Star Wolf (Shattered Galaxy)

by David G. Johnson

  “For example, I can see the Rumisian fever Elena caught when she was twelve, the elbow she fractured at sixteen while ice skating, the deep-tissue chemical burn she got from her lab partner, me, goofing off during an experiment in college. The slightly degraded retinas from too many years staring at display screens, the hair degradation from a few too many trips to the salon, the microscopic respiratory scarring from sandstorms in Tede’s western desert where we lived for a few years. It is all here. Without question, this is Elena.”

  John finally caught up with his own mental processing. He leapt out of the chair and rushed to his wife, hugging her with all his strength. He never thought he would hold her again. Now he never wanted to let go.

  “John,” Elena rasped, “you are crushing me. Please, darling, let me go so I can explain.”

  Fighting against every instinct he had not to let go, John released Elena, but did not take more than half a step back from her. He finally noticed, poking out from beneath the decorative silk scarf she wore around her neck, the edges of a wicked-looking scar across her throat. Doubtless that was the work of the torturer on Ratuen. What had they done to her mind that she would forget the atrocities they suffered on Ratuen and stand here willingly beside these people who allied themselves with the Dawnstar forces who masterminded their abduction?

  He had to get her away from them and cleanse whatever drugs or devices they doubtlessly were using to control her. Already his mind was spinning through how he and the Star Wolf crew could rescue Elena and get away from Revenge without losing anyone else. He came up empty on ideas.

  “I never wanted to hurt you, John,” Elena said to him with that sad little frown that said she had bad news to share. “Don’t you see? Dawnstar agreed to fully fund my work on a cure for malmorphsy as long as I share all results and work in conjunction with their head of biomedical research, Dr. Rickham.”

  John’s brow furrowed. What was she saying? This Rickham was not with the Provisional Imperium but was head of research for the very people who had abducted them?

  “But Elena, they tortured us.”

  “I know, John.”

  “They made me think they had murdered you.”

  “Yes, dear. That was unfortunate.”

  Unfortunate? What had they done to his dear Elena’s mind? She was clearly delusional, or possibly mind-controlled. John had to find a way to break her free, had to get her away from these animals.

  “Let me explain,” Elena continued. “If they had contacted me through normal channels, we could have talked this all out. The abduction was admittedly a misguided idea, but that was because they had no understanding that our goals were aligned.”

  “Aligned? What do you mean?”

  “One night while we were still on Ratuen, they drugged you to keep you under and pulled me out for a discussion. They whisked us off planet before I knew what was happening. Then, en route to Ratuen, they explained what they wanted. Initially they were threatening to kill you if I didn’t cooperate, but once they laid it all out, I realized we wanted the same thing.”

  “Elena, something is wrong with you. I don’t know what they told you, but these people are planning violence on a massive scale.”

  “I know, dear.”

  John’s chest tightened. Spots appeared at the edges of his vision and it was everything he could do to stay focused. She clearly did not know what she was saying.

  “Once we came to terms about my research,” Elena continued, forcing John to focus. “I knew you would never agree. You have always been such a gentle soul, John. I told them we had to find a way to keep you out of it. We agreed that they would kill me, or at least make it look that way, and then return you to Tede none the wiser. I would accompany them back to Tede and grab my research before you were released, and all would be well.”

  “All would be well?” John’s mind volleyed between confusion and rage. “They slit your throat in front of me?”

  “I know, John,” Elena replied. “It was never supposed to go that far, but the inquisitor on Ratuen has a flair for the theatrical. He performed his duty a bit overzealously. I’m sorry about that, John. I can’t imagine the trauma that must have put you through.”

  John swallowed hard. They had to have her on some mind-altering drugs. This was not his Elena. So cold, so callous. Or maybe this was one of those high-tech mind-controlling implants he had heard about at the last government medical conference on Furi. She couldn’t know what she was saying or how dangerous these people truly were. It was going to be up to him to save her from herself.

