Vatican Abdicator

by Mike Luoma

  I AM NOT ALONE AM I? AM I! IS SOMEONE THERE? WHO IS THERE? WHO IS IN MY

  HEAD!

  GET OUT!

  BC feels himself snap back into his bed as if he’s suddenly fallen from a great height. He tries to breathe, but he struggles, the wind knocked out of him. Finally a sharp pain in his chest accompanies a gasp that begins to refill his lungs. His heart is pounding, matching another pounding he can hear –

  someone banging on the door to his room?

  No. Banging on the doors in his head!

  Dolomay!

  BC envisions the doors in his mind.

  They’re vibrating! But holding…

  He didn’t seem to know it was me.

  Was that for real?

  Anita stirs in bed next to him.

  “Y’okay?” she mumbles sleepily.

  “Fine,” he tells her. “Just had a fucked up dream. Either that, or a vision into the mind of Dolomay.”

  “I heard you shout that woman’s name again,” Anita says, waking up more. “I’m really starting to not like this ‘Fiza’ person…”

  “She’s a UTZ agent,” BC sort of tells her the truth. “But she’s been kidnapped and warped to the will of Dolomay. He calls her his ‘pet’. He’d like to make us all his pets.”

  “Meow,” she says, turning back over. “Tell me more in the morning.”

  “Dolomay wants to swoop in after the Eldred hit us,” BC says. “Wipe them out and take us over.”

  “Else is new?” Anita half asks as she drifts off.

  I don’t think I can sleep now! Was that real?

  BC drifts off into an uneasy half-sleep, tumbling over the surface of slumber, never quite relaxing, his sleep disturbed by thoughts of tactics, ship counts and other battle plans. He finally gets up out of bed. Can’t really wake up when you haven’t been asleep.

  The “dream” remains fresh in his mind. In the clear light of day BC is even more convinced that his glimpse inside Dolomay’s head was real.

  I was inside his mind – felt his thoughts, vile as they are. To him we are just pets, pale echoes, insects. He knows he couldn’t take us, our Solar Alliance, and certainly not the Eldred, not straight up in a fight... But he figures he can mop of us up after we spend ourselves on our throw down. Too bad he didn’t think of his base’s location while I was in his head! And poor Fiza… there was some of the old Fiza there, but he’s controlling her pretty tightly. On a short leash? She seems to have been tamed. What do they call it, that syndrome where captives begin identifying with their captors? Patricia Hearst syndrome? Something like that. Saw it in a movie once.

  “A lot on your mind?” Anita asks, startling him.

  “I didn’t hear you get up,” BC tells her.

  “Yeah, I’ve just sort of been laying here half asleep, knowing I have to get up soon. Just kind of waiting for the alarm to go off. I always wake up just before the alarm goes off.”

  “You’re a freak!” BC kids her. “Why do you need an alarm clock, then? Why not just get up at the right time?”

  “If I don’t set the alarm, I don’t wake up.”

  “But you always wake up before the alarm. The alarm never wakes you up!”

  “I wouldn’t say never…” she says.

  “Aha!” BC says, in mock prosecutorial glee as he pretends to catch Anita in his cross examination. He crosses over to the bed, bounces down and begins to tickle her. “Oh, the governor of Ceres Central is ticklish! She is!”

  Anita is giggling and trying to twist out of BC’s reach.

  “Stop! Ah, ha, uh, cut it! Ooh, oh, hey ha, ha,” Anita gets out between gasps and giggles. BC

  stops to kiss her, ending his tickle torture. They crawl back under the covers and make love… until the alarm finally does go off, at the most inopportune time.

  “Let it…. Unh, let it ring,” Anita gasps.

  The alarm goes off for another few minutes before they finally disentangle. BC smashes the snooze alarm down to shut it off. Still giggling a little, Anita pulls him into the refresher with her and they

  “shower” together like a couple of teenagers. But after a few minutes of forgotten responsibilities, they leave the refresher and dress to meet the day as the Prime Representative of the Solar Alliance and the Governor of Ceres Central. They kiss briefly once again before they leave her quarters to face the day.

