Destiny Earth

by Tony Mazzarella

  “Can we trust them with this? How do we know they won’t play the same game Larsen is playing?”

  At this point Dr. Trace became slightly less professional in her tone. She’d known and loved Will, and regardless of Devon’s position as commander, it was not acceptable to have his integrity called into question. “Sir, I can personally vouch for Dr. O’Neil as a man of undisputable integrity. If he is the one who receives the message, there’s no better situation, in my opinion.”

  That was twice that someone in his crew had argued intensely over O’Neil’s character, and aside from finding it extremely annoying, he also began to ponder the fact that he may have misjudged the man.

  “OK, Trace, I accept your judgment of O’Neil, but what if it isn’t him? If I’m going to authorize this plan and risk the lives of our crew, I need to have a reasonable assurance of success.”

  “Well, if it’s Jonas at the console, he is extremely loyal to Dr. O’Neil and has been since he was assigned to the project. Will trusts him, and I’ve found him to be a competent analyst, if slightly annoying. The only other possibility would be some young fill-in, and we can’t predict what would happen then. The good news is that we’ll be close enough to Mars so that there won’t be much of a communication delay and we could speak in pretty much real time and possibly plead our case to whoever it might be.”

  Devon paced the floor, scratching the back of his head as he tried to fully absorb the plan they laid before him. “When will I need to make a decision for the timing of this to work out?”

  Knarr excitedly looked up at Devon, as this had been his only opportunity to get a word in. “We need to know in an hour, sir, in order to make the proper course corrections to get to Jupiter in two days.” Devon was disturbed by this small window to decide the fate of the crew. Knarr could see his look of frustration and once again put his head down and stared at the floor. Devon continued pacing, contemplating all of the possibilities

  “I’ll review the details of the plan and give you my decision in one hour.”

  Devon sat in his quarters looking through some family pictures. His mother still looked fairly young for her age and was really the only family he had to miss. Before the Victory launched, he’d spent several weeks with her, helping to make sure her affairs were in order should anything happen to him. He couldn’t escape the irony of how it would all turn out and wished he’d told her how much she meant to him when he had the chance. His father had passed away several years earlier, and he was just discovering that he’d never had an opportunity to grieve. It was only now, when the future was so uncertain, that he had a chance to think about loved ones he’d lost and was in danger of losing. He knew that if it were him in the position of being on Mars, he’d want to know what was going to happen and tell those he loved how much they meant to him. He also realized that if it all were to end in two days over Jupiter, he really would have regrets about the lonely life he’d chosen. Most of the crew had husbands, wives, and children on Mars. Their loss would be so much greater than anything he was facing, and in a strange way, he was jealous of them.

  Devon looked at the clock to see he had fifteen more minutes before he had to make his decision on the crew’s plan. Just as he laid his head on his pillow, the buzzer on his door rang out.

  “Yes,” he shouted.

  “Sir, it’s Grace Shou.” Devon found it strange that she would refer to herself as Grace. She’d never done that before.

  “Come in, Lieutenant.” He cursed himself for being so formal in light of how she had just dropped her guard. As Shou entered the room, Devon noticed she was wearing more casual dress than her usual duty uniform, and her hair was down about her shoulders. He realized she was currently off duty and wondered why he’d never seen her like this before.

  “Sir, I wondered if you had any questions about this plan that I might help you answer before you make your decision,” said Shou, knowing deep down that she was really looking for Devon’s comforting presence.

  “Questions? OK, how about this one,” said Devon sarcastically. “Will the ship be blown to bits when we ignite what basically equates to the materials the gods use to make a sun? Or, even better, will the ship be crushed in Jupiter’s atmosphere before we even get that far? Here’s another one: will this Earth-orbiting satellite be able to transmit our signal to the man I seem to dislike for no good reason according to everyone on board?”

  Shou looked up at him and couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his sarcastic rant. Devon also burst out laughing; realizing his momentary loss of control over his emotions had to seem amusing, because it was so unlike his normal demeanor.

  Shou looked down at the pictures Devon had scattered on his desk and picked one up. “Who is she?” asked Shou, staring at the photo.

  “It’s my mother,” said Devon in a soft, vulnerable voice.

  “She really is a beautiful woman. Is she…?” Shou paused for a moment, realizing the question might be a bit tasteless.

  “Yes, she’s still alive,” Devon said as Shou handed him the picture. “For a bit longer, it would seem.”

  “Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to—”

  “It’s OK. We all have to make peace with this, and I know she’ll want the same opportunity to reflect on her life before…well, before it happens.”

  “Commander, does that mean you are authorizing the plan?”

  Devon stared at the picture of his mother. “They deserve to know. She deserves to know. We’ll take the risk if there’s a reasonable chance we can succeed.”

  Shou reached over and held Devon’s hand as if to console him on the loss he was going to have to endure. He looked into her eyes and could see it was more than a fellow crewmate’s concern. She too looked pained, and he could see she was longing to share it with him.

  “Grace, is there anyone on Mars that you…” As he started to ask the question, he realized that he never really knew if Shou had a man in her life. He knew she wasn’t married, but that was about all, and he was almost afraid of the answer.

