by Alan, Craig
“You mean the outside.”
“No, Captain,” Erasmus said. “I mean Jupiter itself.”
Neither spoke for a moment.
“I don’t understand,” Elena said. “Michael won’t be completed for another twelve months.”
“Nine is what I’m told. They’re ahead of schedule, thanks to the lessons learned by Gabriel and Archangel. But we don’t have nine months. The next feasible approach window is in six months, which means you need to leave next week.”
“Babe in the woods.”
“I’m a quick learner.”
“And what will we do when we get to Jupiter?”
Erasmus smiled without humor.
“Kill outsiders.”
Elena stood and walked to the windows, mindful as always of the enormous pressure that was threatening to throw her outside.
“Trust isn’t enough. Not for something like this. So why me?”
“This is awkward,” Erasmus said, and laughed. “Is it appropriate for me to thank you? If not for you, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Oh, yes.”
“You know about that?”
“Elena,” Erasmus said, “more people know about Overstar than you can possibly imagine. It’s an open secret. And next week, when the new Assembly holds its inquiry, it won’t even be a secret anymore.”
“How in the hell does that make you more likely to want me?”
“I am aware that you may have violated a few regulations.”
“Or, you know, all of them.”
“I am less interested in what you did, than why you did it.”
“And why do you think I did it?”
“Do you think that a Prime Minister is powerful? There is nothing so much like God come to Earth as a general on the battlefield, or a captain at the helm of her ship. You will be beyond Solstice’s control, or mine. You will be on their side of the border, in their territory. You will be alone, and the choices will be yours and no one else’s.”
“Why do you think I did it?” Elena repeated.
“Because you thought that it was the right thing to do. Because you wanted the truth to out.”
“Do you?”
“Of course.”
“Then why hasn’t anyone been told about Hyperion-1?”
“What about it?”
Elena shook her head, and clucked her tongue.
“No, no. You’re supposed to say, ‘Hyperion-1? What is that, what are you talking about?’ But you reviewed the telemetry, you said so yourself. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Erasmus’s confused smile faded.
“Now is not the time, Captain. William Campbell-Azzam is in hiding. The independents are screaming bloody murder. The Sovereigntists are convinced that we’re on the brink of a civil war, and half the Agency appear eager to give them one. We’re on the brink. Earth needs a hero, someone that we can unite around. Someone to save us from the outsiders—and each other. And you’re going to give us one.”
“So this isn’t really about the outsiders at all, is it?”
“No, it never has been. The problem has always been ourselves. But perhaps the outsiders can provide a solution.”
Elena sat down before him.
“I nearly resigned, two years ago. But when Archangel was destroyed…they wanted to shut the project down, and if it had died then it would have all been for nothing. But Helena Dixon saved it. She believed in what Captain Muller had died for. So I stayed, and I built another ship. I built Gabriel for my angel.”
Erasmus didn’t respond, didn’t react, didn’t do anything at all. He was as still and cold as freshly fallen snow, and Elena wondered if he already knew.
“That nuke was a stain on what I built. I could have tried to hide it, but I would have always known it was there. My executive officer had me convinced that it was a Sovereigntist trick, some scheme to discredit us. But I’ve had plenty of time during the last few days, and I reviewed the telemetry too. Every gun onboard Victory was blazing, but the one that killed Hyperion fired on it, and it alone, and then shut down. It was firing plutonium from our reactor, wasn’t it?”
Erasmus stared at her for a long moment, hands clenched on his knees, knuckles white.
“The Global reactor produces plutonium with traces of chemical impurities,” he said, finally. “Like a fingerprint. The nuclear material recovered from Hyperion’s wreckage was a match.”
“Why haven’t you told anyone?”
“If the public believes that Hyperion was a nuclear reactor, then we are at war with the independents. If it is revealed that the plutonium was planted, then I am at war with my own Space Agency. There were no other ships in range, Elena. No one else knows. What would you have me do?”
“What is right.” He gave a strange smile that was almost a grimace, his rheumy eyes still hooded, in acknowledgment of the touch. “And even if you won’t, I will. I’m going to stay, and testify at the inquiry. I’m going to wash it clean.”
Erasmus’s shoulders sagged, and for a moment she could almost see him put his face in his hands.
“I understand what you’re trying to do. Really. And Gabriel is a good ship,” Elena said. “She’ll do whatever you want from her, and if you need a flight commander, I recommend Vijay Nishtha for the post. If he’s too junior, then you won’t find a better executive officer.”
Erasmus looked up.
“I don’t think I’ll find a better commanding officer,” he said.
“You don’t know me, Prime Minister. I’m a personnel file and a fifteen minute conversation to you.”
“Is there anything I can do to change your mind? To convince you of the justness and necessity of this course? Anything at all?”
He had to know her history. He had to know what he was really asking.
“No.”
