by Casey Herzog
“Cream cakes!” Nisha gave her answer with absolute certainty.
Peter looked to Julian and the two could not help but burst out laughing in unison. “Seriously? Of all the things you could bring up into space to improve our lives you want cream cakes.”
Nisha blushed, the glow on her cheek definite in spite of her darker skin. “It’s just a thing I’ve heard is all. They did a show that looked at cooking in low gravity environments. It was all speculative, but they said low gravity would make the cream even lighter and airier than on Earth. Same for sponge cake.” Nisha was clearly regretting her answer, but she strove to defend it all the same.
“Well, perhaps when we reach Pluto you can open up the Terminus’ first Bakery,” Peter teased. “Nisha’s Extra Fluffy End of the Solar System Cream Cake Shop.”
“Shut up!” Nisha glowered at Peter and kicked her foot on the metal floor in irritation. “Besides, weren’t you the one who wanted to get an ice smoothing machine up here to make an ice rink.”
“Yes, and an Ice rink on a low gravity moon would be awesome.” Peter grinned, as Julian agreed with him without hesitation. He looked off wistfully for a moment as he contemplated his own answer. “If it were me though, I’m looking forward to when Earth can work out suitable cry freezing. They’ve already made huge leaps. They’ve studied the effects of applying cold to human bodies, and you can slow their heart rate right down if you do it carefully. Can you imagine how much better travel between the planets would be if we could hibernate through the voyage? You can keep your cream cakes!”
Nisha rolled her eyes. Before she could make any kind of rebuttal though, her face turned serious. “Heads up.”
Peter’s smile remained on his face as he turned around, but the sight of two colonists running toward him with panicked expressions on their face wiped it away entirely.
“What’s the trouble?” Julian walked forward, suddenly holding his spear in both hands and crossing it so that the two Europans could not run past him.
“We’ve had an accident in Chamber Six. A valve blew and shot...God, it shot straight through Maria.” The Europan seemed out of breath, and doubled over as he spoke. He must have been very unfit considering how near Chamber Six was. Either way, Peter put that to the back of his mind as he and his companions immediately followed the man back up the corridor to assist.
The low gravity made each stride more like a leap. Peter and the others quickly outstripped the two Europans in making it to Chamber Six. The water purification chambers were little more than box rooms with monitors and controls for aiding in the purification process. Any damage should have been easy to see, so, the sight of the room immediately made Peter stiffen. There was nothing out of the ordinary. There was no wounded Europan on the floor, no burst pipe or leaking gasses, not a single sign of shrapnel on the floor. Peter remained just outside the doorway, but Julian and Nisha strode straight in. Peter didn’t even have time to call out Trap.
From out of the blind spot by the doorway, a body flew out and slammed straight into Nisha. It was a tall muscular figure, and his body easily sent Nisha flying into the far wall as he tackled her like some professional footballer. Julian was hit by a similar body, but his reactions were better than Nisha’s. As the second assailant flew out from the shadows, he was able to turn about and smack the guy in the face with a closed fist. In the low gravity, the entire thing played out as if in slow motion. Nisha flew through the air slowly, her spear fell out of her hand slowly, the blood spewing from the Europans nose and lip cascaded slowly through the air.
Peter gripped his spear, realizing almost too late that the two Europans who had led him here were now at his back. He spun on the spot, swiping his spear in a wide arc to clear some space between them and him. The two men backed off, the pretense of fatigue and terror now gone from their faces. One produced a sharp knife from his pocket, and the other held a small electric saw tool in his hand. Though it shouldn’t have, the sight of that tiny whirring blade sent waves of nausea and fear through Peter, and he involuntarily backed up several paces.
“Ha, what’s the matter?” the Europan taunted. “Earth’s poster child not cut out for a fight?” The man pushed forward, slicing the air with the saw blade as the spinning blade sought a target to bite into.
