by Trevor Wyatt
“My grandfather was named James,” Lydia responded. “I never got to meet him, as he died really young. But the name stuck with me. It’s simple, I know, but I like it.”
“It’s perfect.”
“You like it too, don’t ya?” Lydia asked James, and he just squealed with delight, reaching for her hair with one tiny hand and grabbing a lock of it.
“By the way, Lydia, there’s something I must bring up.”
“Sure, anything.”
“Cassius Ojun, the Human Confederation Chancellor, wants to schedule a shuttle pickup for you. He wants to take you to Centralia, and I think he wants to meet you personally.” Ashley paused for a moment, allowing her words to sink in, and then continued. “But if you don’t want that, I think Jeryl and I can arrange something…might be we get some papers for you and James, and you’ll be able to stay in the Union.”
“Thank you, Ashley,” she responded, smiling patiently. There was something sad about her smile, but there was some wisdom in it as well. “I appreciate it, I really do. But there’s nothing like home, is there? I know life wasn’t perfect in Galea, but I’d like to go back one day…if that situation gets resolved, anyway.”
Ashley felt her heart tightening inside her chest, imagining how Lydia would react after The Seeker completed its mission and glassed her planet, but kept these thoughts to herself.
“But even if it has to be Centralia…I don’t mind. I grew up there, you know? Life wasn’t easy there, but…home is home. And if the Chancellor wants to meet us…well, maybe something good we’ll come out of it. If not, we’ll figure it out as we go along. Right, James?”
This time, little James didn’t coo or squeal. He just looked up right into his mother’s eyes, and smiled softly. For a moment, Ashley almost thought that even though the child couldn’t understand what his mother was saying, he could somehow understand her thoughts.
“As you wish, Lydia,” Ashley said gently, reaching for the woman and placing one hand on top of hers. “You’re a free woman.”
Maybe it’s better like this, Ashley thought. If we bring Lydia back, who knows what Armada Intelligence will do? She’s a non-Union civilian, and she has been on Galea…
“Still, I’m thankful for what you did. You saved our lives…if it weren’t for you...”
“Lydia,” Ashley whispered, softly squeezing the woman’s hand. “You saved yourself. You had the guts to escape the Udenar, and you put it all on the line. No matter what you might think, you were the one that did it.”
“I was just selfish. I left so many down there to die…but I didn’t want to risk it, you know? With James, I just…I just couldn’t stay there. Sure, we had friends, and even the rebel movement tried to help the ones that were worse off. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it—what if I die? Who will look after my son?”
“I know,” Ashley replied, but in truth, she really didn’t know. She didn’t have a son, and she had never been a mother. While she and Jeryl had talked about it, they had never made the decision to actually go for it.
Sure, they had lots of practice at making babies, but they never went the full mile. And deep down, Ashley ached for that; for quite some time now, she wanted to have someone in life who’d look up and call her ‘mother’. Someone who would give her a purpose in life…a purpose that didn’t involve a spaceship to commandeer and lives to gamble away with. A purpose that was about life, not about death.
“You’ll get there,” Lydia suddenly said, almost as if she could read Ashley’s thoughts. The Seeker’s first officer felt her blood rush to her cheeks, and she looked down at her feet to hide her embarrassment. “You’ll see.”
“Maybe,” Ashley replied, then tried to steer the conversation away from herself. “You never told us…how did you get that old shuttle? Stroke of luck?”
“No, not at all. A friend of ours had a farming operation, and he kept his old transport shuttles docked away from the town center. He never bothered to register them properly since he wasn’t using them anymore, so the Udenar missed it. He told the rebels about it, so they got the shuttle running, and told me where it was. They couldn’t do much more, you see? But what they did…it saved my life. Any of them could have taken the shuttle and escaped, but they gave it to me instead.”
“People there seem nice,” Ashley commented, but then regretted her words. Here she was, commenting on how nice Galeans were, when she knew that The Seeker was supposed to send them all on a first-class to hell in under 48 hours.
