by Dave Walsh
“Not now, junior.” He didn’t look, but the look on Cronus’s face was one of indignation, but showed no sign of retaliation. “Your father knew they’d come back for us, that they wouldn’t just let us go this easily. Even if they had so many new technologies, they were still hungry for resources,” he grunted in pain. “If they couldn’t displace the population to this system they needed some of its resources. There was a delicate balance in place and your father and then I kept things in line. But this,” he shook the gun at Cronus, “this genius wanted to be done with them forever.”
“I was only doing what I felt was right!” Cronus gnashed his teeth. “If I was to truly be the emperor why should I be paying someone just to leave us alone?”
“You fool,” Katrijn muttered in disbelief. “You petty fool.”
“While I’m not one to ever really give Cronus the benefit of the doubt,” O’Neil looked tired, “he did have our best interests at heart. I would have never advised for it, but he knew that. It was his errand boy Giger who came up with the plan to try to build a fleet to drive them out.”
“It worked!” Cronus exclaimed. “How can no one see that?”
“It worked for the time,” Katrijn’s mother spoke up. “Like Peter said, it wasn’t the worst plan. If Giger hadn’t pushed for his own foolish plan, everything might have worked out. Instead, he led an attack on them in hopes of sending them away.”
“But they are back,” Jace’s voice came from the side, and Katrijn turned to see him fully composed again, if not a bit shaken. “So now what?”
“We have 4,000 ships to what is probably tens of thousands of Earth Ministry ships that could come through that gate they built, so our defenses are lacking at best,” O’Neil’s hand was shaky while pointing the gun at Cronus, but he finally lowered it with a grimace. “You girls can work out who gets and who rules what later, but for now we need Cronus, even if it is just to hand him over to the Earthers in hopes that they back off for a while.”
Cronus sat silently, gripping his arm and staring down at his ornate boots.
“You were going to do that?” Alva stepped forward. “You, the monster of Krigar were going to give yourself up?”
“I never meant…” Tears were welling up in his eyes, and he kept staring down at his boots and not making eye contact. “Things got so out of control and I…I just, I don’t know. I just…”
“He’s a blubbering baby!” Oystein shouted. “Dear Odin, this is not our monster, this is our jester!”
“Regardless,” O’Neil holstered his gun and stood up slowly, favoring his midsection and struggling for breath. “I hope you see now why we need him alive. Trallex,” he turned toward the Cydonian, who was sifting through data. “Any idea who is in command of that ship?”
“Captain Peter O’Neil,” a familiar, snide voice echoed through the room, and everyone’s eyes turned toward the set of broken doors to see a thin, composed man standing stiffly in an Earth Ministry uniform. The uniform bore the mark of a high admiral, the man wearing a wry smile underneath the thin mustache.
“My gods,” O’Neil looked even paler. “Admiral Navarro?”
“That’s High Admiral Navarro,” he corrected him.
041. The Scourge of the Fourth Fleet
O’Neil
I forgot you can just beam yourself down here whenever you please.” O’Neil looked down from the dais to Navarro, not looking much older than when they had last met. He did his best to look composed, but he knew he was struggling to keep his blood circulating and the air pumping through his chest. Navarro was in charge of the Fourth Fleet—technically his superior when they arrived on Andlios and the man he had betrayed to help Freeman found the Andlios Republic.
“It’s not as simple as that, but I know you were never one for that particular technology,” Navarro’s voice felt like needles jabbing into his ears.
“No, never was,” he agreed. “I’m surprised to see you in such fine shape after all these cycles.”
“Yes, quite.” Navarro gripped his hands tightly behind his back. “Well, it turns out that our Cydonian friends have quite a fascinating outlook on technology and humanity’s future. My arm here was in quite a disarray after our…last meeting.” He held his right arm out for inspection before clasping his hands back behind his back. Jonah had done some serious damage to that arm during their final showdown, and he’d be proud to know just how deeply he had wounded Navarro if he were still alive. “You yourself are looking a bit worse for wear, I might add.”
