Fringe Campaign

by Rachel Aukes

  Reyne snapped on her. “Is that what the CUF taught you? To kill one person, take out a city?”

  “No,” she said. “It’s what my father taught me. If we’d killed only Ausyar, Parliament would wonder what we’re capable of. By using the blight to kill Ausyar, Parliament would tremble at what we’re capable of. Now, they’ll be willing to negotiate.”

  “And you can fly off into the stars,” Reyne finished, then sighed. “Your impatience has cost us our honor.” He rubbed his forehead and turned away from the group.

  “What’s done is done,” Seda said. “Reyne, I realize now that you should have been there. You have my word that all major decisions going forward must be discussed and voted on by all three marshals. You, Critch, and Gabriela are a triad, each with your own strengths. You balance out one another. The colonies need each of you to fight for their freedom.”

  As Seda spoke, a decision came to Reyne. He felt the arthritis in his joints, he felt the sorrow of losing Throttle, and he felt the anguish Sixx was going through. He knew where he needed to be. He turned back to face them. “As leaders, it’s our job to represent the best of the colonists. What happened today was the opposite. We showed the entire Collective we’re no different than Ausyar when we want something. You’ve taken the Campaign down a path I never would’ve gone, and now you need to ride it where it leads. I can’t be a part of that.”

  With that, he opened the door and left.

  He’d made it halfway through the hangar before he heard footsteps behind him. He turned, surprised to see Critch was the one to come after him.

  Reyne sighed. “I know you fired the torpedo. Did it take away the pain of losing Broken Mountain?”

  Critch shook his head. “No. But I couldn’t sit by and watch Ausyar bomb the next Broken Mountain. Not when there was something I could do about it.”

  “I know,” Reyne said. “I don’t blame you for wanting revenge, but you shouldn’t have cut me out. We could’ve found another way.”

  “This was the only way,” Critch said.

  “There’s always another way.” Reyne turned, then took a deep sigh. “I know your intentions are good, but that doesn’t change the fact you crossed a line when you used the blight. You should’ve destroyed it the moment you saw it. Instead, you used it to make a statement, no different than how Ausyar used it. There’s nothing I can do for the Campaign, but I can look after my crew. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  Reyne started walking.

  “I hope you find her,” Critch said.

  Reyne paused for a moment, and then kept on walking.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Data Dump

  Torrent Headquarters, Terra

  Heid

  Heid sat at the desk in her room at Seda’s retreat and reread the message from Vapor for the umpteenth time.

  Data file is clean. No risks detected.

  She blew out a breath and leaned back. She never expected she’d be sitting there, deciding whether to open the file or not. She’d assumed the file was dirty, with a Trojan, virus, or something else. But the best hacker in the Collective verified it’s clean, so it has to be clean, right?

  She tentatively placed her hand on the scanner. After the system accepted her DNA as a match, it took several seconds to open the file. She began to have second thoughts, when it finally opened. A recording of her father started playing. She frowned.

  Hello, Gabriela. I’m glad you opened this file. I wish we could have spoken again, but I suppose that’s not possible, since my daughter died the day she betrayed me, the Founders, and the Collective.

  Heid’s eyes grew wide, and she tried to shut off the playback, but it wouldn’t stop.

  Today, the person who continues to bear the name Gabriela Heid will cease to exist so that my daughter may rest in peace. Goodbye Gabriela.

  She jumped to her feet at the same time the computer exploded with the force of a small bomb.

  Gabriela Heid never felt a thing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Finding the Eversea

  Torrent Headquarters, Terra

  Reyne

  The Gryphon wasn’t scheduled to depart until the next morning, which meant Reyne had to stay another night at Seda’s retreat. He had just settled in bed to read, when the lights flickered, followed by an explosion that shook the walls. He dashed out into the hallway to see Critch, wearing only pants, jump out from his room. They caught each other’s eyes for an instant before turning to see smoke curl out from under Heid’s door.

