by Ralph Kern
“You’ve done it,” Vasily shouted. “The incursions stopped!”
“No!” Drayton screamed. I heard an almighty crash and saw Phillips’s armored figure slam into the deck. Frain had her arm twisted behind her. She carried on writhing, but she wasn’t getting away.
“Plan B.” Frain’s voice was pained. His face, already battered from the punishment it had received from the other troops, was a bloody mess now. The silver-colored subdermal armor gleamed fearsomely through his battle-damaged face. “Drop the gun, Trent.”
“Don’t do it,” Phillips gasped in pain through her smashed visor.
“Xander, you know I can’t do that.” I wasn’t sure what the hell I could do, but my options were awfully limited.
“Xander, deployment is 200 seconds. After that, we aren’t going to be able to hit the target.” Drayton said.
“Got it; prep the warheads.” He carried on looking at me. The one eye that wasn’t totally wrecked was worryingly calm.
“Drayton, don’t move. I’m not shitting you. You go near anything that even looks like it activates a goddamn warhead, I’m putting a round in you.”
“You’ve not exactly left us much choice here,” Frain said earnestly. “We need to complete our mission.”
“Two minutes. Trent, let’s just talk about this—but after,” Drayton shouted.
“Talk about what? Blowing Gagarin away? Not a fucking chance,” I said sarcastically.
“We don’t want to blow away Gagarin. That planet is our target.”
“Are you insane? I’m not going to let you blow away a bloody planet, either,” I scoffed.
“We don’t have time to explain.” For the first time, a tone of earnestness was cutting through Frain’s calm. “If we don’t fire now, we will miss our target. Everything will be for nothing.”
“Everything?” I said, acid souring my voice as I remembered the price Frain had exacted to get this far. “You mean killing all those people on Io and everything else you’ve done since?”
“Yes.”
“Boarding party, you are riding damn close to the point of no return. Evacuate now,” Captain Vasily said.
On the displays, the planet was a speck now—a speck that was growing fast.
I saw Phillips lift one leg, jamming it against the wrecked console. With all her might she kicked out. Frain and Phillips slammed into the control junctions behind them. Sparks and wisps of smoke erupted around them.
“Warning: command and control compromised. Main engine cut off,” an androgynous voice announced.
I flew upward and smashed into the ceiling. The debris from the fighting bounced all around me. We were back in zero-g. My gun floated by. With a firm grip on a ceiling stanchion, I reached out and grabbed it.
As I did so, Drayton clawed for a console, blood dripping into the air from a gash in her head. Phillips and Frain scrabbled for purchase on anything they could get their hands on.
“The main engine is in automatic shutdown mode,” Drayton called out.
“Get us turned around,” Frain shouted. “Then reignite.”
“We can’t. The main linkages are down on the helm. We need to get off. Now!”
“No!” he shouted. “Warheads?”
“Still ready and operable.”
“Then fire!” Frain pressed.
Steadying myself with one hand as I floated, I aimed the gun through the swirling debris at Drayton. “Don’t you dare, Drayton. Don’t you fucking dare.”
“If I don’t,” Drayton said softly, the blood bubbling from the gash had created a halo of red drops. “Everyone dies.”
My HUD fed me targeting data, a crosshairs superimposed on Drayton’s chest. “Move away from the console, or I will shoot you.”
“Layton, I wish I had time to explain, but I don’t,” Frain said in a calm voice. “We need—”
“Frain, shut the hell up,” I barked out. Weeks of frustration was focused on this moment. “I’m sick and tired of this. We’ve won. I’m not going to let you fire off your warheads just to smash some rock to bits.”
“It’s not a rock,” Frain shouted, cutting through my anger. “On that world is a race that wants to kill everyone and destroy everything—Earth, Mars, the JA, and every world we’ve colonized.”
Kill everyone? What the hell was he talking about? I paused for a moment, my thoughts racing. Surely if there was something like that out here, Vance, Cheng, or someone would know...
