The Widow

by Love, Aimee

  “Valhalla,” Marcus said.

  I nodded, appreciatively. Colony worlds were littered with cities named New Chicago and New London. It was nice to see that someone had used a little imagination. “You’ll need to send all of the children and enough food and supplies to get them through, plus some people to get them there safely and care for them. Also, an engineer.”

  “There’s no power,” one of the men argued. “Even if we send them with every portable heater we have, it wont be enough.”

  “We can’t send any of the heaters,” another man put it. “The generator here doesn’t supply our heat, we get it through vents from down below. They’ve probably already started to seal them up.”

  “They won’t need heaters,” I told them, preparing to drop my first bomb. “The power satellite is working fine, or will be by the time they get there, someone just needs to go and reset the base unit in the city.”

  “How?” Sebastian demanded.

  “The Colonial Board has always assumed that your refusal to open diplomatic relations stemmed from animosity toward Earth for being abandoned. They sent a replacement satellite with me as an act of good faith and authorized me to deploy it if things looked hopeful. They’ll certainly object if they find out I plan to use it to help you eradicate an intelligent species, but I intend to be extremely vague in all of my correspondence with them.”

  “I think I would have noticed a power satellite in your bags,” Sebastian told me.

  “It’s in orbit,” I told him. “The ship that brought me was just a merchant vessel, we wanted it to look authentic in case you had resources we didn’t know about, but by now there will be a Colonial Navy VSV in orbit. It has the satellite in its hold.”

  “VSV?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” I warned them. “Its a Vostov Surveillance Vehicle, but everyone in the Navy jokes that the letters stand for Very Small Vessel. It only has a crew of three and no armament that can penetrate the atmosphere. It was sent to provide a communications relay for me and to deploy the satellite. We can’t expect anything else from them.”

  Which wasn’t to say I wasn’t going to try my best anyway, but I didn’t want to make any promises I couldn’t deliver on.

  “We’re still just buying time,” one of the men said. Aside from Quince and I, he was the youngest at the table and his was the first note of defeatism I’d heard. “We’ll be dead in a generation either way.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” I told him.

  “They’ve probably already killed all the women,” he said, his bitterness plainly written on his face. “And even if we all went to the city and never had to deal with them again, rejoining the rest of the human race isn’t going to help us. We still have no exports, no way of enticing women here, no…”

  I sighed. Time for the second bomb. The one I’d hoped not to have to drop.

  “The Colonial Board’s interest in your planet isn’t purely altruistic,” I told him, aware that by telling them what I was about to I was passing beyond the borders of ‘creatively interpreting my orders’ and heading deep into the territory of ‘divulging state secrets and committing treason’. “They’ve developed a new type of deep space drive. It uses a fairly rare compound, and they’ve been scouring all the systems looking for a good source.”

  “What,” Marcus asked, “it’s here?”

  “In the ring system,” I told him with a nod. “They started trying to contact you while the drive was still experimental. Now that they have several working prototypes, their needs became more urgent and they sent me to find out what was gumming up their plans.”

  “How does that help us?” Marcus asked. “We have no way of mining off planet and no rights to the rest of the system. They can just come and take it.”

  “They can,” I agreed. “And will, no matter what you do. But it would be infinitely easier for them if there was a port in the area, and you have the only breathable atmosphere in this system. You aren’t the only game in town, and if you refuse they’ll find another way to get what they want, but they’d prefer to work with you.”

  From their faces, I could see that they didn’t realize the significance.

  “They’d have to lease the land for the port from you,” I explained. “They’d also have to build a massive infrastructure here to make keep it going. That means a great deal of wealth for the natives, and where there are wealthy single men, women soon follow. I don’t think you should be overly concerned about your long term survival and anyway, I have no intention of just leaving the women below to rot.”

  “What? A rescue attempt? That’s suicide,” Sebastian said, getting a round of hearty nods of agreement from the rest of the men. “Even if they aren’t already dead, you wouldn’t make it ten feet into the first tunnel.”

  “They aren’t already dead,” I assured him. “Titus is aware that we know of their existence. He’ll keep them alive as long as he can to use as bargaining chips. The spiders are going to be getting hungry soon, and all the fish are stored up here, aren’t they?”

  One of the men nodded.

  “Well, who are they going to take it out on when the food stops coming? They won’t kill the women either, that’s the source of their power, and you can be damn sure they know it. They’ll start with the men below. Julian obviously already figured that out. Why else would he risk his life on that ladder, in a storm, when he was injured?”

  “Selfish bastard,” Sebastian muttered.

  “But they’ll never give us all the women,” the young man said, determined to focus on the worst. “It’s the only power they have, you just said so yourself.”

  “But it buys us time,” I pointed out. “They run out of food. They start to get a little violent with Titus. Titus tries to work out an exchange of fish for women… All of those things will take time, and in that time we can put together a plan to get them out.”

