“This is it. They’re getting the word that there’s been an incident. As soon as they leave, we should be able to leave unseen,” said Stanzic.
As Will hunched over, with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath, he stared at the remains of the creature, and his thoughts drifted back to Earth. This now had so much more meaning than it ever had before. If Stanzic was correct, then all he had ever known about life on his own planet was false. Earth was the catalyst that made life on Mars possible, and that’s where he’d always felt humanity’s destiny would eventually take them: back to their origins.
“They’ve gone; we must hurry!”
6
OLD WOUNDS
“All hands to stations,” shouted First Officer Valtan. “Bring the ship to full power, and prepare for evasive action.”
Damien Windsor sat back with his legs crossed and watched his first officer run another drill while he sipped his drink. He demanded discipline from the crew of the Shadow and never let too much time go by without ordering a surprise drill.
“All hands ready, sir,” said Valtan, standing at attention. “Ship at full power waiting for orders.”
“Mr. Valtan, crew reaction time was eight seconds slower than last action drill, which is totally unacceptable.”
“Sir, the crew was in the middle of analyzing the asteroid belt while we’re in close enough proximity. They couldn’t break off to—”
“Let me understand something,” Windsor interrupted. “If this ship was in true danger, would it be OK with you for someone to take one last look through a telescope before he did his duty?”
“Uh, no, sir, absolutely not. I’ll make sure—”
“You’ll revoke extra food rations until this crew responds appropriately, including yours.”
“Yes, sir. Understood, sir.”
As Valtan began to shout nervously at a crewmember, the light on the communication console lit up, drawing his attention.
“Sir, high priority message coming in from command. It’s from Commander Larsen.”
“I’ll take it in my quarters,” shouted Windsor.
As he entered his quarters, he sat next to his com console and pressed the blinking red light. The small view screen lit up, and the image of Larsen appeared before him.
Commander Windsor,
We have a matter of the utmost urgency. The Victory has identified an object of enormous proportions that will impact Mars in forty-five days. This will likely devastate all life on the surface and make the planet uninhabitable. I know this information will come as a shock and will be hard for you to come to grips with, but we have to join together to take action in planning our survival. There is nothing we can do for the people of Mars; therefore, I have blocked all communication from the Victory and ask you not to respond to her. They will be attempting to have you verify their data, and once you do, you’ll see that this information is correct and accurate. I have no intention of informing the masses, and I am in the process of readying my ship as we speak. My proposal is as follows, Commander Windsor, military leader of the Earth colony, second only to its supreme leader. This is what you wanted during the war and were never allowed to have. You were always held back by others such as James Devon, who tried to ruin you after Juitan. We now have a chance to dominate those who have betrayed us in the past and have them serve us. I will be taking steps to have the foremost expert on the planet at my disposal, and if you agree to these terms, I have something I need you to do as well.
Windsor silently read the rest of the message and looked up from the communication with little emotion. He was numb to the information he was just given, as his thirst for power overrode the feelings for his doomed planet. He had little family and even fewer friends who would perish in this disaster and liked the sound of military ruler over an entire planet. He reached for the communication console.
“Mr. Valtan, report to my quarters immediately.”
No more than a minute passed, and Valtan appeared in the doorway, looking out of breath as if he’d just run the entire way.
“We have a serious situation that has arisen; you aren’t to communicate with the Victory.”
“Sir?”
“Apparently her captain has gone a bit mad. Devon is headed to Mars and is planning to fire a large quantity of nebula gas into Mars’s atmosphere to destroy Manikar.”
“Sir, that would destroy a whole lot more than just the city,” he said urgently.
“Yes, Valtan, so you see the criticality of the situation. Nobody knows the impact that will have on the planet. The great James Devon has finally lost it—too much pressure. He accused me of war crimes ten years ago, and now he plans on committing the biggest crime of all.”
Valtan could see the hatred in Windsor’s eyes when he spoke of James Devon. It had been a highly publicized trial, and many felt that even though Windsor was acquitted, he was guilty of what he was accused of and much more. His allies at the time were people in high government positions who shared his vision of domination and were willing to look the other way. This acquittal did little to repair his reputation, and he’d held a deep hatred for James Devon that went to his soul.
“Sir, what can we do? We’ll never get home in time to stop him.”
“No, we won’t, but we can avenge our people. We’ve been ordered to Earth. Devon is planning to escape there, and we have to intercept the Victory and destroy her on sight. From this point forward, this is a military vessel on a military mission. I expect you and the rest of the crew to act accordingly and follow my orders without question.”
Valtan looked puzzled for a moment; he and most of the crew had become dissatisfied at the fact that he’d been running a science vessel as if it were on a military mission. The constant drills and penalties for falling short of expectations were demoralizing to say the least, but no one dared to question his authority, which was exactly why he was chosen to command this mission. The thought of it getting any worse made Valtan cringe, but he had to follow Windsor’s orders.
“Yes, sir—of course, sir. I’ll make arrangements to communicate this to the crew immediately.”
