by L S Roebuck
“Tell me the instant the jammer is off, and I can get a clear channel with Raven One,” she instructed her communication officer. She looked out the broad forward viewport toward Magellan. She could see the reactor fin, venting some gaseous substance, probably some sort of smoke, into space where she had rammed the Firebird. She wasn’t sure if there was a fire inside, but thought it unlikely because of the limited amount of oxygen available.
The unmanned Firebird had ricocheted off the fractured reactor and spun off into unknown space.
“I have Raven One on the line,” the young communication officer said as she absentmindedly smoothed her American Spirit bridge crew dress uniform.
“Kimberly?” Sparks offered, running her hand through her strawberry blonde hair.
“Sparks,” Raven one said with joy in her voice. “I’m glad to see you did not fail, unlike the … men. We made it in, and I am in the process of taking the hangar now. In a few minutes, you should be able to reconnect the gangway.”
“And Dek and Amberly?”
“I am sorry to report that Dek Tigona may have turned on us,” Kimberly said.
“Dek? How? Why?” Spark said, feeling more shocked than she had ever felt before.
“My guess is Amberly got to him,” Kimberly said. “I wondered if she had true feelings for Dek like she let on, but I had my suspicions she was just playing him. How typically male to fall for that little minx. This masculine weakness must be purged from the new order.”
“Dek could attempt to invoke a stand down order if he had access to the waypoint wide PA,” Sparks suggested. “Could you still countermand his order by accessing the PA with your hacking box if needed?”
“Yes, but be ready for anything. Get that gangway reestablished. If I can’t get into the command center, I’ll want to get onboard the American Spirit with haste. We may be forced to destroy the Magellan the old-fashioned way. It will be messy and take time, but this station cannot stand.”
“Yes ma’am. I estimate we’ll have the gangway reconnected in about five minutes,” Sparks said, “but you’ll need to physically secure the Magellan side of the gangway so we can open up and let you in.”
“That’s done. We already have 20 troops guarding this end,” Kimberly said. “Hopefully, I’ll have taken control of the entire hangar deck before you reconnect us.”
“Excellent. I’ll start prepping our ship-to-ship armaments here,” Sparks smiled. The sooner we destroy Magellan, the sooner we get to head back to Arara.
Raven One surveyed the hangar. About a half-dozen Marines were still holding out at the corridor entrance which led to command center. The floor of the hangar was littered with destroyed furniture, overturned ships, scattered tools and dead bodies.
About a dozen well-armed Marines were swarmed by the initial Chasm wave. The Marines hesitated to shoot the unarmed group, and that cost the Earth loyalist their lives. By the time the Marines realized they were in mortal danger, the mob had overtaken them. They couldn’t clear out any maneuvering space with their stun guns. The Marines were beat to death by the crowd of Chasm agents, Chasm sympathizers, and other civilians who had joined up just because they were hoping to escape the death Kimberly had promised them if they were left.
The six Marines who were in the secondary position by the command center access door did not hesitate to fire when the mob had subdued the main Marine force and turned to them. They stunned or shot nearly 30 people before Kimberly ordered the remaining troops to retreat and regroup.
Now Kimberly had a new group massing, and she was about to unleash the second wave, nearly twice as large as the first, to break through the remaining dug in Marine defenders and escort her into the command center so she could finish the job.
She heard a large snap-hiss and looked to the source of the noise at the far side of the hangar: The American Spirit had reconnected to Magellan.
Kimberly’s radio beeped. “Yes, Captain Sparks, go ahead.”
“I have engineers in suits repairing the bullet holes in the gangway,” the elated Sparks said. “Next time I comm you, the repairs should be done, and we’ll pressurize the walkway. Do you want me to have some agents bring out extra armaments for your troops out there?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Raven One said. “The mob is already unstable out here. Let’s not feed any more oxygen to this fire. Get ready to receive a lot of passengers. Triage them as soon as they get on board. Anyone without a Chasm serial number, put them in …”
“The cargo hold,” Sparks said, and Kimberly could hear the smile in her voice. Sparks always did take joy in a job well done.