  “It’s still suicide,” Sebastian said flatly, unswayed.

  “Quince and I made it to their lair and back armed with nothing but a screwdriver,” I told him.

  “They weren’t on alert then. This time, Titus will have warned them you’re coming and he’ll have it guarded.”

  “I think our chances are still pretty good,” I said unslinging my assault riffle and placing it on the table in front of me. “And even if they aren’t, I’m going anyway, alone if I have to.”

  Beside me, Quince picked up the stun baton I’d given him and placed it on the table beside my rifle, giving Sebastian a look of open defiance. Then he turned to me with a huge grin and held up two fingers. I didn’t understand until I remembered the night we’d watched the Magnificent Seven together and then I gave him a nod.

  “That’s two,” I agreed, and I was sure that when word got out about what we were planning, there would be more.

  That night, I waited until Quince was asleep and snuck quietly out of the barracks. There were several questions I still wanted to ask, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him to hear the answers.

  I went to the infirmary first. Julian was being kept under guard, more to protect him from an angry mob than because anyone thought he was stupid enough to try to go anywhere, but convincing the men that I needed a word alone with him was easy enough. He led me into an examination room, and it wasn’t until we were alone and he gave me his usual easy smile that I realized how much I loathed him.

  I held up my hand to forestal whatever repellant excuses he was about to blather and got straight to the point. “If Titus succeeded in importing enough women to create a stable population, there wouldn’t be the threat of mutually ensured destruction to keep the current system going. Instead of an uneasy alliance with a potential enemy, he’d have an army of completely dependent slaves.” It was a statement rather than a question, but I wanted confirmation.

  Julia
n nodded. “I know you don’t believe me but I argued against him bringing you here and once he did, I tried every way I could to keep you safe.”

  I gave him an icy look. I didn’t want him to have any illusions about how I felt. “If it were purely up to me, I’d have you thrown over the cliff into the ocean.”

  He blanched, and I realized that something in the statement had struck a nerve. It was easy enough for me to guess why. “That’s what you do them, isn’t it? The extra babies and the women who are past child bearing? You throw them away, just like the transmitters the Colony Board sends.”

  I left before he had a chance to answer me. He didn’t need to. The look on his face had been answer enough.

  My next errand was considerably less unpleasant, but also more difficult. Finding Sebastian was hard enough. The few people up and about all seemed to have seen him recently, but they each pointed me in a different direction and it took me ages to find him. Once I did, figuring out just what I wanted to say was even harder. He saw me struggling and did his best to make it easier.

  “You were never very diplomatic about your questions before,” he said, not realizing that his sudden camaraderie was making me more uncomfortable, not less. “Besides, I think we’re past all that, aren’t we?”

  I nodded, not sure where we were now and even less sure that I wanted to find out. But I plowed ahead anyway, knowing I wouldn’t rest easy until I had an answer. “Why aren’t you counted?”

  His good eyebrow shot up. Clearly, whatever he was expecting, that wasn’t it.

  “I heard Julian say something about it the night I followed you and Quince down, and it’s been bothering me ever since. I know it isn’t important but...”

  “But you know this might be the only chance you get to ask.”

  I nodded.

  He looked thoughtful, and his hand went up and reflexively traced his scar.

  “Did they think that killed you?”

  He shook his head. “We bring them the bodies, remember?”

  I did, but I’d needed to get him talking somehow.

  “I was about Quince’s age when I got this,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t do anything, or at least I don’t think I did. Maybe I flinched. Maybe I smelled funny. Maybe they just thought it had been too long since they’d made an example of someone.”

  I nodded for him to go on, glad that I’d had the forethought to leave Quince behind. He probably already knew all of it anyway, but I didn’t think hearing it again would do his nightmares any good.

  “After I recovered, I stole some food and walked out onto the ice. It took me a week to reach the first waypoint and I stayed holed up there until a team going out for a drop found me. They brought me back. By then I was too hungry and weak to put up much of a fight.”

  I wished I’d thought to bring something alcoholic with me. I’d never seen Sebastian drink, but the look of despair he was wearing certainly made me want one. He stood up and began to pace.

  “I’d already missed a counting,” he said, his voice thick with self-hatred. “Two men died because I couldn’t go back down there, and I wasn’t even punished. James, that was our leader then, knew the value of having an extra person who wasn’t being counted. It meant that if we ever came up short again, he could send me down in their place. I guess he also knew that seeing me everyday would remind the others why they needed to follow the rules.”

  “And that’s why you make Quince go,” I added, finally breaking my silence.

  He nodded. “As bad as it is, it’s better than having innocent blood on your hands.”

  I wasn’t sure that I would qualify any of them as innocent, but I understood and even admired what he’d done. “So what was your plan?” I asked. I hadn’t meant to ever bring the subject up, but I was suddenly curious.

  He shrugged. “You think you’re the only one who can hide weapons?”

  “Did it even occur to you that tying me up first might not be the smartest way to go?”

