by Chris Burton
“Because I want to get it right. I may only get one more chance.”
Jake shifted uncomfortably in his seat”Get what right?”
“Us.”
“What do you mean “us”? There is no “us”…is there?”
“I still want there to be and deep down I think you do too. Jake, you need to accept that the chances of seeing Carla again are remote. You and I are good together and we always have been. I think you need to recognize that and then we can move on. Carla would understand.”
Jake’s mouth was agape. He could not believe what Maria was saying.
“I hope this is the drink talking.”
“No. It is not. I love you and always have. Carla is just a fixation; you and I always had so much more…”
“We didn’t. Look Maria. What we had at the time was good. It was good sex. It was great sex and yes I made things worse by allowing you into my bed before I left the Halo. But…no, Maria. I never loved you. I love Carla. I am sorry to be so blunt but you and I are history. Can’t we just be good friends?”
It was Maria’s turn to stand with her mouth wide open. Jake saw the tears welling up in her eyes. Perhaps he had been a bit blunt.
“I am sorry, Maria. That was unfair. Look, we are good friends; aren’t we? I never promised you anything more. That was always the problem when we were going out.”
“Why can’t you see it? We are so good together. I need you.”
“Maria. Go home and get some sleep. I’ll promise we will talk about it again tomorrow. Okay…friends for now.”
Maria was in tears as Jake watched her move towards the door of the officer’s mess. He felt guilty as hell and could not help but think that he brought this upon himself. Maybe what she needed was a good hug to send her on her way. It would cease to be a problem once she left the Halo 7.
* * * *
Three hours later, Jake Carter left Maria Shavenosky’s quarters. He awoke five minutes before, entwined within the clutches of Maria’s perfectly naked body. Now, as he walked gingerly back towards his own quarters, his mind was in disarray. How had he allowed it to happen again? As he reached his quarters his mind became clearer. Rightly or wrongly he was making this easier for Maria. She could obviously not deal with his rejection right now. It was 3:00 a.m. and he needed to get some rest. In just a few hours time he would assume bridge command.
* * * *
Thirty-eight hours later, Jake Carter had the con. He was in effective command of the Halo 7 with neither the XO nor the CO on the bridge. The new commanding officer Jean-Luc Jacques was receiving his commission from the outgoing CO, leaving the next most senior crew member in charge.
In less than an hour Commander Hoskins would leave the Halo 7, with his shadowing intern in tow. Maria would be out of his life…at least for now. That was a relief. He knew he was in the wrong. He knew his actions helped no one but himself. Maria was being pulled along, believing their relationship stood a chance, Carla waited patiently at home for a man, who had slept with someone else on three separate occasions. Jake was simply avoiding having to deal with a difficult problem. Who was he trying to kid, Maria would just cling on tighter, when he inevitably joined her aboard the Accura and when Carla found out about his indiscretions he would lose her; plain and simple. And that was the crux of the matter. Sub-consciously he already believed Carla would reject him when they next met and, therefore, he may as well carry on as he was.
This was all clouding his judgment. He should have been thinking about his new position. He was only twenty-three years of age and yet he was the number three aboard a B class battle cruiser. He could be in command of the Accura himself by the time he was thirty.
Jake’s thought process was interrupted by the entry of Jacques, Hoskins and Maria. They said nothing as they passed by, with Maria glancing back as they entered the ready room. This was it. Jacques, the CO, and Hoskins was passing over his command codes.
Five minutes later Jonathan Hoskins summoned Jake to the ready room. Jake handed the con to the duty weapons officer and entered the ready room.
“Jake. I am just about to leave and I believe Lieutenant Shavenosky would like a brief word with you before we depart. We will be on the bridge.”
The two commanders exited the ready room, leaving Jake alone with Maria.
“This is it Jake. I am under no illusions, but I hope that the last two days will convince you that it is right. I will wait for you to join me on the Accura.”
Jake said nothing but took Maria’s hand and kissed her on the cheek. They exited the ready room together.
Jonathan Hoskins stood next to the new CO as the comms officer opened up a ship wide comm.portal.
“This is Commander Hoskins. I have handed over the command of the Halo 7 to Commander Jacques as I am joining the main fleet at the Styros Cluster ahead of us. I know you will embrace him as your new commander and I wish him and all of the crew the very best for the future.”
The former CO signaled the end of the transmission and saluted before exiting the bridge with Maria close behind him. The Halo 7 was under new command.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The New List
Somehow they had reached this point. The list had been populated and distribution would take place this evening. However, the problems were far from over. Once the notices started to arrive, all the heat would come back.
The mass rioting had effectively stopped within hours of the Kryl’s execution of eight hundred rioters in London. Word had spread quickly through the social networking sites and more organized smaller protests took over. This was very difficult to police and the planet remained in a state of unrest. The people were powerless to prevent the list from being distributed and Roslyn was still protected by the emergency powers he invoked a month ago. He had the power to extend this for another month and he planned to do so at the last minute, to give him and his government the longest period of protection possible.
