by Colin Weldon
“Accidents happen, Aron, don’t they? Fate is a strange thing wouldn’t you say? The path a man takes in this life all lead to an undeniable and unavoidable conclusion. We cannot escape our fate, Aron.
It is written in the stars themselves. Every little choice, every little decision, weave a web that the universe unequivocally keeps track of and then, one day, all those little choices all meet at the fulcrum of eternity,” Arturo said.
Aron felt his pulse increase.
“What did they say, Aron?” Arturo said calmly.
Aron’s lips began to get dry.
“Who, Chancellor?” he replied.
“What did they fucking say!” Arturo screamed suddenly.
The fury in his voice made Aron suddenly lose his breath. It came out of nowhere. It was feral. He saw one of the guards take a slight step backwards at the unexpected outburst. There was total silence in the room as Arturo calmly changed his demeanour back to one of calm and serenity. It was like another person had taken control of the chancellor momentarily. A furious psychopath filled with rage and bile. Aron did not know how to respond, but the sense of immediate danger in the room was hard to escape. He remained silent. Letting the rage that had filled the room linger.
“Chancellor, I …” Aron began to say.
“Aron. I know you made contact with The Agathon. I know this. You know I know this. We are on the same side, you and I. We are kindred spirits. I have felt this for a long time which is why I gave you your own ship. To serve us both. Which you have done with distinction. We are both warriors, you and I. We both want an end to the life that those who left us all those years ago condemned us to. You need to help me, Aron. You could be my right hand. You should have been my right hand. You have the respect and loyalty of the colonists. I see that. I admire that. I admire you,” Arturo said.
Aron looked at the table and began to feel the little beads of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead run down his cheek. He felt his senses tighten as he thought about what he had to do next. He took a breath.
“Aron, we are family. I know you lost yours. I know that you are lost. We are all lost. But I can help you,” Arturo said.
Aron looked at the chancellor and frowned, now confused by what he was saying.
“I want to show you something,” Arturo said rising from his chair.
Aron gripped the side of his seat getting ready for the attack that would surely come soon. The chancellor walked over to a large screen on the far side of the room. He typed in some commands into the computer and turned the screen towards Aron. An image of a young girl inside an oval glass container filled the screen. Aron looked at the strange image. He had not seen any container that resembled the image anywhere on the space stations. It looked like some sort of stasis chamber. The naked girl inside was young. Maybe eleven or twelve. She looked asleep and very thin. Her long brown hair curled over her shoulders. He looked at Arturo confused. Arturo smiled.
“Help me and you can help her,” Arturo said.
“I do not understand, Chancellor,” Aron said, suddenly feeling a sense of panic at what the chancellor was about to tell him.
Arturo smiled at Aron.
“What did they say, Aron?” he repeated.
There was silence in the room. Aron looked at the two guards, both of whom had their helmets facing the door. They still had their hands neatly placed behind their backs. He thought about The Unity and about the colonists back at the stations praying for a time when they would be free.
“I have not made contact with The Agathon, Chancellor. Stanley inputted an encryption code into the system. We were not granted access,” Aron said.
The chancellor’s smile suddenly dropped into a deathly cold stare. He sat back in his chair and looked at the image on the screen.
“How a man goes on knowing that he has lost his only child is a true testament to your character, Aron. I am not sure I could have taken that sort of a loss had I decided to take a mate. Did you know, Aron, that this little colony of ours very nearly became extinct? Did you know that?” Arturo said.
Aron looked at him blankly
“It nearly wiped us out. If it were not for the efforts of Doctor Vishal, we would all be dead now. He devised an incredible machine to draw energy from the human body itself. I have a gift for you, Aron. The greatest gift a man can give to another man. The life of your daughter,” Arturo said pausing.
Aron suddenly felt sick to his stomach.
“She was the first you know. The first to be successfully integrated into the machine. Along with hundreds of others that sacrificed their lives, so that others could live. I could not begin to tell you how the damn thing works, but the energy created by your daughter has quite literally saved your life. And now you have this glorious opportunity to save hers,” Arturo said.
Aron felt his knees go weak. He looked at the image in disbelief. He looked at her soft complexion and saw familiarity in its quiet expression.
It couldn’t be, he thought to himself holding back the floodgates of anger and grief that were bubbling in his chest.
“It’s Maya, Aron. She is alive and well. Sleeping and keeping all our lights on in the darkness,” Arturo said.
Aron started shaking. He kept his eyes firmly on the image of the girl in the tank.
Arturo raised his hands in a gleeful stretch, as if he had given Aron a surprise birthday present.
“Well?” Arturo said smiling, “Are you not thankful? Are you not overjoyed? You should be happy. I have given you the gift of a lifetime. The gift of Maya.”
Arturo had his mouth open and his eyes were wide in anticipation. He looked like a child who had just surprised his parents with a drawing he had completed in school. It was a demented look. The look of someone who’s mind was broken. Aron could not believe what he was seeing. His mind began to spin. He had stolen his baby. Stolen her and implanted her into a sick machine. He fought back the urge to vomit. He thought about how scared she must have been. How terrified of being hooked into cables and locked away in a coffin of deprivation. No mother or father, just the horror of imprisonment and pain.