Wouldn’t they?
But then, nations weren’t the true powers anymore, were they? There were bigger players with far more influence than mere countries, players whose business it was to explore space and find out what was out here. Frain could be a tool of the corporates. What if they knew something the governments didn’t? All throughout this mission, I’d had the feeling there was more going on than we could see.
And if these aliens were that much of a threat…
“They seem remarkably passive right now,” I said, momentarily glancing at one of the wall screens where the black disc of the world was blooming larger and larger against the golden glow of space.
“Because they’re not ready. Our one chance—our only chance—of stopping them is now, at this moment.”
“And how do you know this?” I asked.
“I don’t have time to explain,” Frain said softly. “I get that you’re confused. I would be in your situation, but quite literally everything depends on what you decide in the next few seconds. That world, if you’re right, is just a rock. It’ll make no difference to anyone if it’s destroyed. If I’m right, it’ll make every difference to everyone. All you have to do is let us. Once that’s done, we’ll surrender to you.”
“Why should I believe you? What if there’s some kind of innocent alien race or something down there? Why should I let you destroy them?”
“Layton, you said it yourself; I’m clearly not insane. I haven’t killed anyone I didn’t have to. Trust me.”
I looked at him, a small window in my HUD showing the image from my gun camera trained on Drayton. He looked a mess, yet his one good eye was looking at me earnestly, almost begging. It was disconcerting.
Why put this on me? Why did I have to make this choice? I needed time to think, to weigh up the evidence. A spark of anger flared inside me. Why was I even considering this madness? “I’m not going to allow this!”
“Please, Trent.” Frain looked at me intently.
I glanced at Phillips. She was braced against the wall, ready to pounce back into the fight. The only thing stopping her? This strange exchange.
“Layton, decide,” Drayton said, her hand hovering over the console.
The heat of anger and the cold ice of dread warred within me. What if this threat they were talking about were real? Would they really have put together this operation if they weren’t already sure? And what was the consequence? A dead world destroyed?
You’re clearly not insane, Xander. You have a reason for coming here, and the fact that you even know about this place means you have access to a lot of resources. The words I’d spoken less than an hour ago resonated in my mind. I felt something click. Frain wasn’t mad. Cold? Yes. Calculating? Yes. But mad?
No.
Knowing that, could I gamble with humanity? Whatever was going on here was far bigger than just Frain having gone on a rampage. I have no interest in killing anyone I don’t have to, Frain had said. And you—I don’t have to. He’d killed people—a lot of people—but every one of them had been to get here.
You may be a killer, but you damn well have a reason for all those deaths on your hands. In my mind, I could still see the flash of pain and regret across his face as I had said those words to him.
As fast as these thoughts raced through my mind, time was running out. I had to decide. Now. Bomb the planet? Become complicit in his crimes, maybe even in the genocide of an entire sentient species? Or, if he were right, save everyone from this mysterious race he said threatened us?
If he were right, save everyone…
If…
Everyone…
“Do it,” I said quietly.
Drayton’s hand met the console. A rippling series of thumps reverberated through the hull of Erebus.
“Boarding party,” Vasily’s voice piped over the HUD, “we have a series of launches. I’ve got dozens of KIs ripple-firing. Report!”
“I know, Gagarin,” I said, feeling strangely deflated. “I know.”
***
“If we don’t get off within fifteen minutes, no one is getting off. We won’t have the delta-v to fight Sagi,” Drayton said. “And not long after that, we’ll slip into the event horizon."
“We’re not having him back onboard Gagarin. He’ll try for control again,” Phillips said plainly.
“One problem at a time,” I answered her. “Drayton, what are we facing now?”
“We’ve been burning for so long toward Sagi, if we don’t maneuver or get off now, we’re going to be trapped in its gravity well!” Drayton said.
That was a serious problem. “Why the hell were you cutting it so fine?”
“We had to get in quickly before they had chance to respond.”
