by Muga, D. M.
“Incredibly outnumbered is an understatement, Sir. Whereas, it appears only the Leviathan successfully made the journey, it’s still likely one hundred versus our twelve.” Leslie replies to her father.
Being a Lieutenant in the Utopian Union, and with her father being the Commander of the Exploratory and Security Command, she knew better than to refer to him as father, especially considering recent events.
“Maybe so. Nonetheless, for the sake of our species, we must do what needs to be done. It would be favorable for Abraham Jackson to face justice for his crimes against humanity. However, the survival of the human species is much more important than our own retribution.” Her father replies.
Our own retribution! Really? Mom and Calvin are dead! Along with the rest of E2! That Rotter Piece of Shit needs to suffer the worst of fates! Leslie screams inside her head.
She would rather say these words for all to hear, but knows better than to speak so harshly against her father. They had already all been through so much, and there were only twelve of them left on the Galileo and another 201 survivors back on E2, looking for other survivors and to rebuild… if they could even rebuild civilization with a mere 201 citizens of the Utopian Union and whoever else they might find.
Obviously, seeing her frustration with his wording, her father adds, “I feel your frustration and rage, my daughter. However, we must think of our future rather than our own selfish ideals. We are far past the realm of being able to be selfish, and won't return to that time anytime soon. I assure you though… my second priority, aside from ensuring the survival of the human species, is to make Abraham pay for his crimes… for his global genocide.”
Leslie stares at her father for a moment, uncertain whether or not to speak. After a short silence, she pauses and then looks back to the beautiful scenery of Earth One from her orbit, high above.
Through her peripheral vision, she sees him nod in acceptance of her acknowledgement of his directives and faces forward. “Where exactly is the Leviathan and the Federalists, Lieutenant Evans?”
“Based on our surveillance, they are on the eastern edge of the Blue Hole Radius, Sir. Also, Sir… based on recent images… there appears to be a conflict being engaged upon in the Leviathan’s vicinity.” Lieutenant Evans replies.
“I see, Abraham is wasting little time with enforcing his will on these poor people. As if they have not already had enough to deal with…” Commander Yang says, and sighs heavily.
“Lieutenant Willis, take us in nice and slow. Hopefully, this engagement of Abraham’s results in our favor and his folly.” Commander Yang orders.
The Galileo moves out of Earth One’s orbit above North America, and heads for the Blue Hole Radius. Specifically, for where the Leviathan has landed and is apparently in a conflict with the survivors from Earth One.
Yes… I hope it’s in our favor and your folly, you Shit. Let’s just hope you don't fall during your folly. A quick death is too good for you, Abraham Jackson… you cowardly disgrace of a human being. Leslie thinks to herself, recalling what happened, just months ago back on E2.
When the Grand Global War had started, she had been stationed upon the Solace Moon Observational Colony for her first duty station, after her attainment of adulthood and citizenship. The SMOC was designed to deal with threats from outside of the Earth Two’s orbit and handle them before they became a problem for the citizens on their planet.
Earth Two had a regular habit of being hit by comets. It was found that the large mass of the planet tended to pull stray space debris, providing potentially disastrous consequences for the population of Earth Two. Leslie had enjoyed her two years on the SMOC and found her work rewarding, being a protector of the people.
Leslie was a brand-new Lieutenant and only a second-year citizen of Earth Two, at the young age of 52 years old. Having her father as the Commander of the Exploratory and Security Command, she knew she could get stationed at a more comfortable duty station and less isolated from everyone else, but she didn't want others to think that she did not earn what she was given. So, she chose the isolated Solace Moon Observatory Colony.
Calling it a colony was a broad statement, considering that colonies at least had thousands of people within them. No, on SMOC, also referred to as the Solace, there were only 242 citizens of Earth Two on it.
