by L S Roebuck
“Laser,” Amberly said flatly. “They travel at near light speed, you know.”
“Impossible,” Sparks said. “They couldn’t have a laser that powerful —”
Sparks was interrupted by a high pitch tone being blasted over the ship wide public announcement system. Then Captain Obadiah’s familiar voice came over the speakers.
“This is the Magnus commanding officer. We have observed your hostile intentions towards Magellan and have disabled your ship …”
“How are they broadcasting this on our PA system?” Yeoman Groben asked.
“They’ve hacked in remotely,” Kimberly was solving the riddle as she spoke. “The oppressor’s technology is years more advanced. Lasers with real destructive power. Hacking computers that sliced through our 20-year-old firewall protocols.”
Kimberly closed her eyes. She focused on all the variables. They were changing rapidly. What was most important now? If the Magnus could make it to the Waypoint Cortez, without resupplying on Magellan then the Chasm operatives needed to be ready for them. She had to send a warning now. It would only take a minute.
She opened a terminal and began keying in a message, relaying everything she knew about Magnus that would be helpful for Chasm. It was a miracle of intelligence and secrecy that the ship had been able to mask her true identity in its eight-year voyage from Earth, and none of the other Chasm operatives at the other waypoints were able to see through its veneer.
As she typed, Obadiah’s monologue continued. “If you do not surrender now and continue your hostile actions toward Magellan, we will destroy your ship. We regret this course of action, but by not complying with our surrender commands, your captain, Raven One, has left us with no options. Our orders are to defend the waypoints at all costs, and that certainly would —”
“Message sent,” Kimberly said rapidly. “Sparks, throw up the jammer.”
The PA system went to static and the jammer flooded the electromagnetic spectrum. No more transmissions were going in and out, and Obadiah’s remote control of the PA system was cut off.
Sparks spoke up, “With the jammer activated again, those corvettes won’t be able to communicate or coordinate with the Magnus. They’ll be more cautious and take more time. Time we need to complete the mission.”
“Your jammer is a wonderful piece of technology, Sparks. An Arara innovation is an edge against Earthen aggression,” Kimberly saluted her de facto lieutenant. “Now get those thrusters firing, and let’s finish this.”
Sparks marked some commands into her control screen, and the ship started to back away from Magellan. With the sudden movement, everyone lurched.
“Sorry,” Sparks shrugged. “Inertia dampeners must have gone offline with the mains.”
Kimberly summoned Groban with a beckoning gesture. Then she turned to her daughter. “I don’t expect to see you again, Amberly. I know you take no joy in our sacrifice today.” She hugged Amberly.
Amberly had no more words, just tears rolling over her rosy cheeks. In their embrace, Amberly wanted to remember her mother the way she was, when Amberly respected her as a strong, loving woman who led her family to pursue greatness. But she could not. All she could think about was how that woman was a lie, and her real mother, this Raven One, was about to kill everyone onboard the American Spirit and Magellan to complete some cultic utopian fantasy.
“We almost have enough distance to achieve maximum ramming speed,” Sparks announced.
Still holding Amberly tightly, Kimberly whispered in her ear. “Let me give you a gift to hold onto as you face oblivion. I know being a part of the greatest enterprise of humanity is no consolation to you, so let this piece of information comfort you: Your father’s dying thoughts were of his daughters. He pleaded for me to tell you one more time that which I am sure you know, that he loved you more than life itself. I promised him I would tell you just before he died. Now I’ve made good on that promise.”
Amberly sobbed into Kimberly’s shoulder. “You killed him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, it was for the greater good. Your dad would not join me,” Kimberly said as she loosened her embrace. “Sacrifices had to be made.”
“I hate to interrupt your family bonding time, but we’ve reached optimal distance,” Sparks said. “Is the word given?”
Amberly quickly snapped back from her mother. Her hand was outstretched, holding her mother’s gun which Amberly had slipped out of Kimberly’s thigh holster during their maternal embrace.
“Not yet, Sparks,” Amberly said, as she did her best to aim the gun directly at Kimberly’s head. Instinctively, everyone on the bridge froze.