“What did they say, Aron, and you can have her back. Just tell me what they said,” Arturo said suddenly reducing the sound of his voice to a whisper.
Aron leaned forward onto his knees.
“Where is she?” he quietly asked, trying to hold back the lump in his throat.
Arturo leaned over the desk and looked at Aron.
“Where else? Come on, Aron, you know where she is. She is yours. You can have her. Just tell me what you talked about,” Arturo said.
Aron looked up at the evil staring at him across the desk. He looked at the two guards and flicked his eyes quickly to their pulse guns. He looked at the image of Maya quietly resting in the glass tube. He suddenly saw what she was attached to. Cables ran the length of her body and seemed to be attached to her back. His vision began to blur with rage. He looked up at the smiling Arturo and felt a surge of adrenalin in his veins. His own life suddenly had one function. He saw it so clearly and the split second decision that followed was triggered by nothing but instinct. Aron suddenly let out a feral scream and leapt from his chair, across the desk and towards the chancellor. Arturo had no time to react to the violence that had taken hold of Aron. In one swift motion, Aron took the large glass container half filled with water and smashed it squarely across the side of Arturo’s head, sending the chancellor careening to the floor into the guard standing next to him. The guard was clearly stunned by how quickly it happened as they both fell to the floor. Aron lunged at the second guard planting his shoulder squarely in his mid-section sending the two of them into the back wall. Within a few seconds, Aron had grabbed the guard’s pulse gun out of his holster and had fired two shots into his chest. The sound of squelching blood filled Aron’s ears. He felt nothing but rage. Pure rage. The other guard got to his knees and pointed his pulse gun at Aron’s head and fired. Aron had just a second to reposition the de
ad guard as a human shield as the two bursts hit the corpse squarely on his helmet, piercing the faceplate. Aron heard a pop as the guard’s head exploded inside his helmet. He reached his arm around the guard’s body and fired repeatedly and waited. There was no response. He looked carefully around the bloodied corpse at the now dead guard next to the unconscious chancellor.
He felt as though his heart would explode from his chest. The room went quiet. He pointed the gun at Arturo and was about to fire when he heard the door mechanism activate. Looking over at the entrance, he suddenly realised that he was in trouble. In a few seconds, Escat would open the door and kill him. He thought about firing anyway. Then he thought of Maya. He had to get to her. Somehow. He jumped to his feet and ran quickly to the door standing beside it with his back to the wall. It suddenly slid open and Escat entered. He was alone. The door slid shut behind him. Escat moved towards the desk and Aron stepped quietly behind him. He pointed the pulse gun to the base of his skull.
“Don’t fucking move,” said Aron.
16
The Unity
India looked down the barrel of the pulse cannon pointed straight at The Unity. Her hands had begun to sweat after two hours of holding the flight controls. The two ships drifted silently watching each other. One predator and one prey. Aron had not activated his homing beacon yet and that worried India. She figured that they must have found it and were getting ready to blow her out of the stars. She wondered if they had just killed him the moment he walked off the shuttle. She knew it was a stupid idea. They should have just taken their chances and made a run for it. She hated herself and her anger. If she had not attacked Stanley, they would all at least have had a fighting chance. A light began to flicker on her control panel. She flicked her eyes over to it and activated the comm system.
“Aron?” she said.
“India, fire up the sub light,” he said whispering.
“Aron, are you alright?” she replied.
“Just do it, India,” he replied, “move The Unity up to the docking ring, but do it slowly, we won’t have much time.”
The comm system clicked off. He sounded out of breath and his voice was muffled. There was an urgency in his voice that told India he was in trouble. She immediately switched the channel and connected with the engine room.
“Ollie, fire her up, we’re leaving,” she said.
“What about Aron?” replied Oliver.
“He’s on his way, get on it,” she replied.
“Got it,” Oliver replied.
The comm system clicked off as India checked her flight controls. She looked out at the large cannons pointed in her direction. One shot could easily breach the hull and it was game over. They remained still. She fired up the rear thrusters to twenty percent and began slowly bringing The Unity closer to the docking ring, trying to make it look like a simple course correction. The guns followed her. She moved her eyes between the barrels of the cannons to the docking ring and suddenly saw the shuttle that Aron had travelled over on emerge from The Kandinsky’s main shuttle bay.
“What the hell?” she said to herself.
The shuttle was moving quickly. India increased the power to the rear thrusters to thirty percent and set a course to intercept it. She kept one eye firmly on the cannons as she did so.
Less than a minute later, she powered down the engines and came to a complete stop letting the shuttle dock with the main airlock. She waited, watching The Kandinsky as it drifted silently beside The Unity. She had no idea what the hell was going on. The lights for the main airlock blinked green to indicate a solid seal and she released the doors. A few seconds later the comm system clicked on.
“India, release the main docking clamp now! Get us the hell out of here!” said Aron sounding frantic.
