by Lance Powers
“Approaching target site in sixty seconds.” The pilot flying the ship Evans and she were in announced over the ship’s speakers. “Long range scans indicate no deployment of defenses.”
“Hm, you would hope Roberson is complying with us.” Evans said softly.
“Yes, we all should hope.” Regina nodded, placing her hand on his wrist. “But whatever happens, Garth, promise me you’ll stay safe.”
“There’s not going to be a war today, Regina.” He gave her a rare smile. “Resistance of the scale we expected is not evident.”
“Thank heaven, if there is any such place.” She said with visible relief as the ship landed on the soft grass of the valley she was quite familiar with.
Outside the air was cool as the sun was low on the eastern horizon with the night sky already darkening the west. Her exo suit picked up readings from all around her, nothing much had changed. The level of toxicity in the area was as negligible as when she had first done her initial run. That seemed like so long ago now. So much had happened since then. So much good and bad. But things would get better now, that she knew she could rely on.
“We found a very small Earth Gov unit guarding a cave, Colonel.” A rebel soldier saluted Evans. “They wised up and surrendered.”
“Good. Keep them confined.”
“Sir, yes, sir.” The man saluted sharply before he left, indicating that he had prior military training before joining the rebel faction.
“So back to square one.” Evans sighed and waved at their surroundings. “This is where you made the original discovery, Regina.”
“That’s right, Garth.” Regina replied, peering all around her. “And that reminds me; you mentioned something about capturing a creature… possibly the one that attacked me.”
“Oh, yes, that thing.” The tall white hared man scratched his chin stubble. “Turns out the lab tests on it confirmed its some kind of high-tech drone unit, designed to mimic organic life.”
“Is it alien tech?” She asked wide eyed, walking toward the cave. “It has to be… considering the rather high-end quality of it.”
“Yes, I’d figure the aliens set it up here to deter nosy scientists from finding out what they shouldn’t.” He gave her another rare smile. That was two in the same day. This was going to be a day she would never forget, it seemed.
“But this nosy scientist doesn’t scare easy.” She smiled back, gazing into his steel gray eyes.
“She sure doesn’t, does she?” He nodded and gestured at the cave entrance. “And it’s time she made a few more of her trademark astonishing discoveries, no?”
“Yes, it’s beyond time she did.” Regina lit up her glow-torch and stepped into the fissure in the rock wall. “There’s an entire world depending on that.”
She walked into the hard floored cavern, the darkness around her receded from the glow-torch she carried. Regina felt strangely at ease, despite the apparent danger they could be in. It had to be Evans shadowing her every move like her own personal defense shield that made her feel less uncomfortable than she should be. Did he really care for her beyond this crazy mission, she wondered. She hoped that he did, at least as much as she seemed to want to care for him. And it didn’t matter that he was so much older than her. Garth Evans was unlike any man she had ever met and she was more than interested to take things a step further. But first they had a task at hand the size of the entire planet.
“This part of the rock wall looks out of place compared to the rest.” Evans suddenly said. “I’ll bet this is covering something up… maybe a way into a secret chamber.”
“The control core.” Regina said, her blue eyes lighting up. “But how can we get through.”
“With these.” The Colonel drew his plasma-fire handguns. “Step back, and tone down your suit’s audio receptors.”
She did as he asked and also ran a darker filter over her visor. The cavern exploded in a burst of light as Evans fired his guns at the wall repeatedly. The heat from the shots fired fractured the artificial rock formation and a pale green light began to filter out of the cracks.
“That’s the green light I saw that day.” She said in awe. “Knock down the whole wall.”
“I’d need a plasma-cannon for that. Never thought I’d miss Danish and her preference for big guns.” Evans almost laughed. “But this should work.” He planted a heavy boot against the fresh cracks on the wall and a large chunk fell away, leaving a wide gap to easily walk through.
