by L S Roebuck
“The value of your love and hope are suspect,” Raven One’s voice came out of the comm box sewn into Järvinen’s sleeve. “Know that if Chasm fails, that it was for the failure of men.”
“I’m sorry.” Järvinen pulled the trigger, and his body collapsed.
Johnson saw his chance. He sprinted for some cover and slipped behind the partially raised safety curtain.
Marcos and Twig ran up to Järvinen’s fallen body. Marcos felt for a pulse.
“Dead,” Marcos said.
Raven One’s voice once again emerged from the now lifeless Järvinen’s sleeve.
“Soon you will all join him.”
North shouted from where he was seated, “Who are you? What do you want?”
The comm box clicked and then only offered static.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kimberly Macready was not upset. She expected that Johnson and Järvinen would likely fail. She had another plan for getting back onto Magellan and in control of the command center.
Kimberly and Amberly stood on the bridge of the Firebird, looking through the viewport at the American Spirit, tethered to Magellan by various steel cables. Between the massive spaceship and the waypoint, the gangway slowly oscillated, like a metronome, with its base attached to Magellan, and the head, formerly attached to the America Spirit, free floating in space.
The cloud of human bodies, floating in various directions, was slowly dissipating as the Chasm troops caught on the gangway drifted off into the dark void.
Amberly felt like she had been turned to stone. The sheer magnitude of death parading in front of her was more than she would have ever imagined in her most frightening nightmare.
Dek, who was also standing, stepped behind Amberly and softly embraced her shoulders with his hands and forearms. Amberly responded warmly to the human touch, leaning back into Dek. She felt compassion and understanding in his presence, and she wanted to believe that Dek was as horrified as she was.
Unaware of the firefight in the Magellan hangar, Amberly wondered if this mass execution was necessary and was beginning to think that maybe the Magellan Marines were as evil as Chasm. Or maybe Joti was right — there is no evil, just the truth that is defined by power. Amberly’s head was spinning, and she just wanted to be home, sitting in her small dining room, eating rice with her sister, giggling about boys and getting excited about discovering a new stellar anomaly. That life seemed so far away.
Thick in thought, Amberly barely noticed that her mother was chatting with Captain Järvinen over the comm unit. Something about how all men disappointed her. Then she heard the gunshot, and her head snapped up.
“Holy hell!” Sparks said. “Did Järvinen just kill himself? Who knew the guy had a spine?”
There was a scuffling sound, then an unknown male voice came over the comm. “Dead,” he said.
Kimberly leaned forward and activated her microphone. “Soon you will all join him,” she said, pouring certainty and confidence into her tone.
The voice that replied made Amberly jump.
“Who are you? What do you want?” North asked.
Kimberly and Amberly both recognized the voice at once. Kimberly severed the connection.
“North!” Amberly shouted, instinctively lurching away from Dek toward Kimberly’s communicator. “North! North!” She fought back the tears. She knew she had to get control of herself, if Kimberly thought that her daughter’s loyalty was in question, her own life would be in peril — and she certainly would be of no help to her friends on Magellan.
Like a put-out teenager, Dek immediately soured at Amberly’s emotional reaction to his would-be rival. Kimberly also became concerned, furrowed her brow and let out a nearly inaudible, “Hmmmm.”
Sparks seemed not as interested in Amberly’s reaction to hearing her friends voice as she was in North himself. “You know, it’s a pity we couldn’t take North with us. He makes a nice photo. When I was doing mission research, I set his mug as the background of my infopad. Mmmm. Men in uniform really fire my —”
“Sparks,” Kimberly interrupted. Sparks’ description of North as some sort of plaything was so anachronistic in this life-and-death scenario, Amberly looked at the other woman with disbelieving eyes.
“Sometimes I feel like we have too much brain around here and not enough brawn,” Sparks lamented.
Dek cleared his throat in a way to let Sparks know he didn’t appreciate her flippancy, and then turned to Kimberly. “What next?”
“Dek, Amberly,” she replied, “Get your spacesuits on. Sparks, take the pilot’s station. And make sure the escape pod is working, you are going to need it.”
Even though she didn’t know the details of the plan yet, Sparks smiled excitedly. Her faith in Raven One’s ability to salvage the operation was absolute, and Sparks was ready to get off the sidelines and take matters into her own significantly capable hands.
“Finally. Let’s finish this.”
Boro had explained to Moreno that the somewhat random military style assaults now being carried out by Chasm cells were probably a contingency tactic to distract Magellan authorities to give Chasm leadership the time to carry out the primary mission.
“The cells are just supposed to make mischief until Raven One gives the cell commanders the authorization code to move to the next phase. I’m sorry I don’t know more,” Boro said in his deep bass voice. “I was the lowest rank in Chasm.”
North waved him off. “You chose the right time to switch sides.”
The well-dressed, perspiring Jayden Adams, chief judicial officer on Magellan, huffed a disagreeable sound.
