by Joanna Wylde
A sooty skull grinned up at him.
In horror, Seth realized he was probably staring at the remains of those who once lived on the base. Who had done this?
“Calvin, come here,” he said. “I think we’ve found your friends. At least some of them.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Calvin muttered, walking toward him slowly and heavily. The man was not in good shape, and lumbering around the surface left him breathing unpleasantly loud into the com unit. “Holy shit. They slaughtered ‘em.”
They both stood staring at the mound. Most of it had been burned so fiercely that nothing but ash remained, but here and there a bit of bone was visible. Seth felt sick to his stomach.
“Drop your weapons and turn around slowly, hands where I can see you,” said an unfamiliar voice through the com unit. “Otherwise I’ll kill you. I don’t have a damn thing to lose, so don’t push me.”
Seth dropped his gun, then raised his arms slowly. Calvin hesitated, then did the same. Seth hadn’t actually trusted him with a charged weapon, but Calvin didn’t know that and neither did their captor. Slowly, the two men swiveled to face the man who had come up behind them.
He was dressed in pressure suit that had definitely seen better days. It was scorched from blaster fire, and had been patched in several places.
“Who are you?” the man asked, seeming anxious. “What group are you with?”
Seth wondered if he was the only survivor.
“I’m a trader, just passing through,” he said. “This is my colleague, Calvin.”
“I’m a Pilgrim, and this is our base,” Calvin said brashly. “Who are you? What happened here?” Seth could have strangled him for being so rude to their captor. The last thing they wanted to do was piss the man off, but Calvin was about as stupid as they came. If he wasn’t lucky, he was going to get himself killed before too long. Hell, sometimes Seth was tempted to do the killing.
“Me?” the man asked. He chuckled to himself a bit wildly, and Seth wondered if the man was unbalanced. Being stuck alone in a burned out base for a month or two might do that to a man, he figured. “I’m the new owner of Bethesda base. It’s my territory now, and you guys are trespassing.”
“What the hell-” Calvin started to bellow, but Seth backhanded him across the chest in disgust. He fell to the ground gasping.
“My friend didn’t mean to be rude,” Seth said quietly, trying to engage their captor. “Perhaps we can come to some kind of arrangement? We aren’t interested in causing any trouble.”
“An arrangement?” the man laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think we’re past making arrangements.” Without warning he fired his blaster. The shot took Seth off guard, then the ground next to him sported a new blast mark. He’d missed. With sudden insight, Seth realized the man didn’t have much experience with a gun. There might still be some hope for the situation.
Calvin was still on the ground trying to catch his breath, oblivious to the drama taking place above him. Suddenly, he rolled over and vomited in his suit. The movement startled the man with the gun, and Seth leapt toward him. The man never saw it coming. One minute he was watching Calvin gasping and the next he was on his back, pinned down by Seth’s bulk. Seth wrenched the gun out of his hands and held it against his neck.
“Now, let’s get some answers,” he said coldly. “What the hell happened here?”
“I told you, I’ve got nothing to lose,” the man giggled. “Go ahead, shoot me. Then at least it would be over.”
“It’s not going to be that easy,” Seth said. “I need information, and you’re going to give it to me. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The hard way will be extremely painful, and it could take a very long time. Now, who are you?”
“I’m Bragan,” the man said after a minute. No longer giggling, he seemed to have grown suddenly morose. “I’m the doctor here.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Seth said. “What happened?”
“The slaves revolted,” the man said. “They found a way to remove their implants and they revolted. The Pilgrims fought back and they died. Poor Pilgrims, they got a taste of their own medicine…”
Seth sat back on his haunches, keeping the gun trained on Bragan. All the fight seemed to have drained out of him, and he simply laid there in his pressure suit.
“Are there any other survivors left beside you?” Seth finally asked.
“Oh, no, I’m the only one,” Bragan said. “It’s really quite amusing when you think about it.” He started giggling softly to himself again.
“What’s amusing about it?” Seth asked, feeling nauseous. The poor man was out of his mind, but he was the only witness they had.
