The Alliance

by Jason Letts

  “You need to let her know we’re coming,” Bailor said, barely in earshot.

  They only had one good way to do that. The smaller ships in the area moved to intercept him. Their firepower was minimal but could be a threat if enough of them got together. Rion wasn’t anxious to do any shooting before the attempted rescue, so he veered port side to try to keep a healthy distance.

  The distribution facility’s arms and barges came into clear view under the station’s lights. He tried to pick out Lena in the dark surface, but it looked like her torch had gone out or been cut off. For all he knew she could be floating there, dead, but in case she wasn’t he hit the ship’s face to help her anticipate their imminent arrival.

  The response was instantaneous, but not from Lena.

  The shuttles attempted to close in more aggressively. The mid-size ship broke from its position and brought its weapons systems into ready position. Even the cruisers scrambled some fighters in a startlingly rapid timespan. Rion’s hands felt cold against the controls. It was going to be a tight squeeze between when they got to the station and when any of the enemies in the vicinity got to them.

  “Are you ready?” Rion shouted back to Bailor. It was moments until they reached the extraction point. Rion could barely make out a dark figure floating around a flat stretch of paneling that had been scored by the torch. He wasn’t completely sure, but it looked like the torch was floating away.

  “I’ll get her,” Bailor replied loudly.

  Rion appreciated the confidence. He hit the auxiliary engines to aid their reduction in speed and put the ship in position so that the airlock faced Lena. Now all he could do was watch as the outer airlock door opened and Bailor used a grappling hook to spring a line out to her body, snatch it, and drag her back to the ship. Through the windshield, he watched the first volley of fire come in from their pursuers.

  “Go!” Bailor wailed.

  Not wasting any time, Rion gunned the engine. It was difficult to concentrate on operating the entire ship when he desperately wanted to know what had happened to Lena. The ship had enough pick-up to get clear of the wave bearing down on them. The plasma fire speckled holes all over the station’s surface. If only Lena had had some of that to get in.

  Enemies were closing in from multiple sides, and for now the station was their only cover. Rion prepared to use the tracers to blunt the shuttles and missiles to knock out the approaching fighters, but first he dropped two mines as he descended lower toward the bottom of the station. The plasma fire continued to tear the station apart, narrowly missing them and destroying one of the docked barges instead. An explosion occurred, leaving a docking bay blown wide open. Debris flew everywhere.

  “Rion!” Bailor called.

  “How is she?” he shouted.

  “She’s alive, barely. I think one of her tanks had a leak or wasn’t full to begin with.”

  Rion clenched his jaw, wondering if the tank’s meter gave them a faulty reading or if Lena sucked down the oxygen faster than they anticipated. It must’ve been the one detail they didn’t quadruple check.

  The tracers shredded one of the shuttles. He dropped a mine to punish the rest for continuing to chase him, but the ship was reaching the station’s lowest point and would have to try outrunning the fighters in open space. Heath’s engine upgrades were about to be put to the test.

  Another flash of light from behind got Rion’s attention, and he brought up the rear camera on the console to watch a huge blast tear apart a substantial portion of the distribution facility. The entire thing was liable to be blown to pieces, but by the time the flash settled it looked like the station had been severed in half with the loading dock areas hardest hit. Rion gasped when he considered how many tons of food had gone up in smoke.

  “What was that?” Bailor asked from back in the ship.

  “You don’t want to know,” Rion said. He couldn’t explain it, not by shouting in a few words. How much of the other planets’ food supplies depended on these shipments from Earth? They were about to find out.

  The fighters were approaching at an angle and gaining, forcing Rion to put consideration of what had happened out of mind. The Alliance fighters were part of the Earthguard, something he’d spent a lot of time studying during their trips simply because they were so fascinating. Their ornate designs exhibited spiraling curvatures that were particularly unusual. The strength of the missile warheads was notable as well. There was no room for error.

  With no more than a minute or two before they arrived, Rion did what he could to prepare by launching a trio of satellites to create a screen. The mines were next, and the Assailing Face swung around to wait behind them in the hopes that these countermeasures would create a favorable environment for the fight. There were four of the Earthguard approaching with more just launched from the Vestige.

  Surprisingly, another communication came through from the Alliance carrier. The signal that it was Hobart made it irresistible for Rion.

  “Your actions here today as well as the assault on the Mercury power grid have rendered you an enemy of the Alliance. We have identified your vessel, a known black flag that’s illegal to operate. Your punishment for these crimes is destruction, which is to be carried out immediately.”

  Despite the ominous warning from Hobart, Rion found himself tempted to ask about the day he was left or only to say who he was in an attempt to get more of a reaction. But time wasn’t on his side. The Earthguard fighters were approaching the satellites. Rion fired missiles in order to coordinate an attack that would be harder to avoid. The satellites’ plasma cannons and the missiles were timed perfectly, striking at the squadron and wiping out two of them. Another managed to swerve around the barrage of fire and pick off a pair of satellites only to drift in range of a mine.

