. They’re trying to abandon us!
“Fred!” she barked. “You know more about this technology than anyone. Can you give me control of one of those ships?”
“I believe I can link this panel to the astrionics module of one of them via a high-frequency—”
“I don’t need the explanation! Just do it!”
For once, she saw him sweat as he carried out her order. Then, the walls and ceiling began to shake as poom, poom reverberated through the room. “We’re under attack!” Serim stated the obvious.
“Linkage complete,” Fred said tersely.
Sasha moved him out of the way with a more forceful shove, grabbing the controls herself. She adjusted the heading and throttle on the improvised interface display, and saw it was the third ship in the cargo train she was controlling. She brought its engines to full power and turned it into the path of the oncoming cargo ship. The computer helpfully drew lines showing their trajectories in real-time, based on their current vectors. From off to the side, Fred watched. She knew he was judging her right then, questioning her decision, if he actually knew what her decision was. But how can he not know?
She didn’t even think about Angel and Janus, who wisely kept away from her. Let Angel focus on the people in the infirmary she’s trying to keep safe, while I throw a hundred others to their deaths.
Fred cleared his throat and took a step closer. “You will need to lead your ship slightly into a port yaw. The computer prediction is clumsy and will incline you to miss if you trust it,” he offered gently.
Sasha wanted to cry. She took a deep breath and adjusted the course. They were only red dots on the screen, drawing nearer and nearer to each other.
Serim called out helplessly, “Those ships are going to hit! Sasha, are you seeing this?! What’s going on down there? Those people are going to die! We’re going to lose those ships! Sasha?? …Fred? Is anyone down there?”
Demeter was next. “What’s all the shouting? The docking area’s taking damage! The last ship is shooting at the base! I hope you’re doing something about this!”
She wanted to close her eyes for the moment of impact, as if to pretend that by not seeing it, it wouldn’t have happened. One dot connected with the other, and they became one and the same. Their course changed, erratic, slower, descending toward the surface. She tried to imagine it as a single ship. Somehow, their ship had survived, obliterating the incoming attacker. She knew it was simply the surface scanners identifying the biggest solid hunk of debris as one of the ships. She couldn’t see the hundreds of pieces of both ships raining down on the facility. She didn’t want to think about the free humans who’d been killed in the process—people who trusted her to lead them to safety. They were all dead, and they probably never saw it coming. But I had other people to protect down here, and two more ships out there. They would have been next. We’d have all been next.
She waited for that solitary red dot to finally disappear as it impacted with the ground above before she turned away from the console.
“The attack is over,” she declared, her voice moments away from cracking.
“Sasha, did you see this?” Serim called again.
“What did you do?” Angel finally asked, her face much whiter than usual.
Sasha straightened up her body and inhaled sharply, looking to everyone else in the room. “We have more work to do.”
Chapter 15
Long Division
Sasha regrouped with the rest of her mining unit in the general operations center. She wasn’t sure what to call them yet, since obviously they didn’t mine together anymore. She wondered if “leadership team” would’ve been entirely inappropriate. She simply asked that they gather at the designated place so she could discuss their current situation. This included Serim, Angel, Fred, Janus, Demeter, and Tau. Tau came up from the infirmary and he wasn’t looking that great—pale and wobbly on his feet. Before the gathering, Angel made a request of Sasha: “I need to talk to you as soon as you’re finished.” Sasha agreed, as yet uncertain as to what Angel wanted to discuss. She assumed it wasn’t good news—the news hadn’t been good all day.
“Just to make the situation clear to everyone,” Sasha began, “The cargo train arrived here with four ships. Currently, only two remain intact. A third was loaded with fuel and passengers. The fourth, still commanded by Totality, grew suspicious of us and launched an attack. With the mining outpost’s surface weapons offline, I saw no other choice but to ram the third ship into the fourth. This came with a significant cost. We lost 117 people on the cargo ship I sacrificed.”
Everyone but Demeter and Tau seemed aware of that. In truth, she was rehearsing to give the same speech to the rest of the freed humans. She continued. “Parts of this facility have been seriously damaged by weapons fire and being bombarded with ship debris. From what Serim tells me, the heat pumps are failing and this facility will get colder over the next day or two, until it’s only a little bit warmer than the outside in here. While we could take refuge in the mines, that’s not a long-term solution. It was always my intention to get all of us off this planet, and it looks like our current situation will force us out sooner than I expected. We have multiple problems to deal with here. There’s the question of what to do with the Totality we’ve captured. I wanted to leave them locked in the mines, and that’s still my first choice, but I’m willing to entertain other options. There’s the fact that, whenever the cargo train fails to arrive at its next destination, Totality authorities are sure to be notified. Finally, we need some idea of where we’re going. I need a plan for attacking all of these problems, so I’ve brought you together—the people I trust the most, one way or another—to work it out. I’m open to suggestions,” she said, standing before them with her arms folded and her face showing her fatigue.
