by Isaac Hooke
“Two other vessels have volunteered,” Maxwell replied a moment later.
“Good, inform the MOTHs to head for our three vessels. Let me know when you have our men.”
Several seconds passed. Jonathan watched the seven remaining ships drift away from the Callaway and the other two that remained behind.
Was I a fool to do this?
No, we had to try.
“Got them,” Maxwell finally said.
“Helm, full speed,” Jonathan said. “Rejoin the rest of the fleet. Get us the hell out of here.”
“It’s not going to be enough...” Miko said.
“Helm, emergency speed,” Jonathan said. He glanced at Miko. The tactical officer shook his head.
The captain tapped in Stanley. “I’m going to need you to give me everything this shitbucket has.”
“Shitbucket!” the chief engineer replied in outrage. “Did you just call my ship a shitbucket? Only I’m allowed to do that!”
“Stanley,” Jonathan said. “We need everything you have. Right now.”
“I’m already giving you a hundred and ten percent!” the chief engineer replied.
“Well we need a hundred and fifty!” He tapped out.
He stared at the positional dots and velocity indicators on the tactical display. The Callaway wasn’t moving any faster. He was starting to feel sick to his stomach.
I should have sacrificed the MOTHs. Instead, I’ve sacrificed my whole crew.
“Speed is increasing,” Miko announced.
“Thank you, Stanley,” Jonathan said softly.
“It’s not Stanley,” Miko replied. “The Talon fired grappling hooks into our nose. They’re towing us.”
He glanced at the tactical display. Sure enough, the Talon had maneuvered just in front of them, and the Callaway had matched its velocity vector. The two other ships that had decelerated to collect the mechs were slowly falling behind.
“What about the other two?” Jonathan said.
Miko didn’t answer.
On his aReal, an alert popped up. It was a call from Lieutenant Connie Myers.
“Kind of busy right now, Lieutenant,” Jonathan said.
“Got some important news,” Connie said. “I’ve been analyzing our recordings of the planet. I think that moon down there isn’t merely a colony. Take a look at these pictures.” Images cycled across Jonathan’s aReal. Everywhere, he saw odd flat buildings that reminded him of the components of a circuit board. Waxlike structures hung between them. Black dots covered most of them. Subsequent, higher-resolution pictures revealed those dots to be Raakarr.
“What am I looking at?”
“I believe they’re Raakarr dwellings,” the lieutenant sent. “They cover eighty percent of the land masses, at least on this side of the moon. If this is truly a colony like the Zarafe have led us to believe, then it’s a densely populated one.”
“Are you telling me the five million figure is off?”
“Very much so,” Connie replied. “Extrapolating from the Raakarr I’ve detected in and around the structures I’ve scanned, I’d estimate the population to be closer to five billion, at least. Probably much more. And that’s just on this side of the moon.”
The Callaway shook violently.
“What was that?” Jonathan asked his ops officer.
“The shockwave from the planet killer,” Lewis said. “It’s detonated. Have a look at external camera R18.”
Jonathan switched to the point of view of the aforementioned camera. The crust had completely broken away and was expanding outward in a vaguely spherical shape. The moon’s size otherwise appeared unchanged—though one hundred kilometers thick, the crust only made up one percent of the colony’s mass. The upper mantle underneath appeared a bright red where the detonations had liquefied the silicates; that layer was rapidly cooling, forming a new, dead crust. Dark blotches marked the regions that had already solidified.
On the tactical display, which still overlaid the video feed, the red swarm vanished as the expanding crust collided with the enemy ships and fighters still in orbit. Miraculously, one of the trailing United Systems ships had survived. There was no sign of the other laggard.
Miko whistled. “Look at that crust expand. It’s truly a marvel to behold. You’re looking at the first live footage of a planet killer detonated against a live target, people.”
Jonathan forgave the tactical officer’s coldness in that moment. None of the bridge crew would have heard what Connie just told him.
He simply stared at that image, feeling as if a sudden crushing weight had set upon his body. If he wasn’t sitting down, he would have collapsed.
“It seems a few of the more distant laser ships survived the detonation,” Ensign Lewis said. “They’re transmitting a gamma ray beam toward us. A communication attempt, I think.”
Jonathan continued to stare at the exploding moon.
“Sir, what do you want to do?” Lewis said. “Sir?”
“What?” Jonathan said when he realized she was talking to him.
“I’m detecting an incoming gamma ray from the surviving Raakarr vessels,” she repeated. “They’re attempting communications.”
