Legacy

by Andreas Christensen

  "Disturbance, ma´am?" Dave asked, puzzled.

  "A slight disturbance, but something that shouldn´t be there. Now," she clicked, and an image of a pale dot on a black background appeared. "This is the cause of the disturbance."

  Dave had to look closer. He still didn´t understand where she was going. Dr. Sims clicked rapidly through several images, fast enough that Dave was able to see the dot move and turn.

  "Impossible," he whispered.

  "And yet, there it is," Dr. Sims said softly.

  "But relativity, I mean, it shouldn´t even be possible for decades.” He trailed off and looked up at Dr. Simms, who was grinning.

  "But it is, David. It´s a spaceship. And we believe it is the Aurorans."

  Sue

  Sue was standing in front of the mirror staring at her reflection. Her mind was made up, regardless of what everyone around her said. The headaches were getting worse. This wasn´t life. Seeing Laurie had made her consider her current life. She had been a Janissary once, and she had faced death more than once. She had been scared, of course, but she had faced it. Life as a Janissary had been as dangerous as anything could be, and yet she had done it. And, amazingly, she was still alive.

  But living like this, dependent on medication and unable to do anything of value, depressed her. If this continued, she´d have two decades of suffering and then she would have to face euthanasia, discarded at forty, just like her father had been at fifty. That wasn´t life. It was a slow death.

  She opened the little medicine box. She emptied it into her hand and stood looking at the pills for a long time. What was the point? What was the point of anything if she had to live like this? She would rather be dead than live like this, every day blurring into an endless, empty routine, broken up only by blinding headaches that left her exhausted and disoriented.

  It was as if she had died up there in the North, like her body had been left in an unmarked grave. She was a ghost, caught between life and death, unable to escape. She desperately wanted to escape. She had to escape.

  She looked down at the pills and then back at the mirror again. She couldn't live like this. She opened her hand and let the pills drop down into the sink. Then, she flushed them all down.

  She was done. She was done with this, even if it cost her her life.

  Chapter 6

  Renee

  "I know better than most how competent she is," Captain Lee said, frustration evident, "but she is too inexperienced for this. This isn´t soldiering, Selma. This is dangerous in an entirely different way."

  "Don´t lecture me, Captain," Selma interrupted sharply. No one spoke, and Selma continued. She turned to Renee.

  "Despite Captain Lee´s arguments here, he´s put a great deal of faith in you. In fact, if not for him vouching for you, you probably wouldn´t have been selected for intel training at all. His concerns now are legitimate. He´s almost convinced me to change my mind. What do you say?" Renee looked from one to the other while her mind raced. It had been a week since they had all listened to Dave´s message from Counselor Novak, and in the meantime, Renee had continued her training at the discreet lodge in the mountains above Buchanan. Now the three of them stood together, watching the sun set in the western sky as it bathed them in a red-orange glow. She took a deep breath of crisp mountain air before she spoke.

  "I know her. I´ve spoken to her. You´ve heard my story about how we captured her and her team only to be overtaken by special forces from the Luna Brigade. I remember how she listened, like it was the first time she had heard any of it. It probably was." She had to pull herself together; that was one of the last times she had seen her brother, Conrad. They had all dispersed when the soldiers came, and while Conrad had gone with most of the others to their fallback shelter, she had taken her team out for another mission. She had seen him again briefly, but they were both busy. When the Covenant attacked in force, Conrad had been in Hudson, their capital. She had seen pictures taken by spy drones, and Hudson was completely obliterated. Not even ruins remained. The nukes had destroyed everything. She had even seen areas where the ground had melted, leaving a shiny surface that glinted in sunlight. Nothing remained, not even underground. Her only consolation was that it had happened quickly.

  "I think," she began. "Look, amnesia can be reversed right?" Selma cocked her head.

  "In some cases, yes. When it comes to Bliss, we´ve seen both. Most have recovered with time."

  "I think our conversation made an impression on her. Seeing me could make her remember something. It would be easier to get her to cooperate if she could remember my face," Renee said. She waited for a reply, but when none came, she turned toward Captain Lee.

