by Casey Herzog
“Okay everyone, work together, now.” Peter gave the order, though it didn’t really mean much. As he grabbed, he prepared to add his weight to the bar, his eyes drifted to the scene down below.
The Secessionists really had given up on them and now seemed to be moving with a singular purpose toward the garage that stood up so prominently amidst the ice-covered landscape. Either they knew what he and Minerva had planned, or else they had succeeded in penetrating the base and were starting to push inside the facility. Either way, time was against them.
“Come on, push harder, we need to get in now!” Peter gave the rallying cry and applied all his weight to prying open the door. The power of desperation seemed to be enough to overcome the strength of metal in that moment, and Peter and the others gave a cheer as the opening finally yielded to them and they were all thrown back onto the hull.
“Everyone, get in, now.”
Peter stumbled back to his feet and began ushering the team down the hatch, starting with the few Europan colonists who had survived the madness.
“Get down there, Min!” Peter ordered her as soon as the Europans were down. “Get the ship warmed up.”
Minerva nodded and jumped down the hatch. Peter couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as she disappeared into the relative safety of the hull.
As the last of the team slipped down into the ship, Peter could already feel the engine powering up underneath him. He wobbled for a moment, but held onto the half-ruined hatch for support as he bundled himself down into the control room.
“Peter, take the comms; see if we can reach the facility and let Icarus and Alphred know our plan.” Minerva was already at the helm: the place where she belonged. The shuttle seemed worn, low on fuel and badly damaged by the forced landing on the moon, but she knew how to coax it to life.
Peter didn’t have time to admire her handiwork. Sitting down at the ship's communications display, he plugged his suit into the transmitter circuits and tried to raise the facility. “Come in Europa base, Come in Europa base. This is Peter Gabell, Pluto Cohort, Unity. Please Respond. Europa base, come in please respond. This is-.”
The line crackled and a familiar voice came through. “Peter? Peter is that you?”
“Yes!” Peter did not have time to repeat himself again. “Lauren, that’s you, right? What’s going on in there?”
“Icarus and twenty from the cohort are holding the garage entrance to the facility. That was the best way in, and the Secessionists threw everything at it.”
“Why the hell didn’t you radio us back sooner.”
“The satellites were brought down first. We didn’t know what hit us. Somehow they managed to bypass all sensors, and we didn’t even know they were here until they were on top of us.”
Minerva’s voice suddenly rang out in Peter’s ear. “For God’s sake, focus!”
Peter turned to look out of the front screen and could see Minerva had already lifted the shuttle off the ground and managed to swing her so the prow was aimed directly at the garage like some huge ungainly arrow. “Whoever is defending the garage, tell them to get out now! We’re going to bring the whole thing down.”
“What?” Lauren’s voice came back in surprise.
“Just do it.”
For a few moments, the shuttle wobbled uncertainly in the air and Peter could feel the tilt of the ship as it tried it’s hardest to keel to the right.
“I can’t hold her much longer, she’s gonna drop out of the sky any second.”
“Lauren, tell me our people are backing out?” Peter bit his lip as he watched the ship lean further over.
“Yes, Icarus has called our crew back and authorized your attack. Good luck!”
“Okay! Do it, Min! Do it!”
Whatever was left in the shuttle’s engine was pumped into one last shunt forward. The whole ship shook violently, and all anyone could do was hold onto to something and hope the impact did not break anything that might go cause an explosion. Peter kept his eyes on the front view port as Minerva engaged the emergency shutters. The world outside disappeared from view and the group was plunged into darkness. There would only be one way they would know when they had hit their target.
With no atmosphere, there was no sound to accompany the great tremor that passed through the ship. Even more violent than its shuddering as it made its final voyage, Peter felt his body being thrown backward, the buckle around his seat the only thing that kept him in place. He threw his hands out and grasped onto the console for extra stability, his ears ringing with the shouts and screams from the others as they were all shaken like some defenseless rodent in the mouth of a hungry cat.
When the shaking stopped, everything went quiet. Peter’s body was limp. He wasn’t dead. He knew that. Still, his body needed a moment just to be still and get over what had happened to it. His eyes stared out blankly into the dark, noticing a tiny halo of light coming from the access hatch they had pried open. Through it, he could just about see the dim distant light of the sun.
He continued to wait. No one else was speaking. It was possible some were unconscious, maybe even dead. Peter doubted that was the case though. They had just crashed a shuttle on top of a large, heavy facility. There was still that lingering fear that they had signed their own death sentences and were about to be whisked up in a sudden explosion.
Peter had no idea how long to wait. However, as the dial on his suit’s timepiece kept on ticking he found himself moving listlessly. He reached over to the comm systems and pressed a few buttons to see if there was any life left in the machine. He smiled as he noticed a light shimmer to life and a crackle sounded in his ear.
“Lauren? Lauren, can you hear me?”
A weak reply came in his ear. He wasn’t sure if it was because the shuttle's systems were dying or his own ears had been knocked about too much in the crash. “Peter… Peter, we have you. Very faint, but we have you.”
