What right did this man have in taking the lives of my fellow Sector Eight dwellers? What right did these guys have in invading the space station and murdering everyone on it? What were their true intentions behind this? And why in the hell were they dogfighting against our own planet’s defenses?
These were not aliens. These were human beings, just like us. And ever since I could remember, human beings were supposed to stick together. Fighting was something of the past. It wasn’t something that we did anymore. We were more intelligent than that. We saw the world for what it was, and that was a peaceful safe haven for our species. Species that have worked incredibly hard to get to the top of space exploration, and inter-galactic relations.
Humanity was a leader in the solar system, and in the Galaxy. We were a leader that others looked upon for guidance. And if we couldn’t even control our own people, then what future did we have? All of our progress was about to be ruined by a ragtag group of misfits, misfits that wanted to cause nothing but death and despair to their very own species. And men like that, men like the man kneeling below me, blood oozing out of the mouth, didn’t deserve any compassion. Violence was the only answer I could summon against such a callous being.
“Tell me the meaning of this! Tell me why you are doing this! You will not leave this ship alive if you do not answer my questions,” I said, swinging my fist back once again and landing another hard punch on the intruders face.
But he was a hard nut to crack. And even though I’d been doing nothing but cracking his face with my knuckles, he didn’t want to divulge any information to me. He hardly whimpered when I’d hit him. And if he wasn’t crying for help, I didn’t think he’d be crying for mercy either.
He was cut from a different fabric; I’d seen it before. He was obviously army, or ex-army. Men that were used to pain. Men that were not averse to it. Men that enjoyed the idea of dying an honorable death. And in silence, there was mostly honor. But not when that silence impeded the rightful defense of innocent people.
So I was determined to get through that wall of silence, even if it meant spilling his blood all over the place. Did that make me any better than him? Probably not. But the funny thing about being human is, there’s no escaping the need to inflict violence on one another. Everybody has their reasons, and everybody stands by them.
Does that mean that everybody is right? Or does that mean that we’ve been wrong since day one?
“Tell us what you know,” I said, about to lay another hard punch into him when Dale decided to let him go and pull me aside.
“I don’t think he’s going to talk anytime soon, Capt. Flynn. Maybe violence isn’t the answer, maybe we just need to talk some sense into him,” Dale said, patting me on the shoulder while giving me an understanding look.
I guess even he was shocked at the lengths I was willing to go to in getting answers. But at the end of the day, these people tried to kill Teresa and I. And I’d had enough of my own people trying to kill me. First Pilgrim Tech had hung my crew and myself out to dry. Sold us to the Ursines – sold us down the river... and then the damn Ursines attempted to trick us into doing their dirty work.
And now, now a new set of humans were trying to kill us. Either I’d been a complete asshole in another life, or the Alpha Ship One had the worst luck in the world, but I was starting to get fed up with it all. I’d done nothing to nobody. Yet everybody had done something to me. It was about time I did something back. But I decided to heed Dale’s suggestion. Violence wasn’t getting through to this man. But I was determined to get through to him, even if it meant leveling with the enemy. Not that there was much leveling to do. But maybe my past experiences with Pilgrim Tech could earn me some sort of favor with him. Maybe he’d see some sort of kinship with me, a fellow man trodden on by the superior might of the government. But then maybe I was just destined to be trodden on by all types of humanity…
“You’re obviously a man of hard exterior and firm beliefs. I can understand your hatred toward Pilgrim Tech, and maybe that’s why you decided to attack Earth. And if I’m being honest, I don’t really hold it against you. The only thing I do hold against you and your people is the very fact that you tried to kill Teresa and I. Teresa means a lot to me. She’s the only one I’ve got left, no thanks to the people of Earth. And let’s not forget, you boarded my ship, a ship that I have flown for the government, a ship that I have paid my dues in, a ship that has protected the interests of our planet and our civilization. And you dare try and take that away from me. You dare try and take away my girl, my crew and my life?” I said, walking up toward the prison on the floor, who was now looking up at me, blood dribbling out of his mouth, and a scowl on his face.
“You don’t know anything. You act like you’re the righteous one here, and I’m the common thief, trying to take away your all-so-innocent-lives. But you seem to misunderstand the fact that no human is innocent. And no life is safe. We live in a society where we are told we are greater than the Universe. That we mean more than the Universe. That we are the most significant life forms in the Galaxy. Hogwash! We aren’t shit. And it’s about time that you open your eyes, Capt. Flynn, and realize that this isn’t about you. And it’s hardly about Pilgrim Tech. It’s about something crater. Something greater that you will never understand because you are firmly locked into the social belief that you mean something.
“The day that you realize that you are merely a speck within the sands of time, is the day that you will be on the same wavelength as me. So stop trying to get into my head, because you don’t even possess the ability to get into your own,” the prisoner said, still staring at me, but this time his scowl had turned into a smile. I guess he was proud of his little speech. And I guess I was intrigued.