  That left a single fighter coming at them hard, forcing Rion to accelerate before it launched its seekers. The missiles ripped through space toward him, and suddenly there were only moments left to react. Breathing deeply, Rion deployed rear screen right before impact. After some uncomfortable rocking, he was sure the ship’s rear end was scorched, but everything was still operational.

  His heart beating fast, he struggled to steer the ship and line up the compressed matter cannon. The tracers wouldn’t be strong enough to do much, and the decreasing range made firing another missile risky. The cannon interface had a pair of handles for aiming. It should’ve been an easy shot, but the Earthguard fighter was wisely weaving all over as it spat a steam of ionized pellets.

  Clenching hard, he fired only to realize he’d been off target and would have to try again, but the fighter swerved directly into the line of fire and got a crater straight through its nose. The engine went up and the ship was in pieces.

  Rather than hang around for the others to close in, Rion took advantage of their healthy lead and decided to make a run for it. Where to was the question. The cruisers blocked a likely path out to Mars. Heading back to Venus in heavy traffic would make it impossible for them to disappear. He had to find a direction that would give him some space, and at the moment the best option seemed like heading straight for the sun.

  Gunning it, the ship took off and soon reached maximum velocity. The other fighters continued to chase for a good hour before turning back, but Rion wasn’t fooled that they were out of the woods. The sensors on those cruisers would be watching them most of the way and would be calling for help from anyone nearby. The advantage of heading for the sun was that there weren’t likely to be many Alliance ships hanging about waiting for them there.

  Once his level of adrenaline began to drop, Rion got up from the cockpit and went to see how the other two were doing. Lena’s eyes lolled, but she was awake. Bailor had an oxygen mask over her face. The tanks and some of the space suit had been cut away. Rion knelt down next to them on the floor, pained at seeing her in such a sorry state. He’d let her bite off more than she could chew.

  “Hey, you’re looking good. Hang in there. We’re safe, for n
ow,” he said.

  Lena coughed and nudged the mask down using her wrist.

  “I screwed it up. I couldn’t do it,” she said. Her voice sounded hoarse and tired.

  “It’s all right. Don’t worry about it.”

  Bailor shot him a concerned look but didn’t say anything.

  “I thought I could get up faster by releasing some of the oxygen from one of the tanks, but I fumbled it and started running out of air. That left me scrambling to get inside,” she said.

  It was a stupid mistake to make, but Rion held that opinion to himself. He kept his reaction as passive as possible.

  “We might have created an even bigger situation than we imagined. The distribution facility took heavy damage during our getaway. It’s in tatters.”

  “Are you serious?” Bailor gasped. “That’s going to be a disaster. Without a centralized distribution point, the barges would never be able to pick up items from all of the different agra-centers. It’s going to be chaos.”

  “At least now maybe they won’t be sending food to rot on trips around the sun,” Lena said before she shut her eyes in pain and reached for the mask.

  “Speaking of which, that’s where we’re headed now. It was the only place I could think of without a military garrison,” Rion said.

  Bailor snorted, which seemed odd. Rion gave him an inquisitive look.

  “As bizarre as it might sound, we might still be able to salvage the mission. What if we picked up some of these roaming barges on the way and brought them to Mars ourselves,” he suggested.

  “I’m sure the Alliance would be able to track that and be all over us,” Rion said.

  “Not if we used the communications dampeners. And if not that, once we commandeered the vessel I could get on board and put it in the dark.”

  Rion started to perk up. It might cushion some of the fallout from the facility’s explosion if they delivered some food right away.

  “But there’d be no way to alert the regents like we planned. Though after what happened they still might be likely to sick the Alliance on us.”

  “Right. We might have to do it without getting the credit. Besides, we wouldn’t be able to make more than one stop anyway. Good thing there are a lot of people in the Mars colony who could use this,” Bailor said.

  After he strapped Lena to one of the cots so she could rest, Bailor joined Rion in the cockpit to scout out for barges coming to and from the sun. None of them were right directly around the sun, of course, which was a big area to begin with. They had a lot of empty space to search, but the task at hand got easier when barges began creeping into view within a matter of hours.

  “A recall order had gone out,” Bailor noted as he listened to the Alliance channels.

  “That’ll make for easier fishing,” Rion said, changing course to intercept the first one.

  “That’s not all,” Bailor said. “They’re already spinning the explosion on the distribution facility as a brazen attack by pirates and a reason for stricter flight guidelines. It won’t be long before no one can get in a spaceship without their say so, and if you don’t have it you’ll be liable to attack.”

  “We’ll have to see what we can do to set the record straight,” Rion said, zeroing in on the first barge.

  Detaining and tethering the vessel was easy. They were weaponless and pilotless, each with only a single crew member who was in no position to fight. Bailor got word out that crews would be let off safely within a day and went forward with jamming the communications to block any attempts to track them. The Alliance would know where each barge went dark, but where they went after that would be a mystery.

  Five barges, each carrying tons of food, were obtained in this manner. More were out there, but the added weight would make their movements painfully slow and susceptible to interception. As it was, they’d been taking the most circuitous route possible while picking up their targets. The time had come to make for the Mars spaceport, which promised to be relatively hazard free as long as they steered clear of established flight paths.

