by Drew Avera
Frater approached the console and let his fingers run across the bank of screens. Tom could see what he considered a look of admiration on the older man's face, but for all he knew it could have been lust at a big payday in the making. "Open everything and move it to the Liminality," he said softly. The man nearest him nodded and ran from the bridge. "The rest of us will wait for that transaction to take place and then carry on about our business. It shouldn't take more than half an hour with the anti-gravity pallets you're using. I must say the military has really invested a lot of money into resources to make your jobs easier when they should have been investing in the quality of lives for our people. I guess that makes me the hero, though." Jon smiled as though he was thinking about an inside joke that no one was in on.
"You can't get away with this," Chief Werner said, trying to step between the pirate and the captain. "Do you know who you're dealing with?"
"Save it," Jon said. "The Chancerians have no legal authority in this part of the sector." He looked to the members of his crew still on the bridge and said, "Bind them up and make sure there are no weapons. I'm starting to lose faith that I can trust these people to do the right thing."
"On it," a tall man said as he stepped towards Tom. His hands dangled almost to his knees and he appeared to walk with a hunch in his back, presumably because the overhead on ships was shorter than he was. "Hands out," he ordered.
Tom extended his bare wrist towards the man, inhaling deeply as if to try to calm himself down. "We're on a relief mission. This isn't necessary," he whispered.
"Shut up," the man said as he clasped Tom's wrists together. "Another word from you and we will toss your ass out of the airlock."
"Let my crew be," Captain Olafssen said. When Tom looked at him, he could see how red the man's face was, his eyes bulging with a flutter of his eyelid. It was something Tom knew only happened when the captain was stressed. He would have been more surprised if the captain didn't have the twitch.
He watched his father pistol-whip the captain's forehead, breaking the skin and causing blood to run down his face. "Didn't I tell you to shut the fuck up?"
Chief Werner stepped forward and put his hand out as if he was about the touch Jon. His action was met by two other men grabbing his arms and slamming him into the deck.
"So, Mr. Badass here wanted to do something? How about this as a fair warning? If another one of you sons of bitches approaches us, we will put a bullet in your goddamn head and then we'll start tossing you one by one out into the darkness. I told you that nobody had to get hurt. What I didn't say, however, was that I was opposed to hurting anyone. Now, behave like a good bunch of puppets and I won't teach your government a lesson with your lives. Any questions?"
"Dad," Tom said. The word burned as it crossed his lips. He had no intention of speaking, but the dread of what was coming propelled him to do something. All eyes looked at him from both sides. All of them wide with confusion. All except Jon's.
"It's about time you spoke up, son. I was starting to think you were one of them." He lowered his mask enough for Tom to see his face and winked. It was a gesture he used to convey all kinds of messages. Unfortunately, Tom didn't know what it meant and could only assume the worst.
"It doesn't have to be this way. The crew will comply with your demands, but you need to stop assaulting and threatening them. This is a relief mission, not a police force."
Jon grinned, but it wasn't one of happiness. Tom could tell it was the precursor to violence. "It's cute that you think so, but you don't live long in this business without being prepared to do anything. The fact you think this crew is willing to comply tells me you're either naïve or stupid."
"I'm neither," Tom challenged.
"Please," Jon scoffed. "Blake, uncuff my son and give him a weapon. He can stand guard over Chief Dumbass, here."
The man Jon identified as Blake knelt next to one of the unconscious security guards on the deck and stripped his guard belt and gun from him, handing it to Tom, who took it nervously. He his time putting it on, feeling the eyes of the Cassowary crew stabbing at him with each passing second.
Chief Werner looked up at him, glaring with narrowed slits at his sudden betrayal. "Turncoat."
Tom wanted to plead with the man, to declare himself to not be a traitor, that he was doing this to save their lives, but he knew it would fall on deaf ears. Instead, he said nothing, resting his hand on the grip of the gun holstered at his hip.
"Captain Frater, the cargo is on the Liminality now, sir," a voice said over an open channel. The voice was scratchy and Tom assumed it was because the radio frequency was weak when trying to pass through the steel bulkheads of the ship.
