Aspirations: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  They had cut off the head of the Organization, but they would have to strike quickly before it grew another head. Julie knew what she was going to have to do to make sure they didn’t do that. She hoped it didn’t come to that, but she knew it would.

  #

  Later that evening, with Zeke sleeping, Julie went to see Jon Rupert. She sadly looked down on him as he lay in the hospital bed after surgery to repair his nose. He was awake, but had been restrained in case he tried to escape.

  “When I look at you,” she told him. “I see two people. I see the man I want to thank for helping us so much to strike a major blow against this evil Organization.” Then she let some of her considerable anger into her voice. “I also see the man who almost killed the man I love and I want to hurt you badly for that.”

  Jon nodded sadly. “I am so sorry for what I did. I never intended for anyone to get hurt.” Tears were in his eyes. That and just a little fear.

  Julie just stared at him, not able to bring herself to speak. He had no idea of her anger, or he would really have been afraid. Finally she spoke, this time in a low voice full of emotion. “The only reason you are alive is because of Zeke. I was ready to take the easy way out. I had your station defenseless, and with the tap of one button, I could have destroyed all of you. But for Zeke and his love, I would have done it.” She took a breath to steady herself, her anger flaring again. “And you dared to try to take him from me?”

  It was Jon’s turn to stare. Suddenly it struck him just how foolish he had been. How could he have gone so far? And for the first time, he also realized what he had nearly done. He opened his mouth in horror. “I almost did the thing I hated the most. That is why I hated my uncle so much. I watched him one time shoot the man standing next to me as if it was nothing. I was horrified and that made me hate him even more, and that is very nearly what I have become.”

  Julie could tell he was shaken to his core. Seeing that, she buried a little of her anger. And as close as she had been to tapping that button, just how much right did she have to judge? Not that she was ok with him. Finally she spoke again. “Jon, I really think you need to get help. I will recommend it to the authorities if you promise you will work hard to get better.”

  Jon looked up at her, and for the first time his eyes had a little hope. “Yes, please. I want that very much. If you will forgive me, I will do my best to make amends.”

  Julie nodded. “I forgive you as best I can. It’s going to take me some time to work it all out. Less so now because Zeke is ok. But if you really accept the help offered and work to get better, who am I to stand in your way?”

  “I promise I will do that.” The hope now burned brightly in his eyes. “What is going to happen to my uncle and the others? I think all the hatred I felt from him and the hatred I carried within myself for him was one of the reasons I let myself get so far out of touch with the real world.”

  Julie knew exactly what he meant about that kind of hatred. “I understand that. Knowing that he killed my mother, I have very strong feelings about him. But I have to overcome them and make sure he gets a fair trial. I will have to leave his fate to the earth governments to determine instead of shoving him out an airlock like he deserves, or killing him with my bare hands like I want to do.” She let a little of the anger she felt show once more in her eyes.

  Then she went on. “You should know. The war with the Organization is not over, and for them, it is about to get a whole lot worse. They just don’t know it yet.” She didn’t intend it, but her full anger showed again, touched by her sadness at what she knew she would have to do.

  “Good,” Jon didn’t even blink. He felt the same way. “I think we both agree that they have to be completely dismantled. And you are the one that can do it, if anyone can. If I had not been so foolish, perhaps I could have helped with that.”

  “You definitely have already helped. By helping us cut off the head, we will be able to deal with them much easier. And don’t worry, I will take care of the main body. It has to be done. Then we will just have to deal with the pirates and a few leftovers. And unfortunately, whoever is really behind the Organization.”

  Jon nodded. “My uncle talked about them a little bit. They are the real evil behind this, and you will have to find them to cure the disease. You can question him, but I don’t believe he really knows who they are. They offered him what he wanted and he took it. He never was one to think through what he did. I would even suspect that they are the ones who really sent him on the attack of your family.”

  “I can tell you now that was a big mistake for them. I won’t stop until I clean them out. It’s kind of ironic. They are the ones who are responsible for making me who I am and changing me from an innocent teenage girl who cared nothing for world politics to the girl I am today who will do whatever it takes to stop them.”

  “I know you will be successful. I hope that someday, after I get better, you will be willing to talk to me again. And that somehow, maybe I will be able to help you again.”

  “You do your part and I guess we will have to see, won’t we?”

  “I will. Thank you for coming to see me. And know that I am very sorry, and I will do my best to make my amends.”

  #

  Julie next went to talk to her Uncle Ted. She had promised that she would talk about her plans. “Uncle Ted, do you have time to talk now?” she asked him when he came to the door.

  “Sure,” he said, opening the door. “Come in. Carla and I were about to have a bite to eat. You should join us.” When she nodded, he told her, “I’ll stick another meal pack in. You two talk a moment.” He motioned to one of the chairs in the small sitting room.

  For the space station, Ted’s rooms were rather large, but compared to the norm on earth, they were pretty small. But while he went into the small kitchen area, Julie sat down beside Carla. She was actually glad Carla was there. It might help to keep her conversation with her uncle a little more calm.

