Retribution (The Long Haul Book 2)

by Geoff North

  Canis started to chuckle. “Burning alive, suffocating, and freezing to death.” The laugh ended in a pained cough. “You guys have… a fourth option?”

  The door took another heavy hit. The metal made a screaming noise as it bent in over their heads. “Fire the gun, Emin!” Sulafat yelled.

  The bullet hit the glass. The ceiling didn’t collapse. The air didn’t ignite. Wind howled into the cockpit, blowing pellets of dirty snow over the controls.

  Emin pushed the captain towards the opening. “You go first. I’ll lift Wez through to you!”

  Sulafat didn’t argue; dragging Canis to the back had been difficult enough. He planted one foot into the pilot’s chair and jumped up onto the control panel. Sulafat took hold of the window frame and heaved himself into the snow. He turned around and found Canis’s gloved hands already sticking through. Together, Sulafat and Emin pushed and pulled the big man’s body out into the cold.

  A minute later they were fleeing from the crashed prison ship. Wez did the best he could with his arms draped over their shoulders and hopping on one leg, but it was slow-going. The drifts got heavier. It piled up past their knees, making every step an epic struggle. Eventually the three men fell into the snow, gasping at the dwindling oxygen left in their environment suit tanks.

  The prison ship was less than two hundred meters behind. There were only a few streaks of grey hull sticking out of the snow. Sulafat lifted his visor and peered through the blowing pellets. It was getting dark. The Alderamin sun had already set, or the heavy toxic clouds over their heads was blotting it out all together. Even in the gathering gloom, he could make out more than a dozen darker shapes moving out of the wreckage.

  Emin had spotted them as well. “They’ve found our tracks in the snow. Won’t be long now.”

  The creatures started moving away from the ship. One of them lifted its head to the sky and made a low, guttural roar into the wind. Seconds later, they began charging through the drifts in a pack towards them.

  Sulafat removed his helmet altogether, and tossed it into the snow. “How many rounds are left in that rifle?”

  “Should be close to full, Captain, but I don’t think it will do us much good against those things.” Emin unslung the weapon from his back and took aim. “Might take two or three down if I get ‘em right between the eyes. The others will be on us before…”

  Sulafat grabbed the rifle away from him. “I don’t intend to use it on them, Tor.”

  “Sol preserve me,” Canis gasped. “I must have died already.” He was lying on his back, his arms splayed out peacefully away from the rest of his body. Wez pointed up. “Looks like the old girl has come to carry me home after all.”

  They looked up, and for a moment, Sulafat believed he’d died as well. The clouds were beginning to break apart in spots, revealing the stars beyond. Something else was up there. Something very big, and very familiar.

  “Ambition,” Emin uttered. “How…”

  The massive ship was hanging in a low synchronous orbit, less than a hundred kilometers over their heads. A tear formed in the corner of Sulafat’s eye, and froze halfway down his cheek. He scraped it away, unable to say anything at all.

  A bright light appeared in the ship’s belly. It grew brighter as it dropped down into the atmosphere. “A shuttle!” Emin yelled. “They’re sending a shuttle for us!”

  Canis struggled in the snow to make it back up to his elbows. “I don’t think they’re going to get to us in time, boys.”

  The creatures were less than fifty meters away. Sulafat remained silent and took aim. He put a bullet through the face of the one closest. It disappeared into the drifts, and the one right behind trampled it down further. He shot that one in the head, too. Sulafat missed on his third shot, and the fourth. He struck one in the shoulder with his fifth bullet, but it didn’t slow the thing down much.

  They were almost upon them. Twenty meters. Ten.

  The Ambition shuttle swung down through the lowest clouds and unleashed three quick plasma bursts. The advancing pack blew apart in a shower of burning limbs, teeth, and claws. Chunks of melted flesh rained down around the stunned men.

  Tor Emin cheered and lifted Canis back up onto his one foot.

  “I’m not dead, am I?” Wez asked disbelievingly. “They don’t blast alien monsters to little bits in heaven, do they?”

