Romy's Last Stand: Book III of the 2250 Saga

by Stone, Nirina

  “I want to get Maya!” Minchin yells. “I would sooner allow my old boat to sink with all of us on it than let you take over without getting her first,” he says.

  “Well that settles it,” Blair says before I can say a word. “He IS the Captain, Lady Mason, what he says goes.”

  “Best to have him as an ally,” Sanaa says, “than to have an enemy on board.”

  She’s got a good point too. Still, I don’t say anything, wondering if I can just lock him up in the bowels of the ship. “Don’t even think it,” Blair says, “his people are loyal to the captain and the boat. You won’t get far.”

  “Fine,” I say grudgingly. It’s just another, what two weeks out of my way? I was hoping to get to that Metrill sooner, but fighting these people on this boat could mean I don’t get there at all. So I agree, then I remember Maya and I shudder. I was really hoping to never have to see that beast again, and now we’re heading out to see her up close, on purpose.

  Two weeks later and Minchin tells us we’re in the waters where Maya and her kin live.

  “She’s bigger now,” he tells me, “than the last time you saw her.”

  I grunt, acknowledging his words. I just want to get on with it so we can go to our real mission. Still, we’ve been on the water for several days. My muscles are aching to get something done, so there is a sense of anticipation that I hadn’t expected.

  Blair and Franklin have had their heads down as they spoke in hushed tones over the last couple of weeks, so I’m looking forward to something else.

  Besides, the sooner we get Maya and the fake blood and whatnot from her, the sooner we can start heading towards the EPrison.

  A week after our arrival, still no sign of Maya. I stare out at the wide ocean from the starboard side, Sanaa by my side.

  “Where could she be?” The size of her is not something one could miss in this ocean. And she’s certainly not shy. “Is she hiding? Did she move to a different part of the ocean?”

  “I don’t know,” Sanaa says.”But Minchin’s peeved.”

  I’d bet. This is his chance to catch his Moby Dick. And she’s not around to get caught. Well that’s rather anticlimactic, even if I wasn’t that keen to come this way in the first place.

  Minchin rounds the corner with Blair and Franklin in tow. His other guys are around on the other side of the boat, working. They’re always working, I notice—always scrubbing or tying or fixing or something. They remind me of little cleaning bots. Always busy, always useful.

  Minchin has a deep frown on his face as he sighs. “Okay I’ve decided,” he says. “We have to go back. Or get out of here anyway.”

  The words take me by surprise. I thought for sure he’d want to stay for as long as it took to find her. So we’re going now? We get to go to the EPrison? Yes!

  Sanaa says, “But mate, this might be your only chance. Once you get back to Apex, who knows what’ll happen, what with the general—”

  I want to tell her to shut it, I want to tell her we’re going, and she needs stop trying to delay it any more than it already has. I need to find that Metrill.

  Then Minchin points past our heads into the sky. “See over there?” he says. “North west.”

  I look behind me, up in to the sky just as everyone else does. The sky’s been a stunning blue the entire trip here, the entire time we’ve been searching for Maya. But in the far distance, I see a couple of clouds. “What?” I say, “so there’s a bit of rain coming.”

  “Not rain,” Minchin corrects. “A storm. It’ll probably hit us in about three hours, we need to go before it does. It’s going to be a doozy. This little trawler might not be able to survive a doozy.”

  What? I look at the innocuous clouds again. They don’t look that impressive to me. Just clouds. Still, who am I to question the knowledge of a man who’s lived on the ocean his entire life, who’s probably been captain of this boat longer than I’ve been alive?

  So I nod and ask what we need to do to get going faster.

  Despite my happiness that we’re finally heading to the EPrison, Minchin insists it’s the wrong way to go. “That storm will head in that exact direction,” he says. “We need to take precautions. We need to go in the opposite direction.”

  All right, I think. Whatever, as long as we eventually get there. After all, we’re leaving sooner than I’d anticipated, so there’s still a bit of time to manoeuvre. Again, I don’t know where the thought comes from. I have no idea how long it’ll take me to find that Metrill in the EPrison or even if she’s still there.

