DusktoDust_Final3

by adrian felder

  “Not at this time, Pegasus,” Gnasher answered.

  “Roger, try and keep it that way. Pegasus out.”

  Gnasher turned back to his men. “Anyone out there?”

  Avery shook his head. “Not a soul, sir.”

  “Okay, stack up on the stairs. When we have visual ID on Pegasus we will descend and mount up. Easy day.” Gnasher turned to Letsego. “Carpenter better hurry up. We can’t wait for him.”

  “Lieutenant, I’m in charge of this op. If I say we wait, we wait.” Despite their history, Letsego was not about to leave a man behind, especially Carpenter.

  Before Gnasher could protest, the comm unit came to life. “Two-actual, this is two-two.”

  Gnasher keyed his mic. “You’re about to miss your ride, Carpenter. What’s your status?”

  Carpenter’s voice came through garbled. “Wash and I are wounded but we’re okay. We’re all that’s left, sir.”

  Gnasher’s face grew grim for a split second. “What about your objective?” he asked, getting back to business.

  It sounded like the smuggler was in the middle of a cyclone. “We disconnected the Ferenic power source from the facility, but the Rockworm continues to grow.”

  Shit. That had been their one hope of stopping it. Fear crept into Letsego’s mind. What if they couldn’t contain it? This couldn't be the end.

  “You need to get out of there, Carpenter,” Gnasher said. “There’s nothing you can do.”

  “I think there is.”

  Letsego cut in. “What do you mean?”

  Carpenter’s voice could barely be heard. “The archeologist said that the Rockworm is like an animal. It just wants to be left alone. We thought freeing it from feeding power to the mining facility would do this. But the Ferenic can sense organic life. What if it wants us out? Maybe that’s why it killed the Cdat’h Vars. Their civilization was centered around the Ferenic. The civil war gave the Ferenic the power to exterminate them in order to remove the Cdat’h Vars from its domain. Now it wants us out.”

  “You’re saying we need to vacate the facility? Everyone?”

  “There’s over five hundred troopers in this place in addition to us,” Gnasher said. “What do you plan on doing, ask them to leave?”

  Carpenter hesitated before he answered. “I’ve found one of the Cdat’h Vars grenades down here. I have access to the facility ventilation system. All of the ducts are metal.”

  It took Letsego a second to understand what the man was proposing. “You’re suggesting that we pacify the facility?”

  “Yes,” Carpenter responded flatly.

  Gnasher and Letsego were silent. Neither wanted to admit that they had no better plan.

  “It’s the only way,” Carpenter said when he received no response. “If we don’t do something now this thing is going to go ballistic.”

  “Stand by,” Letsego directed. He turned to Robinson and explained Carpenter’s plan.

  “It could work,” the archeologist confirmed. “It’s a sound theory.”

  But it’s a big step from theory to mass murder, Letsego thought. He weighed the options. Like he had told Gnasher, he was in charge of this op. He had to make the call. As if forcing the decision, a Pegasus gunboat roared into the hangar bay. The Divers began to descend the control room staircase.

  Letsego had no more time. He keyed the mic. “Carpenter, set the charge. Then get the hell out of there.” Gnasher was waving at him to move. “You’ve got ten minutes to get to the hangar bay.”

  “Copy all, out.”

  David killed the link. He and Washington stood over Castle’s body. Above them the world was quickly slipping away into crimson chaos.

  “What’d they say?” Washington asked.

  David gave him a grave look. “It’s a go. We need to hurry.” In his hand he hefted the alien device he had found in remnants of the Cdat’h Vars metropolis. It appeared similar to the device used in the Belt demonstration. He hoped it would do the trick.

  The two of them stayed low, avoiding the angry Ferenic above them. They made a beeline for the closest ventilation duct on the cavern wall. The going was slow. David and Washington took turns falling to the ground as they progressed, their wounds slowly taking their toll on the exhausted men. They then exchanged turns picking each other up. All around them tentacles of crimson mist reached out through the pulsing hot air to posses the fragile life around it.