  “They do in my heaven.” Tor hoisted him up over his shoulders and set off towards the landing shuttle.

  Sulafat remained sitting in the snow a few moments longer, struggling to figure out how his ship had found them. The shuttle door dropped down, and Nash emerged from the light.

  “That’s how,” he whispered.

  Ambition’s captain stood, and jogged after his men.

  Chapter 45

  Four minutes later, the Alderamin 4 sky facing the erupting star burst into flame. The fire washed over the planet’s surface, evaporating the ice and snow away in seconds. The Pegan prison ship burned with it. Waih, and a thousand more Hunn-ephei cities vanished in moments.

  A second wave hit, baking the exposed planet, melting it even further. Massive chunks of crust peeled away and hurtled off into the cosmos.

  Ambition rode out the worst of it tucked into a low orbit on the planet’s dark side.

  There hadn’t even been time to exit the shuttle once Nash had landed it back inside the fighter launch bay.

  “This is unacceptable,” Sulafat said. “You risked the ship, my entire crew, to rescue the three of us.”

  “The ship is fine, Captain. Our shields absorbed most of the radiation. As for Ambition’s crew… they are safe, but not presently onboard.”

  Sulafat leaned back into the co-pilot’s seat and stared up at the cockpit ceiling. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

  “Indeed I do, sir. But first we have to retrieve Ma Ades and Lt. Gertsen from their cryonic canisters. It was the only way I could keep them alive while the ship’s air was cut off.”

  “What?”

  “Admiral Lennix returned for a short-lived visit.”

  “Who the hell’s Lt. Gertsen?” Emin asked. “Why is Ma inside a cryonics canister?”

  “Patience, gentlemen,” Nash replied calmly. “I’ll give you details on our way to Retribution.”

  Canis repeated him. “Retribution… sounds like we’re going to hell, not heaven.”

  Nash started for the shuttle door. “No to both, Boss Canis. We’re going home.”

  Chapter 46

  Kella stepped out and down from the shuttle into fighter garage 2. Organized chaos surrounded her. Sixty more shuttles were parked in the giant bay, and dozens more were still flying back from Retribution, returning Ambition’s people home. The permanent exodus had turned out to be less than a twenty-four-hour getaway. No one looked all that rested, but most appeared plenty relieved. She wondered if they had set a record for the fastest evacuation and resettlement in human history.

  “Keep the line moving.” A security guard took hold of her elbow and gently pulled her down the last two steps. “Any personal belongings you may have left behind will be brought back on the next run.”

  Kella pulled her arm away from him. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

  “Ease up on the guy,” Hail mumbled behind her. “He’s only trying to do his job.”

  “And I know how to get from the garage to our cabin,” she snapped back. “They’re treating us like imbeciles.”

  Nova started to cry in Hail’s arms. He balanced the baby in one arm and placed the other on his wife’s back. Hail smiled apologetically to the guard, and led his family away from the line. “As soon as were settled back home, you’re going to make an appointment to see Hal Gulum, he whispered. “This is getting ridiculous.”

  “You want to know what’s ridiculous? Herding us like mindless animals back and forth between ships without being given any idea what’s happening out there. It’s insulting, is what it is. After all we did for them.”

  “We w
ere told all we needed to know. The Alderamin star was destroyed, and both ships survived. We’ll be heading back for the Sol system soon—all of us. Isn’t that enough?”

  They made it out of the fighter bay and ran into an even longer lineup at the travel tube alcove. They settled into the queue behind another bickering couple. The husband was going on about the messy state his wife had left their cabin in before the move. The wife was arguing that if he didn’t like it, he could start picking up after himself, or find another cabin altogether. They were a lot like Hail and Kella, only three times older. Is that what we can look forward to? Hail wondered.

  The pair’s arguing had sunk into Kella as well. She leaned against Hail and whispered. “I don’t want to fight anymore. I’ll go see Dr. Gulum tomorrow.”

  “I thank you. Nova thanks you. The combined crews of Ambition and Retribution thanks you.”

