Jupiter Rising

by Zachary Brown

  Major Buchanan’s look of complete boredom made him pause a bit.

  “. . . and second, to be honest, although I have better data, I’m still uncertain about a few key things. If I’m there, if I ask the right people the right questions, I can pinpoint where we can target our main strike.”

  Major Buchanan wearily rubbed her nose bridge and said, “He can go. He’s banded and you have the keys. If he gives you any trouble, any trouble at all, you have my permission to push him out of an airlock.” She paused and considered for a moment. “But save his coat. I’ll find someone who knows how to use it.”

  Hideo turned a little gray at the blunt sincerity of her words.

  Emilia Lang got a kit upgrade to space-ready, unpowered body armor with helmet and energy pistol. I assembled a full range of code keys to disable or discipline Hideo. We boarded and proceeded with stage one: waiting in the docking bay while Ken went with his squad and medics to brief the ship’s commander and secure the bridge. I listened to the conversation over the public channel and began to frown. The commander wasn’t satisfied with Ken’s explanation of our mission and was insisting on speaking to his superior.

  I opened a private channel. “Ken, don’t argue. Tell him I’m on my way.” I looked around at the rest of the team. “Devlin, you’re in charge here. Keep listening in on the channel. Hideo, Lang, you’re with me.”

  We entered the bridge, three of us plus a single security escort from the ship’s own docking crew. The atmosphere on the bridge was tense, and there was a clear space between Ken and his team and the rest of the bridge staff. The commander was actually backing us, even though he must have heard us arrive. At first, I understood: he was directing a bridge on alert, scanning for Conglomeration forces. Views of the other ships of the convoy appeared all around us on huge screens; orders and information went back and forth between them. A line of empty vacuum suits lined an alcove at the back, waiting for the call to action stations. I understood that he couldn’t drop everything immediately and notice our presence, but then he ignored us for too long and I grew irritated.

  Ken spoke up at last, an edge of exasperation in his voice. “Commander Nguyen, this is Amira Singh, Hideo Pereira—”

  The commander didn’t wait for the end of the sentence. He turned, drew, and fired all at once. Lang, who was naturally closest, jumped in front of Hideo and both of them were punched back by the force of the energy discharge. They hit the floor with a hard thump.

  Hideo flung an arm past his human shield. There was a loud, tearing noise and a smell of singed fabric and burned meat. I sent a code to his band to stop him, but it was too late. The commander fell. Medics raced to him, but they soon stepped away. A jagged, cauterized scar marked where the laser had penetrated his chest. I recognized the weapon as the one I’d taken off the Ghost.

  “What the hell!” I screamed. “Hideo?”

  Lang scrambled away from Hideo as he lay slumped and twitching under the effect of the restraining band. He was shaken, not triumphant, and his voice trembled a little as he said, “Dinh Tuan Nguyen, one of the highest-ranking Earth First moles in the CPF and almost certainly carrying some illegal ink. Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but I had to see for myself. You’d better warn everyone to be on the lookout for a bio-bomb.”

  I snarled wordlessly, ripped the pilfered laser from his limp hand, and immediately sent a message to Devlin with the command to hold position. Ken was fully occupied, trying with weaponless hands to convince the other officers on the bridge that we were not the enemy.

  I looked around at the chaos and braced myself to call Major Buchanan. “We need to adjust the protocol now. A key figure in the process is dead.”

  “Who?” she demanded.

  “Dinh Tuan Nguyen, the ship’s commander. Hideo claims he was an Earth First mole. If that’s true, I have to go bomb-hunting, but I don’t know if the crew will cooperate. We may need backup.”

  Buchanan’s answer came quickly. “Call the ship’s medical officers to the bridge. If you can persuade them, you’ll be fine. I’m on my way.”

  The connection cut just as I opened my mouth to protest as only a consultant could. She had the gall to make me feel like shit for rushing off to sickbay during the first encounter, but here she was, about to position herself in the line of fire and effectively putting all of our eggs into one basket. I felt extremely uncomfortable about that.