“Do we get to wear big shiny medals and call it a day now?” Peter heard a slight laugh from a few of the others in the cockpit.
“Peter…You’re…” the line cut for a moment. “Forces gained access to the south entrance... At least twenty... The… let them in…”
Peter couldn’t hear Lauren anymore. The line had turned to static, but he heard all he needed to. He felt like an old man. He felt like an old man who had been forced to run a marathon and, just when he had crossed the finish line was told that there had been some error and he had to repeat the last five miles again. He honestly did not know if he had the strength for anything more. It didn’t matter though. Whether he had the strength or not, the mission continued on and demanded he move.
“Min,” Peter spoke like he was on the edge of sleep. “the south entrance…seems some of the enemies broke through. I couldn’t get all the details.” He reached up to his helmet and turned on the headlight. Turning in Minerva’s direction, he could already see her easing herself out of the cockpit.
“Okay, Unity crew, break time’s over. Up, up, up.” Minerva began to haul people up to their feet and set them moving. Peter didn’t know where she found the strength.
It took a while for the group to extricate themselves from the wreckage of the shuttle and the ruin of the Europa colony garage. Though it had all been for the good of humanity and no doubt killed a lot of Secessionists, Peter could easily imagine some suited man on Earth weeping a little as he read the financial cost of repairing Europa colony. Peter had never been good with money, but he imagined there’d be a whole lot of zeroes involved.
Using careful jumps and aided by their thrusters, Peter, Minerva and the rest of the crew were able to limp their way out of the debris and began moving toward the south entrance. It was really more of an escape hatch or bolt hole than anything else. It sat near several towers and communication dishes and was nothing more than a hatch with a long ladder leading down to a small airlock. It was meant only as a quick access way to the communications dishes in emergencies, and it was surprising
to think that the Secessionists had even found it when making their desperate attack on the base. How they found it and got in didn’t really matter though. As Peter approached the ladder and the team began to descend, he tried to keep his mind from overthinking. One very firm and troublesome worry had taken root in him as they crossed the ice and scurried back into the colony, and he did not want to distract himself by thinking too hard about it.
One thing became immediately clear when Peter came to the bottom of the shaft and looked out at the airlock chamber. The Secessionists had not had to force their way into the facility. The airlock doors hadn’t been cut or subtracted from in any way. There was no sign of forced entry or scratch marks in the metal. The door was wide open, like someone had been expecting guests. It couldn’t have been more suspicious without someone having left a sign saying “This way in.”
All through the fight, Peter had found his mind slipping between worry, fear, a whole host of difficult emotions. About the only thing that had allowed him to do his duty though, the only thing that had enabled him to fight and even to kill those who threatened him was the belief that he was doing something right. He was protecting the colony of Europa, and the colonists wanted to be protected. Seeing the airlock door wide open made a mockery of all that.
Peter stalled where he was. His eyes narrowed as his gaze remained plastered on that open entrance, and he was forced to bite his top lip to stop himself from saying anything. All he could hear inside his suit was his own breath, which sounded suddenly like a taunted bull. A strong desire came over him, unlike anything he had felt before. The spear he held in his hand, quivered, and an urge to break the thing over his knee and throw it to the floor was hard to resist.
“Peter… Peter, you’re holding us up.” Minerva put a hand on his shoulder. In the light of the facility, he could see her face more clearly. She had spotted the same thing he had, and he watched as the muscles in her face tightened. The hand on his shoulder patted him. “Don’t think about it. We’ve got a job to do. We need to clean up the last of the rebellion in this system. Once the Secessionists are gone, Europa is no longer our problem.”
“No longer our problem,” Peter repeated the words and stalked forward. For the first time, he actually felt ready and eager to do his job as a soldier. After all he had been through, all he had done for the people of the colony, he was ready to see someone punished for making a mockery of his beliefs and his decision to work for the people of the colony.
Moving into the colony proper, Peter and his party spread out as they were forced to cover the myriad of corridors and hallways. Their headsets had now reconnected to the local network and they began to receive intel from the other side of the facility. Peter immediately put a call out to Alphred, relieved to find his commander still alive.
“Commander we’re near the power core, doing a sweep. Looks like the Secessionists came through here. How are things holding up your end?”
Alphred sounded winded. “Better after your timely arrival. I would never have sanctioned an audacious stunt like you just pulled with that shuttle, but it worked. Right now, we’re trying to get all Europans who’ll co-operate to return to quarters and barricade themselves in. There are a few loose Secessionists and some Europans trying to form some kind of cohesive force against us, but we can manage them.”
“Want us to rendezvous to your position?” Peter tried to remain upbeat as he spoke, not letting the cracks in his angered mind show.
“No, keep scouring the core. I don’t like the idea of any Secessionists making a last-ditch attempt at rebellion by taking out the power and letting us all freeze to death.”
“Affirmative.” Peter began walking towards the nuclear reactor, his pace quickening as he thought about the havoc that could be wrought there if the enemy was truly desperate.
When it came to analyzing strategy, Alphred really could not be surpassed. He may not have understood people too well, but he understood the strengths and weakness of battle and how the enemy might deploy against him. It didn’t even come as a shock to Peter as he entered the main engine room to see a long shadow lurking in the corner.
