by Casey Herzog
“How long have you got?” A feminine voice, Minerva’s, piped in. Her question was accentuated with some urgency and fear. Despite everything, Peter found it reassuring to know she cared.
“At a guess, thirty-five, forty minutes.”
“We’ll send a team down with mag cutter and get you out of there. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, so rest easy.” Icarus’ voice was full of confidence.
Peter looked back to the two Europans trapped with him. Getting out seemed all too easy. “Was it just the four of you?” He asked the question cautiously. “Was it only the four of you who planned this little stunt?”
The man they had been questioning averted his eyes, a sure sign that Peter was onto something. Peter didn’t bother trying to get any more out of him, but immediately switched the communicator back on. “Commander, I get the impression the people behind this might have done something to make sure that doesn’t happen. I think you better have our people move quickly on this.”
Ten minutes passed. With air a luxury they couldn’t afford to waste, Julian and Peter settled down alongside the two Europans marooned with them, and the four sat in silence. After a while, sounds could be heard from the other side of the door. Taps and the occasional bang. However, what they didn’t hear was the sound of industrial cutters boring through the metal door to release them. Peter decided that knowing their situation was worth using up a little more of their remaining oxygen and flicked on his communicator.
“We’d really appreciate an update in here.”
He sat quietly for a minute as he waited for someone to respond. It was Minerva who picked up the receiver. Her voice did not fill Peter with much assurance as she spoke. “Whoever did this to you really thought things through. The tools we need to get you out…they’re gone.”
“Gone?” Peter repeated the word.
“It’s your own god damned fault!” Minerva suddenly barked down the line and Peter could hear a sound like a sob follow her words. “You had to get us all agreeing to trust these people and let down our guard. They would never have been able to do this to us if we had kept them under constant surveillance and lockdown.”
Peter didn’t bother to defend himself. For one thing, arguing took up more precious air. For another, Minerva was right. The optimistic faith Peter had put in the Europans had been thrown back in his face.
“We are going to get you out of there though. Even if I have to beat every Europan miner’s face to a pulp, I will make them help us.”
Peter did not doubt Minerva would do that for him if she thought it would help. Hell, if he died in that room, she might well do it anyway in retribution. He felt he should say something to her, but there was no point.
“Peter, this is Alphred.” The cooler voice of his own cohort’s commander was reassuring to hear. As always, Alphred’s voice was the epitome of calm and Peter trusted if there were a way to save him and the others, he would find it.
“Peter, we think your assailants moved the cutters during one of their EVA expeditions on the planet surface. As we won’t be able to get you out of there in the time you have left we’re trying to regain control of the air regulators. Whoever did this knows their tech, and they’ve locked us out of the system. We can hack it, but we need time. If there is anything you can do to buy us some extra time…” Alphred trailed off.
Peter felt a chill run through him as he realized what the Commander was getting at. He didn’t speak. He just looked at the two Europans trapped with him, both eating up the air they needed to survive.
“Peter. I know it’s not something you want to do, but you damn well better do it.” Minerva had taken over the channel once more and sounded like some angry mother. “Those two in there with you put themselves in this position, and they were happy to see you die. If you kill them, no one would think the less of you for it.”
Peter looked at the two prisoners bound up opposite him. Their eyes had gone wide, and their skin blanched as they heard Minerva’s solution to their oxygen problem. Peter just stared at them numbly, trying to keep his breathing regular as he thought the matter through. The thought of killing two men as they lay tied up did not sit well with him. However, a glance at Julian and Nisha reminded him that it wasn’t just his life he was responsible for here.
Nisha was still unresponsive. The cut on her head had stopped bleeding, but she had barely stirred the entire time they had been there. Even forgetting their more immediate concerns, she needed medical attention. Peter couldn’t decide her fate just to keep the moral high ground.
“It’s the best thing to do,” Julian said in a quiet voice.
Peter turned to face his ally. “You do it then.”
Julian fell silent once again and looked to the prisoners. He didn’t bother to move.
Just an hour previously, things had been so easy. Peter glanced back to Nisha and smiled wanly as he remembered teasing her over her cream cake shop on Pluto. In many ways, she really wasn’t cut out to be a soldier. It was why he liked her.
A frown fell over his face as he replayed that last happy memory in his mind. Something Julian had said resonated with him suddenly, and he turned to face him once more with a serious look on his face. “Were you serious…Have scientists worked out how to suspend us by lowering temperatures?”
Julian looked at Peter. He seemed confused at first, but then a flash of understanding brought new life to his face. Though he really should have tried to contain his excitement, he sat up. “That’s right. They’ve worked out how to lower temperatures to create torpid hibernation state. It’s not exactly safe, but it could work. If we lower the temperature in here, we could maybe buy ourselves the time Alphred and the others need to get the air going again.”
Peter looked at the two prisoners, noting the look of vain hope on their faces. “It would be simpler to kill them. Less risk.” He didn’t want to say it, but he had to be realistic and honest.
Julian looked at the two himself, his face bunched up with indignation. “I’m not going to kill a guy who can’t fight back. Let’s just do it and hope for the best.”