  “I’ve gotta run…” Anita apologizes before taking off.

  “I know,” BC says, “I’m going to grab some breakfast and get cracking. Wanna join me?”

  “Sure.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  BC begins issuing orders over breakfast. He’s got one of the SAIF generals on the com.

  “I want a command and control ship here, near Ceres Central,” BC says, “but out next to a Transpace jump point so we can move fast if we need to,” he tells the general. “I’ll need direct and complete access to Dragama and his ships at the asteroid base… and a link up with the shipyard, too.”

  BC turns to Anita. “I’m going to need you to coordinate the evacuations. We need to be careful… I don’t think we want it to look like we’re evacuating, if at all possible. We don’t want people to panic, and we don’t want to let on to the Eldred or Dolomay that we know anything.”

  BC rubs his head, an anxious headache threatening just behind his eyes.

  “Prime Rep Campion?” a tech calls over to BC.

  BC looks up.

  “Yeah?”

  “We’ve got Commander Dragama on the line for you.”

  Dragama checks in with BC. His “super squadron” of five of their best ships and crews stands at ready at the asteroid base.

  “We’re set here, Prime Rep. We’ve got our ships arrayed around the base,” Dragama says. “We have reserves hiding out on more distant rocks. The asteroid defenses are linked in to our ships. You know, sir, with only five ships on defense, the base’s laser defenses should be able to fire more rapidly than they could in a more typical defensive situation. With so few friendlies in the ‘sky’ we can blanket larger swaths with cover fire.”

  “Great!” BC says. “Thanks, Dragama.”

  “Dragama out.”

  “Anita, what’s happening with the scientists?”

  “I’ve got Krish and Dell coordinating their resettlement on Lunar Prime. They’ve been working all night. Most of our ‘brain trust’ is already safely back inside Mars’ orbit at this point.”

  “I’m not really sure that’s any safer, to be honest,” BC says. “At least they know I’m thinkin’ of them,” he says, smiling.

  Anita frowns at BC’s attempt at dark humor.

  “I’m sure they’ll be touched at your concern,” she cracks.

  “I’m trying not to take myself too seriously,” he says, trying to explain.

  “These are serious times,” Anita observes.

  Commander Aziz checks in from the shipyards, now in lockdown mode.

  “Just five ships left on the assembly line, Prime Representative,” Aziz says. “We’ve been shutting the line down and securing it behind ‘em, step by step.” The commander of Black Squadron has four squadrons under him at this point, guarding the shipyards, Black, White, Green and Gold Squadrons are now all answering to Aziz. BC has also sent extra ships Aziz’s way. The shipyard defense forces have been bolstered by the new Stingers coming off the shipyard’s assembly line.

  “What do you want to call the new squadron?” Aziz asks.

  “What?” BC asks, momentarily confused.

  “All the extra ships… there are enough for another squadron,” Aziz explains. “What would you have me designate it?”

  “Huh… uh, how about Silver?” BC offers. “Silver Squadron?”

  “Silver it is, sir,” Aziz confirms. “Out for now, Prime Representative.”

  “BC?” Anita asks, getting his attention.

  “What?”

  “Krish is on the com for you, says it’s important. He says he’s afraid this might get los
t in the shuffle”

  “This?” BC asks. “This what? What does he want?”

  “I don’t know,” Anita says. “He didn’t tell me.”

  BC sighs.

  “Okay, put him on.”

  “BC!” Krish greets him.

  “Hello, Krish. How’s the ‘resettlement’ going?”

  “It’s annoying,” Krish admits. “Scientists are big and horrible babies when you disturb their nests. Lots of complaints! Fussy, fussy, fussy! But that’s not why I’m calling.”

  “No?”

  “No. I’ve got something for you, maybe a new, um, weapon. I think.”

  “You think?”

  I’ll take it… we need any advantage we can get!

  “What is it, Krish?” BC asks.

  “I’ve been calling it a ‘transpace nullifier’. Dell likes to call it a ‘transpace dampener’. His name seems to be winning.”

  I don’t care what you call it! What the fuck is it and why should I care now?

