by C. R. Turner
As we crest the hill, a small city ahead is surrounded by more hills and bush.
“This must be it,” Hawkins says.
With only a few hours of daylight left, I worry we might actually have to stay the night. The buildings on the city outskirts have been ruined by gunfire and explosions. It’s deathly quiet. I check my Core-link and lead the way. As Max and Jade walk on, a metallic clank catches our attention. An older woman runs out from a building and disappears down a side alley. Hawkins slides his Ashra off his back and holds it at the ready. Not a bad idea.
Half an hour later, we approach the city centre. The buildings are a mix of modern steel and glass, or old concrete and bricks, none of them very tall. There’s no electricity by the looks of it, though. I read my Core-link once more before directing Max down a side street. Up ahead, a four-storey building is surrounded by a ten-foot-high concrete perimeter fence. When we’re just a few hundred feet away, the gates open and two Union soldiers emerge.
Crack.
Something whizzes over our heads, breaking the silence. I frown at Hawkins. Dozens of Antarum soldiers, a thousand or so feet away, are heading our way.
Crack. Crack.
“Are they shooting at us?” I ask, bewildered.
Hawkins nods.
“Why?”
Another round whizzes past. I feel the breeze from that one. Hawkins turns Jade and ribs her into a run towards the compound. Max and I give chase. Several Union soldiers kneel at the gates with their Ashras shouldered, ready to return fire. When we run through the gates, Max and Jade come skidding to a halt on the dusty concrete as the Union soldiers re-enter the compound.
I stare back at the approaching soldiers outside the gate. I’m not mistaken, they’re Antarum soldiers.
As the Union soldiers close and barricade the solid timber gates, the hammer of projectiles striking the timber and concrete outside is intense. After seeing the advanced Antarum starships at the spaceport, I shake my head in disbelief. How is such an advanced race still using projectile weapons? Inside the compound, hundreds of scared refugees sit on the ground with what few possessions they could carry.
One of the Union soldiers approaches. “You guys got here just in time.”
“Why are they shooting at us?” I ask.
“There’s been radio chatter of a military coup. This is the first time we’ve come under fire from Antarum soldiers, so I’m guessing they decided to go ahead with it,” he says. “Do you guys have an airlift?”
Hawkins shakes his head and the soldier curses.
“We need to get to higher ground,” I say to Hawkins.
I nudge Max and we enter the building, which opens onto a courtyard with a huge staircase folding back and forth between the balconies that overlook the courtyard. Max bounds up.
The rooftop garden has tables and chairs with shade umbrellas, and a few potted plants – the only colour in the concrete jungle. Below, dozens of Antarum soldiers are surrounding the complex and taking up positions in adjacent buildings. Hawkins and Jade join me, followed a short while later by a couple of Union soldiers.
“How many refugees do you have in here?” I ask.
“Two hundred and thirty-two, sir.”
Hawkins calls the Equilibria. “Hawkins, Bradley, contact?”
Bradley’s voice comes over the Core-link. “Go ahead, Hawkins.”
“Sir, we’ve located the Union soldiers. We also have two hundred and thirty-two refugees who need extraction. The complex is surrounded by Antarum soldiers, so we’re not walking out the front door,” Hawkins says.
Bradley replies, “Alright, extraction will be at midnight. We’ll lower the main dock ramp onto the roof of the complex. Clear the area and have the refugees ready to move.”
“Pos, sir. Final,” Hawkins replies.
Antarum’s star is setting over the rooftops of the buildings. Max and I jump as there’s an almighty explosion. It sounds as if it came from the front gates. Hawkins and I leave Max and Jade on the roof and race back down the stairs. The timber gates are badly damaged but still standing. I catch a glimpse of Antarum soldiers through a gaping hole as the Union soldiers take up defensive positions. The area erupts in Ashra blasts and projectile weapons fire, and the refugees cower on the ground.
“Follow me to the courtyard,” I yell, pointing, but they haven’t a clue what I’m saying. I turn in desperation to the Union soldiers. One stops returning fire and calls out to the refuges in their native tongue. A couple of them stand but they still aren’t sure. I repeat what the soldier said as best I can, while madly gesturing. They hesitantly follow. I cram as many of them into the courtyard as will fit, then lead more up to the second and third floor balconies. They’ll be safe in here, I hope.