  Smiling at Carla, she asked her, “So how are the two of you doing? Sure we don’t need to have a double wedding?”

  Carla laughed. “No, I wouldn’t want you to have to share your moment. We’re serious enough that you could say we are unofficially engaged, but we’re taking it a little slower. Maybe next summer. Of course, we haven’t forgotten the little schemers that surprised the two of us with that first dinner.”

  Julie was thrilled. At least one of her plans was working for the good. Smiling she reached over to give Carla a hug. “I’m really glad that one worked out,” she whispered into her ear. “Everyone deserves a chance at happiness and Caitlyn and I just happened to be in the position to be able to help the two of you.” Laughing, she went on, “So I guess we’ll just have to face the consequences.”

  Uncle Ted came back in, carrying three meal packs that had been flash heated. “At least these are not as bad as the MRUs we used to have to eat in the Air Force, although not exactly gourmet either.”

  Carla and Julie both laughed at that. “I can tell you from recent experience that what they have now aren’t any better,” Carla told them. “Comparatively, these are gourmet.”

  “All that’s going to be changing,” Julie told the two of them. “The Space Tech farms are officially in production. We should have fresh vegetables in about six weeks.” Her eyes sparkling, she told them, “Just think about it. Farms under domes on an asteroid. Sounds like something from a future Sci-Fi, doesn’t it? Well, now it’s near future.”

  Ted looked at her in surprise. “You activated them? I thought we were talking about a couple of years. That is going to be something to see.”

  Julie nodded. “As good a time as any. With our new propulsion system, a lot of things we thought were impossible are going to be possible soon. All of them now are near future.” Julie looked directly at her uncle. “Plus, we may need them, depending on how the next few days go.”

  He stared right back at her. “I know you’re not telling me your plans. But I wish you would
slow it down a little.”

  “I can’t do that, Uncle Ted. You know as well as I do, the Organization will just grow a new head if we don’t deal with them now. I’m going to do a broadcast in an hour or so, offering them a chance to turn themselves in peaceably in return for amnesty for those who haven’t been directly involved in terror attacks. I don’t think any of them will take us up on it, but it’s worth a try. If they don’t, I will have to deal with them.”

  She looked at the two of them as she took a bite of the definitely not gourmet meal. She couldn’t help but make a face. “I’m going to need you guys to stay up here for a day or two more. Just till it all settles down. I’ll see if I can’t find us something better to eat than this.”

  Ted started to argue, but seeing the look on her face, he didn’t. He had seen that look often enough to know when she wasn’t going to bend. “Ok. For now. But we all have things we need to do, so don’t expect us to be too patient.”

  Julie gave him a sad look. “I don’t expect it will be very long.” She pushed the food away. “Sorry, guys. I don’t have much appetite, and this sort of finished me off.”

  Standing, Julie gave the two of them quick hugs. “I’m going to go get that broadcast over with. Still early enough to make prime time in the US.”

  She was gone before Ted had time to ask any of those questions he had wanted to.

  #

  An hour later, Julie was ready to do the worldwide broadcast to the rest of the Organization. All the prep work was done. She had pled with the men that they had captured, wanting them to ask their members to surrender. To a man, they were sullen and defiant. They were destined for court trials on earth, many of them expecting the death penalty, so they didn’t really have any incentive to cooperate. Maybe they believed that they would be rescued by their pirate teams or traded for someone taken hostage.

  Jon’s uncle was the worst of the lot. He even tried to spit in Julie’s face. She was fast enough to avoid that insult, but it almost pushed her over the edge. Somehow she was able to just stand there, instead of reaching to pull his beating heart out to show him.

  Julie had donned her Space Tech armor, hoping it would make her look more like a soldier of the near future than just the young person they would see otherwise. The young person she wished she could really be. She started the broadcast showing their captives, hoping that would show the rest how much she meant business.

  “We have captured your leaders,” she told them, the VR picture switching to her standing in the media room, and then the VR broadcast switched to a satellite view of the huge Organization camp. “We know where your base is,” Julie explained. “I am giving you 24 hours to surrender yourselves peacefully, or we will be forced to attack you. Believe me when I tell you that I have the ability to do this. It is time for your reign of terror to end.”

  The view switched back to her once more, a close-up of her face. Her eyes burning with her passion, Julie finished with a plea, one she desperately wanted to work. “Please, I beg of you to accept this offer, for the sake of all those innocent. I promise you that you will all be given a fair trial. Any of you who have not been directly involved in terror attacks will be given the opportunity for amnesty if you are willing to separate yourselves from this Organization.”

  “Just to make it clear, the deadline is 12 midnight GMT tomorrow.” As soon as the media cut from her, Julie sadly walked out of the room.

  #

  Julie spent most of her time in Zeke’s hospital room during the 24 hour ultimatum. Zeke’s recovery was amazingly fast, a feat mostly accomplished due to his nanites. As the time drew near, Julie knew she had to talk to Zeke about what she felt she had to do. She wasn’t really surprised to know he already knew. But they had to finish off the body of the Organization, and they needed to do it now before they replaced their captured leaders. Zeke reluctantly agreed that he saw only two alternatives, neither of them good.

