“For how long?”
“Until we actually jump out of the system. We’re not safe until we make that jump.”
John hit the panel button to open the entry doors to the medical bay. Even though no one on board was hurt during the attack, medical personnel still raced around the bay getting ready for potential future casualties. John saw the chief medical officer in the main surgical bay where he and several of his nurses were attending to the rescued fighter pilot. As John approached the viewing window the doctor caught a glimpse of him and finished up his treatment on the pilot. He tossed his surgical gloves in the waste bucket as he headed out to confer with the commander.
“How’s he doing?” asked John.
“He’ll make a full recovery,” replied the doctor. “He only suffered from a few broken ribs, a fractured ankle and some lacerations.”
“Is he awake?”
“I just woke him up a few minutes ago. I haven’t told him where he’s at and he doesn't appear coherent of what’s happened.”
“He deserves to know about his situation."
The doctor nodded. "Try to keep it brief."
"I'll try."
“I must say commander you’ve performed quite well in our first encounter with the Screen,” said the doctor in a congratulatory tone.
“How so?”
“Despite the reputation of the Screen you maintained control of yourself and kept the ship on course.”
“Thank you, doctor. But I think you need to save your gratitude until after we weathered a more formidable attack.”
“Nevertheless, I have no doubt you’ll perform just as well,” said the doctor before leaving John and heading off to his office. Given that the doctor only met him a few days ago John was a bit taken aback by his support. It was better than Julie's constant questioning of his abilities, but John didn't believe the doctor's confidence in him was well-placed just yet.
John turned and entered the surgical bay. He nodded to the nurses who left to give John some privacy to talk to the injured pilot. Despite his injuries the fighter pilot seemed in good condition. Although his body was pumped full of pain medication he was wide awake. John looked at his face. He was young but several years older than John.
“Where am I?” he asked confused as he spotted the former cadet approaching the bed.
“I’m Commander John Roberts.” He intentionally avoided answering his question. “How are you feeling?” The pilot seemed hesitant to answer at first. “The doctor said you sustained some broken bones,” continued John. “You’re not in pain, are you?”
The pilot shook his head slowly. “Just a bit sore. Your doctor said I would recover.”
John could only muster a weak smile. He imagined being in the pilot's position and how he would react once he learned he was on board the rebel ship.
The pilot looked around at his surroundings. “Am I on the AURORA? This doesn’t look like the ship’s medical bay and it doesn’t look like the medical hospital in Crimson City.”
John grabbed a nearby stool and sat down. He sighed heavily before answering. “You’re on board the TXS EXODUS, the ship your fighter wing attacked.”
The pilot’s eyes widened hearing this. “You’re the terrorists?”
“There are no terrorists on board this ship.” John maintained a calm voice despite the disdain he felt at being called such a derogatory term.
“You going to kill me?” asked the pilot. John was offended by the question.
“What? No! Your ship clipped our shields and was damaged. You were drifting across the boundary so we rescued you.”
“What do you mean cross?” he asked in a panic voice. “Where are we?”
“Heading to the outer solar system,” replied John. “We crossed the border some time ago.”
The pilot tried to sit up, but winced in pain as he tried to do so. “You’re going to get us killed. The Screen will destroy us.”
John placed his hand on the pilot's shoulder and gently forced him to lay back down on the bed. He was getting sick of hearing the same old TERRA propaganda. “We already engaged and destroyed the Screen ship that appeared as soon as we crossed.”
“I don’t believe you. No one can defy the Screen.”
“Well, we did and right now we’re passing by Jupiter. If you could walk to the window you could see us passing the planet yourself.”
“Impossible,” retorted the pilot. He wasn’t sure why this Roberts was feeding him lies, but he wasn’t about to buy any of it.
“Listen, I know it’s difficult to believe what I’m telling you,” explained John. “But if I was in your position I would want to know the truth no matter how crazy it sounded.”
“I want you to return me to Mars.”
“We can’t do that. We’re heading to the outer solar system and intend to jump out into deep space. If the AURORA chose to rescue you then we wouldn’t have been forced to bring you on board. I’m afraid you’re stuck along for the ride.”
“So I am a prisoner?”
“If you want to persist in believing I’m the enemy then I can’t stop you from thinking that. For now you’re a patient in the medical bay. Maybe you’ll have a chance to see what we’re trying to do here as you recover.” John turned and headed out of the surgery ward. There was nothing more he could say that would convince the pilot of his intentions. The pilot asked one last question.
“Why are you doing this?” John turned and looked at him, not quite sure what he was referring to. The pilot could tell he needed to clarify his position. “Why are you trying to take this ship out?”
“Because we should have been out here a long time ago,” replied John. “Humanity’s path shouldn’t be dictated by aliens. I don't believe the Screen is a superior force and we proved that by destroying one of their ships. You’ll find that the people on board here share the belief that we can be free.”
“Even if it means getting killed?”
