by Geoff North
“The shockwave was big, but I don’t think it had that much force left by the time it got here. Our people and their fighters survived it. Foma and Atlas said they saw the building drop down. This isn’t the foundation… we’re looking at the roof.” Sulafat worked his way down onto the concrete, assisting Vin along the way behind him.
“Do you think they could’ve survived, somewhere beneath us?” She asked.
Sulafat didn’t get the chance to answer. A section of the roof slid open twenty meters ahead, and a figure started to emerge. Vin aimed her weapon. The Captain pushed the end of her rifle back down. “No need for that, he’s one of ours.”
The figure was dressed in an Ambition flight suit and helmet. A voice spoke out over their headsets. “If you want to see your people alive, I suggest you place your weapons down completely.” The he was definitely a she.
Sulafat squatted down and laid his rifle in the shifting dust. Vin hesitated. “Captain, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“We were the ones that dropped the nuke. She’s come unarmed. Do as she says, Vin, and maybe we’ll all get out of here in one piece.”
“A wise decision,” the woman said. “You are Captain Ly Sulafat?”
“I am.”
“My name is Jule Adeen. Let’s go below and discuss our… situation.”
She started back down into the opening. Sulafat and Vin followed.
Chapter 57
Foma Austrin double-checked the display on her canopy. A hundred red points of light were moving across the grid towards the planet. “Atlas, tell me I’m reading this damn thing wrong.”
“I’m seeing it too, Chief. Ambition has launched ninety per cent of the remaining nukes.”
“And the only thing between them and the planet is us.”
The three dozen fighters that had landed on Pega’s surface had joined back up with the ships left in orbit. Foma opened a direct line to all of them. “I know a lot of you out there weren’t too pleased with the recent change in command, and there’s some that were all for it. I’m not going to waste time debating which man deserves to sit in the chair, we can argue that later. But I don’t think any of us wanted to be responsible for the mass extermination of billions of defenseless people. I won’t sit back and watch an entire civilization get wiped away. Captain Sulafat would’ve never gone through with something like this.”
No one interrupted her. Not a single voice cut in to object.
“I plan on taking out as many of those missiles as I can before they reach their intended targets,” she continued. “If anyone doesn’t like that, they can break off now and return home.”
The fighters remained in a tight formation, bearing down on the nearest rockets headed for Pega. Atlas spoke for all of them. “Lennix can wave his fancy gold admiral bars around for another seven hundred years saying he had the right, but it’ll never change the fact that asshole was willing to let us fry down there. We’re with you, Chief, all of us.”
“Then let’s get to work. All fighters spread out and let your targeting computers select a closest match.”
The ships broke off and began firing at the oncoming warheads. “I’ve got a lock on one,” Atlas announced from Raze’s weapon turret.
“You don’t have to wait for my permission, Tau.” Foma pulled down hard on the controls as Atlas launched one of their rockets. A streak of white light shot away from beneath Raze. She tracked its movement on the canopy. One of the red nuke indicators blinked out of existence. “Nice shooting. I’m taking us to target number two.”
Reports began streaming in through her headset from other fighters. The red lights were winking out off her canopy at a steady pace. Fortunately, the nuclear payloads couldn’t detonate before the missiles were in range of their intended target zones. Blasting away at targets that couldn’t fire back was easy enough, but the sheer number of guided rockets was too much for them to wipe out completely. A few got through in the end, and headed down into the planet’s upper atmosphere.
Tau successfully managed to take two more out before Foma called off the fighters. “We did the best we could. It’s time to go home.”
“I wouldn’t expect a warm welcome,” one of the pilots from another fighter said. “The Admiral fired those nukes, Chief. He’ll probably try to take us out next.”
“He’s welcome to try.” Foma attempted to sound more confident than she felt. Ambition wouldn’t be ‘home’ again to any of the returning fighters until Lennix and his people were dealt with, and judging from what they’d just been through, that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
“Take a look planet side,” Atlas said. “The nukes are going off.”
Foma banked the ship over slowly until Pega filled the entirety of her canopy. Three gigantic orange columns, each spread approximately a thousand kilometers from the other, were billowing up into the upper atmosphere. A fourth appeared further away along the planet’s horizon.
“Six made it through,” Atlas reported. “It looks bad, but it could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Tell that to the people living below.” Foma brought the fighter back around. Ambition had finally come into view. The ancient warship moved towards them, growing in size.
“What do we do now?” Tau asked. “Shoot our way back into the garage?”
She waited a few more moments before replying. Ambition’s pitted belly slid over the assembled fighters. Even from a few kilometers away, the massive vessel blocked out all the stars beyond. Its blackened hull swam in swirls of orange and yellow, reflecting the burning atmosphere below. “They haven’t fired on us yet, maybe we won’t have to either.”
A voice everyone recognized broke through over the headsets. “Ambition to fighter groups Alpha, Beta, and Gamma… welcome home.”
“It’s good to hear that mechanical voice of yours, Nash.” Foma paused. “What’s happening up there? Did you fire those nukes off?”