Plans were drawn up to deal with the anticipated new outbreaks of mass unrest, with the ultimate sanction to bring troops in and deploy a night-time curfew. Roslyn no longer cared if this was unpopular. His stance was simple; keep the Earth Kryl agreement in place until the Contingency fleet arrived to forcibly remove the Kryl from the planet and eradicate them once and for all. He just preyed that this would be the last list.
Roslyn was in New York City attending a United Nations security conference which had been hastily organized to try to deal with the unrest.
It was hot even by New York standards, at just eleven am; the temperature in the shade reached one hundred and ten degrees with one hundred percent humidity. Here in the hustle and bustle of Earth’s largest metropolis, climate change had shown its ugly face to the extreme, with parts of downtown Manhattan and in particular the old subway system unusable in such conditions. How bad the climate would have been without the partial protection of Earth’s defense shields was anyone guess.
He was just ushered into the main hall of the General Assembly Building where representatives from the two hundred and twenty –two member states now sat awaiting his key address. The assembly had no powers, but it political reach was undisputed.
Roslyn had considered cancelling the meeting before today. He was not compelled to be here and with the contents of his speech reverberating around the world instantly; this was potentially a poison chalice. Yet it was also an opportunity. These days when the assembly spoke, the people listened. He wiped the sweat from his brow and stood.
“Members of the assembly. I will try to keep this as brief as possible as with over fifteen hundred people in this room, the climate controls are inadequate in this heat.”
Roslyn was not joking, the historic UN Headquarters was over two hundred and fifty years old and no one had quite managed to bring the environmental controls up to speed. He paused brie
fly before continuing. The assembly was in absolute silence.
“I have been forced to invoke special powers to protect the ECG during this time of crisis. But protect it I must. The Earth Kryl agreement remains the best way of protecting the population as a whole.”
Roslyn paused again. He wasn’t going to avoid the issue. He was a hands-on politician and people respected him for it.
“The fundamental clause within the agreement is the provision of qualified persons to be made available to the Kryl.
Today the HSL list was circulated to those people selected. Within seven days, all of the one hundred and fifty million persons on the list will be at the collection centers. Fifty million people will return to their families within weeks and will no longer be eligible for selection. The remainder will regrettably be executed by the Kryl.”
He chose his words carefully. The term “executed” was not normally one he would have chosen. However, he was keen to be seen as distressed by the situation as the general population. There was still total silence in the room.
“I cannot begin to tell you how difficult it is to authorize the distribution of this list. To authorize the killing of one person is bad enough…but we don’t have a choice. Not for now. We are talking to the Kryl, of course…I firmly believe we are making progress in our discussions. But please be absolutely clear, in my mind this list is the final list…”
Roslyn hung onto the last two words of his sentence. It was critical.
“The list has been generated and, now, we have to police it. I urge you to use your regional powers to ensure this is done as swiftly and effectively as possible. There is no question this will be difficult. There will be great reluctance and there remains the possibility of mass protest and violence which “we” must keep under control. “We” cannot let the Kryl stand in our shoes again. The mass execution of rioters in London one month ago by the Kryl should never have happened. Yet it served its purpose. Within hours, the mass unrest ceased. I am not saying their action was the right one. But, if it is necessary, we should use our own security forces to clamp down on any civil violence or protest.
“Of course it follows that civil liberty should allow our people to protest against action taken by the authorities and we should certainly not try to curtail this. Yes, we have emergency powers, but we must also listen to the voices of the people.”
Roslyn was in full swing, but he paused to allow his speech to be digested before continuing and to allow the translators to keep up.
“There are many who question the need or indeed the authority of the Earth Kryl agreement. Let us be quite clear. If we break the agreement; the Kryl will deploy twenty or thirty million drones against us and they will slaughter our citizens indiscriminately. And their battle cruisers will target our cities, our infrastructure and our military capability. The loss of life will probably be greater than one hundred million. Quid pro quo…but, it is better to die in a fight, rather than surrender. Isn’t it? No. It is not. We will lose our children,We will lose everything. We have no choice. For now, the agreement must stay in place.”
Roslyn sat down. The applause was muted but respectful. A short speech by his standards, but delivered well nonetheless. He just hoped he got the point across. It did not help he did not believe everything he said. All he knew was that he had to hold out.
“Well, I thought that went very well. There was no heckling. They were listening intently and applause, if not a standing ovation.”
“Thanks, but it was respectful applause. We will find out how it really went when the collection centers report their figures.”
Kate Jones, the president’s chief aide, had been waiting in the wings just outside the Assembly. She joined him as he exited, but they had waited until they were on board the presidential shuttle before talking.
