A storm that promises to rip the fabric of society apart.
Chapter Ten
“Red alert, I repeat, red alert!” The voice on the tannoy system said, alerting everybody in the facility of the imminent danger that was approaching.
The non-descript man was working at his desk when the voice came over the sound system. It startled him into action. He had let time pass him by. He was supposed to have been keeping an eye on the clock, psyching himself up in preparation of his sole objective. But instead, he’d been reading up on some research, research based on previous revolutions.
But the time for preparing was now over, and the time to act was upon him. The voice on the tannoy was still repeating the same sentence over and over again. Red alert. Red alert. To the uninitiated, what was about to happen was indeed a red alert. But to him, and the rest of the rebels on the mysterious planet, this wasn’t a time for fear, this was a time for joyous celebration. After years of planning, their vision of a revolution was about to become a fully-fledged picture.
Before the non-descript man left his office, he took a final look at his computer screen. On the right-hand side of the computer screen, right at the top, was a small digital picture frame. The picture frame stared back at him. It reminded him that he had a family. But it also reminded him that he was most likely not going to see them ever again.
But that was a price that he was willing to pay. And by God was he willing to pay it in full! But something had caught his eye on the left-hand side of the screen. A memo had come through. Its icon was flashing, trying to get his attention. He was torn on whether he should get a move on or whether he should read the memo.
He decided on the latter. He quickly opened the memo, surprised to see what the contents of it was. Pilgrim Tech had circulated an internal memo, a memo that had also been sent to him, and in that memo was a live feed of an approaching rebel fleet. The non-descript man wondered if Pilgrim Tech had meant to send the memo to him. He was just a lowly employee. He thought that maybe they would want to keep this sort of thing under wraps, as to not cause a panic. Not that he was panicking. He’d expected the rebel fleet. He welcomed them even. Because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish his mission if the rebels weren’t involved. He needed them to cause a distraction. A big enough distraction to put the fear of God in Pilgrim Tech.
And judging by the chaos outside, the sound of running footsteps and shouting voices, the fear of God was very much invoked right at that very minute. Satisfied with the contents of the memo, the non-descript man got to his feet, grabbed his briefcase, and ran toward the exit. Pushing the door open, he now found himself in a hallway. The hallway was bustling with activity, people running from left to right, looking like headless chickens. But he had his head firmly screwed onto his shoulders. He knew exactly where he was supposed to go.
Deciding to go right, he quickly walked down the hallway, barging past some of the frightened employees that surrounded him. Most of them weren’t paying any attention to him. But he was paying attention to every single one of them. It was like he was walking in slow motion, his ears were muffled, and his heart was pounding in his chest. Every single person he passed, he drank their expression in.
He was savoring the moment. It was happening just like he’d imagined. The looks on their faces were priceless. He’d go as far as to say that he was enjoying it. Enjoying the chaos. Enjoying the fright. Enjoying the fear. But he didn’t have time to enjoy it for much longer. Before he knew it, he was taking the elevator up toward the top floor.
And just like he’d planned, he was outside the bigwig’s office block before he knew it. The trip in the elevator had passed without incident. And most of it was a blur. It was as if one minute he had blinked, and he was downstairs, and the next he was upstairs, staring at the grainy surface of the wooden door, about to knock on it. A wave of emotion crashed over him, some of it was self-doubt, whilst rest was self-pity.
Part of him didn’t know if he could go through with this. While the other part of him wanted nothing but success. Failure was not an option. And he feared that he would fail if he didn’t play his cards right. So he cleared his throat, closed his eyes, thought of his happy place, and then breathed. After exhaling, he opened his eyes, and knocked on the door three times.
Somebody summoned him in. He was now on the cusp of executing his plan. Years of research was about to culminate in this very moment. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a gun, and walked into the room. Without thinking twice, he aimed the weapon, and fired. Five men were sitting around a table. Four of them now had bullet holes in their heads. One of them remained speechless, staring up at him, blood-soaked papers on the desk in, a look of wretched fear entrenched in his eyes.