  “No.” The word spilt from Reyne’s slack-jawed lips.

  The pair raced down the hallway to her room.

  Critch reached the door first and tried to open it. “Locked,” he growled and pounded on the door. “Heid!”

  Seda came running down the hallway. “Move.” He shoved Critch to the side and placed his hand over the access screen. The lock clicked, and Seda threw the door open.

  The building’s air system was already sucking out the smoky air, leaving behind the stench of burnt wires. Computer shards were impaled in the walls. The three men rushed into the room to find Heid crumpled on the floor.

  Seda reached her first. He kneeled and tenderly rolled her over. He didn’t check for a pulse. It was obvious that he didn’t need to. The computer had exploded with such force that hundreds of small pieces had hit her chest like a shotgun blast at short range. The front of her body was darkened by electrical soot and blood.

  He wiped a tuft of hair from Heid’s face. Critch and Reyne stood next to him, looking down at her.

  Hari squeezed between Critch and Reyne. She fell to her knees next to Seda. She clenched her fists against her mouth. “No.”

  Reyne looked over to where the computer had sat. There was nothing left except char where even the metal had melted in places. The power supply was a black hole. He thought back to the lights in his room. The code had somehow suppressed any electrical system safeguards while calling a power surge at such speed and intensity as to create a single burst of energy.

  It was a genius, horrific plan. He grimaced, unable to fathom what Mason had done. How could a man kill his own daughter?

  He swallowed back the bile coming into his mouth. “The data file. Mason included a kill code with the file.”

  “Mason,” Critch snarled, and began pacing the room with clenched fists. “I should’ve killed him back on Alluvia.”

  “Impossible. Heid had Vapor scan the file,” Seda said, stiffened, and then growled, “Vapor was the one who embedded the code in the first place.”

  Hari leaned on the floor for support. “I don’t understand why a hacker would do this. She’s helped us on several occasions.”

  Seda scowled. “She helped because we paid her well. She’s known throughout the fringe as the best hacker out there. Mason would know her, and I imagine he paid even better.”

  In a fury, Critch grabbed a vase and threw it against the wall. Everyone watched, but no one said anything. Without making eye contact, he walked over to Heid, bent over, and picked her up as though she were a sleeping child. He carried her over to the bed and laid her down upon it. He murmured a prayer under his breath, and covered her with a blanket.

  Critch turned back to the group. “Tomorrow, we mourn. Then, we hunt Mason down and take him apart, one piece at a time.”

  They held a funeral for Gabriela Heid and the Arcadia’s crew the following day in the Rebus Station churchyard. The funeral had been planned before Heid’s tragic death to free both her and her crew from the Collective’s death warrants. The mission she’d taken to free her crew from the CUF’s shackles had been courageous, even though he’d later learned the mission had served the ulterior purpose of killing Corps General Ausyar.

  Despite his opinion on the latter part of the mission, he admitted there was a certain feeling of completion in having the Arcadia destroyed by its former armada. The loss of the Arcadia was a tremendous blow to the Campaign and a waste of a good ship
. However, the CUF never would’ve stopped going after their stolen warship. Any peace negotiations would hinge on the ship being returned to the armada, and the three marshals had agreed that it was better for no one to have the warship than to give it back to the armada.

  As for Arcadia’s crew, all, except Heid and the six killed in the Terran mission, were now considered dead in the eyes of the Collective. With fake identifications, they could go on to live full, free lives after the Campaign, assuming the fringe could break free from the Collective. Otherwise, Reyne knew that at some point in the future, one of the “dead” crew members would get arrested and undergo a DNA scan. They’d deal with the aftermath if and when that time came.

  Right now, the crew was alive and free…except for Heid and the six, that was. He found it hard to stomach the irony of a fake funeral being held to allay any CUF suspicions, knowing that Heid’s body lay enshrouded within the large stack of wood. Her body couldn’t be seen, so any CUF spies watching would assume it was a symbolic funeral service since it was believed she was killed when the Arcadia was destroyed.