  “Elena, do you have any idea why they want your research? They plan to develop a bioweapon the likes of which the Daemi used to cause malmorphsy in the first place. Once the Provisional Imperium can produce biologically targeted weaponry, who’s to say they will stop at beating back the Prophane? What would stop them from taking out the Lubanians helping the New Empire, or the Fei helping the Theocracy? There wouldn’t be a non-human sophont in the galaxy safe from Zarsus and his minions.”

  “I know, John. I know.”

  John couldn’t breathe. To hear such casual assent to galactic-scale genocide coming from Elena, the most compassionate and merciful person he had ever known, was the epitome of cognitive dissonance. He didn’t care what the bioscans showed, this was not Elena. Not the Elena he knew anyway.

  “John, do you love me?” Elena asked, clearly seeing the shock and horror in John’s face.

  “I did…”

  John’s response was out of his mouth before he even realized he had said it. The scathing implication of his answer clearly cut Elena deeply. Her eyes glassed, and her lip quivered slightly as she continued.

  “Do you trust me, John?”

  “How can I, Elena? You clearly are not in your right mind.”

  “I assure you, John, I am.”

  “You are not! You just admitted agreeing to cooperate in a project that could destroy countless billions of non-human sophonts throughout the galaxy? I’m not sure I even know you, much less trust you.”

  “Non-human sophonts?” Elena said, raising an eyebrow. “I see you’ve been through alien indoctrination training since you took up with the dog-man and his collection of alien freaks. Since when do you care about aliens, John?”

  John reeled. He had never heard such invective from Elena before. What twisted device or drug had they used to warp his sweet Elena so thoroughly?

  “Elena, why are you talking like that? You are a doctor.”

  Elena grabbed John’s arms and shook him as if she were scolding a child. The fire in her eyes was like nothing John had ever seen from her before.

  “I’m a human doctor, John. Why do you think I chose to remain on Tede? I was offered dozens of positions on integrated worlds, but I chose to stay sequestered on that backwater mudball, where at least I would be with my own kind and not surrounded by alien freaks. I thought you understood that. Isn’t that why you stayed?”

  Who was this person? Pieces of memories began to fall into place. Elena had always focused on human research, and often voiced dissent about Dawnstar bringing her “alien” DNA to work with. As soon as she was out of her residency she had let her non-human certifications lapse, but John had always assumed that was due to her research focus and their life on Tede, a humans-only hermit-world. John had let his own lapse for similar reasons. How could he have been married to Elena for twenty-three years and never have seen this side of her? Was love truly that blind?

  “I stayed on Tede because that was where my parents’ company was,” John replied, frustrated confusion rising in his tone. “That was where you were. Everything that mattered to me was on Tede.”

  “Exactly! Including a government willing to keep Tede as a human colony. That’s what the Provisional Imperium and Dawnstar are promising, John. They want to clear out the enemies of Humaniti and restore the Empire to the unity it once had. The human empire, John.”

  “But we are Faithful!” John shouted, shruggi
ng off Elena’s grip on his arms and taking a half-step away from her. “If you were okay with your work being used for making a weapon, why not turn it over to the Brothers of the Lion instead of the Provisional Imperium and Dawnstar?”

  “I am a Faithful,” Elena replied with much more calm than John had managed to maintain. “But our shepherds have gone astray. Enoch made a pact with those blue-skinned freaks, the Fei. He doesn’t care about the restoration of Humaniti.”

  John balled his hands into fists knowing Mel had just heard this hateful invective. He had never struck Elena in their entire marriage, no matter how drunk or angry he was. Now he fought against the impulse to break that streak.

  “The Creator put the Angelicum there to serve humans,” Elena continued. “The Daemi are fallen, but ultimately still part of God’s plan for Humaniti. The Brothers are not only willing to spare those blue abominations, but are also looking to destroy the very servants our Creator gave us. The Provisional Imperium has returned the wayward Daemi to the service of Humaniti. The Brothers would have them destroyed. The choice of who to work with is clear, John.”

