by Joe Vasicek
“But we’re so close!”
“I highly doubt that,” said Danica, setting her coffee mug on the table. “You want to take that transport, fly it into the heart of the Hameji fleet, kidnap the concubine of one of their highest ranking commanders, and get out alive. That’s more than dangerous—that’s suicide.”
“Then why did you take on the job in the first place?” James asked bitterly.
Danica said nothing for several moments. James shifted uneasily on his feet.
“I’m sorry about your men,” he continued, “but Stella is my sister. Did you ever think we’d come this far? We can do this!”
“Don’t delude yourself, Ensign. You’re not invincible.”
“I don’t care. I’d rather die than give up now.”
Danica rose from her chair. “You have a death wish,” she said, “and neither I nor my men want any part of it. Here’s the deal: we sell your ship and split the proceeds fifty-fifty.”
James leaped to his feet. “What?” he cried. “That’s not fair, that’s—”
“It’s more than fair. We fulfilled half of our contract, didn’t we? We recovered you your brother.”
“Yeah—in a body bag!”
“You never stipulated whether you wanted him dead or alive. I’m sorry for your loss, but like it or not, business is business. Fifty percent is the best I can do.”
James clenched his fists. “And what about me?” he asked. “Are you going to just leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere?”
“Once we’ve sold your ship, we’ll let you off on one of the outer planets in the Karduna system. From there, you can catch a ride with an inbound freighter back to your home.”
James paled. He felt suddenly claustrophobic, as if the walls were closing in on him.
“W-wait,” he cried. “Do we have to decide this now? Can’t I have a little time to think it over?”
“There’s nothing left to think about. I’ve made my decision—I suggest you start packing your things.”
“But—please,” he urged. “This is all happening so fast—please, just give me a little time.”
Danica stared at him for a few seconds. Her face was as impassive as ever, but after a few moments, she took a deep breath.
“Very well,” she said. “How much time are you asking for?”
James’s heart leaped in his chest. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe—”
“Two days. That’s all I can afford.”
“Right. Two days. Great.”
“Get some rest, Ensign. You look like you could use it.”
She showed him to the door. It slid shut behind him with a sharp hiss.
Two days.
It wasn’t much to work with, but it was better than nothing. If he could convince even two or three members of the crew to come around to his side, perhaps Danica would change her mind.
I can do this, he told himself as he walked quickly down the corridor. For Stella, I can do this.
He’d have to get started right away.
* * * * *
Ilya’s mouth was warm and wet against Anya’s neck, like a parasite slithering across her skin. She tried to come on to him, but he just felt like so much dead weight. His body reeked of cheap cologne, his unwashed hair of wet dog.
You’re worthless, a voice in her head told her. Pathetic. Weak. What are you doing with this loser?
No, she argued, raising her arms as Ilya pulled off her blouse. I’m not worthless. Alex didn’t think so.
Alex is dead. You didn’t deserve him. He was too good for you.
That’s not true! I’m still loved.
No, you’re not. You’re pathetic. Worthless.
With sweaty hands, she pulled Ilya’s mouth to hers, locking lips in a voracious kiss. She tried to savor the feeling, but his hungry, groping hands writhed across her skin like dirty tentacles.
It hadn’t always been like this. Most of the time, the sex was good—and not just the sex, but the security of knowing that she was worth possessing. But now that she’d seen Ilya for the spineless coward he was, everything had changed.
You can’t win the love of a real man, the voices told her. You’re just not worth the effort.
“Get off of me,” she told Ilya. He kept groping her, though, as if she hadn’t said anything.
“I said, get off!”
She shoved him off of the narrow bunk. His body thumped loudly to the floor, and he rose to his feet cursing.
“What the hell was that for?”
“I’ve had enough of you,” she said, sitting up to refasten her bra.
His face was a picture of fury and confusion. “What do you mean?” he shouted. “Come here, you bitch.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders, but before he could push himself back onto her, she jabbed him in the kidney with a tightly packed fist. He cried out and let go of her, toppling over the edge of the bunk a second time.
A string of profanities shot out of his mouth. Anya found her blouse and slipped it on.
“What’s this all about?” he screamed, holding his side. “What makes you think—”
“You’re pathetic, Ilya. One punch, and you’re sprawled on the floor. Tell me, is that why you ran when the Hameji boarded us?”
He glared at her. “At least I didn’t stick around to let them rape me—that’s more than I can say of you.”
Her fist connected with the side of his face, slamming him into the wall. He collapsed to the floor rubbing his cheek.
“I hunted down those pirates and killed every last one of them,” she said, her voice cutting the air like a knife. “Have you ever killed a man, Ilya? Have you?”
He scowled up at her but said nothing.
“You’re a coward,” said Anya. “A worthless, spineless coward, and I’m done with you. Get out.”
He slunk out of the room without another word. The door hissed shut behind him. She sat down on the edge of the bunk and buried her head in her shaking hands.
Nobody loves you. You’re worthless.
