by Geoff North
“Where are Lion and the lieutenant now?”
“They are… safe. Gertsen has told me much. I know about Retribution and its mission to the Alderamin system. I know Ambition’s crew was forced to go with them.”
“Then you must also be aware that this vessel is headed back for the Sol system. It will take several thousand years. I suggest you crawl back into your cryonics canister and wait for me to arrive. I can put you back into suspension. You and the others can survive, Admiral. I’ll watch over you the entire way.”
Lennix chuckled. “How noble. But I think I’ve had enough of being frozen. I want to finish what I started so long ago. I want to destroy the Pegan civilization. You’re going to help me, Three. You’ll help me, or I’ll kill Zosma Lion and Bennoit Gertsen.”
“I will not,” Nash replied.
“You’re a liar, you’ve already proven that, but I know you are incapable of killing a human. It was programmed into you at the beginning of your existence.”
“I wouldn’t be killing anyone. That action would be yours.”
“Directly, yes, but indirectly, you are now responsible for them. I will also end the lives of those remaining in cryonic suspension. Does that make a difference, Three? Will you allow me to murder eight people?”
Nash needed to stall him long enough to get to the cryonics facility. “How exactly would we proceed destroying the Pegan civilization?” He moved towards the nearest elevator, calculating the time it would take to travel through the ship to Lennix.
“Leave that to me… oh, Three, I forgot to mention that I removed the monitoring chip. It hurt like hell cutting into my arm, but Gulum didn’t plant it all that far in. You won’t find me in the cryonics section. You won’t find me at all if you leave the bridge.”
Nash returned to the science section. “Then what do you require of me now that will keep those people alive?”
“Tell me what’s happened to the ship. Tell me where we are now, or the lieutenant dies.”
Nash told Lennix everything. He told him about the space rift, and how it had deposited them in the Alderamin star system. He also informed the Admiral he was about to take Ambition back through to the other side, and make Retribution aware of its existence.
“Excellent, Three. You’ve bought Gertsen and Lion some more time.”
“What do you require I do next to ensure you won’t harm them at all?”
“You’re doing it now… heading for the portal. Let me worry about what happens next after we’re back in Pegan space.”
The communication ended. Nash went to the command dais in the center of the bridge and looked up at the captain’s chair. The robot had seen thirty-one men and women occupy that seat over the last seven centuries. Its very first occupant was attempting to return for a third time.
Nash climbed the steps and sat in the chair. Ambition’s thirty-second captain wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Chapter 36
Retribution had destroyed two more of the Pegan warships, and disabled the remaining three. Even without a trained specialist at the weapons console, the ship had been more than a match for the alien vessels. The shields had already regenerated, and the damage to the bridge stations had been repaired. Much of the work bringing the ship back to full efficiency in such a short time was due to the efforts of the Ambition passengers. Captain Drac and CS Vir had led their people during the battle, filling empty posts where needed. Retribution was a mighty force to contend with operating under a skeleton crew—the ship had proven to be unstoppable with a fully staffed one.
Commander Edmund was more than just grateful. He’d eased up on the bridge restrictions. Drac and his CS were there with him now, and Retribution was on course for the region of space Ambition had last been seen.
“Power levels are incredible, the highest I’ve ever seen.” Weldheim stepped back from his board and turned to the commander. “But then the readings vanish completely, as if the phenomenon was never there. I recommend we back away, take more readings from a safer distance. The same thing could happen to us that happened with Ambition.”
“What did happen to Ambition?” Edmund asked. “If she was destroyed, there would be some trace—hull debris, radiation trails… something.”
The science major removed his glasses and rubbed the corners of his eyes. “It is definitely a tear in space of some kind—a portal to another region of the galaxy. But with the energy fluctuations as they are, it’s almost impossible to verify its stability. Ambition could very well have popped out on the other side of the universe in one piece… or a million. It could have been crushed to the size of an atom. Again, Commander, I recommend we continue studying it a little further away.”
Captain Drac offered his opinion. “And I say we follow my ship in through that rift. Ambition’s tough, Commander. She’ll have survived wherever that thing took her.”
Edmund raised his eyebrows. “Ambition is long-lived, Captain, I’ll give you that, but tough enough to survive the forces of an unstable opening in the fabric of space? That’s a test I wouldn’t want to put this ship through.”
“No one’s even asked why that opening is out there,” Vin Vir said. “It seems odd to me that something this rare in the vast emptiness of space would be so close to a star—a star with a planet that supports intelligent life. Perhaps we’re not dealing with a cosmic force of nature… it may have been put there.”
“I was beginning to wonder that myself,” Weldheim said. “But I have to agree with the Commander. Even if it is a portal to somewhere else, I wouldn’t want to use this ship to find out where it goes. We could end up stranded between galaxies, or in the center of a red giant star. There are too many variables, too many unknowns.”
“No, that isn’t true.” Drac had begun to tap the fingernails of his scarred hand on the tactics table. “We know that the Pegans and Hunn-ephei had an agreement—a work program set up between their civilizations. Trips between the two star systems were made on a regular basis.” He rapped at the table’s surface, trying to remember. “You were the one that told me, Vin. How often were the exchanges made?”