  She pinched the back of his wrist. “Come on now, have I really been that big of a bitch?”

  “Of course not! Well… maybe just a bit.” The travel tube doors opened and people started pouring inside the cabin. The old couple in front of them squeezed through last. The doors closed, leaving the family of three at the head of the line. “I know it’s been hard for you,” Hail continued. “This whole marriage thing. After all we went through on Oread, settling down and starting a family must seem a little anticlimactic.”

  Kella was shaking her head. “No, that isn’t right. I love you and Nova. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. These feelings… they’ll pass. Gulum’s pills will fix me right up.”

  “About that, you might want to see Gulum the day after. I have another appointment set up for you tomorrow.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking to a psychologist.”

  “It’s with Vin Vir.”

  “The CS?”

  “I told her you were feeling restless. She thinks maybe it would do us both good if you went back to work a few months early.” Hail grinned. “She also suggested you enroll in the fast-advance officer program. I’m not sure why, but it seems both her and Drac believe you’re capable of rising up in the ranks pretty quickly.”

  Tears welled up in Kella’s eyes. “What about you and Nova? Officer training would take up a lot of hours.”

  “We’ll be just fine. If it makes you feel better, we’ll visit you at work.”

  Kella squeezed the hand she’d pinched moments earlier, and kissed the tip of his nose. “Let’s go.” She scooped Nova out of his arms and started down the corridor.

  “Where are you going? The tube will be back any minute!”

  “Come on, hurry up!”

  Hail left the lineup grudgingly, and ran after her. “Home’s more than a kilometer away.”

  She held Nova up over her head and spun around. “This is our home, Hail. Not just one cabin on level twenty-seven, but this entire, wonderful, old ship. I want to walk through all of her.”

  ***

  Both vessels had travelled back through the rift into Pegan space. It was now believed a second rift might exist from the information Sulafat, Emin, and Canis had gathered from the Hunn-ephei mind probes. Corwin Barret was convinced of it, and he knew where the newly-formed portal would take them. The Hunn had already established a foothold in the Sol system. When word came that their home world had been destroyed, the alien infiltrators would strike from within Earth’s central governments. Human civilization would collapse again.

  Retribution and Ambition weren’t going to allow that to happen.

  Captain Ly Sulafat was back in command of his ship. Rastaban Drac and Vin Vir now shared Command Second responsibilities. Ambition would require the added leadership in the months to come.

  All of Sulafat’s command officers, including his faithful assistant, Nash, were with him now in the captain’s quarters. Commander Edmund and SIC Barret were there as well, seated at the long conference table. Edmund had just announced that the final Retribution shuttle was back on his ship. Ambition’s entire crew had returned home, but no one in the room seemed happy about it, especially Drac and Vir.

  “They sabotaged Ambition’s environmental systems,” Drac said. “They were willing to kill us all to get what they wanted.”

  “Alderamin 4 had to be destroyed,” Barret answered back. “You didn’t leave us any other choice.”

  CS Vir smacked her hand down on the table. “Rastaban’s right, you’re merciless. You didn’t just destroy a planet, you wiped away an entire star system!”

  “We’re at war,” the SIC countered. “There’ll always be casualties. Numbers will be lost.”

  “So that’s what Ambition’s people are to you?” Drac asked. “Numbers?”

  Edmund interrupted them. “Your ship has been gone a long time. Earth isn’t the same planet your ancestors left behind. The wars back home have left us all… a little cold.”

  Vin could barely contain herself. “Cold? You and your crew are heartless—”

  “Enough!” Captain Sulafat stood. “They did what they had to do. So did Ambition when it left the Sol system seven hundred years ago. We set out to destroy the Pegan civilization, and damn near succeeded. There will be no reprisals between our two crews. The hostilities end here, and they end now. Do I make myself clear?”

  Drac and Vir nodded solemnly.