  “I’ll also be losing my mother, sir. She still lives in Cholan, and I haven’t really had a chance to see her in some time. She and I had a bit of a falling out over my choice of career and haven’t really spoken in many years.”

  Devon was relieved at the answer but quickly realized how selfish those feelings had been.

  “Quorum service is a noble career. I’m surprised she objected.” He could see the sadness deepen in her eyes.

  “It wasn’t quorum service that she originally had an issue with,” said Shou. “After my father and brothers were killed in the war, she blamed the military for their deaths—your side, sir. She never really accepted the unity government and felt I was betraying them by continuing to serve in the Cholan Army once unification was completed. She never understood that I was honoring them with my service.”

  Devon put his hands on her shoulders. “We’ve all lost people we loved in that war, and lord knows you and your mother’s situation was worse than most.”

  He could see that she wasn’t yet done; she had more to say.

  “Yes sir, it was worse than most. They were killed on the five hundred thirty-seventh day in the Juitan province.”

  Devon looked stunned as he removed his hands from her shoulders. That was the last day of the war, when the Sian peace accords were signed. It was also the day of one of the worst massacres in any war. It was said that thousands of captured Cholan military were needlessly slaughtered in Juitan as revenge for keeping the war going so long. Justice was never brought against the commander of the brigade that did the killing, but most knew this is exactly what had happened.

  “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know. There were those who didn’t fight with honor in that war.”

  Shou turned and looked at Devon. “Yes, sir.”

  It all made sense now, the look she had given him when asked to contact Commander Windsor aboard the Shadow. Damien Windsor had commanded the brigade in Juitan that day. De
von had aggressively sought his arrest after this incident, but Windsor’s political connections proved too strong, and he was never brought to justice over the slaughter. This created a rift between Devon and Windsor that continued even in their current assignments.

  “My mother just couldn’t blame one man as I do. She blamed an entire military, and when I became part of it, she wanted nothing to do with me. I just felt I had to honor them with the type of service they so strongly believed in. I owed them that. I had always hoped that someday she’d understand and know what was in my heart, and now…”

  Devon reached out, took Grace Shou in his arms, and held her for what felt like an eternity. As they began to release their embrace, she looked up into his deep blue eyes, and they kissed passionately. They had both shared something that each had secretly longed for, and now in this uncertain universe they both had something to live for.

  “Commander Devon,” Knarr’s voice rang out from the communications console. They looked at each other, knowing that whatever was now between them, it would have to wait until their mission was completed.

  “Sir, we need to know what you’ve decided— if we’re to change course, it has to be now,” said Knarr.

  Devon gently caressed Shou’s cheek and slowly ran his fingers through her hair before releasing the embrace. She closed her eyes, and they both savored the moment that they knew might be their last one together. She felt safe, if only for a moment, with the touch of the man she now knew she was in love with. The touch of his strong hand made her tremble inside and feel warmth in her heart that she’d never experienced.

  Devon smiled at Shou as he clicked the button to respond.

  “Mr. Knarr, make course for Jupiter, maximum power. Let’s go home.”

  On the command deck, Knarr pumped his fist in excitement. “Yes, sir!”

  Devon could hear the cheers of the crew through the com speaker and Shou nodded in approval of his decision.

  “Lieutenant.”

  Shou straightened up back to her professional posture. “Yes, sir.”

  “Please inform the rest of the crew that we have a mission to complete, and we cannot fail.”

  Shou smiled, knowing he had just given the crew the best news they’d heard in weeks. Personally, she felt hope for the future she might possibly have with James Devon. She turned and walked quickly from the commander’s quarters, feeling more alive than she had in a very long time.

  The next two days passed quickly, as all on board were busy making preparations for this risky maneuver.

  “Shou, how are those calculations coming?” asked Devon. Shou had focused solely on the calculations for the Omada gas and extracting just enough to propel them from the atmosphere. The slightest miscalculation either way would mean certain death. If the balance wasn’t perfect, they would either be pulled into the planet and crushed or destroyed by the explosion.

  “We’re ready, sir. The containment canister will be ejected with the Omada gas inside, at which point we’ll continue building up speed, taking us away from the canister to the proper distance and attaining the proper velocity necessary for breakaway. At the precise moment—and it must be precise—we’ll fire one of our five warheads at the canister to detonate the gas.”

  Each of the three deep space vessels was armed with five warheads to be used to break apart large asteroids to study their inner cores. No one on board had ever envisioned using them for something like this.

  “Mr. Knarr, are your navigational calculations ready?”

  Knarr snapped to attention, as he always did at the sound of Devon’s voice. “Yes, sir. Working with Dr. Trace, I’ve programmed the navigation computer with the proper entry angle into Jupiter’s gravitational field. Once we’ve entered, there may need to be manual course corrections to compensate for unknown gravitational factors.”

  Devon didn’t like the sound of that. The word “manual” meant that the lives of all on board depended on Knarr making the right decisions in a high-pressure situation. He certainly had faith in his abilities, but he was young and inexperienced, and there was no telling how he’d react under the stress of what was to come.