As night falls, the fighting goes quiet, and a couple of the Union soldiers prepare the rooftop area for the Equilibria. I can’t imagine how this is going to work. One false move and the Equilibria will crush the entire building and kill everybody.
I head down to the ground floor with my backpack and kneel in front of a weak-looking gentleman who’s got to be eighty or ninety. I clasp his hand to comfort him. His heart rate is so shallow, I worry he mightn’t even make it to Terra Primus. I insert a cannula into his frail arm, pull out my last bag of fluid and connect the line under the light of my Ashra. After I tend to an infected scratch on his forehead, I sit with him for a short while.
From time to time, there are loud cracks or booms from the Antarum and Union soldier’s weapons. A Union soldier approaches and throws me a small black case.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“They’re night vision glasses. When we get to the roof, you won’t be able to use the light on your Ashra.”
“Pos, sir. Thank you.”
I open the fabric case and remove the glasses. They have a bit of weight to them but appear not much more than reading glasses. I try them on. Nothing. I take them off and examine them. No switch to turn them on either. I wonder? I put them back on and turn my Ashra light off. The darkness lights up in a red hue. Wow, awesome! These would be brilliant for hunting.
As I approach the Union soldiers near the gate, I lift the glasses to see how much I can see without them – next to nothing. I put them back on and find Hawkins who has also been given a pair of glasses.
“How are the refugees going to see where they’re going?” I ask.
Hawkins reads his Core-link. “Come with me.”
We approach the base of the stairs in the courtyard, and Hawkins pulls out dozens of small rounded cubes. It’s been years since I’ve seen these things. Hawkins looks at me; I presume wondering if I know how they work. I nod, take as many as I can carry, and drop the first one at the base of the steps, then stomp on it, triggering the chemical reaction that makes it glow red. As we make our way up the staircase, I lift my glasses. It’s dimly lit, but the way to the rooftop is now visible. We distribute the last cubes and wait near Max and Jade, who are lying side by side.
Weapons fire! Hawkins takes off down the stairs, leaving me alone with Max and Jade. I think I hear something and spin around. What was that? I grab my Ashra off my back. I dare not approach the edge of the roof in case an Antarum soldier takes a shot at me. I hear it again. It sounds eerily similar to wind but not quite. A bright-blue laser fans out from the dark – the Equilibria. It buzzes overhead scanning the buildings and terrain. When the laser turns off, the Equilibria absconds into the night.
There’s heavy footsteps on the stairs. One of the Union soldiers comes tearing up with all his gear. He drops to his knees in front of me and calls the Equilibria on his Core-link. This is it. We’re out of here.
When the Equilibria returns, there’s no external lights on, but its main dock is open and the ramp extended. The edge of the ramp is well lit, and as it approaches, the Union soldier calls for the refugees. I’ve never stood so close to a starship while it’s in flight. Its wind hits my face and a humming reverberates through my entire body, shakin
g my bones and organs.
The Equilibria’s ramp hits the roof hard, and the whole building shudders. Taylor and SF Mustang walk down the ramp. I lead Jade over first. Taylor reaches out and I hand her the reins.
Flashes from the Antarum soldiers’ weapons light up the darkness. Clink, clink, clink. The rounds ricochet off the ship’s hull. Knowing the Equilibria survived the crash landing on Hikaru, I can’t imagine small weapons fire will have any effect. I just hope they don’t have anything bigger.
Taylor and SF Mustang help the refugees aboard. I lift some of the young children into the arms of safety. There’s another almighty blast at the front gates and everyone spins around. I run to the edge of the staircase – there are only a few refugees left. I call Max and jump up. He takes off down the stairs just as there’s another thunderous explosion: an energy grenade. As Max leaps downwards, the remaining Union soldiers run up to the rooftop. When I get to the courtyard, Hawkins is hoofing it as if his life depends on it. Max skids to a halt, and I hold my hand out. Hawkins throws his Ashra over his shoulder, we grab each other’s wrists and his weight nearly pulls me off as he swings his leg over Max’s back. The Antarum soldiers’ voices are close behind. I rib Max and he takes off back up the stairs.