  “Good.” He turned his attention to Edmund. “We’re not exactly sitting safe, are we? I expect the Pegans will arrive soon. They’re going to want an explanation why you took out so many of their ships and destroyed Taranis. What are we going to tell them?”

  Commander Edmund recalled the words Ada had spoken on Retribution’s bridge. “The enemy of my enemy… has been eradicated. The Pegans won’t attack us anymore, Captain. I’m sure of it.”

  “We can hope.” Sulafat turned and faced the lone officer sitting on the bench behind him. “That just leaves Lt. Gertsen left to deal with. What do you have to say for yourself, young man?”

  Gertsen looked up from the floor and met Sulafat’s stern gaze. “I lied to my commanding officers, sir. I released an Ambition prisoner without authorization. My actions led to Admiral Lennix almost capturing this ship. I don’t deserve any mercy. I should be sentenced immediately, and thrown into the brig.”

  “What do you think, SIC Barret?” Edmund asked. “Prosecution and punishment of crew officers are your responsibility, aren’t they?”

  “They are, Commander.” The old man crossed his arms over his chest, and glared at the lieutenant. “Stealing a ROSP warship is a much greater offence than lying to a superior officer, Bennoit. If we were still following the rules, there wouldn’t be enough room in that brig for all of us. I think a reprimand is all that’s needed here.”

  The meeting ended. Retribution’s officers left for their shuttle, and CSs’ Drac and Vir returned to the bridge. Sulafat was alone with Nash in his quarters.

  “It’s good to have you back, Captain.”

  “It’s good to be back.” Sulafat began slowly walking down one side of the table. “It would’ve been even better if I’d brought all of the hostages back with me. I promised you I’d take care of them.”

  “You did all you possibly could. Keeping yourself, Tor Emin and Wez Canis alive would be considered a miracle to some.”

  The captain looked back at him. “You believe in miracles, Nash?”

  “I said some, Captain. I do not believe in such things, personally.”

  “Of course you don’t. You’re the kind of robot that only performs miracles.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Sulafat turned to the window. Instead of stars and endless space, he could only see a great slab of steel. The emergency bulkhead had dropped down during the first Pegan attack more than ten months ago, and there it sat, still.

  “CS Drac didn’t spend much time here as captain,” Nash said. “I didn’t see the need to have the glass replaced. If you wish, I can place a work order through to manufacturing.”

  “That won’t be nec
essary. I don’t need to see out into space to know where we’re headed… or what we’ve left behind.” He went to the bulkhead and rested his hands on its cool surface. Sulafat had been thinking about Sheratan Ries a lot in the last twenty-four hours. Not the Sheratan that Jule Adeen had tricked him into believing still existed, but the woman he’d loved. This was where he’d last spoken to her. “So, Nash… you don’t believe in miracles… what about ghosts?”

  “Forgive me, Captain, but I can’t stay. I have to meet with Engineer Crucis to assist with further repairs to the fold drive… I suggest you get some rest. A day or two to recover fully and deal with all that’s happened.”

  “I’ve spent too much of my life resting, old friend. Too many years preparing. I want to live out my remaining decades doing something.”

  The robot’s voice softened. “You’re doing something now, Captain. You’re taking us home.”

  Sulafat rested his forehead against the metal and closed his eyes. “Home… I’ve never been to Earth.”

  “Neither have I.”

  “You were made on Earth.” Sulafat waited for Nash to reply. He didn’t. “You never answered my last question.”

  “What question was that?”

  “Do you believe in ghosts?”

  “Robots can’t believe in ghosts, Sully. Only people can.”

  The captain turned and looked over his quarters. The room was empty.

  Chapter 47

  “You wanna know where we’re going?”

  They weren’t going to Earth. That’s the only information Tarrace and her children had been given in the last seventy-two hours. August Hegstad was a fat, filthy liar, but she knew he’d been truthful about that. It didn’t take a shuttle three days to reach Earth from Mars.

  “Hey, family! I asked you a question.” Hegstad leaned forward and repeated the words slowly. “Do you want to know where we are going?”

  “Saturn,” Loke replied.