by Jon Lymon
“Don’t be like that.”
“Like what? Like someone who’s lost everything? Like someone who’s bored of hearing someone else constantly go on about a fucking rock? Well, the news is there is no diamond anymore. They blew it up. So it’s time for us all to go home.”
Remnant’s heart sank at the recollection of the explosions. He couldn’t believe someone would want to destroy the asteroid, but knew talking about it now would only lead to further trouble. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked in a deliberate change of tack.
“About thirty-six hours,” said Bettis, walking over to stand behind Aurora, placing a hand awkwardly and very deliberately on her shoulder. “We’ve had a nice chat in that time, haven’t we, Aurora? Really got to know each other.”
Aurora’s half-smile disappeared when she looked at Remnant who was staring down at her.
“And how did you amuse yourself, Bettis, while we were all out?” Remnant asked.
“Ah, you know, this and that and a bit of the other. I’m itching to get home now, if truth be told. It’s getting a little cold here for my bones.”
On the scarred horizon, a white dot began to take on a more definite shape.
“Ah, that’ll be DT with our fuel,” Bettis declared.
A few minutes later, a huge tanker pulled up alongside the Baton Uric and DT guided Dorothea down the steps from the cab and onto his ship. Once inside, he nodded at Remnant. Dorothea deliberately ignored him.
The driver of the tanker connected the fuel nozzle to the ship and soon they all felt the reassuring vibration that denoted gallons of liquid hydrogen flowing into the ship’s tank.
Silence pervaded the cockpit, the kind of silence that Ramage used to inflict on Remnant.
“Look, I’m sorry, OK? I’m sorry for going in there. I just… I just wanted…”
“We all know what you wanted,” said DT flatly.
“I can’t believe someone destroyed it,” said Remnant.
Aurora jumped to her feet. “See, there you go again. All you’re interested in is getting your hands on that diamond. A man died, Sye. A man who rescued you is now dead.”
“I didn’t ask to be rescued,” he shouted. “I didn’t want to be rescued. You should have left me there.”
“I wish we fucking had,” said Aurora, and stormed out of the cockpit. Bettis followed her.
Another silence pervaded until Dorothea spoke softly. “He was a good man, a good man. A loyal man. He was doing what came naturally to him. Helping others. He never questioned anything I asked him to do. Just did it without complaint.”
Remnant slumped into the rear cockpit seat, his head in his hands. “Why didn’t you just leave me there?”
Dorothea slowly turned to face him. “We didn’t do it for you, we did it for us. We heard there was a bomb on the way. We couldn’t just leave you there. We’d never be able to live with ourselves.”
Another silence.
“So what do we do now?” Remnant asked.
“We are filling up and heading home, my friend,” said DT.
“We can’t. Someone’s got to pay for what’s happened. Haygue has to pay. He’s destroyed this planet. He’s killed Aurora’s husband and kids, and he’s…”
“No one knows where he is,” said DT.
“I do. A ship launched from the facility. Before the explosion. The guards saw it. I heard them saying someone’s taking off.”
“So? That could have been anyone,” said DT, delivering another hard dose of reality.
Remnant felt himself back in a situation he’d faced many times on this trip, trying to motivate the others to go on a mission they all thought pointless. He shook his head. What was the point?
He left the cockpit, pausing outside the cabin door after hearing Bettis’ soft tones inside. He wanted to go in, but then again he didn’t want to go in. The volume of the engines increased as he opened the door to the hold. He imagined, hoped, dreamed the room would be full of glitter and glister by now, but it remained as empty as it had always been. He slowly walked across its hollow surface, each echoing step accentuating the hollowness he felt. A three-month journey back home to nothing lay ahead. Back to a world he didn’t feel part of or want to be part of. Who would be pleased to see him? Edgar maybe, until he saw he had no diamond. Gordon might let him back into The Old Mitre, for old time’s sake, but there was no guarantee of that. And as for Elena and Chloe? Well…
He rushed out of the hold and barged into the cabin. Aurora was lying on the bottom bunk and Bettis was standing admiring himself in the mirror. “This is a most inappropriate intrusion,” Bettis complained.
