by G J Ogden
Ethan dropped his hand to his side and stood staring blankly out towards the encroaching haze. He felt an intense fatigue grip his entire body, soaking through his muscles and bones, and into his mind, so that it suddenly required immense effort even to stand.
Maria looked up at Ethan; his words had affected her deeply, but more than this, it had helped her to understand him, and how he had changed since they had last been together. He had grown to embrace life, while the UEC had only further fallen down a dark well of hatred. It was also apparent just how disruptive her return had been. Maria had played down the importance of her emotional connection to Ethan, perhaps as much for her own benefit as for Ethan’s, but the strain that her presence was putting on Ethan and Summer’s relationship was far greater than she had let herself believe. Hearing Ethan speak warmly to Summer had also been harder to hear than she had expected. So, despite what Ethan had said, and despite believing that his desire to help was true and selfless, this was not his war, and she had no right to drag him into her world again.
“Aster and I are leaving,” she said, addressing the group as a whole, but taking care not to look directly at Ethan. “Summer is right, you have your own problems, so we’ll stop adding to them.”
Ethan was astonished. “Did you not hear what I just said?” he said to Maria, who was still not looking at him.
“I heard every word, Ethan,” she replied, calmly, “and I know you meant every word too; it’s who you are. But I can’t ask anything more of you. You’ve helped enough, and now it’s time to take care of your own. Aster and I can make certain that the survivors are protected.”
The fatigue that Ethan felt now threatened to overwhelm him completely. He rubbed his eyes and temples, but the ache penetrated too deeply.
“You’re right, it’s time for you to leave,” said Summer, but it was not said venomously. “But Ethan should go with you.”
To Ethan the shock of hearing this on top of the shock of hearing Maria just tell him not to help was simply too much. He looked from one to the other, wondering if they had somehow changed places while he wasn’t looking, or if he was going mad, and Summer was really Maria and Maria was Summer.
“You will need a guide; someone who knows how to survive out here,” Summer continued, her voice level. “As much as I hate to admit it, Ethan is right; if we abandon these children to die, we’re no better than roamers, and no better than that gutless coward who is coming here to hunt them.”
“Summer, I don’t…” Ethan began to say, but Summer stopped him.
“Wait, Ethan, let me finish.” Her eyes flicked from the dirt beneath her feet to Ethan’s eyes and back again, unable to hold his gaze for more than a split second at a time. “I’m sorry for what I said. Maria is right; this is who you are. It’s what you need to do. It’s not for me to decide.”
Ethan felt a rush of relief, not because Summer had changed her mind, but because of her reasons for doing so. He thought he was losing her; that she was clinging to the past, unable to let go. But she had heard his words – truly heard him – and knowing this caused a rush throughout his body that washed away the fatigue and made him feel strong again. He wanted to run to Summer and lift her up and kiss her, but then Summer spoke again, and the joy surging through his veins bled away.
“But, I’m staying,” she said. “I need to defend Forest Gate. I can’t abandon it.”
“Summer, that’s suicide!” cried Ethan. “You know what’s coming. We can build again, somewhere else.”
“I don’t want to re-build somewhere else,” said Summer with matching zeal. “I was born here, cut from my mother’s dead body after roamers murdered her. I should have died too, but somehow I survived. I owe everything I am to these walls, and I will not abandon them, not to those things. I’d rather die!”
Ethan shook his head, a mixture of dismay and disbelief. “What are you going to do?” he said, sounding almost nasty. “Fight off fifty roamers all by yourself?”
Summer dug her heels into the dirt, standing tall. “You think I’m the only one who feels this way?” she said in a manner that implied the answer was no. “I asked for volunteers; twenty eight rangers in total will defend Forest Gate, and others will stay to provide support, medical aid and keep lookout.”
Ethan glanced across to Elijah, who immediately looked down. A knot tightened in his stomach as he realized at last why his nephew had been loitering close by this whole time.
“No…” he said to Summer, firmly. “Not Elijah. You fight this crazy last stand if you want, but don’t take Elijah down with you.”
“I want to fight, Uncle,” said Elijah, trying hard to sound earnest, but instead his voice came out shaky and hesitant, like he was confessing a terrible secret.
“Elijah, you will be outnumbered two or three to one, maybe more!” Ethan called out angrily. “And you’ll be fighting almost blind in the middle of a toxic dust storm. This place is just stone and dirt, Elijah, it is not worth dying for!”
“He’s made his choice, Ethan,” said Summer. “He’s a ranger, the same as you and I. If he wants to defend our home, you have no right to stop him.”
Ethan looked at Summer and cocked his head. “Come on, Summer! He’d follow you off a cliff if you jumped first.”
Summer clenched her fists and took a step towards Ethan, but Elijah stepped up and held out his arm, barring her. He looked at Summer with his confident, dark brown eyes, and she stepped back. To Ethan, he said, “Don’t blame Aunt Summer, Ethan. This is my choice and I want to do it.”