  "I would need help to get in and to bring her out," she said. Captain Lee nodded slightly while Selma spoke again.

  "Okay, Marsden, you’ve convinced me. You and Lee get together. Cook up a plan to get the girl out. Run it by me, and if it´s any good, we´ll have a go. Captain, you are to provide any assistance and resources she needs. I´m putting you in charge, but she´ll be the one to initiate contact."

  "I´ll need a full ID and credentials. Moon blood from a remote part, Northeast maybe. Less likely to run into people I should know," Renee said.

  "You shall have it," Selma replied.

  "Thank you."

  Tina

  "They keep slaves," Ramon said quietly. On board the shuttle, his voice pierced the quiet of the humming fans. The shuttle was unlike anything Tina had ever flown, and she wouldn´t even have called it a shuttle, if not for having been aboard the ark itself. Compared to the ark, the shuttle was a fly—even if it outsized anything built on Earth by at least ten times. Tina sat down next to Ramon and studied the footage. It showed at least a hundred people in chains walking away from a mining compound, with people standing guard alongside the road.

  "These are the ones in the East, right?" she asked. Ramon nodded.

  "Actually, this is from the Southeast, but it seems the entire East is united. The road and railway systems show it clearly, and signal detection clearly shows two main communities. Those in the West seem entirely different. No sign of slavery there. That´s probably why tensions are so high." He switched to another image. This one showed what could only be missiles being moved from a building onto mobile launch ramps.

  "These missiles have a nuclear signature. It seems both sides have plenty of them," Ramon said.

  "And from the looks of it, they are both ready to fire at short notice," Tina mused. She didn´t like the looks of this at all.

  "What about the other communities we´ve detected?" she asked.

  "Well, it seems these are the only major ones. Those in between appear small and isolated. No signal patterns there. The one in southern Africa is the only one with significant signals, but outside of internal signal traffic, everything leads back to the one in Eastern North America," he said.

  "Which means they are somehow united, probably by conquest. Like nearly all of those small communities outside North America," Tina said.

  "Looks to me as if those guys in the West are the good guys, and they are losing. Sooner or later, the missiles will fly," Ramon said. Tina looked at him sideways.

  "Not the most elaborate analysis, but I think you´re right," Tina growled. To think that Earth was about to be conquered by slaveholders was just too much to accept. She was a black woman, and she knew her history. Long abolished, the days of slavery had never been fully forgotten. To think that this ugly monster had once more reared its head made her furious.

  "I don´t know about you, but I´d like to have a look firsthand to see if there´s anything we can do," she said. Ramon nodded. They weren´t supposed to interfere, but Tina knew they felt the same. They needed to know more, and if there were any chance of helping, there was no way either of them would stand idly by.

  "When do we land?" Ramon asked. Tina thought for a moment before she answered.

  "Let´s get the ship ready. I´ll get the systems and course plotted,
and you can prepare the kit. We land today."

  Evan

  Evan stood outside the door, listening in on the chatter on the other side. Inside, the Luna council was convening, and it seemed things were quieting down. He looked over at the men standing behind him. Their leader, a blond Meridian of the Luna Brigade with an untreated scar across his face—kept as a badge of honor although it would have been easy enough to remove—nodded. Evan smiled. Meridian Koster was one of the few childhood friends he had left. A true soldier from Nidaros and loyal to the Hordvik family above anything else, Evan knew he could count on Koster, even for this. The rest of the team followed Koster´s orders, so he´d have no problems there. It was time.

  Evan opened the door with a decisive push. Everyone turned toward him. Head Servant Lunde looked annoyed, probably at his being late more than anything. It didn´t seem as if anyone noticed the soldiers following him inside, taking up positions near the door while Meridian Koster followed on his heels. Without meeting the eyes of the council members, Evan noted to his satisfaction that Mark Novak was nowhere to be seen. He´d finally decided to have his treatment. Good. That man had a way with words unlike anyone else.

  "So, young Hordvik has finally decided to join us," Alexej Lunde said, a half-smile forming on his lips. "Let´s get this meeting started."

