"You can´t get away with this."
"Yes, I can," Evan said, his lips curling into a grin. "I conquered everything, and I can do whatever the hell I want. The Covenant is mine now. Earth is mine. I intend to shape it as I envision."
He pulled the trigger and the shot rang through the room as the First Janissary slumped to the floor.
Dave
Dave watched as people were embarking onto the shuttle. The shuttles were bigger than anything he had seen, including the giant transport airships used by the Covenant to move heavy equipment like tanks. The shuttles were transporting people up to the main spaceship now, the ark, which hovered ten thousand meters above them. Already, hundreds of people, thousands even, were being saved because of Tina and Ramon´s efforts. That was enough to make a fresh start.
Saving all of these people was a huge achievement, but it was bittersweet. Earth was lost to them. But the more Dave thought about it, he realized that Earth had been lost a long time ago.
He thought about his parents, who would live out their lives back in Charlestown until they turned fifty. They would never know what happened to him or that he was alive. In fact, he suspected life in Charlestown would go on as it always had.
He turned toward the city where he had lived as a free man for a few precious months.
The mushroom cloud still rose above the city that had defied the Covenant for two centuries. All great kingdoms fall in the end, he thought, a quote from a book he had read in the Buchanan Library back when he first learned of the world before the Fall.
He cocked his head. If he squinted, the mushroom cloud looked like a skull. Fitting. What the founders had once built, those who survived the Fall and those who had come after, now lay in ruin.
No, not ruin. He refused to think like that. The founders, especially Joe Buchanan, hadn´t dreamed of building a city, let alone a country. They had dreamed of saving people, just like they were doing now. They had dreamed of preserving ideas to create a better future for those who survived the cataclysm.
Just like those spacefarers two centuries ago, they were now leaving Earth for good. Their future was on a green planet in the 55 Cancri A system forty lightyears away. The spirit of Buchanan would survive on Aurora.
His infopad bleeped. He looked down and saw the familiar black screen of Intel command.
"We don´t have much time," Selma, the head of whatever remained of the Buchanan defense forces said.
"I just thought I´d let you know that we´re spreading the news of your departure to our troops. Your survival will boost morale out there, you know. Hundreds of small holdouts, independent cells who will keep fighting long after the war is lost will know of your victory. Through your departure, hope will live on among our forces, who will never see peace or liberty again."
"Ma´am, I don´t know what…" Dave managed to say before he choked up.
"Don´t say anything, Wagner. Just make sure you wrap things up soon. You´re too tempting a target out there. I don´t know why they haven´t attacked yet, but someone will sooner or later," Selma said.
"Ma´am, it´s been an honor." Dave couldn’t say anymore. He thought of those brave men and women who would keep fighting until no one remained, without hope of ever winning or even surviving for long. He couldn´t imagine what it must be like.
Selma spoke again, "Just remember that you have our gratitude, son. You have saved so many, and through you, the legacy of Buchanan will live on."
Dave felt tears trickle down his cheeks, and he dried them quickly with the sleeve of his jacket.
"Thank you, ma´am," he managed to say.
"Thank you, Mr. Wagner."
Sue
The final shuttle stood waiting, and Sue watched as Jason was carried on board while Tina Hammer, the Auroran, walked next to him. She had told Sue he would be all right once they got him to the ark. They had some kind of bug that could heal him, she had said. Sue dried her tears. She was relieved that her brother would live—she had lost too much already. But she was lucky. She and Jason had a future out there among the stars. Most people weren´t so lucky. Earth belonged to the Moon people now. There would be resistance, but it would die out in time. Everyone not of the Moon blood would become like the English: slaves to the will of their masters.
She looked out toward the mushroom cloud above what had been Buchanan City. She had such a hard time believing Evan had done this. Dave had told her that her former tacticus, her friend, and perhaps something else, had usurped the leadership of the Covenant to start this war. There were still some memories that eluded her, and she wondered if she really wanted them to return. In the back of her mind, something told her Evan had been genuine, that he had never lied to her. He had been true all along, but she had put different meaning to his words because their perspectives were so different. Had he ever been her friend or just a good farmer taking care of his livestock?
"You´re thinking about him, right?" Dave said. She hadn´t heard him come up beside her. She nodded.
"I´m just wondering if any of it was as I imagined." She sighed. Dave looked out at the ominous cloud.
"Look at it this way," he said. "It´s been an hour since they bombed Buchanan. The valley is swarming with enemies. They know we´re here. They have to. Yet no one has attacked us." He paused for a moment, closing his eyes as a few rays from the rising sun penetrated the cloud.
"It´s like they want us to get away."
Sue nodded slowly. That would be Evan’s way of saying goodbye, just like he had sent her off from Luna. Those memories were blurry, but she did remember that he´d drugged the First Janissary to keep her safe. Evan would never betray his people, and if he believed the war was in their best interest, he´d do it. But while most Moon people would have bombed them into oblivion, he would let them get away because he didn´t see them as a threat. And because someone he cared for was here.
