The 13: Mission's End Book One

by M. M. Perry

  Trophy lazily leaned up against the wall and looked out. He saw Badb, as he had every time he’d looked out portside in the last week. The planet was half-lit, filling the window. He leaned his forehead against the glass to look at it more closely, his mind still only half-awake, his body sluggish. He wondered why he felt so hot and strangely heavy.

  “Bigger than when I last looked,” he said groggily.

  Trophy had to grip the edge of the window to hold himself up. He didn’t understand why his legs felt so weak. He turned to the nearest person to ask for help. Henry was sitting nearby, catatonic from fear. Trophy blinked several times, trying to get his bearings.

  “Does it feel like we’re spinning to you?” he asked before he blacked out.

  Thirteen

  Naomi noticed the pilots’ lack of chatter on approach. She hoped it didn’t mean anything was wrong. The shuttle rumbled as it landed softly on the deck. She wondered if they’d be greeted by a phalanx of guns when the door to the shuttle opened. She unbuckled herself and stared at the door. It felt like hours had passed when the customary sound of the shuttle depressurizing finally preceded the door sliding open.

  “You ready?” Mike asked, close by.

  “I think so,” Naomi replied.

  She followed her squad out into the Magellan’s shuttle bay. She was relieved to find it empty of soldiers. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, glad to be greeted by the well-lit, orange highlights all around her. Pilots rushed around the shuttles, checking them over as people exited.

  Alphea and Jeremy were waiting for them in the center of the bay. Naomi was glad she was wearing military fatigues instead of her normal jumpsuit. If she had been, her wrist monitor would have gone crazy as her heart blazed with warmth at the sight of Jeremy, safe and sound. She almost failed to notice that he, too, was wearing military fatigues.

  She ran to him and jumped into his arms.

  “Fatigues?” she asked, pulling back.

  “Alphie’s idea,” Jeremy said, laughing.

  “It was silly I hadn’t thought of it before. He was hanging around my office too much, and I didn’t want to draw attention. I had the military conscript him temporarily,” Alphea said. “Though, they don’t know they have.”

  “You kept your promise,” Naomi said, gripping Jeremy’s hand tightly in her own, as if she feared he’d float away from her.

  “Of course I did,” Alphea said. “You’ve been brave beyond belief, Naomi. If I’d broken my promise to you, after everything you’ve risked, treachery would be too kind a word. Nice idea, by the way, with the Tereshkova. Inspired. It’s made things far easier on my end.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you’ve been travelling in perfect formation for almost seven hundred years, people tend to notice if a ship is no longer perfectly aligned. It’s provided quite the distraction. The captain and the rest of Command have been watching it so intently, trying to figure out what happened ever since they noticed, which was right about the time you were arriving. I was able to authorize your entry without them even noticing. I didn’t even have to employ my own distraction,” Alphea said.

  “Which was?” Naomi asked curiously.

  Alphea gestured to a pair of approaching civilians, both quite a bit younger than Alphea. One was a young man with dark hair and dark eyes. Naomi thought she recognized him but couldn’t be sure. The other was a woman with brown hair and blue eyes.

  “Naomi, meet Basilia and Cadmus. I think you’ve met Cadmus, but it would have been quite a while ago,” Alphea said.

  “When I was in lessons,” Naomi said, remembering.

  “Yes,” the young man said, looking Naomi up and down, “though I don’t recall you. Unsurprising. I suspect I had more of an impact on you than you did on me.”

  Naomi didn’t think he was purposefully insulting her, simply stating what he believed to be a fact. Somehow that made it more annoying. Just because he was a genetically engineered genius, he didn’t need to be rude about it.

  Jeremy squeezed her hand, bringing her out of her thoughts.

  “So much has happened. And Alphie has been telling me about your mission, too. I wish we could just catch up, but we have to launch the Tereshkova’s shuttles before the next shift gets here,” Jeremy said. “I’ll see you when I’m done.”