Peter tried to stab the thing with his spear. His blade shot out just a few inches short and a loud sound of metal striking metal filled the corridor. The power of the saw blade was not enough to sheer through the spear, but the impact pushed the spear away. Peter almost gave up his pursuit of it as the tip struck out in a wild direction away from his assailants.
The second man moved in, knife slashing through the air with wild abandon. Both men were fully willing to end Peter, and Gabell felt himself giving ground as he was forced back into the box room with his companions.
Nisha’s body was already laid out on the floor in apparent unconsciousness, and the man who had brought her down now held her spear firmly in hand. Though trained for combat, Julian and Peter had been thoroughly outclassed by the Europans and found themselves backed into a corner they would not escape from. There was every possibility they could each take out one of their assailants, but their enemy definitely had all the cards in their favor.
“Okay, lock them in and get out!”
Once again, the Europans had them flat footed. Peter had been certain they were facing a fight to the death, but now the four men seemed to be retreating. The one who had taken Nisha’s spear pointed it toward him aggressively, but Peter was not about to let himself get trapped. Using his own spear, he struck out, deflecting the man’s weapon. He pushed forward into the open space he had created and used his fist to deliver a blow to the man’s stomach. The man crumpled over in pain, and Peter followed up his attack by throwing his body into the side wall.
Julian followed up his attack on the man whose nose he had bloodied. In a risky manoeuver, he threw his spear in hopes of impaling his target. It was surprising given the lack of space, but Julian managed to make the connection and with enough force to see his spearhead embed itself deep in the man’s shoulder.
The two who had set the trap left their friends at Peter and Julian’s mercy, stepping out into the corridor and hurriedly working the door console. As Peter turned his attention to the door, it shut down on him, the sound of locking mechanisms clicking into place.
They were trapped. Peter didn’t even have to try the door controls on his side. He knew this operation had been planned, and the console on his side had to be sabotaged. He scowled and let out a curse under his breath. Everything he had tried to do for the Europans had been undone in a single moment.
A powerful wave of anger took over Peter’s body, and his mind went blank. Dropping his spear, he flew at the man he had thrown into the wall. The Europan was sprawled on his side, clutching his stomach and writhing in pain. Peter didn’t care. Lashing out with his foot, he kicked the man as he lay prostrate on the floor. When that wasn’t enough to calm him, he gave the man a second kick, then a third. He could quite happily have fallen on top of him and beaten him to a bloody pulp. He wanted desperately to punish him for undoing all the work he had put in to forging bonds between the Europans and his own people. After this, there would be no return to cooperation and mutual trust.
A strong hand gripped Peter’s shoulder, spinning his body around. In his frustration, Peter almost struck the invading presence, only realizing at the last moment that it was Julian.
“For fuck’s sake. Leave him, Peter. Help me get the doors.”
Peter took several deep breaths as he tried to recover his mind. His hands were still clenched into fists, and he could not summon the willpower to unclasp his fingers. “It’s pointless. They wouldn’t have locked us in here if we could just press a button and leave. I bet you anything the panels are damaged or booby trapped.
Julian looked to the door and then to the two assailants laid out. “Well, it’s not all bad news. We’ve got two of them in h
ere with us. With the right leverage, they might tell us how to get out of here.”
Peter looked back down at the man he was beating, then to the other man with a spear sticking out of his shoulder. The guy was screaming like a mad man, though Peter had been in such a blood haze before that he had barely heard him. There was also Nisha, still and unmoving on the cold floor.
“Okay, help me get these two tied up.”
CHAPTER 11
It was hard to treat three injured bodies in the cramped room. Peter looked to Nisha first, propping her up and examining the bloody head wound she had sustained. He wished he knew the slightest thing about medicine. That had always been Nisha’s thing, and once again, he made a mental promise to himself to sign up for Dr. Scott’s Field Medic classes on his return to the Unity. All he could do was try to make her as comfortable as possible and hope that she came around in time.
