by Mike Luoma
Drex brings their transport in to dock with Fortune Station, right next to a hulking UTZ battle cruiser. BC hears the airlock bolts lock into place, and their ship starts shaking.
"The whole station's vibrating!" the pilot yells. "Must have just gotten hit! Guess those UIN scouts are pretty feisty." A dull metallic thud rings through their ship and the shaking intensifies. "Another hit! They might have bigger friends nearby." Drex unbuckles his safety harness and begins to stand. "Let's head inside the station. Rather be in there than out here right now."
"Sounds good to me." BC gets up and heads for the lock behind the pilot.
He turns to BC. "You said you know these people?"
"Yeah," BC says, but he's no longer sure the people he knows will still be on the station. Or even still alive.
Drex steps aside and opens his arms, gesturing for BC to go ahead.
"You go first, then, okay?"
Aw, Jeesh, way to show some fuckin' spine, man.
"Why not," BC agrees. He cycles them through the airlock. They enter Fortune Station and are immediately flanked by two UTZ soldiers.
"Identify yourselves!"
This is all wrong.
"Hi, how are you? Can we come in? There's some bad guys shooting at us out there," BC says, syrupy and sweet.
Don't think these guys have a sense of humor. Don't think they liked the sarcasm.
"Who are you?" The soldier on BC's right demands.
"Actually, you know, this is funny, it really is, but, technically? I'm in charge of this station. So I should ask, 'who are you?' and 'what are you doing on my station?' You could be in some trouble here, mister!" BC puffs himself up best he can.
This takes the grunt by surprise. It at least causes him to stop and think his way through the statement in an attempt at comprehension. He abandons the attempt and falls back to his defensive default setting and angry demands.
"We're with Commander Urdru, Fourth Fleet, Third Division. We've been here a month and I've never seen you before, Father." He talks past BC, "Commander!"
A UTZ Fleet Commander walks up from the left.
Commander Urdru, I presume.
"What? What's going on here? Who are these clowns?" he barks.
The soldier points at BC. "Sir, This priest says he's in charge here. Asked us what we were doing on his station. Lotta nerve, sir."
Urdru looks him up and down, assesses him. Then he does the same to the pilot. Finally, he looks BC in the eye.
"You really think this is YOUR station? What, are you this 'Light' we heard about? You?" he asks in a mocking tone.
This one knows about The Light. Is that good or bad?
I'm thinking bad.
BC tries to answer. "Actually, I'm the New Light..."
Urdru cuts him off, "I don't care! What's your name? Both of you!"
"Drex." The pilot says.
"Bernard Campion," BC answers. Urdru smiles when he hears the name.
"Campion? I have heard of you!" Urdru says. "You helped secure this place! One of the Pope's men, am I right?" he asks.
Jesus! Isn't this jarhead familiar with the concept of confidential?
Urdru starts as he sees BC's glower and realizes his mistake. "Sorry, Father. I don't know what you do or who you do it for, but you did a good job here," he says, trying to patch over his first statement.
"I did?" BC asks. "Thanks, I guess. Where's Kim? Where are the people who were here?"
"You mean those nutty cultists? We cleared out those squatters just after you secured the place, sent them back to Earth. It was easy, we just moved in and took over. I remember they kept throwing your name at us, saying you promised them they'd be 'left alone'. They 'had your word!' they said. That was a good one!
"It's funny, I thought at first they were saying 'champion' until I found out what your name was, who you were."
Yeah, I'm obviously no champion...
But fuck this asshole.
"Who gave you your orders?" BC demands of Urdru.
"The UTZ Council, who else? With Pope Peter's blessing. How could you not know?" Urdru is perplexed.
"Guess I'm out of the loop. I've been on vacation," BC quips. "So, the cultists are all gone?"
"Oh yeah, long gone. We've been using the station as a base for a couple weeks. It's really old, though. Nothing works right. And so much of the place smells like incense. Makes me gag."
A dull metallic thud rings out and the station starts shaking again. Someone yelling on the com in his ear distracts Urdru.
"Sorry, Father. We got a whole bunch of UIN coming down on us. I think you guys brought them in on your tails! Thanks so much! I gotta run! We'll talk after things calm down." Urdru turns and runs back the way he came.
BC, Drex, and the two soldiers all look at each other. BC nods to the pilot, "Let's go." He heads off in the direction Urdru went. The pilot follows. BC walks confidently ahead until they walk through section doors that close behind them. Then he turns and tries to look through the glass to see if the soldiers are following. They're not. They're back at their post.
He looks at the pilot and smiles.