“We just survived a Screen attack so I’m not really concerned about dying,” said John smiling. He turned and left the pilot to his thoughts in the surgical bay. John hoped he wouldn't remain closed-minded. He would hate to have to transfer him to the brig and keep him confined there indefinitely.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“This way,” said David, motioning Billy to follow him through the forest. The cadets had spent the last couple of hours glued to the holovision, watching the news reports about the experimental ship that mysteriously rose from Earth and headed out into space. Both were hoping to hear some information about John, but he was never specifically mentioned on the news. Billy wanted to play the second message John delivered to them to find out exactly what his friend had gotten himself into, but did not want to risk playing it inside the Block home. David said he had the perfect place they could go without anyone watching them.
The Block home sat on a thirty-five acre estate. The grounds included a lake and a small forest. Five bots maintained the grounds and kept it in its pristine condition. David enjoyed the ability to escape his father readily and hiding out on the grounds (his mother knew the need for David to escape, another reason why she refused to move to Mars). Unbeknownst to the family, David had taken one of the groundskeeper bots and reprogrammed it to dig an underground hideout for David.
Over the course of nine months David installed various communications equipment inside his new hideout. He was quite adept at communications and had full knowledge of all standard issued TERRA communication devices. He collected whatever he could get his hands on, which was usually old TERRA equipment he got from the decommissioning junkyard on Mars. Admiral Block, although not enthused about his son’s choice (he wanted his son to choose a career track that would lead to command of a capital ship, but knew that was unrealistic) nevertheless gave him some standard issued communications equipment such as DATs and low range transmitters. David modified these devices and integrated them into the communications hub he built in his hideout. He’d spend hours listen
ing in on TERRA and private sector communications. If anyone ever discovered what he was listening to it would have meant serious trouble for the young man. As he dabbled more into his hobby David learned to covertly listen to transmissions. It was amazing what people were willing to say to one another over an open channel.
The hideout was the perfect spot to listen to John’s message because David had inhibiting fields around his hideout that blocked outside transmissions from getting through without verification from the computer that was tied into his communications setup. He was anxious to hear what John had to say and forced himself not to run so fast to the hideout.
“Here we are,” said David as they stopped in the middle of the woods. Billy looked around their dark surroundings and saw nothing unusual.
“We’re going to play the message out here?”
“No, in here.” David pulled a remote out and clicked the single button on it. Billy heard some muffled whirling noises and looked down as a piece of the ground slid away. As the hidden door opened a light slowly lit up from inside. Billy could see stairs leading down to the area below.
“Come on,” said David as he quickly trotted down the stairs with Billy following right behind. Once he was far enough inside he heard the door slide back over the entrance. At the bottom of the stairs Billy was standing in a large room with computer equipment lining much of the dirt walls.
“What is this?” he asked in awe.
“It’s something I built a while ago,” explained David. “I come here whenever Dad’s really laying into me.” David always felt comfortable when he was here, away from the pressures of his father.
“Looks like a bunker," commented Billy. "Where’d you get all this stuff?”
“When I go with Dad to Mars I always stop by the junk depot and see if I can pick up anything of value.”
“I’ll say. None of this stuff matches at all.”
“With some patch work I've been able to get it all functioning. I’ve been able to ease drop on TERRA communications for months.” That came as a surprise for Billy. David was skittish by nature, afraid of getting into trouble. To hear that he was covertly listening in on TERRA activities seemed to be out of character for him.
Billy plopped into the chair next to David. “Since when were you interested in being defiant?”
“Shut up.”
“No, I mean it. This isn’t like you David. You’re not one to rock the boat. Did John give you the idea?”
“No he didn't. But maybe I’m tired of being the wimp, sick of sitting around not doing anything.” Billy was taken off-guard by David’s strong reaction. He had this glimmer of ferociousness in his eyes Billy never seen in his friend before. “Maybe I’m sick of dad telling me what to do, why TERRA is the only life for me. Maybe I want to get some dirt on this organization he’s so devoted to.”
“Shit, David. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I'm just surprised.”
“I know. Actually, it’s you and John that got me thinking this way. You guys do what you want for yourselves. Everyone else at the Academy only wants to live and breathe TERRA's philosophy. I want to be able to think for myself too...”
“But you can. Hell, you’ve already proved it by building this place.”
“No I haven’t. I’ve been too scared of my dad to speak up for myself, so I do things like this. I shouldn’t have too. I should be able to tell him exactly how I feel.”
“Yeah, but to be honest I’ve seen your dad mad and I wouldn’t want to deal with that.”
David shrugged his shoulders. “All I know is I can’t keep going on like this with him. Maybe I don’t even want to be in TERRA.”
“What?” Billy never expected to hear this. “I thought you wanted to serve in the fleet.”
“No, it's always been his idea. I never had a choice. All his kids have to be TERRA officers. Being a Block means serving in the military.”
“David, I can understand if you felt this way that you wouldn't want to tell your dad. But why didn’t you tell John or me?”
David lowered his head. “I didn’t know how you'd react. You're my best friends and I didn’t want to lose that.”