  “Manual, Mr. Knarr?” Devon asked.

  Knarr shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he answered the question.

  “Yes, sir,” said Knarr, swallowing nervously. “Jupiter has an immense and unpredictable gravitational field. Changes on the surface could affect the pull from the planet at a moment’s notice. If this were to happen, I would have to take manual control and adjust accordingly.”

  “Mr. Bugois, how will the ship stand up to these unknown gravitational factors?”

  Bugois pulled up a ship schematic from his console and laid it out in front of Devon.

  “Zir, I have spent ze past two days building additional ztructural zafeguards to ze Victory. We have modified zhe ship’s ztructure to give it zhe ability to withstand quite a gravitational load by putting lauridium bracing at the following pressure points,” he said, pointing out the various areas as Devon looked on. “Zhese are all zhe places zhe ship would absorb zhe greatest force.”

  “What about the engines?”

  “Ze engines have been recalibrated to produce a greater thrust, which should be sufficient to keep us out of zhe atmosphere long enough for detonation. Zis will unfortunately reduce the lifespan of zhe engines to about fifteen years instead of zhirty.”

  Bugois realized this was irrelevant considering their current predicament.

  “I zuppose we can live with zhat,” said Bugois, smiling sheepishly at Devon.

  “Once detonation occurs, we’ll be depending on Zhou’s calculations zhat zhe wave will propel us with enough force to get us in range of zhe Guardian in time to warn Mars.”

  “Dr. Trace, what’s the plan for communication once we reach the proper range?”

  “Well, sir, I have to identify the proper frequency, and I can only do this once we’re in range. Once I have the proper frequency, I need to trick Guardian into thinking our signal is from one of the Earth rovers using the original programming code used in their communication computers. If Guardian accepts this, we should have an open line to whoever happens to be at the console at that moment.”

  “Ah yes,” said Devon sarcastically. “Let’s hope it’s Doctor O’Neil.”

  Devon didn’t bother to notice Trace’s disapproving look and walked over to the navigation station where Knarr was busy with his mission planning.

  “Mr. Knarr, may I see you in the strategy room, please?”

  Knarr’s face turned red as he looked up at him with surprise. He’d never been asked to report anywhere with Commander Devon alone.

  “Yes, sir,” said Knarr, gulping nervously and following Devon into the room.

  “You know I never talk about the war to anyone. That was an experience that was very personal and painful.”

  Knarr looked extremely uncomfortable and confused. “Sir?”

  “I wanted to share a story with you from that time in my life. I was a junior officer, and we’d been tasked with a difficult mission. We had to overtake an enemy position that was well fortified, and we were pretty sure we were also outnumbered. Our commander gave each of us specific responsibilities, and I recall being asked to undertake the most dangerous part of the assault. I’ll never forget how it felt when he gave those orders.”

  Knarr could see by his face that as Devon told the story, he was reliving these experiences, and it was painful.

  “I was unsure of my ability to do it and felt panic, uncertainty, and fear.”

  “You, sir?” said Knarr, looking surprised. Fear was something he would never have expected Devon to admit to.

  He kept speaking as if he hadn’t heard Knarr’s reaction. “I knew that my failure to complete my mission would doom my fellow soldiers to death. That’s a responsibility that most men never have to experience. I wondered why my commander had so much trust in me to carry this out because at the time, I didn’t display much confidenc
e in my ability and was hesitant to lead. It’s only now that I understand why he chose me. He saw something in me, not characteristics that I displayed outwardly, but something deeper. It’s something that’s hard to define or quantify, but I understand now after many years.”

  Devon paused and walked to a small window, looking out at the star field. Knarr could see that what he was sharing was difficult for him.

  “In any case,” Devon continued. “without going into detail, we were overrun, and many of us were killed, including my commander. If I hadn’t taken charge after he was killed, we would have all died. I don’t say that with hubris or arrogance because I was living up to the expectation my commander had of me. It wasn’t for glory or pride— it was for the survival of my men. My point is that he knew there was more to me than I ever realized. I just had to believe in my abilities.”

  He now turned away from the window to face Knarr, who was still sitting at attention.

  “I see those same traits in you that are indefinable, but they are there nonetheless. Confidence is something that comes with experience, but the inner strength to handle something most others can’t is rare. The ability to take fear and uncertainty and channel that energy into something positive is something you’ll learn, as I did.”

  Knarr stood up straight with a renewed look of confidence. “I understand, sir. I won’t let you or my crewmates down.”

  8

  TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND FEET UP

  As Stanzic and Will emerged from the shadowy hole in the ground that led them back to the surface, the rock formation closed to conceal the stairway. Will could see Stanzic’s GS940 sitting untouched, right where they had left it.

  “Come quickly, Will. Get in.” said Stanzic, jumping into his seat.

  Dust filled the air as Stanzic started the transport, and it roared to life with a loud growl. They raced across the rugged landscape at full speed, dodging trees and rocks, and Will could see the observatory far in the distance, high above the valley floor. Just as he felt a small bit of relief at the sight, two air-powered military transports raced up behind them.