Readying his spear, Peter inched into the room, relieved that the open airlock by the south entrance had cleared the atmosphere. It meant that, bar a visual, his enemy would not see him coming. It allowed him to be quite daring as he entered the room. And he was just about ready to launch his surprise attack when a voice came over on his intercom.
“That’s enough of that, Mr. Gabell. I know you’re hiding right behind me.” The voice in his head was known to him, but he had to look down at the corner of his helmet feed to place it: Europa’s Chief Engineer Philips. Peter’s mind recalled with a creeping dread the last conversation he had shared with that man as he had escorted him to a cell where he was left alone for seven days.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Peter emerged from the shadows, able to see now the set of timed charges he had managed to grab and was now placing about the room.
The engineer shook his head. His shoulders were slumped, and there seemed to be an odd kind of weariness about him. “We Europans were doing just fine sitting on the fence of this dumb conflict. We didn’t wish anyone any harm, and no one wished us any harm. We heard the Secessionists’ complaints about Earth, and we accepted their right to do what they thought was best. At the same time, we didn’t want to break ties with Earth. We just carried on doing what we’ve always done, feeding and watering the people of this unforgiving, irradiated planetary system.”
Peter took a deep breath, eyes glancing more to the powerful explosives the man held than to Philips himself. “You knew the war was going to overtake you sooner or later. The Unity set out from Earth to reunite the planets two years ago now. You can’t say you had no idea that one day your people would be forced to pick a side.”
“Oh yes, pick a side. Pick a side. That is all anyone’s been saying since your damned ship and crew of kindergarteners arrived. Your people lock us up and turn us into slaves in the name of reaching production targets-.”
“-We did not make you slaves!” Peter protested.
“Really. I thought you of all people would know a slave when you saw one. Unless, of course, you just don’t want to admit to yourself that you’ve become no better than the people who tortured and abused you in your youth.” Philips didn’t hold back in his verbal assault, and somehow it hurt more than any of the blows Peter had received already. As Peter failed to make a comeback, the man continued to speak. “Now the Secessionists rain down here hoping to make this facility their final bastion and have us caught up in the cross fire.”
“So why let them in?” Peter asked, confused as to what madness was fueling the man’s actions.
“It only seemed fitting.” Philips looked at Peter as if he couldn’t understand what was so hard to grasp about his plan. “Our colony is finished, done for. Once you and your little band of kids playing soldier disappear we’ll be dispersed and relocated across the sector. I imagine Earth will put new demands on us and call it reparations for the Secessionist war. Blowing up the station…seems like the right thing to do. This way, none of us have to face further injustice at the hands of Earth; we rid the Solar System of your ill-conceived Unity project and Secessionists who brought this trouble to our sector get to burn along with us. It ties everything up together in a rather neat little bow don’t you think?”
Peter felt a lump grow in his throat. “And this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we imprisoned you. You can say hand on heart this isn’t just a desperate desire to get revenge on the people who locked you up and humiliated you?”
“Well, nobody is perfect.” The man stacked another set of explosives and left them.
Peter bit his lip as he tried to think of something he could do. This wasn’t like Mars. If he attacked the guy there was a chance he could finish the Engineer off with one well-executed spear thrust. Still, he had to give himself a clear shot. There could be n
o room for error. There was only one thing to try, and it was a hell of a risk. Laying his spear on the ground, Peter knelt down like he was at confession.
The Engineer turned and sneered. “What? Are you now going to beg me to change my mind by grovelling on your hands and knees?”
Peter took a deep breath and spoke his next words very succinctly. “No. I want you to kill me.”
Philips looked suddenly lost. His head turned from side to side, and he seemed to lose interest in the charges he was setting for a brief moment. “Because I came onto this mission thinking I was going to make the Solar System a better place. Instead, all I keep finding are people who don’t want me around. Europa has spat everything I’ve tried to do for them in my face. I’ve found myself falling in and out of favor with my own crew and then been attacked by them, and I’ve been an unwanted child sold to slavers to pick for diamonds amongst dirt. I’m tired of trying to find a place where someone wants me around. Blow up this place if you want, let it all go to hell and you along with it, but just…put me out of my misery first, because honestly. I have had enough.”
Peter took several deep breaths and looked up at the man with stony eyes, challenging him to do it. “If you want to make sure you have no qualms about killing everyone you love and care for on this base you may as well test your nerve and see if you can kill one person first.”
The Engineer didn’t reply, but his hand reached out trembling towards the spear that Peter had left dropped on the floor. As Philips bent his body forward, Peter sprang into action. He had only a second, but it was all he needed. Swiftly grabbing up the spear in his hands, he drove the blade upward, aiming straight for the Engineer’s neck. Though the space suits they wore were inordinate, he knew just where to place his thrust. He grimaced as he felt the blade drive home, deep into the Engineer’s spinal column. Even if Philips had wanted to press the big red button he held in his hand there was no way he could do so now. He was paralyzed and, in a moment, he would be dead.