Ambition (The Long Haul Book 1)

by Geoff North

  Kella began moving the vehicle forward again. Eight red lights flashed on around the door’s perimeter. “You think it will open automatically as well?”

  “I highly doubt it. They have us where they want us now… we can’t go back, and we can’t move forward.” The truck picked up speed. “Kella! They’re not going to let us out!”

  “No, they’re not.” She reached over and pressed the second button on the missile control pad. They lurched over as the driver’s side rocket launched free of its fender casing and streaked off ahead.

  Kella accelerated into a wall of fire.

  Chapter 55

  Rastaban stepped out of the stalled travel tube into an abandoned corridor, his plasma rifle leading the way. Ma exited after him, pointing her side cannon in the opposite direction. Two security guards armed with plasma rifles appeared from around a corner and started shooting.

  “Get down!” Ma yelled. She dropped onto her side and returned fire. She caught one of them in the leg, but the other guard continued towards them, discharging one blinding energy burst after another.

  One of the bursts slammed into the wall inches from Rastaban’s face. He pointed his rifle calmly, took aim at the running man’s chest, and shot him down.

  Ma sat up and stared at Rastaban. “Are you okay?” She pointed to the side of his face. “You’ve got a little something there.”

  He swatted a few pieces of smoldering metal out of his scarred cheek. “Thanks. I can’t feel a thing there anymore.” Rastaban poked his head inside the open travel tube. “It’s all clear now.”

  Eight more men and women stepped out of the tube, each brandishing rifles and side cannons of their own. They had picked up support along the way from garage 2. Word had spread throughout the ship of Lennix’s takeover, and as it turned out, more than half of Ambition’s crew were dead set against the Admiral and his recently revived officers. Physical resistance had been minimal, but unfortunately, most of the ship’s mechanical functions could be controlled from the bridge, and progress to the command center had been slow.

  “How much further?” Ma asked.

  Rastaban led them to an elevator. “We’re seven levels directly beneath the bridge.” He smacked on the call button but the lift didn’t come. “It may as well be seven light years now that they’ve shut down the remaining tubes and lifts. Looks like our mutiny ends here.”

  Neb Kaitos pushed his way through the small group. “Don’t give up so easily, Drac.” He motioned them all back to a safe distance and blew the door in with his rifle.

  “Blasting our way inside the lift won’t make it work,” Ma pointed out.

  The smoke cleared and Neb looked inside the dark shaft. “We’re not taking the lift.” He slung the rifle over his shoulder, reached in, and found a metal rung off to one side. “We’re climbing the service ladder.”

  Ma followed the fighter mechanic in next. She made the mistake of looking down. Dull blue lights placed at each level of the ship indicated fully just how massive—how deep—Ambition actually was. She locked her arms around one of the rungs and froze. “Go on without me. I’ll keep a lookout from here.”

  Rastaban tapped at the bottom of her boot. “That’ll be difficult for the rest of us to do with you hanging there in our way.”

  “I don’t get out of my bar nearly enough to deal with this kind of shit.” Ma clamped her eyes shut. “Looks like I’m afraid of heights.”

  “Yeah, we can see that.” He pushed her foot up. “One step at a time. You can do this, Ma.”

  She started moving again. Rastaban continued comforting her as they slowly worked their way up six more levels.

  “Uh, we’ve got a problem,” Neb called down. “The lift’s parked at bridge level.”

  Ma made a weak moaning sound. Rastaban wiped sweat out his eyes with one arm. “There should be an emergency exit door somewhere on the bottom. Can you see it?”

  “Yeah,” Neb answered a moment later. “Trouble is it’s on the far side of the shaft next to the other ladder. We’ll have to climb back down and go up that one instead.”

  “Climbing up was bad enough,” Ma whined. “No way in hell I’m going back down.”

  “She’s right,” Rastaban agreed with her, but for different reasons. “We’ve wasted too much time in here. There’s a good chance of being captured if we go back, and an even greater chance of someone on the bridge activating the lift in the next few minutes. We have to get inside that elevator, now.”