* * * * *
James took a deep breath and stepped into the medical bay of the Tajji Flame. The air was thick with the smell of sanitizers. Medical equipment filled the spotlessly clean room: syringes, cushioned tables, IVs, and computer arrays, with an assortment of robot arms dangling from the ceiling.
Abu Kariym had his back to the door, reading something on one of the holoscreens. As James walked up behind him, he didn’t even glance up.
From where he stood, James couldn’t help but read over the old man’s small shoulders. Imperial News Agency, the text read, followed by a time stamp dated almost a standard week ago. Fierce battles continue to rage across deep space in the vicinity of Hameji-occupied Karduna. Sources within the Gaian Imperial Forces believe that the Hameji have divided their forces into two fleets, one of which remains at large.
“We think the battles along the starlane may be some kind of diversion,” confirmed an Imperial officer who wishes to remain anonymous. “The main fleet is almost certainly attempting to circumvent our forces by—
“Yes, Ensign?” said Abu Kariym, instantly snapping James to the present.
“Uh, hello, Doctor. How are you?”
“Quite worried,” said the old man. Nearly a dozen wrinkles appeared on his forehead as he furrowed his brow. “It appears the Hameji are mounting a campaign against Gaia Nova.”
“Gaia Nova?” said James. “That’s the capitol star of the Empire—not even the Hameji can overthrow it.”
Abu Kariym coughed. “God willing,” he said. “Though I do not think the Hameji will stop—not when they are so close to victory.”
James could hardly believe what he was hearing. Gaia Nova was the oldest settled world in the known universe, the site of the famous Temple of a Thousand Suns and its repository of the Holy Archives of Earth. The very name of the world conjured up exotic images of white-walled cities thousands of standard years old. James had never been there, but he longed t
o go—to see the continent-sized domes sprawling across the planet, the Temple a glittering jewel in the center of it all. To imagine it falling to the Hameji—James shuddered at the thought.
“The Hameji will never conquer Gaia Nova,” he declared. “It’s impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible,” said Abu Kariym. “One empire falls, another rises. But yes; God willing, it will not happen.”
“Why are you so interested in this anyways?” James asked.
Abu Kariym turned to face him. His eyes were sad and tired.
“Because my family is there.”
James blinked. “Your family?”
“Yes. My wife, my sons, and their families, as well as many of my brothers and sisters.”
“You’re from Gaia Nova? But the rest of the crew is Tajji. How did you get mixed up with them?”
Abu Kariym smiled. “I did a lot of traveling in my younger years, and settled on Tajjur V before the wars broke out. You would be surprised how similar that world is to Gaia Nova, outside the domes. I met my wife there,” he added, drifting off.
“Don’t you miss them?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice distant. “Yes, I do.” After a few moments of silence, he glanced up again. “But come, where are my manners? Would you like something to drink—coffee, perhaps? I have a can of authentic soil-grown coffee from Tajjur V in my office.” He rose slowly to his feet.
“No, thank you,” said James.
“Nonsense; you are my guest. What will you have?”
“Nothing, really. All I wanted was to ask a few questions.”
Abu Kariym walked off to a dispenser in the wall, ignoring him. “Perhaps I can get you some juice, then?”
“I’ll, uh, just have some water, thanks.”
“Please, I insist. You must have something to drink.”
“Water is fine.”
“Very well,” said the old man, producing a glass from a nearby cabinet. “Water it is.”
“I came to ask you about the crew,” said James. “I’m, ah, helping the captain organize a commando team for the next mission, and I need to know who’s still able to fight.”
“A commando team?” said Abu Kariym, returning with a glass in each hand. He gave one to James before sitting down in his chair. “She’s planning another mission so soon?”
“Yes,” James lied. “She wanted me to put a team together, and I need to find out who is healthy enough to go.” He took a sip of the deliciously cold water.
“And she isn’t assembling this mission herself?”
“Well, she wanted me to feel out the crew, see who’s willing to go—that sort of thing.”
“Strange that she didn’t come to me directly.”
James shifted uneasily on his feet. He took another sip, temporarily hiding his face.
“To be honest,” the old man said, “I would be surprised if anyone was willing to go. After what has happened—”
“I know,” James interrupted. “It’s going to be difficult, and we have to be careful not to upset morale. But can you think of anybody? Anybody at all?”
“Artyom might have been good for something like this. Unfortunately, he lost his life in the fighting—may God have mercy on him.”
“Anyone else?”
The old man stared off into the distance. “No,” he said finally. “No one who isn’t wounded and unwilling. Then again, I spend most of my time in the medical bay, so I wouldn’t be a good judge of morale. You’ll have to ‘feel out’ the crew some other way, Ensign.”
James’s stomach fell.
“Perhaps you can tell me who’s well enough to fight,” he said, his foot tapping anxiously on the floor.
Abu Kariym paused again to think. “I can think of three or four enlisted men whose injuries aren’t too serious,” he said. “None of them will want to go, I can guarantee you, but if you talk with Sergeant Maria she might be able to persuade them. As for the officers, Roman is out of the question, but none of the others is injured seriously enough to keep them from going.”