“Not us, Chief Austrin,” the robot answered. “Admiral Lennix and his associates have been taken into custody. Garage 2 is now—”
Foma waited a moment for him to finish. “Nash? I didn’t get all of that. Please repeat your last transmission. Is the garage open or not?”
“Multiple long range contacts have just appeared,” Nash answered. “You’re going to have to wait outside a little longer.”
“What kind of contacts? More Pegan fighters?”
“Much bigger than fighters. These are warships, Chief, and there are a lot of them.”
Chapter 58
The excavation vehicle had made it through. The missile had blown the tunnel door apart, and Kella and Hail had escaped up out of the underground city and back onto the moon’s surface. But the vehicle’s front end had sustained heavy damage. It had chugged along for a few more kilometers across the barren landscape and sputtered to a grinding halt.
Hail stared out at the endless mountains of excavated black rock and dirt on Oread’s cold, airless surface. People back on Earth used to bury their dead beneath manmade structures almost as large, he thought. He couldn’t recall any of the ancient civilization names, or what the massive tomb structures had been called. He and Kella wouldn’t be buried under the massive deposits strewn kilometers about them, but they would definitely serve as markers. Something warm dripped onto his lip.
“Here, let me get that,” Kella said. She wiped the blood away from under his nose. “Quit staring outside and hold your head back. It won’t stop bleeding until you do.”
Hail leaned back into the seat. “You’re crazy. You know that, right?”
Kella tried the ignition again. The excavation vehicle’s starter churned twice and quit. “I had to bust us out, what other choice was there?”
“Oh, I can think of at least a dozen that wouldn’t have had us sitting out in the rocks without a breathable atmosphere.”
“Tell me three—even two.”
Hail couldn’t think of one. He grabbed the dirty cloth they’d found jammed
between the seats and wiped more blood away. “I still think you’re crazy.”
“This coming from a guy that bust his nose against his knees.”
“It’s not like you gave me a lot of time to find the safety restraints.”
Kella tugged the harness belt up from the same space she’d found the cloth. “Here, buckle up now if it’ll stop your whining.”
He leaned his head back further into the seat and sighed. “We’re right back where we started, marooned on this moon’s surface with no chance of getting home. I’m beginning to get the feeling we weren’t meant for scouting missions. We’ve spent most of our time out here trapped in downed fighters and busted trucks.”
“And toilet stalls,” Kella had started to giggle. “Don’t forget the toilet stalls.”
Hail chuckled as well. “Please, don’t remind me.”
The heat pumping out around their feet suddenly stopped, killing their good humor at the same time. Kella tried the ignition one more time. There wasn’t even a click. “The batteries have drained completely. It’s going to get cold, fast.” She tapped on a nearby gauge indicating the interior atmosphere pressure. “Looks like the oxygen runs on a separate power source. According to this it looks like we have about an hour of air left.”
“So we’ll freeze to death before we asphyxiate. Good to know.”
Kella closed her eyes and rested her head against the steering wheel. “I’m sorry, Hail. This is my fault… all of it.”
“You got us this far, I’m grateful for that. It’ll all be over soon.”
She opened her eyes and saw a handle built into the underside of the operator’s seat. Kella reached down and pulled on it. A drawer built into the seat’s base slid open. “Are you seeing this?” She asked incredulously. “Is there one under your seat, too?”
Hail bent forward and found a second drawer. He pulled a helmet out. “There’s a whole spacesuit stored in here!”
Kella had already started unfolding the rubbery fabric of hers out over the wheel. “Light weight… not the sturdiest of material.”
“They were probably only meant to be used in case of an emergency—if the vehicle broke down or got stuck out on the surface.” He began pushing his feet into the legs of the suit. “The oxygen tanks and heating units are pretty small. They won’t give us much more time.”
Kella could feel the cold already pushing in around them as they dressed. “Another hour, maybe two… it might be all we need.”
“You won’t give up on that ‘universal luck’ theory of yours, will you?”
“Like you said, we’ve gotten this far.”
“You’ve gotten us this far, Kella—you and that crazy brain.”
He started pulling the helmet down over his head. Kella stopped him. “Not yet. Let’s use up what air’s left in the cabin first.”
They sat there for a few more minutes, breathing slowly, watching their cold exhalations fog up the windows around them. “We’ve got one missile left, you know,” Kella said.
“Maybe you should ignite it right here and warm us up.”
“I was thinking of trying to point it back into that tunnel we came out of… Blast it off and say goodbye to those assholes below.”
Hail wiped a section of the passenger window clear with his arm. “I wonder why they haven’t come for us already.”
“They don’t have to. There’s nowhere for us to go. It’ll be easier to retrieve dead bodies instead of fighting ones.” Kella shifted in the seat in an attempt to warm herself. She winced, and grabbed at her side. “Damn… that stings.”
“It’s probably opened up again.” He retrieved the small medical kit from the floor and opened it up. “Slip out of that suit and I’ll change the dressing.”
“Not a chance. I’d freeze to death before you got the old ones off.”
“It isn’t that cold yet.”
