Against The Middle

by Caleb Wachter

  Then it flashed again and he sat forward, irrationally fearful that moving too quickly might upset what felt like a tipping point with entire worlds hanging in the balance.

  “We have supplies for three weeks,” Lu Bu continued stiffly. “We can send for a pick-up as soon as the droids leave this system—“

  “Shh!” he interrupted her, holding a finger to her faceplate while never taking his eyes from the console which had twice flashed. He knew it was still likely wishful thinking, but Fei Long needed to ensure that the hand of fate not be diverted by their actions—or words. He had never believed so before, but in that moment he truly saw the wisdom in the old adage, ‘a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the planet can cause a typhoon on the other.’

  Then the light flashed again, this time strobing in a predictable fashion with three strobes per second. Reaching out, he delicately—almost reverently—input a series of commands which saw the incoming transmission fed directly to his portable data slate. Once it was transferred, he examined the contents of the transmission by using a series of cyphers he had worked up after seeing the droids’ communications.

  He could not hope to crack the entire contents of the message without the proper equipment, but his eyes went wide as he saw what he had hoped against hope he might: a scrambled string of coordinates which, in all likelihood, were the same ones he had uploaded into the Lost Ark’s flight plan log.

  “Success,” he breathed, prompting Lu Bu to clench his shoulder tightly enough to nearly make him yelp with pain.

  “What happened?” she demanded

  He turned to her and cocked a grin—an expression he would have thought impossible to make just a few minutes earlier. “They appear to have ‘taken the bait’,” he replied, feeling no small measure of relief at their apparent success.

  Lu Bu was silent for several seconds—and she never relaxed her grip on his shoulder—before nodding. “Good work, Mr. Fei,” she said strictly. Turning to the other members of the team, she said in Confederation Standard, “Phase One is success. Phase Two will commence when droids leave system.”

  Knowing that the first step in Phase Two was for Fei Long to notify Captain Middleton of their progress, Fei Long prepped his data slate to interface with the gunship’s comm. system. He had made the necessary modifications to those systems which were required to interface with the ComStat network, and as he composed the message he composed a second message, which was also part of Phase Two.

  Feeling his spirit soar as he considered the ramifications of this important first step in their mission, Fei Long felt himself begin to chuckle so he deactivated his com-link’s audio pickup so the others would not be forced to share in his momentary euphoric outburst.

  He still had a chance to defeat his rival, and that chance was worth more than everything else in the universe—except Lu Bu’s safety. That, he treasured above all else, and would gladly sacrifice his personal ambitions to ensure remained inviolate.

  But as long as he could do both…he would!

  Chapter XIII: Phase Two

  “Captain, I’m receiving an incoming ComStat message,” Lieutenant McKnight reported after checking the Comm. station. A moment later she turned with a triumphant look on her face, “The Seed has been Planted, Captain Middleton.”

  “How is the tree?” Middleton asked sardonically, using the cypher Fei Long had chosen for the mission.

  “Root and Branch intact,” she replied promptly, “preparing for the next Season.”

  Middleton wanted to pump his fist in exultation, but kept his features stoic as he nodded shortly, “Thank you, XO. Send the reply I’m forwarding via my secure link.”

  A moment later, he transmitted the packet containing the encrypted, and cyphered, message. Lieutenant McKnight, who was the only other person currently in possession of the access codes required to initiate ComStat linkage, waited a few seconds before acknowledging, “Packet received, Captain; I’m transmitting it to our Capital-based transfer relay now.”

  Middleton was still uncertain that sending the data indirectly was the wisest course of action, but Mr. Fei had been adamant that doing so would provide the most secure path for their communications. Unfortunately, this would be the last communiqué the Pride’s covert ops team would engage in during the mission. After acknowledging receipt of his orders—orders which included their most recent tactical assessments—Lu Bu’s team was to remain in total comm. blackout while they initiated Phase Two of their dangerous operation.