  "First order of business is the needs of the Corpus. Again, we have received a plea for more able bodies so that they can keep production levels up to the need. I´ve discussed this with the mayors, and while they claim we´re draining their towns of resources, I am still inclined to heed Corpus demands here. Unless anyone opposes this, I propose that we increase…" Lunde tapered off as First Janissary Ivanov, head of the Ivanov family and long-time opponent of Alexej Lunde, got to his feet and banged his fist on the desk.

  "Ivanov, all you have to do is rise. There’s no need for this noise," Lunde said. "And besides, I didn’t expect you to oppose Corpus needs."

  "This isn´t about Corpus needs. We have an issue that requires the council´s immediate attention," Ivanov interrupted.

  "What now?" Lunde said sharply.

  "This is about the Covenant as a whole, about our very way of life. For years now, we have waited. Our enemies to the west are undoubtedly preparing for war, and still we wait. We could crush them in one blow and eradicate this threat in one bold stroke, yet we wait. Frankly, Alexej, we are losing confidence in you as a leader. I propose a change in leadership." Evan noticed Lunde´s face redden as he rose.

  "Sit down, Ivanov. We already settled this," he said. Ivanov didn´t move.

  "Sit!" Lunde repeated more loudly. Evan rose slowly. He was the youngest member of the council and the least likely to stand up to the Head Servant. A few heads turned toward him, but he remained quiet until he had everyone´s attention. Even Lunde seemed to be waiting for him to speak. Evan chose his words wisely, but delivered them steadily.

  "For too long, the Covenant has deteriorated. Our people have become decadent and complacent while fear has governed our actions—fear of an enemy whose existence cannot be tolerated, as its existence is the antithesis to ours. We were born to rule, but we don´t." Evan nodded to Meridian Koster, who walked over to stand behind Lunde. The Head Servant finally seemed to acknowledge the soldier’s presence, and his eyes widened.

  "The time has come to make some changes. Big changes. Your time is up, Alexej, one way or another. In fact, the Luna council has proved to be an ineffective means of government. It cannot be trusted to deal with the challenges we face, and it must be disbanded. What we need is a true leader. The Covenant needs a strong hand if we are to make it through the trials ahead of us. We need a leader who can rule with a steady hand, but also unite the factions and end the power struggles and scheming. Someone with the confidence of both Ivanov and the other families out of New Moscow. Someone who commands the loyalty of the Nidaros families." Evan paused and looked to Ivanov, who didn´t wait for his chance to speak.

  "I think it is evident that such a leader is rare, but I see one in front of me right now," the First Janissary said. Evan let out a breath, slowly so as not to betray his relief. As everyone turned toward him, he knew he had won. The Covenant was his now.

  Chapter 7

  Renee

  Renee watched Captain Lee as he gave instructions to a pair of rangers, who synced their watches before they stepped away. A minute later, the captain came over to her.

  "We should cross the border in fifteen minutes. John and Rita will scout for electronic detectors and take them out if necessary. We´ll catch up with them as soon as we´re through."

  "Won´t this notify them someone is out here?" she asked. Captain Lee shook his head, grinning.

  "No. We have some pretty amazing countermeasures. Our viruses will make their system start a loop of everything: movement, sound, heat, the works. They won´t discover we were here for days." Renee smiled. The level of sophistication the Buchanan Rangers had was amazing. The French had never been very technically advanced, and the Covenant´s electronic surveillance measures had always presented an almost insurmountable obstacle to effective infiltration. These guys could take out individual detectors wirelessly without a trace left behind. If they wanted, they could target the entire border surveillance network, but the electronic warfare specialists back in Buchanan thought there could be a risk of alerting a different layer of subsystems if they did. Instead, the rangers moved in pairs, one person scanning a limited area for detectors while the other sent those nasty little signals at them one at a time. It took time, but Captain Lee had assured her it was the safest way to go about inserting her deep within enemy territory.

  "I still believe crossing the Rift would have been quicker," Renee said. "We may not have much time."