  John turned away from Elena. He spared as subtle a glance in Mel’s direction as he dared, but she was too far away. He couldn’t get a good read on how deeply Elena’s invective had affected her. Rage boiled inside him, but he wasn’t sure if it was directed more at the forces that had lured Elena down this dark path or at Elena herself for speaking so cruelly about Mel’s people.

  “No, Elena,” John said, shaking his head and turning back toward her. “This isn’t what the Lion of Judah would have us do.”

  Elena reached for John to take his hand but he recoiled as if she were a deadly serpent. Part of him wanted to run from this room, part just wanted to wake up from this impossible nightmare, part wanted to beat to death this twisted doppelganger pretending to be his sweet Elena, and part just prayed for some impossible rescue to deliver them once again from the hands of Russel and the imposing cruiser Revenge.

  “John,” Elena pleaded. “Just give me my research. I know you have it. I had a signal trigger set into our closet safe. I compared the time stamp on the signal to the alarm system reports on the house fire. I know you accessed it before our home was destroyed.”

  John’s gaze focused on the floor before his feet. He wanted to throw up. He answered without meeting her gaze.

  “Even if I did have it, why would I give it to you, knowing what you intend to do with it?”

  “It is simple, John. I never wanted to drag you into any of this. I still love you. I have told Deputy Director Russel that I would only continue to work with them if he agreed to free you and your friends.”

  John looked up into Elena’s eyes. Behind the glassy, half-formed tears there, John saw sincerity.

  “And you believe him?” John asked, hoping she would realize the naiveté of what she was saying.

  “John, listen to me” Elena said in a forced and desperate whisper. “Please be reasonable. If you don’t hand over the research, they will pull your ship apart bit by bit and kill each one of the crew to find it. If they have to do it that way, John, not even my life is guaranteed.”

  “Good,” John snapped, instantly regretting it as soon as the word was out of his mouth. Elena looked as if he had punched her.

  “John, please,” Elena pleaded, her eyes flitting nervously between Simmons and John. “I can recreate all the research on that datacube, but it took me two decades to accumulate it. Starting over would be a huge setback to our timeline. You can’t stop it, John, but you can save yourself.”

  “For the moment, at least,” John snapped.

  “The work will continue no matter what you do, but only you can decide whether or not you and your friends die here today.”

  John’s heart sank. He knew if it came to a fight, Star Wolf’s officers were unarmed, well mostly at least. Once they were dead, their bodies would be searched and Elena would immediately recognize her datacube on John’s necklace. They would have died for nothing and it would all be his fault. He was out of options. There was only one play left to make. He raised his gaze and fixed his eyes on Elena’s.

  “You swear as the Lion of Judah is your witness you will refuse to work with them if they don’t let Star Wolf and its entire crew go free?”

  “I do,” Elena answered, giving John a reassuring smile. “I swear it by the Lion of Judah and by our love and marriage. I know you can’t walk this road with me, so I will let you go. Find happiness, my love, and know your friends will live today because of you.”

  John reached for his shirt collar and pulled out the necklace attached to the datacube from its hiding place beneath the collar of his shirt.

  “No, John,” Mel shouted. “They will kill every one of us eventually. They will destroy my race, Voide’s race, Molon’s race. Do not do this, John.”

  “I’m sorry, Mel,” John said without taking his eyes off his wife. “Elena is right. If they are determined to pursue this course, I can’t stop it. But I can stop them from killing us all today.”

  “I don’t think so, bud,” Dub said.

  Quicker than lightning the huge malmorph’s mechanical hand-glove shot out and grabbed the datacube pendant from John’s hand. He slammed his two metallic appendages together with the small, fragile cube in between, grinding the datacube to dust before the stunned gaze of all present.

  “What have you done?” Elena shrieked.