“We should just kill the Totality,” Demeter said bluntly, clenching a single fist at his side. “All they’ll do is eat our food and try to betray us. We’re better off if they’re all dead.”
“Apart from the fact that they might immediately take on new bodies and give up our position anyway, I’m not going to be a monster,” Sasha countered.
“Two things,” Demeter said as he stepped forward, almost as a challenge. “First, we already killed a number of Totality in capturing this facility. If they can take new bodies, then the ones we killed have likely already done so, which means we’re on borrowed time as it is. Killing more of them won’t compromise us any more than it already has. Second, I think you became a monster the moment you rammed that cargo ship into the one that was attacking us. You threw human lives at that ship—lives that are worth a lot more than any Totality. I say we kill the lot of them as a show of justice. They cost us so many of ours—let’s make them pay in kind.”
Fred put his hand on Demeter’s shoulder. “That sort of thinking will not benefit us. We should determine our destination, load everyone onto t
he ships, then destroy all means of communication within this facility. Lock the Totality out of the remaining controls but set them free. They will not starve and we will not have killed them. They will simply be trapped until their compatriots arrive to rescue them.”
“What about the cold?” Angel asked. “It’s going to get very cold in here soon.”
“They can retreat down to the mines,” Serim reminded her. “They deserve worse.”
“Much worse,” Demeter added.
“Pardon me,” Janus said, raising his hand. “I am the only one of us with administrative experience.”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “What is it, Janus?”
“It seems to me that you are facing a raft of problems. One you have not considered, however, is the question of legitimizing your leadership. No one chose you to lead them. Barely anyone apart from the people in this room even knows you.”
“Get to your suggestion,” Sasha grumbled impatiently.
“What we have are groups of people from numerous mining units. Those serve as their own sort of constituencies. The people in each unit will be familiar with one another—their strengths, weaknesses, and desires. I suggest you have each mining unit designate someone to represent them. We can have a council, much like we are behaving right now. But instead of a top-down leadership structure, every mining unit will have a say. You will not have the final word on every action. Power will be distributed.”
Sasha found some of his suggestion agreeable. She wasn’t happy with all of it, however. “I’m fine with the other units sending representatives. They can all have input into decisions that way. I am not in a position where I’m comfortable dividing power, however. I’ve gotten us this far, and I intend to continue leading. We need a single person everyone can rally around. Unless you know of someone who can do the job better, I’m staying right where I am.”
“In all fairness,” Janus said, “You’ve gotten a good number of people killed. It’s understandable that some may question your competence to lead us.”
Sasha looked to Fred, as if to ask him whether he heard the same thing she just did, then back to Janus. “Here’s my alternative: we can split everyone into two groups. The group that wants to follow me will go on one ship. The group that doesn’t can take the other. They can pick whoever they want to lead them—or nobody, for all I care. If they won’t trust me to lead them, I can’t do anything about that. I have to worry about keeping us alive and free of the Totality. I don’t have time to care about my reputation.”
“Perhaps you should,” Fred said. Sasha stared at him, annoyed that he’d take Janus’ side. “A leader does require a certain amount of charisma to draw people in. I know you to be kind and compassionate, Sasha. If you show that side of yourself to the others, they will be more inclined to follow you. I find your suggestion to split our resources troubling, even if that may be the inevitable outcome of our predicament.”
“Fine. Let’s take a vote. Who’s in favor of splitting our resources?”
Serim’s hand went up, then Demeter’s, then Janus’. Fred followed, though Sasha detected a bit of reluctance. “That’s a majority,” she declared. “We’ll split. I’ll announce it once we gather everyone in the mess hall again. Speaking of which,” she turned to Serim, “Tell the other two ships they can dock and disembark everyone. They’re still hovering around out there, aren’t they?”
Serim nodded after checking his console. “They want to know what happened. They sound angry, at least in text.”
“I imagine a lot of people are going to be angry for the foreseeable future. I want people angry. The Totality did this to us, and they’re going to pay for it.”
“I do have a possible solution for one of our problems,” Serim added.
Sasha watched him expectantly.
Serim realized she was waiting for him to continue. “Sorry. I’ve been looking through the database to see what’s nearby. There’s a star system not too far away that has a weapons depot on a moon orbiting a gas giant. If it’s anywhere near capacity, it’ll have all the arms we need to stage some proper ground warfare. We could even come back to Actis and free the other mining outposts.”
“Thanks for finding the weapons depot,” Sasha nodded. “But I don’t think we’ll be able to come back. This planet’s sure to be locked down the moment the Totality figure out what happened. We might come back someday, but it won’t be soon. I wish we could take the other outposts now. Their surface defenses ensure we can’t. We’d be shot out of the sky in an instant if we tried. These cargo ships aren’t armed or armored enough for it.”
