43 Days to Oblivion

by J. D. Oppenheim

  He didn’t have to wait long to find out. Koba’s board started flashing green. “Got a comm,” said Koba. He just stared at it for a moment, then checked the source. “It’s Marco’s comm link. But I don’t think its Marco.” Jolo nodded and suddenly the main screen was filled with shiny black. It was a BG warrior standing where Marco usually stood, but the mech was too tall and the video only picked up his chestplate and part of his legs. Marco’s old desk had been pushed into the back wall, tilted over on three legs, his ancient books and his prized old Earth dinosaurus model strewn about the floor. Jolo heard muffled yelling in the background and then it stopped abruptly.

  “Jolo Vargas, the synth, has come home at last,” the BG yelled into the comm. He was laughing, garbled electric wails, between words. “I have what you desire most of all,” the worm screamed.

  “You have nothing I want,” said Jolo. Where is Katy?

  Jolo looked over at Koba. He spun his finger around in the air. Bring out the guns.

  “Oh, I think I do,” his voice now calm, his victory at hand. “I have this little thing.” And he held up Katy. He had her between his big alacyte fingers, her head tilted down. Jolo’s heart jumped and he didn’t know if he could speak. His whole body was in pain. But he couldn’t take his eyes off Katy. Her hair was down over her face and she was like a rag doll, limp and unmoving.

  “I’m a synth. I don’t care about humans.” I love Katy.

  “How about the little humans at the hovel 32 km west?”

  “Bastard’s talkin’ about Bertha’s place,” yelled Greeley.

  “Here’s your choice, Captain Vargas, come down and face me and save the girl, or go and save the little roaches. But you can’t have both. You decide. If you go there I’ll kill everyone here. If you come here that wooden cage full of mice will burn to the ground.”

  It’s not enough to kill us, Jolo thought. He wants to make a game of it. I want Katy.

  “Hurry now, Captain. This ugly rock will be dust soon. Come fight for the girl or save the little humans.” The big mech disappeared for a moment offscreen and then Koba changed the view to the upper deck. The warrior appeared a few minutes later on the surface up top near the dead boy. He held Katy in his metal arms. The Argossy got close enough to kick up some dust, the fire atop the black transport angling away from the thruster blast, Katy’s hair whipping around.

  “Koba, can you take out the mech clean?” said Jolo.

  “Not without killing Katy, too,” he said.

  Jolo couldn’t take his eyes off Katy. Just then she moved her head a little, and looked up. There was a cut over her forehead and little lines of dried blood running down her face. But she looked up, right at the Argossy and shook her head ever so slightly side to side. No.

  “Koba, ease us up,” said Jolo off comm. Then to the warrior. “The humans are worthless to me.” I love Katy. And then he cut the comm.

  “Koba, take us out,” said Jolo.

  Koba didn’t move.

  He looked at the skinny-armed man. “Please, Koba,” he said. “Trust me.”

  “We gotta go to Jaxxon,” said Koba.

  “We’re gonna save Bertha and the kids,” said Jolo. “But we’re gonna save Katy, too.”

  Koba engaged the engines and took them up. Before the video cut off the BG warrior was waving, a black, metal, three-fingered goodbye. The audio dropped off to the sound of wheezing, digital laughter, the screen flashing white and orange as the Argossy burned straight up into the clouds.

  Love Tap

  Astid > Callen

  1 day left

  “Uh, Boss,” said Greeley. “I ain’t one to second guess your captainly wisdom and all but seeing how we are headed off-planet I cain’t quite figure out—.”

  But Jolo cut him off. “Go gear up. Heavy armor. Make sure the suit is charged and ready.”

  Greeley paused, a question forming in his head, but then Jolo grabbed him by the arm and looked him in the eye. “You know I really appreciate everything you’ve done for us. You’re a good man.” Jolo patted him on the shoulder. If this was it, Jolo was glad to have Greeley and the rest of the crew there to stand with him.