She shook her head. “We’ll use up too much oxygen with the effort, besides, the pain will keep me aware longer.”
Hail leaned back and sighed. “Leaving it like that isn’t good. You could get an infection.”
Kella almost laughed again. “That isn’t my biggest concern at the moment.” She began crawling over the gearshift console towards him. “If you want to help out, share some of that body heat of yours.”
She nestled on top of him and wrapped her arms around his body. Hail squirmed, but he didn’t want to push her away. “The suits are insulated. I don’t think this will have much effect.”
Kella rested the side of her head against his. “For such a smart guy, you really can be dense sometimes.”
“I don’t get what you mean.”
“Before, when you pulled me up into the back of the trailer… what you tried to do.” She looked into his eyes, their noses touched. “This is the right time.”
“Oh.” Hail didn’t need it spelled out any further. He kissed her forehead. She kissed the tip of his chin. Their lips met, and the cold crept back for a little while longer.
Chapter 59
Jule Adeen led Sulafat and Vin deeper into the sunken facility. More beings joined them along the way. These were true Pegans, Sulafat thought to himself, with their big grey heads and bulging black eyes. He didn’t know who or what Jule was; the woman appeared human, but she certainly wasn’t from Ambition. He prided himself on knowing the faces of all his crew, and he had never seen hers before.
“You’re not native to this planet,” he finally said. “You’re from Earth, aren’t you?”
“I was born and raised on this planet, Captain. I am a Pegan.”
“Then these… other ones,” he peered at the six aliens walking along with them, “they’re a separate Pegan species altogether—a second sentient race living on the same planet.”
“They are Hunn-ephei, and they are most definitely not from this planet.” She stopped in front of a closed door and the rest of them gathered around her. “They’re from a neighboring star your people call Alderamin. We have been at war with the Hunn civilization for more than a thousand of your solar years.”
Vin looked into the oily black eyes of the Hunn standing closest to her. It remained silent, but she could feel the being attempting to reach inside her mind, pushing its way in with pure thought. Vin shuddered and looked away. “You say you’re at war with these peop—with this race. It doesn’t appear that way to me.”
“An agreement of sorts was reached between our two star systems less than a century ago. Representatives from both home planets were exchanged as a diplomatic work program. We’ve been sending our best people to the Alderamin system for years, and the Hunn have been sending us theirs.”
“Diplomatic work program,” Sulafat repeated the words with a hint of skepticism. “You used them as props against us—made them appear as the terrifying face of the Pegan people. Did you think it would be enough to frighten us back the way we came?”
“It had been our hope, yes,” Jule confirmed. “We have had—how would your people say it—we have had our hands filled just keeping the Pegan and Hunn home worlds from destroying one another. The introduction of a third civilization was the last thing anyone wanted. Your people were warned to stay away a very long time ago, Captain. You should’ve heeded our words.”
Sulafat quoted the infamous centuries-old transmission. “‘We are aware of your existence, and we will end you’. That was more than a warning, it was a threat. Our people had every right to defend themselves.”
“There was more to the warning your people obviously never heard, or chose to ignore.”
He couldn’t argue with her. Sulafat had been let in on that dark secret only a short time ago. Ambition’s entire mission had been built dozens of generations before on half-truths and outright lies. The damage done up to now from those manipulations was severe; a thousand Ambition lives had already been lost—perhaps ten thousand times more in Pegan casualties. Sulafat still believed he could turn things around now that the full truth was coming out, but this was
n’t the time or place to begin the process. “Our people… show me where they are.”
Jule pressed a palm on the door’s surface and it slid open. They stepped into an auditorium-sized room. At the center of it were Ambition’s rescue pilots and gunners. Forty-one of them in total, all seated on the floor, seemingly conscious, but barely aware of their surroundings. They were gathered in a relaxed cluster, unrestrained, their heads were tilted forward, back, and to the sides, indicating near sleep or extreme intoxication.
“What have you done to them?” Vin shouted, rushing forward.
“I assure you, they’re all in good health,” Jule said. “We had to take measures to guarantee they wouldn’t harm us. A gas was released into the air to subdue them. The effects weren’t long lasting so we had the Hunns condition their behavior to a less hostile state.”
“Mind control,” Sulafat murmured. “These alien representatives of yours got inside their heads.”
“It was for everyone’s good, Captain.”
Vin was now squatting down in front of Tor Emin. She was looking directly into the General’s face, but his half-closed eyes barely registered she was there at all. “It’s disgusting,” she called back to Jule. “You’ve turned them into vegetables.”
“The effects aren’t permanent,” the Pegan assured her.
Tor’s head lolled slowly to the side. A string of drool broke free from his bottom lip as he attempted to speak. “Trapped us… walls moving… lost our way.” He shook his head, blinked hard, and tried to focus on Vin’s face less than six inches away. “We opened fire… on our own people.”
Sulafat stepped towards his docile crew members. “You consider treating them like this for their own good? It’s barbaric.”
“You destroyed one of our largest cities with a nuclear device. More surface detonations have been registered in the last few minutes. Which of our three species’ is truly the most barbaric, Captain?”