“I need a moment with Aurora, alone,” Remnant told him.
“The least you could have done is knock.” Bettis looked down at Aurora. “Do you want to be alone with this man?”
She smiled weakly and nodded. Bettis stared at Remnant as he slowly left the room. Remnant shut the door and crouched on his haunches, looking Aurora straight in the eyes. “I’ve decided. I’m staying here with you, here on Mars.” She stared back at him. Remnant had expected some kind of reaction, a whelp of delight, maybe, or at least a hug, but Aurora looked away to a nondescript square of the cabin floor.
“Who are you?” she asked. The question took Remnant by surprise. He looked to her for clarification. “Who’s the real you, Sye? I don’t know the you, you. I just see... I don’t know what I see. You want the diamond? You want Haygue? You want me? What?”
It was a confusing speech that ached Remnant’s heart to hear. “I know I’ve acted like an idiot, but I’ve just been so focused on… on…”
“Lining your pockets.”
“Do you blame me?” he said, raising his voice. “I’ve never had nothing. Nothing. I never got nothing from me parents, never got nothing from school, never got a break or a stroke of luck. And yeah, I know a lot of that is my fault and I should have tried harder. I get all that. But it ain’t all my fault, not all of it. And at least I’m trying to be better. I’m trying, but all I ever get is something else or someone else standing in my way.”
“Welcome to the world, man. That’s how things roll. You think you’re the only one who’s been treated like shit? I lost my husband and now my kids through no fault of my own. Someone else is to blame for them dying, not me.”
The humming of the liquid hydrogen filling the ship’s tank stopped.
Remnant grabbed Aurora by the arms, forcing her to stand. “We can get him.” He stared almost manically at her. “Let’s get him before he gets home and hides behind all the security of government or whatever. Let’s make him pay.”
“We won’t be able to get anywhere near him, Sye. He’ll be protected to the hilt. That’s if he’s still alive.”
“I saw a ship leave the facility. On its own. It has to be him onboard, has to. You don’t have to help me, but I’m going to get him. I can’t get any diamond, but I can get Haygue.”
43
Haygue felt a surge of relief as soon as he and M Krugler were airborne. It felt liberating to get off the surface of Mars and be heading home, with diamond in his hold, albeit not as much as he would have liked and not in the ship he would have preferred.
After they’d reached cruising altitude, M Krugler pointed to a moving dot on the radar. Haygue tracked it and knew at the speed it was moving it could only be one thing.
They both peered through the windscreen in time to see the second missile score a direct hit on the centre of the six-sided Martian Pentagon below. The explosion was localised but no less devastating. Shards of sparks flew up into the atmosphere, and Haygue couldn’t help but take perverse pleasure in the knowledge that the blast had caused the value of the rock in the hold of his ship to rise dramatically. But neither man spoke, knowing something of the kind of devastation that would have been wreaked on the SEC staff and scientists fleeing below.
“This one’s over, Stock,” Haygue quietly whispered, affording himself a little smile. The scourge of the l
atter part of his career had finally been silenced.
M Krugler checked the readings on the dash, satisfied that their course was set for Earth. Both men knew that, because this ship had half the nuclear engine capacity of the P3, the journey home would take a lot longer.
There hadn’t been time to fully check out the facilities and weaponry on board, but two laser bores protruding from the front of the vessel, and a ‘Shield On’ button on the dash suggested it had both offensive and defensive capabilities.
Haygue unclipped himself from the co-pilot’s seat. “I’m just off to reserve the most comfortable bunk,” he said.
M Krugler snorted and half smiled, expecting no less from Haygue, who wandered to the back of the ship. He opened the door to the hold, and was comforted to see the three big chunks of rock in the gloom, surrounded by the smaller off-cuts, their kaleidoscopic brilliance reflecting the small shaft of light from the cockpit that opening the door let in.