The two wounded Europans were harder to care for. It was not that their injuries were hard to treat, but Peter had to summon up a lot of will power in order to do so. A strong part of him was quite willing to let them sit in a corner and suffer. The one with the spear sticking out of him could just bleed out on the floor and the man he had turned into a human punching bag could just suffer silently. Only the faint hope that either of the two might be persuaded to release them from their prison spurred Peter to care for them.
Squatting down next to the man with the bloody nose and the protruding spear, Peter scowled. He recognized him. “Didn’t expect to see you here,” he said in a low growl. “Don’t tell me this whole ambush is to ensure your people retain the rights to your precious coffee supply.”
It was definitely the man who had challenged Peter in the mess hall. He looked up at Peter dumbly. His nose was crusted with blood, and he had to breathe through his mouth. His eyes wandered about listlessly, and Peter could tell the man was not fully conscious. Even so, it was definitely the same man who had tried to stand up to him in the mess hall that first night. Peter hadn’t thought much of him at the time and regretted underestimating his conviction.
“So, you going to tell me what’s going on here? Locking us up in a corner room doesn’t seem like much of plan. Why didn’t you just try to kill us?”
The man’s eyes flickered, and he seemed to focus on Peter. He took several shallow breaths and turned his face away. It seemed he was going to try and play the role of a silent prisoner. Peter had no time for that.
“You know, this spear in your shoulder looks like it’s wedged in pretty deep. It’s probably cutting against several different nerve endings.” He tapped the long shaft that protruded out from the man. It was only the slightest touch, but it was enough to send his body spasming in pain.
Easing himself down next to the guy, Peter watched with a blank expression as the Europan dealt with the pain that surged through him. “It really does kill, doesn’t it? I should know; have you seen this?” Peter pointed to the pock marked carters and deep gouges on his right cheek. “I mean of course you’ve seen it; it’s my defining characteristic after all.”
The man just continued to take deep fearful breaths, his eyes wide with terror. He still had nothing to say, so Peter continued to talk. “I know all about enduring pain and learned from the best scum on Earth how to inflict it on others. Never thought I’d actually use those skills they taught me, but then this damned mission is turning out to be full of surprises for me.”
“What...what do you want to know?” The man’s voice cracked, and as he spoke, little globules of blood ran down his chin. He really was a soft target.
Peter had so many questions, but he tried to avoid the personal ones and focus on the issues that mattered. “Why are we locked in here? Three of us forced into a broom closet is hardly going to give you control of the station.”
The man’s eyes were starting to water. Despite the pain of his injury, he pointed to the doors. “Those locks have hermetically sealed us in. We cut off the air supply to this room. We wanted...I mean they’re going to starve out air supply.”
Peter pursed his lips and nodded. He looked to Julian who held a far more concerned look on his face. The boy crouched down and grabbed the spear shaft himself, turning it far harder than Peter had done. “What’s the point? Why are you doing this?”
The man’s screams sounded an awful cacophony in the small space. Angry as he was, Peter put out his hand and forced Julian to let go of the spear. They had to wait several minutes before the man was able to speak again.
“Come on,” Peter encouraged. “It’s much better hearing you talk than hearing you wail like that.”
“It’s the supplies. When they leave, we want your people to go with them. Return to your ship and leave us to get on with our lives.”
Peter groaned. “So we’re hostages? Submit to your demands, so you can continue feeding supplies to both sides of the war effort and be left in peace?”
“Yes...That’s all. We don’t want to kill you.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “Well, you could have fooled me. I don’t even know if she’s going to be okay.” He pointed to Nisha. His anger was welling up inside him again. He dearly wanted to punish the man and his friend for their stupid, half-baked plan.
“You are Secessionists then, trying to re-establish supplies to them?” Julian shook his head. “Is the whole colony working for them?”