“We should be at the Palace in about twenty minutes. Just in time for some lunch and then, you have meetings with the Secretary of the Interior at two and the Revenue Supremo at three-thirty. Your afternoon is then clear.”
“Good. I might try to catch up on some sleep this evening. What was that?”
“Mister President…we have just been pulled inside a Kryl cruiser!”
The pilot’s voice petered off as realization struck. Roslyn knew his plan for a quiet evening was in jeopardy.
Fifteen minutes later, the President sat on a chair in the center of the Sanctuary. This was Safrec’s ship.
“Thank you for joining me, President Roslyn.”
“I don’t think I had a choice. Is this what you call a policy of non-interference?”
“It is time we had a talk. The Agreement is in jeopardy.”
“What makes you think that?”
Roslyn regretted the direct approach. Safrec was about to go on the offensive.
“Let me be clear. There is little prospect of your security teams being able to implement the agreement. There is widespread condemnation of the HSL list. Very few humans will be delivered to us. Add the obvious deception by Alpha and you are very close to breaching the agreement already and I need hardly remind you of the consequences of breach.”
“Safrec. With respect, that is unfair. I have repeatedly assured you that we have in place mechanisms to ensure the prompt delivery of those on the list to you. I cannot be held responsible for anything Alpha may have or is planning. They are not governed by the ECG.”
“Ridiculous. Not only are you privy to key Alpha policy decisions, but you have a direct communications line to Alpha’s CIC himself. I mean Admiral Koenig, Mister President, not that puppet, Yamoto.
“In the interests of preserving the agreement I am taking matters to hand. We will deploy a contingent of drone guards to each and every collection center and will undertake collection of non-attendees ourselves. You will withdraw your security teams and provide my commanders with a copy of the HSL list and your collection procedures. In the absence of the named person, we will collect alternative family members, irrespective of their qualifying criteria.”
Roslyn could not believe what the Kronan was saying. This was tantamount to a complete breakdown of the agreement.
“I cannot accept this. The humans on the HSL list are our responsibility until they are handed to you. This is fundamental to the agreement.”
“That is irrelevant. You have already proven incapable of achieving this most basic of tasks. The responsibility for collection changes hand or the agreement is breached. Furthermore, I will dispatch a further four legions of drones to patrol the larger cities. There will be a Kryl presence in every major city with a population greater than one hundred thousand. You will comply, President Roslyn.”
“I have moved Heaven and Earth to comply, Safrec. I will not back down. My people will not accept this. It has only been possible to achieve what we have done so, by making constant reference to an agreement that you seem happy to breach whenever you feel like it.”
“Then the agreement is at an end. The invasion will commence immediately and tonight my people will feed. We will bleed your planet dry and then leave it for the scavengers. And you Mister President will be the first victim.”
“No!”
Kate Jones was listening with horror as the two leaders gesticulated.
“We must allow the agreement to continue. I am sorry to interrupt Safrec, but the president is failing to look at the bigger picture. Tom, we cannot allow the agreement to breach. You must back down.”
“Your assistant is more aware of the seriousness of the situation than you are, Thomas. I will still allow the agreement to stand if you agree to this change in policy.”
Thomas Roslyn held his head in his hands. What choice did he have? He lifted his head up high and then down again, before he finally made up his mind.
“Safrec. I will allow the Kryl to take over security but we will not accept furth
er material breaches to the agreement. Please ensure our people are looked after correctly and that the excess are returned to Earth.”
“Of course. But you are not in a position to make demands. I will expect the list and procedures to be with me within the hour. In the mean time, you may return to your ship. Oh, and President Roslyn…”
Safrec pushed inside Roslyn’s mind and penetrated deeply. Roslyn gasped in pain and collapsed on the floor, doubled up in pain, before the Kronan released his grip.
“You need to remember who I am. I can destroy you in a moment and, next time, the pain will not go away.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Message
The Patrol Ship KR358 was the first to leave the fleet and was the first to reach the communication beacon. Lieutenant Patrick Msaula was in command.
“Comms Beacon in range. Shall I commence the download?”
“Have we checked the firewall and defense mechanisms? We don’t want to trigger anything that could get back to the Kryl?”
“Yes. All protection systems are verifiable and working.”
“Good. Commence the download. Let me know when it’s complete. I will analyze and then determine a response.”
Eighteen minutes later, the patrol ships first officer confirmed completion and Patrick Msaula began to view its contents. The information contained on the headline page was more than enough to determine exactly what their next course of action should be.
“This is fantastic. Set a course, maximum speed to the contingency fleet comms beacon. It would seem we have found a way to get rid of the Kryl.
* * * *
One week later, the patrol ship arrived at the target comm.portal and downloaded its critical Intel.
From here, the data transferred via a series of additional remote portals and was picked up by the Avalon, a converted frigate now serving as the main comms server for the Contingency Fleet.
* * * *