She did as she was asked and released the main docking clamp, letting the shuttle craft drift away from the side of the ship. She activated the comm system and linked with the engine room.
“Ollie, we gotta go!” she said sternly.
She suddenly saw movement in one of the large cannons to the port side of the ship. It looked like it was beginning to glow.
“Shit!” she said.
She reached her hand over to the thruster control and engaged full engine power, just as a bright red burst of energy shot straight past the window of the cockpit, barely missing the glass by a matter of inches.
“Fuck!” she shouted grabbing the flight controls and pulling a hard turn to the starboard side and diving The Unity straight under the bottom of The Kandinsky.
She straightened up the ship and directed it to fly along the length of the large ship, emerging at its rear, before pushing the flight controls into a nose dive, taking The Unity away from The Kandinsky at right angles to its current axis.
“Ollie, I need those engines!” she shouted down the comm system.
“Hold on, bridge, we have a problem down here. One of the drive stabilisers is jammed, it’s gonna take me a minute to unlock it,” he shouted back.
Great, she thought.
The doors to the cockpit opened and Aron Elstone entered wearing a Colonial Guard’s uniform.
“What the hell?” India said looking around at him.
“Keep your head in the game, India, and get us the hell out of here,” he replied taking his seat next to her.
The computer chimed suddenly drawing both of their attention to a heat signature which was currently being directed their way.
“Weapons lock!” Aron shouted.
“Yeah, I can see that, hold on,” said India, pulling a hard manoeuvre, putting The Unity into a spin. The sudden onset of G force threw Aron out of his seat and onto the cockpit floor as another beam of red energy flew straight past the cockpit window.
“Fuck, that was close,” India said.
She looked around at Aron, who was picking himself up off the floor.
“What the hell did you do to piss them off?” she said.
“Never mind that, what the hell are we still doing here?” Aron replied.
“Problem with the sub light drive. Ollie is working it,” she said.
Aron clicked the comm system.
“Ollie, what the hell is going on down there?” he said frantically.
There was a tense moment of silence.
“We can’t outrun them, Aron, they’ll get us with the next shot,” India said, still in shock that The Kandinsky had not already blown up the ship.
“Got it! Engaging the sub light,” Ollie said.
There was another warning from the computer indicating another heat signature. India looked tensely at Aron. The stars outside the window began to blur as the ship accelerated to sub light and the cockpit went quiet once again. India released a long breath and looked at Aron.
“Okay. You want to tell me what the hell happened over there? And where we are going?” she asked.
Aron looked at her with something in his eyes she had not seen in a long time. A desperation.
“We are going home, India,” he replied.
The Agathon
Shuttle Pod 2
There was a small drop before they slid into the water. The opening in the ice was just large enough for the small craft to fit through and within seconds they submerged into the darkness. Chavel activated the forward facing lights and checked the hull integrity before activating the engines. They glided slowly through the darkness. The ice was so thick that virtually no light penetrated its surface, but Chavel could see patches of reflection in the solid sheet of frozen water above them. This was a mission he would not have volunteered for. These shuttle pods were not ideal for underwater work and while the hull was designed to withstand the pressures of deep sea missions, he secretly harboured a phobia of the sea. He was no coward, far from it, but his healthy fear of the ocean had been ingrained in him from a young age. He looked over at Jerome Young who was scanning the surrounding area using the console in front of him.
“You like living on the edge, don’t you, M
r Young?” he said quietly.
Young looked at him and smiled.
“David, you need to stop calling me Mr Young. It’s Jerome,” he said, “and why do you say that?”
“Honestly, you are not what I was expecting at all,” said Chavel.
‘I get that a lot,” replied Young.
“I’ve heard stories you know, what the world used to say about you. The way you appointed Sienna Clarke, so you could hide from the responsibility of it all and plot devious plans on Phobos,” said Chavel.
Young laughed.
“That’s not far from the truth, David. Seems so frivolous now, doesn’t it? Governments and power and wealth,” said Young, “that is why I left Earth, David. The pursuit of the signal. It’s bigger than all of us. Look at us, David. Under an alien ocean hunting for artefacts. Someone out there wanted us to know who they were and my whole life has been dedicated to finding out who they are, or were. This is life, David. We are evolving. Look at Carrie.”
David suddenly looked at Young intently.
“What about her?” he asked bluntly.
Young looked at him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“She could be the most important discovery of all, David. I know she’s special to you. I don’t know what Tyrell, or whatever The Black is, did to make her leave the ship, but you can rest assured that she had a damn good reason. He has taken her somewhere. Who knows what The Black is, but I can guarantee you that it was not simply a suicidal alien species intent on randomly destroying itself. From what we have already seen, she is more than able to look after herself. What if the entire human race was on the cusp of achieving a biological transformation like what Carrie has shown? We are so much more,” Young said.
Chavel looked at Young. He was certain that he was an obsessed man and was worried what that obsession would make him do, but he had to admit that he liked him. He had a calm and logical mind and had no fear of shying away from an emergency or of action and he respected that. He nodded to him and smiled.
“How far?” Young asked.