“No, we’re not Secessionists, none of us,” the man pleaded. He tried to sit a little more upright, but this only caused the spear in his arm to move inside a little more. He grunted in pain, hissing out his next few words. “We don’t care about any of it. Earth hasn’t done us any favors, neither have the Secessionists. We’re our own colony, and we just want to be left alone to live in peace. We didn’t ask to be a part of this war.”
“That’s some dumb horseshit,” Julian spat. “You really think you can just sit on the sidelines on your own and live your own way. That a real fairy tale you’re spinning for yourself.”
“How would you feel if a gang of kids showed up with weapons and started ordering you around, telling you how to live?”
Peter shook his head and rose to his feet. He grabbed Julian by the arm and forced him to rise too. “No point wasting our breath arguing politics. Five of us using up the air in here, we probably only have forty minutes tops until we exhaust our supply.”
“The others will release us when your commanders give in to our demands.” The man spoke with absolute certainty. Peter could scarcely believe it, but their prisoner really bought into the idea that Commander Icarus would just give in to his demands.
“No, idiot,” Julian corrected. “Our commander will leave us here to die as casualties of war, and then go to work punishing your people for killing us.”
“He’s just a kid, like the rest of you. He’ll listen.”
Peter looked down at the prisoner. He really was quite old, wrinkles set around his eyes and brow. “You must have come out into the void before the Earth league introduced their care for orphans’ program. We’re trained from the moment we join the space academy to put the needs of the mission over the lives of our shipmates. Commander Icarus is very zealous in his loyalty to our mission.” He squatted back down and looked the man in the eyes. “You’ve seen him, right? He’s the one who wears a sword on his hip everywhere he goes. He’s been really hoping for some action here on Europa, and I guarantee he’ll jump at the chance to lay down judgment on the entire colony. You won’t be forcing his hand, you’ll be giving him the excuse he needs.”
The man went pale, but somehow retained his nerve. “You’ll say anything at this point.”
Julian gave a derisive laugh. “You’re very bold for a dead man. You know when the air runs out in here you’re going to suffocate with us. You’re betting an awful lot on our commander agreeing to your terms.”
“My people won’t let me die in here. If your commander is that much of a fool, the colony will rise up in arms against him to make sure I get out of here aliv
e.”
Peter turned his back on the man and went to the control panel in the room. “Come on Julian. If we can’t open the doors we could at least try the communications network. Hopefully, we can get in touch with the Commanders.
Taking out his communicator, Peter sent out an urgent call to the Commanders. With their focus on sending out the first shipment of supplies from the moon, Peter wasn’t sure how long it would take for anyone to pick up, but he found an answer very quickly.
“Commander Icarus, Report?”
Peter closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as if taken by a sudden headache. Even though the news was bound to reach Icarus, he did not want the bloodthirsty Commander of Neptune cohort to be the first to hear it. He didn’t have time to be diplomatic though. “Sir, it’s Gabell. Officers Goswami, Crookes and I were just ambushed by dissidents on the station. We were caught off guard and have been locked in one of the water purification monitoring stations.”
There was stunned silence on the line and Peter bit his lip. “You let yourselves get trapped by these idiot miners? You three were on guard duty.”
Peter tried to ignore the scorn in the commander’s voice. “As I said, Commander, it was a trap.” They lured us into the room under the pretense there had been a system malfunction and an injured crewman.”
“So, you’re just locked in a room?” TheCcommander's voice sounded confused.
Peter looked to Julian, who looked equally ashamed at having been caught so flat-footed. Trying to put his pride to the back of his mind, Peter explained the situation in full
As soon as Peter had detailed his attackers' plans as well as their wishes, he heard Alphred’s voice take over proceedings. “We haven’t heard any demands or had any of Europans come forward to even notify us of the attack.”
Peter frowned. “Well, we were able to incapacitate two of their men, and they are trapped in here with us. Maybe the other two worried the plan might go wrong and have gone into hiding? Or maybe they were going to try and send their demands when our room is almost out of oxygen?”