Solstice 31: The Solstice 31 Saga, Books 1,2,3

by Martin Wilsey

  “That and a million other things,” Barcus said absently.

  ***

  “I'm sorry” Hagan lowered his head, “Captain Everett is dead.”

  “You should be sorry you rusty bucket of vomit!” The man yelled still holding Shaw by the neck as if she were a rag doll. His face was covered in emotions, anger, sadness, realization. Quieter he said, “Did you know she was in love with you?” He set Shaw's feet back on the deck and let her go.

  The room was silent until Jude began to wake and suddenly struggle against her bindings.

  “On your feet shit bricks.” The man growled.

  “My name is Jack Zimmerman. I'm the next asshole you were about to get killed.” He holstered his other weapon. He was the next name in Everett's cell. He is a Luna Peace Officer.

  “The keys please, I will free them, then we must get out of here,” Wex said holding out her hand.

  Jack pulled out the keys but didn't hand them over. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “My name is Wex.” She said and snatched the keys. “What did you do to them?”

  “Stun gloves.” He rubbed his square jaw, “I underestimated them. Little bitches almost killed me.” He rolled his jaw then. Kuss saw the bruise there.

  Shaw was helping Elkin to her feet. Hagan was the last up.

  “You could have just told me your name. We had it. And yes you were the next to visit on the list,” Hagan said.

  “Stow that shit, for now; we got to get the fuck out of the shit hole,” Zimmerman said. “You kicked the hornets’ nest.”

  “We are supposed to just trust you?” Hagan said.

  Zimmerman drew his side arms and handed one to Hagan and one to the recently freed Jude, who instantly executed a shoulder roll and came up kneeling with the gun trained on Jacks head. He knelt to make it easier.

  “Kill me or trust me. But we have no time for bullshit.” Jack said.

  Hagan turned to the lift and the bridge.

  ***

  “Hagan will pick up one more in New Tranquility. And then we can meet on Freedom Station.” Barcus said causing Jimbo to look up. “FS is an open port. If we use one of the public docking spires we can dock for free for 24 hours anonymously.”

  “Mall parking. Could be crowded.” Jimbo said.

  “It won't be,” Barcus said with certainty. “Walk with me. Let’s talk while I prep the STU.”

  They walked into the hangar and were greeted by three Warmarks lined up and waiting for the ramp to lower on the STU.

  “Expecting trouble?” Worthington asked.

  “Not with these along,” Barcus said.

  “To even have these in your possession without a black badge is a world of trouble,” Jim said casually.

  “You're the one flying around with a cargo hold full of nukes,” Barcus answered.

  “You didn't ask me out here to help you watch Warmarks load themselves or to tell me to be careful.” Jimbo faced him. “Straight up, man. As always.”

  “You, Rand and Hume have to come with me in the STU to Freedom Station,” Barcus said.

  “I do feel like soup,” Jimbo smiled.

  Barcus thought to himself, I'm sorry Jimbo, but you'll never get that soup...

  ***

  “Give me that!” Shaw yelled as she grabbed the gun from the crouching Jude. She walked right up to Zimmerman where he knelt. “Give me a reason why I should not send you to hell.”

  “Because I am ruggedly handsome, a sexual savage in bed and I make an excellent breakfast,” Zimmerman smiled which was frightening. His enormous teeth were perfect. He didn't realize there was blood on the left side of them.

  Elkin laughed and then immediately regretted it. Shaw dropped the gun on the deck between them, rubbed her neck with one hand and slapped his face as hard as she could with the other. He didn't even try to avoid it. It was like hitting a marble statue. Her hand regretted it as she and Kuss helped Elkin to the lift.

  Zimmerman stood as he sensed the ship lifting off on Grav-plates.

  He turned and faced Wex then, all humor gone. “You're the one Everett talked about. You are the fucking reason she's dead. She was my friend, my mentor.”

  “It's a war. Many more will die.” Wex said.