“They are. Maybe you could visit one day, if I ever manage to go back,” Lydia continued, and that just broke Ashley’s heart into two. How would she ever tell Lydia that everyone she had known on Galea was about to be murdered in cold-blood? “The planet’s beautiful. Woods as far as the eye can see, clear air…and even the crops are a sight to see. Fields of wheat that reach for the horizon. Centralia even sent a new fleet of transporters ships last year, just so they could haul the crops to the capital. When it comes to getting to their feet, the higher-ups don’t screw around—they even have the entire fleet run by a centralized AI and—”
“Wait, what?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m rambling,” Lydia laughed, then turned her attention to James, caressing his cheek with the back of her hand.
“Did you say centralized AI?”
“Yeah—for the most part, long-range transport shuttles are automated and run by a centralized AI. Keeps costs low.”
“Where’s that AI?”
“Each ship has an AI system, but when they’re down on the planet it all works in tandem with some kind of centralized AI. The ships receive their orders, and in a matter of a few hours they position themselves around all the locations where there are crops to be collected.”
Ashley didn’t even respond to Lydia. She just jumped out of her seat and ran out of the sickbay.
Maybe—just maybe—they had a chance to save the lives of all the civilians down on Galea.
Jeryl
“That is the most insane thing I’ve heard all year, Captain, I shit you not,” the man on the viewscreen replied, scratching the stubble on his chin.
“Well, that’s the only thing I can offer you, Mr. Ferguson,” Jeryl replied, waiting as the man taking over The Seeker’s CNC screen pondered on the two options Jeryl had just given him: to die, or to organize a revolution.
“Well, shit, if that’s the way it has to be…” Ferguson continued, taking an old ragged beanie hat from inside his jacket and placing it on his head. “Then you can count on me, Captain. Get me all the information via a secure channel, and then I’ll come back to you with all the details.”
Jeryl nodded, and Ferguson cut the comm link.
“Do you really think is going to work, Ash?” Jeryl asked, swiveling his chair around so that he could look at Ashley. The look on her face wasn’t a confident one, but at least it showed determination. Ashley’s idea had been exactly what they needed: a way out. But just like Ferguson had put it, it was a batshit crazy idea.
And Jeryl liked it.
“I don’t know, Jeryl, but we have to try,” she responded, and even managed to offer him a reassuring smile. Her words weren’t that encouraging, if Jeryl had to be honest about it, but he’d grab at anything by now. If going off the rails would give all these civilians on Galea a chance at survival, then Jeryl would do it.
“Captain, we’re receiving a data transmission from Galea,” Mary announced, and Jeryl nodded at her.
“Send back what we have. We need to be ready,” Jeryl ordered, and then pursed his lips as his mind wandered. Less than an hour ago Flynn had contacted him, telling him that Intelligence’s directives were for The Seeker to glass Galea. Time was a scarce asset, and Jeryl would have to move fast if he wanted his plan to succeed.
“Sir!” One of the security officers interrupted Jeryl’s train of thought, stopping right before the Captain’s chair and saluting him.
“Yes?”
“We have a tech on C
NC. Says he was summoned here,” the security officer said.
“He was. Bring him in,” Jeryl ordered, and the security officer snapped his heels together and walked out of the CNC.
He returned half a minute later with a young tech in tow. The tech looked so young Jeryl doubted he’d even grow a stubble if lost on an abandoned colony, but that didn’t matter—as long as he knew what he was doing, that’d be fine.
“Sir!”
“At ease, Daniel,” Jeryl said, looking at his name plate. “I’ve heard that you worked on a transporter company back in New Washington?” He asked him, cutting to the chase.
“Yes, sir. Since I was fourteen. My father owned a transporter company, and we used to do these runs back-and-forth from Alsanar whenever it was crop season in there.”
“And the crop pick-ups, how did that work?”