  "Crossing into the Covenant quickly won’t help us if we get caught," Captain Lee retorted. He was right, of course. "Besides, this gives us a chance to test our approach. If war is indeed coming, we may need to insert a lot of people behind enemy lines. We know that the Wardens have tightened control of the Rift, so inserting large numbers through there is all but impossible now. Here in the North, though, this approach may work."

  They crossed fifteen minutes later. The two remaining rangers fanned out in front of them while Renee and Captain Lee held back. They moved quickly and quietly, and they were soon reunited with the two who had gone before them. While the rangers prepared for the next leap, Renee had a chance to look around. She had been in these woods before. The last time, she had led hundreds of refugees fleeing from the Moon people´s conquest. She shuddered at the thought of people dying of radiation sickness, children who had lost their parents, parents who had lost their children, people who had lost everything. For all she knew, the people she had led west were the only survivors left after the Moon people´s genocide.

  She had learned to keep her hatred of the Moon people and all they stood for in check during training. Being here again made her hatred boil, simmering against an invisible wall she had built to keep her mind working and her emotions in check.

  Without realizing it, tears were running down her cheeks, and she had balled her hands into fists so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. She flexed her fingers, trying to unwind.

  "Don´t you break apart on us now, Marsden," Captain Lee said. She hadn´t noticed him coming over.

  "Don´t worry about me, sir," she replied, wiping the tears off with her hand. "I just want to complete the mission." Lee nodded and gestured to one side.

  "We´ll move off course for a while. If the Covenant techies figure out what we´ve been up to, at least they won´t know which direction we´ve gone." Renee grinned wryly.

  "Good idea, Captain," she said. Captain Lee and his rangers were exactly the people Renee wanted to have by her side fighting the Covenant.

  Dave

  Dave looked away from his screen and rubbed his eyes. He needed some air. He´d been working late, as usual, and the compound was almost empty. Only the usual crowd of cl
eaning personnel, security, and a few other workaholics remained. He greeted one of the security guards as he walked toward the doors to the patio. Outside, he drew a deep breath and savored the mountain air. He enjoyed it here, and the amount of data he had to analyze was steadily growing.

  A rumble drew his attention, and he looked up in time to see a fiery streak across the sky.

  "Whoa!" he exclaimed. He followed the trajectory of whatever it was and saw that the impact couldn´t be far from him. He ran back inside. The security guard had moved on, so Dave ran undisturbed to his office, where he threw himself back in his chair. He logged on and searched the latest data. Nothing. No trace of anything, even though there should be visuals, heat signatures, and radar observations. He refreshed the interface and tried again. Still nothing. It was as if nothing had happened.

  Had he imagined it? Was he that tired? No, it was real, he decided. Something had streaked across the sky right above the Frost Observatory, the one place where nothing should be able to pass undetected. But according to every instrument he checked, it shouldn´t be there.

  But he had seen it.

  He pulled on his sweater, laced up his boots, and stormed out the door. He almost stumbled upon the security guard, who was making his rounds.

  "Did you see," he began, stopping when he saw the guard´s face. He hadn´t seen anything. "Forget it," he said. "I´m going for a walk. Need some fresh air."

  Outside, he checked his infopad and plotted the course to where he thought the thing had landed. It would take him a while to get there, but it would be worth it. He had to see for himself.

  What could it be? A meteorite? A small comet? An airship going down? Dave had no idea. But he knew he´d soon find out.

  Sue

  Sue was doing the dishes in the kitchen while Beth was at work and Jason was at school. It was a satisfying feeling, to be able to actually do something. For months now, fatigue and headaches had held her in a sort of limbo from which she could see no way out. Now, even if it was nothing more than doing the dishes or taking out the garbage, she felt like she was on her way to pulling her weight again. The headaches had lessened in strength and frequency. And when they did come, she would be back on her feet the next day. It all stemmed from quitting the meds. She could see no other explanation for her sudden recovery. She still had to take the weekly doses administered by the doctor in his office. If she could, she´d quit that as well, but the doctor had been adamant that the drugs weren´t a choice. She had kept quiet about quitting the daily meds.