Haygue softly shut the door, like he had just looked in on a sleeping child, and smiled to himself.
He found conditions in the cabin less agreeable. This was clearly a ship meant for mid-level SEC staff. There were no luxuries, certainly no widescreen televisions, just a bunk bed, a wash basin, a mirror and a cupboard that doubled as a WC.
He left the room quickly and briefly glanced into the galley, where twin microwaves stood on a shelf. Seeing them brought on pangs of hunger that had been suppressed by the tension and panic of the escape from Mars. He opened the storage cupboard door.
Empty.
There was another cupboard below the microwaves. He pulled open the doors to that.
Empty.
His stomach rumbled as his heart slipped into overdrive. He opened both the microwaves. Both lit up emptiness. He looked around for other cupboards, but the galley was not a big place and there was nowhere else food could be stored. He rushed back into the cabin and flicked on the lights. He tore the mattresses off both bunks, checked inside and under the pillowcases and in the clothes storage spaces. All were empty. He stood, struggling for breath now, quivering fingers massaging his brow. He opened the door to the hold, but knew there was nothing in there save the diamond. He ran to the cockpit.
“What have you done with it all,” he shouted at M Krugler, who looked at Haygue in confusion.
“What have I done with what?” he asked.
“The food, the food. Where is it?”
M Krugler rushed past Haygue into the galley where the opened doors revealed the emptiness of the cupboards.
“Shit.”
“Why didn’t you check?” Haygue asked.
“Why didn’t you?”
“It’s not my job.”
“It’s not mine either.”
“My job was to get the diamond off the planet and back to Earth.”
“And mine is to fly you there.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
Each man looked at the other, both experiencing thoughts of the darkest and most basic of survival instincts.
“OK, OK, let’s sit and think,” Haygue said, leading M Krugler back to the cockpit. Both men sat down and looked out at the vast emptiness of space that lay head.
“Do you have anything edible in your luggage?” Haygue asked.
M Krugler shook his head.
“You don’t want to go check?” Haygue said impatiently.
“I know there’s nothing in there. Just clothes and shit.”
Haygue sighed. “Well, I know for sure I don’t have anything.”
“We’ll have to turn back.”
“To what? There’s nothing left on Mars. It’s all destroyed.”
“Maybe we’ll pass a drive thru,” M Krugler joked.
Haygue thumped the dash. “Damn the SEC idiots. Why wouldn’t they load the ship with food?”
“No one was expecting to leave in such a hurry. And let’s face it, food wasn’t exactly top of our list.”
Haygue knew what M Krugler was getting at, and he didn’t like it. Nor did he care for the cannibalistic thoughts that were periodically flashing through his mind. The fear that he may have to eat his fellow crew member to survive was exacerbated by the worry that the burly, more powerful M Krugler would be having exactly the same thoughts.
44
“What could I do?” Dorothea Clarke asked DT. “I had powerful businessman coming to me with proposals which turned to threats if I didn’t agree to them.”
DT found Dorothea engaging company and genuinely remorseful about what had happened to the planet the President of the United States had put her in charge of.
“I got visits from high ranking government officials telling me this and this and this is going to be happening on Mars and here’s a little something to make sure the blueprints get greenlighted.”
“There is nothing you could have done differently, Dorothea,” he said. “Nothing anyone could have done.”
“But why would anyone want to destroy everything after investing so much in it? That’s what I don’t get.”
“What we have witnessed defies belief,” he said, shaking his head. A long silence followed. “What will you do now?”
“I have to stay and finish the job,” she said. “I still believe in this place. I still believe that man needs to establish more of a presence in the solar system. The Earth is becoming untenable. It could well be on the verge of destroying itself as we speak. To keep mankind alive, the Martian colony has to work, has to thrive, has to sustain itself.”
“So you will rebuild, yes?”
