Resist the Red Battlenaut

by Robert T. Jeschonek

  "I think he was conditioned to give that answer under pressure," said Scott. "Maybe all of them were, if they broke--but not Cairn. He's too tough, too much in control. He gave up Tack because he wanted to, and he had no motivation to tell the truth. No pressure." Scott raised his eyebrows. "But we can apply that pressure, can't we?"

  Trane nodded slowly. "The bomb."

  Scott shrugged. "It's worth a try, don't you think?"

  Trane frowned. "But the Red bastard said he wanted to activate the bomb, didn't he? He wanted to take the Sun Tzu with him."

  "Which I think was also a lie. I'd like to see how he reacts when I tell him he really is about to blow up."

  "Hmm." Trane scrubbed his fingers through his white crewcut and stared at the floor. "You sure wouldn't have much time to get it out of him."

  "Either it'll work or it won't," said Scott. "If he calls my bluff, oh well. If he gives us the actual target, we'll have something to take to Perseid."

  Trane looked up and smirked. "You think I'd send you in that bastard's cell with the remote control for a weapon that could destroy the ship?"

  "That's kind of the point, isn't it?" said Scott.

  "Well, that isn't going to happen." Trane crossed the lab and punched numbers on a keypad mounted on the metal wall at eye level. "I'll tell you why." A rectangular panel of the wall slid aside, revealing a secure storage box. Trane reached in and drew out the exact device that Scott wanted--a gleaming silver oval mounted on a wrist strap. "Because I'll program this baby to respond only to your DNA. Right now, it's set for mine and Monique's, but it's a simple matter to add yours to the mix."

  Scott nodded. "So Cairn won't be able to set off the bomb himself."

  "That's right, rookie." Trane started tinkering with the device. "And then you can scare the truth out of that Red bastard, and we can talk Perseid into changing course for Dornick VII."

  "Absolutely," said Scott, though his real intentions were quite different. "We'll save Commandant Chalice and stop the Reds from destroying the Commonwealth."

  "And Perseid will probably still end up getting all the credit." Trane chuckled and walked back across the lab, holding out the device. "But what the hell, right? You and I will always know the truth about what happened."

  "Oh, yeah." Scott extended his left arm, and Trane wrapped the band around his wrist. "Nobody can take the truth away from us."

  *****

  When Trane had finished adjusting the bomb control, Scott headed straight for the medicenter.

  His timing could not have been better. Donna was awake when he got there, and Beauchamp had just finished removing the casts from her left arm and right leg.

  "Free at last!" Beaming, Donna turned her hand and wiggled her fingers. "I was starting to think they'd never come off."

  "Nevertheless, you must still be gentle," said Beauchamp. "You still have some healing to do."

  "May I take her for a spin down the hall, though?" asked Scott. "Just to get some fresh air and a change of scenery?"

  Beauchamp pursed her lips and gave him a cautionary look from the corner of her eye. "You may, but only if you promise to be very careful. I do not think she would be pleased if you bumped her into a wall and put her leg back into a cast for another week."

  "She's right." Donna nodded emphatically. "I wouldn't be pleased at all."

  "I'll take good care of her." Scott winked at Beauchamp. "You have absolutely nothing to worry about."

  Nurse Tourmal brought over an antigrav chair and helped Donna get into it. With a last warning from Beauchamp to be careful, Scott pushed the chair and its occupant out of the medicenter, promising to bring them back soon.

  But by soon, he meant not soon at all.

  "You seem to be feeling better," he said as he and Donna moved slowly down the corridor.

  "Much better," said Donna, and he could tell she meant it. She seemed much more energetic than the last time he'd seen her...and that was a damn good thing, considering the circumstances.

  Considering she was one of the only two people on the whole ship he could trust to help him with what he was about to do. "How would you like to get a real change of scenery?" he asked.

  Donna looked up and back at him, grinning. "Like a vacation, you mean? A real getaway?"

  Scott kept pushing her down the corridor, heading in the direction of the Hangar Deck. "A getaway that could cost you your career," he said. "And maybe a lot more than that."