“Cydonians?” Trallex turned toward the High Admiral. “No Cydonian has defected to the best of our knowledge.”
“No,” he smirked. “Of course not. I’ve gathered that your people have a name for this particular group—the uh, Banished, I gather?”
“You were all the damned Banished!” Oystein roared, Alva quickly elbowing him in the ribs to quiet him down.
“Oh, my.” Navarro walked the length of the room, his heels clicking against the marble floor while he looked the brute up and down. “These Krigans have never failed to impress me with their vigor. We were not your Banished as you believed, my dear man, it turns out that the Cydonians who departed this planet some years back had come to Earth and found it to be quite underdeveloped and decided instead of interfering much to instead head to a neighboring system. One of our Destiny ships discovered them and we were able to bond over our disdain for this damned planet and its inhabitants.”
“We did not condone their behavior,” Trallex said. “Nor do they represent Cydonians as a whole. Eliminating all life on Andlios other than our own does not benefit our vision of the future—”
“They were bloody murderers!” Oystein snarled, Alva again trying to rein him in. “No, hear me out, if these assholes are working with them then we need to end them now!” The mighty man had his pulseaxe in his hands, and Navarro’s eyes widened at the sight of the weapon.
“Stand down.” O’Neil climbed down from the throne platform, standing in between the two men. “Killing him will only bring hell to the Andlios Republic. We need to make things right, not worse.”
“Always the sensible one, weren’t you, O’Neil?” Navarro’s tone was bordering on playful, but O’Neil knew better than to be lulled into a sense of security. “Freeman really was the wildcard in this equation and now his son has paid us quite an insult.”
“I did what was best for—” Cronus broke in, only to quickly be shut down.
“Cronus,” O’Neil turned as quickly as his broken down body would let him and grumbled. “Let me handle this.”
“Ah, yes,” Navarro chuckled, turning on his heel to look up at Cronus on the throne, hand still on his arm. “Where would Andlios be without a Freeman on O’Neil’s leash? Some things never change.”
“I am on no one’s leash!” Cronus stood up, grimacing in pain, but doing his best to compose himself.
“Cronus…” O’Neil accosted him.
“No,” he said. “I am the emperor and it was my decision to send you and your pithy fleet packing before! You do not belong here and I will order that ship of yours shot down.”
“My, this one is dim, isn’t he?” Navarro turned his back to them, sounding disappointed.
“Why you—” Cronus went to charge at him only for Kara to grab ahold of his injured arm, which caused him to cry out and she guided him to sit back down.
“Truly marvelous,” Navarro let out a laugh that echoed throughout the room. “What a Republic you have built here, O’Neil.”
“It’s not just mine,” O’Neil said, knowing that he needed to tread carefully. “Everyone in this room has some stake in the Andlios Republic and you and I both know that Earth needs resources that we have out here. The logistics don’t work out, High Admiral, you know that’s true. You can’t bring everyone here and you can’t bring your entire armada here to strongarm these people. There has been a lot of work that has gone into this Republic and the people won’t just let it slip away from them.
”
“Truly,” Navarrao turned to O’Neil and smirked. “It is impressive what has happened here in the years since we last met, but you haven’t seen what we’ve done back home. You’ve never even been back home, have you?” O’Neil shook his head while Navarro laughed. “Oh my friend, you’ll quite enjoy it there, although I’m not sure how much of it you’ll see while standing trial as a traitor…”
“You can’t!” Katrijn surged forward, Jace and Loren struggling to hold her back.
“It’s okay,” O’Neil held his hand out toward her, trying to calm her down. “This is what I expected.”
“Of course it is, you cannot simply betray your people and fail in your mission, be involved in the death of Earth Ministry forces and just live out your life here in your idyllic little wonderland while you fight your little battles amongst each other. You thought that you had something special here, didn’t you?” Navarro strode past them and stood in front of the projections that lined the front of the room, showing images of the violence outside. “But look at this, O’Neil. Look at what you built here, it is no different. You and Freeman failed, we’ve won. Right now the Fourth Fleet is coming through that gate by Gimle right now, they are heading here and boots will be on the ground in a matter of moments. There won’t be a battle this time, there won’t be a heroic speech and backroom deals. The Earth Ministry has come to claim what is rightfully ours.”