“Centralized system, sir. Operated the system quite a few times.”
“Good, then take a look this,” Jeryl told him, putting up the information Ferguson had just sent The Seeker the information he had concerning Galea’s centralized AI. He put the schematics for the crop transport shuttles on his holographic screen. “Think you can operate it?”
“Yeah, I think so. Doesn’t look so different from the one we used.”
“Good. Then gear up, because you’re going to accompany a landing team.”
“Where to?”
“Galea,” Jeryl said, and the man’s face immediately turned white. Jeryl half-expected him to start babbling about how he wasn’t ready for the job, but the man just smiled out of the blue.
“No need, sir. I can operate the system remotely. If you’re suggesting we hijack a system like this, we just need the landing team to jack it in. From there, I can operate it remotely,” he said, and Jeryl could almost feel the tension leaving his body as he offered his suggestion.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, sir.”
“Then assemble a team of whatever techs you need, and be ready for it. First Officer Gavin will brief you later today on the details of the mission.”
“Yes, sir!” The man said, and then just marched out of CNC, a skip to his step. He sounded happy that the Captain himself had handed him an important mission—and even happier that he wouldn’t have to leave the ship in order to get it done. Jeryl would prefer for the tech to accompany the landing team, but all it took was one look at the guy to know that was a bad idea; he’d get in the way, end up getting shot, and ruin the whole damn mission. If operating the AI remotely was an option, then that would be Jeryl’s choice.
“Well, that was the only thing we needed,” Ashley said, lowering her voice so that the other officers couldn’t hear them. “If that guy Daniel can pull it off, then we’re set.”
“Have you assembled a team?”
“Yup. We’re all set. Tira’s going to be a part of it too. That girl can kick some serious ass. What about the Sonali diplomat?”
“He’s down,” Jeryl nodded. Convincing the Sonali to take part in high-stakes political maneuvers hadn’t been easy, but in the end they agreed. Jeryl had stopped the war between humans and Sonali, after all, and that was the least they could do. “It took some convincing, but I figured even the Sonali have a heart. Besides, I think they don’t mind sticking it to the Tyreesians and the Union at the same time.”
“And Flynn?”
“I haven’t told him. And I probably won’t tell him either. Intelligence doesn’t play around, and they might have even bugged his office just so they’re not blindsided. It’s better we keep this in house.”
“Agreed.”
“Well, fun times, huh?” Jeryl asked his wife, a mischievous smile on his lips.
“It’d be boring otherwise,” she smiled back.
Mentally going over the plan they had designed, Jeryl couldn’t stop one thought from crossing his mind.
Better alive and bored, than dead and glorious. Then, he looked around the CNC, watching as all his officers operated The Seeker, a flying weapon that had cost billions of credits.
Or, fuck it, maybe it’s the other way around.
Jeryl
“All set!”
Jeryl paced back and forth anxiously, watching as all the pilots took their positions inside the Hunters. He looked at Hunter 9 for a moment, then sighed as he watched Powers climb aboard; he knew how much Ashley loved her Hunter, but this time she had to give up the reigns of her killing machine—she had a different job to do.
“Well…” She started, coming up behind him. “See you on the other side, then?”
“No,” he corrected her. “But I’ll see you in my bed after we’re done.”
“Is that a promise, Captain?” she asked, a slight laugh bubbling up to her lips.
“You bet,” he smiled, trying to hide all the anxiety that was starting to creep in. Once more, he was sending Ashley on what most Admirals would consider a suicide mission, and she wasn’t even batting an eye. Jeryl couldn’t even say if he loved her for it, or if he hated himself for his callousness.
Perhaps it was a little bit of both.
Either way, none of that mattered, because there was no going back. According to the last briefing he had received, riots had already started all over Galea, and now they would have to move extremely fast. The plan was already in motion, and Jeryl wouldn’t allow indecisiveness to fuck it all up.