“I’m about to take the command center, stand by.”
Kimberly signaled to two Chasm agents near her to begin the next wave of the assault. As she was putting her hand down, she could hear the waypoint wide PA system click on. “This is American Spirit Chasm leader Dek Tigona. Authorization code tango delta three beta beta four zeta alpha. Please cease Scorched Earth protocol and begin Stand Down protocol.”
Moreno stood in the conference room connected to the command center, looking out the clear plexiglass at the American Spirit and the stars beyond.
Dek, who was still in zip cuffs, sat back in his chair, away from the microphone that had been set in front of him.
“Who is next?” Moreno demanded, looking at the Magellan’s former chief judicial officer, Jayden Adams and Chasm turncoat Lt. Commander Johnson, who previously led one of Magellan’s strike teams. Both men looked away from the acting commander’s gaze. They were sitting on either side of Dek, also zip cuffed.
“Stick it,” Johnson said. “I am not helping you. Chasm will prevail. You better airlock me, and get it over with.”
“Sorry Rita,” Adams said. “I am not pining for some outdated gender-based relationship like Tigona. I have no reason to help you.”
Corporal Marcos DeLeon held a rare bullet based pistol, aimed at the general direction of the three Chasm officers. “You want us to bring you back to the airlock, counselor?”
“The airlock, a bullet, it doesn’t matter,” Adams said. “We’re all dead men soon. You think you can outwit Macready? Look at you. The whole waypoint is up in riots, the primary power reactor is leaking, the gardens destroyed. She’s going to get in here, she’ll command Magellan to destroy itself somehow.”
“She’s not getting in here,” Moreno said with a confidence she didn’t have. “She’s not going to save you.”
“Of that I have no doubt,” Adam’s smiled grimly. “She’s going to kill me – for failing her, and Chasm.”
“What about you, Johnson,” Moreno said, “Is your death wish as strong as Adam’s here?”
“Go airlock yourself,” Johnson spit at his former XO. “Macready isn’t going to space me. I am going back on the American Spirit in full glory for the new order.”
“Last chance gentleman; I am out of time. Order a stand down or die.”
“Ha, you’re bluffing, Rita,” Johnson said defiantly. “You wouldn’t kill us in cold blood.”
“Marcos, hand me your sidearm,” the acting commander ordered, as Adams closed his eyes and started humming the 600-year-old tune to “Danny Boy.”
The Marine flipped the gun around in his hand, and handed it butt-end first to his commanding officer. Moreno pointed the gun at Adam’s head, but kept her eyes locked on Johnson’s. “You’re next.”
“And if you come, when all the flowers are dying, and I am dead, as dead I well may be,” Adams softly sung.
“Jayden Adams, I hereby carry out the death sentence for aiding and abetting treason and for continuing to actively support the destruction of Waypoint Magellan.”
Johnson’s eyes were wild. Adams kept his eyes closed. “You'll come and find the place where I am lying…”
“May God have mercy on your soul.”
“… And kneel and say an ‘Ave’ there for me.”
An explosive shot rang out from the sidearm. Jayden Adams, administe
r of justice on Waypoint Magellan, slumped forward, blood flowing out of the bullet hole in his forehead.
Dek uttered an expletive. “You just killed him!”
“Johnson’s next,” Moreno said. “I will not lose this station to you terrorists and your freak utopian cult.”
She pushed the microphone towards Johnson, then pressed the barrel of the gun to Johnson’s head. “Speak now.”
Kimberly Macready was angry. Rita Moreno was exploiting the weak men of Chasm and making the completion of Scorched Earth all the harder. Kimberly turned to a Chasm agent she had deputized as her lieutenant, “Listen to me; Dek is compromised. I outrank him; and I tell you, the stand down order is false.”