“They’ve taken hostages at Bush Elementary and the Evangelical Church, they set fires at several micro-factories in the Science Quarter,” Horner reported to the assembled leadership council. Governor Thor and his shadow, Gonzalez, along with Adams and State Quarter Police Captain Remus Montenegro, a squatty olive-skinned man in his late forties, represented the civilians. Remus had been promoted to acting chief since the murderous Lt. Johnson killed Remus’ former boss, Allison Kim.
Besides Moreno, the military was represented by acting Wing Commander Twig, Strike Commander North, and Corporal Horner, who was functionally serving as a sort of chief of staff for Moreno. Boro, a Marine who served under Johnson and now a confessed Chasm agent, was also in the room because Moreno needed intel on Chasm and Boro’s defection made him the best information source at the moment. The only reason she trusted him was because he saved North’s life.
Moreno was trying to decide what the next course of action was to bring peace back to the station and end the Chasm threat once and for all.
“North, what is our fighting strength now, police and Marines combined, those we’ve verified are not Chasm?”
North looked at Rita. “Including those here on base and those who are deployed across the station we have about 40, not counting officers. I was talking with Captain Montenegro, and he believes we can probably deputize another 10 to 20 civilians who have some training and could be brought on in combat support roles right away.”
Montenegro nodded his support of North’s assessment.
“Remus, get to it,” Moreno said. “Call everyone up now.”
The police officer pulled an infopad out and started typing in orders.
North spoke up. “We have our largest force guarding the Science Quarter brig right now — 10 troops. One hour left before the amnesty offer expires.”
Moreno turned to Adams.
“Counselor, you’ve been processing the defectors. How many Chasm traitors have surrendered to us?”
North hadn’t noticed it before, but Adams was trembling slightly.
“Adams?” he inquired.
“We have 25 Chasm conspirators in custody, an unfortunately small amount considering the potential size of their overall force,” Adams said, trying to steady his voice. “Boro’s estimates of Chasm’s force on Magellan is off by half.”
“Good thing we vented abo
ut 100 of them into space,” Gonzalez joked. When an awkward silence followed, she added, “Too soon?”
North snapped his head back at Adams. “Wait. How do you know the troop strength of Chasm?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Adams stood up. “I surrender.”
Something clicked, and Moreno drew her sidearm and pointed it at Adams.
“Whoa… Rita,” Thor sprung to life. “Let’s not be hasty. Are you saying that Adams is Chasm?”
Adams slowly put his hands up. He had stopped shaking, and his countenance changed immediately, as if a 1,000 kilo weight had been taken off of his shoulders. “I am your 26th Chasm defector, and I request amnesty from the death penalty under the executive order of acting station commander Moreno.”
“I don’t understand,” Thor said, his shell-shocked face slowing melting into a hot rage. “Jayden, how could you be a part of this treason? This murder?”
Adams glowed. Unburdened from the secret of this Chasm membership, his face seemed to smooth. North thought he instantly looked 10 years younger.
Chief Remus pulled out a zip cuff, and Adams offered his hands. “You know your rights, Jayden.”
“He has no rights!” Thor burned at Adams’ betrayal. “We are under martial law. Curse your ass, Adams! We may all die, and you were a part of this.”
“Look at this place. We’re an umbilical cord that is trying to continue to justify its existence. Earth doesn’t want to cut the cord. But it’s time to let Arara go. Humanity cannot fully realize what science, technology and social engineering have to offer as long as Arara is bound to the failings of the past.” Adams shook his head. “I don’t expect you to understand.”
“You’re insane,” Twig scoffed at Jayden.
“No, I just have enough vision to understand the past and to see the future,” the lawyer replied.
“Humanity will never be perfect,” Moreno said, returning her weapon to its holster. “If you pulled off your Chasm and created a true gap from Earth, sooner or later your Arara utopia would be corrupt. How many people are going to have to die for your little social science experiment? You can’t beat original sin.”
“How quaint,” Jayden’s voice had taken on a thick tone of condescension. “These individual lives don’t matter. Even mine doesn’t matter. Once you let go of yourself for the value of the common good, for the sake of the collective, you can rid yourself of your stupid fixed-moral value ideas like murder and individual responsibility. History will remember us and honor us.”
Adam’s hands were now secured behind his back. Moreno stepped up so she stood face-to-face with him. Adams was about ten centimeters taller than the female Marine, but somehow, at least to North, she had the larger presence.
“Why are you surrendering now?” Moreno asked in a voice that was clearly meant to intimidate.
“Quite simply, my work is done. I am tired of living a double life. I am proud of what we have accomplished,” Adams said.
“What a liar. You’re a coward!” North spoke back. He pulled a chair behind Adams and then forced the solicitor to sit down, his hands still bound behind his back. North walked around the table and sat down opposite Adams. “You are playing all the angles, Jayden. If Chasm wins, you likely get a ticket to freedom on the American Spirit. You’ll be made a hero in your so called new world order. If Chasm loses, you avoid the airlock. That’s why you are revealing yourself now. Any later and you risk someone else exposing you.”
“I don’t care why you decided to impugn yourself at this time,” Moreno said. “I want specifics on the troop strength of Chasm. I want to know what the next mission is, and what the contingencies are. I want names. Location of weapons and resources. Strategy on other waypoints. And I want it now. What is the next move? Who is the leader, who is this Raven One?”