  As Jeremy left, Mike and the rest of her squad, who’d been unloading their gear, joined them.

  “We’re here,” Alsophea said as she walked up. “We did everything you asked, even though you didn’t share the details of your plan. I think it’s time we were looped in.”

  Alphea stared at her doppelganger for a few seconds, then snapped out of it. She nodded to Cadmus and Basilia, who headed off to coordinate the civilians departing their shuttles.

  “Come with me,” Alphea said, moving quickly through the shuttle bay.

  They followed her out of the shuttle bay and down the hall to the Communications Module Bay.

  When Naomi stepped in, she felt as if she had entered a different ship entirely. The large open space was gone. Instead, it was filled with makeshift rooms separated by barriers, like the ones the military had set up in the shuttle bay for their training scenarios. As they walked by them, Naomi saw stacks of beds like the one she had seen in Mike’s private quarters. Alphea led them to an open area central to the housing cubes where a large table with chairs had been set up. Mike exchanged a look with Chef.

  “Wonder where they stole this from?” he asked.

  Alphea motioned for them to sit. Naomi found a spot at the table. Mike and Chef sat to either side of her. Book and Kitch took seats at the end of the table. Alsophea and her direct subordinates filed in behind them followed by members of the Tereshkova military and a few Tereshkovan civilians.

  “I know you’re all eager to get on with life aboard the Magellan,” Alphea said once everyone had been seated. “I know you’ve suffered catastrophe at the hands of your Command. I’m sure you’re eager to dive in and prevent something similar from happening here. But we need to be careful in our next step. We don’t want to repeat mistakes, or make new ones, that could cost us this ship as well.

  “This area will give us time. My people are helping your people move their things here. The module bay no longer has a function now that all the Magellan’s modules have been dropped. The communications array also creates so much interference, it’s unlikely anyone will notice you here. For now, members of the Magellan’s crew will go about your duties as usual. Members of the Tereshkova, you’ll be provided for, don’t worry. Your shuttles are lost, there isn’t anything we can do about that, but we’ll salvage all the power cells and anything else useful from them before we launch them on autopilot. Your incubators will be moved in here and kept in stasis until we’ve taken the ship.”

  She waited for that to sink in before continuing.

  “For now, we’ve bought some much-needed time. The captain and the rest of Command are busy worrying about what to do about the Tereshkova now that it’s clear it’s flying into Badb’s gravity well. We’re hoping it will make them hesitant to make any moves. Our Yvette doesn’t run this ship, yet. Captain Kelly Kyi is still in charge, and she is generally very conservative. It is my understanding that your Kelly Kyi was decommissioned some years ago when Yvette took over the Tereshkova?”

  Several members of the Tereshkova nodded in agreement.

  “Our Kyi, however, has been leaning more heavily on Yvette the last couple years. Right now, we should decide how best to wrest control of the ship from those who continue to impose the harsh tactics our predecessors developed. It is my hope that with enough pressure from the citizenry it can be a peaceful transition. But, if your ship is any evidence, Yvette may have lost touch with her empathy for the people on this ship. She may feel they’re simply tools to employ in reaching our goal - bringing the fertile embryos to the planet safely and raising them. The extent to which she’ll need the rest of the people on this s
hip, well, I think she’s evaluating that in a purely statistical way, without thinking about the people as humans. To her, they’re couriers whose function is just about complete. If she feels answering to their demands jeopardizes the final goal, or makes the job less efficient, she may counsel Kyi to remove them from the equation, just like she did on the Tereshkova. Whether Kyi will balk at this council is not something I can predict with any significant degree of certainty.

  “I do think a significant portion of the military on our side would nudge Kyi and the other commanders towards a bloodless revolution. They are few and would never do anything without the backing of the military. Many of you know, however, how difficult it may be to convince the military that Command does not, in fact, have the ship’s best interest at heart. It is my firmly held belief the builders intended that we civilians raise the first planet-side generations. Military personnel alone cannot raise those children to become the adults we need. Society can’t be rebuilt with bullets and explosions. Yet we will face many dangers that could overwhelm our fledgling colony without the military’s protection. Everyone needs to be there for it to work.