  Unfortunately, stirring up a Droid fleet was likely to be the least dangerous part of their mission, and for a moment Middleton questioned his judgment in placing such an important task under the direct command of a teenager.

  But he reminded himself that she had already proven herself capable in conflict, steady under fire, and willing to do whatever was required to accomplish the mission. She had also displayed considerably better judgment and problem-solving skills than he had expected of her when she had first joined the Pride’s crew.

  “Message away, Captain,” Lieutenant McKnight declared officiously.

  “Good,” Middleton acknowledged. “Now it’s our turn. Ready the hyper drive,” he instructed, glad that they were finally about to embark on the last leg of this particular mission. They had managed to avoid contact with the Raubach fleet to this point, but he knew he would soon encounter a scouting force. They had arrived at a system which was only three jumps from the Raubachs’ hidden base, and there the Pride of Prometheus had waited for several days while Lu Bu’s team had done their work.

  But that wait was now over.

  “That be the last of them,” Strider declared with relief after the last Droid Corvette—the one which had secured the Lost Ark—point transferred out of the system.

  “It’s interesting that they didn’t destroy the Lost Ark,” Trixie observed with an eagerness in her voice that was, to Lu Bu’s mind, wholly inappropriate to their current situation.

  “Indeed,” Fei Long mused, “the droids seemingly could not wait to destroy one of their own military vessels once it had been infected with the signal transmitted up from the subterranean shrine. I must have incorrectly guessed at which parts of the code were the ones they deemed hazardous…most interesting,” he said as his eyes flicked back and forth in contemplation. There was something in his voice which Lu Bu decidedly disliked—a sort of piqued interest which seemed ‘off,’ for some reason.

  “Is ComStat gear ready for transmission?” Lu Bu asked him.

  Fei Long nodded, “It is. I will transmit our pick-up request on your order.”

  “Do it,” she instructed with a sharp nod, disliking who it was that they were now relying upon for what was, for lack of a better term, a rescue from the slow, but inevitable, exhaustion of the tiny ship’s survival resources—chief among them breathable air. The gunship had extremely rudimentary air scrubbers, and even with the auxiliary units Chief Garibaldi had installed prior to the mission’s commencement, they would still only survive aboard the craft for between eighteen and twenty two days.

  A moment later, Fei Long nodded, “It is done.”

  “Have you examined Captain Middleton’s message?” Lu Bu asked in Standard.

  Fei Long nodded, “The target system has been confirmed, as has our route to it. We are presently two extra jumps from the Raubach base compared to the Pride of Prometheus, but I believe we will arrive in the system at approximately the same time—assuming our pick-up is made by whom, and with what, we expect.”

  “Good,” Lu Bu said, checking the ship’s chronometer and knowing that, if their pick-up was made as they expected, they would detect a point transfer in nineteen hours and fifty six minutes.

  If they detected no such transfer, she decided to begin practicing holding her breath, since she was quite certain it would indicate a double-cross that would result in her first command being marooned in orbit of the Jovian’s moon.

  Images of her team’s desiccated corpses
in states of repose inside the gunship—and a deactivated assault droid strapped to the hull—flickered through her mind before she pushed them from it.

  They were not yet out of this particular fight. She firmly believed that; she needed to believe it…

  She wanted to believe it.

  Three hours later, she heard Fei Long declare, “I am receiving an incoming transmission on the assigned frequency.”

  Lu Bu could feel the entire team’s backs stiffen; this was not only far quicker than their pickup should have arrived, but they had detected no point transfer, which meant that either the hailing vessel had been there all along, or…

  “Put it on,” she said tersely, and a moment later the cockpit’s speakers crackled to life.

  “This is D.C. aboard the Mode,” a man’s voice came over the speakers. “Respond or I’m outta here.”

  Lu Bu picked up the microphone and gestured for Fei Long to connect her, which he did. “This is Lu Bu,” she said after checking that his transmitted handshake protocols included the passcodes Fei Long had designated for their pick-up to use upon his arrival. “Where is Lynch?”