  “All medical officers to the bridge,” I said over the ship’s public channel. Switching to private, I added, “Devlin, send a squad to take the rest of our medics to sickbay and then escort the ship’s medical officers to the bridge. Be on the alert.” I turned to Lang. “Lang!”

  “Fucking bastard . . .” She was standing, weapon at the ready, with her eyes were still on the unrepentant Hideo.

  “Lang!” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Forget him! You’re one of the few people on this ship who knows what a bio-bomb looks like. You’re with me!”

  In the corridors we became just another pair of bodies rushing from point A to point B, the perfect camouflage. I wished I’d had time to train Lang to operate a power suit. We could have been running faster. She could have been picking up audio. I retracted my helmet so she could hear what was happening on the public channels.

  “Hideo, where to? Make yourself useful, dammit.”

  “Three possible locations. Commander’s cabin, private storage, or somewhere in general munitions storage.”

  “Pick one,” I said, unmoved by the stress in his voice.

  “Try the private storage. Best odds. The net weight of container 237-D1 doesn’t match the declared contents.”

  I found the storage area easily. Lang quickly pointed out the container and turned to me, saying, “Do you have access co—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, I stepped forward and struck the container door once with the edge of my armored hand. The door slid and fell off its runners with a scream of dragging metal. I shone a light in. “Lang?”

  She went in quickly. She might have been shaking slightly, but that was Lang, channeling her adrenaline to good use. “I see it. It’s . . .”

  The silence went on for too long. “What? Is it armed?”

  “No. No, none of them are.”

  Them. I maneuvered myself, my weapons, and my armor through the small opening. Lang was silently facing a wall of sixteen stacked bio-bombs.

  I deeply regretted the ruined, unclosable door.

  “Ken? Devlin?” I called out on private channel. “Got a moment?”

  22

  * * *

  The physical evidence of the bio-bombs changed everything. Buchanan arrived, calm and collected in crisp combat dress and a lightly armored vacuum suit, and went immediately into conference with the second-in-command, a Major Frederick Diop. I sat at Buchanan’s side and tried to explain what we knew, and by then we had the full backing of the medics as well. But it wasn’t quite enough.

  Major Diop slapped his hand hard on the table. “All right. I believe you—but that changes nothing! We don’t have time for your conspiracy theories. Give our medics the information they need and we’ll screen our own crew.”

  “And all the officers?” I interjected.

  “We’re minutes from engaging with Conglomeration forces. Our officers don’t need the distraction!”

  Buchanan and I shared a worried look. She tried again. “Major, if you would just consider—”

  “Until I see that you have full Accordance clearance for this mission, I don’t have to consider one damn thing. Good day, Major Buchanan. This is a ship at war. Kindly return to your courier and withdraw to a safer location.”

  “The bio-bombs, sir?” I begged him.

  “They stay with us. They are disarmed and we do not know how to arm them. I can’t think of anything safer than that. And next time, try to avoid wantonly destroying CPF property.”

  I was confused until I realized he meant the door I’d broken open. Buchanan sh
ot me a reproachful look.

  “Major Diop,” she said, “the point is that you may yet encounter a soldier claiming to be in the CPF who does know how to arm those bombs. Can you take that risk?”

  “Yes, because it is mine to take. Security, escort Major Buchanan and her people off our ship.”

  + + + +

  We had almost reached the docking bay when the sergeant in charge of our escort suddenly ordered a halt and stepped away to mutter quietly into his comm. The conversation went on for some time, and we gathered into small, puzzled groups and started up our own murmuring. The troops looked unhappy, but they let us murmur.

  “Now what?” said Ken. “A change of heart?”

  “I doubt it,” Major Buchanan said, frowning at the sergeant. “They’d better not detain us. They have no authority for that.”

  I sifted through every channel I could access. “Another courier just docked. Accordance. I wonder if we can get some backing now.”

  Hideo laughed. His body still twitched occasionally from the aftereffects of the band. “That’s unusually sanguine of you.”

  The sergeant returned to stand in front of Major Buchanan. “I have orders to take you back to the bridge.”