  “So you know what we must accomplish. Now, the real problem is how to accomplish it. Before we discuss options, I think we need to address the crew that brought you all to us. Naomi, Eagle Eye, Kitch, Chef and Book were on a mission to retrieve a part necessary for repairing a critical malfunction on our ship. The Captain and Command know this. Right now, as they watch the Tereshkova drift into Badb’s storms, they’re going to be thinking about how to solve this problem. So far, thanks to some technical malfeasance on my part and Naomi’s wonderful distraction, they are unaware anyone escaped the Tereshkova. We could let them continue to worry about the malfunction, or we could stage our small team’s valiant return with the parts needed to fix the ship.

  “We must decide this now, because if we are to stage a return, it has to be done before the next shift begins in the shuttle bay. The benefit of not having them return successful, is that it will keep the bridge busy with the malfunctioning regulator. The cost of that ruse may be they decide to cannibalize part of the ship to fix the regulator. The only parts of the ship that contain the appropriate components to fix the power regulator are in core systems. If they decide to take from another area of the ship, it will undoubtedly cripple us in the long run.

  “An advantage to the team returning to fanfare is that they could openly circulate among their peers and recruit allies to our cause. But they will undoubtedly be watched by Command. In fact, I think it would be far too dangerous for the crew to return with Naomi. Naomi will most certainly be counseled at the very least and possibly even killed to ensure her silence. The soldiers will be expected to be more obedient, so they’ll most likely be returned to their duties. And of course, the biggest drawback, Command will have a lot more time to focus on the ship, making the likelihood of discovery of our stowaways far greater. If you can think of other arguments, now is the time to voice them. But this must be decided in the next ten minutes.”

  Everybody started chattering amongst themselves.

  “Kind of weird, to have everybody deciding my fate in front of me for once,” Naomi said.

  Chef laughed.

  “It’s alright Patches, you won’t be stuck hiding here.”

  “Why not?” Mike asked. “Sounds like either way she’ll be stuck here.”

  Chef shook her head.

  “They’re gonna decide to have us ‘come home.’ It makes the most sense. And when they do, we tell them Naomi should come with us to the barracks. Specifically, I think she could bunk in your quarters, Boss.”

  Mike waved off what he thought was a joke.

  “I’m not foolin’,” Chef said indignantly.

  Mike leaned in close so she’d hear him over the din of the room.

  “Then you’re crazy. Why would we even suggest that? Why would they listen to us? The implications of me asking to bunk with her…” Mike trailed off.

  “Implications, boss?” Chef raised her eyebrows.

  Mike gave Chef a stern look.

  “Do I have to spell it out to you?”

  Chef crossed her arms.

  “You’re missing the point, loverboy, and worried about the wrong things. Book, you get what I’m trying to say, don’t you?”

  Book folded his hands together and pursed his lips. After a few seconds, he slowly nodded.

  “Yeah. That story, about her friend, it’s powerful stuff, boss. We can tell them all we want about what happened on that ship, but counterfeit Mike saw what happened on that ship. It wasn’t until you told him your story about those poor kids, it wasn’t until then that he looked like he might be changing his mind about the whole thing. There’s power in truth, especially when it’s delivered with honest pain. And Patches has got a truth to tell about what’s happening right here, on our ship, to the people we’re supposed to be protecting. It could change a lot of minds, especially if you’re there to vouch for it.”

  “I can tell that story,” Mike protested.

  “Yeah, but, you know, you don’t have those eyes that get all watery-like. You’d probably do that thing where you look like you’re holding in gas.”

  Mike scoffed.

  “You think I don’t care enough to tell the story right?”

  “It’s not that you don’t care,” Book said. “It didn’t happen to you. When she told us that story I felt her pain. I knew she was speaking truth in my gut.”

  “Kitch?” Mike said, hoping Kitch would help him out.