  Neb held the ladder with one hand and rummaged through the small tool pouch wrapped around his waist with the other. He pulled out a small wrench with a light attached and shone the beam up on the lift’s bottom. “There are six anti-grav bars built into the underside. We could use them as handles to swing our way over to the hatch.” He placed the wrench between his teeth and did just that. Ma made another weak mewling noise as the mechanic swung out and worked his way across the bottom of the lift, one hand-grab after another.

  “I can’t do that, Ras,” Ma whimpered quietly. “I won’t have the strength or the courage.”

  “You have plenty of both. You have to do it.”

  Opening the emergency hatch was easy enough for Neb to accomplish. The door swung down with one pull on the release handle. He grabbed onto the inner floor edges and hoisted himself up into the lift. His head popped back down seconds later. “Your turn, Ma.”

  She didn’t give herself another second to think about it. She scurried up the last five rungs and reached out for the first anti-grav bar. Her hands started to slip on the fourth bar. Ma could feel her arms shaking, “I… I told you I wasn’t strong enough.”

  Neb got a hold of her wrist and started yanking her in. “I’ve got you—climb up my arm.” Ma sunk her fingernails into his forearm, she clawed at his elbow, and finally into his shoulder. Neb braced a knee into the floor and a boot against an interior wall, and heaved her up into the lift with him.

  Rastaban followed through after her and helped the people still clinging to the ladder across the treacherous chasm, one by one, until they were all sitting breathless inside the elevator cabin. “We’re at a disadvantage, even fully armed as we are,” he said. “They’ll be prepared for this—their numbers will be spread out across the bridge. We’ll make easy targets bursting through that door for them to pick off.”

  Neb grinned, revealing a black gap where his two front teeth used to sit. “That’s one hell of a pep talk, Drac. Really makes us all want to rush right in.”

  “That’s not what I had in mind.” Rastaban stood, leaving his rifle on the lift floor.

  Admiral Lennix sat confidently in the command chair, facing the closed elevator. “They’re misguided—clinging faithfully to the man they called Captain their entire lives, but they’re still our people. Try not to kill any of them,” the Admiral instructed. “Aim for the knees.”

  Major Weston lowered his rifle aim down an inch. Olivia Bertrand and others did the same.

  The lift door slid open and one man stepped onto the bridge, his arms raised above his head.

  “Rastaban,” Lennix uttered. “Give this up, son. Tell the others behind you to leave their weapons on the floor and exit the lift.”

  “I won’t do that, Admiral… not until I have your word they won’t be harmed.”

  Lennix shrugged. “I don’t want to see any more people get hurt.” He nodded to Weston, and the Major lowered his rifle altogether. “That’s goes for all of you. Lower your weapons and let them enter.”

  Rastaban turned and motioned at Neb to bring the others onto the bridge. “This is just one small group of people that oppose what you’ve done, Admiral. There are thousands more spread throughout Ambition standing with us. We demand you step down. Return command back to Captain Sulafat.”

  “Ly Sulafat was lawfully replaced.” Lennix leaned forward. “I was always—and still am—Ambition’s commander. It may take time for the crew to adjust to this, but they have no choice in the matter. I’ve been
patient with you, Rastaban… you’re my descendant, but we’re ending this now.”

  “Ending it? More than half the people serving on this ship are against you.”

  The Admiral stepped down from the dais and stood directly in front of him. “I’m not talking about your mutiny—I’m referring to our mission.” He clapped a hand down on Rastaban’s shoulder. “You and your little band of rebels here have fought hard.” He glanced at Neb standing next to Rastaban. “Some harder than others by the looks of things.”

  “We’re just getting started,” Ma Ades said. The color in her face was still missing, but she’d recovered her courage. “Do us all a favor, and go back inside those canisters you crawled out of before we decide to get serious.”

  Lennix stepped behind her and ran the fingers of one hand through her long hair. “We may just do that when the Pegan threat has been dealt with. It would be nice to wake up a second time back on Earth to a hero’s welcome.”