  Zimmerman scowled and took a half step closer. His move was mirrored by Jude and Cine to either side of Wex.

  “Keep your filthy pet hyenas the fuck away from me.” Zimmerman turned his back on them intentionally; a grave warrior insult and he knew it. He walked to the lift and went to the bridge.

  “This is he whom you spoke,” Cine said in her accent.

  “Yes. Give him time.” Wex mused.

  ***

  The lift door opened on the main salon of the Sedna, and Officer Zimmerman stepped out and stood there staring.

  “Fucking eh. You pukes know how to steal 'em.” Jack said laughing.

  “What is your problem.” Hagan said, “Why would Captain Everett bring a primate like you in on this?” They were already moving quickly three hundred meters above the surface.

  “We were friends, asswipe. We met in a practical astro-physics class in school as cadets. I went into security; she became a pilot. I'll tell you why she brought me in; she trusted me.”

  There was an implication in his harsh words that Everett trusted him more than Hagan. Zimmerman was looking up from the status board to the windows. “Where the fuck are you going. We need to go to New Tranquility dumb ass, not Shackleton's Base.

  “That station is hosed. We are headed to NT. Trust me. Asshole.” Hagan said trying to sound as manly as possible.

  “Hagan. She was my friend. She really was. She told me a lot about you. I'm not surprised you lived. She would have made sure of it.” Jack said with all the bravado gone from his voice. “Jesus, I have never gotten off on the wrong fucking foot so bad in my life as I did with you people.”

  “How did you find us?”

  “Everett had me in a place where I could watch and listen for bulletins and alerts on people and events. There are three in my cell. Well, all the cells actually. Johan was in my cell. Right when my AI gets hits on Ventura crew, Johan is murdered in a terror attack.” Jack grumbles, “I trace you back to this ship and using my security override I access the ship to find five naked men, all of which are wanted criminals. That's when the pain twins almost ended me.”

  “Jude and Cine? Serves you right.”

  “Dammit, I almost had the kill them. Tough little bitches.” Jack started removing body armor and dropping it on one of the sofas.

  “Who is Tawana Hudson? Can you, at least, help with that?” Hagan gruffed.

  “Look, Hagan. You may have noticed that all this shit is going as pair shaped as a half a bag of rotting guts. Hudson is another friend of Everett's. A trusted friend. And we are on our fucking way to ruin her life. If they have not killed her already.” Jack tried to calm by force of will, “She is one of the data managers in the core complex at New Tran. She has access to all the data housed there as an admin. She is another information collector just like me, just like Johan. At least, she's not married. Johan had a wife and three kids.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY:

  New Tranquility

  “I knew nothing about the underground cells that Everett was a part of. To be honest, at that point, I was being completely selfish and thinking only of my own family. I did not set out to save millions of people. Only the three I loved.”

  --Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Captain James Worthington, senior surviving member of the Ventura's command crew.

  <<<>>>

  “It was a silent coup. When the Chancellor was elected, we didn't know the depth of corruption and manipulation that was involved. It was all politics and I stayed out of it.” Jack explained to Hagan, Shaw, and Kuss, who were sitting in the command seats. “Then Alice called me one day and asked me to lunch.”

  Wex and The Bitch Twins, as Jack called them, were looking out the window watching the surfac
e go by. Jack knew they were listening closely.

  “Ships had started going missing. Global media refused to cover any of it, and any questioning of leadership usually led to reassignment and hardship. It was a new kind of Liberal Fascism, but I did not care about any of that. I lost faith in the political system and completely ignored it when I went into the security service.” Jack continued, “I trusted Everett and did as she asked. Keeping the peace is my job. In my mind, she was just another informant. In the beginning anyway.”

  “Why were we sent to Baytirus if they already knew it was settled?” Shaw asked.

  “They used petty bureaucrats to load the Ventura up with potential political adversaries. Former military and others. Plus they want the expansion stopped. They hate the colonies. They can't control them no matter what they try.”

  “Why even try to control them?” Shaw said, “They just want to be left alone.”