“Lazur, tell Barrick to find out what they want,” Jonathan said distractedly. “And tap him in so he can give me the news directly.”
“Apparently they want to surrender,” Barrick returned a moment later. “Instead of self-destructing like they normally do.”
“That wasn’t a colony world, was it?” Jonathan asked Barrick.
“No, Captain, it was not,” Barrick replied. “We just destroyed the Elk homeworld.”
twenty-eight
Maxwell,” Jonathan said. “Do we still need the Talon to tow us?”
“Negative,” the Callaway’s AI replied. “We have achieved sufficient velocity.”
“Cut us away, Barrick,” Jonathan transmitted. “I want your slimy hands off our ship.”
“You have been released,” Barrick replied a moment later.
“You knew all this time, didn’t you?” Jonathan sent. “You knew Valor was lying to us. And you didn’t say a word.”
“I knew,” Barrick said. “But not because Valor told me. I’ve foreseen this moment. But unfortunately, the alternative path was no better. If we failed in this mission, the Raakarr would have come to Earth instead, and we would be the ones suffering the loss of our homeworld. This was the lesser of two evils. But I suppose it doesn’t matter, anyway.”
“Why?”
Barrick didn’t answer.
“Tell me what you know, Barrick,” Jonathan said.
“It’s not over for humanity, not yet,” Barrick said. “Believe me when I tell you that the safety of the Earth is still gravely at stake.”
“I’ve had enough of your riddles and doublespeak,” Jonathan said. “Can’t you speak plainly for once? If you had told us that this was a homeworld in advance, we could have factored in the terrible cost and found another way. Spared billions of innocent lives.”
“Yes, only to see the Elk Raakarr come to Earth and nuke our homeworld instead,” Barrick replied. “Did you not hear a word I just said?”
Jonathan closed his eyes.
The deceitful bastard...
He tapped in the admiral and explained the situation.
“Their homeworld, you say?” Ford said. “Well, at least now we know why this was so damn hard.”
It was a cold remark, perhaps to hide the shock she must have felt. Or perhaps she truly didn’t care.
“Thank you, Captain Dallas,” the admiral continued stiffly. “I will inform the fleet of this tragedy.” She ended the connection.
“I’m detecting gamma rays from some of the other moons orbiting the ice giant,” Lewis said.
Jonathan tapped in Barrick.
“Colonists on the other moons are similarly issuing their surrenders,” Barrick explained.
“They have more than one colony in the system?” Jonathan remembered the si
gns of terraforming that had been detected on three of the moons. He had assumed the Raakarr had merely been practicing terraforming on those moons, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that the aliens had actually fully colonized them.
“Yes. There are another five million colonists distributed throughout the moon system, in addition to the fifty eight billion who had resided on the homeworld.”
Jonathan nearly keeled over in his seat. “Fifty eight billion...?”
“That is correct.”
JONATHAN ADJOURNED TO his office to get away for a while. He retrieved the bottle of Scotch he kept hidden in his vault, cracked it open, and filled up a glass.
“Well Maxwell, I guess you’re fairly happy right now,” Jonathan said.
“Why would you say that, Captain?” the Callaway’s AI asked.
“Because,” Jonathan said. “We’ve completely eliminated the threat posed by the Raakarr. Beaten them utterly into submission.”
“They very likely have other colony worlds distributed throughout this region of the galaxy,” Maxwell replied. “But you’re right, we’ve beaten them into submission for the time being. Or one of their main factions in any case. What worries me, Captain, is what the other faction is going to do now. Perhaps the Elk were the only ones holding the Zarafe in check. They may very well proliferate now.”
“You think the Zarafe plan to eventually attack Earth?” Jonathan said. “Despite the peace treaty we’ve signed?”
“We already know they are capable of treachery,” Maxwell said.
“We do indeed.”
The door chime announced a visitor.
“Come in, Commander,” Jonathan said.
Robert stepped inside.
“Have a seat,” Jonathan said.
Robert sat across from him.
“Drowning your sorrows?” Robert asked when he saw the glass.
“I’m sure as hell not celebrating,” Jonathan said. “Would you like a glass? It’s a hundred-and-ten-year-old vintage.”
“No thank you,” Robert said. “But I appreciate the offer.”
Jonathan took a long sip, then smacked his lips appreciatively. The hit made him forget his sorrows, if only for a moment.
He had only to look at the grim face of the commander for the pain of what the fleet had done to come rushing right back.