“Is the idea behind your attack so righteous that you cannot even bear to tell me? Or is it the fact that you don’t actually know why you do the things you do, and the only thing that motivates you is the same thing that motivates all of us, and that’s survival. It’s all we humans are good at. And maybe you see the world differently from me, granted I can never understand and will never understand the reasoning behind any act of terrorism, but I ain’t stupid. I ain’t a fool. I understand that we as humans are complex and have different beliefs. But I will never use those beliefs to commit acts of violence upon innocent lives,” I said.
The man on the floor tried to stand up. Dale rushed over toward him, and was about to subdue him when I signaled him to stop.
“Let him stand,” I said.
Dale did as I asked. He stepped back, and watched as the man struggled to his feet.
The prisoner was swaying from side to side, attempting to regain his balance. And after a few seconds, he composed himself, and raised his head up high. In his mind I guess, this was a victory. He was standing face to face against the opposition. An opposition that had repeatedly beaten him for the last forty minutes.
But I saw things differently. This wasn’t a show of force from him, nor was it a show of bravado. This was merely a show of intelligence. As I had been attempting to level with him, now he was leveling with me. For I was standing, and now so was he. We were equals again. And maybe, if we were both equals, in his mind, just maybe I would understand him better. I got the feeling that he was trying to convince me of something. And even though he hadn’t spoken since standing, his defiance spoke whispered words to me.
“Now that you’re standing, you can tell me the reason behind your attack,” I said, moving slowly toward him.
Teresa and Philip were watching from the sidelines, the both of them leaning against the rattling tin wall of the vessel. The ship was on autopilot, and was cruising at a safe speed. The deck was eerily quiet as I awaited the man’s response. But I couldn’t shake the fact that death had occurred on this deck far too many times now.
A month ago, me and my crew had fought for our right to survive on this deck. We had taken out two Ursines, and I myself had killed one of them. But now, now there was a ma
n on that same deck, a man that had tried to kill me. But I couldn’t help but feel that maybe the idea of another living being dying on my ship would curse it to a life of damnation. I wanted nothing but to live a peaceful life. But something was telling me that peace would never be found on board the Alpha Ship One.
“None of you will ever understand the true cause of the Annex Rebel Fleet. But some things aren’t meant to be understood. Some things are just meant to happen.”
I stood there, staring at the prisoner, shaking my head.
“Instead of talking in riddles, why don’t you man up and tell me the truth!” I said, Dale still standing behind the prisoner, watching him intently, just in case he tried to make a move on me. But I was doing the same. I was more than prepared to defend myself once again.
“You think I’m talking in riddles? This isn’t a game Capt. Flynn. This is the end. The end of a game that humanity has been playing for centuries. A game of dominance. A game of Monopoly. A game where all the cards have been counted. A game that is in favor of violence and tyranny. It’s a game that humanity can never win, because there are no winners in the end. But it is also a game that we, the Annex Rebel Fleet are going to put an end to. Captain Flynn, are you going to sit idly by and watch as we tear the fabric of society apart, or are you going to join us in ending this game once and for all?”
A wave of confusion washed over me, confusion at what he was suggesting. How would I join them? And why would I join them? They tried to kill me. They tried to kill my crew. And as far as I was concerned, this was no game. I don’t play with the livelihood of my crew. The fact that he was suggesting that this was all fun and games was making me seethe inside. But I held my anger in and took a deep breath before I answered his call to arms.
“I’m not a kid, I gave up playing games a long time ago. I’m not interested in playing no games here son, this is grown-up shit, and I hope you understand just how serious me and my crew are before you go writing checks your fleet can’t cash,” I said.
Chapter Six
The men and women standing in the operations room were nervous. Big screens around them projected the carnage that the Annex Rebel Fleet had left behind. To most of the men and women standing in that room, it came as a surprise when they learned that the Annex Rebel Fleet had managed to take out around twenty of their ships. When they came to know how many they’d managed to take out themselves, the nerves they were feeling soon soured and were turned into pure despair instead.
A lot of them were flabbergasted at the fact that the Annex Rebel Fleet had even managed to graze one of their ships, let alone destroy twenty of them. But this was war, and make no mistake about it, the people in this operations room knew the severity of this campaign.
And the reason they knew the severity of this encounter was simple; they had been expecting the rebels to attack. In fact, it had been common knowledge that they were forming some sort of an offensive against the people of Earth and its armies. But a lot of them had thought that maybe the Annex Rebel Fleet were operating on pipedreams alone, so it came as a sort of surprise that they managed to fare so well against their men.
The operational leader stood in the middle the room, surveying his men as they worked tirelessly in front of their terminals. Most of the people working in their terminals had image grabs of the Sector Eight space station above Earth. And within those image grabs was the destruction of that station. It’d been completely destroyed by the Annex Rebel Fleet, and will most likely cost Earth and its people billions of credits to restore. Not that money motivated the people in the operations room, but it was certainly an eye-opener. It was after all the first time in nearly two centuries where civil strife had fallen upon the planet and its people.