“Now no one make any sudden moves,” Amberly said. “I’ve got nothing to lose. And I am ready to go down with a fight. Sparks, you move this ship one millimeter, and as soon as I put a bullet in Raven One’s head I am putting one in yours.”
“You’re not fast enough,” Sparks said, unconcerned.
“Maybe, maybe not. It’s your gamble,” Amberly said, “But I’m pretty sure I’ve got Raven One. And I might as well get it over wi—”
“Wait!” Kimberly spouted. “Why would Sparks or any of us care if you kill us? In three minutes, we’ll all be dead anyway.”
“Mother, you are in denial. You spent too much time alone on the Spencer Belt dreaming of this moment of glory. You think when it comes down to it, that everyone here is committed to death for your so-called ‘greater good,’” Amberly said, with powerful conviction coloring her voice. “The human survival instinct — the powerful urge for us individuals to live on, is hard to erase. It’s part of us. At the first chance, these people are going to make for the escape pods, and hope Magnus pulls them out of cold space. They can claim to be innocent bystanders easily enough. If everyone else is dead, no one will know better.”
“No,” Raven One said, any motherly kindness flushed from memory. “You are wrong. Humanity can evolve, improve, throw off the old ways. Chasm is that chance. These people here know that. They will die for that.”
“Maybe people would die for someone they love or their children, but for your soulless, faceless future, none will die. If you don’t believe me, see if your officers will eject the life pods now, empty.”
The bridge officers and crew looked around uncomfortably at each other.
“Go on! Do it,” Amberly shouted. “Eject the escape pods. Eliminate your only chance of survival now. Do it! Sparks, do it.”
“No Amberly, I need to infiltrate Magnus,” Sparks said in a very hasty and shaky voice, “and … look for an opportunity to destroy Magnus from the inside.”
“That’s what I thought,” Amberly said, waving the gun slightly.
Raven One was furious. “I sent the message, Chasm will be ready. Launch the escape pods, Sparks! Our lives do not matter. We must be committed to the very end.”
Sparks stepped away from her panel. Now that she was faced with it, the thrill was no longer worth her death. She was already calculating the distance to the door.
“So, you are all the cowards my daughter thinks you are,” Kimberly shouted, her mouth spitting with rage.
Kimberly was interrupted by pounding and shouting at the door.
“Live by the mob, die by the mob,” Sparks said in resignation.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kimberly said. “They are not getting in. And the moment any of you cowards open the bridge door, you are all going to be lynched and airlocked, anyway. No one is getting to an escape pod. So please, I beg you, let’s make our deaths have meaning instead. You will never have this opportunity to save humanity again. This is it. Don’t lose sight because of your selfish vanities.”
Amberly looked around. The shouting at the door grew more intense. They were calling for Raven One by name, demanding her head. Looks like Obadiah’s message got through. Surely someone on the other side would figure out a way to physically destroy the door.
Sparks started to move back to her seat.
“Wait, Sparks, don’t
do this,” Amberly pleaded. In her peripheral vision, she saw the communication officer and Groban stepping toward her from two sides. Raven One had convinced her people it was better to stay loyal — or at least the mob trying to break into the bridge had convinced them there really was no hope.
Kimberly looked at her daughter, who still held the gun pointed at her head. She smiled wickedly, knowing she had deflected Amberly’s attempt to foil the suicide run. Her eyes, centered on her pale face, burned into Amberly, who started to shift her weight. The comm officer and yeoman were paces away now.
“Just surrender, Amberly,” Kimberly said, now reaching out to Amberly. “Let us die together, mother and daughter. It’s going to be okay.”
“No, it’s not!” Amberly shouted.
The yeoman made a lunch for Amberly, but she stepped out of his way, simultaneously pulling the trigger twice.
The sound of the ringing shots silenced the gathering locked outside.
“Amberly, my Amberly,” Kimberly whispered as she collapsed to the ground. “What would your father think?”
“Mom,” Amberly cried. “You gave me no choice.”
