by J D Huffman
William couldn’t argue with that point. “Fine, ramp down the interference however you can. Whatever you do, don’t let the depot get a signal out.”
“I believe I can tweak the jamming to thwart the depot while letting Ornon’s communications through. It will look as though we’ve partially repaired our damage to get the ‘noise’ under control.
That’s a relief. But they can’t be doing nothing over there. And Sasha and the rest of her team could be dying right now, and all we can do is wait. We’re in no shape to fight Ornon’s ship. We have to surprise him and take his vessel. It’s our only chance. “Fred, when you’re done adjusting the jamming signal, can you transfer the comms monitoring to Serim while you work on faking those logs? I don’t want you distracted.”
“As you wish,” the troll acceded, tapping in a sequence to move such tasks to Serim’s station.
“You know how to do this, right?” William asked, leaning over Serim.
The dark-haired man nodded and gave a smile that didn’t exactly exude confidence. “I’ll do my best. Demeter’s better with this kind of thing. My knowledge is rudimentary.”
“I have marked the signal types you are watching for,” Fred said reassuringly. “They will appear in red if any are detected.”
Serim looked more confident with that bit of information.
William, for his part, paced around the command deck. I hate waiting like this, not knowing what’s going on down there, if everyone’s even alive or dead. I don’t know if we could outrun Ornon’s ship but if we got a head start, we might be able to do it. There’s no chance without being sure of Sasha’s team, though. I hate to stick around and potentially doom what’s left of us. All I can do is hope they survived and accomplished the mission. We’re too far away to communicate. Even if we weren’t, we’d have to bring down our jamming signal, and then anyone left alive at the depot could send up a distress call. Ornon would know immediately what’s going on and we’d be dead. Being so close to the edge wasn’t new to William, of course. He recalled operations in and around Erzan when he felt outnumbered, outgunned, outmaneuvered, outsmarted. Erzan’s criminals didn’t organize often, but when they did the consequences were devastating. His bosses always gave him impossible tasks. “Take this drug manufactory away from its owners. You’ll go in with two other men. We believe there are a dozen Blindside Grifters holed up within. Take them by surprise or you don’t have a chance.” He took them by surprise, all right. Half their number was dead without rising from their cots. William made the call to trigger an explosion in their chemical stores, which lit up the converted warehouse like a fireworks display. The fire spread faster than he could have imagined, and all he could do was stand by and watch as the neighborhood around the warehouse—full of apartment buildings, multifamily homes, and a couple vagrant shelters—caught aflame. Everywhere, that is, except for the small corner to which William retreated, nestled in the alley between two of the rickety apartment structures. By all rights, the flames should have taken both buildings, but something held them at bay. William crouched there, surrounded by frightened children and their parents, confused residents from the area who’d evacuated to the street after hearing the explosion, and passersby who recognized the only safe haven in sight.
Mercifully, no one perished apart from the Grifters, and while almost the entire neighborhood was consumed by fire, Chief Schultz gave him a commendation. “That whole area was due to be demolished in a couple years to make way for the new Minco Executive Estates. You just moved up the schedule.” William didn’t know how to tell the people he’d saved that their former homes would be replaced by gleaming towers for a mining corporation’s higher-ups. Ultimately, he wasn’t the one who had to—some functionary from another office got that unenviable duty. But that night never left him, the sprawling fire that somehow didn’t reach down into that alley and engulf them all. He remembered holding his hands up toward the flames, as if that would do any good at all. He had no reason to believe that it worked, but something must have kept them safe. His dreams of Devon and their later encounter on Cainin made him wonder if he had a guardian, of sorts. Was Devon there, even then, looking out for me? Is he the reason I survived Erzan? Why didn’t he save Josie, then? Or my parents? He wasn’t sure which possibility he preferred, a guardian who’d come too late to save him from the real losses in his life, or one that just stood by and watched. But he wasn’t there when the Totality attacked Transcendence, either. He was right there on Cainin, yet he couldn’t be bothered to show up when we needed him the most. Not much of a guardian at all, then, is he?
“The ship’s coming about,” Serim announced, snapping William back to the situation at hand.
“What’s going on?” William came closer, watching Serim’s screen.
“He’s putting a little distance between us, orienting forward… oh, this is bad.” Serim clutched the upper edges of his console. “He’s charging weapons!”
“Evasive!” William ordered. “Fred, take control! Get us out of the way!”
“Already trying,” Fred reportedly calmly.
William envied the troll’s serenity in the face of such danger. Doesn’t stop him from giving me a hard time, though. He gives me grief over my command decisions but doesn’t seem to care that we’re about to be blown to pieces? Strange creature.
William felt the ship shifting beneath him, his stomach turning uncomfortably. He watched as Ornon’s ship approached, and started to count seconds for lack of anything better to do. “Serim, can you get weapons up?”
“About half power. It won’t help,” he lamented.
“Do it anyway. I don’t want to die with cold weapons.”
Serim did as he was told.
“Enemy ship cycling into firing pattern,” Fred said in that flat voice of his.