The cave was now flooded with the green light emanating from the secret room. Inside, Regina could see several sophisticated equipment and something that looked like a satellite uplink. This was the heart of it all, she knew. Reversing the computation here would set the eco-system back to its original state in about ten years. But before that she had to break into the system and override the controls, and then reprogram the codes. And that would take some time.
“What if we just blow this place to hell?” Evans asked her.
“Then we’ll just stagger the corruption without reversing it.” She told him breathlessly. “It may take another forty to fifty years for the planet to recover to its original condition.”
“That’s a long time to wait.” He sighed. “Alright, Doctor, do your thing. I need to have a perimeter guard set up all around here and build in some defensive positions. I’ll see you soon.”
She watched him walk away. She missed him instantly. She had never felt this way with anyone ever before. But she let her mind take control of her emotions, focusing hard on the alien computers that blinked dimly before her. The base language of the Universe was mathematics. Her favorite language. All she had to find was a base code and then the formulas would all fall in place, and for someone with an IQ of her caliber, that wouldn’t be more difficult than a walk in the park. She popped her knuckles and went to work on the weird looking command keys before her.
“It’s all here, everything I know, and everything that’s holds the Universe together.” She murmured, chewing on her lip. “I’ve just got to find that little window to get in, and I’ll be in control.”
After a couple of hours of serious and relentlessly frenzied key coding, she could sense the control begin to give way. A series of blips, beeps and buzzes followed, and the screens began flickering and changing from green to blue and orange. Then rows and rows of coded data began to stream down the screens, opening up a whole world of information to her. She could have rushed out of the cave, yelling ‘Eureka!’ but she held her nerve, even though her delicate hands shook with excitement. Keeping her head firmly on her shoulders, the first thing she did was back up all the new data onto her own storage unit and also relay it over to the database back at her home not too far from there. “We’re going to do this.” She kept telling herself again an again. “This is priceless.”
“Regina!” Garth came rushing back into the cavern. He looked strangely out of character as he paused to catch his breath.
“Garth!” She yelled back at him, almost flying into this arms to give him a hug. “You won’t believe it… I’m in, and we’ve going to win this war.”
“What… oh, that’s great.” He told her, sounding a little confused.
“That’s not just great, it’s freaking awesome.” She told him empathically. “But what the hell is with you… did you… oh no, something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He seemed to regain his usual cool composure quickly, but his eyes were like a sea in a storm. “Everything’s gone wrong. If you excuse the language, we’ve been fucked hard in the ass.”
Something must be really, really seriously wrong, she shuddered, because she had never heard Evans even raise his voice before, let alone swear. The joy she felt at her latest discovery fell to the wayside as she peered into the small viewing screen on the Colonel’s handheld.
“This happened a half hour ago.” He said, as he played back the recording.
On the screen, Mavis Orkney’s face looked bloodied and he was in pain. One eye wa
s shut and the other barely able to focus. The left side of his head had congealed blood matting his snow white hair. He twisted his mouth and whispered something. Evans turned up the volume for her. Orkney’s voice was a tortured rasp. “They took us by surprise. We were never so vulnerable. All gone… everyone dead.”
“How did this happen.” Regina looked up at the Colonel, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“We’ve been compromised. The remaining rebel faction left in the citadel was taken out.” Evans said with ice in his eyes. “Only the two thousand here are all that’s left of the faction.”
“But what will they do?” She tried not to sound too frantic. “Shouldn’t they go back and…?”
“That’ll be suicide. Earth Gov will be waiting for them, taking out any and all stragglers. I told Jillian Orkney this, and she’s agreed to hold and defend this sector with me. Roberson played us big again.”
“But how did he manage to…” She began and then it hit her. “Cecilia?”
Evans clenched his jaw and nodded. “Watch.” He said and raised the handheld to her face.
