by Jerry Aubin
Kalare sighed as she turned to face him. “I’m sorry, Zax. I know how you want me to want this. I know I should want this. But, I just—don’t—want—this. The last few weeks training with you have been fantastic, but that’s the only reason why I’m here at all. You look out this window and get inspired by the Ship passing beneath us and dream of flying around it all the time. All I see is my friend’s face smiling back at me as her dead body floats by. I’ve realized I can’t tolerate the whole idea of being outside in space and that makes me a very poor candidate for Flight, don’t you think?”
Zax knew he would never change her mind after that explanation. In fact, it would be selfish to even try. He nodded slowly and Kalare continued.
“I can’t thank you enough for everything. Two amazing things have come out of this experience. First, I got to train with the Marines. Even if I become just an average ground-pounding grunt, I’ve learned the Marines is where I belong.”
Kalare reached over and took Zax’s hand in hers. “The second amazing thing is that you and I are now friends. I haven’t had many in my life—in fact, I think the last people who I truly considered to be my friends were those two girls who got vented into space. Something snapped inside me that day, and I decided I would be better off if I just kept my distance from everyone. I don’t want to live like that anymore and I’ve got you to thank. Whatever else the future brings, I hope we stay friends.”
“Thank you. I hope so too.” Zax wanted to say so much more but recognized trying to do so would overwhelm him with emotion. Instead, he held Kalare’s hand in silence as the view out the window filled with the fast approaching planet.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
He sent you here for this?
Their path through the atmosphere brought the shuttle over the nuked continent which only a few days earlier had held a thriving bug colony. They were too high and the clouds were too thick to see any of the destruction, but the shuttle’s threat board barked alarms about the presence of radiation below. The spacecraft’s shielding would protect them from any ill effects given their altitude, so Zax ignored the warnings and they subsided once the shuttle crossed the ocean.
As they got closer to the ground, the new structures came alive due to the mass of assembly bots which swarmed over them. Gauging the progress made since Landfall, Zax estimated the construction would be complete in just a few more days. The encampment would still be pretty grim even then, but at least the civilians would come out of cryosleep and find finished buildings rather than a tent city.
Seeing things up close like this forced Zax to really think about the civilians and their thawing process for the first time. The Ship optimized the people picked for each Landfall by considering both skills and genetic diversity. This meant the colonists were a mix of people who had been Culled and frozen recently, those who would be awake for the first time since the Ship left Earth, and everyone in between. How such a random group could wake up on a strange, hostile planet and be expected to immediately work together for the colony’s survival was incomprehensible.
As the shuttle landed, it became clear why the Boss was not worried about them finding the administration building. It was four basic walls and a roof which appeared thrown together, but it was the sole completed permanent structure within a sea of tents and half-completed shells of new buildings.
Zax pressed the button which opened the shuttle’s door. The heat and humidity assaulted his senses before he even stood up. He hadn’t noticed it as much on his first visit since he had worn the ChamWare, but Zax could practically taste the jungle. The Ship’s training rooms did a terrific job of replicating the experience, but now he had felt the real thing he would forever think about them differently. Amazing simulations, yes, but simulations nonetheless. Kalare gaped out the door and smiled from ear to ear.
“You seem excited—”
“This is wild, Zax! I sure wish I came down here with you and the Marines! It must have been incredible to walk through the jungle and experience everything up close. All we’re going to see today is this nasty settlement, but just tasting air which hasn’t already been breathed by ten million people is making me feel more alive than ever! I want to go running off into the jungle and climb the highest tree I can find and then just sit and soak it all in.”
Kalare hadn’t seen what the trees were capable of, but there was zero chance Zax would get in a word of warning right now. She bounced on the balls of her feet and continued to voice her excitement.