“That I had to stay behind, of course,” Bragan said. His giggles grew louder, punctuated by snorts of escaping air. Then he started laughing out loud, uncontrollably. The sound was magnified as it passed through the com system, adding strength to the man’s cackles.
“Why is that amusing?” Seth said. Bragan was laughing so hard now he could hardly speak.
“W-w-why, b-b-b-because,” Bragan sputtered out between fits of dark mirth. “I’m the o-o-one who took out the implants, of course. I’m the surgeon. But when all the slaves were free, there was no one left to take out my implant and I had to s-s-s-stay…”
The man continued to lay on the ground, giggling at his little joke while Seth stared in horrified fascination. Bragan had helped his fellow slaves revolt, only to find himself trapped on the asteroid base. After a few seconds, the quality of his noise changed, and Seth realized he was sobbing. Bragan cried for a few minutes more, then lay still.
“They said they’d come back for me,” he finally whispered. “But you got here first. It’s all over, now.”
Calvin, who Seth had all but forgotten about, chose that moment to launch himself at Bragan’s prone figure.
“Who did it?” Calvin screamed. “Who did this? Which slaves? Where did they go? I’ll kill the bastards!” He grasped Bragan’s pressure suit and began banging his head against the ground.
“Jess…” the man gasped under his onslaught, pawing feebly at Calvin. “It was Jess and Logan. They were the leaders.”
“Calvin, get control of yourself,” Seth said with disgust, then wrenched the braggart off Bragan’s prone body. “He can’t give us any information if he’s dead. Come on. Let’s get him back to the ship.”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Bragan shouted hysterically. He started crawling frantically through the dust toward the dome. “I can’t go on a ship. I can leave the base. My implant will go off! I can’t go … I can’t … please don’t make me go, please!”
“Get on your feet,” Seth said. “We’re not going to leave the base yet. I’m just going to lock you up on my ship so we can explore.” Bragan didn’t seem to hear him. The man just kept scrabbling away from them, whimpering and crying.
“We should just kill him,” Calvin muttered, casting a resentful look at Seth. Seth glared back, not bothering to answer. He continued to coax Bragan, who ignored him. Finally, seeing no other, Seth came up behind the gibbering man and hit him on the head with the blunt end of his blaster. Hoping he hadn’t caused any permanent harm, he boosted his limp body up and threw it over his shoulder. Then he headed back to the ship, Calvin following him and muttering angrily.
* * * * *
Calla watched the man anxiously. Seth had bound and gagged him, tying him securely to one of the bulkheads in the main room. She and Sarai listened to the entire exchange between the men and Bragan on the com before they brought him in, and at the sound of Jess’ name her heart had all but stopped beating. This man, still unconscious, might have information for her. She needed to find a way to get it out of him. Seth and Calvin had left to go exploring again. It would be at least an hour before they came back. It might be her only chance.
“Children, why don’t you go into the bedroom,” Calla said, smiling at them as if having a bound and bloodied
man in the main living quarters was a normal thing. “Your mother and I are going to take care of this man and make him feel better.”
Sarai looked at her anxiously, concerned that she was disobeying Seth. They were supposed to ignore the man, to not speak or come close to him. Seth had given them a gun, and told them to shoot to kill if Bragan did anything threatening.
“I know what I’m doing,” Calla said, looking reassuringly toward Sarai. The two of them had developed a strange, secret bond over the past week. Hopefully she would be willing to play along, Calla thought. “Just trust me.”
After a second, Sarai nodded. “Yes, I’ll trust you Devora. What should we do?”
Calla was startled at Sarai’s quick acquiescence, then realized she shouldn’t be. Sarai always did as she was told… sometimes Calla wondered if the woman had a mind of her own at all.
