by J. N. Chaney
Dressler stood up and dusted her pants off. “Let’s hope this works.”
I turned toward the nearby crowd. “You heard the Cognitive, folks. Get your asses out of here.”
* * *
We stood in the outer corridor while Sigmond attempted to disarm the drone. Ten minutes passed in silence as we waited, wondering whether he could actually pull this off. After all, if Athena couldn’t do it, what chance did a newly born Cognitive have?
I could sense the crew growing restless, the more time passed. Whispers filled the corridor as tension grew, an air of uncertainty getting thicker by the second.
That was when the elevator door opened and Abigail appeared. “What’s going on up here?” she asked, spotting me from across the small crowd.
I waved at her as she made her way through the group of albino engineers. “Nothing serious,” I explained, calmly, right as she approached. “Just waiting for Siggy to disarm an explosive on the other side of that door.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but then paused, taking a second to process what I’d just said. “What was that?” she finally asked. “You said there’s a bomb?”
“An explosive,” I corrected. “And Siggy is trying to disarm it.”
She looked at Dressler, who was standing next to me. The doctor nodded her confirmation.
Abigail let out a breath. “Well,” she continued. “I hope he knows what he’s doing.”
“Siggy can handle it,” I assured her.
“Weapon system is now disarmed,” informed Sigmond, his voice causing several people to flinch.
“See?” I said, still relaxed. “My boy always delivers.”
“Warning,” said Athena. “Weapon activation in process. Brace for impact.”
“Get down!” I shouted, grabbing Abigail by the shoulder and pulling us both to the floor.
A loud and deafening boom rang through the deck as the drone’s missile exploded, the force of which was so strong it punched the nearby door straight open, almost hitting two crew members as they leapt toward the floor.
With the door open, I could see flashing lights on the other side as the alarms sounded. The drone had broken the shield and was nowhere to be seen, but I imagined it was probably destroyed, most of which had been sucked out into space.
“Help!” cried Karin, who had two legs inside the doorway. She was holding onto the side of the wall, struggling to keep herself on the floor. The explosion had caused a breach, which meant all the pressure inside the landing bay was being sucked out.
I edged my way to the opening. “Hold on!” I barked, pushing several engineers out of the way.
Karin’s feet were in the air, being pulled by the breach. If she wasn’t careful, she’d wind up spaced in a matter of seconds.
I gripped the doorway, reaching out for her. She stared up at me, less than a meter away. “Take my hand!” I shouted.
She swallowed and slowly raised her palm. Our fingers grazed each other before she lost her grip on the wall and had to pull away, taking a nearby rail to make sure she didn’t go flying.
She held it firmly, and I could see she wasn’t about to try that again. I looked back at Abigail. “Hold my feet!” I ordered.
I felt several people grab hold of my legs and boots, surprising me.
“Good. Now ease me forward!” I told them.
Abigail, Dressler, and the rest of the crowd slowly moved me through the doorway toward Karin. She watched with a calm horror in her eyes.
“What’s taking so long to close that shield?!” snapped Dressler.
“System reboot in process. Estimated recover time is forty-two seconds,” answered Athena.
One of Karin’s hands let go of the rail and she screamed, quickly regaining her grip. “Help me!”
“Hold on!” I yelled as the others pushed me towards her. I was hanging out of the doorway, totally reliant on my friends to keep me alive. If they let go, that would be it for me. I’d be done.
A light fixture sparked and fell from above Karin’s position, but it was quickly swept away by the breach. Karin screamed as sparks rained down on her, causing her to let go of the rail. Right as she did, I snatched her hand with mine, squeezing her wrist.
She looked up, legs still flailing behind her, a surprised look on her face.
The light fixture flew through the opening and into space.
“Give me your other hand!” I yelled. It was all I could do to hold onto her, and I felt my muscles tense more with each passing second. I was going to feel this in the morning.
She swung her arm around and grabbed my wrist with her other hand. I did the same.
“Don’t let go!” I shouted. “It should close any second—”
The pressure died instantly and we dropped like stones to the floor. I landed right on my chest, knocking the wind out of me and forcing me to wheeze.
A flicker of blue light flashed across the far wall and the open hole where the drone had been. The shield had reformed just in time.
Karin managed to drop on her side, rolling a little to offset the fall.
I wheezed, struggling to breathe again. “Godsdammit,” I muttered.
“Karin, are you okay?” asked Abigail, still behind me.
“She’s fine,” I managed to say as I pushed myself up on my knees, then grabbed the doorway to steady myself. When I was finally back on my feet, I stepped back into the landing bay, trying to get a better look at the damage. The room was even more fucked up than it had been before, so much that I was surprised any of us were still standing. Even more of the wall was missing, knocked free during the explosion, and there was no sign of the drone. “Siggy, talk to me. Where you at, pal?”
“I must apologize, sir,” said Sigmond. “It seems my presence triggered a failsafe within the drone’s defense protocol. Once I shut it down, a secondary backup initialized without my knowing.”
“The good news is the drone is gone,” said Karin, still dusting herself off.
“I guess that’s something,” I said before glancing back at everyone. “We got any serious injuries?”