She eyed a terminal across the hangar at the gangway her troops had already secured. Sparks should have the gangway open soon. She had to get those remaining six Marines guarding the door out of the way so she could get into the command center. They had technical superiority, but she had brute numbers to take them out – if she could get her people motivated. Now there was confusion in the ranks as she was about to launch her second crushing wave.
There were more than 500 people in the corridor leading up to the main hangar entrance that Johnson had mutilated with explosives earlier. And the number was growing with desperate people wanting to get onto the American Spirit. But now there was a great commotion in the crowd, and instead of being unified against the six heavily-armed Marines that stood between her and glory, the people were fighting over what to do and who to believe.
She pulled over a flipped table, and stood atop it, hoisting an assault rifle and firing it into the air. Most of the commotion died. “Citizens of Magellan! This waypoint is doomed. Moreno and Thor want you to die with them to stop those of us working to save Arara from the oppression of Earth!”
Just then the PA system kicked on and a familiar voice spoke, trembling.
“This is Magellan Chasm leader Smythe Johnson. Authorization code beta zeta six alpha beta two zeta zeta. Please cease Scorched Earth protocol and begin Stand Down protocol.”
“This is a lie!” Kimberly cried. “We must get to the control center now so we can obtain access to the American Spirit and save ourselves and our loved ones!”
A Chasm agent close to the front of the crowd shouted out, “Why should we not follow the protocol? They had authorization codes.” Other murmurs from the crowd seemed to chant in agreement.
“I am in charge here, not Tigona or Johnson, who were captured and now under duress of the oppressors. I am Raven One, appointed by the Chairman.”
“Well I don’t know you, but I know Johnson,” the agent shouted.
Raven One pointed the assault rifle at the agent and put him down with a spray of a few bullets. There was a gasp from the crowd. “Anyone else questioning my leadership? Join me and live in paradise; oppose me and die on this space death trap.”
“Raven One, look!” Kimberly’s lieutenant shouted. Kimberly spun around and pointed the gun in a quick reflex. “The Marines have retreated into the tunnel.”
Sure enough, looking across the hangar, the door leading toward the command center was unguarded. If she could get over there and use the hacking box to get the door open, she could charge the command center and end this resistance to the inevitable. The door was still secured by a computer lockdown, so that someone could exit the command center complex through the door, but not enter.
“What is Moreno doing?” Kimberly said aloud. She turned and looked across the hangar. “Now is the time! Get ready to charge the command center.”
Kimberly and a cluster of about three dozen people made for the door, and the rest of the crowd started spilling into the hangar, the threat of the Marines weapons no longer holding them at bay. Kimberly’s radio headset came on.
“Opening the gangway,” Sparks informed Kimberly.
“No, wait!” Kimberly shouted, but it was too late. The mob saw the gangway door open, and the human survival reaction was instantaneous.
“We can get on the American Spirit!” shouted one.
“Hurry, save yourself,” said another.
The crowd started a stampeded for the gangway. Hundreds of people crammed into the hangar and pushed for the gangway door leading to the American Spirit. Kimberly swore as she was losing her leverage over her cannon fodder.
From the command center, Amberly watched through camera views as the chaos unfolded in the hangar. Moreno and the six Marines on guard came through the door, followed by DeLeon, gun raised, who was marching behind the bound Dek and Johnson.
“Get those two into the holding room and keep a very close eye on them,” Moreno commanded.
“Where’s Jayden?” Thor asked.
“Executed, by that bitch,” spewed Johnson, his face full of defiance and hate.
“Why?” Gonzales asked. “How can you kill them so easily? No trial?”
“We don’t have the luxury of such niceties,” Rita said flatly. “Kimberly Macready and her group of crazies mean to kill us all. We are a thread snap from death. I needed Adam’s cooperation, under pain of death. He chose death, which in turn, convinced Johnson to give us what we need to hopefully save thousands of lives.”
“That’s a sick moral tradeoff,” Amberly weighed in.
