by J D Huffman
She gathered everyone into the mess hall as she had before. Everyone seemed less patient this time, milling around and grumbling and murmuring about their situation. She realized that a food schedule hadn’t been worked out, and with the cargo train operation, no one had been fed on time. She promised to keep things short and allow everyone a good meal as soon as she was done.
“We’re leaving this planet very soon,” she announced, news she hoped would be welcomed by most. Consequently, several cheers rose up from the crowd, and she smiled. Still, others looked worried or skeptical. She hoped to win them over, eventually.
“Where are we going?!” someone shouted.
“Home?” another person suggested.
She put her hands out with the palms down as if to quell their outbursts. “Please! Let me finish.” She gave them a moment to quiet themselves before continuing. “We have two ships. We were supposed to have four, but there was an incident.”
“Yeah, my friends from mining unit 12 are all dead! You crashed their ship!” a man near the back shouted accusingly.
She sighed, pacing on the table. “We were all going to be killed if I didn’t act quickly. Please, this meeting was not called so everyone can second-guess my decisions. I’m sure you all do plenty of that when you’re out of this room. Those of you who are unhappy with my leadership, I have good news. Since we have two ships, I am designating one of them for people who wish to follow me. The other is for the rest of you. Wherever you decide to go, whatever you decide to do, it’s up to you. The fuel will be divided evenly between the ships, and food, water, and medical supplies will be divided based on how many people are on each ship. I think that’s the only fair way to do it. If you want to find your way back to your home planets, I won’t stop you. I think you should be aware that the Totality almost surely stripped those planets of everything valuable, and either enslaved or killed the population. You’d be going back to ghost worlds.”
She let that notion sink in for a few moments before proceeding. “Our time in this facility is limited by another factor. Damage to some of the environmental equipment means this place will be unlivable in a few days. I intend for us to depart first thing tomorrow. Anyone who doesn’t want to follow me, your ship will leave first, loaded appropriately. The ship I’m leading will depart shortly after. We’ll leave this planet behind.
“Next is the matter of how we will organize. Any of you who don’t want to go with me, you’re free to leave, or stay and listen.” She explained the basics of the representation system Janus suggested. Some nodded, some shook their heads. Others appeared very puzzled. She caught a few shrugs and a little eye-rolling. I don’t know anything about the planets these people came from. The very idea of what I proposed might seem crazy to a lot of them. I definitely don’t remember anything about the government of my homeworld. I was too young and it wasn’t something my father taught me much about. As much as I hate it, I might have to keep Janus around just so someone can advise me on running something resembling a functional organization. It’s not like there’s anyone else I can trust that to at this point.
After briefly describing that her next target was a nearby weapons depot, she concluded the meeting by wishing luck to everyone who might elect to go their own way, and watched as a few volunteers filed into the kitchen—different people from last time. In fact, she recalled the kitchen displayed different faces every time she came to eat, which had only been a few times over recent days. I’m not eating enough, and I know that. I’m going to weaken if I keep this up. Nevertheless, she waited near the back of the line to get her plate of processed vegetables and a slab of tough meat. Still better than what the Totality fed them down in the mines, yet somehow not very satisfying. It filled her belly, though, and that was the important part. She washed it down with a juice she hadn’t tried before—something very tart and acid. It made her mouth water and left a strong aftertaste which she decided she didn’t care for.
Fred joined her as she finished eating. “You speak well,” he commented.
“Thanks,” she said, taking another swig of the drink. She would’ve given up on it if something else was readily available, but now she found the taste had begun to grow on her. “Have you had this before?”
He looked at the thick, orange-pink liquid in the clear glass and smiled. “I believe that’s grapefruit juice. I wonder where the nearest grapefruit trees grow.”
“So, you have had it before,” she smirked. “I was hoping I could introduce you to something new, for once.”
He nodded. “If it makes you feel any better, what the Totality consider ‘food’ for their personnel is woeful. I remember how real food tastes, and this frozen and reheated nonsense isn’t it. I imagine you wouldn’t really understand—you came here before you’d developed a palate. This is all probably delicious to you.”
“Not really,” she snorted. “It’s better than the stuff they squeeze out of a tube down in the mines, but I know there has to be truly good food out there.”
“Oh, there is. Someday, I’ll cook you something myself. Perhaps a nice steak; not too rare, not too dry.”
She shrugged. “Meat’s okay. I don’t think I’d want it all the time. It’s too… something.”
“True, meat isn’t an everyday food item. It’s good now and then, though.”
“You go ahead and think about what you’ll cook for me someday, Fred,” she said, patting him on the shoulder as she got up. “I look forward to it.”
“That day may come sooner than you think,” he called after her.