  Letsego sprinted across the hangar bay tarmac, passing through the hasty perimeter established by the Peacekeeper soldiers that had arrived on the gunboat. The second craft had diverted to pick up Weilbacher and his team from the observation post. Ahead of Letsego, a hunched over Peacekeeper captain quickly descended the boarding ramp to meet him and Gnasher.

  “Is this everyone, Lieutenant?”

  Gnasher shook his head. “We’re still waiting on two, sir.”

  The captain wasn’t happy. “My mission is in and out. We don’t have time for stragglers. The fleet’s getting its ass kicked up there and we need to get back.”

  “We’re waiting, sir.”

  The captain looked at Letsego as if he hadn’t even noticed the staff sergeant before. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Peacekeeper Intelligence,” Letsego responded. “This is my op, sir. And we leave when I say we leave.”

  “These are my birds. I’m not waiting in a hot LZ for a couple of spooks who got lost.”

  Letsego ignored that comment. “If you have a problem, sir, I suggest you call the commodore.”

  The senior officer’s face was on the verge of exploding. He stared Letsego down. The staff sergeant didn’t blink. After a tense moment, the captain turned away and began talking into his comm unit. Thirty seconds later, he turned back with an embarrassed look on his face. “Your boys have ten minutes. After that, I don’t care what the Commodore says. Pegasus is skids up.”

  Letsego nodded his approval.

  Then the bullets started flying.

  It took five minutes for the wounded duo to cross the fifty meters of cavern floor to the air duct. By then, every part of David’s body hurt. He was light headed from a loss of blood. It was all he could do to keep himself standing.

  Bracing himself against the cavern wall David looked up. The vent cover was three meters up. On a normal day, it would have been easy for one of the operators to lift the other up to reach it. This was no normal day. “Shit.”

  Washington drew his pistol and unsteadily aimed in on the hinges of the vent. The first two shots went wide, his dying body unable to stabilize the weapon. David reached over to him. With the combined strength of their two bodies, they placed four shots into the two hinges and two hasps on the vent. It fell to the ground revealing the entrance to the metal labyrinth.

  David picked up the Ferenic device. For the first time he actually took in the elegance of the craftsmanship. The ceramic case was perfectly fabricated. The size of a beer can, it was hard to believe the object could cause so much death. Will cause, David corrected as he focused on the task at hand.

  “Do you know how to use that?” Washington asked.

  The smuggler rolled it over in his hands. “There has to be timer somewhere.” When Castle had used a similar device in the Belt he had been able to set a delay. Hopefully, this device could be programmed the same way.

  David inspected every inch of the device. Besides a single trigger at the top of the cylinder there was nothing else. No markings, no control surfaces. And time continued to slip by as the cloud of hell billowed above them.

  “We need to move.” Washington urged.

  David turned the device over once more in his hands and then stopped. He looked at the wounded Diver. “Wash, I’ve got some bad news.”

  Letsego slammed a fresh magazine into his weapon and continued firing. He only had two more left.

  Windcorp was attacking in strength. The entire hangar bay was under siege by angry troopers. The Peacekeepers
were holding their own, but slowly the casualties were mounting.

  “Get him on the bird!” Gnasher yelled above the gunfire. Avery half dragged half carried a wounded Peacekeeper soldier up the boarding ramp. Gnasher turned to Letsego. “We can’t take much more of this.”

  The captain stormed up and was more direct. “We’re leaving now!”

  Letsego protested. “Two minutes, sir. That’s all I ask.”

  Just then his comm unit came to life. “Two-actual, this is two-two.”

  Letsego keyed his mic before Gnasher could. “Give me some good news, Carpenter. Where are you?”

  “We’re still in the power source room.”

  “What!? How much longer do you need?”

  “Get out of here, Letsego. We’re not going to make it.”