  Twenty-Seven – Guardian Angel

  “Kill that man!” Simmons ordered.

  The GalSec security officers bordering the room raised their weapons and aimed them in Dub’s direction. John jumped in front of the chief engineer, extending his arms and holding his hands, palms outward, as if interposing his markedly smaller physique would somehow stop the blasters from firing. In the split second it took him to make that maneuver, there had been no time to consider the futility of it.

  “Wait!” John shouted. “Elena, you promised.”

  “Stand down,” Mark Russel ordered.

  The security officers lowered their weapons slightly and held their fire as they looked back and forth between the two ranking GalSec officers. It was clear they were unsure whose command to obey. John was mentally rooting for Russel.

  Elena just stood there, taking no notice of John or his plea. She gawked silently at the crumbled fragments of her datacube lying on the floor at her feet. She stood there, shaking her head slightly as if by sheer force of denial she could reassemble the destroyed datacube.

  “But why?” she finally muttered, raising her gaze in Dub’s direction. “You are a human malmorph. That datacube contained research that could have put me mere months away from a cure for you and others like you.”

  Dub spread his hands in front of him in a gesture of apology.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am” Dub replied. “Sure, some part of me might want to be like everyone else. I do think about it sometimes. But nothing is worth what that cure would cost.”

  The calm pleading fled her face as a flush of rage rose in her cheeks. Her eyes narrowed and a scowl replaced the blank look of confusion that had graced her face just moments before.

  “It would cost you nothing!” Elena snapped. “I want to help people like you. I’m not trying to turn a profit.”

  Dub shook his large head. John couldn’t tell if the look in his eyes was sadness or pity.

  “You really don’t get it, do you?” Dub answered, pointing a mechanical-glove finger in Elena’s direction. “What these people are planning goes far beyond genocide. They are planning xenocide.”

  “Why do you care?” Elena replied, throwing her arms wide in frustration as if to emphasize the question. “They’re aliens, you’re human!”

  Dub’s hands balled into fists. The security forces raised their weapons slightly, but the large engineer exhibited wisdom enough to lower his fists to his sides.

  “I’m sorry John has to hear me say this, you being his wife and all,” Dub said through gritt
ed teeth. “But I know a whole lot of those you call ‘aliens’, any one of whom is worth ten thousand humans like you. It ain’t the shape or color a person is that makes their life worth saving. It only matters what they do with the life they’ve been given.”

  Dub and Elena were locked in an intense stare. Tension in the room was at a flashpoint, and John feared that any second something was going to be the spark that set the room ablaze. John was no diplomat, but maybe he was adept enough at selling a bluff to salvage this situation somehow.

  “So what now?” John probed, testing the waters.

  His eyes were locked on Elena but John knew full well she had little influence any longer. Their fate was in Russel’s hands.

  “Our agreement with your wife,” Russel replied, clearly choking back his own rage at Dub’s defiant act, “was your lives in exchange for Elena’s data. Your crewmate just destroyed the data. You are an educated man, doctor; what do you think happens next?”

  John turned to face the deputy director. There was no longer any smug look of superiority or catty grin remaining on Russel’s face. While John deep down believed Dub did the right thing, the cost of his defiance would likely result in an execution order for Star Wolf’s crew.

  “Wait!” Elena interjected.

  All eyes fixed on Elena as she turned to face Russel. John heard a passion and desperation in her voice. He knew that tone. It was the one she used in debates in medical school when she saw a possibility others had missed and was about to spring it on them. John silently prayed that whatever oration she was about to drop on Russel worked in their favor.

  “I am still the best qualified geneticist you have when it comes to malmorphsy. Dawnstar must have all my pre-Shattering reports filed away somewhere. We can start with those and I can rebuild my data. I will continue to lead your research project provided you let John and his friends go free.”

  The look on Russel’s face was hard enough to shatter diamond. He slowly closed and opened his eyes as if trying to rein in an outburst of fury at Elena’s defiance.