by Trent Falls
Agrev stood in one of the upper level lobbies of the Xen Intelligence Bureau. As a member of the Xen High Council he was granted access to the highly classified transmission recently directed into the building. Indeed, he was the only person who received the message. He stood in stunned silence in the lounge, staring out the wide ribbon window overlooking the lush central park of the city.
Captain Shin and the crew of the Ao Shun had achieved their objective. They had located the Norn. Everything that Agrev believed in his entire life had been validated. It was shocking to finally hear it.
No one on Xin’Shi could know, of course. To leak the news would risk having a run on the planet where the Watchtower was believed to be located. Every ship in the colonies would be in orbit of the planet. No. They needed to maintain secrecy. As Agrev was one of the principals of the plan, he was the one who ultimately agreed to Euler’s plan to locate the Norn. It was Agrev’s political muscle that allowed Shin to break away from the fleet. It was Agrev who covered for them in the Xen government, in the military, and from any other prying eyes.
Agrev couldn’t sit on the sidelines. He raised his wrist com to his face and keyed in the call signal to his assistant.
“Have my transport set down at the typical coordinates. I need to head up to Unity Station.” Agrev noted in his gruff aged voice.
“Yes sir.” A voice replied over the com.
Agrev straightened up and walked out of the lounge. He brushed the front of his grey jacket slightly as he approached the main lifts of the building.
The Norn. After decades he would finally know the truth. He wondered if any of his predecessors on the council had knowledge of the truth. He wondered if any of them had actually met the Norn. Glenn Eustice and Sheryl Gi had created the High Council to begin with a few years after the Xen’s arrival on Xin’Shi. Agrev wondered if they had met the Norn. Had they been lied to all these years? Did someone in the council or elsewhere in the Xen government know the truth?
The elevators polished bronze doors opened. The interior of the elevator had a kind of plaster walls with Xen geometric artwork set in relief. Two other Xen, a middle aged woman and a younger man, rode the elevator down. Thoughts raced through Agrev’s mind with each passing moment, causing him to ignore much of the world around him. He walked out of the elevator, still with the Norn on his mind, out into the black marble lobby of the building. A water wall ran over angled black marble at Agrev’s right. Green tropical plants framed the water wall but Agrev paid the serenity of the lobby no mind.
Agrev had been a veteran of the Colonial War. He had served as a commander on the Chronos, a battleship of the fleet. He had since retired from the Navy more than ten years earlier. At no time in his military or political career did he ever receive validation that the Norn were real.
“Sir, your transport is en route.” A male voice said from Agrev’s side.
Agrev was startled back into reality by the voice. He looked over to his right to see a young Xen male with dark hair in a black business suit and a white shirt. It was Phillip Hedges, Agrev’s personal assistant. Hedges was originally from the Navy; advanced recon. He had been personally selected by Agrev to be his assistant and bodyguard.
Hedges walked out of the sliding doors of the lobby ahead of his boss into the bright daylight. The exit led to a short group of stone steps that extended into a park-like public walk. The park was a massive expanse of sidewalks and open plazas, landscaped with rolling green grass and large shade trees.
“Are you set to travel, Mister Hedges?” Agrev asked aloud.
“Yes sir.” Hedges answered obediently as they walked.
“We will be gone for a few days.” Agrev noted.
“I’m fine, sir. Thanks.” Hedges responded. “When are we going?”
“Immediately.” Argev answered.
There was growing rush of wind, followed by the increasing whine of repulse thrusters. Hedges looked up to see a tan shuttle transport swing by overhead. The vehicle looked like a bulky minivan mixed with a private jet. The transport turned gently ahead of the two men, settling over a wide expanse of white concrete walkway. It was Agrev’s usual pickup spot; at the park near a pastry food cart. On typical workdays, Agrev would stop and get a coffee and Danish before getting on the same transport ship to take him home.