  That caught the big marine off guard. “Are we gonna have to hug it out, Cap’n?” Greely gave Jolo a bear hug and Jolo stood there like a tree. The two men separated, but Greeley was still holding onto Jolo’s arms.

  “You know we’re all probably gonna die today?” said Jolo.

  “Kinda killin’ our happy little moment here, Captain.” He paused. “Do I get to take out some worms in the process?”

  “Go suit up.”

  Greeley ran off and Jolo put his hand on Koba’s shoulder. “I appreciate all you’ve done, too, Koba. I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye but—”

  “Captain, you’re kinda freakin’ me out.”

  Jolo smiled. “Plot a course straight to Callen, and I want us to pop up right inside the fleet.”

  “That’s suicide, not to mention breaks every Federation law on record. What if… what if there’s a, you know, an intersection?”

  The first recorded intersection happened when jump technology was in its infancy. An old Earth boat with a crew of eight accidentally jumped into a space station in orbit over Mars. The ship merged with the station on one of the upper levels crowded with civilians. 143 people died, hundreds were injured or maimed. Some died instantly when suddenly a chunk of space ship reanimated inside their bodies. The lucky ones only lost a limb. Some were killed when the engines leaked plasma straight into the oxygenated, gravity-fed living sections. Since then safeguards were put in place to prevent similar catastrophes. And even pirates, who were the first to rip out all ship safety measures in the name of increased speed and firepower, would never mess with the jump safeguards.

  Jolo didn’t need George to tell him the odds of an intersection were very slim. If he jumped in on the outside of the fleet then they’d see him coming and would probably take him out before he could convince them of other options. But if he jumped in close he could catch them by surprise and present his case before they fired on him. He looked down at Koba. “It’s a slim chance, but if it happens then we die here as opposed to back down on Duval.”

  Then Jolo ran down to engineering. He walked up to Hurley, who was hunched over a console, and patted him on the back and said, “Thanks for everything, Hurley.”

  “We ‘bout to head into it, ain’t we?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I know you got a plan,” said Barth.

  Jolo turned to the one-armed engineer, “I just want to say—”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said. “You used to get kinda mushy right before the shit hit the fan back in the day. Telling the crew how great they were. That’s why they loved you.”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “You don’t have to. Just be you. Jolo Vargas.”

  “I’m askin’ a lot of everybody today.”

  “That’s fine. That’s your job.”

  Jolo had to ask Barth about pulling the safety on the next jump but knew he was going to hate it. “I need you to do something for me.” Jolo tried to keep his voice upbeat but he could tell the engineer was suddenly suspicious. “I need you to disable the safety on the next jump into Callen.” Barth’s eyebrows scrunched together and his head started to tilt down a bit.

  “What about the—” Barth started to say.

  “I know. Of course, I know. We need to get in front of the gunboats before they can respond.”

  Barth leaned back and scratched his back with his good hand, took a deep breath and stared over at the logic array near the jump drive that housed the safety. Jolo knew he was weighing their chances with his engineer’s brain. Barth wouldn’t go for it if he thought it was suicide.

  “I done it once,” said Hurley. “I’m still here.”

  “Okay. I’ll do it,” said Barth.

  “Good. When you are done with that I need you to modify one of the small turrets we’ve got in storage
.”

  The Argossy burst into orbit above Callen 2.8 kilometers from Trant’s gunboat, the Nymeria. In seconds they were all over Trant and two other gunboats protecting the flank of two Fed transports. Koba had set his transponder to a Fed Courier Class ship so the Argossy popped up on their screen a tiny blue dot, which meant small friendly ship. Jolo hoped that’s what the Fed ships saw.

  “Make for Trant,” said Jolo.

  “What, we gonna try and board his ship?” said Koba.

  “Barth,” Jolo barked into the comm. “I’m gonna ram Trant’s gunboat. I don’t want to kill the ship, just piss him off.”

  “Don’t catch his engines or topside near the bridge. Slow down before impact and clip him low just under the nose, you’ll take out the storage bay but he’ll still be fully functional.”