Jon looked at the time and smiled. "Well, twenty minutes, that's a new record."
Some of the men in his crew laughed, but the noise died as soon as their captain spoke again.
"Go to the airlock. Tom, you're coming with us," he ordered.
Tom felt the pain of regret as he realized he was damned no matter what he did. He had no reason to want to go with his father—he wanted to serve on the Cass—but by revealing himself, he took away any hope of having what he wanted.
"Yes, sir," he said weakly. He turned to follow the rest of the pirates off the bridge and down the darkened passageway.
Jon stopped and turned to face the crew before leaving the crew. "I appreciate your service, ladies, and gentlemen. Until we meet again.” A sneer stretched across his face, and when Tom saw it, his heart sank. He had no choice but to follow his father to the airlock and leave the only people he considered family after his mother's death behind.
Standing outside the airlock, Jon and Tom waited for the pirate crew to disembark the Cassowary. the awkward silence was enough to drive Tom mad, but he knew that madness was already evident in the fact he revealed himself to the maniac.
"I see you took your mother's name," Jon said as they stood next to the airlock.
"Yeah," Tom replied dryly.
Jon pulled off his hood and mask and ran his hand through his raven black hair. "It suits you, I suppose. You were always such a mama's boy."
"You didn't have to kill her," Tom snapped. His response caused all eyes to look at him. The band of pirates closed in on him, but Jon waved them off.
"No? She was a threat to my legacy. Besides, she warped your mind enough to hate me, even before I had her killed. I can understand how much the past has hurt you, but I really did care about you and your mother. She just wasn't willing to let me be who I needed to be."
"And what's that, a murderer, a monster?"
Jon smiled with a wicked gleam in his eye. "A warrior for our people. A champion for our freedom. The government wants to take all of what it means to be human away from us. You can't tell me you support laws that tell you who you can marry, who you can procreate with? It's goddamned ridiculous that we have people in office who support such an agenda."
"She was right. You’re too tied to your own cause to see that what they are trying to do is give everyone a better quality of life. This system cannot support the massive population that Earth homed. We have to make the necessary precautions to ensure we do not bleed the Chancerian Sector dry before we have an opportunity to expand beyond it," Tom replied as he watched his father open the airlock.
"Get in," he ordered. "In twenty seconds, we are going to open this ship to vacuum. If you want to live, you'll come with us. Otherwise…"
Tom stood, staring at the man he knew to be his father, but he did not recognize the person he once held in such high esteem. He could only see the monster his mother told him about, but he also knew that in some sick way there was a point to what his father was trying to do. Inside, he knew what they were doing was wrong, but that didn't matter. There was a longing inside of him that made him willing to follow his bastard of a father to this point. But the anxiety of being responsible for the death of the crew he had grown to care about was overwhelming. "We don't have to do this," he said.
His father turned and looked at him, "are you fucking kidding me?" He scoffed as he looked at Tom. "Have I ever told you just how disappointed in you I am?"
"Only every day of my life after you took Mom away from me. At least the days you were around," Tom replied.
"Yeah? Do you ever wonder why that is? It wasn't enough that your mother warped your mind with her ignorant idea that the government had out best interest in mind, but you went willingly. I used to wonder how hard she had to try to turn you against me, but part of me thinks you were already against me when shit fell apart."
"You wanted her to turn against her family. Can't you see that either way she had to make an impossible choice?"
"Bull shit, her family could have cared less. They were focused on whatever gave them more money. Your mother wouldn't have been the first person in her family to turn against them."
"Yet you're the one who felt compelled to kill her for your pride?"
Jon shook his head. "See? Her poison still floats around in that brain of yours. Do you want to hate me for looking out for myself? Fine, why don't you take a page out of my book, look out for yourself, and get off this ship before I turn it into a floating coffin?" the older man pointed out the airlock and into the cargo bay of the Liminality. It was the only way Tom could live to see another day, to follow his monster of a father and kill the closest thing to a family he had known since his mother's death.