Windsor could feel his blood pressure rise at the thought of what Devon had tried to do to him, but quickly turned his anger to the calm soothing thought of revenge. He would have the last laugh in killing Devon after convincing those who were left that he was a criminal responsible for the deaths of millions. No one would ever find out that Mars was destroyed by a phenomenon of nature; they would curse the name of James Devon for all time, and that thought kept Windsor warm inside.
“Well, snap to it, man! All scientific projects aboard this ship are terminated permanently. Any crewmember that has no military experience is to be trained to my specifications. Make course for Earth, best possible speed!”
Larsen read the communiqué from Windsor and smiled. He didn’t have too much doubt that he’d accept the proposal; after all, there really wasn’t much choice. He could have refused, but that wasn’t in the nature of the man Larsen knew. He was a brutal leader but pragmatic when it came to matters of survival, especially his own.
Larsen approached the control center, and as he’d expected, there were two men in dark suits waiting near a briefing room. They said nothing as he passed them and simply followed him into the room and closed the door.
“I’m glad you two could make it. As I said in my communication to each of you, I have a mission of vital importance that I need your help with. You are two of the most elite in the service and your unique skills will be required for this mission.”
The largest of the men seemed impatient with Larsen’s games and was the first to speak in his deep, western Manikar accent.
“Mr. Larsen, we are here because we were promised a very large salary for this job. Let’s say we skip the platitudes and get to the point.”
“Very well then. You men will be assigned to Collosum station almost immediately. I’ve arranged for you to be assigned to security detail i
n the government section. For now I just want you to do that job without raising any suspicion that you’re there for any other reason. You’ll be given high authority, so you’ll have access to other areas of the station you normally wouldn’t have.”
He could see the men look at each other as if they were both thinking the same thing.
“I can see you are both aware of the rumors of certain secret projects aboard Collosum. Perhaps the black corridor, as it has come to be known? I can assure you I have no knowledge of that, nor do I want either of you snooping around trying to find out what it is. That isn’t your mission.”
“Then what is our mission, Mr. Larsen?” asked the taller man.
“At a time of my choosing, I want you to quietly subdue Dr. Will O’Neil. He will need to be unharmed in any way. Is that clear?”
The men once again looked at each other, knowing that not harming people wasn’t their strong suit. They shook their heads affirmatively after a few more seconds of thought.
“I will dock the Sirocco with the station, and you need to bring him on board. At that point, you will be paid in full, and you can go on your way. It’s that simple. Do you think you can handle that?” asked Larsen.
“Kidnapping a quorum official is a serious charge. If we are caught or seen, we will be put in prison for many years.”
“Yes, but you are the best, are you not? I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you could avoid being seen. Was I wrong?” asked Larsen in his usual condescending tone of voice.
“No, you were correct. I simply bring it up because it will cost you four times the price to have us take this risk for you. And we want half up front.”
Larsen remained calm, having expected them to ask for more money. It was easy for him to pretend not to be fazed because he knew these men would be left for dead on Collosum once Mars was destroyed.
“That’s a lot of money; you have very high opinions of yourselves.”
“As you said, we are the best at what we do. That’s a small price to pay for our services and our silence,” said the taller of the two men.
Larsen once again paused, pretending to be thinking over the offer.
“OK, you men have a deal.”
“One thing, Mr. Larsen, Dr. O’Neil isn’t aboard Collosum. He is stationed in Manikar at quorum—”
Before the man could finish his sentence, Larsen abruptly cut him off. “I have it on good sources that he will soon be reassigned. You have your mission, and I expect you to carry it out flawlessly for the money I’m paying you.”
The two men shared a smug look and left the room.
7
THE JOURNEY HOME
A week had passed since the crew had been told, and many found themselves mindlessly going through the motions of their duties. Devon sat on the command deck quietly observing the operations to make sure the crew remained focused on their duties and didn’t have time to think about much else. Shou had been busy working on team responsibilities for the Earth mission but also split her time working with various specialists on alternatives to the communications issues.
“Sir, may we have a word with you?” asked Shou.
Anna Trace, Shou, and Knarr all followed the commander into the strategy room, along with propulsion officer Jon Paul Bugois.
“I assume you all have something to share?”
Dr. Trace immediately spoke up, trampling the words of the others as they all began to speak simultaneously. “Sir, we think we may have a way to warn home. It’ll be risky, and there are no guarantees, but we do have a means to get through if all goes well.”
This was welcome news to Devon; he’d given the crew the task of finding a way to get a message back home more as a way to keep them preoccupied and really didn’t expect to have any real solutions.
“If all goes well?” asked Devon.
Shou interjected, “This plan requires considerable risk to the ship and crew and will be extremely dangerous, to say the least.”
Dr. Trace once again began speaking. “Commander, we can make Jupiter in two days from our current position. Our plan is to use Jupiter’s gravitational field to speed up the ship and get us home at least two months quicker than with traditional ion power.”
