He soon took a seat at the bench where he always did, and the other two joined him. Not a word was spoken as he took in the views of the sea. He closed his eyes and listened to the artificial sounds, trying to imagine it were real. He hoped in that moment that he could experience the real thing just one more time.
“Do you think she is definitely coming?” Jones finally asked.
“She’ll come.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I am here.”
“So?”
“And the Colonel is a royal pain in her ass.”
Taylor smiled and finally laughed as he thought about how much grief he had caused her. The other two joined in, and that brought some relief.
“The most powerful being we have ever met in the universe, and you are a thorn in her side, why am I not surprised?”
“You certainly do have a way with people,” said Rogers.
“But she isn’t a person, she is a devil, or as close to one as any living being could be.”
Rogers could not agree with that, especially after the conversation they had already had on the matter. But in this moment, he wasn’t willing to pick a fight.
“I was there, you know, when all this began, when we awoke her kind,” said Jones.
“Yes, I am well aware.”
Jones looked surprised.
“You think I wouldn’t have a file on you as thorough as I do on Taylor?”
Jones was stunned.
“Of course, it’s just rather smaller and a little less colourful.”
“It was that mission that caused all this to begin. I’d wanted the mission more than anything in the world. A chance to spread my wings, and go out there into distant lands like an explorer of old. Back when there were uncharted territories on Earth. It was exciting, more than anything else in my life. It is what I worked towards since the day I could read, and now look where it has led us.”
“You don’t think you are in any way to blame for this, do you?”
“I pushed for that mission. I was responsible for large elements of it, and it was me who was on the ground making the decisions. Maybe if we had never gone there. Maybe if we had never landed and looked into that place, just maybe…”
“Stop right there. This isn’t on you, none of it,” said Rogers.
Jones was surprised to hear such words of support from the Captain. Their relationship had been cold from the very beginning. Jones had felt Rogers was replacing him, but now he was seeing another side.
“None of us could be crazy enough to ever want any of this, but look what good has come of it. Taylor would never have returned to us. None of us would have become friends. We live in trying times, but that isn’t to say they are entirely bad ones. Good things have come of them, too.”
“That’s a pretty damn interesting perspective you’ve got there,” said Taylor.
“You can’t deny it. Pretty much all you have known in your adult lifetime is war. Or at least for as long as you can remember, and would you say they were entirely bad or dark times? Think of all the people you have met. The people you have loved, the friendships you have fostered.”
Taylor nodded in agreement.
“All of that good came because of all this bad,” added Rogers.
“Well, shit, that is a fucked up way of looking at the world.” Taylor smiled.
“I don’t know, maybe he has a point.”
“Not you as well, Jones? Well, go on, explain it to me.”
“It seems pretty clear to me, that there is good in life whenever and wherever you look. All we have to do is accept it, and enjoy it while we can.”
Taylor’s eyes widened, and he laughed out loud. “Well, where did that sudden bit of philosophy come from?”
“He’s on the right track,” added Rogers.
That brought silence to Taylor. The two of them finally seemed to have settled their differences and ganged up on him.
“You see? This right here, would you not call us friends?” Rogers asked.
“Of course I would.”
“Then you have your answer.”
Taylor groaned, and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. The truth was he didn’t know any different anymore. War to him was just routine life, and yet still there was good in it, and he knew he couldn’t keep going if there wasn’t.
“It’s what we fight for, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” replied Rogers quickly, “We might say we do it for the benefit of those we have never known and will never know, and I would like to think that plays a part. But the real truth is we do it for our friends, our families, and ourselves.”
“That’s a pretty cynical outlook for a religious man, don’t you think?”
“That we are motivated to do what we do for love? Not at all, Colonel, I cannot think of a more noble cause, and that is what separates us from Bolormaa and her kind. She may have family, but she does not know what love is, or friendship, or anything that sets us apart from a monster like her.”
“Amen to that.”
Rogers grinned.
“What’s so funny?”
“Just that you accepted defeat.”
“The great Colonel Mitch Taylor defeated. Who would have thought it? And all it took were a few words of wisdom about the bonds between us.”
The truth was he knew it to be true. It was his friends who kept him going, and always had been.
“It’s been an honour, Gentlemen, it truly has,” he declared.
“And for us,” said Rogers.
“Just promise me one thing?”
“What is it?” Jones asked.
“This duty, it must go on beyond death.”
“Of course,” replied Rogers.
“Then promise me, both of you. No matter what happens here, whoever remains will not stop looking for Alita, and will not stop trying to bring her back.”
“You have my word,” said Rogers.
“Of course,” added Jones.
Taylor knew he didn’t have to say another word. He trusted them with everything, including his own life. They would not let him down, even if he were not there to see it. He was finally relaxed and content. That was the last thing he needed to get in order if he was going to die. He couldn’t go to the grave knowing she had been forgotten.