This time, Elijah stood tall, and his voice was clear and unwavering. Now that he wasn’t slouching he looked older and strong; Summer was right, he wasn’t a boy any more, and he had the right to choose. Ethan, of all people, could hardly argue against his right to choose his own path. But, still, he knew that staying meant he would almost certainly be killed, and he had to try to stop him. He had one idea left to reach him, and he knew it was low move, but he had to try.
“Think of your mother, Elijah,” he said. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Summer shaking her head in disgust at him. “You’re all she has. If you die here, what happens to her? Who protects her, Elijah?”
“You have no right to do that!” spat Summer.
“No, Summer, it’s okay,” said Elijah, “Ethan is right, I can’t just think of myself.”
Ethan felt his heart lift; maybe he’d got through to him. Maybe he’d said yes to defending the walls without really thinking about it, and had been looking for a way to get out, without losing face and appearing like a coward.
“That’s why she was the first person I told,” said Elijah. “She is staying too, helping to keep watch and pass arrows. Administrator Talia also. It’s what we all want, Ethan.”
Ethan felt panicky and breathless; he looked away, pacing up and down, knowing he was powerless to change their minds. “You’re fools, all of you!” he said, still pacing. He didn’t know what else to do now, but lash out at them and vent his anger and fear.
“Ethan; Aster and I can handle this,” said Maria, beginning to worry for Ethan’s state of mind. “You should stay and protect your family.”
Ethan shook his head. “No, if they want to get themselves killed, let them!”
“Ethan, you don’t mean that,” said Maria, trying to reason with him, but it was no use. He was wound up too tightly to think rationally; it was simply fight or flight, and he’d already lost the fight. He couldn’t face their decision, and he couldn’t change their minds, so he had to run, as if putting distance between them and the settlement would make it all go away.
“I won’t die for a patch of ground,” Ethan said. “I’m going with Maria. I’m going to help these children survive, because life matters; not rocks and dirt.”
Ethan turned to Maria, “I’ll be in the crawler,” and without another look at Summer or Elijah, he turned his back on them and stormed away.
Maria looked at Summer and Elijah, but there wa
s nothing more she could add, and she was conscious that time was ticking away. Every minute they stayed increased the survivors’ risk of exposure. They had a limited supply of meds, which they’d rationed out before they set off into the forest, but as the toxicity around this region increased, the protection offered by the medication would rapidly diminish.
“Get the crawler started,” Maria said to Aster, who nodded and left immediately.
Maria didn’t leave straight away, though; instead she looked at Summer. Her stance had softened since Ethan had gone; she was looking down and her arms, which had been folded tightly, now hugged her sides.
“For what it’s worth, I wish you good luck,” said Maria, but Summer did not react. “I’ve seen you all fight; I know you have a good chance.”
Still Summer did not react, but to Maria’s surprise, Elijah stepped forward and he was smiling. “Thank you Maria,” he said, looking confidently into her eyes. “Take good care of my uncle; tell him we’re going to be fine, and that we’ll be here when you get back.”
Then Elijah made sure that Summer wasn’t looking and threw up a clumsy salute. Maria’s heart almost stopped beating, and for a moment, she was back in Ethan’s simple wooden house five years ago, with the fearless and kind-hearted ten-year-old boy who had welcomed them without prejudice or suspicion. She returned the salute and smiled. “I will,” she said. Then more quietly, so that Summer would not be able to overhear, she added, “but promise me something, Elijah. Promise me that if the defense of the settlement starts to go badly, that you will hole up in the strongest building you can find and wait it out. Do you hear me?”
Elijah nodded. “I hear you.” Then he stepped back beside Summer, who was now facing away, looking off into the distance, seemingly at nothing in particular. Maria watched for a moment longer, hoping that Elijah had absorbed her words, and then walked away to join Aster and Ethan at the crawler.
***
Elijah looked anxiously at his aunt. “Hey, Summer…”
“If you want to change your mind, you can,” said Summer, anticipating his question. She was still facing away, though there was no anger in her voice. “There is no dishonor in changing your mind, Eli. Don’t do this for me. It has to be your choice, with no influence from anyone else.”
“No, Summer, that’s not what I was going to say,” said Elijah. “I’m not changing my mind; I feel the same way as you.”
“Then what?” asked Summer, now turning to look at her adopted nephew.
“You need to tell him. You shouldn’t leave it like this.”
“He’s made his choice and I’ve made mine.”
“He’s just being Ethan, Aunt Summer. These walls were always too small for him.”
Summer looked away and closed her eyes. “I know, Eli,” She said, softly.
“Then tell him,” Elijah said, urging Summer to put away her pride.
Summer opened her eyes and looked at Elijah. She placed her hands on his shoulders and said, “I’ll tell him when this is over,” she said, “and you’ll be there too. We’ll be a family.”
Elijah nodded, and turned to watch the crawler move off from beside the settlement walls, and quietly accelerate out of sight in the direction of the old forest.
Chapter 15
The ship punched through the atmosphere and began to decelerate rapidly, forcing Kurren to engage muscles he didn’t realize he had simply to withstand the forces that were acting on his body. He thought his strength was about to give out when the pressure suddenly began to ease and he was finally able to relax back into his seat so that the harness across his chest loosened and allowed him to breath more freely. He took several, long, deep breaths and then looked to the front of the ship, seeing the cockpit glass lit up with a brilliant blue where previously there had only been flickering orange flames.