  “There’ll be others after us,” Rastaban said. “More leaders will follow after Captain Sulafat to fight against this senseless war you created.”

  “As I was saying,” he worked his way around them and ended up in front of the weapons control console, “that’s why we’re ending it now.” The planet appeared before them on the main viewing screen. The blue oceans and green continents were still there, but a dark brown smudge had risen up into the swirl of white clouds near the bottom of the screen. “We’ve already taken out one of their major cities… In a few minutes, the rest will follow. The entire surface of Pega will be wiped away.” His hand hovered over the nuclear weapons control pad.

  Rastaban lunged at Lennix before he could punch in the final sequence of launch commands. The two men collided together and ended up on the floor of the bridge. Olivia Bertrand stepped in front of the weapons console and pointed her side cannon at the rebels. “Stay back,” she warned. “This is between the two of them.”

  They rolled across the deck, fingers wrapped around one another’s throats in a desperate struggle. Lennix finally ended up on top. He pulled Rastaban’s hands away and pinned his arms to the floor. “Don’t make me hurt you, son,” he gasped. “You’re scarred enough already.”

  Rastaban attempted to drive his knee up between the Admiral’s legs, but Lennix shifted over, taking most of the impact on his inner thigh. He rammed his forehead into Rastaban’s nose, and the struggle ended.

  “Everyone stays where they are!” A voice called out. “Nobody moves!”

  Gacrux Crucis appeared from the front of the command platform with a plasma rifle pointed squarely at Lennix. Nash ascended the final few steps from the Captain’s quarters and stood next to him. “Step away from Rastaban Drac, Admiral.”

  Olivia dropped her side cannon to the floor. Tomas Weston began raising his rifle again.

  “Unwise, Major,” Nash warned. “If Gacrux is unable to incapacitate the Admiral, I will do it for him. And then I’ll come for you.”

  Weston placed the rifle down at his feet.

  Rastaban groaned, sat up, and wiped the blood from his face. “Took the two of you long enough to get here.”

  “It’s a big ship,” Nash replied.

  Neb and Ma helped the others gather up weapons. Admiral Lennix glared at the robot. “I should’ve known something would’ve short-circuited inside you after seven hundred years. It isn’t too late for you, Three. We can clean up your programming. You can become a valued asset to this ship once again.”

  “I quite like who I am now, Admiral… and quit calling me Three. My name is Nash.”

  No one was watching Olivia. She was leaned up against the weapons console, her hand slowly crawling over buttons. She began entering the code.

  Rastaban caught the Admiral glancing that way. “Stop her! She’s trying to launch the nukes!”

  Gacrux shot her in the stomach. The force of the plasma blast pushed her all the way up onto the console. Olivia’s fingers were still on the buttons. She pushed one more before sliding lifelessly to the floor.

  The image on the main screen switched automatically from the planet’s surface to an exterior view of Ambition’s outer hull. Dozens of glaring lights appeared as torpedo bay hatches fell away. Everyone gathered on the bridge watched as the screen view switched back to the planet. More than a hundred nuclear missiles set out towards the surface, targeting cities all over the globe.

  “In a few minutes the worst of this will be over,” Lennix announced. He placed an arm around Rastaban’s shoulders. “Pega, or what’s left of it, will be ours.”

  Chapter 56

  Sulafat landed in a carpet of black ash amongst the fighters dispatched earlier to rescue Hadar Cen. He tried to imagine what it must have looked like just hours ago, when the ashes were green grass, and the sky was blue. Most of the color had been scorched from the ground, and the sky was now choking in dismal layers of brown.

  “Did you take your anti-rad meds, Captain?” Vin asked. “Our suits will have enough trouble blocking the worst of this radiation out.”

  Sulafat popped the big pink capsule into his mouth and swallowed it down. “Done. Let’s be quick about this.” Their canopies popped open at the same time, and they climbed down to the ground.

  Men and women approached them from the other grounded fighters through swirling eddies of dust. They were all still bundled up in the spacesuits they’d arrived in. One of them tapped at her helmet visor, indicating the communication device was inoperative.