The colony was vast, and had different bases all over the moon with tunnels connecting them, however, there were very few people. In all actuality, it did not take many people to make sure that the Solace was running effectively. With twenty-two bases connected through tunnels, each base consisted of eleven stationed citizens. Even calling them bases was a stretch in Leslie’s mind.
Nonetheless, it was peaceful on the Solace, very rewarding, and she grew to know the members of her base very well over the last two years. Lewis, Willis, Evans, Smith, Jones, Taylor, Williams, Roberts, Wright, and Green. Captain Lewis was their lead officer, with herself, Willis and Evans being the two subordinate officers. Smith and the others were enlisted citizens.
Through their service training, following their twenty-five years of academic training, the citizens of Earth two were sorted between officers and enlisted. The citizens were selected for the divergent ranks, based on their completion of their academia years and their personal profiles. Enlisted could always challenge the assignment of being enlisted. However, the challenge took additional trials and testing, and usually took roughly a decade to transcend to the officer ranks.
Leslie had met the requirements to become an officer in the Exploratory and Security and Command with ease, and with additional training from her father as an academic. This was one of the primary reasons she chose the isolated duty station of the Solace. To prove to on-seers of her advancements that she was just like everyone else and earned what she had... despite who her father was.
At the onset of the Grand Global War, Leslie had formally requested to return to Earth Two to assist the Utopian Union against the Federalist Legion. She had been promptly denied her request and was ordered to stay on the Solace. She had a firm idea that it was in direction from her father, but was unsure… with every citizen on the Solace being denied their request to join the fight down on E2.
This created animosity amongst the citizens on the Solace and resulted in several defectors to the Federalist Legion. She never quite understood the romantic notion and idealism of the Federalists. The Federalist Legion was a newly declared faction or revolutionary army in their eyes. It had only been around for close to a decade and was really only a political party, up until six months prior to the demise of the Utopian Union. Up until that point she thought everything on E2 was peaceful and going well. She was deadly wrong.
She was shocked when Wright and Green defected to the Federalists, abandoning their post at the Solace with multiple others. They had stolen a STARU and headed back down to E2. She was sure that they would meet a traitor’s death and felt sorry for them. She still didn't know what became of them and the others that defected from the Union, but she figured it likely that they died with the rest.
It became evident once her father explained why the Federalists went against them, that discontent and revolt had been brewing for the last decade from the self-declared leader of the Federalist Legion, Captain Abraham Jackson.
The history books, their history books… her history book… will tell the tale of the Grand Global War lasting a decade, from the beginning of the Federalist Legion faction to the global genocide of E2’s 800 million souls, and how the war criminal, Abraham Jackson, fled... too afraid to see the destruction that he had created. In reality, the real fighting only lasted a few hours and calling it a fight, or a grand scale battle, would be absolutely wrong and inaccurate. It was a massacre at a whole new level of atrocity, in the wake of Abraham Jackson.
Since the end of the Grand Global War and most of the lives on E2, she had researched everything she could find out about Abraham Jackson. She wanted to know him inside and out. With the help of her father, she lear
ned as to why this man saw it necessary to destroy human civilization on their home world... killing somewhere around 800 million souls, Federalists and Utopians alike.
Leslie had never met the man prior to seeing propaganda videos. She knew he was only two decades older than her and already a captain of his very own interstellar spacecraft. After the dust had settled, it was hard for her to understand why he hated the Union so deeply and why he committed such a horrific act of genocide.
Two months later, after the Grand Global War, Leslie knew the man to be a true coward, unable to admit defeat or that he was wrong to mislead so many people of E2. When it was apparent that his faction was losing steam and the error of their ways was being displayed for all to see, he used the massive arsenal of sleepers he had aboard the Leviathan and Renaissance to make sure that he was the one who wrote their history.
It had been two months since her father, Commander Thomas Yang, brought the Galileo to the Solace to visit his daughter during those difficult times. It was during that visit, with her father only having a skeleton crew aboard the ship, that Abraham Jackson launched his deadly assault of mass genocide on E2.