“This is my fault,” Cronus grumbled, a defeated man. O’Neil looked at him and he looked almost half a meter smaller than he had before when he had raised his sword to his sister.
“Don’t be so full of yourself, boy,” Navarro said, a sadistic smile lining his face. “This was all in motion long before you thought yourself a king. We’ll need you, though. So—”
“I didn’t fight for this, I didn’t go through this for nothing!” Alva’s brute friend Oystein raised his voice. “I didn’t go through all of this for the Banished to get the upper hand of us after all of these cycles!”
“Oystein…” Alva’s voice was trying to be soothing. “Please, don’t…”
“No, Princess Alva,” he stepped forward, brandishing his pulseaxe. “I won’t sit back and let this subhuman go through with this.”
“You?” Navarro turned from the screens to look back at Oystein, looking amused. “What are you going to attack me with your ax there? Go right ahead.” He motioned with his hand in a sweeping motion for Oystein to step forward to him. “But I don’t want your friends interfering, of course.” He snapped his fingers and Earth Ministry forces flooded in from the doors on either side of the room, previously unheard and unseen. He had been waiting for them to be transported, which O’Neil posited was the reason for the monologue.
“I’ll be more than pleased,” Oystein charged forward, ax held over his shoulder, swinging it toward the neck of Navarro only for Navarro to reach up with his right hand and for the ax to freeze in place, Oystein still moving forward but finding himself unable to budge his ax.
“You see,” Navarro paced in front of the grunting Oystein, “this is what you appear like to us—fools who resisted change.”
“But how!” Oystein barked, struggling to move but finding himself stuck.
“Your Banished have quite the secrets to share with us, in case you didn’t suspect.” He let out a sigh while his hand slipped to his sidearm, pulling the gun from the holster and raising it toward the frozen-in-place Oystein. “But, much like flies, you will all fall eventually while we let out a collective sigh.”
“No!” Alva charged forward, seeing Navarro’s gun pointed at Oystein. It was all a blur to O’Neil, but he saw Alva get pushed to the floor, Trella standing over her, in between Oystein and Navarro when the blast rang out. She fell over in a heap on top of Alva.
“Truly awe-inspiring,” Navarro laughed while his guards moved in. Alva looked pale, but O’Neil could see the anger rising up inside of her.
“That’s enough!” O’Neil shouted. “You came for Cronus and me, so you have us!” He glanced over at Alva and saw her holding onto the trembling Trella, her encounter suit trying to mend itself and tend to the wound in her midsection. He turned to Jace and whispered. “You get them out of here, I don’t care what you have to do.”
“Got it,” Jace started to pull away, only for O’Neil to tug on his shirt.
“Take Katrijn with you as well.”
“What?” He looked back at O’Neil in disbelief. “She won’t go, she just…”
“Tell her it’s an order. Loren will know what to do.”
“You…fucking…monster!” Alva’s voice rose, and O’Neil felt the energy emanating from where she sat with Trella in her arms. “This is my world!” her voice boomed, holding her hand out and Oystein’s pulseaxe jumping into her hand. She stood up, holding both his and her own pulseaxe, one giant ax in each hand. Navarro nodded and the soldiers started to close in on her. “No!” she boomed, sweeping both arms out and both lines of soldiers flew back off their feet.
“What the fuck?” O’Neil heard Jace exclaim over the sound of groans and screams in the room, Jace staring in disbelief before he noticed O’Neil glaring at him.
“Go,” O’Neil mouthed to him. He may have spoken it out loud but there was no chance of anyone, including himself, hearing it over the chaos.
“Oh, this is rich,” Navarro was laughing like a maniac while Alva was stalking closer to him. “Let’s see what the bitch has!”
“Alva!” Trella’s voice came out. “No, don’t!”