  But I can’t think of what else to do with myself—now that we’re on this mission, I want to just follow through. What other option do I have? Go back to Apex to face the general and her men and their stocks or whatever it is they’ll have in place for us? Or even more of Strohm’s yelling? No thank you.

  So I make my way out of captain’s quarters and see Blair (sans Franklin for a change) leaning against a post on the starboard side of the boat and I join him.

  “This was rather—disappointing,” I say and he chuckles in return.

  “Well I don’t know about that,” he says. “It felt like a nice break from what my life was like in the last few years.”

  Of course. He spent most of it getting tortured in the EPrison, followed by staring at walls for much of his time at Apex after he was “released“ as my ward.

  “I’m so sorry, Blair,” I say. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever apologized to him.

  He huffs then slightly turns my way with a frown on his face. “For what?”

  I was hoping he’d just say there was nothing to be sorry for, that I haven’t done anything wrong. But no, of course he wants to get right into it.

  “Well, for everything,” I say. I could go on for days, but keep it short. “For being selfish. For not really thinking things through. For having you go through everything you’ve gone through—you know—”

  Then I wait. This would be his chance of really laying it on thick. What a traitor I am, what a horrible Soren, what a true Mason, just like my mother.

  Instead he says, “Well I’m sorry too.”

  What could he be sorry for? It’s my turn to frown.

  “You will hate me,” he says, “for what I’m about to tell you. But given that we’re partners now, given that we’re entering EPrison together, I thought you should know everything—”

  If there’s one thing I admire most about Blair, it’s his complete honesty with me. He’s just about the only person in my life who’s never lied to me. I look at his face expectantly, waiting for him to tell me something new. I’m hoping it’s that the general isn’t really my mother or something.

  Instead he says, “The truth is Romy. I’m with the Axiom.”

  The Enemy Of My Enemy

  My eyes bulge as I back away from him. The word Axiom immediately brings to mind my wedding night, Abigail’s tiny body, unmoving and quiet, dying in my arms. My arms heat up with the memory of her blood pooling underneath her tiny body.

  The heat travels to my chest and to my face. Blair doesn’t move, he just stays still, reading my reaction. And he doesn’t move. Not even when I charge at him with my fists and I’m beating him, meaning to kill him.

  His arms automatically raise to his head as if to protect it, but other than that he doesn’t hit back, doesn’t defend himself.

  And I don’t care. You’re Axiom. You killed my daughter! And I’m beating him, blood spraying from his nose and his ears as I pummel.

  Franklin grabs me from behind. I’m certain it’s her, as long arms wrap right around my chest and she pulls me. But I’m enraged. I don’t care if I take her down with me too, if this entire boat succumbs to my rage. She’s yelling, but I don’t know what the words are. The storm in my head is too loud.

  She’s still pulling me back when I slam my foot down on her instep and ram my head back to hit her square in the chin. She falls and I’m already back on Blair—I don’t recognize his face anymore. You d
ie. You did this to her! YOU killed her.

  And he lets me beat him half to death.

  Then this time, Sanaa grabs me, throws me over her head and I land on the bottom of the boat, my air gone. Finally, Franklin’s screams reach me over the storm in my ears.

  “It wasn’t the Axiom!” she keeps repeating. “We didn’t hurt her. It wasn’t us! Don’t you understand?”

  I didn’t realize while I was beating Blair that tears were streaming down my face, mixing in with his blood. Now, I wipe them away and stare up at her. What is she on about? I know it was the Axiom. They were there that night. They’d come in meaning to kill us all.

  Franklin runs up to Blair as I get on my knees, but my energy’s sapped out of me. I can’t think, can’t breathe, and I put my face in my hands and scream.

  My ears have been roaring this entire time, but Sanaa comes up to me, wraps me in her arms and shushes me. Is she Axiom too? I think as I push her away from me. “I’ll kill him,” I say. “I’ll kill all of you.”

  She crouches back on to her haunches, mirroring my posture. Her arms are up as she continues to shush me.

