by B. V. Larson
“I’ve found no living beings in this facility. It’s my belief they have all escaped or died.”
“All right then. It’s just you and me now. I’m going to have to contact the outside world and try to talk them into being reasonable.”
The variant shuffled its optical pickups. “That will be difficult.”
I smiled thinly. This creature was a master of understatement.
Each person I thought of I quickly rejected. Star Guard wasn’t going to be happy with me. They would consider me a mutineer, a murderer who was clearly deranged.
Chloe? She’d been randomly close, then distant. I didn’t think this would be the best moment to reestablish our relationship.
Eventually, I sighed and contacted my parents. My father was a government official, after all, and he might help me.
Without much real hope, I reached out with my implant and attempted to open a session.
There was a brief hum before he answered.
“William?” my father asked in a voice full of apprehension.
“Can you come through and fully connect?” I asked.
He didn’t. He stayed invisible even though I’d left the option open for him to appear as a hologram in the room with me.
“Father,” I said, “I need help. I need you to use the Sparhawk name to help me get out of a difficult situation.”
“Difficult?” he asked, suddenly incredulous. “You’ve assaulted a building full of fantastically important people, William. You’ve broken laws you didn’t even know existed! I’ll be lucky to keep our seat at all—our entire House is ruined!”
My eyes closed, and I felt remorseful. It was one thing to make a brave stand, paying the ultimate price. But when these acts damaged your entire family, the guilt was harder to bear.
“I’ve done… questionable things, father,” I said. “But they had to be done.”
“Talk to me. Tell me what it will take to get you out of that vault. Are there hostages?”
I glanced out into the passageway. One of the oldsters lay there, crumpled. The variants had been thorough.
“No,” I said. “No captives, no hostages—no survivors.”
“Good God…” my father said in a lost voice. “What of the machine? Show me the machine!”
I hesitated. “It’s been destroyed,” I said finally, not knowing what to say other than the truth.
“Destroyed?” my father asked. “Are you certain?”
A crushing sense of disappointment came over me. Was that what he was really asking about? Could my own parents be such low creatures that they wished to assume the mantle of power?
“I’m certain,” I said, “I performed the task myself.”
“Show me,” he said in an odd tone.
He appeared then, in his robes of state. It was his formal attire, not at all unusual as he was a Public Servant.
Walking down echoing chambers, I reflected on what a dusty life these oldsters had led. Too aged to enjoy the fruits of their labor, they’d held on to life and power, but for what purpose? To squat down here in these tunnels, afraid to go out?
They’d spent many decades deciding the fate of others without participating in the events they manipulated. It seemed to me to be an odd, unnatural existence.
My father followed with ghostly steps. In a way, it was nice that he was a hologram. In this form, he could walk at my side, free of his hover-chair.
When we reached the control center, he marveled at the details. He saw Vogel’s corpse and the wrecked equipment. He took it all in, inspecting the room at length.
“The data core has been disabled,” he said. “The engram projector and the backup units—all destroyed. You’ve been quite thorough, just as you said.”
“I don’t like to do things half-way.”
He turned to me then, and there was a strange light in his eyes. “Unbelievable,” he said. “I never thought I’d see this day, William. It’s the end of an era.”
“Now that it’s come to pass, how do you feel about it?” I asked him.
Slowly, a smile dawned on his features. It was unlike my father’s usual smile. This time, the expression was an honest one. It was a smile that came from the depths of his being.
“I feel like a creature let out of a gilded cage,” he said. “I speak for all of us William, and we are all in your debt.”
“All?” I asked.
He tilted his head and nodded. “I have a confession to make. You’re not just talking to me. The entire Ministry is watching this, experiencing it. We had to know the truth. I hope you’ll excuse the deception.”
“Under the circumstances,” I said, “it’s understandable.”
Then my father approached me. My eyebrows shot up in surprise. I had no idea what was going to happen next.
He embraced me. He never did that—certainly not when others were looking.
That let me know that I’d done the right thing. My government and my people weren’t all against me. Even if they weren’t entirely happy with the drastic actions I’d performed down here in this pit, they seemed to understand them.
Hugging my father was an odd experience as neither of us could really feel the other. Despite that, his image was so solid, so real to my mind, that I felt a tingle when I touched him. It was as if my fingers really were contacting the fabric of his robe.
I didn’t care if he was a figment. For the first time in many years, I had my father’s full approval. I was basking in it as might any lost son who returns home at long last.
-68-
At the request of the government, Star Guard allowed me to enter their dungeons. I walked along dim-lit tunnels to the lowest, most secret tunnel of all.
There, I found Zye’s cell. It was the last one in the row, and the jailors didn’t want to venture near it.