“What?” She turned to see Trella in Oystein’s arms. “But he…”
“You came for me,” O’Neil stepped forward while Alva quickly ran to Trella’s aid. He could see Trallex behind the throne dais, motioning for them to come to him. There was a trap door back there that only a few knew about and either Trallex had been told about it or he was able to pull off some Cydonian trick, but it didn’t matter, they’d get free. He had Navarro’s attention now, though.
“So I did,” Navarro ran his finger of his mustache. “So many distractions down here, it’s no wonder this Republic didn’t plunge into chaos sooner. I’ll deal with these mongrels soon enough, but I digress, what about the great Captain Peter O’Neil? As you can see,” he motioned to the projections behind him and to the soldiers all around them. “Boots are indeed on the ground now and I’m afraid I’ve had a change of heart.”
“Oh?” O’Neil asked, raising his eyebrow, standing toe-to-toe with Navarro.
“Quite.” He turned his back to O’Neil, only to spin around, gun in hand, pointing it at O’Neil’s head. “I don’t need you after all.”
Kara
The bang rang out and a fissure erupted in both time and space. Kara stood next to Cronus, who was still tending to his own wounds and watched as Alva and Oystein helped Trella back into the access tunnel. Katrijn and Jace had left just moments before, but now all she could hear was the deafening bang and watch as Peter’s body fell slowly to the ground, his arms thrown back and a small trail of blood hanging in the air.
“Peter!” she cried out, the full gravity of time returning to the room in a rush and then his body was on the floor, Navarro standing over him wearing a grin, his gun in hand. “My gods, Peter!” Kara rushed from the dais to his side, quickly fumbling around for a pulse on his arm only to feel none, but then she remembered that there were so many augmentations inside him that she might not have been able to tell anyway.
“Why would you do that? What is wrong with you?” Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “Dear Freyja…”
“There is nothing wrong with me, there was never going to be a trial anyway and really, the public’s fascination with him has waned quite a bit, but…” Navarro stepped over O’Neil’s unmoving body in a nonchalant manner, approaching the dais with the soldiers all around the room. “Your son here, he is all I need.”
“You don’t touch him!” she cried out. “You do not get to—”
“Oh, calm down,” he looke
d back, shaking his head. “So emotional, get control over yourself. This is Cronus Freeman and he has a debt to pay for his betrayal. We’ll need him yet. I must say, though,” he scanned around the room. “We are missing a few faces here, aren’t we? Verhoeven, Santa Maria,” he barked, two of the soldiers stepping forward and standing in rigid attention. “Send out teams to find the rest and bring them to me.”
“Yes sir,” they said in unison, the rest of the soldiers parting to let them through the door.
Kara cradled Peter in her arms. What would she tell Jack and Hideo? Would anyone other than her miss Peter O’Neil? He operated in the shadows, kept everyone safe and made the difficult decisions that left him labeled as a monster throughout his tenure working with the family, all while Jonah had been the public face of good and Cronus burnt all of that to the ground. His cold face was looking up at her, his eyes open in shock under his glasses, the glasses he had stubbornly kept even though much of his body was filled with Cydonian moving parts.
She reached down and removed his glasses carefully, running her fingers over his eyelids to close them, feeling his rapidly-cooling flesh on her hand. Absently she reached up with her wrist and wiped away the tears, realizing that she was surrounded by Earth Ministry forces and that both she and her son were in great danger still. Peter would have urged her to go on, to do whatever she could to keep the peace while a counter-attack could be planned.
“What do you need us to do?” she asked, sniffling back the tears.
“What?” Navarro turned toward her. “The empress regent speaks! I need nothing from you, just from your son here.”
“You are a fool if you think he ran the Republic on his own; it was myself, Peter and a number of others who did most of the work before he sent us away. I don’t see you ruling over this Republic yourself, so if you need Cronus, you are going to have to tell us what you want from us. We can keep the peace.”
“The peace?” He let out a laugh. “Did you not see what brought us all to this thrilling conclusion today? Riots! Not only in your streets, but in your own palace, against your own people. You are right, I have no desire to run some Republic, but soon this will all be swallowed up and brought into the fold of the Earth Ministry. In due time, my dear, in due time.”