Peacemaker (The Revelations Cycle Book 6)

by Kevin Ikenberry

  “Now you die.” In the blink of an eye, Jessica realized the Selroth would attack her regardless, and the heaviness of the CASPer machine gun in her arms would render her unable to keep it aimed much longer.

  “Not today.”

  Jessica pulled the trigger once and that was enough.

  She turned and saw one of the camouflage-painted aircraft hovering over the river not 100 meters away. Jessica studied the ducted flyer for a long moment and felt its pilot’s eyes and sensors on her. For a moment, it was a comical standoff and then it was over as the flyer spun and descended on the mine entrance with its cannons firing. She dropped the rifle into the sand and wiped her hands on her coveralls. “Guess y’all are friendlies then.”

  She tapped her earpiece and scrolled for all active frequencies. Ba-deep!

  There was nothing on the frequency for 10 seconds. She tapped a button to transmit her beacon and authorization code to allow for instant translation. Nothing happened for another 10 seconds.

  Fuck it.

  “Any station, any station, this is Peacemaker Jessica Francis broadcasting position and authentication. Please respond.”

  She bit the inside of her lip. After three seconds, there was a click on the frequency, and a human voice with a terrible southern drawl came through the radio. After the first word, she wasn’t really listening. Tears filled her eyes in a flash of recognition that stole the air from her lungs and left a lump in her throat.

  “Bulldog, this is Snowman. It’s about damned time, honey.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jessica made her way to the Altar colony under the cover of a dozen gunships and a very large drop ship that hovered like a cloud in the morning sunlight. Her earpiece beeped and squawked as she neared a CASPer sprawled across the top of a wall.

  Ba-dum. The command frequency connected. “Lucille? Are you out there?”

  <>

  “Who is in Angel Two? Berger was killed.”

  <>

  Jessica climbed up onto the wall and onto the front of the CASPer with little difficulty. On the broad surface, she found the emergency crew extraction handle and pulled it. A series of beeps gave her time to step back from the CASPer and down onto the retaining wall, and then the canopy blew off.

  “Peacemaker!”

  Jessica turned and recognized Bukk moving toward her. “Bukk, I need your help.”

  The Altar lieutenant scrambled onto the CASPer and helped Jessica to do the same. She worked the straps and released Tara.

  “Grab her.” Jessica gestured to Bukk, and he grabbed Tara’s shoulders. “You have a better reach to pull her forward and up. I’ll get her legs.”

  “I understand,” Bukk replied and did exactly what she’d asked. As Tara’s legs came free, Jessica grabbed them and lifted up.

  “Now, bring her this way and we’ll get her flipped around.”

  Bukk turned his head and Jessica saw his antennae waving from side to side. “I have a better idea.”

  Three more Altar ran to them and positioned themselves under the CASPer’s shoulders, on the opposite side from Jessica. They took Tara’s limp body without effort and lowered her to the ground. Jessica climbed down and knelt beside her.

  Tara’s skin was cold and clammy, and her pupils barely registered light, but her breathing was steady and rhythmic. The right side of her head was puffy and swollen and her hair was matted with half-dried blood. A quick check of her pulse gave Jessica hope; it was strong. Jessica patted Tara’s coverall legs and found what she was looking for in the left inner thigh pocket. The medkit injector would heal Tara or place her in a medical coma until better medical care could be arranged. Shaped like a large permanent marker, it was designed to be quickly jabbed into the wounded person so the pressurized needle would fire into the skin. Jessica opened the protective cap and slammed it into Tara’s still leg. The injector beeped when complete. She removed it from Tara’s leg and tossed it aside.

  Bukk looked down at her. “Who came to our rescue?”

  Jessica blinked. “I don’t really know who they are, Bukk.”

  “You talked to them, though. On the frequency. We heard you. Who is Snowman? He called you Bulldog, the same as Hex did.”

  Jessica raised a palm to him so he’d stop asking questions, and she could clear her head. “Snowman was my father’s callsign. I don’t even know if it’s really him, okay?” Tears filled her eyes, and she wiped at them and shook her head. “I screwed up trying to get a complete system scan on the Raknar.”

  “I do not understand how you could have screwed up and brought in reinforcements.”

  She dug into her pocket and withdrew the chipset. “This is from the Raknar’s System console. It’s a long story, Bukk, but my father left me one that looks a lot like this. When Kenos came to find me, I wasn’t paying attention. I stuffed my father’s chip into the Raknar’s board. It should not have worked...” She trailed off and shook her head. “Or maybe it should have. I don’t know. I’d engaged a combat slate to run a system check, too. Maybe that did it. I just don’t know who they are and how they got here.”

  Bukk looked over the colony. “Queen Klatk would be pleased, regardless.”

  “She came for me and protected me from the mercenaries,” Jessica said. “I could not protect her from Taemin.”

  “We owe a debt to Hex that we will never be able to repay,” Bukk said. “They closed the mines and managed to protect the brood at the same time. We may never really know what happened down there, but I am resolved to investigate.”