  “No,” he said simply. “If you were tied up and Quince was upstairs, then neither of you could be held responsible for what I did. I thought maybe...” He let his words trail off and I didn’t press for anything more from him. Unlike Julian, I knew that Sebastian really had done everything in his power to keep me safe.

  Chapter Twelve

  Out of the Frying Pan

  “Comet, this is Vixen, please acknowledge.”

  “Who picked your call sign?” An all too familiar voice came from my transmitter. Shit.

  “Someone at HQ,” I told him, knowing from experience that ignoring his questions did no good. “I need to speak to your captain,” I told him, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

  “You’ve got him,” he said jovially. Double shit. The last I’d heard he’d been stationed on a cutter off Titan. The assholes always got promoted faster, I reminded myself. “So you finally passed your boards?” He asked.

  “Finally?” Sebastian mouthed beside me but him, at least, I could ignore.

  “Yes, I passed. I have a data burst for HQ,” I told him, trying to veer the conversation to a more professional tack. “Can you receive and transmit?”

  “That’s what we’re here for,” he answered.

  I held my watch up to the microphone on the transmitter and hit send. I’d struggled over the wording of the message until I thought my ears would bleed, but I was reasonably confident that it would get the job done.

  “Received and sent on,” he informed me. “Anything else I can do for you?”

  “As a matter of fact…” I suddenly wished I’d been nicer to him while we were dating. “I need the satellite operational, ASAP and also whatever medical supplies and weapons you have on board.”

  There was a long pause and in my mind, I could hear him laughing.

  “I don’t have time to wait for orders from HQ,” I told him plainly. “We have a hostage situation down here.”

  “Is this like that time on Persephone when you…”

  “No,” I cut him off. Persephone was were we’d done our graduation shake down. He had passed with flying colors, where as I had somewhat famously managed to fail every single scenario, while still receiving the highest over all score in our class. The errors had bought me an extra year at the academy, three years of working as an analyst behind a desk, and then a dozen missions where I’d been little more than back-up for a lead agent.

  “This is more like Gladmora,” I told him pointedly. Gladmora was the name of my dorm building. The one where I’d caught him sleeping with my roommate only days after I’d rejected his proposal.

  “I hear Jane is shacked up with Professor Wilkins now, can you believe it?”

  “Perhaps we could wait to reminisce until after I’ve handled the siege?” I asked.

  “You know I can’t give you anything,” he said, suddenly serious.

  “You have discretionary power,” I pointed out.

  “If the situation warrants it…”

  “It does,” I assured him. “I have a majority vote to join the Colony Board. An armed minority is resisting the democratic process and holding women and child hostage. If action isn’t taken immediately, there’ll be bloodshed.”

  There would be bloodshed either way, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

  “Comet?”

  “Yes?”

  “What about the satellite?”

  “Up and running over a week ago,” he told me. “My tech got bored and I knew you’d come through. I wanted it to have plenty of juice to send when it went online.”

  Well, that was something at least.

  “We don’t have much we could send Chapel, even if we wanted to,” he said defensively.

  “Didn’t they give you a tour when you took command?” I asked a
rchly. “The small arms locker is beside the galley. You have assault riffles, pistols, grenades… Hell, even a few pairs of goggles would be helpful. Your tech could rig a receiver, use my transmitter as a beacon and have them down to me before breakfast.”

  “I can’t…”

  “You mean you won’t,” I spat. “You are still such a fucking pussy! I guess I thought since they’d given you your own command, you might have grown a pair, but obviously I was wrong. You’ve always been more interested in following the rules than in doing what was right. You know why I said no? Why Jane prefers an old man to you? Because you’re a lousy lay! You’re like a damn first generation robot that can’t adapt it’s own program. If she does this,” I said in a mocking imitation of his voice, “then I should do that. Life and sex are supposed to be messy. Everybody goes into them with a plan, but you’re the only idiot I’ve ever met who actually insists on sticking to his. This time, you’re going to get people, real actual people, killed.”

  I set the mic down and pushed myself away from the transmitter while Sebastian and the others looked on in horror. I smiled and gave them a thumbs up.

  “Vixen, be advised,” the transmitter finally squawked after a long pause. Gavin’s voice on the other end sounded utterly defeated. “We will be arranging a supply drop within the hour. Keep us informed of your situation.”

  I gave my audience a triumphant smile. Having an ex-boyfriend in a position of power over you is every woman’s nightmare, but at least I’d known what buttons to push.

  “So,” I asked the men around the table, “who wants to learn to shoot a gun?”

  Not may of them, as it turned out. Most of them, in fact, didn’t know what one was. Sebastian and Quince had learned about them from watching movies, but the rest of the men seemed to regard them as some sort of bizarre voodoo, and think they were going to blow up in their hands. It didn’t help that there was nowhere to practice except outside, and the weather was still horrid. When the supplies arrived, I had more guns than volunteers.