Erasmus cleared his throat, and straightened his tie. He offered his hand when she rose, and she shook it. Even under half gravity, Erasmus appeared unable to stand. His grip was loose, and it didn’t hurt at all.
“I admire you, Captain. More than ever, I think I made the right choice.”
Elena nodded down to him, slumped in his chair.
“Good luck, sir. ”
She walked to the door.
“Gabriel will not depart for ten days,” Erasmus said. “There will be time to reconsider your decision.”
Elena stopped, and reached down to remove her medal. She tossed it to Erasmus, who caught it neatly out of the air.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Elena said. “I’m out.”
She left the room, and him alone.
Against All Enemies
Elena closed the hatch that led from the engine room to Gideon’s bridge, and halted. Her thruster pack was still floating next to the fuel cell where she had left it. She motioned silently for Rivkah to wait, and then opened a private circuit to Ikenna.
“There’s still time to go with them, Ikenna.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me, Captain?”
“I’m trying to give you a choice.”
“And I chose not to go with Archangel two years ago.”
“I don’t know if you regret that or not,” Elena said. “But if you do, here’s your second opportunity.”
“We all deserve at least one,” he said. She could tell by his voice that he was smiling behind his faceplate. It was a sight she had never seen. “I would like to use that opportunity to remain at my post, Captain.”
“Why didn’t you go with her the first time?”
“Why didn’t you?” Ikenna asked.
“I wasn’t asked. Too many ties to cut.”
Ikenna was quiet for a moment. Elena wondered what Rivkah was imagining inside her helmet.
“We weren’t told at
Ceres what was really going to happen. Only that the mission was vital to the safety of the Global Union, and that it would take years. And that when we returned home, we would be heroes. That wasn’t enough for me.”
“And if they had told you the full mission? Would you have gone then?”
Once more, he was quiet. This must have been the first time he’d been asked this question, even by himself.
“No. I left my home behind once before, and I couldn’t bear to do it again. I came to protect my people against the outsiders, but these—” he motioned to Gideon’s walls “—are my people too. They are not my enemy.”
Elena smiled inside her helmet.
“Would you like to go back home?”
“God, yes.”
“I’ll get you there.”
The three of them returned to Gabriel in silence. They scrambled one by one through the hole they had created in the airlock, after reattaching their safety lines. Elena looked up in the sky and saw her own home floating there before her. They leapt across the void to Gabriel.
Elena hit first, and clung to the hull with the grapple. Ikenna landed a moment later and rebounded, and she tugged on the slack in the line and arrested his momentum. He did the same for Rivkah, and they climbed down to the ship together. When they were all safely grounded Elena hit the trigger once more, and the hooks dissolved and came free of the hull. She bent briefly to run her hand over the scar that she had left on her ship, and then rose to follow the others.
Eduardo Suarez met them at the airlock. She could see the scar on his forehead where he had been thrown against the bulkhead during the missile attack, back at the border.
“Captain, can I speak to you?”
Rivkah held her helmet in her hands, and her eyes were unblinking.
“Of course.”
“In private.”
Elena turned to Ikenna.
“Please go the bridge and inform Chief Nishtha that I will like to see him in my office shortly. Officer Lamentov will relieve him.”
“Aye, Captain.”
She and Rivkah entered the stateroom. Elena dropped her helmet and her toolkit, took a seat, and motioned for Rivkah to do the same, but the doctor wasn’t even looking at her.
“These are beautiful,” Rivkah said, facing the maps on Elena’s wall. Alone of Gabriel’s crew, the doctor had never been inside her stateroom. “Where did you get them?”
“They were given to me before we left,” she said.
“Someone close to you?”
“Very.”
“May I touch them?”
“It’s fine,” Elena said. “They’ve been treated, you won’t damage them.”
Rivkah reached out with both hands and touched the maps. Her left hand touched Jupiter’s place on the star map. Her right caressed the speck of land in the center of the globe that, for a century, had been the State of Israel.
“Every year, when we celebrate our rescue from Pharaoh, we end the seder with the same wish. Do you remember?”
“‘Next year, in Jerusalem,’” Elena said.
“Do you think they say ‘Next year, on Earth?’” Rivkah asked.
“If that’s what they wanted, they could have had it at any time.”
“We don’t know what they want.”
“We know they chose to be here. We know that the Global Union is this close to a war with the independents, and another with itself,” Elena said. “What do you think will happen if the one thing that unites us is taken away?”
“You think that’s the only thing we have in common?”
“There was no Global Union until the outsiders came,” Elena said. “What else is there?”
“Our humanity,” Rivkah said. She turned to Elena. “And those aren’t outsiders. Not anymore. So we should stop treating that them as if they’re our enemy.”
“They’re fighting a war too,” Elena said.
“In self-defense.”
“There would be no need if they would only talk to us.”