  Since the five remaining crewmembers from the Arcadia’s final mission were also believed to be dead, they were watching via comm screens, along with the remaining crew at Nova Colony. The five knew of Heid’s death, but Reyne wondered if someone had told the rest of her crew yet. He frowned. He should’ve checked.

  Even without any crew in attendance, the funeral was huge, with hundreds of Terran colonists and torrents present. Reyne stood in the front row alongside Critch and Seda. Sixx, Boden, Hari, and several from Critch’s crew stood behind them.

  Reyne cast a quick glance over the crowd and swallowed the discomforting thought that if the CUF chose to bomb them now, the entire Campaign—along with Rebus Station—would be decimated in a single blast. He kept the concern to himself, as no one needed to dwell on that thought.

  The funeral was conducted as a Terran service, despite Heid being Alluvian and having no religious affiliation. Heid lay, covered in dark muslin, disguised deeply within a pyre of traditional afromosia wood, the same wood used to make Terran whiskey barrels.

  The minister gave a nice sermon, though Reyne thought he droned on a bit long. Reyne knew Heid never would’ve asked for a service—she’d once told him she’d had enough rituals and procedures for one lifetime from her service in the CUF and serving the Founders. He found it more than a little ironic she was being forced to endure rituals even after her death.

  Reyne was growing stiff from standing by the time the minister gave his final words.

  “Gabriela Heid, marshal of the colonies, may you find the eversea.”

  The minister nodded in the trio’s direction, and Reyne lifted a torch, as did Seda and Critch. The minister’s apprentice carried a small torch over to them. The apprentice set alight each of the three larger torches, one by one, before hustling away.

  The three men shared a quick glance before they stepped up to the pyre.

  “May you find the eversea,” Critch said quietly. He touched the torch to the pyre, and flames flickered to life.

  Seda echoed the statement and touched his torch to another part of the pyre.

  Reyne then repeated the same.

  The pyre, lit at three places, erupted in flames.

  The men stepped back as the fire engulfed Heid’s body. Heat prickled Reyne’s face, but he stood watch as the fire grew, and blocked any view of the body becoming ash.

  He’d cared for Heid, but truthfully, he’d never had enough of a chance to know her. When they’d talked, it had almost always been about the Campaign and the colonies’ independence. He felt sorrow that he, Critch, and Seda stood in to represent her when none of them truly knew her. He knew her crew would greatly mourn her loss, and he wished they could’ve been there in person for the funeral.

  As it’d been for her, Reyne’s crew was his real family, and as their captain and father figure, he hoped he never had to see off any of his crew on their journey to the eversea. Especially Throttle. His greatest fear—the fear that woke him every night with a cold sweat—was that Throttle would die before him. Anguish squeezed his heart.

  Seda glanced down at his wrist comm, and then looked to Critch and Reyne. He nodded for them to follow. Reyne gave one final parting look toward Heid. He turned to Boden and Sixx. “I’ll meet you back at the ship,” he whispered, before following Seda from the churchyard.

  When they reached the sidewalk, Seda spoke. “The CUF has a new corps general, and he’s on his way down here right now to negotiate a peace treaty. He’ll be here within the hour.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Renegotiations

  Rebus Station, Terra

  Seda

  Seda had a feeling of déjà vu as he waited in his chambers for the new corps general to arrive. Critch sat in the same chair as he had last time. The only difference was, this time, Reyne sat in a chair next to him.

  “Thanks for staying,” Seda said to Reyne.

  Reyne gave him a look. “When this is done, I’m still leaving. What happened last night doesn’t change my mind.”

  Seda gave a tight nod. He couldn’t blame Reyne. Where Critch was vengeance and Heid had been determination, Reyne was conscience. Seda was the negotiator, a neutral hand to lead the colonies to freedom. It was his failure that they’d hid the blight from Reyne. And Seda feared that failure would come to haunt him. Seda had resources and understood politics, but Critch and Reyne understood military strategy. They needed each other if the colonies were to achieve a true independence. And what Seda saw today was that they were falling apart. First, Heid’s death. Now, Reyne’s imminent departure. Without strong, united leadership, how could they maintain a unified fringe?