  “What is it? A Transpace whatzy?”

  “A Transpace damp… I mean, nullifier,” Krish says enthusiastically. “We reverse engineered it from the Eldred’s shield technology!”

  “Can you explain it to me in layman’s terms?” BC asks.

  “Let’s see,” Krish says, and he pauses, mulling it over. “Well, the Eldred’s shields work because they nullify, or dampen, the energy directed at them. Makes sense, right?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well,” Krish continues, “that’s a kind of passive application of the technology. It waits to be engaged to work, if you see what I mean.”

  “Go on.”

  “Well, I began to wonder if the tech could be used more actively. Instead of waiting to get hit, could we project the dampening effect back at the energy beam or whatever’s source?”

  “Could you?” BC asks.

  “No,” Krish says, disappointed. “An active application like that grew significantly weaker as it radiated from the point of its generation.”

  “Wait a minute,” BC stops him. “What?”

  “The ‘signal’ didn’t carry far enough to be effective,” Krish clarifies.

  “Gotcha.”

  “But!” Krish says with a bit of a flourish, “Here’s the good part! Although the projected dampening field was too weak to stop direct beam energy weapons, it turns out it does dampen another field, a weaker energy, more diffuse field we all know and love: the Transpace field! And the dampening effect could work over longer distances.”

  “You can dampen the Transpace field?” BC checks him.

  “Yeah!” Krish says.

  “I didn’t know there was a ‘field’ involved,” BC says.

  “Oh,” Krish says. “Let me back up. The Transpace drive creates a field around the ship that allows it to, um… well, work. With the active application of the adapted tech we could dampen, or nullify that field, and then the ship wouldn’t be able to, er, ‘jump’… the Transpace drive can’t work without the field. We can take the field away.”

  “What’s the range? How far away can the field effectively dampen?” BC asks Krish.

  “It has an effective field of about ten kilometers.”

  “10K? In every direction?”

  “More 5K in every direction, making a circle around 10K across,” Krish explains.

  “Can the device be triggered remotely?” BC asks, thinking. “Doesn’t seem like you can use it on a ship… I mean, wouldn’t it stop you from jumping, too?”

  “Yeah, that’s something we’ve been working on. But I suppose you could set it up, rig it so it could pulse off remotely,” Krish says, thinking out loud.

  “Well, it’s not much of a weapon otherwise, is it?” BC asks him. “Not if our ship is effected when we trigger it!”

  “Oh,” Krish says, “yeah, I see your point. Maybe it has to be a remotely triggered device.”

  “That would be great,” BC says, trying to sound encouraging. “And in the meantime, send your working model out here, pronto,” BC orders.

  “What?” Krish asks, surprised.

  “Pronto?” Anita asks BC, giving him a look.

  “I thought ‘pronto’ sounded good,” BC admits, aside.

  “So, you want this one?” Krish asks. “It isn’t remotely triggered. Not yet.”

  “Yeah, I want it now. Anything they don’t know we have, I want. It’s an advantage. Why don’t you come out here with it and rig up a remote trigger for it on the way?”

  “Okay. I’ll get it out to you today. You really want this on your ship?”

  “Hell, I want one on every ship,” BC tells him.

  “Oh,” Krish says.

  There’s silence as the statement sinks in.

  “I’ve got a lot of work to do, then,” Krish finally says, breaking the silence.

  “I guess you do,” BC agrees.

  “Okay, then. Well. Thank you, um, BC, for letting me say my piece,” Krish says.

  “Thank you, Krish. This is big! Nicely done,” BC congratulates the scientist.

  “Thanks, BC!” Krish says, brightening. “I’ll get the testing unit out to you ASAP!” He signs off the com.

  Huh… maybe this is something we can use. Float it into the middle of their fleet… Stop the Eldred from jumping and blow them up!

  “Command and control ship ready and waiting, Prime Representative,” a SAIF officer reports to BC after he strides up to the breakfast table. “C and C is parked in proximity, in near orbit of Ceres Central.”

  BC looks around the breakfast table, out at the milling crowd of people eating, drinking and starting their day.