  Jessica stood up and looked at him. Absent a queen, he would be the colony leader. As such, certain protocols had to be followed. “Do you wish to maintain a protected status?”

  Bukk looked at her. “Yes, Peacemaker. We want a full investigation into what happened here. I will alert our home world, the Trade Guild, and the Peacemaker Guild that we intend to file measures against the Dream World Consortium and all other parties discovered in the course of an investigation. We are hopeful that the Peacemaker Guild will assign you for the investigation.”

  Jessica nodded. “Thank you, Bukk, but we both know that won’t happen. I am involved in this situation as much as any other party. They’ll want to speak with everyone. Who knows? I might not even be a Peacemaker after everything is reviewed and settled.”

  “You have little faith in yourself, Jessica,” Bukk said. “All of the Altar and humans who died to protect the colony did so because of your leadership. They placed great faith in you, as did Klatk, and so do I.”

  Jessica sighed and could not help but feel a small surge of pride through the malaise and hurt that conflicted her emotions and twisted her stomach. In the space of weeks, she’d forced the retirement of her ex-husband, completed her Peacemaker training, and lost a host of soldiers. No losses hurt more than Hex and Maya, though. The young lovers were as close to friends as she had in the galaxy. Without them, her personal life would be emptier than it had been before. So much of her life before Peacemaker training was gone now. Over the years, the only people close enough to be her friends had died on missions big and small. There were fewer and fewer people she’d be able to call on for help, the ones she’d be willing to give up her life for, as they would do for her.

  Yet, there was a new development that could change everything. Jessica looked up at the twin-rectangular hulled ship hanging a couple of thousand meters overhead. Bristling with cannons and hangar doors, it obviously wasn’t a trade vessel, and she’d never seen anything like it under the command of a mercenary force. A sleek flyer descended from an open hangar door. Built in the same manner as the smaller ones she’d seen raining missiles onto the mercenaries, it was clearly larger and could
also carry cargo.

  “How many mercenaries are alive up there, Bukk?”

  “None, Peacemaker. The Selroth and GenSha retreated to their colonies along with some of the mercenaries.”

  Jessica knew the mercenaries would find a way to run. The colonies, all three of them, could be forced to the negotiating table if the mercenary threats were completely neutralized. She tapped her earpiece again. A chime sounded that Lucille was listening as she radioed the man who might be her father.

  “Snowman, this is Bulldog. I need to make sure any mercenary stragglers don’t get off this planet until the Guild arrives for a full review. Do you have any resources that could do that?”

  The voice came back immediately. “I’ve got flyers patrolling both colonies now and we’ve got enough stuff in orbit to make sure nobody leaves until you say so. I’ve even got the station commander at D’nart ready to relay any message you have, honey.”

  “Are you coming down here?” she asked and forced herself to bite off the “Dad” at the end before it leaked out of her mouth.

  “I’m on my way right now.” The descending ship came straight down toward them on a course for the shoreline where she’d housed the drop ship from Victory Twelve two days before.

  Jessica looked at Bukk. “I need to go meet that ship.”

  “I have a colony to reconstitute,” he said. “We both have great tasks in front of us.”

  The Altar lieutenant moved away slowly, taking all but one soldier with him. The younger Altar stayed by Tara’s side and monitored her vital signs with a combat slate. She was in good enough hands that Jessica felt okay leaving her.

  <>

  “Record this message and send. Ready?” Jessica paused. There was a beep in her ear and she spoke slowly. “This is Peacemaker Jessica Francis. The planet of Araf is locked down to departures until further notice. Under Article 42 of the Galactic Code of Military Justice, I am notifying the Peacemaker Guild of an official investigation into this world and all its parties. Discussion is encouraged and will only be accepted at a time and location of my choosing—which I will announce in the next 24 hours. Many citizens have died needlessly and there will be no more bloodshed on my watch. Make no attempt to flee. Peacemaker Francis, out.”

  <>

  “Notify the Guild, too; priority alpha.”

  <>

  Jessica watched the descending flyer for a few seconds before she started walking through the colony passageways, avoiding small fires and the sprawled bodies of the Altar who’d died defending it. She caught the smell of burning rubber from one of the lost tanks. They would need to be remembered. “Lucille?”

  <>

  “I want the complete files of everyone brought out here on the Victory Twelve. I know you got a full manifest, but I need to know more about them. Some of them were just kids.”

  <>

  She would still have to face it at some point. Writing letters to their families about what had happened, and how their loved ones had died, would come later. Jessica stepped through the main colony wall and headed across open ground. “Have you tried to engage any systems from our new friends?”

  <>

  “You learn something new every day,” Jessica said. About the size of a small exo-jet liner on Earth, the flyer settled at the river’s edge with barely a sound. She kept walking, realizing it was harder and harder to see through misting eyes. A million emotions cascaded down on her. For more than 20 years, she’d imagined this moment again and again during almost any time of the day. Seeing children and their fathers turned from adolescent longing to teen anger to adult sadness. She’d imagined herself running into his arms like a child on the playground. Sometimes she slapped his face with everything she had and walked away. Other times it was a long, awkward silence that ended in ugly tears. Some ended with her crying alone. Again.