  Kitch looked at his big hands and sighed.

  “Come on, Kitch. I saw you tear up when she told that story,” Chef said.

  “That’s a damn lie and you know it,” Kitch barked.

  The whole table stopped talking and looked down at them. Kitch lowered his eyes until the attention was off him.

  “I’m sorry, boss. They got the truth of it. Coming from her, it’s mighty powerful stuff. It just doesn’t feel the same second-hand. It’d be a lot less suspicious, too, taking people into your quarters to talk to them than trying to bring them up here. Too many people heading into a supposedly empty bay is likely to stir up some curiosity anyway.”

  Mike rubbed his face.

  “You better all back me on this. I don’t want people thinking,” he began.

  Both Kitch and Book looked at him funny. Chef just smirked. Naomi sat quietly, until finally realizing why Mike might feel uncomfortable with Chef’s idea.

  “Just back me, okay,” Mike said, exasperated.

  Naomi had been waiting in Mike’s room for a few hours. She was sure the ship was still welcoming back the returning heroes who’d ensured they’d make it to Mission’s End. When the door started to open, she worried it was too soon. The revelries were bound to last late into her standard sleep cycle. When Jeremy stepped in she leapt from the bed.

  “How did you get in? The door was locked,” she said, pulling him close.

  “Mike gave me access. He saw me about an hour ago moping around the party. He told me you might want some company. I think he feels guilty about all the time he’s going to be spending with you when I can’t. I told him not to worry about it. That taking care of you was all that mattered. He went all red and stammered something about needing a drink,” Jeremy said, nuzzling Naomi.

  “Yeah, I think maybe he’s becoming fond of me,” Naomi said.

  “I picked up on that, too. As long as he doesn’t have a problem with me being fond of you, too, then I don’t mind. Though you might do me the favor of showing your fondness for me first,” Jeremy said, pulling Naomi to the bed. “It’s kind of amazing not to have to worry about the counselors. If everything goes well, no one will have to worry anymore.”

  “I’m sorry if I worried you too much,” Naomi said, leaning back enough to look into Jeremy’s face. “I tried to make sure Alphea knew I was okay.”

  “You’re here now,” Jeremy said, kissing her nose, “and, no monitors. Hopeful
ly none ever again. And we are all alone in here.”

  “It’s a bed, though,” Naomi said, wrinkling her nose.

  “Maybe you just need to see it in a better light,” he said, pulling off his fatigues. “It’s been a long, long time since we dared try this, but I’m pretty confident I can make you forget about the bed.”

  Mike grumbled as he walked down the darkened hallway tugging at the collar of his formal uniform. It was lights-out in the barracks. Military was the only unit that had unit-wide shifts. All soldiers were on duty during the same time, except a rotating group that prowled the unit making sure no trouble kicked up. Mike started to open his door but stopped, hovering his hand just above the panel.

  “Dammit,” he muttered under his breath.

  He was sure Jeremy had gone to see Naomi when he’d offered - there was no mistaking the eagerness in the man’s face. Mike didn’t relish walking in and seeing the two of them in his bed. He knew it was stupid. Naomi wasn’t bashful about that sort of thing, and normally it wouldn’t bother Mike either. The barracks were mixed sex, and a lot of fooling around went on. Mike was annoyed at himself for not being able to kick the thought of Naomi from his mind. Chef was right, he needed to find some more leisure time for himself.

  He overcame his apprehension. He needed to sleep sooner or later. He put his hand on the panel and the door slid open. He went to his desk and turned on a small light there, the privilege of being able to stay up after lights out was one of the few perks of being a commander in the military.

  He turned to see only one body in the bed, facing the wall. He sighed, relieved, and sat down. He looked around his small room and wondered where he would sleep. He should have thought to have had Chef sneak a mattress in while everyone was at the party. Now it was too late. He didn’t think he’d have another opportunity to get one. He might, he thought, be able to snag an extra pillow and blanket, but not tonight.