  While they were talking, Julie received an urgent VR from Uncle Ted. “Check the VR newscast. It’s not good.” As soon as she pulled up the broadcast, what Julie saw horrified her. Not only had the Organization not responded to her plea to give themselves up, they had staged several nearly simultaneous terror attacks around the world, a number of them at Space Tech facilities. Hundreds of people had been injured and a number had been killed.

  That made Julie’s decision. Her horror just fed her anger. “So we have their answer,” she snapped. Looking at Zeke with tears in her eyes, she told him. “That means we have no choice. I’m not going to spend months looking at them do things like this over and over. It ends today.”

  Zeke pulled her close. “We knew it would come to this. But we’re doing this together.” He held her for a few moments, her tears close to sobs. “Help me into the chair,” he told her finally. Zeke had been determined he was going to be at Julie side when she went forward with her plans. He had gotten permission to leave the medical area, if he remained confined to a medical transport designed for use on the space station, not really a wheelchair but close enough.

  Wiping her tears, Julie quietly helped him out of the hospital bed. Together the two of them traveled down the passageways of the station to the control center. Julie turned to Zeke, giving him a sad smile when they reached their destination, a new console recently added to the room. A highly secure console with its own AI. An extremely powerful AI.

  Julie activated the console, providing the system with three forms of biometric data, first a fingerprint and then a VR retina scan. Then a DNA scan. Finally, the AI answered with what to it was just a word, “Ready.” To Julie, it meant a whole lot more.

  “It’s going to be terrible, what we are about to do. But it’s like the US at the end of World War II. Should they have fought as long as it would take to defeat Japan, who they expected to fight to the bitter end, almost literally to the last man, or instead do something terrible that will end things quickly? Many of the terrorists we face with the Organization are the same way, men who it appears also will fight to the bitter end. Some of them don’t look much different from the Japanese kamikazes. They are willing to give their lives if it’s for their cause and they can take someone else with them. The Organization response to my appeal tells us the same thing. We are making the same decision they did back then, only what we do will in some ways be even more terrible.”

  “I know, love,” Zeke quietly told her. “But so many people would be hurt if we don’t choose to end it now. Innocent people that have no stake at all in this, but they would get caught in the terrorist attacks and the battles necessary to overcome those desperate men. And at some point, they would go underground to continue their fight, and this wouldn’t work then. I don’t see any choice. We knew they wouldn’t give up.”

  Julie opened a window on her control console and chose the target, the giant camp that the organization had boldly built and expanded over the years in their chosen country, forcing the country’s government into hiding. They would at least be glad to see them go. Someone should have done something about them a long time ago, but no one had been willing to face the political consequences.

  Together they watched the clock count down to zero. When it flashed up, Julie said, ”It’s time.” Together they hit the fire button. The AI confirmation came up, “Launch successful.” Julie sighed sadly. “It’s done. Nothing can stop it now.”

  Out in orbit around the earth, a special satellite, one of a considerable number of satellites Space Tech had been quietly launching over the past month, woke up and became active. A port opened on the side facing the earth, extremely precise positioning jets fired, pointing the satellite to an exact coordinate and orientation, and a large object launched from the satellite at an extremely high speed. The object was streamlined in an aeronautic shape and coated on the outside with a special high temperature resistant substance. Other than that, it was merely a solid block of metal. The object fell exactly on the trajectory calculated by the controlling AI, flaming as
it passed through the atmosphere but not shrinking in any way, and it struck dead center in the Organization camp, transferring all of its kinetic energy to the target.

  The resulting explosion rivaled that of a thermonuclear bomb, instantly destroying the entire camp and all associated buildings. The explosion threw burning debris high in the air at tremendous speed. Underneath, a full scan revealed a huge crater where the camp once stood. Fires burned along the edge, smoke in the air everywhere, but inside the crater everything was completely devoid of life, nothing remaining but glass.

  On board Space Tech station, the two sat and watched their satellite feed in horror. “Oh my God,” Julie whispered to Zeke, clutching his hand. It was even worse to see it than she had imagined. She had envisioned it as a surgical strike, clean and precise. Boom, the camp would be gone. It was precise but there was nothing clean about it. The two of them together had done it, something she knew they would have to live with. Yes, the ones that they had struck had been very bad men, many of them who would kill without a thought, but they were still human beings. And she knew that not all of them had been bad, some of them just there as support for the camp, and some of them were there not by choice, but forced out of poverty or family and tribal members to be there.

  “Yes, love,” Zeke answered, “and the two of us need to always remember what this looks like. It must be a last resort, the absolute last resort, before we ever think of doing this again.”

  Julie nodded, tears in her eyes. “I guess we need to go tell the others. They are not going to be happy. Especially when we tell them they have to stay here until the US government is willing to guarantee their safety. Even with the President and First Lady on our side, it is going to take time to work all this out.”

  “Yes, unfortunately, this day is going to be permanently recorded in history. How we are represented in that history is yet to be determined. I pray for our daughter’s sake, it is at least represented truthfully.”