Abigail looked around the corridor, then shook her head. “We seem to be okay.”
Dressler stepped through the doorway and glanced around the bay, finally returning her eyes to me. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to resume our work schedule. We’re losing time standing around.”
“Easy, Doc. Maybe you ought to give your people a breather after all that. Don’t you think?” I asked.
“I might agree, were these normal circumstances, Captain, but we don’t have that luxury.”
“She’s right,” said Abigail. “The enemy won’t wait for us to lick our wounds. We can’t stop the repairs.”
I looked at Karin, who was reaching for a piece of metal shard—part of the lighting fixture that had nearly crushed her only a few moments ago.
“What about you?” I asked. “You almost just died. I’d say this one’s up to you.”
Karin examined the shard, turning the little piece over in her hand, and tossed it behind her. “Let’s get back to work,” she finally said.
I watched her approach the doorway, preparing to address her crew—friends and family she had known her whole life.
She cleared her throat, motioning at one of the nearby engineers for a pad. Once she had it, she brought up what appeared to be the team’s work schedule. “It looks like our next task is on deck twenty-six. There’s another breach that requires sealing. We’ll split into two teams. One will remain here while the other proceeds to the next task.” Karin looked back at me, giving me a smile. “We can handle it from here, Captain.”
Five
Karin’s people continued to impress me. They had resolve like nothing I’d ever seen, which made sense, I supposed, considering where they came from and what they had to endure. If everyone had to spend their lives fighting Boneclaws on a planet made of ice, they were sure to grow up tough.
Maybe I was being selfish,
but I was glad to have people with such fortitude beside me. They seemed to have a higher threshold for danger—at least more than your typical folk.
I’d spent most of my time with all kinds of unsavory sorts, so I was used to seeing people get their skulls cracked open, but hardly any of them ever showed an ounce of empathy. These people were better than that. They’d lived in a frozen Hell and come out the other side with their humanity still intact. That was more than the rest of us could say.
I popped a piece of hard candy into my mouth and bit down as I walked briskly onto Titan’s bridge.
Cherry flavor. My favorite.
Athena, Alphonse, and Sigmond were already there, waiting for me. “What’s the story?” I asked with my foot barely in the door.
“The drone was destroyed,” explained Alphonse. “Titan took minimal damage from the blast.”
“And there were no casualties, thanks to you, sir,” Sigmond reminded me.
“Was that the only reason you called me up here?” I asked. “Tell me there was something else.”
“There is,” assured Athena, looking at Sigmond.
The former A.I. nodded. “Indeed, sir. You see, while my efforts to secure the drone were unsuccessful, I did manage to procure some unexpected information.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The defense network,” he answered. “It is still operational.”
“Gods. I thought we shut all that down when we took out Hephaestus,” I said, letting out a short sigh. I looked up at the screen behind them, showing a galactic map with several lines of interest on it. “Is that what I’m looking at?”
Both Cognitives nodded. “It seems the network remains online without an administrator to operate it,” said Sigmond. “I may have failed to deactivate the drone, but the experience was valuable. With Athena’s assistance, I was able to create a more accurate infiltration tool.”
“Are you saying you can control the network?” I asked.
“There are many variables, but it is a possibility,” said Athena.
My eyes widened at the sound of that. “Holy Hell, Siggy. Did you just solve our Union problem?”
“Potentially, sir, but we cannot be certain yet,” said Sigmond. “To begin with, we require an access dock. A location similar to Abaddon Station or one of the drone manufacturing centers.”
“Okay, fine,” I said, dismissing the concern. “Where’s the nearest factory? Let’s set a course.”
“I’m afraid the nearest manufacturing facility is behind us,” said Athena. “Most of them are a short distance from the territorial border, and we are well inside by now. We’ll need to visit a local facility in order to establish a viable link for Sigmond to sign in.”
I looked up at the screen again. “Which is where?”
“As it happens, our current destination contains such a facility,” said Athena. One of the stars blinked with a soft blue light, not far from our present location. “The planet Perseus.”
Alphonse gave me a wry grin. “Before you ask, I’ve already factored all of this into the plan.”
“Thanks for saving me the time,” I said, swallowing what remained of the hard candy. “Let’s hear it.”
* * *
My team arrived on the bridge within the hour, including Dressler and Karin, who had to be reluctantly pried away from their maintenance work. I’d asked each of them to be here, since they’d all have to play a part in what was about to happen.
Even Lucia was there, standing with her staff beside her daughter. “I hope this is important,” the old woman commented.
“What’s wrong? Were you in the middle of something?” asked Abigail.
“No, but I detest strategy meetings,” explained Lucia.
“Didn’t you used to be the leader of your village?” asked Freddie.
“And I avoided them whenever I could,” she said.
Hitchens was the last one to enter the bridge, taking a seat at one of the nearby desks. He had a pad in his hand, along with a sandwich. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I was in the middle of some research and had to grab lunch on the way.”
“Thank you all for coming,” I said.
“Don’t mention it,” said Abigail, giving me a half-smile.
I cleared my throat. “In case you haven’t been watching the clock, we’re about eight hours away from Perish, which means—”
“Perseus,” corrected Sigmond.