Mavis Orkney was still on the screen, only this time a plasma-cannon was held against his head. The image zoomed out to reveal Cecilia Roberson holding the gun. She had a smug smile on her face that resembled her father’s. Her slender forefinger squeezed on the trigger and Orkney’s head erupted in a shower of red. The image then zoomed up to Cecilia’s pretty face. Behind her stood several Earth Gov personnel. Regina identified Corporal Parson and Major Danish among them.
“Hello, rebels.” The slender young blonde spoke with pouted lips. “And a special hello to you, Colonel Evans. Oh, and to you too, Doctor Scott… I know you are watching this and I want to thank you for the vote of confidence. Couldn’t have done this without all that help and encouragement. ”
Regina felt like she had been slapped across the face. It seemed like she was now an accomplice to the carnage she could see at the rebel base. She looked up at Evans, but his icy stare was fixed to the little screen.
“Well, thanks to you, Doctor… Earth Gov could do in one hour what it wasn’t able to for thirty five years.” Cecilia was speaking again. “We’ve finally taken out the rebel trash for good, and soon it’ll be your turn, wherever you may be hiding now.”
“That little bit…” Regina exhaled deeply.
“If you’re wondering how all this happened so easily.” The President’s daughter continued gleefully. “Once you gave me free reign of this rebel base, I got my cutie pie Frankie Parson here to cover for me while I relayed the locations of every single rebel base to my Dad. And you know who Frankie is more loyal to than that bossy Colonel Evans? Why, li’l ole me, of course. And he got all the Intel of this place zipped over to his Earth Gov unit for easy access to this dump. Then the rest was child’s play, with most of you rebellious vandals gone out for your little picnic in the woods. The big bad wolves of Earth Gov huffed and puffed and blew these petty little piggy’s houses down.”
“She as mad as her fath…” Regina gasped, clutching at her breast.
“And Regina, if you’re breaking your holier-than-thou head over how a sweet little gal like me could do this.” The blonde girl grinned wide on the screen. “Well, Doctor… I am my father’s daughter.”
The screen went blank and Evans put away the handheld device into his backpack. He stood there, silent as the stone all around them, brooding. She reached out and touched his face gently. “Garth, we have to do something.”
“We are, Regina.” He replied, and caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers. “We’re going to hold this ground until Doomsday.”
“That’s right, we are.” She nodded, stepping into his powerful arms and holding him tight. “And I’m going to turn every damn thing around. I have full control of the alien equipment now, Garth. We’re going to win this bloody war, or we will end it all for good.”
Chapter Eight
‘NAR-AX-0010 Garth Andrew Evans’, the glowing holographic read out as it hovered over his head for all to see. The bridge of the lead ship made the perfect control center for the remaining fighters of the rebel faction. Angered and expectant eyes of the two dozen section commanders seated there stared at him with anticipation and varied degrees of suspicion.
“I am not into giving long motivational speeches.” He told the gathered officers of the rebel faction. “Everyone here knows what happened and there isn’t any need to keep reminding ourselves. No matter what, we have to hold this ground.”
“Most of us agree on that, Colonel.” Jillian Orkney, now in command of the rebel faction, replied. “Though it’s killing us all to keep hiding here when we want to go raise hell. But we know they’ll be waiting for us and we’ll be easy meat.”
“Affirmative, Miss Orkney.” Garth nodded briskly. “By holding the fort here, we are stronger and can take anything they will throw at us. With Doctor Scott’s valuable intellect, we have modified and upgraded all out defensive and offensive capabilities, especially stealth, mobility and firepower. Earth Gov knows we are here and they will hit us with everything at their disposal, but they have to find our positions first. We’ll know every move they make even before they know it.”
“Sounds like the perfect plan.” The late rebel faction leader’s daughter agreed and raised her hand. “Everyone has been briefed on what needs to be done. Get to it, people. We are saving a world here, and everyone in it.”
Garth leaned back on the chair as the others began filing out of the command ship and heading for their designated stations. Orkney’s daughter remained seated beside him, her intense green eyes staring right at him.