  The Captain motioned back and forth across his own visor, instructing the woman to clean her face plate so Sulafat could identify her. She wiped the dirt away.

  “Platoon Chief Foma Austrin,” Vin announced. “She would’ve been Emin’s pilot. What’s happened here, Captain? Why can’t any of them communicate with us? Why are they all still sitting here exposing themselves to so much lethal radiation?”

  “Lennix and his people would’ve sent a HEMP device—high-altitude electromagnetic pulse—shortly before the explosive to cripple whatever defenses Pega might’ve had in place. Unfortunately, our people here were victims of the mass power loss as well.”

  The headsets inside their helmets started to crackle. Foma’s voice cut in. “—ould’ve launched back into orbit a lot sooner, sir. We were waiting for the backup computers to kick everything back up again.”

  “Understood, Chief,” Sulafat said. Fighter running lights began powering up on all the ships around them. Pilots and gunners were scrambling into their cockpits. “What happened here, Austrin? Where’s General Emin?”

  “Last we saw of him was over in that direction.” She pointed to a large square patch of recessed ground a hundred meters away. “He took about fifty soldiers with him to the building to find Hadar Cen.”

  “There is no building,” Sulafat observed.

  “Not anymore, Captain,” another voice cut in. Atlas Tau approached them. “The whole damn thing just dropped into the grass and vanished, taking Tor and his men with it.”

  Sulafat exchanged a quick glance with Vin. “You’ll need to be a little more specific, Milun.”

  Foma ordered Atlas back to their fighter and explained the entire situation to her Captain. Sulafat nodded grimly at the end. “You did all you could under the circumstances. I want you to get these people back home, Foma. Vin and I will stay here awhile longer and try to find the others.”

  “They’re gone,” the chief argued. “We have to get off the planet’s surface before Lennix sends more nukes down to finish the job—all of us, Captain.”

  Sulafat asked her a question he feared to hear answered. “Who’s your commanding officer, me or the Admiral?”

  “I was on your side the entire time, Captain. Some of the others I wasn’t so sure about—but after this… I don’t think there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind who our true leader is anymore.”

  Sulafat butted his visor gently against Foma’s. “That’s good to hear. Now get these soldiers back to Ambition and help win our ship back.
We’ll be right behind you.”

  “At least let me and a few of the others come with you.”

  “You’ve already been exposed to the radiation for too long. He pushed the woman towards the parked fighters before Foma could argue further. “Come along, Vin. We have people to find.”

  They started across the burned clearing, rifles pointing towards the dark recess of ground in the distance. Sulafat paused halfway and watched as the fighters lifted into the air and set out over their heads into the brown clouds.

  “I remember reading about the great wars on Earth when I was a kid back in school,” Vin said.

  “Me too.” Sulafat was still looking up sadly into the sky. The last of the fighters vanished from view, the roar of their chemically fuelled engines increased for a few more seconds, and then all noise cut out as the fold drives engaged, blasting them through the remaining atmosphere and out into space.

  “Reading about it wasn’t enough for the teachers,” Vin said as they continued forward. “They made us watch all the old videos over and over. It scared the hell out of us, but they kept at it—said we were the final generation, that we more than all others born before us would experience what war would be like in person. And then my parents would drill it into me after school. The other kids got it at home too.”

  “Sounds like you had a rough childhood. Don’t hold it against the teachers and your parents. They wanted you to be fully prepared.”

  “I’m not blaming anyone, sir. I understand why they did it. But now that it’s happened… now that we’re surrounded by all of this,” she made a pass with her rifle across the bleak-looking horizon, “it’s like none of what they taught us sunk in. I feel numb to the whole thing.”

  “Then perhaps the lessons prepared you more than you realize.”

  They’d made it to where the building had once sat. A massive square block of grey was set six feet down into the ground. Ashes and dirt swirled about its surface. “It looks like all that’s left is the foundation. Maybe it got blasted away in the shockwave?”