  “You think the Beast would come out for something as low-level as this?” the man, D.C., scoffed. “You wanted a pick-up and a jump-capable ship, and the Beast was in a generous mood—too generous if you ask me, since this was supposed to be my ship that he decided to give to you.”

  Lu Bu’s eyes narrowed, “You would betray him?”

  She heard the other man snicker loudly, “That would be about the dumbest play in the book, girlfriend.”

  “I am not your girlfriend,” she growled.

  “We can both be thankful for that, then,” the man retorted. “Power up your transponder and I’ll reel you in with the external clamps once I’ve got a fix on you.”

  Lu Bu hesitated, knowing that their gunship might actually be able to win a fight with the Cutter if they used the moon they orbited to their advantage, but she reminded herself that even if the man betrayed them and decided to turn his guns on them, they would be no worse off than if he simply turned around and abandoned them.

  “Power transponder,” she said after making brief eye contact with Fei Long.

  A moment later, he nodded and said, “Transponder is powered.”

  “I’ve got you now,” D.C. said after a few seconds, “coming in for hard dock. After we dock, you should spacewalk your people over to the Mode; can’t imagine you’re eager to stay aboard that cramped little gunship much longer.”

  “Acknowledged,” Lu Bu said, very much disliking the man’s demeanor but reminding herself, yet again, that the only way they could contribute to her commander’s mission was by remaining politic until they were aboard their new vessel.

  Nearly an hour later, the last of the team had successfully transferred to the Mode, and the ship’s pilot—D.C.—had turned the deceptively advanced vessel toward the planet above which the droids had been orbiting upon the Lost Ark’s entry into the system.

  “Alright,” D.C. said, turning to Fei Long, “time you paid up.”

  “Agreed,” Fei Long said with a nod, producing a data slate from a knapsack he had left untouched during the entirety of the mission to that point. He knew that the schematics contained on the data slate were of the utmost importance to the Sundered, and that Toto had likely broken some sort of law within his own community by proffering them, but he also knew it had been the only way to secure Lynch’s assistance.

  “Let me take a look,” D.C. said, taking the slate and perusing its contents for several seconds before nodding. “All right, these look to be in order,” he said heavily before fixing Fei Long with a piercing look, “but if they prove less than complete, or accurate, I—“

  “I believe we may dispense with the threats, Mr. D.C.,” Fei Long interrupted smoothly. “It would seem that everyone aboard this vessel is pressed for time.”

  D.C.’s nostrils flared, and Fei Long felt Lu Bu tense beside him, but the other man relaxed fractionally before shrugging. “I guess the Beast already told you what would happen if you crossed him.”

  “He has indeed,” Fei Long agreed, remembering the quite eloquent string of invective the reclusive arms dealer had delivered during the brief ‘negotiations’ which Fei Long had instigated via the ComStat network and his Capital-based virtual network.

  “Fine,” D.C. grudged, “then the last bit of business is a swap: this ship for yours.”

  Yide snarled behind Fei Long, thrusting himself forward in an obviously dominant display, “The gunship is my family’s home.”

  D.C. gave the uplift a laconic look as he waved the data slate, “These schematics for your daddy’s cybernetic implants are a good start—good enough to drag my ass all the way out here when I could be tending my own bookies in the middle of semi-pro smashball season, anyway—but if you want this ship, it’s gonna cost you that gunship out there. Of course,” his lips twisted into a smirk, “it’d be just fine by me if you refused, seeing as that would make Mode mine and that you all would be stranded in this backwater.”

  Fei Long considered the man’s words, tone, and body language before concluding it was highly probable that he was telling the truth: he would leave them in this system, with no more than three weeks of survival rations, if they refused.

  Fei Long turned to Yide with a heavy look, “The decision is yours, my friend. Your father placed the gunship’s care in your trust; he knew it would be possible that you might be forced to abandon it during the mission.”