“Are all the refugees aboard?” Hawkins hollers.
“Yeah,” I call out.
“Hawkins, Equilibria, go,” Hawkins yells over the Core-link.
What? Has he lost it? We’ve still got several flights of stairs to go. Max is going as fast as he can, but as we round the last corner, I rib him again and holler, “Yah, Yah.”
He sprints up the last flight, his massive muscles flexing and propelling us forward at breakneck speed. When we reach the rooftop, the Equilibria is a good twenty feet from the edge of the roof. I call out again, “Go, Max. Go.”
Max crosses the rooftop in just a couple of bounds and pushes off the edge with such force that Hawkins nearly pulls me off the back. The ramp is too far, we’re not going to make it. Bright muzzle flashes light up below and rounds whizz past. With wind in our faces and a good thirty or forty-foot drop below, I hold on for dear life. Max touches down halfway up the ramp. As the Equilibria continues pulling away, Max scrambles up the ramp and into the main dock.
A vein in my neck throbs as my heart races a million miles an hour. “You did great, mate,” I say breathlessly, patting Max on the neck. He’s such an incredible animal.
The dock door closes. Safe! I try to catch my breath, riding on an adrenaline high. Taylor gives me a grin. I smile.
The crescent red moon, Infernum, is off in the distance against the black emptiness of space. As the team prepares the Bridgeport, I wonder if the striker scout and policeman will ever regret killing my parents. It probably won’t do me any good concerning myself with such things now. They’ve been brought to justice, that’s all that matters. I picture my parents’ faces smiling and laughing. It was so long ago, but I still remember that. Maybe, when all this is over, I’ll return to Bessomi for a visit.
The bridge goes silent and we plunge into darkness. My heart thumps in my ears, and in a moment, we emerge from the Bridgeport with Terra Primus over the bow. Skoll is half set behind Terra Primus, and Hati shines brightly off the starboard side. As we descend into high orbit, I look down at the southernmost land of Bessomi, then all the way up to Paelagus. I can’t believe I walked all that way. The northern land is now covered in white – winter. I smile as I picture our cabin covered in snow.
Leaning against the glass lid of Pisano’s stasis pod, I wonder at how peaceful he looks. He’s going to lose his leg, but my bigger worry is that his infection may be just too great. I can’t believe he’s made it this far.
Bradley enters the room, accompanied by two Union doctors.
“Are you ready?” Bradley asks.
“Pos, sir.”
One of the doctors asks, “What’s his condition?”
As I give a rundown on Pisano’s injuries, one of the doctors presses some buttons on the pod, and seconds later, it traverses sideways. Trolley legs unfold from the underside of the pod, and the doctor unplugs the cords from the rest of the machine.
“Will he be alright?” I ask.
“I can’t say, sir … We’ll take him straight into surgery. We’ll let you know as soon as we know something.”
As they wheel him away, I try to read Bradley’s weary face – he looks relieved.
“You did well, mate,” he says. “I’d go off-world with you any day.”
I smile, pleasantly surprised. That means a lot, coming from him.
As Bradley and I walk down the ramp onto the tarmac, we’re surrounded by thousands of refugees disembarking – the area is filled with chaos and noise. Hundreds of Makri and Union personnel greet them, giving them bottles of water and directing them where to go. I turn to search for Sam. She’s leading Max and Jade down the ramp behind us. Many of the Antarum kids are too scared, but a few brave ones run up to pat Max and Jade before retreating with wide eyes and giggles.
“Is Pisano going to be alright?” Sam asks.
“They don’t know yet,” I reply.
“Come on. You guys should get some sleep. Pisano will be in surgery for hours,” Bradley says, gesturing for us to follow.
We head back into the hangar where it all started, and it hits me how hard being a MOSAR paramedic must be. I can’t imagine refuelling, then heading back out again. Although, I can’t imagine not doing it again either.
The hangar is all but empty. Sam and I unsaddle Max and Jade, feed and water them, then collapse on our foldout beds. The rest of the team follow suit, exhausted. I lie on my side and reach out to Sam. She reaches over from her bed and we hold hands, sharing a moment of relief. Although Hati is still high in the sky, I won’t have any trouble falling asleep. At this point, I don’t even know how long I’ve been awake for.