Tom's heart raced as he stared into the cold eyes of the man who never gave a shit about him. Why am I here? he thought. Is it for this man or is it for me? For the first time in his life, Tom decided to stand up for himself. Without thinking about it, he reached for his weapon, drew it and leveled the barrel inches away from his father's head. "We're not killing them," he snapped.
All around him, guns were drawn, ready to rain hell if his father willed it. There was no telling with his Frater. From the corner of his eye, he saw the barrels aimed at him, but that didn't matter. On the bridge of the ship were people who would have done anything to protect Tom. For the first time, he understood just want "anything" could be.
His father smiled. "You see that, son? That's called loyalty. Of course, you wouldn't know a goddamned thing about that, now would you?"
Tom knew at any moment triggers would be pulled and bullets lodged deep inside of him and that there was no hope of survival. That didn't change a thing, though. "They're only loyal to you because you pay them to be," Tom replied.
"I gave you life, you little bastard," his father said. The older man crossed his arms and stood defiantly, staring at his son with enough indignation to start a war, but Tom knew the war started the day the man threatened to kill his mother. That was when their blood turned bad, and neither of them could forgive the other. "All it takes is a nod of my head and you're dead."
"Maybe, but your life is in my hands too."
Tom's father shook his head. "You're just like your mother," he whispered. "You're too weak to do what's necessary and that's why you're going to die." He began to move, but before he had the chance, Tom pulled the trigger and a bullet ripped through the older man's head, splattering the bulkhead with blood. A loud gasp filled Tom's ears where the sound of discharged weapons should have been. As his father's body crumpled to the deck, he looked at the semi-circle of men surrounding him, guns drawn, and took a deep breath. "If you're going to do it, then get it the fuck over with," he said.
"Put your weapons down," one of them said. Tom looked and saw the man pull the mask from his face. It was a man he recognized from years prior. A man he thought was loyal to his father.
"What, you don't want to kill me too?"
The man shrugged. "I don't see much point in it," he said. "Besides, I thought it was pretty fucked up that he wanted to kill these people anyway, especially if one of us was part of the crew."
Relieved, Tom lowered his weapon, though he hated thinking of himself as one of them. "And where does that leave us?"
"I guess that depends on you," the man replied. "But you should know if you don't let us walk out of here, there's going to be a pretty big problem."
Tom sighed and holstered his weapon. "Yeah, I thought you might say that." He made eye contact with each of the men, slowly nodding his head. "You have three minutes to get the fuck off the ship."
He watched them leave, one by one, as his father's body lay on the deck, blood spreading out from his head like a sun rising on the horizon. Taking the man's life was a necessity. Tom did not love his father, not in any tangible way. If anything, he feared his father's wrath, and that fear was what made him want to impress him. Fear is just a part of life, he thought as he lowered the gun to the deck and turned to walk back to the bridge. His heart beat rapidly in his chest, making his vision blur at the thought of what would happen when he turned himself over to the Cassowary. He was a traitor, doubly so, and Captain Olafssen and his crew would not be forgiving. That was the hard truth he had to accept as he stepped onto the bridge and looked at the dozen sets of eyes glaring back at him.
"I'm sorry," was all he could say as he unbound the captain. The man looked at him, his eyes red with heartbroken rage. "It was the only way—"
Captain Olafssen responded with a punch to Tom's face as he rose from the deck. "Chief, lock this traitor in the brig and don't feed him until I say it's all right."
"Aye, sir," Werner said as he held his wrists out to Captain Olafssen to be unbound. He then turned his attention to Tom, who sat on the deck of the bridge on his knees, the feel of defeat weighing heavy on his heart.
It wasn't supposed to be this way, he thought as Werner grabbed him by the arm and led him from the bridge.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
A four-by-six cell was his reward for saving the ship. Tom understood why his betrayal led to his being confined, but from where he was standing, things could've been a lot better. It was easy to question his motives as he was locked away. But that didn't mean that he did the wrong thing.