“Absolutely. I’m going to revert to the original plan. Create a place that people don’t just want to visit but want to live and bring up their kids. And that’ll be a lot easier now there’s no diamond asteroid to distract people.”
“It is certainly a place I would consider setting up business. Once everything is sorted out, I mean.”
“You would be warmly welcomed here.” Dorothea stood and sighed. “Well, y’all, I wish you a safe trip home. I’m sorry you didn’t find what you came out here for.” She turned to Aurora. “And I’m extremely sorry for what happened to your family.”
Aurora half-smiled, accepting the apology with good grace.
“We’re going to find Haygue and we’re going to make sure he pays,” said Remnant who was standing behind Aurora.
“Well, I wish you luck with that.” She turned to DT who kissed her on both cheeks.
“Thank you, thank you,” he said. “For the fuel and for your kind hospitality, without which none of us would be able to journey home.”
She smiled at him. “I hope to see you again one day, Damilou.”
“Oh yes, oh yes,” he said. “With God’s will, I shall return.”
He helped Dorothea off the ship and watched her board the tanker which circled them before driving back across the charred terrain, flashing its hazard lights until they were small yellow orbs in the distance.
“Shouldn’t we fly to the SEC centre, just to see…”
Remnant’s question was met with a chorus of no’s.
“There won’t be anything left, my friend. The place is fried,” said DT.
Aurora agreed. “Let’s just get out of here.”
“Crew seats for take-off,” said Bettis, not waiting for any agreement aboard the ship. Remnant stood next to Aurora at the back of the cockpit and grabbed the usual hammock of wires above his head.
Bettis fired the engines and steered the ship through the tracks left by Dorothea’s tanker. It was hardly an ideal runway, but only marginally more bumpy than Leather Lane had been. Bettis pushed the thruster forward and the crew felt the now familiar rush of G-forces battering their senses.
The Baton Uric rattled, shuddering the eyeballs of its crew. Bettis pulled back on the control stick and the ship took off for the last time. They were up and on their way home. As DT looked down on the ruined landscape, he considered the enormity of the task Dorothea faced
if she was to realise her dreams. But he was convinced that if anyone could do it, she could.
Bettis swung the ship sharply left as they continued to gain altitude. DT felt a familiar and unwelcome rumbling down below, but not the urge to expel the contents of his stomach that had marred previous take-offs.
As the ship levelled out, Bettis switched control over to the autopilot. The crew unclipped themselves from their seats and Remnant loosened his grip on the wires above his head.
Nothing of import happened during the first few days of the journey home, although Remnant nervously requested that they all have a formal meeting to discuss the diamond for one last time. Bettis declared his lack of desire to participate and sat facing the dashboard for the duration of the meeting, which Remnant opened.
“Now, I know you’re all fed up with hearing me go on about the diamond, but I just want us to have a plan in case we catch up with Haygue’s ship and get a chance to get our hands on some.”
“Not. Going. To. Happen,” Bettis said, still facing away from the group.
“I really hope we do, Sye,” said DT, beginning to tire of his pilot’s negativity.
Remnant carried on. “Well, I’ve been thinking. Haygue ain’t gonna let us just waltz aboard his ship and help ourselves. So we’ve got to be a bit clever about it. Now, from what we know about him, he sounds a bit greedy. So I’ve been thinking that the best way for us to get on his ship is to pretend we’ve got some diamond. Too much diamond for us to carry, so we need to offload some, else we ain’t got enough fuel to get home in one piece.”
“Do you think he will fall for that?” DT asked. It wasn’t the response Remnant was looking for, and immediately put him on the defensive.
“That’s Plan A,” he said. “I reckon if Haygue’s the kind of bloke I think he is, he’ll lap it up.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“It’ll be onto Plan B.”
“Which is?”
“Which is still in the making, but will involve us getting a little more hands-on.”
DT looked disappointed. “Remember, Sye, we have not got much weaponry.”