“Great. Can you get me those names?”
“Certainly. I’ll forward them to your wrist console.”
“Thanks,” said James, setting his glass on the nearest table. “I’d better get going.”
“Are you sure? I can get you something else to drink.”
“No, thanks.”
Abu Kariym eyed him for a moment, then shrugged.
“Very well then. God bless.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” said James as he hurried out the door.
* * * * *
“No way in hell,” said Sergeant Maria. “You said the captain told you to bring this to me?”
“Er, yeah,” said James.
Maria gave him a hard stare. James squirmed where he stood.
“Danica always runs these kinds of ideas through Roman first. I’m next in line; why didn’t she come directly to me?”
“Well, uh,” James floundered, “she’s been busy.”
“Busy with what?”
“With, ah—”
“You’re lying.”
The blood rushed from James’s cheeks. Think fast, he told himself. Come on, think fast—
“You’re right,” he blurted. “Danica didn’t give me orders to talk with you. I decided to come on my own.”
Maria’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re trying to go over the captain’s head with this? Are you aware that on most ships, that’s considered mutiny?”
“No!” said James. “That’s not it at all. Danica and I were still talking things out—she hasn’t come to a decision one way or the other. I just wanted to do a little research on my own, feel out the crew, see if I—”
“You’ve got a lot to learn about the way things work around here, kid,” said Maria, her voice as cold as ice. “No, I will not approach my men with this idea—not until I hear from Danica directly. And if you approach anyone under my command, I will charge you with insubordination and report you to the captain. Do you understand, Ensign?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” James said, shaken.
“And to be frank, I thought this mission was a terrible idea from the beginning—especially for what you’re paying us.”
James’s cheeks flushed. “I, uh, well—”
“Goodbye.”
James was all too happy to leave.
I’m a fool, he thought to himself as he stood outside her door. With Roman wounded and Artyom dead, he had no one to act as a go-between between him and the enlisted men—and after Maria’s lecture, he dared not approach any of them directly. That left only the officers: Vaclav, Ilya, and Anya.
He turned and walked briskly down the corridor—no time to waste.
* * * * *
Anya piloted the gunboat through the debris field in the wake of the simulated battle. The flashing red indicators at the bottom of her screen told her that she was pulling three gees, even with gravitic damping. Half a dozen alarms blared in her ear as a squadron of Gaian Imperial fighter drones pelted her with incessant gunfire.
Just before she pulled clear, she hit the nose end of a half-destroyed freighter and wiped out in an enormous explosion. The replay showed her the collision from various exterior angles, fried remnants of her craft scattering in all directions. Over the visuals, the words Mission Failed flashed in blue across the center of the screen. Battle lost.
Anya watched the explosion play itself out over and over again. She checked the stats for interesting details and found that she’d been flying at four thousand meters per second relative to the wreckage at the moment of impact. At those speeds, death was instantaneous and, theoretically, painless.
Not that it mattered. Death was death.
She’d passed this mission nearly a dozen times before, but this time she’d programmed the simulator to increase the Gaian Imperial numbers by three hundred percent. Against such odds, she had virtually no hope for success, but that wasn’t what she wanted; what she wanted was a distraction.
> The door to the simulation room chimed; someone was there to see her. Anya halfheartedly switched off the holoscreen and cracked open the sim unit.
“Come in,” she said, hoping it wasn’t the captain—or worse, Ilya.
The door to the room parted. To her surprise, it was the Ensign, James McCoy.
“Hello?”
“Hi, James,” said Anya, smiling to set him at ease as she climbed out of the sim unit.
“I’m sorry—did I interrupt you?”
“No, you’re fine; I’m just running some old missions. What’s up?”
He paused for a moment, as if unsure of himself. “Danica is considering putting together a commando team to rescue my sister,” he said. “With the Hameji transport, it shouldn’t be hard to sneak in—we just need to put together a team for the mission. Would you, ah, be willing to join?”
“Why are you coming to me?” Anya asked, a little confused.
James shifted uncomfortably. “Because, uh, Danica told me she wouldn’t send out the mission unless I could put a team together. I’ve already talked with some of the other crew, but they’ve all turned me down.”
“A commando raid against a Hameji capital ship? Sounds dangerous.” Not that it mattered.
“It’s actually pretty straightforward,” James argued. “We know what ship she’s on, we have the transport ship for cover—all we need is a couple of people willing to go. Please,” he added, eyes begging, “I need your help.”
Anya stared at the boy for a long time before answering. She knew he wasn’t telling the whole story—Danica would never send someone else to put together a commando team. Besides, the mission was absolutely crazy—suicidal, even.
But when she looked into his eyes, she didn’t see any fear. Recklessness, maybe, but not fear. Whatever else he was, the boy was no coward.
Oh, what the hell.
“All right,” she said. “You can tell Danica I’m in.”
James’s face lit up instantly. “Thank you—thank you so much! With you as the pilot, I’m sure we can do this.”