A flash poured in through the forward window, causing William to momentarily shield his eyes. When he lowered his arm, he saw debris flitting away from the stern of Ornon’s ship. The other vessel spun unnaturally, then a second explosion rocked the front, blasting a hail of material in all directions. A third wave hit, obliterating what was left of the enemy ship, leaving only a field of shrapnel, annihilated cargo, and severed and scorched body parts. William was grateful he could only imagine and not see the latter. “That… that wasn’t us, was it?” he had to ask.
“Indeed not,” Fred confirmed. “The explosions originated from an unknown vector.”
“You mean we can’t even tell where they came from?”
“There could have been explosives placed inside, for all I know,” the troll sighed. “This ship lacks the equipment for a detailed analysis.”
William blinked, still processing their situation. How did this even happen? Did someone on board decide to help us? Was there a slave revolt within the ship itself? But why would they blow it up?
“I’ve got something weird,” Serim said waveringly, peering at his screen. “You might want to take a look.”
William leaned over and saw a new message had come in over a standard Totality channel, though that meant nothing in terms of its likely origin. The message was text-only, in a standard Totality language that he could read easily enough by now. It consisted only of: “You’re welcome.” William gave it a perturbed stare.
“What do you figure that means?” he asked Serim.
Serim shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Is that you, Devon? Still out there helping me? What, do I just have to think about you to get you to show up and help me out? I’ll keep that in mind—assuming it was you. Sasha’s never going to believe this.
Chapter 22
Pieces, Picked Up
No sign of whatever force destroyed Ornon’s ship ever made itself known, which irked and confused William. If someone’s trying to help us, why not be open about it? Why all the subterfuge? He could imagine multiple possibilities, bu
t not knowing which was the true explanation annoyed him.
What did not annoy him was Serim’s announcement that the fighting on the moon appeared to be over. No further energy discharges were detected at a distance, so William ordered the ship to proceed to the extraction point. Time to find out how many made it out alive and what they managed to secure from the depot.
The answers to those questions were “not many” and “quite a bit” which, on the balance, made the entire endeavor only a marginal success. He watched from the rear loading ramp as the survivors brought the cargo movers full of weapons and ammunition aboard. It was an impressive haul, he had to admit: rifles, pistols, ammunition cartridges, charging equipment, grenades and explosives of various types, yields, and purposes, body armor, and some items he couldn’t yet identify. Hopefully, someone knows how to use this stuff, or will be able to figure it out.
His attention was diverted when he saw Sasha being carried over the shoulder of one of the soldiers, clearly unconscious. He stepped into the man’s path, concerned. “What happened?”
The man carrying her stopped and stared at William. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get her to medical attention.”
Well, that means she’s not dead. That’s good. William moved aside. “Didn’t mean to hinder you. Sasha left me in charge so I’d still like an explanation. What happened down there?” He walked alongside the one carrying Sasha, hoping to get the details.
The man sighed. “It was a mess. The Totality were much better prepared than we expected. Many more of them than we were told, and they were heavily armed. And they had three guys down there with abilities I’ve never seen before. They could shake the ground and the building around us, move things through the air. Fire weapons they levitated. I’d heard stories about Totality ‘magic’ but I thought they were just fables. I’d never seen it myself before. Turns out that shit is real.”
I wonder what else they can do. “I hate to be a nuisance, but what happened to Sasha?”
“We barely saved her. Her helmet cracked and she was suffocating. Ian…” He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe it himself. “Ian just took his own helmet off and put it on her. He smiled while the moisture on his skin crystallized. Never saw anything like it. I didn’t think a man could die like that, so peacefully. It wasn’t so peaceful right at the end, but before that, while he was still conscious? Strangest thing I ever saw.”
They arrived at the makeshift infirmary and he lowered Sasha onto the bed that had once been William’s. William noticed that the other two beds were now empty, and he took that to mean that the older woman and the boy had recovered well enough to be on their own. I hope they’re settling in aboard the ship, then. He watched as the other beds filled up with more wounded and tried to stay out of Angel’s way as she rushed to check each one. She turned to William and the other man. “If you’re going to be in here, you’d better help. We need triage. William, you know how to do that, right? And you..?” she looked at the other man, waiting to hear his name.
“Meren. How can I help?”
“Check vital signs. Use your eyes, ears, and hands. Check breathing, check pulse. You brought several wounded in here and I don’t know who’s the worst yet.”
William checked Sasha first, whose pulse was weak but stable. Her breaths were slow yet deep enough he didn’t see cause to worry. “I think Sasha is okay for now.” He moved on to the next bed, where a young man lay, unconscious. Blood covered his skin-hugging environmental suit. His helmet had already been removed, so William leaned down to check his respiration and blood flow. Rapid, shallow breaths. Weak, quick pulse. He’s in shock. William hunted for the individual wounds that must have caused the bleeding and stopped counting after six. It was the first time he’d seen the results of Totality projectile weapons rather than energy bolts. The man’s blood continued to seep from numerous wounds and it was obvious there wasn’t much anyone could do. “This one’s done,” William announced grimly. Angel gave him an acknowledging glance and he went for the next patient, with Meren working on a couple others.