“Bring me some warm water,” Calla said, moving quickly toward the man. “I’ll wash his face, and maybe that will wake him up. If he isn’t seriously injured, that is,” she muttered under her breath. You couldn’t tell with a head wound. Sarai brought the water and a soft cloth. Calla handed her the gun, telling her to sit just out of the man’s reach. “Shoot him if he tries anything, you understand?” Calla said. “And if he grabs me somehow, shoot anyway. It’s very important to protect the children. Can you do that?”
“Protect the children,” Sarai echoed back to her, lifting the weapon experimentally. She turned the blaster over in her hands several times, and a strange little smile came across her face. “Yes, I can do that.”
“Good,” Calla said, then knelt down beside the man. Dipping her cloth in the water, she brought it to his face, wiping gently at the blood. The worst of it was in his hair, but with one little washcloth she wasn’t going to be able to get him truly clean. This would be to revive him, make him comfortable. Then maybe he’d tell her about Jess.
He didn’t show any signs of life, and after several minutes she started to get worried. Then he made a small, moaning noise and his eyelids fluttered open. He looked up at her in confusion.
“Don’t worry, we aren’t going to hurt you,” she said, trying to smile in a reassuring manner as she removed his gag. “I was just cleaning you up, trying to make you a feel a little better. How are you doing?”
“My head hurts,” he whispered. “Where am I?”
“On our ship,” Calla replied. “Seth and Calvin brought you here so they could explore.”
“A ship?” he started struggling against his restraints. “I can’t go anywhere on a ship. I still have my slave implant. I’ll die if I leave the asteroid’s electrical field.”
Calla laid a calming hand on him.
“We’re not going anywhere right now,” she said quickly, keeping her voice low and soothing. “You’re just here as a precaution. There’s no plan to take off any time soon, so you don’t have to worry about that right now.” The man peered up at her, trying to judge whether she was speaking the truth. Something in her expression must have reassured him, because he stopped struggling.
“I’m very thirsty,” he said softly. “Would you be willing to give me something to drink?”
“Of course,” Calla said. “I’ll be right back.”
She brought him a glass of water, and tilted it against his lips so he could drink. After a few seconds, she pulled it away, but he reached for more.
“It’s so good,” he said finally, licking his lips. “I can’t remember the last time I had fresh water like that. Years, maybe. You look like someone I’ve seen before.”
“How long have you been here?” Calla asked quietly, even as she searched her mind, trying to remember if she’d seen him before. Had he ever come through the hostel?
“Five years,” Bragan replied. “Five long years. It’s been hell.”
“I’ve never met a slave who was a doctor before,” Calla said, attempting to draw him out. “Were you born into slavery?”
“No, I wasn’t,” he replied. His eyes darted nervously around the room. “Are you sure we aren’t going anywhere?”
“Very sure,” Calla replied. “I’m curious about how you came to be here, though.”
“I was enslaved for breaking the law,” he said. Calla caught her breath—she’d never heard of such a thing. Usually criminals were executed. Bragan must have sensed her confusion, because he gave a harsh laugh. “My crime was I sometimes removed slave implants illegally. Runaways, that kind of thing. When they caught me, I guess they figured the punishment would fit the crime.”
Unable to stop herself, Calla, nervously reached around to feel the back of her neck, to the spot where her implant had been. There was no scar; her surgeon had been good. Bragan watched her closely, then gave a sympathetic smile.
“I guess you know what that feels like,” he whispered. “Does anyone know?”
Calla glanced back at Sarai. The woman was watching them closely, although she doubted she’d been able to hear Bragan’s comment. “No,” Calla whispered back. “Only the one who did it, and he’s far away from here. Are you going to tell?”
“No,” Bragan said. “I’ve learned something from my time here. Slaves have to help each other. It’s the only way any of us will ever survive. Why are you here?”
“I’m here because I’m looking for someone,” Calla said. “I need some information from you.”
“What kind of information?” Bragan asked, grinning wryly. “I’m don’t really have much to offer at this point, I have to admit.”
“I need to know about the revolt,” Calla replied. It was her moment of truth. “You mentioned the leader was named Jess. Can you describe him to me?”
“Why do you want to know?” Bragan asked suspiciously. Calla took a deep breath. It was time to tell the truth; she had to know for sure.