Peter slowly rose from his position on the floor and walked with Julian to the room controls. Outside the facility, the temperature on Europa was -260 degrees. More energy went into heating the facility than anything else. It was a very easy thing to begin cooling the room down to the kinds of temperatures that would see their bodies begin to shut down.
Peter sat next to Nisha. He wondered if she’d have agreed to this had she been conscious. He hoped she would. As he felt the cold encroaching on the room, as his fingers and toes began to grow numb, he pressed his body closer to hers, watching his breath turn to a fine mist as their prison turned into a freezer.
CHAPTER 12
Peter felt something on the back of his hand. It was a soft sensation that ran across his skin in long tender strokes. It confused him greatly, and he flexed his fingers. Whatever was stroking his hand stopped, and a voice could be heard as though from far away.
“Peter? Peter, are you awake?”
Peter tried to open his mouth to speak. The muscles in his jaw ached, and his tongue was dry. All he was able to manage was a slight rasping sound. The realization that he could not speak made his eyes shoot open. He shot a glance to his left, the panic leaving his body as he saw Minerva in a chair. As soon as she noticed him looking at her, she leaned over, her long body looming large above him. It actually made Peter feel a little closed in, and as his throat tickled him, he could not help but cough helplessly into her face.
Minerva pulled away, laughing and crying simultaneously. “Oh, thank god, you’re awake.” She looked about, her body turning side to side as she seemed to search for something. “Should I get the doctor? Do you need anything?”
“Water.” Peter wasn’t even sure he had heard his own voice and he repeated himself a few more times before Minerva seemed to hear him. As soon as she did, she frantically poured him a glass, putting it to his lips with urgenc
y, like the water might evaporate before making it to his lips.
Lifting his head off the bed, Minerva brought his lips to the glass, letting him drink his fill. As soon as the glass was empty, she dutifully poured out another glass and brought it to his lips once again.
“You shouldn’t guzzle it down so fast. You should just take sips.”
“Try and stop me,” Peter rasped.
Minerva grunted and shook her head. “No point in me doing that. We already know you won’t listen to anything I have to say.” She continued to hold the water to his lips and cradle his head, but her eyes looked away to the far wall, and the muscles in her jaw tightened. “Icarus is mad at you too. You can bet he’s going to chew you out when he hears you’re awake.”
“He isn’t my commander.”
Minerva looked down at him with a scowl. “Don’t split straws. Alphred told you to kill those two terrorists too. You didn’t listen to him; you didn’t listen to me.”
“I wasn’t going to kill someone who couldn’t fight back, Min.” Peter’s voice was heavy and tired. He finally pushed himself away from the water and let Minerva lay his head back down on the pillow.
“Peter, that guy had already tried to kill you; he had taken his chance to fight you. Are you telling me when we fight the real Secessionists you’re going to pick up their weapons and hand it back to them every time you disarm one of them?”
Peter turned his head away from her. “It worked out, didn’t it?”
“You were damned lucky! All three of you.”
Peter breathed a sigh of relief as Minerva accidentally revealed that Julian and Nisha had come out of that room alive too. “What happened to the two guys in there with us.”
“They made it out too,” Minerva replied darkly. “Not that it’ll do them much good. You know they aren’t going to get away with this. It’s not like Icarus is just going to give them a smack on the wrist and a few weeks solitary confinement to think about what they did.”
Peter nodded. “Course I know it. They tried to kill us.” He locked eyes with her, his face stoic and unrepentant. “Those two are going to be put through serious interrogation… maybe even torture if Icarus is the kind of guy I take him for. It won’t matter what they say though, it’s execution for them.”
Minerva’s eyes were wet, but the look behind that liquid mirror was hard and angered. “Then why do it? Why do you insist on putting me through hell worrying about you just so two losers can live a couple of days longer? I had to live through my mother being blown apart by people like them. It was the single worst thing I have ever seen. It broke me, Peter!” This was the most honest Minerva had ever been about that black day on Mars.
Minerva began to cry in earnest. Tears fell down her face, but no sound accompanied them. Somehow she retained control of her voice and she continued to speak deliberately and slowly through the fog of emotion she was trapped in. “I know full well I’m not the same person you met in orbit over Earth. I know you wish I’d go back to being that person, and believe me, I wish I could, but I can’t.” She took several deep haggard breaths. “And I know you don’t like me as I am now. But I don’t care if you hate me or want nothing to do with me. Aside from my Dad, you are the only person I have, and once we reach Pluto I am never going to see my old man again. You don’t have to be my best friend or hang around the Unity with me like we used to do, but you don’t get to take such stupid risks and die on me over nothing.”
Peter’s mouth opened, but no words came. He was stunned by this outpouring of emotion. Minerva had spent so long in a kind of emotionless stupor that he wasn’t even sure he’d ever see her true-self come through. Her words shamed him too as he was forced to hear how important he had remained to her, even as he had begun to give up on her and drift away. Rather than try to find words, Peter extended his hand, still numb and weak, and squeezed Minerva’s. She said nothing more, but squeezed his hand back in the same way.