“The Pegans called them contact periods. It occurred every ten years.”
Edmund repeated the CS’s last two words. “Ten years. The Alderamin system is more than five light years away. That means a return trip would require some kind of faster than light propulsion system.”
“Which neither the Pegans or the Hunn-ephei have,” Vin finished. “That opening out there will take us into the Alderamin system.”
Weldheim leaned against the sections ring and held up both hands. “Hold on, slow down for just a moment. Let’s not jump to end results here. There’s still an incredible risk getting too close to that phenomenon without further studies.”
“We’ve found a shortcut to where you were taking all of us, Edmund,” Drac said. “Go through the damned thing. We may be able to destroy the Alderamin threat, and make the return trip to the Pegan system without anyone on this this ship starving to death.”
“We’ve taken out a lot of their ships,” Simmons added from the navigation section. “We blew the second largest planet in their system to bits. I don’t think they’ll welcome us with open arms on the Pegan home world.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Drac said. “The two systems have been at war for hundreds of years. It’s only been in the last century that they’ve made this arrangement work for them. If the Hunn civilization were to disappear altogether…”
Ada spoke out. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“Well put.” Edmund opened a communication to the ship’s medical bay. “SIC Barret, what’s Dr. Strong’s condition?”
“She’s going to be just fine. Dr. Gulum says it’s a nasty concussion, but the swelling has already started to go down. She’ll be back on her feet in a few days. How are things on the bridge?”
“There have been… significant developments.” He grinned at the people seated around him.
“We’re about to shorten our journey to the Alderamin system drastically. You might want to return to the bridge.”
“On my way, Commander.”
***
Zosma Lion glared at Lennix. “After all the years we’ve worked together, after rescuing you from that canister… I truly believe you’d murder me to get your way.”
“You’re perfectly safe, Lion,” the Admiral replied. “Killing Gertsen might not have been enough to sway the robot. Threatening to kill you and the others still frozen was merely a tactic, and it seems to have paid off. We know where we are now, and what we have to do.”
They were still hidden away in the abandoned science sections of Ambition, one level above the cryonics facility. Zosma had wanted to keep moving, fearing Nash would begin searching for them where this had all started. Lennix insisted they stay in one place. There was a better chance the robot would find them—if he was even searching at all—if they moved frequently throughout the ship.
Lieutenant Gertsen groaned on the floor. Zosma trained the side cannon on him momentarily, and then lowered the weapon when he saw the young man posed no danger to them. “You hit the kid pretty hard.”
“He should remain unconscious until we need him.”
“He’s only one man, Admiral. They’ll never agree to let us on that ship with a single hostage.”
“It worked on Three, it’ll work on Retribution’s officers as well. We’ll get onto that ship, trust me. Once there, I’ll find the Ambition crew members that obeyed my orders during the first Pegan conflict. They’ll follow me again, and Retribution will be ours.” A red light started to blink on the computer Lennix was seated in front of. “Proximity alert. We’re about to fall back into the rift.”
Nash was at the helm, preparing to take control of the ship once the uncontrollable ride was over. The bridge deck plating rattled a second time as Ambition headed towards the anomaly. A secondary warning sounded—something was coming through the rift on a direct collision course. There was still time to pull away, he thought, already directing the massive ship clear of the phenomenon. Had he reacted a second later, Ambition would’ve collided head on with Retribution. The second ship reacted slightly slower, but it moved quicker. The two vessels peeled by one another, their port sides coming to within a kilometer of contact.
Nash powered Ambition’s chemically fuelled engines to maximum in a struggle to prevent the rift from pulling the ship back in. He could hear Neil Lennix shouting over the bridge speakers. “What’s happened up there? Why haven’t you taken us through yet?”
“A moment if you will, Admiral. We’re not quite clear yet.”
“Clear? Why are you trying to clear it? Take us through to the other side!”
The proximity alarm cut off once Ambition had put a hundred thousand kilometers of empty space between it and the opening. Nash reduced power until the ship was practically drifting.
“Tell me what you’ve done, Three.”
Nash saw lights blinking at the communications section. “Patience, Admiral. Retribution is trying to contact us.”
“Retribution is here? They came through first? I demand you open a line for me directly to that ship! Three! Answer immediately! Nash, are you listening to m—”
Nash cut Lennix’s feed to the bridge and answered Retribution’s hails.
“It’s good to hear your voice again, Nash.” Captain Drac was still seated at the tactics table with Vir and Edmund. SIC Barret had returned to the bridge as well, and was sitting next to his commanding officer. Ambition hung in the center of the main viewing screen, listing to her port side and appearing lifeless. “How did our ship handle the ride?”
There was a short pause before Nash answered. “Ambition held up through the worst of it, Captain, however, another situation has arisen.”
“We can send a team over right away,” Edmund offered.
“I would advise against it, Commander. A breach has occurred in the main water recycling plant. The nuclear generator has ruptured.”