“Because I think he may be my brother,” Calla replied. Bragan’s face froze.
“What’s your name?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.
“I go by Devora,” she replied, twisting the cloth in her hands. It was so hard to talk about her old life. “But I used to be called Calla.”
Bragan looked stunned. He just stared at her for a moment, then broke into a smile. “That’s why you look familiar. Jess had a hologram of the two of you together that he showed me. He kept it on a string around his neck.”
Calla’s breath caught in her throat. Jess had been here, so close.
“Where is he now? What happened?” she asked desperately.
“He’s gone,” Bragan said. Strong emotion flickered across his face. “He was going back for you. How did you get here?”
“I escaped,” she said, tears building in her eyes. “I escaped and came to rescue Jess. I guess he had the same idea. Can you tell me how it happened?”
“I will, but you can’t give the information to those men,” Bragan said. A cough took him by surprise, and his body doubled over, spasming, for a minute. When it finally stopped, Calla gave him another drink of water. “Sorry about that, asthma,” he muttered. “I got it from living here in all this dust… You’ll have to be patient with me. I’ve been here a long time, and after the others left I started hallucinating a lot. It’s hard for me to tell what’s real anymore.”
“I give you my word, I’m real and I won’t tell anyone,” Calla said, closing her eyes briefly. It would be one more lie to Seth, but she’d gone too far to stop now. Remember, she told herself firmly, Seth is a pleasant interlude, but Jess is your family. Don’t forget your priorities.
“Jess hadn’t been here that long,” Bragan told her. “But he was angry. Angrier than a lot of men who’ve been here for a year or more. He and another man, Logan, started talking. It wasn’t too long after that they came to see me. They knew I’d been a doctor, and they wanted to know if I could remove their implants.”
Bragan stopped speaking, apparently lost in thought.
“Bragan, do you need some more water?” Calla asked him after a moment. He looked at her, startled.
>
“Sorry, I forgot where I was,” he said softly. “You know, I warned them it was dangerous, even with the right equipment and anesthetic. There was a good chance they’d die. They were willing to take the risk, though, and I was willing to do it for them. I had gotten to the point where I didn’t really care if I lived or died, but I really liked the thought of Jess and Logan taking out some of those damn Pilgrims. Cruelest human beings I’ve ever met.”
“I know,” Calla said. “Jess and I belonged to one.”
“Well, these ones were worse,” he said. “They liked to use the energy whips on the slaves, and sometimes they’d get drunk and decide to go hunting. Then they’d pick someone, give him a pressure suit and sent him out without any food and water. They’d stalk him and kill him like he was nothing.”
“Slaves aren’t human to Pilgrims,” Calla murmured darkly.
“No, we aren’t,” Bragan agreed. He paused to collect his thoughts, a far-away look coming into his eyes. “I did Jess and Logan, and they both lived. But that wasn’t good enough for them. They wanted to escape, but they wanted the others to escape with them. And they wanted to destroy the base before they left. They didn’t want any of the miners to be able to ever hurt another slave again.
“So they started organizing. Ultimately all the men agreed, they were willing to risk death to escape. It’s not like they had any hope here, after all,” he said. His tone had become strangely smooth, almost sing-song as his story progressed. “So one by one, I took out their implants. Some of them died—quite a few actually—but they disposed of the bodies in the mine. Made ‘em look like accidents. It wasn’t hard to fool the Pilgrim bastards. They never did give us enough credit for our intelligence.
“The ironic thing is that in the end, there was nobody to take out my implant. They’re wrapped around the spinal nerves, you know, so you can’t just cut them out. They offered to try, but I didn’t see any point to it. So they decided they would escape, then come back with a doctor to free me if they could find one. I told them it was foolish, but they wouldn’t listen. Of course, they haven’t come back yet, either. I figured I’d wait until I couldn’t take it any more, then kill myself. I don’t know what I expected to happen.” He paused, licking his lips. “Can I have another sip of water?”