The first phase was a simple one. According to the plan he devised with Ferguson, one of the Galean rebel leaders, the rebel network on Galea would have to coordinate massive riots across all major towns and cities where the Udenar had set up shop – and that so all parts of the population concentrated on specific spots. After that, it’d be Jeryl’s job to lure most Udenar out of the planet as Ashley takes a landing party onto the surface.
The Udenar would be distracted with all the riots erupting across the planet, and then it’d only be a matter of gaining access to the transporter’s AI system. If all went well, and the rebel network coordinated things well enough, they’d be able to load up most civilians inside the transporters, allowing Jeryl to glass the planet with no major casualties.
Then, the fate of all these refugees would be in the hands of the Sonali.
Using all of his diplomatic clout with the Sonali, Jeryl had managed to convince them to accept all the refugees into their territory. They’d be set up on some distant farming colony, one that the Sonali didn’t really care about, while keeping everything under wraps. Jeryl didn’t want Armada Intelligence to have any ideas and decide to axe every single civilian involved in the Galea affair. It was preferable for them to think that all Galeans were dead, and that Jeryl was a murderous maniac that wouldn’t mind glassing a colony along with its inhabitants.
“Let’s do this,” Ashley finally said, slinging her rifle over her shoulder, and starting to make her way toward the shuttle. Her crew, Tira included, was already strapped in and waiting for her, every single member of the party armed to the teeth.
For a moment, Jeryl almost wished he could delegate his job as a captain and just get down on the damn planet along with the others. Watching the world through the scope of a laser rifle sure would be way easier than through a myriad of screens, sensors and scanners.
Pushing all those thoughts out from his head, Jeryl mentally ran through every single detail of the operation again as he made his way back to the CNC, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.
At the CNC, all his officers were already manning their stations, ready to oversee the following phases of the operation—one that Jeryl had mentally called don’t-fuck-this-up.
“Alright, everyone,” he started, taking his seat. “We only have one shot at this, so let’s try and make sure we get it right.”
“Yes, sir,” everyone responded, and then they fell back into the usual hushed conversation that was a constant in any self-respecting CNC.
“We’re ready to jump, sir,” Ferriero said, and Jeryl gave him the go-ahead, his stomach in knots.
>
No turning back now, he thought, echoing his thoughts from before.
Two minutes later and they were in Galea’s orbit. Jeryl’s heart started drumming like a war drum.
“Hunters have been deployed, sir,” one of the ensigns replacing Tira announced, and Jeryl took a deep breath as he watched the holographic projection of Galea’s orbit, the blue dots representing the Hunters scattering in different directions.
The plan was simple: each hunter was towing a probe, and each probe carried long-range signal transmitters that had been modified by The Seeker’s engineers. The probes would be spread around the planet’s orbit, and they’d start broadcasting hundreds of different signals, all of them representing Armada ships.
If the Udenar bought that, their forces would be split as they fly around the planet aimlessly, trying to figure out where the hell the Union battleships are. With any luck, Galea would be evacuated by the time the Udenar figured it out.
Of course, The Seeker would have to deal with some of the Udenar forces anyway. In order to launch the shuttle carrying Ashley’s team (and make sure she got there fast), The Seeker had to jump very close to planet—and that meant Udenar raiders were probably coming toward them already.
“Hostiles detected, Sir!”
“Shuttle has been launched!”
“Probles deployed, the Hunters are circling back!”
Jeryl took a deep breath, trying to calm himself as he processed the onslaught of information his officers were giving him. Slowly, he rose from his seat and calmly looked around the room, fully knowing that The Seeker was going to step into a battle where the odds weren’t exactly even.
If the Udenar realized that they were falling into a trap, all of their forces would be redirected to The Seeker, and that…well, that’d be game over.
“Not on my watch, assholes,” Jeryl mumbled as he watched the screens, dozens of blinking red dots making their way toward The Seeker.
“Bring it on.”