Once awake and conscious, Peter really had no reason to remain in bed. Europa’s doctor was quick to dismiss him so she could focus on Nisha’s concussion and the man who had half bled out from the spear wound to his shoulder. Minerva helped him to the corridor and stayed by his side as he began to walk down the corridors.
The facility was quieter than normal and far fewer people seemed to be around. There was an air of desertion to the whole colony, and Peter could easily believe that half the colony had left while he was out cold. Whenever they did pass any one it was always small clusters, groups of four or five Europans escorted by a guard of the Unity crew in full armor.
“I’m guessing Icarus has put the whole facility in lockdown?”
Minerva, whose long legs kept her pace a little quicker than Peter’s, turned back to look at the retreating column of people. “Don’t tell me you think he should offer amnesty and understanding to these people. We set a bad enough precedent by overlooking the traps they laid out for us when we first arrived.”
Peter sniffed and turned his gaze away from the Europans. “I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort. Icarus is doing the right thing entirely.”
Minerva gave a faintly amused smile. “Really, Peter Gabell Champion of the Downtrodden now supports locking the Europans away?”
“Well four of them just tried to kill me. I know I’m an awesome guy and extremely tolerant of folks ragging on me, but there are limits. I faced all sorts of hate back on Earth even from my own shipmates. I’m not a saint though and I’m not going to let what happened pass.”
Minerva’s gaze became uncertain, and she continued to walk forward. Peter had thought his words would please her. He got the distinct impression she was actually disappointed in his answer.
“Can we go to the mess hall?” Peter changed the subject quickly.
“Sure, you hungry?” Minerva seemed to brighten a little at his words.
“No, but I could murder a good coffee.”
Minerva laughed. “Coffee’s rationed; remember? Don’t want to see you making any more enemies here by using up their precious luxuries.”
Peter gave a short snort. “The crew are about to be four members fewer when this is done. I don’t think they’ll notice a few grains of coffee going to us.”
Minerva stopped in her tracks. She bit her lip and wrung her hands together. “I know this is going to sound weird, especially after all I said to you in the infirmary.” She paused, seeming to take a moment to find her words.
“What is it, Min?” Peter looked at her curiously as they stood still for a moment.
“Don’t go becoming Icarus…or…or even me, okay?”
Peter frowned. “You just told me I should have killed those two men back in that room.”
“Yeah, and you should have,” Minerva said with absolute conviction. “But don’t start pretending like you don’t care about the people here, or it doesn’t bother you that those two are going to be executed anyway. That’s not you, Peter.”
“You're impossible, Min. Do you know that?” It was a criticism but Peter said it with a weary smile. “Come on. I still need a coffee.”
The next day Icarus called a general meeting of the senior staff. This did not just include the heads of his own cohort and Pluto, but also the seniorities of Europa base. There was the head of hydroponics, the duty officer, doctor, and basically everyone of notable rank from the colony. It was the first time that anyone outside of the Unity had been included in a meeting regarding operations on Europa since they had arrived. It was an interesting move by Icarus, assuming he was the one who had suggested it.
Peter took a seat next to Minerva in the control room, offering a smile as he sat down. They were all gathered around a table with a monitor screen placed at the far end. The monitor currently displayed a black screen, but Peter could easily guess whose face would appear on it in due course.
“I’m guessing Admiral Gayle is going to get personally involved in this?” He whispered to Minerva, but Alphred overheard and shot him a glan
ce.
“We had a long-distance conference call with him yesterday. I’ll spare you the words he and the other chiefs used. Needless to say, they are not happy with how we’ve handled things here.”
“We?” Peter repeated his commander’s words with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, Icarus was keen to lay most of the blame on you and your influence. I do not know how far the Admiral will believe that though.” Alphred straightened out the sleeves of his suit and picked up his data pad to scan through some notes. “I still think the Admiral will wish to have a private word with you though, once the meeting is concluded.”
Peter looked to Minerva, who offered him no look of pity or consolation. Though they had seemed to mend something of their friendship the previous day, she had made it perfectly clear that she did not agree with his decisions, especially those he had made during the Europan ambush.
Peter did not have long to worry about the dressing down he was likely to receive from the Admiral and Chiefs of Staff. All at once, the murmuring voices in the room fell silent as Icarus gave a short and polite cough.
“Thank you all for coming along to this meeting. The last twenty-four hours have been very hard to endure. I am not speaking only for my own team from the Unity, but for those of you who live here on Europa too. I have decided to invite you members of Europa colony to this meeting so that you may have a platform to share your own concerns with us and to discuss how we can move forward together in this already delicate operation.”
The Commander’s words were fair, considerate and eloquently put. Peter suspected immediately that they were not Icarus’ own; he was just acting as a mouth piece. Either his words had been pre-written for him by his talented second in command, or else the Admiral and Chiefs of Staff had told him what he was to say at the start of the meeting. Whichever it was, it was a promising start to things.
“I will not beat around the bush, you have been invited here today, principally to discuss the crimes your people have committed against the Unity, and against Earth.”