She admired his optimism, and the thought carried her as she wandered down to the infirmary, where Tau was sleeping again, William was still sedated, and a couple others who were clearly in poor shape rested with their backs turned to her—a young boy and an older woman. She didn’t know them and felt it wouldn’t have been appropriate to strike up conversations with them in such a situation. Instead, she stood at the foot of William’s bed and watched him. I wouldn’t be standing here at this moment if not for you. Your ship blocked that signal just as long as we needed it to, and you created a distraction for us that helped us get deeper into the facility. You kept them occupied and you risked your life to do it. For us. For people you didn’t even know. And yet… that I know so little about you means I can’t trust you. You wear an Order uniform. You had an Order ship. Demeter seems to be working for them. Fred knows more about them than makes me comfortable. You’re puzzles, all three of you. Maybe when Angel thinks it’s safe to wake you up, I can get some answers. But you still deserve something for what you’ve done for us.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, then strolled out of the infirmary, back to the old mining unit so she could rest.
No one else was there yet, which made the place feel strangely empty. She’d been so tired earlier she hadn’t even noticed, but now, at the usual bedtime—or what her body felt was bedtime—the idea of being alone down here unsettled her. She laid in her alcove on her back with one of her knees bent upward just far enough that it almost grazed the rocky ceiling above. She didn’t so much fall asleep as lose consciousness at some indeterminate point. She didn’t remember going under, at least, but when Fred shook her back to wakefulness, it was obvious that a lot of time had passed.
“Wake up, Sasha!”
She blinked and groaned, rolling around, trying to escape his grip before she became fully aware of his presence. “Fred? What’s going on?” We’re leaving today. Everyone’s supposed to leave today. What’s happened?
“Word has spread among the other mining units that we captured a number of Totality and housed them in the Totality living quarters.”
This didn’t surprise her. Demeter had help securing the ships. At least a good handful of people know we weren’t outright killing the Totality to take those ships. The news must have spread quickly. “That look on your face tells me something bad has happened,�
�� she said impatiently. “Just tell me!”
He sighed. “Many others—I cannot tell you exactly who—figured out how to unlock the Totality living quarters and proceeded to raid them. Some Totality have been beaten and others have been killed. Still more may die. No one’s gone to confront them. They’ve armed themselves with Totality rifles and have posted guards.”
I should have been more worried about something like this, she chastised herself. I should have known people wouldn’t stand for me letting Totality live. I’m trying to be reasonable but that’s not going to be enough for some. I should’ve put the Totality somewhere else, somewhere nobody could get to them until we left. Now, it’s too late. “Take me to them,” she insisted.
Fred led her to the Totality living quarters, which she had yet to see personally. While sleeping in one of them was always her option since the uprising—it wasn’t as if anyone could have stopped her—this was her first chance to see them. The area looked like a dormitory, with doors equally spaced apart, bright lighting, and an inviting atmosphere. It looked more like a place people actually lived than any other part of the facility. I should have come here sooner, she realized.
Not far inside the dormitory area were two men standing watch. They blocked her path, Totality rifles across their chests. “We can’t let you through,” one of them said, almost apologetically.
She stared up at him. Where did they get rifles? Did Fred teach them how to make the modifications? Before she could find out, she heard a scream from down the hall, and then the muffled pop of a weapon being fired. The screaming stopped. “If I hear another Totality die, you’re going to die right along with it, and the same will go for anyone who is defending this activity.” She made sure to match the other guard’s gaze, too.
They separated and let her through. Fred came up alongside, and she knew he was worried. “Sasha, you are unarmed. You don’t know what these people might do. They are angry and vengeful. They are lashing out. They might kill you.”
“Then at least I’ll be killed by my own kind,” she said flatly, not breaking her pace whatsoever. She came to the room where she suspected the scream and subsequent shot had emanated from, and found three men gathered around the corpse of a Totality, taking turns kicking its lifeless body.
“Stop that,” she commanded, standing in the doorway.
They did, then glanced at her, then traded looks with each other before putting their eyes on her again. They were all taller than her, wider and more muscular—probably some of the strongest men the facility had to offer. They’d make good soldiers, she thought to herself, If I can keep them from engaging in casual brutality.
“Who do you think you are, to give us orders?” one of them grumbled.
“I’m the person who freed you from bondage, in case you’ve forgotten. If you don’t want to follow me, you don’t have to. But you haven’t left on that ship yet, and until you do, you’ll behave like a decent human being.”
He cut through the Totality’s crumpled corpse with his eyes, then fixed the same piercing gaze on her. “He wasn’t too decent to us. I call it we just paid him back.”
“This sort of payback stops right now,” she repeated. “You want to kill Totality, you do it in combat. You don’t murder prisoners—especially not my prisoners.”
She noticed pockmarks on the wall behind the man who’d been speaking to her, and streaks and splatters of blood stretching from the wall to the floor. She pointed. “How many Totality have you lined up and killed here?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Maybe ten. Who cares?”
“’Who cares?’” she echoed. “Who cares when people die? Who cares about ten more corpses? Who cares so little for the lives of others he’d throw them away like sewage? You sound like Totality.“
He inhaled sharply and this time, he leveled his rifle at her. “You take that back.”