  Feeling the weight upon his shoulders, he took a seat at his desk to monitor the CUF envoy. They’d pulled up outside the stationhouse and were now entering the building. Seda turned on the video for recording in case this new leader was even worse than Ausyar. Seda nearly chortled. Someone worse than Ausyar? Couldn’t be possible…could it?

  He stood as the CUF officer entered the room with his entourage. The man was easily twenty years younger than Ausyar, and an Alluvian where Ausyar was a Myrad. That distinction alone gave Seda hope. Alluvians were much easier to talk to.

  “Hello, Stationmaster Faulk. I’m Corps General Barrett Anders.” The man held out his hand.

  Seda gripped his forearm. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Corps General. I recognize you from when you accompanied your predecessor here to discuss negotiations.” He motioned to the two empty chairs, and they each sat.

  “Yes,” Anders said. “It was unfortunate more progress could not have been made that day.”

  “I agree,” Seda said.

  “Before we begin,” Anders began. “I’d like to offer you my condolences for Gabriela Heid. Gabi and I studied at the academy together, and I was shocked to learn of her choosing the colonies over the Collective.” He paused. “In the Forces, it’s considered an honor to go down with one’s ship. At least she had that.”

  “Yes, she had.” Seda’s eye twitched when Critch muttered something behind him. “She was an admirable marshal and respected captain. Her death was a waste and completely unnecessary.”

  “The Collective Unified Forces code of conduct would have me disagree.” He sighed. “But I’m only human, and I mourn her death, nonetheless.”

  “As do we all,” Seda concurred. “Let me offer my condolences for the death of Corps General Michel Ausyar and the crew of the Unity. What happened was truly tragic.”

  “It was,” Anders said, leaning in. “It took me some time to convince myself that something as truly evil as the blight not only still existed, but that there were those who still found value in its application.”

  Seda forced himself to not glance in Critch or Reyne’s direction. He focused on the corps general who sat before him. “As I said. I found the event to be a tragedy of the highest order.”

&nb
sp; Anders eyes narrowed. “I’ve found myself in a dilemma when it comes to you and to what happened about Rebus Station on that fateful day. If you didn’t condone the use of the blight, then I can only assume that you have no control over the torrents, and negotiations with you are then null and voice.” He lifted a finger. “However, if you did condone the use of the deadly fungus, then I can only assume you find no value in the life of your enemy, and I worry how many innocents could die in your quest for independence.”

  Inside, Seda raged. He hated the concept of the blight. Worse, the knowledge of his role in its latest application sickened him. If there had been any other way to level the field, he’d have taken it. But there hadn’t been another way.

  Seda eyed Anders. “I can assure you that any negotiations mutually agreed upon in this room will be adhered to by the colonists. And, I can also assure you that I treasure life very, very much. After all, my respect for life is why I’ve dedicated my life—and finances—to ensuring colonists can live as fully and freely as citizens.”

  Anders rubbed his hands together. “I believe that brings us to the matter at hand. I have notified Parliament of my intentions to negotiate with you a peace treaty that mutually benefits citizens and colonists. Parliament has not authorized these negotiations, but I’m here. I believe if we reach a fair and equitable solution, Parliament must consider it.”

  “I would like to think they would as well,” Seda said, though he doubted it.

  “I have given great thought to what you discussed during the first meeting, and wish to begin with your original proposal. I’m much younger than my predecessor, so forgive my lack of experience. However, my entire life, I have seen turmoil between Myr and Alluvia and the colonies. If there’s something I can do to end that turmoil, I will do it.” He paused for the briefest of moments. “You want Parliament to accept your declaration of independence as a legal document. You demand that all the colonies be recognized as free and independent from the Collective, with trade opportunities.”