by Gary Sapp
silver hue in the melon of their skin tone. And yet, the features of the man standing in front her were shaded even ashier, chafer, and stressfully unhealthy in comparison to Jonas of Proxima or any of his comrades from Alpha Centauri, the densely populated planet five light years outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
Still, he wasn’t entirely unpleasant to look at. Trinity had considered letting him bed her. She’d stab him in a tender spot below his ribcage at just the right moment, while he slept, or better yet at the height of his orgasm. I would have never made it out of his bedchambers alive, but to take his look of horror, or… embarrassment into eternity with me might have been worth the sacrifice. She could only guess how his military brethren would have explained his late night, off duty demise to his wife. Trinity’s smile began to widen.
“I don’t have to remind you of what transpired here a few hours ago?” Amadeus asked her.
I doubt it, since I planted and detonated the explosives. “No.”
“Good. Allow me to be blunt. There has been a vicious, premeditated attack on my station and all of its populace, that I’m bound by honor and duty, to protect.” He said. “Both of our peoples have been needlessly slaughtered as a result.”
Jonas spoke up for the first time. “154 Earthers, including dozens of women and children were killed instantly in the initial explosion, seven more died of their wounds in the immediate thereafter, or during the evacuation of the Core Sector. 58 Centauri soldiers were killed as well.”
“154?”Trinity muttered the question at the magistrate.
Before enlisting the aid of the Belt worlds, an entire division of invading Centauri seized this station and launched their initial devastating attack on the Core Alliance of Earth and Mars, they desired the support of Proxima, a neighboring political and economic ally in their own galaxy. A considerable Core population lived in the Proxima System before the invasion. Your people, in the Dominant Universe, know we will eventually cast these Centauri bastards out of the Core, Jonas. Proxima is trying to save face. Just remember the Core never forgets. Neither will the dominant Trinity.
Magistrate Jonas shifted in his stance. He’d been sent by his government as a neutral observer, a diplomat, an ambassador of goodwill, but in the three years since Centauri incursions into Core Space, he’d evolved into this station’s security chief, monitoring Alpha Centauri’s treatment of the enslaved civilian population still living and working on the station.
He’d done more than that though. He’d personally requested that her aging uncle be reassigned to a lighter work detail on the far side of Artemis. The gesture had saved him from the heat and hard labor of the mines. He spent the final two years of his life recycling waste. And yet, you oversee the daily enslavement of my people, Jonas. How do I ever forgive you for that?
Amadeus was saying, “This attack will not be tolerated. On Alpha Centauri we admire those who would stand strong and proud in the face of adversity. I consider myself one laced with that strength. You have my word, Trinity; these offenders will be brought to justice. My justice,” Amadeus added, “And you have been chosen this night to assist me in this honor.”
Assist you?” Trinity coughed in her hand, hearing her tone dip dangerously close to a sarcastic one. Zip it, kiddo. It’s too late in this game to die from mouthing off too much.
She reminded herself that Micah’s risky maneuver revolved around rallying what remained of Earth’s population by intentionally pressing the planet into an emotional abyss. Why not lead their people planet side, those who’d escaped to Mars, and other Core citizens scattered throughout this sector, to believe that a Centauri-issued bomb needlessly killed hundreds of people?
Micah’s plan gained legs. The theory being that none of their associates on the opposite side of the temporal window needed to be sacrificed. The Dominant Universe’s versions of themselves would be spared this indignity. The other Trinity wouldn’t be driven to such extremes and could live on in peace once the correct linear timeline was restored. Or they could thrive in an altered timeline if that’s the case as well.
“How do you envision me helping you, Governor?”
He clicked his heels together smartly and stood as erect as his ailing frame allowed. “As difficult as it will be for you to believe, Trinity, within the noblest houses and sects of Alpha Centauri, there are senators and diplomats who would have me removed from this post. Do you believe that? I would be forced to abort all of the safety and security programs I’ve worked so diligently to bring here to the Core, and especially Earth’s people,” He said. “So I’ve assigned Magistrate Jonas of Proxima and specialized security detail to your homeworld. Their mission is to locate, then investigate several of the know insurgency cells—“
“I’m not an insurgent.”