  This time, when she looked up at him, she wasn't grinning anymore. "Tell me, Solomon. Tell me what you need me to do."

  "It might be too much for you," said Scott. "It isn't even fair of me to ask, since you just woke up from a coma. So if you decide you can't do it, for any reason at all, I'll take you straight back to the medicenter. All I ask is that you don't report me until I've had time to make my move."

  "Enough with the foreplay." Donna smirked up at him. "Tell me what you have in mind before I start to lose interest."

  It was then that Scott knew he'd done the right thing by coming to Donna. But even as he found a secluded spot and told her his plan, his mind was racing ahead to the next stop he would make.

  Because the next person he was going to approach could be the biggest challenge yet.

  *****

  "I'm here to take the Red oath," said Scott as he barged into Cairn's cell in the brig, "as promised."

  Cairn, who was sitting cross-legged on the cot, didn't bother to open his eyes. "Took you long enough," he said calmly. "What makes you think the offer's still open?"

  "This." Scott held up his left wrist with the bomb remote control strapped to it.

  Puffing out his breath, Cairn opened his eyes. When he got a look at the remote, he broke into a smile. "Oh, no! What will I do? Please don't blow me up and take your precious ship with me!"

  "Now why would I do that?" This time, it was Scott's turn to smile. "Reds don't blow up fellow Reds, do they?"

  Cairn's smile widened. "Now you've got me interested." Uncrossing his legs, he got up from the cot. "If you're not here to threaten me, then what are you going to do, pray tell?"

  "Prove my loyalty to the cause," said Scott, "by breaking you out of here."

  "Let me see if I've got this straight." Cairn narrowed his eyes as he crossed the room. "You're going to use the bomb in my head to break me out of the brig?"

  "Nope." Scott shook his head. "To break you out of the whole damn ship."

  Cairn stopped walking toward him and folded his arms over his chest. "Assuming you could, what makes you think I'd want you to? Hasn't it occurred to you that I might be exactly where I want to be right now?"

  "I can't join the Reds without you, can I? They'd blow me to smithereens."

  Cairn sneered. "And that would be a bad thing?"

  Scott felt himself growing anxious and had to force down the feeling. Time was running out as Cairn played with him, but Cairn would just drag it out more if he knew it was making Scott nervous. "Maybe I want to pay you back for saving me from Vore all those years ago. Maybe I want to make things right between us."

  "Oh, good." Cairn tipped his head to one side and tapped his lower lip with a fingertip. "Because for a minute there, I was worried you might be trying to use me to save your sweet little ol' granny."

  "That's the icing on the cake," said Scott. "Making things right with you is the main course."

  "As if that's even possible." Cairn laughed. "You crack me up, you know that? I went through hell for years because I saved you, because you never bothered to look for me, and now you think we can just wipe the slate clean?"

  "Not wipe it clean." Scott clasped his hands together, then flung them apart to mimic an explosion. "Blow it up."

  Cairn laughed again. "With the bomb in my head? How do you plan to pull that off?"

  "You'll see." Scott walked to the door and typed on the keypad beside it. When the door swept away, he gestured for Cairn to follow him. "Come on."

  Cairn hung back, looking s
uspicious. "How do I know you haven't lost your damn mind? Or that this whole 'breakout' isn't just a trick to get me killed?"

  "Do you see my grandma standing here safe and sound?" Scott shook his head emphatically. "Neither do I." Patience exhausted, he gestured more forcefully. "So no trick. Now come on."

  Cairn hesitated a moment more, then headed for the doorway. "What the hell. I'm guessing this won't be boring at least."

  "Congratulations," said Scott as Cairn walked past him and peeked through the doorway. "You've guessed correctly."

  "That's for sure." Cairn let out a low whistle as he looked around the brig anteroom. "Maybe you should go on without me, ol' buddy."

  "Don't worry. I've got it covered." Stepping through the doorway, Scott raised his left arm with the remote control wrist device strapped to it. "Hey, guys. Remember this?"

  The four guards in the anteroom kept their rifles aimed at Scott, but no one pulled a trigger. They were the same four who'd been joking with Scott not long ago about his trip to the medicenter--but they weren't in much of a joking mood now.