“Sorry to bother you, Mr. President, but you’re coming with me,” the nondescript man said, realizing that for the first time in four years he was no longer operating in the shadows, but he was now the shadow, the shadow of darkness that was engulfing the corrupt offices of Pilgrim Tech.
Things were about to change forever. And he was the architect of that change. A change that was both inevitable and long overdue.
***
I put the ship into manual mode, taking control of the vessel as it disengaged from warp drive speeds. The view from the outside quickly changed from melded stars and black blotches in the atmosphere to a massive battle. We had reached Earth, and just above it, the so-called distraction was playing out. Thousands of Annex Rebel Fleet ships were battling Snake Pit Fighters. And we were about to get stuck right in the middle of it all. So a little evasive maneuvering was called for. I tilted and turned the controls to the right, banking the ship, and trying to duck under all of the action.
“Sweet Jesus, it’s really kicking off down here!” Dale said, taking his position on the gunner’s seat, scoping out the battlefield in front of us with his onboard weapon’s reticle.
Teresa and Philip were sat down in their seats. They weren’t doing much other than staring at the battle that was unfolding around us. The prisoner had been tied to a chair, and was dozing in and out of consciousness. I started to become a little worried about him, seeing that he had been out cold for at least an hour now, and I didn’t really want him to die on us. Especially if we were supposed to be returning to the Annex Rebel Fleet’s hideout. The last thing I wanted to do was antagonize them by presenting a dead soldier to the Commander.
His dead soldier. Not exactly the best way to start a working relationship, in my opinion.
But the prisoner’s well-being would have to take a backseat while I ducked and dived my way through the treacherous battle that was taking place around us and Earth. I didn’t have much time to analyze the particulars of the battle, but I could see that the Snake Pit Fighters were greatly outnumbered, and Earth would have to send even more reinforcements to defend the sovereignty of the planet.
The distraction was working rather well. Earth and its people would be so bamboozled by the attack, that all of their attention would be on the battle, and they hopefully wouldn’t even see us approaching the planet. But I had something up my sleeve. I knew that the Alpha Ship One was decked with a cloaking device, and that would help us get past some of the approaching Snake Pit Fighters that were wanting to get in on the action around us. So I engaged the cloaking device, and flew under the radar.
“Won’t they pick us up at flight control?” Philip asked when he noticed what I was doing.
It was a genuine question and was also a genuine concern of mine. He was the communications guy, so I was hoping he had the answer to that. But I decided to buff my way through the question, and answered him with a half-truth.
“Who knows? I’m hoping that the battle will distract them enough to let us slip by without much impediment. But then again, maybe the battle will just strengthen Earth’s borders, and if we enter without the right authority, we’ll be blown to smithereens. But every cloud has a silver lining, and if that is truly our fate, t
hen we won’t even feel it. So I guess we have that going for us,” I said, still manually steering the ship, slowly but steadily approaching the blue planet, seconds from entering its atmosphere.
“Yeah, sounds like a solid plan to me,” Teresa said.
The battle was still going on around us, and was beginning to get quite dense. There were a lot of ships involved in this skirmish, but I managed to get past without attracting any unwanted eyes on us. Obviously, the Annex Rebel Fleet knew our purpose on the battlefield. We were a Trojan horse. A Trojan horse that was supposed to penetrate Pilgrims Tech’s defenses, and scuttle away with one of their men. But not just any man. Their President.
“You really think this is going to work Capt. Flynn? You actually think we are going to be able to kidnap the president of Pilgrim Tech, and take him back to the rebel stronghold? I mean we’ve been in some tough situations before, and I don’t doubt your skill as a pilot, but I do doubt your intentions. I’m still struggling to understand how the hell this is going to help anybody? If the rebels do get a hold of the leader of Pilgrim Tech, then what chance do the people on Earth have fighting against a government that has nothing to lose?” Dale asked.