"Maybe you´re right," Sue said. She knew she would never know what he really thought, what his true motivations were. Either way, Earth belonged to Evan and his people now. He had brought the fire, but maybe Earth would be better off for it. Maybe the English and other subject peoples would be better off once the Moon people didn´t feel so threatened all the time.
Even with all the uncertainty and lost memories, Sue remembered riding back in an airship with Evan after her first combat, back when they had been mere Janissaries. She had made a friend that day, and it had been real. Not just a figment of her imagination. Not just a master and his servant, but true friendship.
Dave smiled at her as their eyes met, and they walked back to the shuttle and stepped on board. Moments later, they were in the air on their way to the ark and the stars.
Epilogue
Evan
"Sir, we lost track of the spaceship five minutes ago. No trace of it anywhere," the officer whispered. Evan thanked him quietly and turned toward his escort, six members of the Luna Brigade who answered to him alone. They had already disposed of Ivanov´s body, and although there would be protest from New Moscow, Evan felt secure in his position as leader of the Moon people now that the war was officially won. No small skirmishes out on the western frontier would change that, and no amount of protest from the less powerful families would change it, either. Officially, the head of the Ivanov family had committed suicide when he heard the Eastfold Brigade, which lay under his command, had been annihilated in a major battle up north. It would be seen as an honorable way out for a defeated commander, and nobody would inquire into the specifics of his death. Evan would see to it.
He sat down to think and poured a glass of the finest whiskey Meridian Koster had been able to produce. He took a deep gulp and leaned back. The command bunker was quieter than it had been for the last few days. He could still hear people talking, infopads bleeping, and phones ringing, but there was a calm to it all. They had lost the capitol, but won the war. The final war. Nobody would threaten the Moon people any more, and Evan felt a weight lifted from his shoulders. A weight that had been there
since he understood what held his people back, what really caused their decay. We don´t have to be so afraid anymore, he thought. The Moon people would finally be able to develop their strengths and eradicate their weaknesses.
Earth and the solar system belonged to them now. The only possible enemy would be the Aurorans, and the escapees from Buchanan would ensure they were aligned as an enemy in the future. But Aurora, more than forty lightyears away, was too far to reach and too weak to pose a real threat. It would serve as a reminder to the Moon people that there were people out there who weren´t subjects and would resist if given the chance. It would keep them on their toes without really scaring anyone. In the long run, he didn’t know what would happen, but for right now, Aurora would be just a faraway place to scare children with. One day we´ll come to them to conquer and enslave, Evan thought. But it wouldn´t be for centuries yet. For now, the Moon people had enough with Earth and the solar system. The Covenant had to change, and many would not like it. But Evan had brought them the final victory, and that went a long way. He would see the changes through, by force if necessary.
Should the Moon people botch everything with their experiments and enhancements, it was good to know there was a backup out there, insurance that humanity would survive even if the Moon people didn’t.
He took another gulp of his drink.
Susan Atlas would be out there. He didn´t regret letting the starship get away, but a small voice in the back of his mind said he had done it out of love. Not for any of the logical reasons he could think of, but simply as an act of love. There had been something between them once. Had it been love? He couldn´t tell for sure. And what was the use in pondering? It could never have been, with her being English and him of the Moon blood. It wasn´t just that it was illegal, but their worldviews were different. He had cared for her, that much he knew. He cared for her still.
She would be safe now, and she would get a new start. Without Bliss to take away her memories and without the Moon people to restrict her in any way. She had a new chance at life, a life where she would be inferior to none. Evan smiled a crooked smile. Ironic, he thought. His people were oppressors, masters, and conquerors, but the English girl, a subject and an inferior according to everything he had been taught, was the one person in the world who impressed him the most. She had captured his heart.
Evan lifted his glass and made a silent toast. I wish you a good life, Susan Atlas. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you will not be forgotten.
*****
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When the world ends, what do you do when you realize you are still alive?
In a world devastated by natural disaster, only the most stubborn refuse to give up. When Ed Walker learns that others have been preparing for the disaster for years, he begins to realize finding them may be his only shot at survival. But time is running out...
In a dying world one man makes a choice to keep going, hoping against all odds there might be a future after all.
Alive is a 10.000 word story loosely based on events in Exodus by Andreas Christensen, but can also be read as a standalone.
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About the Author
Andreas Christensen is a Norwegian science fiction and fantasy author.
He is the author of the Exodus Trilogy, a popular science fiction series in which a divided Earth must face the ultimate extinction event, and build a new life on distant Aurora, more than 40 light years away. The Rift Saga is set more than two centuries after the events of Exodus, continuing the story line back on Earth. You can find his complete bibliography on christensenwriting.com.
Andreas has a weakness for cats, coffee, and up until recently, books so heavy he'd need a separate suitcase in order to carry them every time he traveled. Luckily, the world has changed, and the suitcase has now been replaced by an e-reader.
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