by Ryk Brown
“And how many of those eighty-seven ships could we arm?”
“Upwards of half, based on current intelligence. Unfortunately, most of them are avoiding the cluster, for fear of capture.”
“Then we must give them something they fear more,” Lord Dusahn told him. He stopped at the base of his shuttle’s boarding ramp. “You have access to their registries? Their crew rosters?”
“Indeed.”
“Then round up their families, and feel free to be brutal about it. Once they learn that we have them, most will return immediately.”
“And those who do not?”
“Kill their families, hunt them down and destroy them without mercy,” Lord Dusahn instructed. “I may be willing to answer questions from men who think themselves important, but I will not tolerate disobedience.”
“And what of Ybara?” the general wondered. “Did you really wish it cleansed?”
“I would have expected it already finished,” Lord Dusahn said as he turned and headed up the boarding ramp.
* * *
“Vids from all over Corinair have popped up on the global-net, showing families of the crews of jump ships being taken into custody, a consequence of those crews not responding to the Dusahn’s demands to return and relinquish control of their vessels. In Aitkenna alone, fourteen families have been arrested, and six deaths have occurred among those families during the arrests. The fact that the Dusahn have allowed these vids to be distributed without restriction indicates that they wish the crews, of what the Dusahn are referring to as ‘illegally operated jump ships’, to see what is happening to their families as a result of their refusal to comply with the new Dusahn directive. We will continue to broadcast updates as allowed, but we strongly urge the captains of these ‘outlaw’ vessels to surrender their ships to the Dusahn, before more innocent people are incarcerated, or worse.”
“My friend, Allaya… Her entire family was taken not more than an hour ago,” Morri said, as his father turned off the view screen on the wall in the store office. “She was away at the time. She called me in a panic.”
“Where is she now?” Anji asked.
“I do not know. She is hiding. She said she would call back when she could.”
“Tell her to come here,” Anji instructed his son.
“But, she will be discovered. If the Dusahn learn her identity, we will all be punished.”
“Then we must make sure they do not learn her true identity,” Anji replied.
Morri looked at his father. “What are we going to do?”
“The same thing Corinairans always do,” Anji replied. “We survive, and we’ll be ready to fight.”
“But how?”
“Any way we can.”
* * *
Connor walked into the Seiiki’s galley, finding Josh and Marcus sitting in the booth in the corner.
“Captain,” Marcus greeted from the table.
“Marcus, Josh,” Connor replied. “Is that jina?” he asked, pointing at the full decanter in its wall cubby. “Where’d we get jina?”
“From the Ghatazhak mess,” Josh replied. “They dry it and grind it themselves.”
“Don’t know why they go to all that trouble,” Marcus muttered. “Them beans are stronger raw.”
“Maybe, but they’re bitter and disgusting,” Josh argued.
“But they keep you awake.”
“I’ll take brewed jina over fresh any day,” Josh insisted.
“You and me both,” Connor agreed as he poured himself a cup.
“You talk to the doctor?” Josh wondered.
“I did,” Connor replied as he stirred his jina.
“And what did she say?” Josh asked. “If you do the transfer, will you still be you?”
“Will I still be me?” Connor shook his head as he moved over to the table. “If you mean, will I still remember my experiences as Connor Tuplo, then the answer appears to be yes, although there doesn’t appear to be any guarantees on that.”
“Then, are you gonna do it?” Josh wondered.
“I don’t know.” Connor sat down and took a sip of his jina.
“Don’t you want to remember who you are? Where you came from? Your family?”
“Josh,” Marcus scolded. “Give the man a break.”
“I’d wanna know,” Josh continued.
“Even if a lot of painful memories came along with it?” Connor asked. “Nathan Scott had to make a lot of difficult decisions. Decisions that caused people to die. A lot of people. There’s got to be a lot of baggage that goes along with all that. A lot of guilt. A lot of pain. Do I really want to bring all of that back onto myself?” Connor took another sip of his jina. “Maybe I’m better off as Connor Tuplo.”
“Then why don’t you look very convinced?” Marcus wondered.
“That obvious, huh?”
“Yup.”
Connor shook his head and sighed. “It’s the way that old man looked at me when he died. Like a ghost from his past, or something. He really believed I was Na-Tan, and that I could save them all.”
“We all do, Cap’n,” Josh said. “Why the hell do you think we’ve been hanging around with ya all these years?”
“The Jung have jump ships, Josh,” Connor said. “Lots of them. The Ghatazhak only have a handful of ships, and small ones at that. There’s no way they can take on the Jung.”
“It ain’t about winning,” Marcus told Connor. “It’s about fightin’. Yeah, the idea is to win. But it’s about standing up for what’s right.” Marcus chuckled. “Like I’m one to talk.”
“Even if you don’t stand a chance in hell?”
“Especially if you don’t stand a chance in hell,” Marcus insisted.
“Actually, the expression is, ‘a snowball’s chance in hell’,” Josh corrected.