The compartment lights grew brighter and a voice came over the internal commlink, announcing that they had completed re-entry and were now in atmospheric flight and on a programmed decent to the space port. Kurren flipped open the buckle of his harness and stood up, but was then forced to hastily reach out and grab hold of something, as the ship jostled and buffeted against the thickening atmosphere. The mission briefing had covered what to expect during re-entry, but Kurren had not been paying attention; his thoughts had been too preoccupied with plans of how to find and kill Maria Salus.
He looked back into the belly of the small UEC shuttle craft – which was following a reciprocal course back to its point of origin – at the faces of Alpha Squad, one of the four, heavily-armed combat units that Major Page had assembled for the mission. Each of the soldiers was wearing the vibrant blue combat armor that was reserved for the UEC’s most elite forces, but the face masks were raised and Kurren could see that the experience of entering the planet’s atmosphere had affected these men just as it had himself. He gritted his teeth and braced himself against the constant rattles and shimmies in the cabin, fearful that his own expression may convey a hint of weakness.
Page, seated opposite Kurren, had been watching his general closely during the journey from the moon base, studying his expressions and trying to read his moods. He was acutely aware of how little he knew about this man, beyond reputation, and despite having no doubts about the importance of the mission and of recovering the survivors from the planet, he still had niggling reservations about the man in charge. He watched as Kurren made his way to the cockpit, cautiously moving one step at a time, grabbing onto different parts of the ship’s inner frame with each move forward, as if he were navigating monkey bars on an assault course. When he finally stopped, securing himself by holding onto the back of the co-pilot’s chair, Page unbuckled his own harness and moved up beside him. Unlike Kurren, he had little trouble making his way to the front; a consequence of his natural athleticism, and the fact that, unlike Kurren, he had completed the low-G and zero-G combat training courses, designed to allow soldiers to fight in the event that GPS knocked out the base’s gravity generators.
Kurren did not acknowledge Page’s arrival beside him, and Page decided it was best to remain silent until spoken to, or until there was something important to say. One fact he had already gleaned about Kurren was that he detested small talk.
The stresses on the ship had reduced rapidly as it had descended lower into the atmosphere, allowing both men to stand in relative comfort, but as the ship banked gently to the right and dipped its nose to approach the space port, Page felt his muscles involuntarily tighten once more as the city, and the glowing core of the still-smoldering impact crater, finally came into view.
“What the hell happened?” he said, deciding that this was something important enough to comment on. “That damage looks recent.”
Kurren didn’t respond, but the pilot, who must have thought that Page was talking to him, arched his head back and answered instead.
“Looks like chunks of the space station debris entered the atmosphere, sir,” said the pilot, though at this point he wasn’t piloting anything; the automated systems were doing the work. “Some of it must have crashed down into the city.”
“Keep your eyes on the panels, pilot,” said Kurren, gruffly. The pilot’s head immediately snapped forward again. “I only care if it’s going to cause any problems for this mission.”
The pilot arched his neck again, though this time only just enough to make himself audible to Kurren and Page. “We’re picking up a lot of particulate material in the lower atmosphere, sir. It was probably kicked up from that impact. The toxicity readings are extremely high.”
“Anything we can’t handle?” asked Page.
“No, sir,” the pilot answered crisply. “The hull is hardened enough to keep it out, but there’s another problem…”
Great, Page thought, we haven’t even landed yet, and already there are problems. “What is it, pilot?” he said aloud.
“I’m not detecting any power signatures from the space port,” the pilot replied. “From these readings, I’d say
the emergency backups have been knocked out.”
Page took a deep breath and began to adjust the plan in his head, taking account of these new factors. In the briefing, it was highlighted that a small, private space port, such as the one they were heading towards, would still have some power, fed from emergency backup batteries stored deep beneath the surface; the sort of advanced and expensive tech that only an exclusive, private space port could afford. The fact that Maria Salus had blasted off from this space port previously seemed to confirm this, but if the backups had failed, or been knocked out by the impact of the space station fragment, it would provide an added complication. Page had counted on there being power in order to seal off the port after landing and secure it, so that they could plug into the data systems and scrub their archives for clues as to where Maria Salus might have ventured during the Planetsider mission.
“The particulate fallout from the impact site is also blanketing the landing zone,” the pilot added. “The navigation system has detected an open and clear landing pod, and has computed a landing pattern, but visibility will be zero until we’re on the deck.”
“Copy that,” said Page. He didn’t need navigation sensors to know that the toxic dust had already completely enveloped the space port, because he could see that for himself – or rather, not see it; the haze already extended for miles beyond the city’s outer limits. However, he had already factored this into his adjustments.
Page turned to Kurren and said, “Change of plan, sir. We’ll need one squad to hold back and work on restoring power. With no power, we have little hope of finding Salus, not to mention getting back into orbit.”
Kurren just nodded and continued to stare mindlessly out of the window.