  None of them prepared her for the well of emotion that opened in her soul. A million questions, a million fears, a million reasons and excuses to run, none of them prepared her to face him. Her mother’s pain bubbled up through Jessica’s memory. On her death bed, she’d asked for Jimmy several times as tears spilled down her cheeks. Her mother hadn’t remembered anything in the end, but she remembered her husband.

  Jessica felt a tear cascade down her left cheek and she swiped it away. The dark gray outer cockpit door slid open and a small, three-rung ladder deployed under it. The clear, protective glass inner door slid open and Jessica sobbed. A white-haired man with a familiar grin looked out at her. His shoulders were a little more rounded than she remembered. He stepped down from the cockpit and walked toward her, and there was no doubt it was him. His eyes glistened, and a sob came up that made his broad chest heave.

  Her feet moved without prompting from her brain. Tears blinded her as she stepped forward. Her arms came out without warning. She caught the scent of Old Spice on the breeze, and any shred of emotional control failed her. She wrapped her arms around him and let 25 years of tears come.

  It was a long embrace.

  * * *

  Two days later, peace grew between the colonies, and they worked together to clean up the detritus of war. Given full access to the Dream World systems, Lucille diagnosed and corrected the climate control system in less than nine hours. Kenos had never attempted to fix it. Weather patterns shifted almost immediately and brought rain to the starved Choote valley. Cooler weather made the arduous tasks easier and left time in the evenings for rest. Jessica and her father spent as much time as they could just talking. Bukk and his citizens worked through the first night to get their colony power and water systems online. Burying the dead and clearing debris would take many more long days. As the sun set, Jessica and her father left the colony to continue getting to know each other all over again.

  They sat on a group of rocks overlooking the Choote. Jessica’s bare feet dangled in the cold water as they shared a bottle of beer from her father’s ship. The colony cleanup continued behind them, with representatives from the Selroth and GenSha colonies working alongside the Altar. A fair and equitable solution would come soon and she would go home.

  “I don’t know if they’re going to commission me.”

  Her father took a sip from the bottle and handed it to her. “Why would you say that, Jess?”

  She snorted. “Look around, Dad. I’m pretty sure this is a failure. Even though you did manage to sweep in at the last minute to save my ass, the Guild won’t be happy with me.”

  He patted her leg. “The Guild might surprise you. They’ve handled far worse than this with far worse results.”

  “I’m just a candidate, Dad. They can wipe me off the books before I ever get started.”

  He smiled at her like he’d done the first time she tied a square knot. “I think you’ll be surprised. They do things very differently.”

  She chuckled. “You say that like you know them pretty well, Dad.”

  He reached for the beer bottle and she let him have it. “I’ve known a few Peacemakers, Jess. None like you though.”

  She blushed with the compliment as it filled her from head to toe. As it washed over her, a question came along that she hadn’t asked. They’d talked about their lives, Jessica’s mother, and why he’d never returned. Turns out that he couldn’t because of his work. Her mother went to her grave acting as if she never knew why, though she’d been in on the ruse the entire time. James Francis, one of the most respected long-distance haulers, had been a mercenary from day one. In the days after the First Contracts and the return of the Four Horsemen, his hauling service became a mercenary force in its own right, but one that no one really knew.
That was his plan all along.

  Intergalactic Haulers, Incorporated, was his creation. Originally formed to gather the remains of human mercenary units across the galaxy for reconstitution in the original Four Horseman companies and, eventually other units, the Haulers operated as a half-dozen hauling companies with a very serious level of ammunition and capability hiding in plain sight. If a mercenary unit became overwhelmed and lost a contract along with their forces, and the Haulers were nearby, they’d find a safe place and transport them home. Return with honor was their motto. They’d brought tens of thousands of mercenaries back to Earth and other worlds around the galaxy. Finding him should have been easy, but there was more to the story than she knew, and it didn’t answer the toughest question.

  “How did you find me?”

  Her father laughed. “I knew the minute you got Elly that you’d figure out something was inside it. From there, it would only be a matter of time.”

  “I meant how did you get the signal? Once I plugged the wrong chip into the Raknar I—”

  “I got your initial signal before you left Luna, Jess.”

  Jessica startled. “Taemin said the Systems console came online before he disabled the slate I left in there. I figured it was the chipset.”

  “It did something in the Raknar? Hell, it is a Dusman chipset, but I never thought about you plugging it into a mech, Bulldog. We should check it out before your Guild gets here.” He patted her leg. “Honey, that’s not how I found you. You tested the chip with Lucille aboard the Victory Twelve and triggered it to report. That’s when I got the first signal, Jess. We got your ship’s information and jump profile. I came as fast as I could. We got into the system and saw what was going on, and I knew it was you.” He laughed. “Only my daughter would get into the middle of a war between pissed off colonies and a crooked tourism company about their broken planet.”