  “Franklin’s right, Romy,” she says. “We didn’t do—what you think. We didn’t hurt Abigail.”

  What? They came in, guns blazing. The Axiom. Who else would have done—that?

  “We were only going in to scare the Leaders,” Sanaa says. “We had no fatal weapons—”

  “So you are Axiom too?” I say, my mind foggy with the lies they try to tell me. What sort of people am I with? First the Prospo, then the Sorens, the Metrills. Everyone’s bad, I decide. There are no heroes in this story. Everyone’s evil and out to kill and hurt and, well, that’s it. They all deserve to die.

  “I am,” Sanaa says. “We are. But—”

  “How—how could you?” I wail. “Why did you kill her? Why were you trying to kill me? What—” I’ve run out of words. I don’t look over at Blair though I know he’s all bloodied. What happened to him, to them? To want to become part of something so—so evil? And why haven’t they killed me yet?

  “It wasn’t us,” Sanaa repeats. “Really, our men were going in there to disrupt the celebrations. They were not armed to kill.”

  “But—they were,” I wail, remembering how Strohm suggested it was time to tuck her back into bed. If I had done it, she’d be okay. “They were!”

  “Yes,” Sanaa agrees. “Someone was. Not our men though.”

  “Why?” I wail again. I’m a mess, I know it, but I don’t care. These are not my people. These are the enemy. Despite what they say, they killed my daughter. They came after me and mine.

  Why am I even humouring her right now, when I should be killing her? But my arms don’t move. My rage lessens only ever so slightly.

  Blair. Sanaa. Even Franklin. I knew these people, I thought. They were my allies. What is wrong with this picture?

  “The Axiom,” Sanaa says, “was brought together to bring down this new leadership, this new life that the Sorens have created. This isn’t the Soren way, what they’re doing. But we’re not out to kill, either, especially not children. We wouldn’t harm a child. We just wouldn’t.”

  I already know that. I know Blair and Sanaa well enough, don’t I? Even Franklin. But who knows what these Axiom would do to “disrupt” the current Soren lifestyle?

  The truth fights to surface in my mind, but I push it down, because the only truth I can accept is that they need to die. Every single one of them, since they all want me and mine dead.

  After all, Strohm and I have lived like Prospos over the last couple of years, haven’t we? We live in Prospo homes, have servants like the Prospo. We’re called Leader and Lady, for crying out loud. We’ve been Prospo. I know this. It isn’t something I’ve thought about too much, thinking it was necessary—

  Maybe a part of me enjoyed the life too, if I’m to be completely honest. I didn’t want to bring Abigail up in the city where she wouldn’t have running water half the time, where she’d be hungry. I didn’t want her to have my childhood—that’s the honest truth. So I was bringing her up the Prospo way. If I wasn’t still so angry with them right now for killing her, I’d be disgusted with myself, with what I’ve become.

  I sit, crossing my legs and keeping my arms relaxed. I breathe, stay still for a few minutes, realizing that I’m trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean with my enemy.

  What do I do? What happens now? These Axiom, they’re out to stop the leadership. Now they’ve got me, and I’m the ‘face’ the people in Apex know more than any other. My eyes land on Blair and Franklin.

  What do they mean to do with me? And why haven’t they killed me? Will I be some sort of example they’ll make? What?

  Sanaa takes a deep breath. “We’re not the bad guys, Romy.”

  Abigail’s little face takes up my mind. “Right,” I growl. “You’re the good guys. You’re the ones going around killing innocent children that have nothing to do with your—war—your—whatever this is. Yes, you’re the good guys.” Even as I say it, the tickle in the back of my head gets stronger.

  Without any physical proof, I fight the thought, but I believe them. I believe they’d have no motivation to hurt children.

  Then, looking at Blair’s face, reading the pain in his eyes—something tells me the pain is not because I hurt him. He’s reacting to my heartbreak. Tears pool in his eyes and he doesn’t move to wipe them away as they join the blood on his face.

  “We’re trying to save our people, Romy,” Franklin says. “The general and Leader Strohm, they’ve lost their way. They’ve lost the Soren way.”