  “Bullshit, Carpenter. Set that charge and get up here.” He wasn’t going to leave the smuggler to die in the subterranean hell.

  “Neither me nor Wash are in any state to move. It’ll take us at least an hour to get up there.”

  “Then we’ll send someone down-”

  Carpenter cut him off. “There’s no timer on the charge. Someone is going to have to stay here to set it off.”

  The gravity of that revelation struck Letsego. He didn’t want to believe it. “There’s got to be another-”

  “We’re out of options,” Carpenter said. The channel was quiet for a moment. Then he continued. “I’ve talked it over with Wash. This is what has to happen. Get yourselves out of here.”

  Letsego looked at Gnasher. The man had been privy to the whole conversation. After a pause, he nodded his agreement. This was what had to happen.

  “Thank you, Carpenter,” was all Letsego could think to say.

  “It’s good to fight for something again,” Carpenter said. “Now get the hell out of here. I’m blowing this place in five.” The comm link went dead.

  The chaos of the hangar bay shootout continued to rage. Letsego turned to the captain. “Sir.”

  “You better have some good news, staff sergeant.”

  “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  David held the alien device in his hands, his fingers lingering over the trigger. It was so simple yet so elegant, the ceramic something out of an exquisite artist’s portfolio. How could something so simple cause so much devastation? So much death.

  He thought about what he was about to do and hesitated. He froze. Not because he feared his own demise, but because of the other implications that detonating the Ferenic devise had. There were hundreds of troopers and miners still inside of the mining facility. These people had lives. Hell, at one point he could have been one of them. He was not a saint. Who was he to play judge, jury and executioner?

  But detonating the device could save the planet, possibly all of humanity. It was an impossible choice.

  Then, at the back of his mind, Alana’s words permeated his thoughts. “When was the last time you actually felt good about what you are doing with your life?”

  For the first time in a long time, David knew exactly what he had to do.

  “Carpenter,” Washington said. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

  “It has to.” With that, he depressed the trigger and with all his might, heaved the grenade into the open duct. With a clang, it tumbled down the shaft. David heard a pop and a hiss. The last thing he saw was a flash of crimson and red tentacles of mist reaching down towards him.

  The sun baked surface of the light side of Prospect rushed by. Letsego’s hands gripped his seat restraints tightly for the turbulent ride. Soon, with a stomach churning change in direction, the gunboat rocketed toward open space, leaving facility D6A in the rear viewport.

  As the facility grew smaller, Letsego’s eyes were drawn to the mountainous terrain. Without warning, a hue of crimson obscured D6A. It was the same color as Rockworm. For a handful of heartbeats it hung over the land like morning fog, and then, as quickly as it had appeared, the mist was gone.

  Ten seconds later, the shockwave hit the gunboat.

  “Holy shit!” Gnasher yelled beside Letsego as the ship bucked up and down unexpectedly and proximity alarms blared.

  Letsego watched through the viewport. As the sky grew darker and the atmosphere thinner, the turbulence began to subside. And then the air and vacuum around the ship was surrounded by wisps of red. The delicate lines of dust streamed down towards the planet from space. Letsego couldn’t place it, but for some reason the vacant atmosphere was full of life with the Ferenic in the air.

  And then it was over. The Pegasus gunboat was past the mist, and with it the turbulence ceased.

  His comm unit crackled to life. “ICARUS-two, this is Defiance-Actual.”

  Gnasher keyed his mic. “Send it, Defiance.”

  “The Feds have broken off their attack, it appears their new weapons have ceased to function.” There was a hint of elation in the Commodore’s voice. “What the hell did you do?”

  Letsego cut in. “It was Carpenter, ma’am.”

  “Well, whatever he did it worked. Put him on the line.”

  Gnasher and Letsego looked at each other. After a long second, Gnasher spoke. “He didn’t make it, ma’am.” The tension hung heavy across the radio waves. “He saved us all.”