A jump gate opened before them, and a ship soared through into view, so close they could make out its name with their own eyes, and yet that wouldn’t be necessary. Taylor would recognise it from a klick away. It was the Phoenix. A few moments later, Taylor’s comms light flashed, and he knew it was no coincidence.
“I thought he was at death’s door?” Jones asked in reference to CJ.
“He is,” replied Rogers.
Vega came on the line.
“Colonel, I have Captain Kaner of the Phoenix requesting to speak with you personally.”
“Put him though.”
Almost immediately the Krys officer appeared projected before him, and Mirov was with him.
“What can I do for you, Captain?”
“Sir, it was Captain Jaeger’s request that were he ever to be killed or rendered unable to fulfil his duty, that we were to report to you. We will fight for you.”
Taylor was shocked.
“CJ…he gave that order?”
“He did, Colonel. He was very clear.”
CHAPTER 9
“All stations, red alert! I repeat, all stations, red alert! This is not a drill. Colonel Taylor to the bridge. I repeat, Colonel Taylor to the bridge.”
“This is it,” said Taylor as he shot up.
“It could be anything,” said Jones.
“No, if this were anything but the certainty of Bolormaa’s arrival, the Admiral would not bring us to combat order. No, this has to be it, Jones.”
He rushed on as the other skipped forwards to keep up. They were on the bridge in no time. A few Morohtan ships were already on screen, and they arrived just in time to see Bolormaa’s personal s
hip arrive through another gateway, followed by dozens more ships. In no time at all a fleet was standing before them that matched them ship for ship, and no one was under any illusions about how powerful some of them were.
“You wanted Bolormaa, well, you got her, Colonel,” said Vega.
“I want her dead, that is what I want, and I won’t be happy until I see that day.”
“So what now?” asked Jones.
There was complete silence as they watched the enemy fleet. They had come to a standstill after coming through the jump gate, and held position several kilometres out, as if they were trying to intimidate the Alliance fleet. It was working.
“Let the games begin,” said Rogers.
“What is she waiting for?”
“I should imagine that right now she is eying up what we have, Jones, and deciding if she can afford to lose what it would take to defeat us.”
“You talk like we could never win.”
“Of course we couldn’t, not against that. But it will cost here dearly to overcome us. She might claim to be all powerful and with never-ending resources, but that cannot be true. This war has spread her thin, and every day we see her reach getting just a little shorter. She isn’t as all powerful as she would have you believe.”
“And you know this?”
Rogers couldn’t confirm it.
“So it’s a guess? That’s a pretty big assumption to make without evidence.”
“It is not without evidence. This is the nature of intelligence gathering. Get as much as you can from as many sources as you can, put them together, and then try to make some sense of it all.”
“You make it all sound so simple.”
“Well, sometimes it can be. I hold onto my belief that she isn’t a complicated character. She is single-minded, arrogant, and self-centred. She was born into power and wealth that she does not respect and has never known anything else. She’s like a child born into the body of a giant. Able to go and do as they please without consequences.”
“And you got all that from what?”
“Endless research, data gathering. A multitude of sources, and equipment that is classified way beyond what I could tell you about.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” replied Jones with a smile.
“I’m almost certainly right, though, you know. This is for show, and if she is willing to throw away so much of what she has left, then she is desperate, more than you know.”
“Or maybe she can afford to lose a fleet, when we cannot.”
“Or that, too. Intel isn’t always correct.”
“Well, that’s really very reassuring.”
“In my work, we don’t work in absolutes. It’s all about probabilities.”
“Yeah, and how often are you wrong?”
“Less than you would think, and more than I would like.”
The bridge fell silent. An experience that was getting all too familiar as the nail-biting tension returned to everyone around Taylor. He didn’t know what to say or do, and was finally saved by the sound of an incoming call.
“We’re being hailed, Sir,” said one of the crew incredulously.
“By who?” Vega asked.
“By…the enemy’s flagship, Sir.”
Vega looked to Taylor for answers. None of them had expected it, and Taylor looked to Rogers for help as an intelligence advisor and analyst. He just shrugged, as if expecting Taylor to make the call.
“Do we answer this or not?”
“We can’t be seen to hide anything, Admiral, but there’s no need to announce where we are. Scramble our frequency and only put me through. I don’t want her to see who else is here, or for her to know where the signal is coming from.”
“Don’t you want her to know this is where you intend to make your stand?”
“No, I don’t want to make it that easy for her.”
“You are playing a dangerous game, Colonel.”
“When do we not? Put her through.”