“I still believe it is a worthwhile target,” Fred commented.
“I did notice something else interesting,” Serim continued. “There’s talk of fighting elsewhere in the Totality Fortress. It’s light on details but I looked over the fleet movement data—what of it is actually accessible, at least—and there’s an obvious diversion of forces away from this region of space. They seem to be headed toward the Dominix.”
“The Totality headquarters?” Sasha bit her lip. “I wonder who they’re fighting.”
“Most likely the Order,” Fred assumed. “The question is, why? The Totality and the Order have avoided direct hostilities for many years. A full-scale war has never been in the interest of either.”
“About that,” Sasha said sharply, approaching the troll. “You always seem to know far more about these topics than you have any right to. You’ve been a slave, like us, but I don’t know for how long. At least for as long as I’ve been one. How about the rest of you? Fred’s been a slave here for as long as you’ve been on Actis, hasn’t he?” She scanned the room. Everyone nodded. “I’m not here to accuse you of anything, Fred, but now that we’re making moves against the Totality, we need your inside knowledge. What do you know? And how current is your information? Are you in contact with anyone else?”
He shook his head. “My knowledge is decades old, Sasha. All I can tell you is, the Order and the Totality have not been engaged in direct conflict for centuries, at a minimum. If there is renewed violence, it may help us—temporarily. But the Order may not consider us more than useful pawns. I have no informants within the Order, and I owe no allegiance to any government. If the vagueness of my information has led you to consider me a mysterious harborer of valuable secrets, then I apologize. I always assumed galactic politics would bore you, and so I never discussed them in any detail. It is not as though any of that was important to us when we were enslaved by the Totality.”
She knew he had a point. It might have passed the time but politics never constituted one of her interests. Then again, what are my interests, apart from hitting the Totality back? I’ve never had the chance to develop any, have I? All they’ve left me with is hatred. She also thought of Demeter, and what Fred said about being “useful pawns” of the Order. If that’s true, is that why Demeter is here? Is that who he works for? He’s just here to help us until we no longer serve the goals of his masters? Best to keep him away from any important decisions and intelligence, then. I’ll put him at the front of our battles, let him risk getting killed. If he turns on us in the heat of combat, it will be easier to put him down without people asking too many questions. The last thing I need is word getting out of a spy within our ranks. As far as everyone else is concerned, Demeter is part of my inner circle. So is Janus, for that matter, as much as I can’t stand the man. I can’t disavow either of them when I need to make a show of strength. “I think we’ve talked over enough of this for now,” she announced, trying to put an end to their meeting. “I’ll set up a gathering in the mess hall in a couple of hours to relate our current status and next moves to everyone else.”
They all began to wander off on their own, except for Angel, who approached and took Sasha aside. “Sasha, I just wanted to give you an update on William and Tau. Especially Tau.”
Sasha frowned. “What is it
?”
“William’s fine. I’m keeping him sedated so his body has a chance to heal. He’ll need that for another day or so. But Tau… he’s not good, Sasha. He’s trying to look strong, but his burns are becoming seriously infected. I’ve been filling him with antibiotics, but whatever he’s got isn’t being worn down like I would expect. It’s probably some bacterium native to Actis that the Totality don’t have a good treatment for. He’s…” She turned away for a moment, gathering her thoughts into words. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
Sasha glanced over at him, watching his slow shuffle and unsteady gait. He winced every time he moved, and she saw how he clenched his arm in its sling with each step, as if it got bumped constantly and caused him intense pain. She knew suffering when she saw it. “Is there anything you can do for him?”
“I’ve tried to offer him pain medication, but he doesn’t want it. He’s afraid it’ll make him too relaxed and complacent.”
Sasha sighed. “Do what you can for him. Take good care—”
Angel gasped. “Sasha!”
She felt a little bit light-headed and tired, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary, so she didn’t know what provoked Angel’s reaction. The other woman reached toward her face and slipped a finger under her nose. She showed Sasha a smear of blood on it. “You need to rest. You’re clearly overexerting yourself.”
“Are you ordering me to take a nap?” Sasha scoffed.
“As the closest thing you have to a doctor, yes!”
Grudgingly, Sasha accepted Angel’s “prescription.” Instead of taking one of the Totality quarters that wasn’t occupied by their prisoners, she opted for their old mining unit. The feel of the hard stone against her body wasn’t comfortable, exactly, but it was familiar. The sensation of being somewhere she knew helped take away the anxiety. It made everything else happening around her feel a bit less chaotic.
She didn’t dream, however, and the rest was short-lived. She felt slightly more energized, but also as if she could sleep for a thousand years. Those scant few hours simply weren’t enough.