Marcus glared at him. “That’s partly why Nathan Scott was such a legend,” Marcus continued, turning his attention back to Connor. “You could always count on him to do the right thing, regardless of the odds.”
“But I’m not him,” Connor pointed out. “Not unless I go through with the transfer.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Marcus argued.
Connor cast a quizzical look Marcus’s way.
“You took the Rama job, didn’t you?”
“We needed the money,” Connor shrugged.
“The money was shit,” Marcus argued. “Said so yourself. You took the Corinair rescue as well.”
“Because they fixed my ship, fueled her, and loaded her up, including this jina,” Connor pointed out.
“Bullshit. You still could’ve said no, and you know it,” Marcus argued. “You took the run because it was the right thing to do. You took it because people who once meant something to you were in trouble.”
“You took it because my best friend’s wife and daughter were in trouble, as well,” Josh pointed out.
Connor took another sip. “And here I thought I took it because a pretty girl asked me to.” He looked at them both. “You know, I’m not as noble as you both seem to think I am.”
“I’m bettin’ you are,” Marcus replied.
“So am I,” Josh added.
Connor sighed, thinking for a moment. “And if I refuse the transfer, and set a course out of here?” Connor asked. “Are you two going to come with me?”
Marcus and Josh exchanged glances, after which Marcus spoke. “We won’t like it, but we’ll go. That’s what family does. And crew is family.”
Connor sighed again. “Yes, they are… They truly are.”
* * *
Coln Augist stood on the edge of the crowd, listening to the voices of the protesters as they chanted their angry war dirges. It had only been three days since t
he Alliance super-weapons had obliterated Nor-Zerest, Nor-Tempali, and Nor-Jurost, along with several strategic posts in systems further away from the core of the Jung sector. Although civilian casualties had been relatively minor, more than a million of the Jung warrior castes had lost their lives in the blink of an eye. The devastation of the targeted worlds had been complete. In the case of Zhu-Dengari, there was nothing left. Nothing but debris.
Coln had not seen the people of Nor-Patri this angry since one of Nor-Patri’s moons, Zhu-Anok, had been destroyed seven years prior. It had rained destruction down upon the very world on which he now stood. To this day, a ring of debris could still be seen in the night sky over the Jung homeworld.
He and his fellow spies had been inserted during the weeks of chaos that had followed. It had been relatively easy to blend into Jung society, as many of the data records had been destroyed in the attack. Millions of identities had to be rebuilt, and it was well-known that more than a few of those identities had been false. Common criminals, people wishing to escape debt, even a few desperate to escape a loveless marriage…they had all used the confusion to start anew.
Coln had always expected to be caught. Time and again, he had wanted to send word to his father that he was alive. But doing so would, most likely, have led to his capture. And his presence on Nor-Patri was too valuable to the Alliance to risk for personal needs. He always told himself that the day would come when it would be safe to seek out his father, but with each passing year, that day seemed further away.
The crowds called upon their leaders to strike back at the Alliance for the unwarranted attack. They carried pictures of loved ones whose lives had been taken without cause. They carried banners of the various warrior castes, urging them to seize power from the leadership castes and destroy the Alliance once and for all. More importantly, they demanded to know why their leaders had not reacted to the attack upon the empire.
It was a question that Coln needed answers to, as well. And he needed them before he transmitted his next covert report back to the Alliance through the jump comm-drone that visited the Jung homeworld at random, but frequent, intervals in order to maintain communications between the two worlds.
He only hoped the jump comm-drone was still operating.
* * *
Twelve of the sixteen Dusahn ships in orbit around Takara disappeared behind flashes of blue-white light. A split second later, four of them appeared a few hundred thousand kilometers from the fifth planet in the Takar system, Ybara. The ships settled into orbit around the large, rocky world, spreading out evenly across the planet’s middle latitudes, until the entire side of the planet was within range of the small task force’s weapons.
Ybaran fighters, secured by services the Ybaran Ghatazhak had once performed for several noble houses of Takara, came up from the surface to challenge the Dusahn forces. The Ybarans were heavily outgunned, even though the Dusahn had sent four of their smallest warships. But the Ybarans were a proud people, and would not go down without a fight.
The Ybaran fighters were met with precise rail-gun fire from the Dusahn ships. Within the first minute of the engagement, the Ybaran forces were reduced by half. After another minute, they were cut in half again. By the third minute, there were only a handful of fighters left. The remaining fighters veered away, instead taking up positions to protect the more than twenty shuttles attempting to flee their doomed world. If their world was to die, at least some of their numbers might escape alive and start over elsewhere.
But the Dusahn were unwilling to let a single Ybaran escape. Their message to all the other worlds in the Pentaurus cluster, and beyond, was to be clear. Disobedience would not be tolerated.
Waves of Dusahn interceptors came streaming out of all four ships. Twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight. Within a minute, the Ybarans were outnumbered ten to one. Their fighters were quickly dispatched, as were the shuttles they fought to protect. Several jump-enabled shuttles managed to make it away, only to be pursued by the Dusahn interceptors. They too, would be hunted down and destroyed without mercy.