“Doctor, I am no scientist, but I do know that we’d need to be awfully close to the planet for that to have a chance. I also know that this ship’s engines are hardly capable of escaping Jupiter’s gravitational pull.”
Devon looked at Lieutenant Bugois as if to have his words confirmed. Bugois had a southern Sian accent and was often hard to understand, but Devon knew he was the best propulsion expert in the quorum, and if he were to say it could be done, Devon trusted him.
“Zir, ve have chance to make possible zis plan. As you have correctly stated, ion propulsion alone cannot produce ze proper velocity needed, but—”
Dr. Trace, who seemed to be the architect of this plan once again interjected. “Sir, you’re right. Ion power alone will not allow us to break the gravitational pull, and we’d certainly be pulled into the planet’s atmosphere. What we’re suggesting is something to propel us out of Jupiter’s gravity along with Bugois’s engines, which will provide enough velocity to bring us home two days after the impact.”
Devon looked puzzled and was annoyed that he was the only one in the room who didn’t seem to see where this was going.
“What benefit will there be to racing home just to get there after the impact? I don’t intend to risk this crew for—”
“Sir,” said Shou in an attempt to clarify it all, “please hear us out. This will make sense to you once we’ve laid out the entire plan.” Her voice had a reassuring tone that Devon found comforting and that he trusted. He once again gave his full attention. “The reason we need to generate so much speed is not to get home faster but to get within range of Earth. The fact that we’ll reach Mars so much sooner is simply a byproduct of our plan.”
“Earth?” asked Devon.
Trace once again took the lead. “Yes, sir. Earth. I know you’re familiar with the Telos project to a certain degree. As you may have known, I was heavily involved in that project over the years. There’s an orbiting vessel around Earth called the Guardian that accepts the transmissions from the seven rovers and transmits the signal back to Mars. What we’re suggesting is tapping into this signal in order to get a message back to the Space Quorum. There’s no way Larsen could anticipate this; he’s no doubt busy with his escape planning and keeping us from communicating through normal channels.”
Devon had now become hopeful that this might be possible; he could see the enthusiasm of his crew and couldn’t help but start to feel this as well. “OK, let’s say this could work. Why can’t we just send the signal now? The delay would be the same as our normal communications channels, would it not?”
Trace once again took the lead. “The Guardian was designed to accept signals from a relatively close source and transmit back home. It doesn’t have the capability to pick up signals from deep space. Therefore we must get within its range for this to work. We anticipate that Mars should get the message seventeen hours before impact if our plan works.”
Devon now looked disturbed; he had faith in his crew but began to wonder if the risk was worth a seventeen-hour warning. He hadn’t intended to make this communication plan his primary concern and now had to make a decision to risk everyone on board to give Mars a seventeen-hour notice that their world was going to end. He began to think that might just be cruel, and maybe it was for the best that they had no idea what was coming. He decided to reserve judgment until he heard the entire plan.
“OK, so how do we escape Jupiter’s gravitational pull, which obviously is required for this thing to work?” Devon waited for Dr. Trace to speak as she had seemed to have the leadership role in this plan, but she just looked at Lieutenant Shou, as did Bugois. Knarr put his head down as if to say he had nothing to do with this aspect of the plan.
Shou hesitated for a moment, loo
ked at the others as if she’d been abandoned, and began to speak. “We need to detonate a small amount of the matter we obtained from the Omada nebula.”
Devon jumped to his feet, furious at the dangerous implication of Shou’s suggestion. “Lieutenant, are you out of your mind? That’s one of the most volatile materials known to man. It took the science team months to construct a capture device capable of even containing it. Now you’re suggesting we light it like a candle?”
“Sir, if we do this from the proper distance and at the proper velocity, it should allow us to ride the detonation like an ocean wave, breaking us free of Jupiter and propelling us home at the necessary velocity…in theory.”
Once again Devon noticed a certain lack of enthusiasm for this part of the plan from the rest of the team. “Can the ship withstand the force of this wave?”
Bugois stepped forward. “Zir, zer are structural concerns zat we cannot ignore. Zis ship was not designed for heavy gravitational forces, and we can’t be sure zat it can withstand zhese forces. I do, however, agree with Lieutenant Zhou zat it is zhe only way and the risk is acceptable under current zircumstances.”
Shou was grateful that at least one of them backed her up verbally.
“OK, let’s say for the sake of argument we survive the insanity I’ve just heard laid out before me. If we can get a signal through, who’s going to receive it?” Trace, relieved that the worst part of the plan had already been presented, spoke up.
“When we left Mars, there was still a small team assigned to the Telos project, including Dr. O’Neil. Telos funding was set to run out at the end of this year, so the project should still be up and running. Only a handful of people are authorized to access the Telos console, so the odds are in our favor that it will be Dr. O’Neil or Jonas Crouse.”
Devon’s natural instinct to cringe at O’Neil’s name took over for an instant, he then remembered the conversation he had with Shou and was able to regain his perspective.
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