Agrev skipped the Danish. Hedges walked ahead of his boss towards the transport. He slid open the side door of the aircraft, allowing his boss to enter the luxurious interior of the vessel. Unlike typical Kestrel-type transports, Agrev’s had padded upholstered seats, a refrigerator, a holographic projector monitor, and computer control screens set into the armrests. It was a flying limousine.
The wind from the transports jets whipped Agrev’s white hair as he entered the vehicle. Agrev sat down on the padded seat at the back. Hedges got in and slid the door shut. Agrev and Hedges didn’t need to put on headsets within the cabin. The passenger area was sealed tightly and insulated well from outside noise. The passengers could see the pilot and copilot ahead through a glass window that divided the aircraft.
Agrev pressed a button on a console to his right. “Take us up to Unity Station.” he ordered aloud.
“Yes sir. Copy that.” The pilot’s voice replied. He also raised his right hand, giving the High Councilor a thumbs up through the glass.
The wail of the jets and the repulse engines of the craft grew again. The weight of the ship lumbered upward until it was in hovering flight, rising high above the campus walkway of the city central park. Soon enough, the transport was higher than the skyscrapers further out from the center of the city. The transport nosed up, picking up speed to fly up into the blue and white clouds of the sky.
Chapter 20
The Tequesta emerged from warp a safe distance away from Proxima Five. As the nearest Earth colony, Proxi Five maintained a large amount of inbound and outbound traffic. Alex had wanted to exit hyperspace a good distance away from the outer marks. He needed to allow himself time to negotiate a landing spot amongst his contacts on the planet. One couldn’t simply park ones interstellar transport in the woods like on other uninhabited worlds. EEF Marshals on Proxima Five would hand out a large citation for illegal parking of a starship. As a point of fact, illegal parking and demurrage fraud on larger vessels had become a big issue for EEF Marshals of late.
Alex looked to the stars ahead as he flew the Tequesta. Proxima Five wasn’t yet a speck among the stars.
Julie had napped in Alex’s stateroom. The mattress had been musty and the bed unkempt, but it was still much better than where she had been. She was out of the mercenary prison and safe. That in itself helped her sleep more soundly. As she woke up she could feel the ship sway. Falling asleep on a starship was somewhat like falling asleep on a boat, only there were no waves to jostle someone about. She could feel it when the Tequesta would bank or turn, but just slightly as the inertial compensators adjusted. Oddly, the inertial compensators seemed to handle larger changes in speed, like jumping to warp, better than slight movements in the ship.
Julie got up from the bed, quickly remembering where she was. She got up and walked out of the 2 ½’ wide doorway. She looked right, seeing the flight deck of the Tequesta at the end of the short corridor. She could see part of Alex’s right arm as he worked the controls of the spacecraft. Julie then looked left and walked back towards the cargo area.
John was in the cargo area. He had cleaned up. The camo face paint was gone. The grime on his arms was cleaned away. He had even removed his gloves and cleaned his black shirt as best he could. John worked over the M10 carbine. He had consolidated what was left of his ammunition into two clips; almost two clips. He worked with a small cleaning kit to clean the weapon as best he could.
Julie paused in stride at the sight of John with the weapon. She remembered what he had done on the planet. She knew John had the 9mm pistol at home. She had been instructed by her uncle on gun safety even though she didn’t really want anything to do with fi
rearms. It was something that she knew John was skilled at but she never really saw him working with any weapons. John had been able to put his guns on a shelf for so long that Julie didn’t really associate them with him any longer.
John caught sight of Julie as she walked into the hangar bay. He slowed his work on the M10, as though the weapon suddenly embarrassed him.
“Hey.” John greeted her familiarly.
“Hey.” Julie greeted him back somewhat hesitantly. She brushed aside her blonde hair from the side of her face as she approached him slowly.
John remained silent. He had a sense for what was coming and wanted to let Julie talk. She was very shy on talking about what had happened.
“How ya doing?” John pressed gently.
“Okay I guess.” Julie walked slowly around the cargo bay, eventually sitting down across from John.