Jonas swallowed a restless sign he’d bolted and sealed deep in this throat. The Centauri shooter behind her snickered and she could feel him tightening his grip on his rifle’s trigger. What have you done kiddo? Blowing out the vent above her, an icy breeze kissed the miniscule blond hairs along Trinity’s long neck.
“My dear,” Amadeus said. “I never said you were an insurgent.”
They all stood silent and still for a minute, perhaps two. Although Trinity would swear just then that she’d smelled the aroma of fresh Martian Ale lingering on the governor’s breath. The surprise of the revelation left her in a stunned silence.
“Your people are a pious, passionate race of humans, Trinity. I won’t deny you that. Still, I refuse to believe for one minute that your people are responsible for what happened here tonight. This is clearly the work or more wanton, barbarous souls. I would go so far as to call them animals.” Amadeus said. “For once, I even believe Magistrate Jonas shares my view.”
“Yes sir.” Jonas was saying. “As savage as most of our humanoid histories are, we all have a tendency to share one constant trait. It has been my observation that no species, no matter how desperate their plight, would murder their own people in mass to gain some imaginary strategic foothold, even in such a disadvantaged conflict as the Core being routed by the Centauri manifest itself to be.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Amadeus said. “There is no logic to using such tactics. There is no strategy suitable enough to justify the means. After all, Trinity, nothing can motivate you people to victory in this war. The results of this conflict lean inevitably towards an obvious if not academic conclusion: Your people will stand down or be obliterated.”
Or we’ll rally and defeat you. They would be singing songs about the Core’s triumph across the known galaxy for a century or more. And a verse or two of how the Governor of Artemis choked on his royal tongue would have suited Trinity just fine.
Amadeus gaze hardened however; He towered over both Trinity and Jonas saying, “I’m sure the good magistrate can surely appreciate the necessity for solid, irrefutable evidence to exonerate your people of any wrong doing in this matter. As I’m sure you will be.” Amadeus then added in a conversational tone. “As you should well know, Trinity, evidence is about weighing what you know against what you can prove.”
However, the governor grunted when Jonas said, “In speaking of evidence, there is a growing sentiment surfacing from within the same noble halls of Alpha Centauri, which you mentioned earlier, that the genesis of this offensive against this station began there.”
So the governor thought this all had something to do with simple pettiness between houses back home. Someone was trying to make him look incompetent. This plan of yours is coming together even better we could have ever expected, dear Micah, you arrogant son of a bitch. Trinity knew never to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Jonas continued, “The governor has ordered me to investigate and exonerate likely candidates on Earth and eliminate and possibility of treachery or reprisal from any Core camp.”
Amadeus seized the emotional momentum he’d gained as his tone grew to a boisterous height and his damaged right hand curled into a fist. “I intend to give this ma
tter a full Centauri response once the saboteurs are brought before me. I’ll bring them to their knees. I swear it.” Trinity wisely allowed the governor’s words hover along in concert with ever present mist rising in the office. “Do you now understand what I am asking of you, Trinity?”
She nodded once in comprehension.
“Excellent,” Amadeus said. Trinity swore she saw him release a long exhale of relief. He slid one scarred hand over several controls that beeped as his ring finger engaged one, then the other. A quivering voice answered on the other end, privy to the governor’s quick temper, curtly responded that a shuttle was already in final preparations for launch mode and would be available to deploy at his command.
“Are you ready to disembark for the short trip to Earth, Magistrate Jonas?” Amadeus asked.
Jonas simply nodded. He was a man assigned another task to complete, nothing more, nothing less. The exit door hissed open upon his entrance into the turbolift, and then the automation slid the same door closed with a whine; trinity heard the shooter standing behind her grind his teeth in disappointment.
Screw you too, buddy.
And yet, Trinity found her feet lodged in place where she stood. She recalled that Micah’s radical scheme centered on a prototype transmitter that they’d