I was quite impressed with his vocabulary. He was a big brutish man, and I’d never heard him talk with such indignation before. But this wasn’t the time to be impressed. And I guess his concerns were valid. But I didn’t have the answers that he wanted. I had no idea why I was doing this. I guess I could liken it with a decision made in the heat of the moment. But the difference between a split-second decision that changes your life forever, versus this decision, was the fact that I’d been steeping in my own anger for a very long while. This wasn’t just in the heat of the moment; this was anger that I had felt toward the establishment for so long, that it just felt normal to hate the men at the top. And I guess I felt as if this was my moment to prove that the little guy could win. That the little guy could change the world for the better. But I didn’t have enough time to articulate that sentiment to Dale.
I had a ship to control. I had a Trojan horse to march on forward to victory. And we were ever so close to penetrating the atmosphere.
“ETA; five seconds,” Philip said, monitoring the ship's vitals as we entered the outer crust.
The ship jolted up and down, side to side, and then began to rattle as we crashed into Earth’s atmosphere. I steadied the ship somewhat, but the journey was still a little bumpy. I entered the exact coordinates of Pilgrim Tech’s headquarters, and watched as the ship took a hard left, and zoomed towards its objective.
After a few seconds, the jolty ride stopped, and the clouds appeared. We were now back on Earth, and the skies were crystal blue above us. But at the speed we were going, it wouldn’t take long to reach the continent. And on that continent, the continent that used to be known as North America, was the headquarters of Pilgrim Tech.
“Give me a rough estimate on arrival?” I asked, turning in my chair, facing Philip. He looked up at me and shrugged his shoulders.
“Computer’s telling me two minutes. I guess we got lucky. If we’d hit Earth from the other side, then it would have been a few hours,” Philip said.
I agreed with him. We’d been lucky so far. It was no secret that you could warp drive in space, but going such a speed on Earth was unwise. The skies above were chock-a-block full of spacecraft, and other air vehicles. Exceeding the speed of two-thousand miles an hour was not advisable. Unless of course you wanted to collide with a commercial jetliner.
I could see the continent approaching. North America was still such a beautiful piece of land. And even after many wars on that land, I still felt as if it was my home. It made me feel peaceful. It made me feel welcome. But after what I was about to do, I doubted that I’d ever see it again. I was, in effect, turning my back on my home. I was turning my back on my government. But it was for the greater good. It was to free the people of Earth. And I just hoped beyond hope that I could do just that.
“Thirty seconds,” Philip said.
We were now roaring over the continent. A couple of seconds ago we had been over New York, and now we found ourselves over Minnesota. In about ten more seconds we would reach LA. And once we reached California, we’d dive toward the headquarters.
“Five seconds,” Philip said, as I counted down in my head.
I started to slow the vessel down a little, while at the same time banking to the right. The golden coasts of California shone back up at me. I had taken one last look at the beauty below before I nosedived the aircraft toward its final destination.
The Alpha Ship One was an old ship, that much was true, but it was a trusted ship. It held VIP status. So any prying eyes would dismiss our presence as nothing more than routine. We didn’t have to follow the rules. After what happened to us, after being marooned on the Ursine planet, and saving the world from certain annihilation, we were given special privileges.
It was with these privileges that I made the decision to divorce myself from the tyranny that I’d been subjected to. So as we approached the Pilgrim Tech headquarters, the automatic scanners let us through immediately.
Our VIP status had paid off. And now there was no turning back.
“There it is! Slowing down, forty percent power, turning off cloaking device. According to my map, the ship hangar is right in front of us, bearing down a few degrees,” Philip said, watching his monitor like a hawk.
He was right. I could see the approaching landing lights. The hangar was nearby. Pilgrim Tech headquarters used a tunnel-like-hangar embedded into rock and granite as a landing strip. There were no runways on the surface, and we would need to maneuver the ship through a long dark passageway that burrowed through the earth to reach the security hangar where the Pilgrim Tech suits would most likely be waiting for a pickup.