  "Coming through." Scott started across the anteroom, keeping his left arm up and his right hand over the device. Three quick taps, and Cairn's bomb would blow, destroying the Sun Tzu and all hands aboard her.

  The four guards never took their eyes off him, but they did make way. Scott walked between them, then realized Cairn wasn't following and stopped. Turning, he glared at Cairn and bobbed his head toward the anteroom exit.

  Cairn took three slow steps, then rolled his eyes and rushed to catch up. "This is your great breakout plan? Am I the escapee or the weapon?"

  "Both." Scott crossed the anteroom and stopped at the exit. Keeping one eye on the guards, he tapped the pass code on the keypad, and the door slid open. "This way."

  The corridor outside the brig was lined with guards on both sides, stretching as far as Scott could see in both directions. Every one of them was aiming a rifle at Scott and Cairn.

  "No one's going to shoot, huh?" said Cairn. "You sure about that?"

  "Think of them as your honor guard." Scott swung right and marched briskly between the rows of men, women, and guns. "All part of your V.I.P. treatment."

  "Why do I feel like I'm back on Penitent Peak all over again?" said Cairn. "Going through the grinder to save your sorry ass."

  "Funny," said Scott. "It seems like the other way around to me."

  *****

  Given the number of guards and guns along their route, Scott and Cairn's trip to the Hangar Deck was quick and painless. No one made a move to stop them or even said a word, just let them slip past as if they weren't the real targets at all.

  But when Scott opened the Hangar Deck door, he saw the trouble-free transit was over. There, between him and the jump-ship Donna had hotwired, stood Perseid and Rexis. They were both unarmed, with hands extended palm-up at their sides--but the glares on their faces could not have been any icier.

  "What the flux, Scott?" said Perseid. "You switching sides on us?"

  "Just doing what I have to." Scott raised the bomb remote control. "Now please don't make me use this. Both of you, step aside."

  "Seriously?" snapped Rexis. "You're planning to fly off with an asset just as we're going into battle? And you've got your girlfriend, who just woke up from a coma, piloting it?"

  "I've got my reasons," Scott said flatly, and then he looked at Perseid. "You're wrong about Tack."

  "It's a confirmed target," said Perseid. "Confirmed by your Red buddy there."

  "You trust him?" Scott laughed. "Don't be ridiculous."

  "Hey!" Cairn sounded offended. "I'm standing right here!"

  Scott ignored him. "Tack's the wrong call." He shook his head at Perseid. "It's like plugging one hole when the dam around it's about to explode."

  "So you're going to save the day single-handedly?" Rexis snorted. "You're going to be the hero of the Commonwealth?"

  "Something like that," said Scott.

  "The hero of the Commandant, is more like it," said Perseid. "When it comes down to it, he just wants to save his grandma."

  Scott took a step forward. He was running out of time--which, of course, was why Perseid wanted to keep him talking. "You can't tell me you wouldn't do the same in my situation."

  Perseid didn't budge. "I made a mistake recruiting you. You were never Diamondback material."

  "Never said I was." Scott kept walking toward him. "Now move."

  Still, Perseid stood his ground. "I'll give you one more chance. Surrender now, and I'll recommend deferring your court-martial. After the battle, you can just resign your commission and walk away."

  Scott shook his head. "Move." He tapped the remote control once, priming the mechanism. Two more taps, and Cairn's bomb would blow.

  Perseid raised his hands in front of him. "You win." Never taking his eyes off Scott, he backed away to one side. "But just so you know, your military career ends here. Right now. It's over."

  "I kind of figured." Scott looked back at Cairn, who wasn't moving, and bobbed his head toward the jump-ship. Cairn looked behind him at the armed guards crowding the doorway, then rolled his eyes and followed.

  "I mean it," said Perseid as Scott walked past. "You're done. Go save grandma, go be the hero and save the whole Commonwealth if you want, but there's no coming back from this. You're a traitor. You're finished."

  "So is Donna," added Rexis as she also let Scott pass. "What do you think she'll have to say about that?"

  Scott shrugged. "I guess I'm about to find out."