“My job is to keep us alive,” Moreno said, with growing sharpness in her voice, as she walked toward the command well. “I am fighting your mother the best way I know how, and I am fighting to win. There are no moral victories here. There is no high road. Just life or death. Amberly, are you with me, or should you be joining Dek and Johnson in confinement?”
Amberly felt like she was 12 again and she was just dressed down with a tongue lashing from her mother. She quietly sat down and said, “I am with you. How can I help?”
Moreno took a deep breath and looked at Amberly’s pained face and took pity on the 19-year-old. Rita reminded herself that Amberly was just over half her age and still maturing into the woman she was meant to be. Rita stepped over to Amberly and took her hands.
“Your mother always loved you over Kora,” Moreno said. Wong was standing in the command well and stepped out of the way as Moreno stepped in. “You may provide us with leverage at an opportune moment; or you may be able to talk your mother down like you did Dek. Stay close in case we need you.”
Kimberly Macready and a dozen well-armed and deeply loyal Chasm troops stood at the access door from the hangar to the passage that led directly to the command center. Raven One produced her hacking box, and started tuning it to force open the locked door. Behind and across the hangar, hundreds of people pushed to get onto the American Spirit.
An elderly man fell in the rush, and Kimberly watched as the crowd quickly and unknowingly crushed him to death.
We have a lot of work to do to breed this evil out of humanity, she thought as the crowds pressed tighter and harder toward the gangway. I’ll have to airlock most of these unworthy, selfish people once we are underway. They have no place in the new order.
“Someone is hacking the door!” the tech shouted to Moreno.
“Macready? Quick! The disable code. Send it,” Moreno commanded, but it was unnecessary, because the tech had already shut down Raven One’s tool.
The door did not open. Instantly, Kimberly knew what had happened. Dek knew the kill codes and the fool had given them up to Moreno. This would only slow her down a few minutes while she reset and reprogramed her box. She pulled out an infopad and started coding using a swift, one-handed data entry method she developed while on Sonnet.
The crowds had nearly filled the entire hangar now, and they were starting to push up on Raven One and her strike team.
“Keep the crowds off me,” she told Upton. “Shoot to kill if you must. I need to reprogram my hacking box.”
A civilian monitoring communications spoke up from her station. “I have Corporal Horner on the line for you,” she said. “The commander is on; Horner go ahead.”
Horner’s voice came over t
he speakers. “Skip reported to his station at the communications hub like you requested.”
“Yes, he’s reported in to me already,” Moreno said. “With the jamming down, hopefully we can get a warning message out before it is too late. What’s more important now is the status of the reactor.”
“Engineer Zelma says he has a fifty-fifty chance of stabilizing the antimatter core before it decays past the point of rebooting,” Horner reported. “And about the same odds of blowing us all up in the process. The radiation is mostly contained, but we can’t work on fixing the reactor until we at least get a partial seal in the service area. Firebird ripped a huge hole when she crashed into the reactor, but she wasn’t traveling fast enough to create an immediate catastrophic failure.”
“No boom then,” Moreno said.
“Not an immediate one anyway. If we can get a full engineering crew up here, maybe with luck Zelma said we can be up and running at partial power in a month, best case scenario. Right now, we’re just double checking to make sure were not irradiating the people inside Magellan.”
“Get to it, then,” Moreno said, and turned her attention to the private standing to her right. “Wong, what do you have?”
Wong lifted a small parcel. “Leo procured the ordinance you requested. With a timed detonator.”
“Excellent. Secure the hangar and conference room access corridors, and then blow that window out,” Moreno said. “Swiftly! It won’t be long before she gets her magic box working again. Hopefully, if Kimberly knows it’s impossible to get in here anytime soon, she’ll retreat to the American Spirit.”
“How will that help us?” Amberly asked. “You are going to let my mother get away? I’m sure she’ll use the American Spirit to assault Magellan.”
“And since we can’t launch anything from the damaged hangar, we’ll be defenseless against her,” Wong added.