  If D.C.’s flaring nostrils had gotten Fei Long’s attention, Yide’s flaring nostrils reminded him that in many ways, humanity’s nearest cousins were still their superiors in many different ways. He glared at D.C. for several minutes, and Fei Long became concerned that the uplift might take the chance on sending out repeating signals via the ComStat network to arrange for their rescue aboard the gunship rather than make the trade.

  Then a thought occurred to him, and before he thought the matter through he leaned forward and whispered, “Would your father not be pleased to find you had traded your family gunship for a jump-capable Cutter with extensive, black market modifications made to it?” He looked around pointedly at the sparsely-appointed interior of the craft, which struck him in that moment as in absolute contrast to the interior of the lavishly-appointed yacht they had traded to Lynch for the Starfire missiles and Liberator torpedoes.

  Realization dawned on the young uplift, and he turned his fiery gaze on Fei Long as he growled, “If we make the trade, it remains in my family?”

  “Assuming we all survive,” Fei Long replied as calmly as he could with a three hundred fifty pound Sundered ape man blasting hot air into his face with each breath, “I am certain Captain Middleton would be amenable.”

  “You are certain…or you know?” Yide pressed.

  Fei Long hesitated briefly, running through the possible outcomes of the various replies he could use, but he knew that the mission’s success likely depended on their securing that craft so he decided to take the ultimate gamble. Looking meaningfully at Lu Bu, and knowing it might be the last thing he ever did, he said, “I know, Yide.”

  The uplift seemed to relax before turning to D.C. “You have a deal.”

  “Oh, hurray for me,” D.C. said with what was obviously bitter disappointment. “We’ll touch down on the planet, which happens to have a breathable atmosphere, in two hours. Of course, it would be a lot sooner if we didn’t have that tin can strapped to the hull,” he said with a slicing glance in Yide’s direction. The uplift pressed forward, but Lu Bu placed an arm across his chest and prevented him from moving any closer to the pilot.

  Mildly surprised at Lu Bu’s strength, and how easily it seemed that she was able to stop the angry ape man, Fei Long’s thoughts were filled with a realization he had not wanted to accept since the first inklings of it had entered his mind several months earlier during an encounter with Doctor Middleton.

  He had forestalled that realizatio
n for as long as he could, because he had known that it would very likely have a deleterious effect on his newfound happiness and way of life. Taking another look at Lu Bu, and briefly making eye contact, Fei Long felt an unexpected tear run down his face as a single thought went through his mind over and over again: I can lie again…

  He knew in that moment that his life would never be what he had hoped it might become. He had been faced with incontrovertible evidence that his ‘kill pill,’ as Captain Middleton had termed it, was no longer actively waiting for him to lie before delivering a lethal dose of poison—or an explosive, or whatever form his former jailors’ chosen method of execution had been—directly into his brain.

  He barely seemed to notice as they landed on the planet, detached the gunship from the side of the Cutter’s hull, transferred Ed into the Mode’s modest cargo bay, and received last-minute instructions from D.C. on the Cutter’s operation.

  As their new vessel lifted off from the surface of the planet, seemingly marooning D.C. and the gunship on the surface of the barren world with only trace amounts of atmosphere present, Fei Long found an isolated part of the ship before sobbing uncontrollably in unmitigated despair. His previous thought was soon replaced by an unexpected one that he knew was absolutely true:

  By the Ancestors…I would have rather died.

  Chapter XIV: The Bulwark

  It had been two days since Captain Middleton had received word from Lu Bu’s team, and the Pride of Prometheus was waiting one jump outside of the star system which he and Lieutenant McKnight had determined would be the Rim Fleet’s defensive position.

  One jump beyond that, if Middleton was correct, would be the hidden base from which the Raubachs had plumbed the alien technology which would reshape the Spineward Sectors in whatever image Commodore Raubach desired.

  Although, after reviewing the information on House Raubach provided by Fei Long, Middleton had learned that Commodore James Raubach III was no higher than third in the line of succession for control over what was regularly rated in the top thirty most powerful Houses in the entire Imperium of Man, and occasionally climbed as high as the twentieth.