The rest of the bridge crew was in shock. The demigod Raven One was mortal. Amberly couldn’t tell where the bullets had hit, but her mother’s robe immediately showed signs of absorbing blood.
Raven One’s sacrifice conflicted Sparks, and pushed her. She shook her head, sat down and started the thrusters, when Amberly stepped up behind her and put the gun point blank to the back of her head. The ships acceleration toward Magellan threw Amberly slightly off balance, but she kept the gun trained on Sparks. The ships motion caused the crowd outside the bridge to come back to life, and the pounding and shouting intensified.
“Stop the vessel now, and I will ask Moreno to pardon you,” Amberly offered.
“No! Don’t stop,” Raven One said weakly as she bled out on the floor. None of the Chasm officers moved to give Kimberly aid.
“I am desperate. I will put you down, Sparks.” Amberly spoke evenly. “Then I will just stop this ship over your dead body.”
“Do what you must,” Sparks said. “I’ve chosen my path now. I’m sorry I ever thought of straying.”
The American Spirit was picking up speed. The proximity alarm blared again with an audio warning from the ship’s virtual intelligence. “Warning. Collision eminent in two minutes. Warning.”
“Good girl,” Raven One said.
The mob outside was pounding the door with some sort of battering ram. The beats were loud and becoming more frequent.
Amberly saw two Chasm officers moving for her again. Amberly steeled her resolve and ran her finger over the trigger, causing the officers to hesitate. Then, the whole ship rocked suddenly and forcefully.
The tactical officer examined her display port. “The corvettes are in firing range. They are firing munitions. They’ll blast us apart.”
“Please, Sparks,” Amberly said, her voice and hand trembling. “Stop the ship. Open the bridge door.”
The ship rocked even more violently. “We’re not going to make it to Magellan. At least not in fewer than hundreds of pieces.” Damage indicators lit up the bridge along with a variety of alarm sounds.
The VI spoke again: “Warning. Collision eminent in one minute. Warning.”
“I’m sorry, Sparks,” Amberly said as she fingered the trigger.
“Okay! Okay! I give,” Sparks said as she fired the retro-thrusters, and the American Spirit began to slow.
The corvettes continued their bombardment.
“Slow us down! We’re still going to crash!” Amberly said.
“I’m trying. Turn off the jammer,” Sparks yelled. “Hail the Magnus.”
The communication officer sat down and entered the jammer shutdown code. “Channel open with Magnus.”
“We surrender,” Sparks said hurriedly. “This is acting captain Sparks of the Chasm American Spirit triumvirate, and we unconditionally surrender. We are attempting to slow down our approach. Please cease fire and stand by.”
The doors exploded open as at least two dozen Magellan refugees flooded in, armed with various pipes, knives and bat-like devices. Many of the officers instinctively stuck their hands in the air as a sign of surrender.
“This is Captain Obadiah, we accept your surrender,” came the now familiar voice over the PA system. “Please continue to decelerate. The corvettes have been ordered to hold fire. We’d like to debrief Raven One immediately.”
A blonde man, burly and more than 180 centimeters tall, was clearly the mob’s leader. He looked at Amberly and her gun pointed at Sparks.
“Amberly Macready?” the man said gravely. “I’m Midas. Remember me? I used to make deliveries to the science lab. Your... mother, Kimberly. Raven One? The cause of all this? You shot her for us?”
“Take Raven One!” shouted an angry mob voice.
“Please, wait!” Amberly pleaded.
“Warning. Collision eminent. Warning.”
Every eye on the bridge looked at the viewport it became clear the American Spirit would not stop in time to avoid colliding with Magellan.
“Sparks? Sparks!”
“You Macreadys are so demanding,” she said. “We’re down to 10 kilometers per hour. I’ve slowed us down as much as I can, hopefully —”
A loud creaking of metal flexing followed by snap popping filled the air inside the bridge. The American Spirit’s nose flattened into Magellan, as pieces of both ship and station flew out into space. The reverse thrusters were still firing, and the American Spirit seemed to bounce backward off the waypoint’s damaged exterior. Sparks skillfully deployed all four thrusters to bring the ship to a full stop.