“No need? Have you ever seen Tel Aviv, Captain?”
“No.”
“Nor have I,” Rivkah said. “That’s because there’s nothing left.”
“That was a hundred years ago. And if they’ve been getting our signals for the last century, then they know those days are over.”
“What about Overstar?”
“That was different,” Elena said. “Nobody died.”
“This time.”
“How can you be so sure that there will be a next time?”
“Do you really think that the bomb was the only one of its kind?” Rivkah faced Elena, and there were tears in her eyes. “We do this, once a century, like clockwork. We tear each apart, bury the bodies, and swear that they will be the last.”
“That won’t happen again.”
“You’re an intelligent woman, Captain. A lost tribe hidden in the shadows, a secret warship out to erase any trace of its existence, and a nuclear warhead. Do I have to draw you a map?”
She glanced at the charts next to the desk.
“The explorers who drew these didn’t find any monsters either. Only men, like themselves.” Rivkah looked over her shoulder at Elena, but not at her eyes. She could see that the doctor was taking in her black hair and eyes, her olive skin, her high cheekbones. “I don’t think I need to tell you what happened next.”
“No, you don’t,” Elena said. “And you don’t need to tell me how to do my duty. I think we’re done here.”
Rivkah opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. Her jaw trembled. Elena hadn’t imagined before today that this woman could cry.
“One more request then.”
“What is it?”
“When we pass Ganymede, I would like to take a lifeboat and stay behind.”
“And leave us without a doctor?”
“The medics know this job nearly as well as I do, Captain. And it is looking more and more unlikely that there will be any further need of me here at all. Please consider it.”
“Why should I?”
“I’ve spent my entire life wandering the desert. I want to go home.”
“They’ll shoot you on sight.”
Rivkah did cry this time, but her voice was hard and clear.
“I would rather die with them than live without them.”
Elena was silent for a long moment. Then she nodded, and Rivkah left.
Elena rose and hovered over her desk. She surveyed the king of planets and the holy land, and locked eyes with the archangel Gabriel. He had been no cruel god like Jupiter. He would guide mortals, but he would not rule them. He was only the messenger, bearing the truth. They had to make their own choices.
She retrieved her helmet, sat at the desk, and connected the visor to her work station. As the data uploaded, Elena composed a brief but thorough message to Ikenna. Then she summoned Vijay.
Elena showed him the image of the Star of David on Gideon’s hull, and the corpses they’d found within. His mouth dropped open at the sight of Anne Muller. The helmet visors had recorded everything.
“Incredible.”
“She says that they can escort us around Jupiter, but Metatron won’t be coming home with us.”
“Where?”
“The trojan asteroids.”
“Of course,” he said, shaking his head. “Incredible.”
“So,” Elena said, making herself a cup of coffee, “what do you recommend?”
“Continue the mission, Captain. Destroy this ship, return to the Belt, and leave the outside behind.”
“And the outsiders?”
“They have done fine here by themselves,” Vijay said. “They do not need us. Not nearly as much as we need them.”
“You agree with Captain Muller, then? About the situation on Ear
th.”
“Maybe the peace will hold even if the war ends. But I know what Mumbai looked like before the Storm, Captain, and I have seen what it looks like now. That is a risk I am not willing to take.”
“You really think that the Union would fall?”
“I know it would,” Vijay said.
“Then maybe it should,” Elena said. “It’s based on a lie.”
“Maybe at bottom,” Vijay said. “But not at heart.”
“If that’s true, then we have nothing to worry about.” The coffee had cooled enough for her to take a sip. “If you had to break contact with Metatron and transmit to Earth, how would you do it?”
“I would not, Captain. Not for the reason you’re proposing.”
“You think we should keep their secret?”
“I think it is too dangerous to be released into the wild.”
“When the truth is your enemy,” Elena said, “you’re fighting the wrong war.”
“I know exactly what war I’m fighting, Captain,” Vijay said. “Do you?”
“No,” Elena said. “Not anymore.”
She gulped her coffee and felt it burn all the way down as Vijay checked his bracelet. She realized that she had frozen the video on a still of Anne’s face.
“I would have liked to meet her,” Vijay said.
“Maybe you will.”
“Yes.” She could tell not tell if he was agreeing with the sentiment or merely acknowledging it. “What was it like to see her again?”
“I’ll tell you once I figure that out.”
“Come now. It must have been like old times.”
“I buried those days. I can’t dig them up so easily.” Elena glanced at the still of Anne’s face, and shut the monitor down. “Do you know what attracted me to her in the first place?”
“I could imagine.”
“Not that. Not entirely that. I’ve spent eighteen years in the Agency now. I’ve served alongside hundreds of officers, maybe thousands. Worked hand in hand with a few dozen. In all that time, only two of my closest colleagues have ever had the decency not to talk about my father. You’re one. Anne was the other.”