“Sorry, Rita,” Adams said. “Just because I surrendered, doesn’t mean I am going to help you. I’m not talking.”
North jumped at Adams from across the table. He backhanded the old lawyer with his uninjured arm.
North’s voice was soaking in power and anger as he spoke clearly and loudly to Adams. “Talk, traitor. My friends have died today, and one of my best friends, is still captive on the Firebird. And God help me, I am not going to lose anyone else. This ends now, Adams. Tell us! All of it!”
Adams was unmoved. He closed his mouth in a tight frown and looked away from North towards the stars.
“Fine, have it your way,” Rita looked at Adams, her icy stare betraying none of North’s passion. “North, will you and Twig escort Adams to airlock 16b? Under the authority granted to me by the governor’s declaration of martial law, I am sentencing Jayden Adams to death by airlock, the sentence to be carried in ten minutes. There will be no appeal.”
Twig hoisted Adams to his feet and drew his weapon. “You heard the lady.”
“What?!” Adam’s face tensed again. “You can’t do that. I have amnesty from being a member of Chasm. I surrendered — ”
“Oh, I’m not airlocking you for being a member of Chasm,” Rita said in a smooth, even tone. “I am sentencing you to death because you are withholding lifesaving information that is probably critical to the survival of this waypoint. In this crisis, I think everyone will understand why I am declaring this a capital offense.”
Adams seemed to consider his options, the relief that had eased his facial features just moments earlier had evaporated. His eyes were heavy with fear, and he reached down into his soul to muster up courage.
“I will not betray the future,” Adams said, his voice shaking but resolved. “The individual does not matter. To the airlock, then gentlemen.”
“To hell, I think.” North had no hesitation, but Twig hoped that Adams would fold.
The two walked out of the room into one of the capillary hallways. This close to the edge of the station the rooms were dense, and the passage was not wide enough to accommodate two men abreast. North led the trio, Adams in the middle, and Twig brought up the rear. He had his gun trained on the cuffed Adams. They passed the base armory, where several Marines were gearing up.
One of them popped into the hallway hearing the foot traffic, saw North and saluted.
North saluted back. “It’s going to get ugly. Be sure to get your full armor gear and bring plenty of extra ammo. Not sure what the plan is yet, but I should be back shortly — I’m just taking out some trash.”
The three slid by and reached the exterior wall of the Marine base. North presented his thumbprint and entered a code to release the door.
Outside, North found a group of civilians — he thought he recognized them as microfactory technicians, gathered at a hall junction. They looked up and first spotted North.
“Good, a Marine,” the tallest of the group said. “I’m going to ask him.”
The tall man approached North. “Hey, what’s going on.”
“You all need to get back to your homes and lock down. Didn’t you hear the governor? There is an enemy force here, and they are not contained.”
“Enemy force? Where? How did they get here? On American Spirit?” said another worker.
“It doesn’t matter. The point is that we are all in danger, and you need to stay out of the way.”
Adams saw an opportunity.
“Don’t listen to these men,” Adams said. “They are trying to overthrow the government. They are going to execute me!”
The third worker spoke up. “Hey, I recognize you. You’re the chief justice. What’s going on here? Why are you in handcuffs?” The three men moved to block the hallway.
North was annoyed. “I don’t have time for this. Stand aside so we can carry out our business. You need to get back to your homes and lock yourselves in.”
“Yeah, whatever,” the tall man said. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, and I don’t want any trouble. But you need to let the chief justice go.” The tall man pulled a heavy omni-wrench from his work jacket interior pocket and waved it threateningly.
“How do we know you guys are not part of this Chasm thing?”
“That’s right, they are!” said Adams excitedly.
“Shut up,” Twig said.
“Why should I shut up?” Adams said. “You are going to execute me, are you not?”
“Look,” North said. “Let me get the governor on my comm unit, and he can let you know the truth.”
“No!” Adams said. “They kidnapped the governor and are forcing him to say lies or be killed.”
The tall man looked North in the eyes. “I think you and the flyboy over there need to walk away. You can leave the chief justice with us.”
“No can do.”
“Well, then I am sorry about this, but…” the tall man swung his wrench at North and caught him on the bad arm. North stumbled back into Adams, then dropped into a crouching charge to tackle the tall man. The other two men prepared to join the brawl.
Twig, who was mostly still behind Adams, threw the lawyer to the floor with a powerful push from his gunless arm. He quickly aimed and discharged his stun gun three times, sending the workers painfully twitching to the floor and then into unconsciousness.
North straightened himself up, moaned over his injured arm, which was shrieking with pain, and then used his good arm to help Twig hoist Adams off the ground.
Adams shrugged. “It was worth a shot,” he said, almost embarrassed. “I am a desperate man.”
“So tell us what you know about Chasm, and we can head back to base,” Twig said, uneasy about his part in the coming execution.
“Sorry. I’ve already told you,” Adams said, a wave of bittersweet melancholy washing over him, “I am ready to die with my secrets. Surely you must understand. I’m not playing chicken with you. There must be something or someone you’d be willing to die for.”