Someone is tapping my shoulder. I’m disorientated in the dark, and it takes me a second to work out where I am. I can just make out Bradley, then Sam as she swings her feet to the ground and sits up in her bed.
“Pisano’s out of surgery and awake,” Bradley says.
“Is he going to make it?”
“Come, and we’ll see.”
At the hospital, a nurse directs the three of us down to Pisano’s room. He’s sitting up in bed, smiling but still pale. The bed sheets where his leg should be are flat, and I have to try hard not to stare. His throat is black and blue, the tracheostomy tube still in place. I choke up as I reach his side.
Pisano presses the button on the side of his tube. “Hey,” he says in a ghostly voice.
“Hey.”
“Doctor says I’m going to make it, thanks to you.”
I swallow hard and smile.
Without thinking, I blurt out, “How long till you can walk?”
“It’ll be a few months, probably.”
Sam asks, “Does it hurt?”
Pisano’s eyes glisten behind his glasses. “I can’t tell. They’ve got me doped up on so many drugs, I can’t feel a thing. Although—” he coughs and takes a sip from a straw, “from time to time, I get an incredible pain that feels like my leg’s still there and a truck’s parked on it.”
Bradley’s quiet, but from the smile on his face, he’s obviously happy. Pisano will never go off-world again, but he’s alive at least.
Pisano turns to Sam. “So Miller, Bradley tells me you saved the day. You got the Equilibria in the air.”
Sam blushes and looks at me with a big grin.
“You’ll have to teach Sam everything you know,” I say, “so she can keep up your good work.”
“I’d like that,” he says.
We chat for a good half-hour, and as we’re saying our goodbyes, Pisano calls me back, “Joel … I want to thank you for saving my life. If it wasn’t for you … I never would have gotten off Hikaru alive.”
“I don’t know how much of it was me,” I say. “You fought all the way, and if it wasn’t for th
e stasis pod, I don’t think you’d be here.”
Pisano shakes his head. “Even with the pod … Thank you.”
I nod. He holds out his hand, and I grasp his forearm tight as he grabs mine in the gesture of unity I’ve seen he and his team use before. This won’t be the last time I see him.
A week later, Sam, I and Pisano in his wheelchair, are waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. The manicured gardens are an oasis of lush grass, trees and flowers. I didn’t even know places like this still existed on Terra Primus. Birds are chirping, Hati is shining and there’s not a cloud in the sky – a stellar day.
Sam straightens my striker force jacket collar. “You look smart.”
“You look stunning.”
Sam’s cheeks turn crimson like the flowers in the surrounding gardens.
The rest of SF Raptor and Mustang arrive in full military dress uniform – black jackets with gold buttons, black pants and polished black shoes. The striker force ranks are signified by gold clip-on insignias on the shirt collars; Sam’s and mine are absent. As Bradley approaches, I gawk at his distinctions. Each Union medal is represented by a small patch of specific colours sewn onto his left sleeve cuff: there must be nearly thirty.
“The uniform suits both of you,” Bradley says, looking pleased.
We both smile. I wasn’t sure, but once I donned the dress uniform, it felt right – respect for Dropa and SF Mustang. In a small way, I feel like I’m respecting my father’s service to Terra Primus as well.
We enter a building in the centre of the cremation gardens, where a huge round chamber contains the caskets, arranged like spokes in a wheel: Dropa’s, Teenan’s, the fallen soldiers of SF Mustang and the flight crew. The caskets are made from a tree called the Night Oak – a dark-brown, almost black timber. Above the caskets is a massive hood that ducts up through the ceiling.
Dozens of Union soldiers, Makri and civilians gather to say farewell – silent as they stand around the chamber. The traditional silence within the building has been honoured for hundreds of years.
The Striker Division’s leader, Master Regulator Warain, places a solid-gold striker scout shield, roughly the same size as the sewn shields on the uniform, on SS Smith’s casket. He then reaches behind his back and pulls out a gold Union knife. He spins it in the palm of his hand, grabs it by the blade, then places it gently on SS Smith’s casket, leaving his hand over it for a few seconds before stepping back.