“Jules. What happened back there…” John paused to breathe and to think. “I know it was… I know it’s hard to understand…”
“No.” Julie stopped him. “It’s okay. I know.” Julie paused. “You did what you had to do.”
John stared at Julie for a moment. He continued to clean his M10, more as a diversion to his own thoughts. It was as though he was hiding behind the task of cleaning the weapon.
Julie suddenly remembered Dekker. She remembered seeing the dead guard on the ground in the stockade. She remembered seeing Rochette and Roberts, both dead near the Koi pond. She looked away, trying to keep herself from sobbing.
“I’m sorry Jules. I really am.” John looked into the open breach block of the M10. He didn’t want to look Julie in the eye. He was ashamed to.
“How do you keep it out of your mind? I mean… how do you?” Julie held back her tears. One tear streaked down the left side of her face as she looked at John.
“I never, NEVER wanted you to see that, Jules.” John assured her. “You never get it out of your head. Not when it’s like this. It goes away sometimes but… you know… it comes back.”
“Is this what you dream about at night?” Jules asked. “Is this what gives you nightmares?”
John exhaled. He couldn’t help but grin at what Julie said even though it was inappropriate. “Jules, my nightmares are because of stuff much worse than this.”
“Jesus!” Julie pressed a hand to her forehead. She tried to calm herself. She hoped the images would fade from her mind.
“All this time,” Julie looked up at John, staring at him as though she were studying him, “All this time, I never thought you were capable of this. I mean, how can you….”
“Kill a man?” John completed her question. “No, I know where you’re going.” John shook his head, visibly filled with regret. He seemed to choke back his own tears for a split second before returning to a stoic expression. Still he tried not to make eye contact with Jules. “I never intended you to see this side of me.” John responded in a low remorseful tone. “During the war I was what I had to be. Training. Survival. That’s all you lived for. Completing the mission and bringing you and all your buddies home alive.” John finally looked up at Julie, looking at her blue eyes. “I’m here today, not because I’m good at what I do,” John again choked back tears, “I’m here because I was just lucky to get by. Lucky not to be killed. I knew guys back in the war who were much better than me. Much stronger. Better marines! A lot of them came home in a box.”
John seemed ready to break down. Julie stood up from her chair across from him.
“No, it’s okay.” John held a hand out to her, urging her with the gesture that she didn’t need to stand up. John took a breath. He quickly regained his composure. He set aside the M10 and decided he really needed to talk to her. He couldn’t hide from who and what he was.
“I was so relieved, in a way, when I was told I needed to stay home to take care of you.” John admitted. “I was glad to finally hang all that up.”
Julie sat up. She was a bit surprised by the revelation. “I didn’t get that impression in the beginning. That first year was strange. I remember it was like, you didn’t know what to do. It was as though you thought you wouldn’t be there long. Like you wanted to be back out in space.”
“It wasn’t like that at all, Jules.” John replied empathically. “Yeah, a part of me missed being out there, but… a part of me… was glad I had an excuse to come home. I mean, I don’t ever want you to think you were an ‘excuse’. I mean…” John was confused for words.
“I know what you mean.” Julie smirked at him. “I know.”
“Being your guardian… it kind of saved me.” John looked again at Julie. “Yeah, I missed what was happening in the colonies. I missed being part of that. But with you I saw a chance to make things right. I didn’t need to help build a new world. I needed to take care of you and help you grow into the world. It was like the same thing. But you’re family, Jules. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have come back out here.”
Julie took a deep breath. Much of what John said was known but they had never discussed it.
“I remember when mom died.” Julie admitted with a sigh. “I know, I was eight. It wasn’t long after my birthday. I remembered crying my eyes out. When you’re eight… your parents are everything. Not knowing dad… It was just… devastating. I remember all these adults watching over me. I know they meant well but I didn’t get a sense that things would be okay until you showed up that night. Yeah, that first year was weird. I didn’t think either of us knew what was going to happen.”