“Check out all of those assembly bots over there! Wait—is that an animal of some sort in the tree line? I can’t tell from here. Nope, it’s just another assembly bot. Those trees are huge! And the leaves—those are the largest leaves I’ve ever seen! And how about that sky? There’s not a cloud to be seen. Do they have weather on this planet? Of course they have weather—every planet has weather—right? There’s so much I want to soak in. I’m standing on a planet for the first and possibly last time of my life and I just can’t believe it!”
Zax grinned at Kalare’s exuberance, but his own joy about returning to the surface was tempered by the memories of what transpired here on his last trip.
“I’m very happy you got to come down here. I wish we could explore and give you the full tour, but, unfortunately, we’ve got a mission. Let’s go find the security chief.”
They exited the shuttle and walked into the administration building. Its unfinished exterior was echoed by the thrown-together nature of what was inside. Desks had been scattered around the space and partially assembled workstations littered every surface. There was a single desk which appeared like it was completely configured and that is where they found the security chief. She looked up as they approached and immediately looked frustrated.
“A couple of cadets—what were they thinking sending you two down here?”
“Good afternoon, ma’am. The Flight Boss instructed us to deliver this case to you personally.” Zax handed the case to the woman. He technically didn’t need to refer to the chief as “ma’am” since she had been Culled and was no longer part of the Crew, but it couldn’t hurt.
The security chief opened the case and examined its contents. “He sent you here for this?” She slammed the case shut and tossed it onto a pile of trash. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate my life right now, but at least I know I’ll eventually die without ever again having to deal with that man. Or the rest of the Omegas for that matter. I hope you don’t find it rude if I don’t invite you to sit down for a meal and some lovely conversation, but I’ve got twenty thousand damn civilians who’re going to be thawed out in forty-eight hours and I need to be certain we’re ready for them. Good luck, cadets—you need it even more than I do.”
She turned her attention back to her work and acted as if Zax and Kalare no longer existed. They looked at each other quizzically for a few moments until Kalare shrugged her shoulders and turned to leave the building. Once they were outside, she stopped and waited for Zax to catch up.
“What do you suppose that was all about?” Kalare asked. “Seems pretty odd the Boss would send us to the surface to deliver something the chief would treat like so much garbage.”
“I don’t have a clue,” Zax replied as he walked past her. “Let’s get back to the shuttle and off this planet—that is unless you still want to go for a stroll in the jungle.”
“Hah, hah—even I’m not that crazy!” Kalare laughed and followed Zax as they approached the shuttle.
Something crashed into Zax’s skull as he walked through the shuttle hatch. He collapsed to the deck on his hands and knees and then heard Kalare get cut off mid-scream by a stunstik discharge. The thunder of the weapon was followed by the sound of her body hitting the ground. He had no clue what was going on, but it was clearly bad news.
Zax was flipped onto his back by the crushing impact of a boot to his belly. Zax saw stars as his breath left, but he finally glimpsed his assailant—Cyrus. He must have dropped the stuns
tik after using it on Kalare because the only thing in his hands was a knife with a blade which was almost half a meter long.
“Well, well, well—I never would have imagined this wish would come true.” His eyes were dull and vacant, but the menace in Cyrus’s voice was unmistakable. “I went to bed last night thinking the rest of my life would be spent on this damn rock. They told us on the ride down our Plugs were disabled, so you can imagine my surprise when I woke up and found a message.”
Cyrus smirked. “It said you and your girlfriend were going to show up today. All I had to do was kill you both and then I could use your shuttle to get back up to the Ship. Sounds like a pretty great deal, right? I’ll take care of you first and then I’m going to wake her up before getting rid of your friend. It wouldn’t be as much fun to kill her while she’s stunned, don’t you think?”
Zax wanted to do something, anything. With all of the air knocked out of him, all he could do was gasp helplessly as Cyrus approached with the blade aimed at his throat. He shut his eyes rather than witness his impending death. A moment later a stunstik discharge was followed by the thud of body hitting the floor. Zax opened his eyes as Kalare administered a second and then a third stunstik blow to Cyrus’s body in quick succession. She wore a frantic grin.