  “Have you been told why? Can we be told why?”

  The sergeant ignored her and the squad started to quickly herd us back the way we came. I started to say something to Devlin, then stopped suddenly, distracted.

  “What is it?” he whispered.

  “Ghost sign. It’s faint, but . . .” I stopped and drifted through the crowd, back where I’d first noticed the sensation, but after an initial increase, the feeling faded away.

  I went back to Devlin, cursing. “Gone now,” I said.

  “I get it,” Devlin said. “The Ghost must know we can’t carry out the protocol. It’s got a lot more to gain by lying low and waiting for us to leave.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “And I bet you we’re going to get that ‘battle stations’ excuse more and more as we get closer. The protocol is a failure.”

  “Don’t exaggerate. We’ve created a Ghost-free buffer behind us in the fleet. That’s going to help.”

  Before we reached the bridge, the sergeant had his squad divide us: me, Ken, Devlin, and Major Buchanan ahead and everyone else in the back.

  “Just you four. You’re the ones they’re asking for” was all he said before the doors opened and we could see for ourselves who had done the asking.

  I felt cold. There were two Arvani on the bridge, one in armor, the other in a civilian tank. Major Diop was talking to them, but he immediately looked up when we came in.

  “Excellent, thank you, Sergeant. I was afraid you’d left already. It appears the Accordance is very interested in you after all.”

  I wasn’t feeling very sanguine now. The cold feeling in my stomach wouldn’t go away.

  “Thank you Major Diop,” the armored Arvani commander said. “We will take over from here. Ken Awojobi, you are a suspect in the disappearance of Commander Zeus in the evacuation of Titan. Is there anything you wish to tell us?”

  “No,” Ken stated. “I have nothing to say.”

  “I see.” The Arvani commander moved closer to Ken, examining him curiously with large, liquid eyes. “Our Family ordered an in-depth investigation into the whereabouts of our mother, who was last seen on Titan. Colonel Vincent Anais has submitted a deposition in which he claims that during the confusion of the evacuation, you shot and killed Commander Zeus, then incapacitated Colonel Anais with a blow to the skull. How do you respond to these charges?”

  Devlin was incredulous. “Anais took this long to say something? Don’t you find that a little fishy?”

  “We understand that head injuries in humans may cause amnesia. Fortunately, we were able to corroborate at least part of his account using archived footage from a jumpship in the vicinity. We are awaiting your answer to the charges.”  The civilian Arvani’s reply was coldly offended—was it the term “fishy” or Ken’s general air of disrespect?

  “Yes, I killed Zeus.”

  “Ken!” I was sure the Arvani were bluffing about how much the jumpship footage had actually shown, but none of that mattered if Ken was going to hand them a confession on a platter. “Shut up!”

  The Arvani commander ignored us and spoke to Major Buchanan. “Your association with this criminal is unfortunate. I would advise you to make a decision on our offer. You have delayed long enough.”

  “If I delayed, it was because more important things were happening,” the major replied sweetly. “I have known my answer from the moment the offer was made. I’m afraid it’s out of the question.”

  Both Arvani, civilian and military, went speechless. The commander recovered first. “You would refuse the privilege of being a citizen of the Accordance? You are a client species! You are nothing! It is a great honor we are extending to you, one that you do not deserve, and you are refusing it?”

  “I categorically refuse it,” she replied.

  For a moment I stopped agonizing over Ken’s fate. The scene in front of me was too delicious not to be enjoyed.

  “These are side matters,” Major Diop said wearily. “Can we please concentrate on the battle on our doorstep?”

  “Can we also focus on the intruders in our midst?” Buchanan shot back. “Winning won’t be much fun if you don’t have a place to return to.”

  “We are aware of your mission,” said the Arvani commander, “but it is no longer necessary. The Accordance is now prepared to implement wide-ranging measures throughout the CPF to eradicate all traitors and Conglomerate spies.”

  Glances were exchanged among the humans on the bridge. Clearly, I was no longer the only one with a coldness in the pit of my belly.