  “But they,” I growl, “did NOT kill my daughter. You did.” As the words fall out of my mouth, I know it’s true—for Strohm. He’d never hurt her.

  The general, on the other hand—

  My mind, first foggy with what I thought were the Axiom’s lies, their attempt to deceive me, focuses on the general’s face, so clear in my mind, I can see the pores in her skin. Much as I want to fight the thoughts, much as I want to find the Axiom guilty—this clicks into place like a missing puzzle piece. It makes more sense.

  But she wanted me to continue the bloodline, my brain argues. That’s been her motivation all along.

  Hasn’t it? I know that’s not entirely accurate. It’s two-fold—she wants the Mason Legacy to continue, above all, but for it to continue, she needs me. The general needs me to be compliant.

  She knows I’m not loyal to her. What would she make me go through to—break me—?

  Blair’s breathing is laboured. I can barely make out his eyes as I glare at him, but my eyes soften as the thoughts rush through my mind. He stares back at me, not saying a word, though the pain on his face matches the rips and shards in my heart.

  I finally notice the throbbing pain in my hands and look down at the bloodied mess. Strips of skin lay tattered to either side of my knuckles, a mix of his and my blood.

  “Okay,” Blair finally says. “If you believe we did that—to Abigail—you have every right to hate us, and you can have your vengeance. Before all that, you need us to come with you to EPrison. Franklin and I know our way around there. We can help you. We’ll help you find your Metrill. We’ll help you get in touch with them.”

  I nearly say I believe them and don’t think it’s them after all. I nearly say I know it was Mother, somehow, but without proof, I’m better off keeping the thoughts to myself.

  Still, I know Franklin wouldn’t hesitate to hurt me if she could. Wouldn’t she try to rub this in if she and the Axiom were the ones who killed Abigail? I want to fight the epiphany, but she did this. She did this!

  “And what makes you think I care about the Metrills anymore,” I say. The truth is, all this was just another way for me to miss Abigail less, wasn’t it? What do I care what the Metrills have in store to destroy the Earth? What do I care if we all blow up into oblivion right now?

  “Maybe they were right,” I say, my voice resigned. I’d had some hope with Abigai
l in my life. Now— “Maybe they had a point—humanity’s had its time. We’re no good for this earth. we deserve to die. Look at what a mess we get into, trying to ‘fix this’ and ‘make that better’. Maybe we should just let them do as they planned.”

  These are words that have never occurred to me. But what do I have to live for anymore, who do I have to live for now? The one light in my life is diminished. These people that I thought were my friends are my enemy. Aren’t they? I don’t love my so-called husband. My mother—I don’t even know where to start, with her—

  “There is a group of children,” Sanaa says, “that we can help, that we can save. Part of the Metrills’ plan is to bring some of them off-planet when they go. We can help so that all of them go. These kids are—extraordinary.”

  Kids—?

  “What kids?” I ask. The word triggers memories of Abigail in my arms and I shove them to the side, trying to focus on the matter at hand.

  “Kids a lot like the girl you’d met in the north,” Blair says. He turns his head to spit out a wad of blood.

  The girl I’d met—a picture of her pops up in my head. The girl I tried to save but couldn’t. The one that ran from me no matter what I said to her to try to save her life.

  “She wasn’t a Metrill?” I ask.

  “No,” Sanaa says. “She was something else entirely, and there are several others like her. We can help them.”

  “Why are you helping them?” I ask.

  “They might be the only chance for humanity,” Sanaa says. “You’re right. The Metrills have a point about us—about people as we are right now. We’ll never stop being—like this.”

  “And these—children?”

  “They’re incredible, Romy. They’re worth it. They’re worth everything.”

  I’m suddenly very tired. I don’t want to hear anymore. Nothing’s changed, I decide through the fog in my mind. They’re still my enemy and I have to find a way to destroy them.

  That’s when the boat lifts up into the sky so fast, I fall back and hit my head hard on the boat’s bottom. We all grunt, yell, and fall back, as the boat lands with a massive splash back into the ocean.