“Hey, we are your best friends, no matter what. You should know by now that you could tell us anything. Look at John. God knows what trouble he's gotten into and he’s looking to us for help. TERRA isn't what binds us as friends. You know what I mean?”
David slowly nodded his head. “I think so.”
“You don’t want to be TERRA? Cool. That’s not going to change anything between us.”
“I guess I’ve been so used to hiding how I felt.”
Billy patted his friend on the shoulder. “Well, you don’t have too. We like you the way you are, chicken-shit and all.”
“Thanks.” David looked at the message cube David was holding. “I guess we should see what John has to say.”
“John?” Billy didn’t know what David meant until he looked down at the cube. “Oh shit, that’s right.” He clicked on the cube and set on the computer console. An image of John, dressed in a TERRA uniform, appeared.
“Billy, David...I hope you heeded my first message and are someplace private. As you may already know an unidentified vessel lifted off from Earth and into orbit. The ship is called the EXODUS. It's an experimental vessel designed to explore deep space and, more importantly, fight the Screen.
“Both Julie and I have been recruited by Admiral Oliver Johnson to serve on the ship. I know you’ll find this hard to believe but I’ve been assigned as the ship's commander with Julie as my executive officer. Our mission is to head out of the solar system. Our goal is to find out who the Screen are and what their true intentions are towards the human race.
“Getting through TERRA’s defenses won’t be a problem, but this ship has never gone against the Screen and no one here is quite sure if we’ll make it through. From what I’ve seen here I think we have a good shot at succeeding. If we do make it, TERRA may try to cover up the truth in order to maintain the belief that the Screen is an unbeatable enemy. I don’t want that to happen. I was thinking of sending back video and message logs of the EXODUS’ travels through space, to prove to people back home that we do belong out here. If the EXODUS is destroyed during the mission I don’t want her story to be lost. But someone needs to receive and distribute the information and you are the only two I can trust. I don’t know exactly how to do it as I’m not familiar enough with the EXODUS’ communications system. But I thought you guys could think of something.
“I know it’s a huge risk. You’d be putting your careers at risk and probably go to prison if you're caught. But you’re the only two I can trust. We plan to make a direct run out of the system. Whatever you decide to do I’ll understand. I hope to talk to you soon.”
“Wow,” muttered Billy as the holographic image of John dissipated. It was a lot of information dumped on them. After the first message Billy thought that John was pulling a prank. But seeing how serious he looked Billy knew this was real, although the bit about John commanding a starship was still hard to swallow.
“What do you think?” asked David, breaking his friend’s thought process.
“I think John’s gotten into some real serious shit.”
“If this is true he’s going to have all of TERRA on him. Is it possible someone built a ship capable of fighting off the Screen?”
“I don’t know, but our best friend is asking for our help.”
“Are you crazy? You know how much trouble we could get into?”
“A moment ago you were talking about not hiding your true feelings,” reminded Billy. “John’s always said that maybe if a couple people went against the status quo real change could occur in TERRA. He’s out there doing that at the risk of his own life and he’s asking us to choose to make that same sacrifice.”
“You’d be willing to throw away a lifetime of work to take this risk?”
“Sometimes the right thing to do is the most difficult thing to do. Ma
ybe the risk is worth it if we can make some sort of difference.” Billy picked up the message cube and clenched it tightly. “I’m not surprised John is doing this. No matter what people say of him you and I know that he's always followed through on his convictions. All he’s asking is that people know the truth of what’s happening out there and I’m willing to take that chance.”
David never expected to be caught up in something like this. His heart was beating a million times a minute. It was one thing to tell his Dad he didn’t want a TERRA career, it was another to aid a stolen ship. But Billy was right about John. He was willing to put his life on the line for what he believed in. And Billy was willing to stand by his best friend. Besides, if John was here he would tell David that this was the perfect way to get back at his dad. Just think of it, the great Admiral Block has a son branded a traitor by TERRA. A surge of excitement coursed through David at the thought.
“Aw hell,” said David. “If we’re going to do this we need to ascertain where the EXODUS is, assuming the Screen hasn’t blown it to bits across half the system.”
“You in then?”
“Well, it sure sounds like it to me. Man, we're going to catch hell for this.”
Billy gave a big slap on David’s back, almost knocking him out of the chair. “You’re one of a kind David. John would be proud.” David looked at the monitors in front of them. “So what do we do first?”
“First thing we do is hack into the solar system sensor net and locate the ship,” replied David as he powered up the monitors in front of him.
“You sound like you’ve done it before?”
“It’s not much different than listening in on the comm channels.”
“I’ll bet,” replied Billy, looking at his friend under a different light. David had more balls than he let on. Billy watched his friend work on the computer in front of them, accessing systems through back doors.
“Shoot, it looks like something maybe going on out there,” commented David.
“What do you mean?”
“The sensor net is down. TERRA used the emergency mandate to take control and shut it off. I can’t get anything from it.”
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