The sound of footsteps drew his attention to the plate-glass window looking out of the cell. "Are you comfortable?" Chief Werner asked. Tom couldn't tell if the man was being facetious or not, but it was nice seeing someone other than figments of his imagination dancing before his eyes after several days of solitude. At least he thought it was that many days.
"I wouldn't mind being able to get out and stretch my legs a little bit," Tom replied.
Chief Werner scoffed at Tom's response. "I don't think that's going to happen, but I'll let the captain know."
Tom nodded, knowing that the punishment fit the crime. In fact, he was lucky. Anyone else turning traitor would've been tossed out of an airlock. He supposed he should consider himself lucky to still be drawing breath. "Let me know what he says," Tom joked. He could only imagine the captain’s scorn at the absurdity of the request.
"Yeah, I don't think that will go over so well. But that's not why I am here," Chief said. "I am here to ask a question."
"What's that?"
"I want to know why," the chief replied.
For Tom, that was a rather convoluted question. The truth was he didn't even know why. He supposed he was trying to win over his father, but he knew going into it that there was no pleasing that man. "I don't know," Tom said.
Chief Werner cleared his throat. "That's not good enough." The look in the man's eyes made Tom feel the shame of disappointment.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have a better answer than that. Initially, I think I did it because he wanted me to. Perhaps that never changed, at least not until the people I really care about were put it in danger."
Chief Werner nodded. "I can see that, but I can't accept it. You were supposed to be one of us."
I thought I was, thought Tom.
He pressed his hands against the glass, his forehead leaning against the cold surface. "I know, and I'm sorry."
"And why would you let them go?" The older man asked. "If you were really one of us, you would have shot them all."
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Tom looked up at the chief, a smile starting to spread across his face. "Do you still have his body?"
Chief Werner nodded.
"Scan it and you'll find a tracker. If you can reverse engineer the signal to it, you'll find the rest of them."
"And how come you can't just tell us where they're at?"
Tom stepped back from the glass and put it in his hands behind his back. "Because I don't know where they are," he said.
"And why should I believe you?"
Tom shrugged. "Because I saved you?"
"Did you?"
For the first time since those events took place, Tom questioned whether he had played into his father's hand. His father had been diagnosed with brain cancer and the tumor was inoperable. Didn't it stand to reason that the man would have a death wish, and by trying to take over a military vessel, that which would've been granted? If so, then had Tom put all of them in more danger by letting those men go? "We need to get out of here," Tom said, suddenly feeling as if the air had been sucked out of the room.
Chief Werner turned around and walked to the door. His hand pressed against the intercom system, switching it off. "Did your father ever tell you how disappointed he was in you?"
Tom's eyes grew wide. "You're one of them too?"
Chief Werner canted his head, a fiendish smirk spreading across his face. "More so than you'll ever be."
Tom slammed his fist against the glass cell, the smooth hard surface threatening to break the small bones in his hands with each blow. "No, wait!" He had no idea what he would say, but the urge to lash out at the traitor standing on the other side of the prison cell was more than he could bear.
Chief Werner turned around and smiled a coy grin. "What?" He asked as he stood there, staring back at Tom with the look of a man who knew he had already won. It was the greatest ruse in the Chancerian Sector, and the only person to know the truth was trapped in a cell.
Tom stood and glared at the man, his mind racing, but unable to come up with anything to say.
"That's what I thought," Werner said. He looked at the bulkhead where the control panel for Tom’s cell was within reach. Tom watched as the other man's hand scrolled across the screen, his fingers dancing over the options. Tom could think of nothing to say, and he knew that nothing he said would put an end to what was about to happen. Silence suffocated the room in a deadly grip as Tom watched Werner press an icon on the console. Within seconds, the breathable air in the cell disappeared and Tom began sucking on vacuum. He realized that the ventilation in the cell was controllable on the console. As he choked on the nothingness, his brain screamed for air. "No," he tried to yell, but silent screams made his throat burn. His wide eyes watched as the chief turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Tom said a silent prayer, hoping that the oxygen would return, or that someone would come and save him. But the only thing in his future was darkness.