When I got close, I understood why. The bars shook, and a wisp of dust from ground stone drifted out into the passage. I winced when a primal roar erupted from the cell along with another bout of enraged pounding.
“Zye?” I called out. Several long moments of silence dragged by. Suddenly thick, scuffed fingers seized the bars in the door of the cell. With wide eyes amidst thick, matted black hair, she peered through the bars at me.
“You’re a trick,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “a phantom of the mind.”
“No,” I said. “I’m your captain, and I’ve come to release you.”
She shook the bars again, growling in ferocity. “Do not torment me!”
“I’m not. It’s real,” I said, and I touched the magnetic lock with a pass key the jailors had given me.
The door sprang open, and Zye launched herself upon me. Her hands were around my neck, and her face loomed close, nostrils flaring in anger.
She looked at me, up close, for several seconds. It was only then that she began to melt—to believe.
“Captain William Sparhawk? You’re real,” she said. A single tear rolled down her cheek. “It’s been so long… how long has it been?”
“Several months,” I admitted. “I’m sorry. It took a special action on the part of my government to pardon you.”
She hugged me then, and I felt my ribs being squeezed under her arms. I hugged her back just as tightly.
“You’re real,” she said, repeating herself. “This is twice now you’ve brought me back to the living.”
“I’m going to have to stop, or it will turn into a habit.”
She laughed, and we both walked out of that place and into the light. Behind us, many others were released. Some of them could barely walk. They hadn’t seen the sun in decades, and their eyes had to be shielded from its radiance.
***
After releasing Zye, I had one more visit to make. This one was even sweeter.
Heading up into the mountains, I flew an air car, piloting it by myself. The route took me far to the north, and I landed in a broad swathe of green grass.
The footmen rushed to meet me. I brushed past them an
d continued striding directly to the front entrance.
Chloe of Astra must have been alerted. She met me at her massive doors, and she looked at me in shock. She’d shooed away her doorman when she’d heard I’d come calling, and sent him off muttering to the back of the mansion while she answered the door in person.
“William…” she said. “This is such a surprise.”
“You told me to look you up when I got back,” I said. “Well… I’m back.”
I grinned, and she returned a flickering smile in response.
“Did you really destroy the machine, William?” she asked, almost in a whisper.
“I did,” I assured her. “Weren’t you there when my father inspected the place?”
“Yes,” she said. “I witnessed the entire thing. But I didn’t know if it was all propaganda or not. Some said it was a stunt, something done to put us all at ease. Are the oldsters—are they really dead?”
“Like a nest of spiders who’ve been burned out of their webs,” I told her.
She stared at me then for several seconds, lips trembling, eyes tearing up. “I never thought this day would come. I found out about the machine two years ago. I—I was threatened, that’s why I considered resigning my seat at the Ministry. I was also told to leave you alone.”
My mind immediately moved to the question of who might have threatened her—and I knew the truth in an instant.
My beloved Aunt Ellen must have done it. She’d never approved of my relationship with Chloe, but she’d become dismissive about it a year or so back. I realized only now that she’d done so after she’d forced Chloe to back off.
“Lady Grantholm,” I said angrily. “That woman…”
Chloe lifted one small hand and put it over mine. “She might have done it to please the Council and the Chairman. Those people terrified everyone in the government. But it’s all right now. We can be together.”
Not wanting to blow a good thing with a display of temper, I allowed her to lead me into her house. We took to the stairs straight away, without preamble.
As we headed for private doors that would shut the world away from us, I stopped suddenly in mid-step. Keeping hold of her wrist with my good hand, I slowly pulled my Lady toward me to embrace her. Looking into the glow of her beautiful face, I smiled and held her close.
“You know,” I said, “I think I’ll stick around this time. I’m getting tired of the stars.”
She looked up at me as tears welled in her bright eyes.
“I’d like that very much,” she said and our smiles became kissing.
When we were finally alone behind closed doors, we touched. She had that old sense of intensity for our love-making again. It was a feeling we’d once shared, and that I’d thought had been lost forever.
The End
From the Author: Thanks Reader! I hope you enjoyed STAR CARRIER, the third book in the Lost Colonies Trilogy. If you liked the trilogy and want to read more stories like it, please put up some stars and a review.
-BVL
More SF Books by B. V. Larson:
Lost Colonies Trilogy
Battle Cruiser
Dreadnought
Star Carrier
The Undying Mercenaries Series:
Steel World
Dust World
Tech World
Machine World
Death World
Home World
STAR FORCE SERIES:
Swarm
Extinction
Rebellion
Conquest
Army of One (Novella)
Battle Station
Empire
Annihilation
Storm Assault
The Dead Sun
Outcast
Exile
Demon Star
Visit BVLarson.com for more information.