  His head floated. All around him red consumed him. For what seemed like hours he drifted through nothingness, his consciousness streaming around him. He felt everything and nothing. He tried to close his eyes, but still the color prevailed.

  Then the red subsided and she appeared.

  “It’s been a long time.”

  This must be another memory, he thought. He searched his mind to place it. To remember where this flashback had taken him. But then he realized it was different. This sensation was not like before. She seemed different.

  “Alana,” he said. “Where am I?”

  She smiled. “Exactly where you need to be.”

  He looked around. The setting was indistinguishable. The color swirled. It wasn’t just red, it was the whole spectrum. Blues, greens, yellows. It was all so tranquil.

  He reached out and stroked her cheek. It was real. His fingertips brushed against her soft skin. “You’re… here.”

  She smiled and pushed him away playfully. “I’ve been waiting for you. I’m proud of you.”

  Her words evoked more memories. Real memories. A contract with Windcorp. A perilous journey. A pistol leveled at her head.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  “I killed you.”

  She placed her hand on his neck. “No, you saved me. You saved us all.”

  He looked deep into her eyes. For the first time in a long time he saw hope. He felt hope. And at that moment he knew everything was going to be fine.

  Epilogue

  It was like looking into two worlds.

  From orbit, Prospect was majestic. Two far away lands divided by a thin gray line. From thousands of miles up in space, the lands appeared no more threatening than a walk through Central Park. But Letsego knew the truth.

  He stood alone on the observation deck of the Defiance in his dress grays uniform. The ship was in orbit with the rest of the Peacekeeper Fleet- what was left of the Fleet- around the planet. Outside the half meter thick glass separating him from nothing, was the aftermath of a battle long ended. Hulks and wreckage floated through space, lifeless in the vacuum. Debris disrupted the previously unfettered view of the planet.

  Letsego’s mind drifted. With every capital ship wreckage that passed by, his mind counted the lives that had been snuffed out along with it. There were dozens of ships- thousands of lives. And they had all perished fighting for the desolate rock that now stood as the backdrop.

  He gripped the object in his hand. It was an amalgamation of metal and cloth, a gray ribbon with a single blood red stripe running through it and a silver medallion hanging from one end. The Peacekeeper Const
ellation of Honor. Commodore Long had pinned the award to his chest less than an hour ago, but its weight now hung too heavy for him to bear.

  Footsteps approached on the metal passageway. Letsego turned to see Lieutenant Gnasher approaching.

  “I thought I might find you up here.”

  Letsego turned back to face the viewport. “I’m not much for ceremonies.”

  Gnasher stood next to him in silence. A medal identical to Letsego’s adorned his chest. After a few minutes he spoke. “I’m sorry about Carpenter.”

  Letsego shook his head. “I hardly even knew the man. Less than a week ago we were enemies.”

  Gnasher could see the conflict in the intelligence operative’s eyes. “There was nothing else you could do. He made the decision to stay.”

  “It’s not that,” he said, his conscious tearing at him. “The first time I met David Carpenter I judged him as something he wasn’t. I keep asking myself if I had seen him for who he really was sooner maybe we could have stopped Windcorp and the Federation before this all happened.”

  Gnasher sighed. “Staff Sergeant, I may just be a dumb grunt, but I have learned one thing over the years. You can dwell on the past as much as you want, but you aren’t going to change anything. It’s better to leave it be and move on.”

  He nodded, half absorbing the wisdom. “Thanks, Lieutenant.”

  They stood there a while longer. Letsego appreciated Gnasher’s ability to exist in comfortable silence. He didn’t want to talk right now, but the presence of the Death Diver was welcomed.

  More footsteps approached. Letsego turned to see Commodore Long approaching the observation deck. Both of the junior Peacekeepers’ Pavlovian instincts kicked in and they snapped to attention.

  She waved them down. “At ease.” She reached into her dress grays blouse and pulled out a matte black flask. Unscrewing the cap, she took a pull and then offered it to Gnasher, who did the same.