  “What about the fuel cells.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Don’t hit those either, but they’re encased in alacyte. You gotta hit just under the bow. What are you doing?”

  “Inviting everyone to the party.” Jolo looked down at Koba, who’d just heard the whole conversation.

  “I can’t do that,” he said. “I ain’t Katy.”

  “Do it.” Koba nosed the Argossy down as the comm board lit up with incoming messages.

  The gunboats scrambled to get out of the way of the Fed transport that had suddenly popped up on their screens. Message after message came in but Jolo ignored them. The Argossy’s proximity warning sensors had long since been removed but Jolo was sure they were going off on the Fed boats now. He imagined their captains trying to look calm as the klaxon wailed in the background, junior officers scurrying about, maybe rifling through some outdated Federation manual searching for an entry on what to do when a rogue Fed transport was out of formation and on an intercept course, trying to decide if it was okay to unleash the cannons.

  “They’re gonna take us out,” said Koba.

  “They’re thinking about it,” said Jolo. “They would have if it weren’t for your transponder. They don’t want to take down a sister ship. Make sure your current trajectory has us missing all the boats. Then at the last second adjust and clip Trant.”

  Jolo got on the comm and told everyone to hold on to something. A few seconds later Koba crashed into the Nymeria, the gunboat’s cannons were hot but once the Argossy was close Trant wouldn’t fire for fear of hurting his own ship. The Argossy gained speed as the Nymeria went into a spin and fought to regain control.

  “Koba, get us out of here!” said Jolo, as Koba made jump calculations.

  Then Jolo grabbed the comm and opened a channel to all Federation boats. “This is Jolo Vargas. I just rammed the Nymeria. Now I’m going down to Duval and I’m going to kill every human I can find. Especially the kids down there in Jaxxon. Ya’ll stay here. Don’t get your nails dirty.” And he cut the comm.

  Jolo kept his eye on the screen as the Argossy’s jump drives wound up. He noticed some of the smaller Wasp fighters that usually stayed attached to the large Defenders disappear, their tiny blue dots going black. They were smaller and could make jump calculations faster than any of the Fed boats. And the gunboats, all three in Trant’s group, had slowed and Jolo hoped they were getting ready to jump as well. Any of the ships that left would be going against Filcher’s orders. Jolo was counting on a little dissent among the ranks. Sitting out in the middle of nowhere under the guise of military training operations is fine, but after awhile the natives get restless and start to question. Jolo hoped his earlier escape had stirred things up a bit. Jolo needed captains willing to take a chance and fight. Just before the Argossy made the jump out, Trant’s Nymeria had gained control and was dead still. Her computer was plotting a course. She was coming.

  Any doubts whether Jolo’s plan was working disappeared when they popped into Astid. There were eight Wasps spread out over the sector and they instantly converged on the Argossy the second the old ship showed up. They took some fire from the Wasps’ smaller rail guns, but the Argossy held and jumped out, but not before Jolo let Greeley call them all a bunch of worm-loving wussies on the Fed channel. Two gunboats had popped in just as the Argossy and her attendant Wasps made the jump out.

  Two BG cruisers popped up on screen as soon as Jolo and crew made it into Duval orbit. The Wasps were already there.

  “We got two BG on top, Captain.” said Koba.

  “Great. They haven’t left yet. Head for the BG boats.” Koba hesitated for a split second, then thought better of it.

  “Aye, Captain,” he said and headed straight for the two BG boats, Wasps in pursuit.

  “Is the Fed courier transponder still active?” said Jolo.

  “Yep.”

  Computer, thought Jolo. Can Fed Courier class boats carry weapons?

  Most Courier class ships are not outfitted with offensive weapons, though some older models do have the fittings to mount small turrets.

  “The BG boats are hailing us, Captain,” said Koba.