“Thank you American Spirit,” Obadiah’s voice came over the PA. “The damage doesn’t look so bad from out here. Please prepare to be boarded.”
The forty or fifty Magellan refugees that had pushed onto the bridge by this point cheered. “Get Raven One!” someone shouted.
“To the airlock,” screamed a woman. The mob cheered its approval of the idea.
The crowd hoisted Kimberly up and started to pass her bleeding body over the sea of people out the door.
“Mom! Mom!” Amberly screamed. Kimberly strained to turn her head toward her daughter as she was carried out.
“I’m sorry,” Kimberly choked out, blood running down her arms and dripping from her fingertips.
“Mom! Mom!” Amberly tried to push her way toward Kimberly, but Midas stretched out his heavy arm and kept her from following. He took the gun out of her hand.
“Oh, Amberly, I can hear the ocean now. It’s okay. It’s the surf on the north shore of Lewis Island…”
“Mom!” Amberly saw her mother close her eyes, smile, and relax as the crowd passed her prone body through the busted door and out of sight.
That was the last time Amberly saw her mother.
“It’s like a parade in her honor,” Sparks observed with a detached voice. “Or a state funeral.”
Amberly tried to follow. “Best that you don’t go,” Midas warned in a low rumble of a voice. “You might end up in space with her.”
Amberly dropped to the floor, crying bitterly. Her spirit had been utterly crushed, and her soul was stretched to the breaking point.
Sparks sat down on the floor next to Amberly and put her arm around the legendary Raven One’s daughter. “Even though I only met Kimberly in person a few weeks ago, Dek and I had corresponded with her for almost a decade. She was a mentor and a mother figure to me. You know, cohort,” Sparks said pointing at herself. “No mother.”
Amberly looked up from the floor at Sparks, emotionally numb, unable to process what Sparks was saying.
“That makes us sisters, you and me,” Sparks said and rested her head on Amberly’s shoulder. The strawberry blonde started to sob.
Several civilian men, armed with stun guns, burst onto the bridge where about 20 from the original mob remained with the subdued Chasm officers.
Several men hoisted Sparks and Amberly off the floor and onto their feet, forcing their arms behind their backs and securing their wrists with zip cuffs. They were about to pull them off the bridge, when Midas spoke up.
“It’s okay. I’ll take them. You worry about the others,” Midas said, and the makeshift posse moved on to the communication officer and the yeoman. Midas then whispered to Amberly, “Stay close to me until things calm down. Who knows how many poor souls will be spaced for revenge tonight?”
Sparks looked at Midas, and even though she knew that he was really only protecting Amberly, and it was her good fortune to be with her at the moment, Sparks was grateful. “Thank you.”
Sparks and Amberly stood next to Midas and watched as the bridge was cleared of Chasm officers. Sparks, hands still zipped behind her back, playfully bumped Amberly’s shoulder with hers.
“You win. You saved Magellan.”
Kimberly Macready knew she must be hallucinating. She had lost so much blood. Breathing seemed hard. She felt like she was floating. She closed her eyes and saw the Chairman. Her eyes were stern and her bleached white hair pulled back in a very tight bun. Her 160-cm tall body was a specimen of perfection. Even though she was nearly 60 years old, her muscles were taut, her skin clear and her look sharp. Her face exploded with disappointment.
“Just like a man,” the Chairman said, her voice harmonious and sickly sweet. “You failed me just like a man.”
“No,” Kimberly said and reached out for her, but the Chairman turned into a fine mist and disappeared.
In her place a man appeared. He was handsome, with a strong jaw and broad shoulders. He wore a crisp pilot's uniform and sported hair that matched Amberly’s.
“Alroy,” Kimberly gasped. Her late husband smiled warmly at her.
She didn’t feel like she was floating anymore. She felt like she was lying on a cold metal floor. She was chilled and longed for the comforting sensation of warmth one more time, but she would never feel that again. She vaguely had the sense of people angrily shouting her name – her Chasm code name, Raven One.