  “The Chancellor and his supporters are paranoid narcissists that think the colonies are building up for war to take over or destroy Earth,” Zimmerman said.

  “That's crazy. Colonists don't even think about Earth.” Hagan added.

  “Did you hear about the Albion colony?” Jack asked angry again.

  “Albion? Have relatives on Albion. What of Albion?” Kuss said.

  “Media blackout but rumor has it there was a massive meteor impact. The entire colony was destroyed. Almost two million people. And now it's a dead planet in a nuclear winter..”

  “This not be true? Would have heard.” Kuss was in obvious denial.

  “Some don't think it was an accident,” Jack said. “Even this ship flying at near light speed could do it. The senate is quietly debating the suspension of private ownership of ships with near light speed capability.”

  “Combine that with the AI problems in recent years...” Hagan left it hang out there.

  “New Tranquility coming up in six minutes. Where will we be setting down?” Hagan announced.

  “Approach from the west. You will see a huge tarmac marked 29. Set her down there but maintain radio silence. I will get a Lock-Truck to come out and pick me up. I will get Hudson personally, so you amateurs don't piss in her biscuits. Then to Freedom Station where we can get a message to Admiral Krieger.”

  Hagan noticed, at that for some reason Jude and Cine looked at each and then to Wex.

  ***

  “It is time to go, Jim,” Barcus said. And he ascended the ladder into Stu's bridge.

  “Rand, Hume report to the STU, Bring your gear,” Worthington said over the priority comms. “Is everyone clear on the plan?”

  Everyone chimed in with an acknowledgment.

  “Cook when you get to Sri Lanka, hire a private hangar close to the catapult for the Memphis. Or the Winton I mean. Lay low. And we will catch up. I will never get use to that name.”

  “You are headed to Freedom Station to hook up with Hagan. Establish contact. Determine next steps.”

  “We will be taking the scenic route around the belt and won't arrive until 12-21 late.” Cook said, “Make sure your ducks are in a row by then. We will keep in touch via QUEST comms daily.”

  “Be careful, boy. I just got her fixed, don't scratch the fenders.”

  “Aye, Captain.” Cook signed off.

  Worthington watched Rand and Hume descend the ramp on the Memphis and begin to cross the deck to the STU. Jimbo was up the ladder to the bridge with practiced ease. The dome was on, and it showed the entire hangar around them. Barcus was in the pilot seat, and Po was in his lap. His face was buried in her neck.

  “What's wrong?” He asked.

  “Nothing.” Po smiled, “He just likes sniffing my neck. Stu, how's it look, my friend.”

  She climbed out of his lap into the copilot seat. Barcus sat up straight and started rolling his neck to a chorus of pops and cracks.

  “All systems are standing by. We can depart as soon as the ramp is up.” Stu said with cheerful confidence.

  ***

  Cook gave a heavy sigh from the pilots seat as he ran the final flight checklist. It was doubly important with a skeleton crew.

  “What was that sigh for. Thinking about childhood dead pets?” Beary said to him from the navigators station as she ran her own preflight.

  “I just feel like they are going to leave us out of the action. Because when this gets real they will need the Memphis and all this data as evidence.”

  “Quit your belly aching. There hasn't been enough action on this trip for you?” Muir said.

  “I don't mind the sidelines.” Brian Perry said from the communications station. “I have spent way too much time on the verge of pissing myself on the trip.”

  Sarah Wood entered the bridge and instead of sitting at the security station she took the Captains seat saying, “Well I am the most useless one on this bridge so I might as well sit here.”

  No one mentioned it was bad luck to sit in the Captains seat unless commanded to.

  ***

  The Grace, the new Ident for the Sedna landed on the New Tran security apron, and Zimmerman radioed for an airlock truck. The blast doors were closed over the windows on the ship to help keep out prying eyes.

  Jack waited in airlock 2 for the vehicle to roll up and attach. When the seal was green, he opened the door on his side and waited. One minute, then two.