  “Tell them we are a Fed Courier with a package. That’ll give us a reason to get close.” Koba sent the message as three Fed gunboats popped in. Jolo had Koba open a channel to the Fed boats within range. “To all Federation warships in Duval space,” Jolo said. “The BG are hostile and plan to blow the planet. There are close to a million humans down there and the BG have been destroying the Duvalites’ transport ships. If you don’t believe me then hide and watch. Or run away and prove to me once and for all you are all truly worthless.” Jolo closed the comm. “Koba, head down to the deck. Just before we get out of range, hit one of the Cruisers.”

  By then the Wasps were close, well within range for their small turrets, but they held off. Trant hailed the Argossy but Jolo didn’t respond. Trant would have to see for himself. The Argossy fired a volley at the Cruisers and instantly the big, black ships returned fire. The BG hit a Wasp and it limped out of harm’s way, but by then the Argossy was dropping down into the atmosphere. Jolo watched on the screen as the little blue dots continued to move towards the big red dots.

  “What if the Fed don’t engage?” said Koba.

  “Then we’re screwed,” said Jolo.

  Jolo and Koba watched the screen as the Argossy dropped towards Duval, shaking and creaking all the way. Soon the Wasps were in range of the BG ships with the gunboats close behind. But neither had fired on the other.

  Jolo called down to Barth and Hurley on the comm: “You watchin’ this?”

  “Yep,” said Barth. But still nothing happened. The Fed boats had the two BG cruisers nearly surrounded, then another gunboat popped into orbit nearby and instantly unloaded on the closest Cruiser and it was on. The board lit up with activity as the three gunboats and the Wasps swarmed the Cruisers.

  Everyone in the Argossy cheered.

  Greeley walked in wearing the heavy armor holding Betsy. “You ready?” said Jolo.

  “Yeah, Boss,” he said.

  “I got a present for you,” said Jolo. He reached for the comm: “Hey Barth, bring it up.” Soon Barth came up carrying a huge gun connected to a large power pack. It had a thick barrel at least a meter long with a makeshift stock and trigger guard, a beefy cable routed out the back into the power supply, the end of the barrel had cooling fins all around.

  Barth handed it to Greeley, whose eyes were as big as eggs. He was breathing heavy and held the gun in his hands lovingly. Barth secured the power pack to the rear mount on Greeley’s suit. The big marine looked down at the gun, which was a small, modified turret pulled from a C-class Fed boat. Greeley looked like Barth had just handed him a suitcase of Fed credits. “It’s a Halbrock, ain’t it? It’s got them nice heat baffles. This ain’t the one that’ll melt down on you, is it?”

  Barth just grinned. “Who you talkin’ to? It’s a smaller version of the Halbrock Phase 4, but I put the new chips in it and she’ll go until the juice runs out.”

  “Captain, I’m ready to party,” said Greeley.

  “Koba,” said Jolo, “take us over Marco’s, a few hund
red meters up is fine, over the atrium illuminators.” Koba brought the Argossy down over Marco’s. The big transport was still burning, black smoke against the clear, white sky.

  “Captain, there’s a small BG transport in the bay and a few heat sigs, most likely human, inside Marco’s.”

  “Open the hatch, I’m gonna jump out the back,” said Jolo.

  “I’m comin’ with you,” said Greeley.

  “No. I want you and the Argossy to get Bertha and the kids. Y’all need the firepower if they got cruisers. I think that’s what Katy would want.”

  Greeley nodded. “I’m gonna kill all those black bastards, Captain.”

  “You go hunt,” Jolo said. “Koba, tell Barth he’s got the conn, now y’all go get the kids.”

  “Captain, treat her well,” Greeley said, and handed him Betsy.

  Jolo ran down to the hatch, peered down through the hole, wind whistling into the hold, pushing him back. Koba had the Argossy 50 meters above the surface. Orange earth and a burning transport awaited—the dead kid with the bright green jacket snapping in the wind, partially covered in sand, the charge hose a black snake in the shape of an S.

  He jumped, aiming for the tiny reflection of light off of Marco’s illuminator above the atrium.

  The Things We Do For Love

  Duval