  “You are no longer needed in this area, Major Buchanan. You are hereby ordered to take all your personnel, board your courier, and return to Earth. This order supersedes any directions given by General Gerrard and Colonel Anais, and as you have refused full citizenship, you have no right to appeal. That is all.”

  “But what about our mother’s murderer?” the civilian Arvani asked abruptly.

  The Arvani commander hesitated, then spoke gently to his civilian kin. “Awojobi will face trial on Earth. The military process must be respected. Do not worry. We will be allowed to attend his execution.”

  Major Diop gave us a look of pure sympathy and regret. No one in the CPF who knew anything about Zeus’s treachery blamed Ken for his actions, but Zeus’s children were too influential in the Accordance and their revenge would not be denied.

  A klaxon went off, making us all tense up. “Essential personnel only! Everyone else, clear the bridge,” Major Diop shouted.

  The bridge crew moved swiftly into their vacuum suits and returned to stations. I automatically raised the helmet on my power armor and noted that Devlin and Ken did the same. The bridge did clear somewhat, but the three of us lingered with Major Buchanan, which was a good thing because we were able to catch her when the first shock wave from an energy discharge jarred the bridge.

  She thanked us for our help and apologized for her lack of preparation. “I came over in such a rush, I dressed for diplomacy, not war.”

  “I wanted to witness justice,” the civilian Arvani wailed. “I did not come here to die!”

  The Arvani commander looked momentarily at a loss, then snapped at Major Diop, “You must retreat to the outer moons!”

  “I must stay with the convoy,” he shouted back.

  “Are you disobeying my orders? I will have you stripped of rank! I will have you executed!”

  Major Buchanan drew us away from the argument and spoke quickly. “Amira, take the lads and get off this ship now. Board the second-last ship of the convoy, kill any Ghosts you find there, then get out. Tell everyone you can to get away from here as quickly as possible. I don’t have time to explain, but it’s going to be bad. Now go!”

  It shouldn’t be easy for three fully armored adults to slip out
without being noticed, but we did just that while the Arvani and Major Diop clashed over command and the ship rocked as it was grazed with energy beams. I took one last look over my shoulder and saw Major Buchanan securing herself in a seat near a view screen and sealing up the helmet of her vacuum suit. She gave me a nod and a thumbs-up.

  Then we ran.

  + + + +

  We took the courier and sheltered on the side of the convoy that was opposite the Conglomerate’s energy weapons. Then we held a meeting to discuss Buchanan’s orders and our next move.

  Hideo spoke hastily before I could start. “I’ve added the most recent data to my algorithms. The center of the rebellion should be found—”

  “On the second-to-last ship of the convoy,” I interrupted him. “Yes, we know. Major Buchanan figured it out just now on the bridge.” He visibly deflated as I continued. “She ordered us to terminate the Ghosts on board, then get the hell out. I think that’s a good plan. All in favor?”

  Through the sound of chiming yeas, Hideo raised his voice. “I want to come.”

  “Not again,” Ken growled.

  “I’m serious. I have to be there. I know who’s in command. I can tell you if they’re being controlled.”

  I realized I was happier having him at arm’s length than letting him stay on the courier. I wouldn’t put it past him to hijack it. “Okay, but you’ll have to leave that behind.”

  “What?” Hideo asked uncertainly.

  “The coat! Long coats and vacuum suits don’t mix, and we’re in the middle of hull-destroying activity. Use a patch or a chip or tie a wrap around your head, but ditch the long coat if you want to come.”

  He opted for the pirate-style head tie, and we gave him the same body armor that Lang had—a little more than a vacuum suit, but a lot less than power armor. No weapon. I was still mad about the laser.

  Before we boarded the jumpship, Ken pulled me aside. “Are you sure Lang can do this?”

  “She’s from Ship 1, deepest Manhattan. She’s tough.”

  “Yes, but this is a different kind of warfare,” he noted.

  “I still want Hideo watched and I don’t have time to do it myself,” I told him. “She did really well last time. Quick thinking. None of us expected the laser, but now she’ll be on full alert.”