The mysterious “them” again. Fine. I knew when to argue and when to move. If we were falling into a damn black hole, now was time to move.
It was a hundred meters to the nearest access tunnel, and two hundred meters up the shaft to the Hawk, all through zero-g with injured. And there were more hurt people down in the ring. Worse yet, the Hawk could only take 10 or so.
We weren’t going to make it.
“We need to get as many off as we can,” Frain said quietly. I guessed that he had done the same math as I just had. It was impossible to save everyone. In a stronger voice, he spoke, his voice resonating through the PA system. “All hands, abandon ship.”
Drayton reached for Tasker’s drifting body and awkwardly maneuvered her to the hatch. After the briefest of pauses, I launched myself unsteadily and helped her. The irony of the situation didn’t elude me. Suddenly, we were all working together to escape the ship.
“Major, start with those in the ring. Go!” I cried out to Phillips. “You, too, Frain.”
Frain looked at the console for a moment and then expertly pushed himself off and swept over, grabbing Tasker in one hand from Drayton, ricocheted of a wall, and disappeared down the hatch.
“Hawk, Team One. Prepare for casualties and evac,” Phillips said.
“Team One, Hawk. Roger that, but we’re going to have to lift soon or we won’t be able to pull away.”
“I hear you,” she answered, “but we have people to get off.”
“The landers?” I asked Drayton. We needed more ways to get people off than just the Hawk.
“One lander took damage in the battle, but the other is ready to fly,” she responded.
“Sounds like a ticket out of here to me.” I glanced at the holotank. The dark heart of the accretion disk was visible, a circle of blackness more like a marble than a hole.
Drayton nodded and then spoke into her com. “Anyone who can fly a lander, get to Quest and start preflighting.”
I was the last one to the hatch, and just before I went through it, I gave a final look at the holodisplay. I watched the strange planet hovering there on the edge of the event horizon grow larger. It was a distinct circle eclipsing the golden glow of the accretion disk behind. A graphic showed the cloud of KIs streaking toward the world. To one side I could see Gagarin, her engine firing in a long plume, striving to escape the gravity of the black hole.
And every moment, she was pulling away from us.
CHAPTER 57
EREBUS
“I just need to know, can she fly?” Drayton asked. She cocked her head, listening to her implant. “Okay, we’re gathering up casualties and coming down to you.”
“What’s the word?” I asked.
“Quest, the lander, is being preflighted, but she’s going to have to lift soon. She doesn’t have the delta-v of the Hawk.”
“Everything about this investigation has been touch and go,” I sighed, a sense of pragmatism washing over me. That lander was going to be the only way off this ship for a lot of people.
We were carrying the poor crew member who had been hit in the head between us, kicking off the walls as we did so. It was strange. Weightless didn’t mean massless, and it took lots of effort to redirect her momentum.
“Trent, thank you for helping to get these people off. They were trying to ki—”
“Sonia, later. And while you’re thanking me, you sure as hell are going to tell me what’s been going on.”
“Trent? Go private,” I heard Vasily say over my com. I glanced at Drayton, dropping my visor with my free hand, forestalling any response.
“Go ahead.”
“If Frain thinks he’s getting onboard my ship, he’s got another thing coming.”
Goddamn it, this was getting even more complicated by the second. “Captain, if he surrenders, we have to take him.”
“No fucking chance. Even if I wanted to take on the murdering bastard—which I don’t—he has the ability to sequester the ship’s systems from onboard, just like on Concorde. There is no way we will be able to protect against him.”
Reaching the access tunnel, I swung the limp body around and pushed my boots against the wall. It took far more effort than it should have to stop her momentum. Even more so because my bloody leg was still in agony. Stopping the motion with yet another jar to my leg, I began manhandling her down into the tunnel. This was taking too long. We had at least a dozen people who were unconscious.
“Captain—”
“Trent. He. Is. Not. Coming. Aboard,” Vasily barked.