Two hours later, the living and the dead were known for certain. Three quarters of their fighting force had been lost on the moon, and given that the volunteers represented almost all of their able-bodied adults, it was a crushing blow. They had weapons now, but no army. I’m not sure which situation is worse, William thought. Grimly, he noted, We now have enough weapons to load every person we have left with several kinds of ordnance. He’d have found it comical if not for the dire circumstances.
As Sasha awoke, Serim, Janus, Angel, William, and Fred gathered around her bed. Meren was there, too, as if he still felt responsible for her well-being. She glanced around at all of them and William saw the unmistakable confusion and disorientation on her face. “Why are you all staring at me? What’s going on?”
“The battle is over,” Fred told her. “It was a success.”
“Depending on how you define ‘success,’” William corrected. He’d certainly noticed that Demeter failed to make it back, which put him in a sour mood. The only person around here that I knew at all, and he had to go off and die. That figures.
“I thought I was dead,” Sasha whispered, looking down at the bed. She raised her eyes to the rest of them and cleared her throat. “I want a full report. What happened? How did it end?”
Meren stepped forward, speaking in a confident tone. “I can answer that. We brought the six cargo movers back to the ship, fully loaded. We returned with twelve people, including the two of us. Only eight are still alive.”
She sighed deeply. “This shouldn’t have happened. They overwhelmed us. There were too many. I thought our numbers would overcome our lack of training and discipline. I’d never have agreed to this mission if I’d known the real odds. And they had the powerful ones… the magic users. Whatever you want to call them. They came out last, and I suppose we were very lucky for that. I think they didn’t expect the others to fail, or maybe they were confused by what happened with the powerplant. But we lost so many people…” She stared down at the bed again.
“We had our own excitement up here,” William said. “Another cargo ship spotted us after we strafed the facility and tried to get information from us. Their commander thought something was going on over here—he was right. We were going to take their ship when it docked with us. We never got the chance, though. They turned weapons on us and someone blew up their ship. That definitely wasn’t us.”
Sasha’s expression went from concerned to angry to puzzled. “You mean you encountered more Totality and you had some absurd notion to steal their ship? With what, two rifles?”
“It was either try to steal their ship or be captured ourselves,” William shrugged. “I think it would have worked.”
“Only it didn’t.”
“Which wasn’t our fault!” he protested. “Anyway, someone sent us a ‘thank you’ message afterward. It was very strange.”
“I would suspect the Order’s involvement,” Fred speculated, “Except the Order are not known for such clandestine tactics. Their scouts gather information and report back, then they arrive in full force, laying waste to all enemies in their path. To destroy a lone Totality ship in an unimportant region to assist a tiny rebel uprising is… uncharacteristic, to say the least.”
William could see something was on Sasha’s mind as Fred rattled off about the Order. He leaned in a bit closer. “What is it?”
“The Order,” she echoed. “Demeter didn’t make it back to the ship, did he? I never saw him after we retreated into the depot. Did anyone see him die? Did he come back with us?”
“No, he didn’t make it,” Serim verified sadly. “A real shame. That man knew how to handle himself.”
“Everyone down there died a hero,” Sasha corrected sharply. “I’m not interested in playing favorites. But I brought up Demeter because of what Fred said about the Order.” She
took a deep breath before uttering her next sentence. “I think he was working for them.”
Everyone’s eyes widened at that suggestion, including William’s. What is she talking about?? Maybe she went without oxygen longer than Meren thought.
“I know, you must think I’m crazy. Back on Actis, when I left him alone to monitor the general operations center for a while, I found evidence that someone had sent a communication on an Order frequency and encoded in an Order protocol. I can’t tell you what the message said, since it was deleted, but I can guess that it detailed our position and strength. Demeter was the only person who had access at the time the message was sent, and I doubt the Totality would have somehow set up an automated message to the Order. That doesn’t leave many other explanations.”
William was floored. She has to be wrong. Demeter grew up on Lexin, just like I did. He knew the language fluently. Spoke it perfectly. Could write it, too. Knew the history, knew the culture. I never suspected anything was off about him. He was always a model of productivity and efficiency. One of the best Militiamen I ever worked with, if a bit stiff. Is that it? Was his attitude the result of not wanting to expose his cover? Could she really be right about him?
“I would not be so quick to jump to conclusions,” Fred said. “It is entirely possible you misinterpreted what you found in the computer.” He turned to William. “You knew the man back on your world, did you not?”
“I knew him on Trepsis—the colony we were both assigned to. But you’re right. I never suspected anything with him. I think it’s an outlandish suggestion that he was working for the Order. Why would he have been on Trepsis, then? Or Lexin? I saw the transfer records myself, along with his biography. He grew up in Lexan, near the central government district.”
“Believe whatever you want,” she said dismissively. “I know what I saw. I suppose it doesn’t matter now, does it? He’s dead. If the Order were helping us because he was here, it’s likely they won’t help us anymore. Why would they?”