“We destroyed a homeworld,” Jonathan said. “For the benefit of a rogue alien faction. Killed... no, murdered, fifty eight billion inhabitants. Our behavior is inexcusable.”
“We acted on misinformation,” Maxwell said. “We didn’t purposely collude with the rogue faction in question.”
“Didn’t we?” Jonathan said. “The Zarafe told us we were attacking a colony world, and we wanted so badly to believe them that we didn’t bother to make extensive scans on our own. It was only moments before the detonation, when one of our own began to review the results of her surface analysis, that we realized what we had done.”
“There’s no excusing the morality of it,” Robert said. “As far as I’m concerned, we should have never bombed the moon in the first place, when we thought it was merely a colony world of five million inhabitants. Exercising a modicum of restraint would have spared us all this grief. And who knows what other misinformation the Zarafe have fed us? I’m surprised Ford still allows the Talon to be part of our fleet.”
“We need a way to communicate with the remaining Raakarr,” Maxwell said. “That rules out dismissing the Talon.”
“We could always dispatch Barrick to one of the other alien vessels that have surrendered,” Robert said.
“It’s a possibility I’m sure the admiral is considering,” Jonathan said.
“On the bridge, I overheard what you told Barrick,” Robert said. “That he knew we attacked a homeworld. How? Did Valor inform him, and he neglected to share that important tidbit with us?”
“No,” Jonathan said. “Or at least, he claims Valor didn’t tell him.”
“Then how would he know?”
Jonathan sighed. “Barrick says his telepathic link with that original Raakarr enabled him to see the future. Or parts of it, anyway. But he refuses to reveal any of it. And he has never given me any solid proof.”
“Probably another of his lies,” Robert said.
“Probably,” Jonathan said. “But even if he’s telling the truth, his ability is useless to us if he won’t share what he knows. After we destroyed the Elk homeworld, he did tell me something else that was disturbing...”
“And what was that?”
Jonathan opened his mouth, but then hesitated. He wasn’t sure he should relate the information to Robert. But as he looked at the commander’s face, stared into his eyes, he decided the first officer deserved to know.
“He told me Earth would have fallen at the hands of the Raakarr if we hadn’t eliminated the Elk homeworld. But then he kind of reversed that statement by saying it didn’t even really matter, because the safety of Earth was still at stake. But he didn’t explain why.”
“Has to be the Elder,” Robert said. “Remember, they’re supposedly watching us. Judging us. If that’s true, then we’ve definitely just proven ourselves unworthy of the planet killer. If the Elder eliminate Earth, guess who the overall winner in all of this is?”
“The Zarafe,” Jonathan said.
Robert nodded. “Exactly right. They’re the true masters of the game, here. I guess we’ll find out the truth soon enough, when we finish the return Gate five months from now.”
“Five months...” Jonathan said. “I just hope the Earth is still there by the time we get back.”
RADE SAT IN the MOTH berthing area aboard the Callaway. His noise canceler was raised so that nobody would hear the conversation he was having with the hologram of his daughter, Sil, who appeared to be sitting on the vacant bunk opposite him.
“You did good out there, kiddo,” Rade said. Hers was one of the sixty ships that had been directed to engage the rebooting enemy vessels. When the Raakarr had begun to awaken, quick thinking on her part had saved twenty trapped vessels.
“Just doing my duty,” Sil said. “As you would.”
Rade grimaced. “Duty.” He spat the word.
“Still blaming yourself for what happened?” Sil said.
“No.” He shook his head. “Not really. Well maybe a little.”
“We’ve been through this already. I think you need to talk to the counselor again. How could it be your fault the Raakarr lost their homeworld? You didn’t even know it was a homeworld.”
“But I could tell when I was down there that the population density was pretty high.”
“Could you?” Sil said. “I’m not so sure. You saw a mere colony because that’s what you expected to see, what you were told you would see. You were just following orders down there.”
“Famous last words by soldiers about to commit a war crime.”
“You won’t face war crime charges for what you’ve done,” Sil said. “It’s impossible.”
“Oh I know,” Rade said. “But maybe I should be held accountable for it.”
“Why, because your conscience demands it?”
“Not my conscience, but my logical mind. Because, well, it’s funny... I don’t even really feel that guilty. Somehow it seems easier to deal with this than some of the other slaughters I’ve played a part in over the course of my ‘distinguished’ career. Firsthand deaths, where I could see the pain written in the face of my opponent as I twisted the knife home or shot them at point blank range. In this case, all I did was attach a black box to a steel canister and hotfoot it the hell out of there. I didn’t see the faces of any of the billions of lives that were lost. Not a one. Actually no, that’s not true. I did see one.”