"Always look like you're going where you're supposed to be going, doing what you're supposed to be doing, and you can get away with almost anything," BC advises Drex, "especially in the military!"
BC gestures for Drex to follow him. "I know my way around here a little. We probably want to go this way..."
BC leads them down a corridor to the right that opens on the cafeteria where The Light's altar once stood. It's gone now. The entire room has been turned into a military command center. Several technicians monitor the equipment that lines the walls of the room. Urdru stands at a center console. Not wanting to deal with him again just yet, BC leaves the cafeteria for a side corridor. The pilot follows him. BC stops, and stops Drex.
"I've got to check on something," BC tells him. "I'll be right back. You stay here. Ask around in there for help fixing your ship," BC says, nodding towards the cafeteria.
BC starts to go, but the pilot stops him.
"Hold on a sec," Drex says, and a strong hand closes around BC's upper left arm before he can escape. Drex holds BC in place. "Where are you going?"
"I just have to check on something… from before. I'll be right back, I promise. You're my ride home! Speaking of which, just go in there and ask them to help you with repairs. Throw around your boss's name. Maybe it's good for something."
"Not a bad idea. Okay, just be sure to come meet me back here," he says.
BC walks away.
"Don't you leave without me!" he shouts back to Drex.
"I won't."
Why don't I believe he's sincere?
BC finds an old com station off the beaten path.
Just what I've been looking for. Got to see if there's any kind of message left for me from Kim or... there.
Kim's face appears, bruised and bloodied on the right side.
"Hello, Bernard. I'm about to be forced out of here at gunpoint by your UTZ thugs. How nice. Why did you lie? To me, to all of us? Judas did no worse. You are not a light of any kind! But you've always known that. You're a sham. A sham I thought I used, but you used me all along. You used us all. I should have known. Betrayer! You serve no one but yourself, do you? That is so sad. Do you even know how to tell the truth? This is my fault, really."
The image goes dark. End of message.
Well, fuck me, Kim. I didn't know. I maybe should have known, should have expected they'd do this. What can I say? Sorry?
BOOM!
A blast hits outside, close by BC's position. He's rocked to the floor by the concussion, hears the hissing of escaping atmosphere.
Don't blow! Not yet!
Explosive decompression?
Where's the nearest sealable door? Back here...
BC finds his way back towards the cafeteria, sealing doors behind him as he goes. He finds the pilot of his transport standing idle in the room while soldiers scramble and Urdru barks out orders at t
hem.
"No repairs until after the battle," the pilot tells BC. "Not even for Mr. Wentworth. Although they did compliment me on the use of a very impressive name."
"Did they now? Too bad. What now?" BC asks.
"Guess we'll have to ride it out," Drex says. "We won't get anywhere in my little ship while this is going on."
"Guess not," BC agrees, reluctantly.
Don't know if old Fortune Station can take much more of a beating. ‘Riding it out' may not be an option...
Echoing metallic booms get louder and louder. The station shakes with each one. BOOM. BOOM. BA-BOOM.
Closer and closer. There's some real firepower coming in on us. Got to be more than scout ships at this point. And this place has no defenses! Unless these guys installed some since they've been here. Doubtful. Probably just relying on the UTZ cruisers outside. If they're getting past them, there's more out there than a couple of UIN Scout ships.
Urdru calls over the com. BC hears him echoing on the station's com system and yelling in his ear at the same time.
"Okay, people, that's it. This place can't take any more! We're bugging out. Report to your ships, we're heading out!" Urdru shouts. "Let's go!"
BC and Drex are suddenly in the midst of a swirling sea of scrambling UTZ regulars.
"Not good," BC says to Drex.
The pilot nods in agreement.
"We should find a ship to adopt," Drex says. "If we try to leave in that little transport under this kind of heavy fire, we're dead. It looks like staying here ain't an option anymore, either. Anyways. Better to get aboard a cruiser or a heavy transport if we can." The pilot looks at BC to see if he agrees with the idea.
BC looks around the cafeteria. The techs are packing up and carting off their equipment with surprising speed. The room is already almost empty. He spots two guards leaving through a door nearby.
"Let's follow them," he says, nodding at the two and stepping in behind them. Drex falls into step beside BC.
They follow the two UTZ guards out of the cafeteria, down the main corridor, through a side corridor, and out an airlock into a troop transport ship.
BC and Drex stop once they're inside the ship, watch the guards continue on their way.
Drex looks at BC with new admiration, "Hey, that worked, that was good," he whispers to him as the ship's airlock cycles shut behind them.
"Thanks, I think," BC says, "but we're not out of this yet."
Chapter Twenty-Nine