Her father explained that Abraham likely thought himself to be on the planet, because his visit was not scheduled and he had recently made his movements much more discrete, with the turmoil and discontent of the Union and the Legion rising. He had even opted to come visit her on an interstellar craft that was not his own. The Galileo had originally been under Captain Brown’s command.
Whereas her father survived, the Council, Congress, and Oversight Committee all perished with the rest of the population on E2.
Fortunately, depending on how you use the term, there were 201 loyal citizens still aboard the Solace, plus her father’s crew of twelve. Her father ordered that there should be 22 men and 22 women remain behind on the Solace. One purpose was to continue to protect E2 and the secondary purpose was to begin repopulating. He explained that it was their duty to begin to do so, or that our species would surely perish. Whereas, the order seemed unfair to many, especially the women… they did not object, having seen the footage of what happened on the ground below. The citizens were left on Solace on a volunteer basis, with the remaining 157 survivors of the Solace and 12 members of the Galileo going back to the ground.
Her father asked for volunteers from Leslie’s base unit and his own skeleton crew, to accompany him to Earth One. Leslie figured his logic to be that they’d be loyal to him and her, likely reducing the idea that there would be a mutiny on the way or when they reached Earth One. It was smart and logical, but it worried Leslie that there still may be Federalists in their midst.
As it turns out, all of them volunteered, forcing her father to handpick a skeleton crew to go after Abraham. He explained that he didn't want to lose more precious human life than necessary, should they fail in their journey for justice.
After they had returned to the ground to survey the massive scale of global genocide, Leslie knew he could not deny her the chance to find Abraham and bring him to justice. Not after having to bury her brother and her mother.
In the end, he chose eight of his original crew, as well as Willis, Evans, and Leslie. She had insisted she was accompanying him. He ordered the rest to stay on E2 to rebuild.
The citizens returning to and staying on E2 had a duty to their species that was two-fold as well. Their first objective was to search for more survivors, on the off chance that there were some who shielded from the devastation of the multitude of sleepers. Their second duty was to begin repopulation and await the return of Commander Yang or prepare to defeat Abraham Jackson... in the likelihood that Commander Yang failed.
It had been two months since they left 157 known souls on E2 and 44 souls left on the Solace. She had hoped desperately that they would find more survivors, but knew how effective the sleepers were. Despite the odds being stacked against them, she had faith in the others. Faith that they would rebuild their home and begin their civilization all over again.
They had the knowledge and the technology. Whereas, their numbers were extremely low, she had faith that they would endure. She also gained hope from the realization that there was still Earth Three…
Traveling across the stars, across 1,402 light years, to find Abraham Jackson and his Federalist followers. She had begun to ask herself why anyone would commit such terrible acts. She thought of how she would confront him and ask him when he was brought to justice.
Now, looking over Earth One, descending upon the Leviathan and the Federalists… descending upon Abraham, it didn't matter to her. She no longer thought of why or wanted to understand the ins and outs of Abraham Jackson.
She simply wanted justice. She wanted justice for her brother, Calvin Yang, who was only a decade away from becoming a full-fledged citizen. Taken away from this world at the young age of 40. She wanted justice for her mother, Amy Yang, who was a wonderful educator at one of the most prestigious academies on E2. Taken away from her passion of teaching and her family at the age of 149 years old... with close to another good century left in her natural lifespan.
Despite the concepts of revenge or idealism or other selfish traits being indoctrinated out of her over the first fifty years of her life, she knew she wanted more than simply justice. She wanted revenge for her family and all of the other families that Abraham Jackson had put to sleep on E2. She wanted to make him suffer for all of eternity… and regardless of the calm demeanor that her father displayed, she knew he felt the same.
Death would be too much of a mercy for you, Abraham Jackson. If… No… When I get my hands on you, you won't simply go to sleep. You will be awake through all of the pain and suffering you shall endure, you Rotter Piece of Shit!