“I always knew my ability to withstand stunstiks might come in handy,” she said, “but I never dreamed it would actually save my life. Help me get him off the shuttle so we can get the hell off this planet!”
Zax staggered to his feet and took hold of Cyrus’ right leg. Kalare grabbed the left and together they dragged his unconscious body outside. For some absurd reason, Zax experienced a pang of guilt when Cyrus’ head came off the shuttle and hit the ground with a sharp thud, but it passed once he caught another glimpse of the blade that was still clutched in his hand. Kalare stunned Cyrus one final time and then heaved both the stunstik and the knife ten meters away from the shuttle. Thirty secs later they were strapped in their seats, and Zax sent the craft aloft.
They sat without speaking for quite a while as they recovered from the shock and exertion. The only noise was their labored breathing. Slowly, their breath quieted and eventually Kalare turned to Zax and broke the silence.
“You’re bleeding.”
Zax put his fingers to the spot on his head where a dull ache originated and sure enough they came back tacky with blood.
“It’s not too bad.”
“How did that just happen?” she asked. “I thought the Boss said all of the colonists were out on a scouting trip. What kind of epic bad luck made Cyrus the one person who was still around?”
Kalare must have still been outside the shuttle when Cyrus mentioned the anonymous message he received. She didn’t know it was a deliberate act of someone on board the Ship rather than random chance which put Cyrus in their path. Her question required a response, but Zax’s head spun from more than just getting smashed with the stunstik. He had previously pushed aside the crazed paranoia which arose after Mikedo’s death, but it had all come crashing back with a vengeance in the mins since the attack.
Had the Boss actually arranged Mikedo’s death and then attempted to use Cyrus to get rid of Zax? The Boss said their flight to the surface was largely secret, but also said there were a few other people who knew. Maybe it was one of those other folks who sent the message to Cyrus. The Boss had appeared so crushed by Mikedo’s death Zax could not imagine he had anything to do with it—but—the Flight Boss was the most obvious person to suspect as Zax considered all of the possibilities. That seemed even more true when you factored in the security chief’s reaction to what the Boss had portrayed as a critical delivery. If nothing else, who but the Boss possessed the power necessary to follow through on any deal which would allow Cyrus back on board.
Zax wanted desperately to share everything with Kalare and see what she thought, but he kept flashing back to Mikedo’s statement about how he must not tell anyone else about the human fighter. The attack revealed that Kalare was in danger too and deserved to know why, but Mikedo had been so insistent when she extracted the vow of secrecy from him. He needed time to think all of it through—more time than they had given how quickly the shuttle approached the Ship.
“I don’t know if anyone’s luck could ever be that bad, but I don’t have a better answer for you right now.” Zax took comfort in not explicitly lying to Kalare. He genuinely hoped to have a better answer later once he had a chance to clear his head and think things through. “The Boss is going to notice the cut on my head. What do we tell him?”
Kalare didn’t hesitate. “We were checking out the colony construction and you tripped and hit your head. The Ship is leaving this system forever tomorrow, so Cyrus will be nothing but a bad memory. Why should we deal with any questions the Boss might bring up if we were to tell him the whole story?”
“What happens if someone finds him unconscious down there? Aren’t they likely to report the incident to the Ship?”
Kalare snorted. “Are you crazy? What’s Cyrus going to say—he tried to murder us and we got away, so he wants to be sure we get in trouble for having stunned him? Besides, you heard what the security chief thought of the Boss and the rest of the Omegas. You think she would bother to contact the Ship about some tussle between a couple cadets and one of her colonists? She’s got far bigger worries right now. If anything, I bet Cyrus wakes up before the rest of the security staff returns and no one is ever the wiser.”
Zax nodded his agreement. There was no chance anyone on the Ship would ever know about what happened down on the planet. He corrected himself because it actually wasn’t true. Someone on the Ship had arranged for Cyrus to be there, so at least one person knew about it already. Zax needed to identify that person. What he might do with the knowledge was still a complete mystery, but he would figure that out later. In the meantime, he sat back and closed his eyes to think as the shuttle approach the Ship.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I said it before and I will say it again.