Many of the people working for Earth and its government never thought they would see the day where humanity would turn back the hands of time to an era where people killed one another when they disagreed on political or religious means. It was a time that many wished never happened, but unfortunately, history has a habit of repeating itself. And for the operational leader, as he stood in the middle of that room, still surveying his men and women at their terminals, working tirelessly to try and pinpoint the current location of the Annex Rebel Fleet, a sorrowful frown draped his face.
It was no secret, he was depressed. Depressed that it had come to this. The whole point of his operational team was to avert any potential threats against Earth and its people. And he had failed. They had failed. And in the eyes of Pilgrim Tech, his bosses, he knew that he didn’t stand much chance of keeping his job. Let alone his life. But he had a duty to uphold. And his duty would only cease to be at the forefront of his mind when he took his last breath. He was determined to take down the Annex Rebel Fleet. Determined to make sure Earth has the last laugh. But truth be told, there wouldn’t be much laughing going on when everything came to an end.
“You okay sir?” Somebody said, making the operational leader tilt his head to the left. Standing next to him was one of his interns. A pretty young thing. Fiery red hair and bright blue eyes. She had a concerned look on her face. The operational leader couldn’t quite pinpoint the look, part of him thought that it was infatuation, and another part of him thought it was sheer sorrow for his bad luck. He didn’t want pity from anybody. Even if she was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. There was still an air of professionalism around him, and he wanted to keep it that way.
“Yes, I’m fine Maddie. Just a bit taken back by this whole ordeal. I mean, we knew they were coming, but I just didn’t expect them to be so damn good,” the operational leader said, tilting his head back toward the front, still surveying his team as they worked hard.
In his mind, he was trying to come to terms with what his next course of action would be. But deep down, he knew that any action taken against the Annex Rebel Fleet would have to be violent. It was the only way to defeat them. To stop them in their tracks before they succeeded in their ultimate goal of disrupting the government and its operations.
Maddie looked at her boss and felt a pang of pity for him. She could tell that all of this went way above his and her pay grade. The fact that an attack had happened meant that her team and her boss had failed the system. And she could only imagine what consequences they would face. But she wasn’t stupid, she knew that this was still reversible. They knew things after all. Things that could work against the Annex Rebel Fleet.
“Sam, everything will be alright. You’ll see, we’ll sort this out in the nick of time, and when we do, they’ll be calling us heroes,” Maddie said, trying to reassure her boss.
Sam smiled back at her, but remained stern at the same time. He didn’t dare look her in the eyes. He was far too emotional to feel confident within himself. He didn’t want to show his true feelings. These were dangerous times, and he couldn’t risk letting his feelings get in the way.
He was a man of action, and actions speak louder than words. And feelings are passive.
They hold no truths, and they speak no lies. They are figments of the human imagination. Figments that cause confrontation among others. And it is those feelings that he had to flush out if he was going to remain in control. And control was very much the only thing that Sam cared about. For he had lost everything else, and control was all he had left.
“Get Pilgrim Tech on the phone. I have a proposition to make,” Sam said, staring into the void as he thought about the many lives that were about to be ruined. People were going to die. There was no question about it. But who would suffer the most casualties?
The people of Earth? Or the people trying to destroy it?
***
The Commander of the Annex Rebel Fleet took his hands off the controls and breathed a sigh of relief. His ship was now safely back on the rebel planet. The same planet that was cloaked and hidden from the people of Pilgrim Tech and Earth. If only they could see the sheer size of the Annex Rebel Fleet, then maybe they wouldn’t be playing games with him. At least that’s what Comman
der Korr thought to himself. He thought that maybe if they were aware of the sheer danger they were in, then just maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to fight back.
Just maybe they’d take into consideration the sheer scale of destruction that the Annex Rebel Fleet was capable of. For they were capable of a lot of destruction. Ultimate destruction. And the very idea that a rebel militia could tear planet Earth in half was unthinkable fifty years ago. But times change. People’s guards go down. Earthlings start to trust each other once again. They don’t think twice about loving their brother or forgiving their neighbor.
They see the good in everybody.
But the Commander knows that there is only so much good on Earth, and very little of it comes from his fellow human beings. And while Pilgrim Tech were obsessing over interstellar domination, he and his people, a very select few at first, were strategizing and coming up with ways to make the world a better place.
For a very long time, the Annex Rebel Fleet were focused on peaceful protest. They planned on voicing their opinions to Pilgrim Tech, and maybe causing some sort of divide between the citizens of Earth and its masters. But Commander Korr knew that Earth and its people, including the government that held it down, would not be so quick to listen. People had changed. People were no longer interested in revolution, or their rights. They had been brainwashed into thinking that monetary goods were the be-all-and-end-all of existence.
For many years, centuries even, Earth had slowly but steadily conditioned its people to appreciate the material things in life. And once Commander Korr could see that the people of Earth could not be moved or persuaded by pursuits of righteousness, he knew that the only way that his rebel alliance could make a mark on its own planet was by showing force.
Destroyer of Worlds (Alpha Ship One Book 2) Page 7