The Galileo descends over the Leviathan, with every CSD, and newly developed CSA, pointed at the Leviathan and the surrounding STARUs. Over the small body of water, she can see a battle unfolding beneath her and the Galileo.
You better not die yet, Abraham! Not until I get my hands on you! You waste of human flesh!
24
Benjamin Reilly
Ben sees his Uncle waving to him from the front porch of his cabin. He looks younger to Ben somehow. Ben looks down to his hands and his lower body. He feels younger. He doesn’t have a mirror or anything to check his reflection, but he feels younger, like he’s a teenager.
He has some recollection that something terrible has happened to his Uncle, but it seems like a distant memory.
That’s right! I’m here for the summer! To stay with Uncle Steven! Mom and Dad just dropped me off. I wonder what the twins are doing?!
Ben looks off to his left, hearing a roar. He sees a Tyrannosaurus Rex walking down the street. Ben smiles at the enormous creature, unafraid. He sees a Stegosaurus bouncing around like a colossal bunny rabbit, and the T-Rex looks to Ben and then the other dinosaur. It roars and heads off toward the bouncing stegosaurus.
Cool! Ben thinks to himself, as he’s unafraid of the massive creatures down the street.
Ben looks back to his smiling Uncle. “Hi Uncle!” He shouts at him.
Ben tilts his head in confusion as his Uncle says something, only twenty feet or so away… but he can’t hear his voice. He only sees his lips moving.
Suddenly, the cabin gives way to his Uncle Steven standing on top of some sort of dark surface. He looks around him and realizes that he’s on the lake. Ben feels like he’s further away from his Uncle now, but he’s still waving at Ben and smiling.
He looks down and sees that he’s on the shore of Lake Gregory. He notices that his hands and his lower body look bigger now... he’s bigger now. He also notices some sort of big bracelet looking thing on his left arm, and he sees he’s holding a rifle in his right.
“What’s going on?” He says in a much deeper voice. He feels older than he did a few seconds ago.
“I’m so sorry, Ben.” A woman’s voice says next to him.
Ben looks to his left and sees a beautiful, naturally tanne
d woman with bright green eyes. He feels his heart race as he sees her, but he’s confused. She’s crying, with tears slowly coming out of those bright green eyes.
“Are you okay?... Who are you?” Ben says to the woman.
Ben blinks and sees that he’s back on the shore of Lake Gregory, looking at his Uncle smiling and waving.
What just happened?
He looks to his right again, and sees the beautiful, green-eyed woman... still crying.
“Eileen?” Ben says, remembering her name from the bright room he was just in, with that place now seeming like a dream… a very painful dream.
She simply continues to stand there looking at him, with tears flowing out of those bright green eyes.
Ben turns his attention to his Uncle on the dark surface, hovering over the shimmering lake. He notices that his Uncle is no longer smiling, waving, and looking at him. He’s looking over to his left, seeing a massive spaceship in the background, with another… platform… hovering over the shimmering lake.
Ben sees a man standing on top of the platform, and instantly feels a burning rage enter his mind and body.
“Abraham.” Ben says, as he grits his teeth.
The man smiles at him and then raises his right arm, with the same oversized bracelet thing that he has on his left arm.
MECCU… He thinks to himself.
The man stares at Ben, smiling.
Abraham Jackson! Ben thinks with pure hatred and rage, and his thought echoes around the whole lake as though he’s shouting it from a megaphone.
A small blue orb appears outside of his MECCU. Ben’s eyes go wide as he shifts his focus back to his Uncle. The second he does, he sees that his Uncle is covered in a radiant blue wave. Uncle Steven then closes his eyes and falls to the ground.
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Ben yells.
He instinctively raises his rifle and takes aim, sighting in on Abraham. He doesn’t hear the gunshot, but he sees that Abraham is screaming without any sound coming out. He sees that he’s holding his right arm.