True to his word, the Flight Boss was waiting when the shuttle touched down. There might have been a trace of surprise on the Omega’s face when the hatch opened and he saw who was inside, but if it was truly there it disappeared instantly. His eyes went to Zax’s bloody scalp and he asked what happened.
“We were checking out the construction, sir, and I tripped and hit my head.”
He paused for a moment, but the Boss’s expression did not reveal anything other than complete belief of Zax’s answer. “That looks like it hurts. It’s getting late, so you should head to medbay and get that wound dealt with.”
The Boss turned to Kalare. “You should get to your berth and get ready for lights out. I hope this little trip has caused you to reconsider my offer, but even if it hasn’t I don’t want to hear an answer from you until tomorrow. Take one last night to sleep on it.
“Both of you—report to the Flight Ops conference room immediately after tomorrow’s FTL Transit. We’ll finalize your mentorship decisions and get back to regular work. We’ve got to find our next Landfall. It better not take as long to find as this one did! Dismissed.”
Zax and Kalare exited the hangar together. Zax reached for Kalare’s arm before they went their separate ways. “I want to be sure we have a chance to speak before we meet the Boss tomorrow.”
“OK—I promise.”
Zax was frantic about what he might say to Kalare and how much he should share. His worries consumed him throughout the visit to medbay and then again during his trip back to the Zeta berth. Zax arrived as they announced lights out, so he crawled into his bunk in full uniform (ten demerits) rather than getting undressed in the dark.
The core problem which kept him wide awake was that Zax remained entirely unsure about what was happening around him. He needed someone to talk to about everything—a person who could hear him out and provide advice. He couldn’t go to an officer or any other figure of authority. If he was mistaken about his suspicions, it would be an
extremely career limiting move to accuse the Flight Boss of arranging the murder of one Crew member and conspiring in the attempted murder of two others. If Zax was right, he was just dragging more people into a life-threatening situation. Even though Kalare seemed to already be inextricably linked, the echoes of Mikedo’s exhortation to keep the human fighter secret left him paralyzed at the thought of opening up to his only friend.
He was well accustomed to being alone, but this was the first situation where Zax recalled feeling so painfully lonely. It had been thrilling to share his recent highs and lows with Kalare and Mikedo after a lifetime of being on his own. The recent experience of having friends to fall back on made it that much harder to tackle this massive challenge by himself. Eventually, the tears poured down Zax’s cheeks as utter despair and hopelessness took hold.
When Zax rubbed his eyes, he became aware once again of the little red light which blinked in his field of vision. Zax stared at the light and desperately wished he could read the message it signaled. It felt strange to focus his vision on something he knew existed only in his mind, but when he did a text prompt appeared.
Read message, yes/no?
Brilliant! Zax concentrated again on his desire to read the message and sure enough it opened up before him. When the header revealed it was from Mikedo, the excitement took his breath away. The message contained nothing but gobbledygook, though, so his hopes were just as quickly dashed. Random letters and symbols hung in the air before him in a giant mishmash of meaningless text. He stared at the message and wished it was understandable and another prompt appeared.
Decrypt message, yes/no?
Excellent! Zax wanted to decrypt the message, and when he thought about doing so, a tiny keyboard was displayed along with a prompt.
Enter passphrase:
Zax was clueless about what secret word or phrase Mikedo might have picked to encrypt this message. He pounded on his forehead and despaired about why she would have sent him something he had no way of accessing. Zax stared at the keyboard, but nothing happened. He didn’t know how to interact with it and the first attempt where he concentrated on each letter proved fruitless. It soon dawned on him he shouldn’t be so literal about considering each letter, but rather needed to focus on whatever words he intended to enter. This approach made the difference and the first passphrase he wanted to attempt was displayed on the screen.