Provocatively, she took a step closer. She stood at almost point-blank range, defiant. “I’m not taking anything back. You want to kill me, kill me. I promise you, Fred’s not going to treat you any more kindly, and I think he’s less vulnerable to weapons fire than I am. Now, put that gun down. We’re the free humans. We’re the future. We’re going to build a civilization—a culture. We’re not going to be a gang of outlaws, killing as we please. If you want to be a bandit, you can go do that on your own. You’re not doing it while you answer to me. Is that understood?”
Reluctantly, and while chewing furiously on his lip, the scraggly man lowered his rifle and breathed out a guttural, “Fine.”
“Now, here’s what you’re going to do. First, you will surrender your weapons to Fred here. He’ll make sure they’re all stored properly.” Next, she gestured to the body on the floor. “When that’s done, I want this one and the other bodies arranged neatly in the hallway. Then, you and your friends will load them all into the incinerator. When that’s finished, I suggest you make your way down to the docking bay so you can leave on the first ship. If you decide, in any way, to argue with or refuse these orders, I’ll have Fred snap your femur bones in half and leave you here.”
Without even waiting for a response, she turned and left the room, strolling briskly away.
Fred caught up with her, his expression uncertain. “You don’t expect me to hurt them, do you?”
“I only expect them to believe you’ll do it. If they don’t do what I said, though…”
“Sasha!” he scolded.
She stopped in her tracks and stared up into his green eyes, that green that wasn’t so different from the crystals they used to mine. They even glowed similarly. “We’re not going to be lawless, Fred. We’re not doing that. We’ll do this right. We’ll hit the Totality, and we’ll hit them hard, but we’ll show mercy to the survivors—to our prisoners. I’ll show them what they never showed me, and what they never showed my father. We’re better than them, Fred. I know it. I believe it. But we have to be better. We have to show it. Prove it. I’ll chase them down wherever they go. If they fight us, they die. If they don’t fight, if they throw down their arms and surrender, they can live. At some point, maybe when this is all over and we’ve completely destroyed the Totality system, they can live among us. We’ll treat them better than they ever treated us. They’ll never hold power. They’ll never make important decisions. They’ll never be allowed to forget what they did to us. But they will be free. They won’t be slaves. But I hope the guilt—if they are capable of guilt—weighs on them. I hope it crushes them. I hope it burns them down to the depths of their being so badly that they’ll wish we’d enslaved them. That’s my vision, Fred. That’s the future I plan to see. And anyone who wants to stand in the way of it, I won’t leave standing for long.”
Chapter 16
A Shield of Men and Monsters
“I think people are following me,” Devon explained, sitting on a comfortable sofa across from a middle-aged woman who listened to and recorded his words, responding only occasionally to seek clarification or expansion.
“Why do you think someone is following you?” she asked, crossing her legs and looking over the notes their session automatically generated on her PMD.
“I see this gray car all the time. Everywhere I go, it’s either parked where I can see it, or I catch it following me. It turns off onto other streets for a while, but eventually it comes right back. I even started going to work again, and I see it there, too. There have been days where I look out my office window down at the parking lot and there it is, a few spaces over from my car. By the time I’m ready to leave, it’s gone, but I still end up spotting it a few times on my way home. I’ve seen it hanging around the parking lot where I live. I know it sounds crazy but this has been happening since I got home from the hospital.”
“Have you considered that gray cars are common?”
“Unless you’re telling me that gray, late model Luminus Travelers have suddenly become
all the rage, I don’t think that’s a good explanation.”
“And what if the gray cars don’t exist at all?”
“So, what, I’m imagining them? I’m hallucinating? Crazy?”
“I didn’t say you were crazy, Devon,” she intoned calmly. “You were seriously injured in the accident and you may have suffered undetectable brain trauma, especially given your reported memory loss. There is no shame in that. If that’s the source of these sightings, then it can be treated.”
“I’m already on a tranquilizer. It doesn’t help. It makes me tired but it doesn’t make me feel any better. I’m still worried all the time. I still want to know what happened with that accident. It shouldn’t have been possible. Not something like that. Someone’s covering it up. People should be outraged.”
“Devon, sometimes things happen that we don’t understand. We seek answers because we’re only human. There doesn’t always have to be an answer.”
“Is it so crazy to want answers? Why does everyone want to discourage me from finding them?” His eyes narrowed. “Did someone get to you? Did they threaten you?” Then, he turned more accusatory, despite himself. “Did they bribe you into talking me out of pursuing this?”
She shook her head. “No one’s threatened me, Devon. No one’s paid me off, either. Do you hear yourself? You’re concocting elaborate conspiracies. You’re displaying symptoms of—”
“Paranoid delusions,” he finished for her. “I know. I’ve read about it. I have the symptoms. I get it. You can check your little boxes and write me off as a lunatic and ship me off to a mental hospital where I’ll be drugged up and tied to a bed.”
She barely stifled a laugh. “No, it doesn’t work like that anymore. It hasn’t for a long time. You shouldn’t watch so many old movies and TV shows. If you wanted, you could go to a facility where you could be observed. Different medications could be tried, as well as different therapeutic techniques, until we find a good combination that eases your anxiety and stress and helps relieve you of these paranoid ideas.”