The ship’s com suddenly chimed. “We’re coming up on Proxima Five.” Alex’s voice noted throughout the cargo bay.
John raised his wrist com up to his mouth. “We’ll be up in a second.” John lowered the wrist com and returned his attention to Julie. “This! This ugliness you saw…” John shook his head. “I never intended for you to see any of it. I never wanted you to know the things I’ve done or the man I was during the war. I’m sorry you had to see any of it.”
Julie wiped away a final tear from her eye as she collected herself fully. “Is this why you didn’t want me going into space? To stay on Earth?”
“No, not exactly.” John shook his head. “When we get to Proxi Five you’ll understand a little better. It’s not that the place is violent… it just has a lot of undesirable elements kind of concentrated in one place.”
“Uncle John! I know what you’re talking about.” Julie rolled her eyes. “They don’t pull punches at school. I know they had gangsters and prostitutes and stim junkies.”
John stood up and walked towards Julie. “Jules, there’s a lot of things you can learn from a book and some things you just have to see for yourself.” John found himself talking like a dad again. “When we get to Proxi Five I want you to stay close to me.”
“Okay.” Julie replied in a matter of fact way.
“No bullshit, Jules.” John pressed his point like a father. “Stay close to me. Keep your eyes open but don’t talk to anyone. And don’t stare. Let me handle things and we’ll be fine.”
“Coming up on LPO.” Alex’s voice noted.
“Come on.” John extended his hand to Julie. “Let’s take a look.”
Julie grabbed her uncle’s hand. John helped her up, then led her back towards the front of the ship.
The horizon of Proxima Five glowed in an arc along the lower portion of the Tequesta’s forward-facing windows. The arc of the planet reached as far as the eye could see. Julie had missed the approach to Isis and had been sitting facing space when the Tequesta left that planet. She was frozen in awe at the level of detail that she could see the colony planet. One of the main continents filled two thirds of the visible planet. The left side of the continent was different hues of dark and light brown; a mountain range. Clouds stretched from the mountain range out to the east, over a broad swath of green that reached the ocean. Julie was stunned by the level of detail that she could see from space. She could see snow caps on the mountain tops. She could see rivers flowing out from the mountain range out into
the ocean, splitting out into various arteries and finally into a broad river delta.
Julie looked out ahead on what looked like several moving spots against the backdrop of the planet. After a while she realized what she was seeing – other starships en route to the planet surface.
“Pretty impressive, huh?” John asked, walking past Julie to sit in the copilot seat. “Strap yourself in.” John gestured to the flight engineer station. “Don’t touch anything.”
“I won’t.” Julie grumbled, her eyes still fixated on the grand view of the planet ahead.
“Don’t worry. The station is locked down.” Alex added. Alex reached up to tap in a new frequency on the standard radio. “Nellis Station this is Explorer seven twenty. Requesting instructions for landing.”
“Explorer seven twenty this is Nellis Control. Transmitting approach corridor vectors to your coms now. Maintain advised speed after reentry.” The controller’s voice answered back over the com.
The data flashed across one of Alex’s screens. Alex reached over to the screen and depressed a few keys beneath the display. The vector coordinates were transferred into his nav computer. A wire frame guide appeared ahead on the window using the HUD display. Alex followed the wire frame tunnel further down towards the planet and through reentry. Flames licked up around the nose of the Tequesta as it buffeted against the thickening air.
“Pretty intense.” Julie noted from her seat. Reentry seemed a bit more intimidating when viewed through the broad windows of the flight deck.
The Tequesta rocked a bit more violently. Alex reached over and tweaked the trim aspect of the repulse emitters. The Tequesta’s flight became more stable through reentry. Flames enveloped the Tequesta for a few minutes. Rather than follow elongated airbraking maneuvers, the repulse emitters slowed the Tequesta along a straight line. It was only after the Tequesta had slowed below the speed of aerodynamic heating that Alex bled off speed in long swaying turns.