From what I understood, this distraction would allow us to masquerade as an evacuation ship. The Annex Rebel Fleet had thought this out thoroughly. They had left no stone unturned. They knew what protocols were followed when an emergency occurred. And they knew that the only way they were going to get a hold of the Pilgrim Tech President was if they infiltrated the department from within. Apparently, they had someone on the inside, someone working to get the Pilgrim Tech president on board this ship. But that didn’t mean that I still wasn’t nervous. A lot could go wrong.
“Reducing power, sixty percent, thrusters activated,” Philip said.
I slowed the Alpha Ship One down to a crawl. The runway lights were nearing. The onboard computer was warning me of a landing, whilst telling me to retract. I ignored the warnings, and lowered the ship a little more. I lined the vessel up with the landing lights, and propelled the ship toward the security gate blocking the tunnel.
As we approached, an automatic scan blinked in front of us, analyzing the credentials of the Alpha Ship One once again. After a few seconds, a light went green above the gate, and the gate opened automatically, allowing us to enter the tunnel.
“Lights on,” Philip said.
The tunnel lit up, revealing a mile or so of runway in front of us. It was void of any activity. Usually, there were hundreds of ships landing and taking off. But the distraction above us, orbiting space, was doing its job. Most of the ships had left. And I didn’t think they’d be returning in the meantime. So far, the Annex Rebel Fleet was winning. I didn’t know if they’d win the battle, but they were certainly about to win the war if this went off without a hitch.
“Approaching the designated hangar. Landing gear activated. Power reduced by ninety percent. Thrusters deactivated. The runway is all yours, Capt. Flynn,” Philip said as I rattled the controls slightly, trying to even out the ship.
The wheels touched the tarmac, and the engine brakes roared to life. The Alpha Ship One came to a stop at its predesignated area, right outside of the Executive Hangar. The door opened, and I made a right, taxiing slowly into the dark facility.
I saw two people standing on a platform, waiting for a pickup. That pic
kup was me. I only recognized one of them. Even though they both looked like ants from where I was sitting, the one I’d recognized was without a doubt the Pilgrim Tech President.
It was the same guy that had debriefed me and my crew once we’d returned to Earth after our bust-up with the Ursines. It was the exact same guy that had given me one million credits to keep my mouth shut.
Thankfully, it was the same guy that I was about to kidnap.
The ship came to a stop, and I opened the side doors, a small platform ejected out of the Alpha Ship One, and interlocked with the platform on the hangar. I quickly got off my seat, and made my way toward the door. To my surprise, the Pilgrim Tech president was already being pushed into the Alpha Ship One. I took a step back, a little terrified of his potential reaction. But then I remembered that I was in control. That I was the boss. That he no longer called the shots.
“Welcome on board the Alpha Ship One. I hope you have a pleasant journey,” I said, grabbing the man in the suit by the scruff of the neck, and shoving him into a chair.
“I demand to know the meaning of this! Do you not know who I am?” The Pilgrim Tech President said as I tied him to his chair and put a gag in his mouth.
The son of a bitch didn’t even recognize me. He was totally oblivious to who I was, or who my crew were. Not to mention he didn’t even flinch when I told him that he was onboard the Alpha Ship One. But I guess I should’ve known better. He was a politician after all, and politicians only remember one thing; and that’s the amount of money they have in their bank accounts.
“Although this little reunion is sweet and all, I would suggest that you get us off this planet as soon as you can. They’ll be looking for him. And I’m pretty sure they’ll be after us for what I did to his fellow Cabinet members,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned around, and standing in front of me was another man in a suit. This man had blood on his lapel. And a gun in his hand. He was the man on the inside. That much I could tell. I didn’t even have to ask for his name. There was no point anyway. He was right. We needed to get a move on. But before we could, I had one request.
Destroyer of Worlds (Alpha Ship One Book 2) Page 13