  "God help you, you selfish son of a bitch." Rexis hissed out the words.

  "God help us all." Scott reached the shadow of the jump-ship. The open gangway was less than ten meters away, slanting down from the ship's belly.

  "I should've called your bluff," said Perseid. "You'd never have triggered the bomb and destroyed Commandant Chalice's only chance of being rescued."

  Scott stopped at the gangway and gave Perseid and Rexis one last salute. "Good luck at Tack, sirs."

  Rexis turned her back. Perseid returned the salute, albeit half-heartedly.

  Then, Scott and Cairn ran up the gangway steps into the jump-ship.

  *****

  The Sun Tzu could have easily blown up the jump-ship, the Sun Bin, as soon as she cleared the Hangar Deck. Donna took her out fast, but the Sun Bin--named after a Sun Tzu descendant and fellow military strategist--was still no match for the bigger ship.

  Scott fully expected a fusillade of fire as soon as the Sun Bin got far enough away. There'd be no reason to hold back when Cairn's quantum bomb was distant enough to no longer be a threat.

  Sure enough, the Sun Tzu threw shots--but they were all warning shots across the Sun Bin's stern. Not one of them got close enough to singe the jump-ship's armor or bump her off course.

  It was then that Scott knew the Diamondbacks were letting him go. For all Perseid's accusations about being a traitor, he'd deliberately let the Sun Bin escape without a scratch on her. Either he thought Scott might have a chance, or he just didn't want to kill him in cold blood--but he clearly didn't make any kind of effort to cut the fugitives' mission short.

  Moments later, Donna kicked on the negative mass drive, and the Sun Bin darted away into the starry darkness, leaving the Sun Tzu, Sam Nicholas, Augustus, planet Oberon--and Frank, wherever the hell he was--in the distance.

  Watching the light of Oberon's twin yellow suns recede and fade through the rear viewport, Scott finally relaxed...a little. He was aboard a stolen ship piloted by a recently comatose woman, heading for a suicide mission alongside a man who despised him, who had a quantum bomb in his head--but at least he had cleared the first hurdle. He had broken away from the Sun Tzu and committed himself to the choice that he felt in his gut was right.

  And there was something liberating about that. There'd be no more self-doubt and second-guessing; the momentum of his decision would carry him forth like a wave, roaring across the light-years and crashing into the R
eds at Bellerophon Station.

  He felt like nothing could stop him.

  "Now leaving the Sigma Zeta Gamma system," said Donna from the dashboard at the front of the Sun Bin's control room. "Setting course for Bellerophon Station. ETA six hours."

  "Great flying, Donna." Scott, who was standing behind her, gave her shoulders a squeeze. "That was one smooth getaway."

  "Bellerophon Station." Cairn spoke up from the center of the room, where he'd slung himself over the command chair. "What the hell do you expect to find at Bellerophon Station?"

  "The red carpet treatment." Scott turned and smirked at him. "From the Reds themselves. The ones I'm selling out the Commonwealth for." He felt Donna squirm when he said it, and he squeezed her shoulders reassuringly.

  "What makes you think there are Reds at Bellerophon?" asked Cairn. "It's nothing but a mining colony."

  "A little bird told me," said Scott. "A canary in the coal mine."

  "Must be a real bird-brain," said Cairn, "because I'm telling you, the Reds aren't there."

  "Whatever you say." Scott bent down and kissed the top of Donna's head. "I guess we're on a wild goose chase, then."

  "I guess so," said Cairn. "Story of your life."

  "It's too bad, though." Scott let go of Donna's shoulders and turned to face Cairn. "You'd be a hero if you brought me in--the one man who's fought back with his Red vision when no one else could see them."

  Cairn was sprawled over one arm of the command chair, with his legs draped over the other. "As if you'd ever defect, you goody-two-shoes." He pointed a finger at Scott and sneered. "I heard them say you just want to save your grandma and be the hero of the Commonwealth."

  "Just running their mouths." Scott walked over and glared down at him. "They think they understand me, but they don't...just like you."

  Cairn laughed at him. "I understand you better than anyone. Better than you understand yourself."