  Anita notices him gazing at their surroundings, knows he’s ready to head to his ship.

  “I’m beginning to know that look,” she tells him. “You’re mentally taking it all in before you go, aren’t you?”

  BC almost blushes, mildly embarrassed.

  Funny… she can already see through me!

  “Guess so,” he says.

  “Go ahead,” Anita says. “Your ship’s waiting for you, Prime Representative,” she says playfully.

  “You want to join me on the C and C ship?” he asks her.

  “I do,” she says, “but I can’t.”

  “You can’t?”

  “My place is here. Ceres is my command.”

  “I see,” BC says, in mock hurt.

  “BC! Come on! I’d have stayed on the asteroid base if I thought that made sense.”

  He keeps playing hurt.

  “That’s okay. I see.”

  “You know I’m right.”

  He smiles at her.

  “I know. But I don’t have to like it!”

  She smiles, and then leans over and kisses him on the cheek. She leans back.

  “I’ve got to get to my command center,” she says. She gets up from the table.

  “I’m sure we’ll be talking soon,” she tells BC.

  “Let’s hope it’s just routine reports and pleasantries,” BC says.

  “Pleasantries, huh?” Anita cracks. “That’s what you call them?” She smiles again.

  “Sure,” he says.

  What else do I say? How do you respond? Never mind…

  Anita turns and heads away across the cafeteria and off toward her command center. Guess I’ll head for my ship. Hope they don’t attack while I’m shuttling across. I wonder how long we do have? How much time until the Eldred attack? The Domo said within the month…

  are they right?

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Now it’s a waiting game,” BC says to the captain of the command and control ship as the two sit on the quiet bridge. BC’s settled into a deck chair on the bridge of the ship. His after breakfast shuttle ride up from Ceres Central was short and uneventful. It’s still quiet, with no sign of the gathering storm, no sign of massing Eldred forces the Domo claim are readying for attack.

  “Yessir,” Mark Chang the young captain says, agreeing with BC because he has to. “W
ho are we waiting for first, sir?” he asks BC.

  “Nothing’s etched in stone, captain, but we think we’ll see the Eldred first, based on our intel from the Domo,” BC says. “I think that’s right, too, based on… other information,” BC says mysteriously, not wanting to discuss his dreams with the captain. “My other information also says Dolomay will wait to strike until after the Eldred have defeated us.”

  “After we’re defeated, sir?”

  “That’s their plan,” BC clarifies for Captain Chang. “Dolomay hates the Eldred. It’s an old grudge between them,” BC explains. “So he wants to wipe out as many of them as he can. He thinks the Eldred will be easy to mop up after they’ve tangled with, and defeated us. He’s sure the Eldred will defeat us.”

  “Nice to know he’s rooting for us,” Chang wryly observes. He changes back to an official monotone and tells BC, “Prime Representative Campion, you have a high level communiqué coming in. It’s Governor Amara Schwartz of Cat’s Eye.”

  “Thank you, Chang.” BC picks up an earpiece for a private call. “Put her through to me.”

  Chang nods.

  “Governor Schwartz!” BC says in greeting. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’ve decided to stay,” Schwartz says outright, matter-of-factly.

  “What?” is all BC gets out.

  “We’re staying here. On Cat’s Eye. Most of us.”

  “I can’t give you any protection,” BC tries to explain. Schwartz cuts him off.

  “I know! I know,” she says, “and we’re not asking you to. The SAIF ships have already left here, Prime Representative. But we’re not following them. This is our home, Representative Campion. We want to stick it out here.”

  What can I do? What can I say about that? “Don’t!”?

  “Well, governor… I don’t know what to tell you,” BC says honestly. “I can wish you luck. Give you all my best, for all that’s worth. But we need all the Solar Alliance forces back here to guard the home world from this next, vast assault from the Eldred.”

  “I know. We all know that here, Campion,” she tells him. “We know you’re doing what you think you have to do. Truth be told, most of me knows you’re right. But my heart is here, in this place. Our hearts are here. So we’ll take our chances. We’re staying.”