“You know that I am the only one who can do this, Jill.” He said to her softly.
“I know it too well, Garth.” The redhead sighed deeply. “You’ve always been the same, ever since we were rookies in the academy. Ice cold and precise… no wonder they called you the Grim Ghost”
“Haven’t heard that in a while.” He managed a small smile.
“Yeah, it’s been too long.” The thirty-five year old woman nodded, and then her eyes hardened. “I was always prepared for anything, in this bloody line of work… but not the way he had to die. That little bitch… grinning into the camera… she just… she… I can’t wait to get my hands on that scrawny neck and rip her snot-filled head off.”
“You might still, and I won’t stop you.” He told her. “But not today…”
“Yeah, I know, Garth.” Jillian Orkney exhaled deeply. “We have a lot riding on this.”
“I’m going to check on Doctor Scott before leaving.” He stood up.
“Right. And be careful… though I know you don’t need to be told that, Grim Ghost.”
“I’ll see you again soon, Jill. Get some rest.” He said, looking back as he walked to the exit.
***
A quick burst of speed and his jet boots brought him to the little cave. Regina had been in there ever since they had found the hidden section inside. That was about thirty hours ago. The work was critical, he knew, and Earth Gov had begun amassing forces all around the perimeter he had set up. Cloaked and protected defenses managed to keep any and all intruders at bay, but only for so long. The power and resources they had wouldn’t last a week. But he didn’t want to think that far ahead. He had his work cut out for him, but first he had to see the pretty brunette scientist.
“Doctor Scott.” He called out, stepping into the cave.
“In here, Garth.” Regina replied from the hidden chamber. “I’ve got most of this covered.”
“We have time.” He told her as he entered the secret compartment that housed the core controls set up by the aliens.
“I’m going to need at least another day here.” She said, smiling at him tightly. “The codes are encrypted in layers. I think it was mostly written by Roberson, with help from the aliens, of course.”
“If anyone can crack this, you can.” He placed his hand on her shoulder.
Her smile was a
warm one this time, sending a thrill through him, but his controlled expression hid it well. There would be time to freely feel like that after all this was done with.
“I have to go.” He said. “We need to find out first hand what the President is up to now.”
“No need referring to him as President anymore.” Regina gritted her teeth. “He’s worn out that privilege a long time ago. Fact is, he never really earned it.”
He nodded in silence. Twenty years ago, Roberson played everyone the fool and seized control of Earth Gov, with their seal of ignorant approval. Setting the ball rolling twenty more years before that, the avaricious man played a dangerous game, compromising the lives of everyone on the planet for his own profit. But not anymore. Garth knew that once he was inside Roberson’s private office, he could easily assassinate the man. But that wouldn’t get him the information he needed to turn this thing over once and for all. After that there would be enough time to have Roberson go through a proper trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, without parole.
“I know you’re thinking it, Garth.” Regina stole into his thoughts. “And why not? What else do we need to know? Just do it.”
“I’d be lying if I said otherwise, but the people need to know what he really is.” He said sadly. “Assassinating him will bury the truth with him, and might even make him some kind of martyr or hero.”
“That’s the worst part of it. People are dumb enough to buy that, as much as they’ve been buying all the horse crap he’s been selling so far.” Her eyes blazed with fury, and he felt a strange need to hold her in his arms. “And then there’s that demented daughter of his… and to think I felt sorry for that psychopath.”
“Well, time to go.” He nodded, resisting the urge to take her in his arms.
“Be careful… Garth.” She said and looked deep into his eyes.
For a moment he felt frozen in time. But it wasn’t a cold feeling; instead it was warm and cozy. He looked into those deep pools of blue and didn’t want to go anywhere. And before his so very level head could stop him, he leaned down and gently kissed her on the lips. It was a quick kiss, lingering just that bit. He heard her gasp before pulling away, the heat of embarrassment swirling behind his ears.