Vega gestured for his crew to do as he asked. It took a few moments, but then Bolormaa appeared on screen. It was a small screen, but they could all see her. Or what she chose to show. They could just about make out a rough silhouette of her face, and her bright gleaming eyes.
“Do you now have nowhere left to run?” she asked.
Her voice was coarse and guttural. For most of the crew it was a new experience to hear her speak, and it was clear it made them sick to the stomach. Even Taylor felt a shiver run down his spine. He thought he had made his peace with having to face her one more time. He knew now that he could never be comfortable with that situation. There was something about her. It was something deeply evil and intimidating.
“I don’t need an excuse to return home to Earth. It is my home,” he replied calmly.
“And it is here that you would choose to draw your last breath?”
“I didn’t come here to lose.”
Bolormaa began to laugh, her slow reverberating laugh that echoed around the bridge.
“You have one chance left. Submit to me without question, and I will let your pathetic race live.”
“As slaves to you and your kind?”
“You should be honoured to live in servitude to a god.”
The thought of what that would actually mean shot into his head, and he wondered if the death and destruction would be any less than if they were at war. It would just be combined with this loss of their dignity and repeated humiliation at the hands of a sick and twisted master.
“I will never be a slave to any creature in this universe, and especially not to a false liar that would claim to be a god!” he retaliated.
“You will accept me, or die!”
“Then you have your answer.”
Bolormaa went silent as she glared at him and thought up her next move.
“This fight will be decided between you and I. Come aboard my ship, and save your people.”
Taylor was already shaking his head.
“Not a chance. I wouldn’t trust you with a single thing in my life. You are a liar, a deceiver, and a monster. No, you come to fight on my ground, on my terms.”
“Bolormaa answers to no demands!”
“And what are you going to do about it?”
She looked pained, and Rogers was already smiling.
“You see,” he whispered to Jones, “She doesn’t want to commit her fleet. She cannot afford to keep taking these losses. This war has cost her more dearly than she could ever expected it to.”
“And yet she defeated the Krys and Aranui before,” replied Jones.
“Yes, centuries ago, and in isolation. But things have changed in that time, and now we stand together, and strong.”
“Some of us anyway.”
“Irala saw to it that we benefitted greatly from his people. We now possess some of the best of what the Aranui created.”
Jones didn’t look convinced. The prospect that Bolormaa’s forces were weakening seemed like wishful thinking.
“Come to me, what are you afraid of?” Taylor demanded.
“I take orders from no one!” Bolormaa roared.
The transmission cut off from her end.
“A deal, you think she ever would have kept it?”
“Look at the way she treats her subjects, Admiral. Death would be preferable to a life in servitude to that bitch.”
“The Colonel is right, and she would never keep her promises. Many more of us would die after such a deal as they would if we kept fighting,” added Rogers.
“Sir, the enemy fleet is on the move,” said one of Vega’s officers.
“Arm weapons and target the enemy, but do not open fire until fired upon!” Vega ordered.
Taylor looked at him in surprise.
“We still don’t know what her intentions are here. Let’s not be the one that instigates a fight that we cannot win. Never start a fight you know you cannot win.”
“I am not sure the Colonel ever got that memo,” said Jones quietly.
<
br /> “Target Bolormaa’s own ship. If a single one of the enemy open fire, you give her everything we have got!” said Vega.
“You can’t defeat her capitol ship. It is too powerful,” said Rogers.
“Maybe, but I won’t let her waltz around uncontested. If she is coming after us, then I won’t make it easy for her.”
They waited and watched with bated breath as the enemy fleet descended upon them. The flat, black matt ships that bounced no light. They looked like an army of shadows approaching to plunge them into darkness, and that is just how it felt.
“Finally, the time has come,” said Rogers.
“You were looking forward to this?”
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, Jones, but it is the culmination of all our efforts, and finally our chance to put an end to this madness.”
“Or die a horrible death, and leave Earth to the mercy of the most despicable creature ever known to man.”
“Yes, or that.”
“And you have faith that you and Taylor can do this?”
“Of course I do. I have to. Without that faith we would have no business being here.”
“You know what I mean, not blind faith. Faith based on facts, and intelligence, and the balance of probabilities. That is what you work in, isn’t it? Is there hope?”
Rogers sighed.
“There never was much hope, but that is not a reason to give up.”
“The enemy will be in range in thirty seconds, Sir!”
“Hold your fire. Wait for it!”
“She isn’t going to stop now, is she?” asked Jones.
“She has no choice. We have defied her, so she has to put us in our place, or risk being thought of as weak.”
“And if Taylor had gone to her?”
“Then he would die. Bolormaa wants to be seen as honourable in her own twisted kind of way, but she is also unwilling to lose. If she thought for a moment there was some chance that she could lose, Taylor would be dead before he could even throw a strike.”
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