“How bad of a breach?” CS Vir asked. “Has any radiation spread throughout the ship?”
“I’ve repaired the breach and shut down the generator, but the radioactive contamination is severe. The emergency bulkheads failed to drop after Ambition came out of the rift. More than half the ships levels have been flooded. I estimate at least ten days to clean it up completely.”
“We can’t sit here for ten days,” Barret said. “The Alderamin home world is minutes away. We have to hit them now, without warning.”
Drac and Vir started to protest, but Edmund cut them off. “I agree with my second. We continue for Alderamin 4, and come back for your ship when our mission is complete.”
“There’s no guarantee we’ll make it back at all,” Vin said.
“There never was,” Barret added.
Captain Drac looked up at the ship on the screen. “Did you hear all of that, Nash?”
“Affirmative, Captain. Continue towards the fourth planet. I’ll have Ambition cleaned and habitable again on your return.”
“I know you will.”
Edmund stood. “It’s settled then. Colonel Simmons, set a direct course for the Alderamin home world.” He looked at Barret. The SIC nodded. The commander had never seen the man look so prepared—so utterly at peace. War could do that to some people.
Chapter 37
“Come on, you can make it.” Charm stood next to her brother, patting his back reassuringly. There’s only two more blocks to go.”
Loke was doubled over, his hands planted against his knees for support. “Give me a minute… just gotta catch my breath.”
Charm gave him the time, and continued to rub his back as if it would magically fill the boy’s lungs with fresh oxygen. She looked around at the empty city surrounding them. There was no one left in the streets of Lowell district; no lines formed at the food and water ration depots, no activity in the government buildings, the schools, the medical centers, and not a single sign of movement in any of the houses. The collapsed apartment building they’d taken refuge at the top of looked like a giant tombstone in the distance. Even the beggars and the starvers had vanished.
The wind blew past the twins, whipping up red dust into the frigid air. Loke coughed the dirt out of his throat, inhaled as deeply as he could, and straightened back up. “I’m okay.” He set off for their home once again.
“I bet you wish had a breather now, hey?”
Loke tried to chuckle, and ended up gasping instead. “Don’t try and make me laugh… hurts too much. Soon as we get home… I’m strapping one onto my face. Not gonna take it off for a whole week.”
Another ship launched into the sky a few kilometers to the east. They’d seen more than a dozen lift off in the last hour. The long contrails they left behind still lingered in the thinning upper atmosphere like crooked pink fingers. Charm trudged along slowly, watching the columns drift apart slowly in the wind, and listening to her brother explain how he was going to eat and sleep with the breather attached to his face.
Something wasn’t right about all of this. Those ships should be coming back, not leaving. The chimneys should be puffing smoke again, all twelve stacks. People should be returning to their homes, to the businesses, the supply depots, and the government buildings. Why was Deimos City still dying?
Charm didn’t see the man coming until he’d grabbed onto her arm. She looked up at his face and saw an oxygen mask instead of eyes, a nose, and a mouth. “Finally,” he mumbled. “I was starting to think you two would never show up.”
Another man had a hold of Loke. “From the looks of things, I’d say it’s a miracle they made it this far.”
Both masked men were dressed in heavy environment suits. Charm didn’t say a word as they dragged them the rest of the way home. All she could think of was how much she wanted a suit just like theirs—something warm to wrap herself in.
There was a spaceship parked in the street in front of their house. It wasn’t a big
ship, more like a shuttle, with maybe just enough room to transport a small family. Charm pointed at it, was about to ask Loke if he’d ever seen a shuttle this close up, but then the front door of their house opened. Tarrace Edmund rushed out and scooped them both up in her arms.
One of men removed his breather mask. “Your kids are tough, I’ll give them that,” Raleph Green said.
Kent Ducette unstrapped his as well and tossed it to the ground. “They would’ve made fine revolutionists in time—oh, wait, the revolution’s over, isn’t it? Your people lost the will to fight.”
Tarrace ignored their laughter and helped place the discarded masks over her children’s faces. “Slow breaths,” she whispered. “Don’t try and take it in too fast.”
Charm pulled the mask up a few inches. “Momma… what’s going on? Why are the ships still leaving?”
August Hegstad stepped out of the house. “Because Mars is being evacuated, kid. Didn’t you know that already?”
A big white bandage was stuck to the side of his head where his ear had been shot off. Half of the greasy dreadlocks on the other side were missing. The magistrate was a filthy, bloody mess, but he was still alive, still grinning.
The twins squirmed fearfully in their mother’s arms. “He tried to kill Loke,” Charm gasped. “Let us go!”
“I believe you.” Tarrace struggled to keep a hold on them. “I’m sorry I lied. He was already here when you called home. He forced me to tell you everything was all right—that the revolution had ended, and the evacuation was being called off. It was the only way I could get you home safe.”
“We would’ve found you eventually,” Hegstad said. “But why work our asses off when we could bring you straight to us?”
Loke had regained some energy. “He would’ve killed both of us down in them sewer tunnels! Now he’s got all three of us. You should’ve fought him, Mom. He’s a goddamn murderer!”