  On the way, they heard about a particularly bloody battle with the Marshall Force around Uranus that ended in a modest Alliance victory. If the reporting was to be believed, that meant the new weaponry had done little to boost the Marshall Force’s prospects. Rion hoped that when they returned to Pluto they’d discover that it hadn’t been true.

  But first was another homecoming as they descended upon Mars. They’d spent the better part of a decade stealing food there, and now they were bringing that much back and then some. Rion hoped it would get to the people who needed it in the colony and alleviate some of the dire problems he’d seen there.

  A ping came through from the spaceport command tower complete with a manifest form. Together with Bailor, they looked it over and found that the language had been changed and the trick in the question that resulted in children being left behind was removed.

  “I suppose we have Reznik to thank for that,” Rion said, thinking about the better reputation of the younger Regent Kline.

  “She really avenged us there,” Bailor said.

  Knowing that children were no longer being abandoned in the spaceport as an alternative to ruin for the family made showing up with tons of food much easier. A small portion of it had indeed gone bad, but most of it would be fine because of good refrigeration in the barges. When they landed with all of the barges in one of the larger docking bays, the spaceport inspector looked at them like he was using his eyes for the first time. His mouth dropped open and the tablet in his hand fell to the floor.

  Rion told them they were donating all of the food to the residents of the colony, and what happened next was something Rion would never forget. It was like when the alarms went off and everyone flooded into the colony, but in reverse. The inspector had barely taken a breath before word got out about the surprise delivery of massive quantities of food, everything from produce to cream stacks, and people began pouring in from all directions.

  The inspectors hastily set up a perimeter to keep things orderly, and Lena, much-recovered, prepared the ship for takeoff to get out of the way. By the time they were ready for liftoff, thousands were crowding around and packing every tunnel. Apparently the regent was even on his way, but sticking around wasn’t part of the plan.

  With the inspectors so busy, Bailor commandeered a nearby monitor and accessed the broadcast system. The familiar two-tone chime quieted everyone down. Bailor handed a microphone to Rion, who looked at it and took a deep breath as he addressed the crowd.

  “This is food that the Alliance wanted to go to waste, but we’re bringing it to you. They’ll tell you that there’s going to be a food shortage because we destroyed the distribution center. This is false. We went there to stop the reckless squandering, but they fired at us and ended up causing the explosion. Their proclamations are meant to divide us and hold us back, but if we fight together we can take back the lives we should’ve had.”

  After setting the microphone down, Rion and Bailor returned to the Assailing Face and closed the hatch. If his words didn’t strike them hard enough, sight of the ship’s face would. As they rose and left, Rion hoped that the truth would spread across the solar system through those he’d spoken to sharing the news with others.

  The Alliance had been alerted about their landing, but it was already too late for any chance of making a catch. They were out of the bubble and headed back to Pluto as fast as their ship could take them.

  During the trip back, Bailor took a page out of Rion’s book and started using the Alliance database to look into his own family.

  “What did you find?” Rion asked after hearing an astonished gasp that might’ve really been an invitation for a question about it.

  “I have a brother I never knew about. It’s all right here. The family of Sandor and Liss Pu still at the same home I grew up in on Ganymede, but now according to the reports they have a son named Francis who was born a couple of years after we were separated,” Bail
or said.

  It had never occurred to Rion that his family could’ve grown after being left behind. This was news indeed.

  “Wow, so you feel like your family moved on and forgot about you?” Rion asked, knowing that’s how he’d take it. For all he knew, they may very well have done that, and even the possibility of it steamed him.

  “Not at all. It actually makes me feel better. It’s like my brother saved them from being alone all this time, although I didn’t even know about it. You have to understand something about our family. We were struggling financially and still are from the looks of it, but we were rich when it came to love for each other. That’s what keeps burning me about what happened on Mars. My parents would’ve gone to any lengths to get back to me but it was one-hundred percent hopeless for them.”

  Rion raised his eyebrows and nodded, doing his best to be supportive.

  “So Francis, huh? Maybe one day you’ll get to meet him.”

  The suggestion made Bailor frown and scratch the back of his neck.

  “Not in this ship, that’s for sure. I don’t know if you realize what kind of position we’re in now. The Alliance will most likely do anything to get to us. If I stopped by for a visit, who knows what would happen. As it is, they’ll probably never be safe. My brother might’ve saved my parents from being alone, but I’ll have to save them all from me.”

  More circuitous routes through uncharted stretches of space finally brought them back to the sprawling construction zone around Pluto. This time they were whisked through the security checkpoints much faster, thanks to a clearance code they received from Verche. While cruising along the final stretch, they listened to communications discussing the state of the war, but Rion still felt like he wasn’t getting the straight truth about it.

  He was so anxious for a hint of real news that he accosted a docking bay attendant immediately after exiting the airlock. She had on overalls that were grey with a hint of violet, the Marshall Force’s colors, but her greasy hair and rough hands caught Rion’s eye.