  “Hey ass-wipes, I'm in a hurry here,” Jack said. He opted to forgo his body armor in an effort to draw less attention to himself. He heard the door begin to cycle. This kind of hatch split in the middle and half went up and half down.

  As it did, six trank-darts bristled from his stomach.

  “What the f...” he fell to his knees. A dozen men in full tactical gear entered past Jack and opened the inner airlock flooding into the cargo bay.

  The cargo bay was dark.

  “Fan out, if you find anyone take them alive if you can.” One of them said.

  None of them noticed the airlock closing behind them, cutting them off from Zimmerman.

  A voice came over the PA system, “You guys really suck at this.”

  The Grav-plating in the floor suddenly jumped to 2G, and the lights came up. They all fell pinned to the floor by gravity 12 times greater than what they were used to. One tried to struggle to his feet. The rest were struggling to breathe and stay conscious.

  Jude slowly walked out of the shadows and easily bent and retrieved one of the dart guns and shot the man that was on his hands and knees. She then shot the rest in quick succession.

  The lift opened, and Kuss was there, “How you know they were tranquilizer darts?” She opened the airlock where Jack rested on the floor.

  “They are tranquilizers?” Jude looked at the gun and shrugged. The room returned to 1G.

  Kuss pulled the darts out of Zimmerman's belly and chest and examined one. “These not standard Law Enforcement tranks.”

  “These are not security. What do we do with them?” Hagan asked as he went through their pockets finding nothing at all.

  “Drop them out on surface with other four.” Kuss spat.

  Hagan pressed hypo spray to Zimmerman's neck. With a small hiss, his eyes shot open.

  “That feels like Ice vodka in my veins. Wasted and awake. What happened?” He staggered to his feet.

  “They knew we were coming,” Hagan said.

  “Mother pus bucket... you two,” he pointed at Cine and Jude. “You’re coming with me.”

  They each picked up two dart guns and stashed them in their thigh pockets. As if by magic, they both had produced black flutes from thin air.

  “Don't ask,” Hagan said as he tightened a zip tie around wrists and ankles.

  “Come.” Jack barked, and they were right behind him and into the lock-truck. The airlock was secured, detached and he was driving it back to the security terminal. All the truck-locks were occupied, so he rolled past and pulled into a random private lock and attached.

  The inner lock opened, and it woke an attendant there. “He
y, you can't park there...” then he saw the size of Jack and the uniform. Both were intimidating. He pushed him aside and activated his come console. He hyped a short message.

  Msg T.HUDSON Lava L11

  A few seconds later a live video was visible in Zimmerman's security HUD. No audio. Video only.

  “Smart girl.” Jack could tell she was walking, but not so fast that she would draw attention. Instead of telling Jack where she was she simply looked at the boulevard signs.

  “What's happening here, man? I mean officer.” The kid said from his chair that he had wheeled back.

  “You will stay out of the way, ask no questions and forget we were here,” Jack said to him, but he was focusing on his HUD.

  Hudson was rounding the corner to enter the long hall that led to the gates.

  “How did she know where to go?” Jude asked, “This is not L11. It's H6.”

  “Prearranged code hall/gate subtract five from each,” Jack said quickly.

  The corridor was about one hundred meters long to H6. Zimmerman saw her round the corner into the hall and two seconds behind her, four men moved along at a quiet but increasing pace.

  “Hudson! Run!” Zimmerman yelled drawing both side arms. They were both suppressed Frange-Pistols designed to pierce unarmored flesh but not cause hull breaches. Jude and Cine swung around and began firing the trank guns. Hudson was running as fast as she could along a wall trying to stay out of the line of fire. The four men started firing guns of their own. These were loud, and they were followed by the sound every resident of Luna feared.

  Hull breach.

  “These shit bricks are firing armor piercing rounds!” Jack yelled as he dropped a second one with a shot to the knee.

  The Hudson was hit in the hip from behind. It spun her around in a spray of blood, but she was still fifteen yards from the gate.