I gave him a look before continuing. “We’re about eight hours away from Perseus, which means we don’t have much time to prep, so I won’t waste any more of it than I have to.”
The screen behind me transformed to show Perseus and the rest of the system. It contained several other worlds, with twin moons surrounding this particular planet.
“Take it away, Al,” I said, motioning at the Constable.
Alphonse nodded. “What you’re seeing is a former colony, once brimming with millions of citizens, but currently void of any human life. This is our destination and the main focal point of our attack strategy.”
“Where’d they all go?” asked Bolin. “The humans, I mean.”
“I’m afraid we don’t know,” said Athena. “Like Earth, long-range communications remain unanswered, and scans show no human activity on the surface.”
“In other words, there’s nobody home,” I said.
Alphonse nodded. “That being said, the infrastructure is still there. An entire continent full of cities and farming towns. This planet was once the second largest off-world colony under Earth’s control.”
“Which means it should fool the Union into thinking it’s Earth,” I finished.
Everyone looked at me. “Pardon?” asked Hitchens.
“The Union has no idea where Earth is or what it looks like,” I explained. I shot a quick glance at Freddie. “Am I wrong?”
All eyes fell on him. “Are you asking me?”
I nodded. “You showed me that picture of Earth, back when we first met. Is there any chance the Union has one?”
Freddie looked around the room at everyone. “Ah, well, no, they wouldn’t. Darius didn’t discover that image until after he retired from the Union.”
“Even if it had, the Union has no way of knowing how accurate it is,” added Abigail. “All they know is what we show them. If we land on a planet and call it Earth, they’ll probably believe it.”
“Precisely,” said Alphonse.
“I guess if anyone knows what the Union has on Earth, it would be a Constable,” said Freddie.
“Don’t forget the scientist,” I said, motioning to Dressler.
She twisted her lips, never one for attention. “That’s correct.”
Octavia raised a finger. “Even if we can trick them into thinking that, what are we supposed to do when they show up?”
Alphonse continued. “The plan will require all available personnel across multiple fronts. To begin with, we’ll need a team on the surface—”
“Led by me,” I inserted.
“For what purpose?” asked Hitchens.
“To deliver me,” answered Sigmond.
“Sigmond will need to be uploaded into the defense network,” explained Alphonse. “After that, he’ll have access to the drone fleet.”
“Hold on a second,” said Dressler. “Do we know if that will work? The last time he attempted to network with a drone, it self-destructed.”
“Actually, it fired one of its missiles,” I corrected.
Dressler scowled at me. “Regardless.”
“He says he learned a few things from the experience. Didn’t you, Siggy?” I asked.
“Indeed, sir.”
“See?” I asked. “Always a student.”
“In any case,” continued Alphonse, “once Sigmond has been successfully linked to the network, he should be able to call in drone support.”
“But that’s not the only reason we’re doing it,” I added. “We’ll also need to drop some ships on the surface.”
“What do you mean?” asked Freddie.
“Brigham will think we’re there for a reason, which should force him to make a landing of his own, dividing his forces. It also means he’ll have to drop The Galactic Dawn’s shield, giving us a way inside.”
“Inside?” asked Octavia.
“That’s right,” I said. “With all his attention on the planet, he won’t see us coming.”
“What’s the plan once we’re inside?” asked Freddie.
Alphonse cleared his throat. “Two teams for two assignments. One will proceed to the engine room to insert an override device, giving full security access to Sigmond.”
“And the other?” asked Octavia.
“A bag and grab,” I answered, walking to the table and placing my hand on it. “Our job is to capture the man himself, bring him back, and force him to end this war before it even starts.”
“You want to kidnap General Brigham?” asked Freddie, dropping his mouth. “Seriously?”
“Actually, it was Abigail’s idea. She thinks we can force him to stand down,” I explained.
“Jace wanted to kill him, but I thought this might save a few lives,” said Abby.
“And if he turns me down,” I said, pausing. “Well, let’s just say that one way or the other, this war is going to end.”
Six
With only a few hours to go, I hustled to the landing bay to make sure The Renegade Star was ready to launch. The second we were out of slipspace, I wanted to be on my way to Perseus.
I’d just spent the last hour checking in with Dressler, Alphonse, Sigmond, and Athena, making sure we each understood our roles in all of this. To make this happen, everyone would have to work in conjunction with each other, and that was only if Sigmond could actually breach the defense network, among other things.
So much relied on what came next. The future of Titan, my crew, and Earth. Hell, even the Union. The more I thought about it, the more weight I felt on my shoulders, and so I did my best to push the concern out of my head and focus on the task at hand. One step at a time, I reminded myself.
When I was a kid, my parole officer, a freckled bastard named Jesson Bishop, gave me some advice when I asked how people made it through six months of solitary. “Not many can, but the guys who do usually have a certain way of thinking. You just gotta tell yourself to make it through the next hour or the next day,” he explained. “When you get through that, push the goal ahead and say it again, and then keep saying it for as long as it takes. You train your brain to see things another way, you can do anything. You can survive. You get what I’m saying, Jace?”