I watched as Frain swept with agile grace the other way up the tunnel, presumably for a second person. He gave a slight nod as he flew by, concentrating instead on getting his crew out. A thought occurred to me—I wasn’t even sure we could stop Frain from coming if we wanted to. I flicked up my visor. “Come on, let’s get this lug to the lander.”
I’d deal with the Frain problem later.
***
“Quest has to go—now!” the pilot transmitted. “We’re cutting it to the bone as it is.”
Quest was large, more than capable of taking everyone onboard and then some, but getting everyone aboard didn’t matter if the shuttle couldn’t fight its way out of Sagi’s gravitational well. I had given the man I was dragging to another, and I watched as they made it down the spinal corridor into Quest. They were the last two in.
“Go,” Phillips barked. “We’ll take the Hawk.”
Together, we watched the hatch rumble shut and heard the thunk of the heavy shuttle disengaging.
“You have four minutes to get in the Hawk and get gone,” Vasily announced, “or you won’t have the delta-v to pull out for a rendezvous.”
Yeah, well, there was a problem with that—we still had at least half a dozen back in the habitat ring and no chance in hell that we would get them out in time. I looked at Phillips, and she gazed back.
“I know, Layton. But they made their choice,” she said softly.
Gritting my teeth, I nodded. Don’t get me wrong; had I felt we could have rescued them, I would have, but we couldn’t. Damn Frain’s fool quest.
We pushed back toward the Hawk. Frain was by the hatch, shoving someone through. Within, I could see Sergeant Jamal guiding the body into the passenger cabin.
“Hawk’s ready to go,” the pilot announced. “Get onboard and haul ass about it.”
“You have your orders from Vasily?” I asked Phillips over the private link.
Phillips paused for a moment. “Yeah. Frain doesn’t get onboard Gagarin.”
“If he fights, we might not be able to stop him.”
“If he gets onboard, we might not be able to stop him, either,” she growled.
“Yeah, but we have alternatives. Look, let’s just get the bus rolling and sort it out en rou
te. If need-be, we can lock him down in the Hawk until we get back to Earth.”
I saw Phillips’s eyes narrow. She was considering it. Fighting with Frain in the cramped confines of the assault shuttle would not be any good for anyone.
“Look, let’s just sort it out later. Vasily won’t turn us away.”
“Okay.” She flipped her visor up. “Everyone saddle up. Now!”
With one last look down the spinal corridor at the poor doomed souls still in the habitat ring, we pulled ourselves into the lander…
Along with Frain.
CHAPTER 58
HAWK
“Buckle in. This is going to be a hard burn.”
The strange golden view outside began to spin as the Hawk twisted toward the engine plume of Gagarin, which was still racing away from us. Gagarin would have to cut thrust at some point to allow us to board, and there was some math that went into the optimal time to do that, which I would leave to the professionals.
Once again, I felt the engines kick in, and I was smashed back into the seat. I watched out of the window as I saw the ballistic Erebus fall away from us toward the dark sphere of the hole. The engines on the Hawk were working hard to arrest our descent into oblivion after Erebus—and not doing a very good job of it.
“Gagarin, Hawk. We have twelve onboard. Requesting optimal docking solution.”
Vasily’s face appeared on my HUD, interrupting the pilot. “Is he aboard?”
“Yes, Captain. We need to—” the pilot began.
“Space him. He is not getting on my ship.”
The atmosphere in the passenger bay became even tenser. Sergeant Jamal and Phillips looked like coiled tigers ready to launch at the slightest provocation.
“Captain,” I began, cutting across the pilot, “you know we can’t do that. Killing someone in combat is one thing; cold-blooded murder is another. We have to bring him back to answer for what he’s done.”
“If that man comes aboard, then he will subvert the ship. Simple. He is not getting anywhere near. And frankly, I’m none too happy with you, either. I’m tracking the over one hundred KIs inbound on that planet.”