“Who?”
“At one point down there, I had to eject from my Knight and a Raakarr attacked me,” Rade said. “The alien punctured my suit, and nearly broke open my faceplate. I can still see those ugly mandibles and insectoid features whenever I close my
eyes. And I think, did it have a daughter, too? If so, she’s dead now. They’re all dead.”
Rade placed his head in his hands.
Sil’s soothing voice drifted to him. “It’s not your fault, dad. It’s not. All of us share equal blame in this.”
Rade nodded slowly. “I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“Of course I do,” Sil said. “There was never anything to forgive.”
“Not for this,” Rade said. “But for what I intend to do.”
She seemed taken aback. “What are you talking about?”
Rade smiled wanly. “When the time comes to pay the price for what we’ve done, I’m going to be the first in line, Sil.”
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about the author
USA Today bestselling author Isaac Hooke holds a degree in engineering physics, though his more unusual inventions remain fictive at this time. He is an avid hiker, cyclist, and photographer who sometimes resides in Edmonton, Alberta.
acknowledgments
THANK YOU to my knowledgeable beta readers and advanced reviewers who helped smooth out the rough edges of the prerelease manuscript: Nicole P., Lisa A. G., Gregg C., Jeff K., Mark C., Jeremy G., Doug B., Jenny O., Amy B., Bryan O., Lezza M., Gene A., Larry J., Allen M., Gary F., Eric, Robine, Noel, Anton, Spencer, Norman, Trudi, Corey, Erol, Terje, David, Charles, Walter, Lisa, Ramon, Chris, Scott, Michael, Chris, Bob, Jim, Maureen, Zane, Chuck, Shayne, Anna, Dave, Roger, Nick, Gerry, Charles, Annie, Patrick, Mike, Jeff, Lisa, Jason, Bryant, Janna, Tom, Jerry, Chris, Jim, Brandon, Kathy, Norm, Jonathan, Derek, Shawn, Judi, Eric, Rick, Bryan, Barry, Sherman, Jim, Bob, Ralph, Darren, Michael, Chris, Michael, Julie, Glenn, Rickie, Rhonda, Neil, Claude, Ski, Joe, Paul, Larry, John, Norma, Jeff, David, Brennan, Phyllis, Robert, Darren, Daniel, Montzalee, Robert, Dave, Diane, Peter, Skip, Louise, Dave, Brent, Erin, Paul, Jeremy, Dan, Garland, Sharon, Dave, Pat, Nathan, Max, Martin, Greg, David, Myles, Nancy, Ed, David, Karen, Becky, Jacob, Ben, Don, Carl, Gene, Bob, Luke, Teri, Gerald, Lee, Rich, Ken, Daniel, Chris, Al, Andy, Tim, Robert, Fred, David, Mitch, Don, Tony, Dian, Tony, John, Sandy, James, David, Pat, Jean, Bryan, William, Roy, Dave, Vincent, Tim, Richard, Kevin, George, Andrew, John, Richard, Robin, Sue, Mark, Jerry, Rodger, Rob, Byron, Ty, Mike, Gerry, Steve, Benjamin, Anna, Keith, Jeff, Josh, Herb, Bev, Simon, John, David, Greg, Larry, Timothy, Tony, Ian, Niraj, Maureen, Jim, Len, Bryan, Todd, Maria, Angela, Gerhard, Renee, Pete, Hemantkumar, Tim, Joseph, Will, David, Suzanne, Steve, Derek, Valerie, Laurence, James, Andy, Mark, Tarzy, Christina, Rick, Mike, Paula, Tim, Jim, Gal, Anthony, Ron, Dietrich, Mindy, Ben, Steve, Paddy & Penny, Troy, Marti, Herb, Jim, David, Alan, Leslie, Chuck, Dan, Perry, Chris, Rich, Rod, Trevor, Rick, Michael, Tim, Mark, Alex, John, William, Doug, Tony, David, Sam, Derek, John, Jay, Tom, Bryant, Larry, Anjanette, Gary, Travis, Jennifer, Henry, Drew, Michelle, Bob, Gregg, Billy, Jack, Lance, Sandra, Libby, Jonathan, Karl, Bruce, Clay, Gary, Sarge, Andrew, Deborah, Steve, and Curtis.