Once the skies above Ybara were clear of resistance, the Dusahn ships went to work on the Ybaran ground defenses. One by one, missile bases and surface-to-orbit plasma cannons were targeted and destroyed by Dusahn surface-attack fighters. The fighters cleared a swath around the planet, leaving it wide open for orbital bombardment.
Weapons fell from the bays of the four Dusahn warships. Once through the upper atmosphere, their warheads separated, fanning out toward preprogrammed targets on the surface. The first lap around the planet saw the destruction of all the Ybaran surface defenses, as well as her major cities and infrastructure. The second lap destroyed all remaining pockets of civilization, as well as the limited Ybaran industrial capabilities.
By the time the Dusahn ships began their third attack pass around Ybara, little of significance was left to target, yet they continued to do so. Surface-attack fighters buzzed low over the surface of Ybara, taking care to stay clear of the orbital bombardment. They hunted in packs, searching for any signs of human life to extinguish. Once every Ybaran had been eliminated, they turned their attention to the few buildings still standing.
Eight hours later, the surface fighters and interceptors returned to their home ships, and the four Dusahn warships broke orbit and disappeared behind flashes of blue-white light, bound for other systems to join their fellow warships in further conquest.
All that remained on the surface of Ybara were the rubble of buildings, the thick smoke from countless fires, intense radiation, and the lingering smell of death, from pole to pole.
The world of Ybara was no more.
CHAPTER TWO
Connor sat atop the Seiiki, just aft of the windows that had once offered tremendous views from the owner’s cabin below, but now opened into the upper passenger compartment. He sat gazing at the distant aurora, shimmering on the horizon. It was a phenomenon common to most of the worlds he had visited in his lifetime, yet it always amazed him nonetheless.
My lifetime.
It was a term that had confused him ever since he had awakened after the accident. And now, it confused him even more. His lifetime, everything that had occurred prior to waking in the hospital on Corinair, was still undefined to him. Unfortunately, recent events had further mired that past. Over the years, he had managed to come to grips with what he thought his past to be, despite the fact that all he had were tiny flashes of memory. He had desperately wanted to remember it all, but now, he was not so sure.
“Care for some company?” Jessica called out from behind as she topped the aft access ladder. When Connor did not voice his objection, she continued forward. “Nice view,” she said, pausing to take in the vista. “We don’t often see the aurora at this latitude.” She sat down next to him. “Have you seen a lot of them?”
“A few,” Connor replied. After taking a breath, he added, “In Angla, it means ‘new dawn’.”
“Kind of appropriate, huh?”
Connor looked at her, puzzled.
“Well, you’re trying to decide whether or not to go through with the transfer, and become Nathan again, right? That would be a new dawn of sorts. Not only for you, but likely for this entire sector.”
Connor shook his head. “I think you put too much faith in me…or him.”
Jessica smiled. “You’re so much like him, you know. Even after all that he accomplished, Nathan never felt qualified to be the leader that he had already become. He always felt like he was pretending to be captain and that, sooner or later, everyone would find out the truth.”
Connor sighed, looking down at the bow of the Seiiki in front of him. “I know the feeling. I never really felt like the captain of the Seiiki. The fact that I owned her was the only thing that made me feel even remotely justified to be in charge. Of course, now I know that she doesn’t really belong to me…”
“But she does,” Jessica insisted, cutting him off. “Deliza gave her to you.”
“But her registration…”
“A bit shady, I’ll admit,” Jessica replied. “But there’s no law that says you can’t rename a ship. Marcus just did it in a way that would make it difficult for anyone to figure out that she was once the Mirai. The Seiiki is your ship, trust me.”
Connor didn’t respond at first. He looked up at the sky, this time gazing at the stars directly overhead. “And I can still take her and leave, anytime I wish?”
“That was the deal,” Jessica replied.
Connor could hear the discord in her voice. “You know, rumor has it that there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of human-inhabited worlds out there,” he said, still gazing at the stars overhead.
“It’s not a rumor,” Jessica assured him. “The Data Ark had records of at least three hundred colony expeditions intending to establish a colony well outside the Sol sector. And that doesn’t include those who fled to escape the plague. The people who settled Corinair were on one of those ships. Their own history speaks of ships departing in droves. At least a few per week, and that was just on one core world.”
Connor continued scanning the stars as he spoke. “Yup, I could spend a lifetime exploring them. I could probably make a good living, as well. They likely don’t have jump drives.”
“Then, why didn’t you?”
Connor looked at her, puzzled again.
“You could have left this sector years ago,” she continued. “Why did you stay?”
“I don’t know. Expenses, upgrades, maintenance… They kept us taking jobs just to keep our heads above water.”
Jessica smiled.
“What?” Connor asked, puzzled by her smile.
“‘Head above water’. It’s an Earth expression. You don’t hear it much in this part of the galaxy.” She poked him in the chest. “You see, he’s in there. You know that, don’t you?”