by Ryk Brown
“Just wondering.”
Josh sighed. “I will miss flying the Falcons, though. Even after they mucked up her slick cockpit.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, they weren’t going to keep flyin’ them forever. They would’ve stuck you in one of them Eagles, or something.”
“Yeah, that’d be real tough,” Josh replied.
“No, you’re not going to miss it at all,” Marcus commented with just a hint of sarcasm.
Josh looked at him. “Fine, I’m gonna miss it. You happy?” Josh looked back out the window. “It’s worth it, though.”
“Assuming the plan works,” Marcus added.
Josh looked at him again, this time with a serious expression on his face. “It’ll work. And even if it doesn’t, it’s still worth it. The captain got us off Haven…showed us the galaxy. He gave us a chance to prove ourselves.” Josh turned to look back out into space again. “Besides, he’d do the same for us… In a heartbeat.”
“You’re preachin’ to the choir, boy.”
Josh chuckled. “Ya, I know.” He sighed. “What about you? You gonna miss it?”
“Gettin’ to boss all them young fuckers around, yell at pilots, have the captain’s ear… Damn right I’m gonna miss it!” It was Marcus’s turn to sigh. “But nothin’ lasts forever. And this seemed a good time to make a change… And a good reason, as well.”
They sat in silence for several minutes, neither of them speaking.
“What do you think we’ll do after we get him back?” Josh wondered.
“You mean, like for work?”
“Yup. How are we gonna make a living?”
“I’m sure we’ll find something.”
“Loki will, that’s for sure,” Josh commented. “What with all that training of his. He’s got certs in just about everything. But me? An honorable discharge and a few tall tales.”
“You can fly anything around,” Marcus reminded him.
“Not according to my file, I can’t. I’ve got three certs.”
“And at least a thousand hours in fighters,” Marcus added, “and a lot of them in combat.”
“In a fifty year-old ship, yeah.”
“With jump drives,” Marcus pointed out. “How many pilots back in the cluster can say that?”
Josh smiled. “Not many, I suppose. But there’s also not many jump-enabled ships in the cluster yet. At least not in the private sector.”
“Why can’t we just stay on this ship?” Marcus suggested.
“And taxi the princess around?” Josh laughed. “That’d be real exciting. What, a few flights a month, maybe?”
“Maybe she’d let us hire out? Run some charters, or freight, maybe? Split the profits three ways. Her, us, and the ship. At the very least, it’d pay for her operations and maintenance. Like you said, there ain’t many jump ships in the cluster just yet.”
“Maybe,” Josh replied. “Still, it won’t be anywhere near as exciting.” His gaze returned to the stars outside. “Loki and I flew some amazing missions, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.” Marcus rose and patted Josh on the shoulder. “There’s still a lot more of them to fly, kid. Trust me. It’s a big galaxy. Now go get some sleep. I’ll take over.”
* * *
“Guard!” Nathan called out through the tiny window in his cell door. A few moments later, he heard heavy footsteps, followed by the sound of the door lock being deactivated.
The door swung open, and Trever appeared, a slight grin on his face. “What?” he asked, doing his best to sound annoyed for the benefit of the guards back at the central guard station.
“I was promised that I would be able to send a final message to my family,” Nathan said. “I finished it.” Nathan held up the data pad.
The guard looked at the data pad, then back at Nathan. “I not to see you again, Scott. My shift completed.” Trever smiled again.
“Thank you,” Nathan said, his face full of sincerity. “For everything.”
Trever nodded respectfully, then stepped back and closed the door behind him.
Nathan stood still as the door locks activated, and the sound of Trever’s boot steps faded into the distance. He heard the buzz of the gate that sealed the block off from the others, as the last person he would ever speak to headed off to deliver his final words to his father.
The last person I will ever see, or speak to, was the enemy. The thought was somehow ironic.
Nathan turned and walked across his cell to the window. The night sky was cloudy, as usual, but tonight, there were at least a few stars peeking from between swaths of dark gray clouds. They were the first stars he had seen since his arrival on Nor-Patri. They were the very stars he had once flown amongst. Stars that he had fought to protect.
All I had wanted to do was to get away, he thought. Now all I want is to get back.
Nathan sat down on his bunk. He wondered what time it was, and how long until his execution would begin. If he waited too long, they might discover him before he bled out. But…
I don’t want to die.
It was terrible for the realization to hit him now, of all times. Since his conviction, he had been wrestling with his fate, and he thought he had come to terms with it. But now, as the moment drew nearer, it all came back.
I don’t want to die.
He kept telling himself at least he was dying for a good reason, but it didn’t seem to help. He thought about his father and his sisters. He thought about his deceased mother, and his older brother, who had died by his own hand. Is there an afterlife? Will I see them there? Will I have to answer for my transgressions?
Nathan tried to dismiss the thoughts. He had never been a spiritual person. The idea that a god, or gods, existed, or did not exist, had always been unimportant to him. He considered it a truth that was unknowable, at least in this life.
Am I about to find out?
He looked up at the surveillance camera on the wall over the door. He could imagine the guards out there at their desk, watching him, laughing at the boy captain who was about to be tortured to death.
I cannot give them the satisfaction, he decided.
Nathan pulled back the covers on his bed and lay down, facing the wall, his back to the camera. He covered himself up, as if he were about to go to sleep. Once covered, he slipped his fingers under the edge of the mattress along the wall, feeling for the knife that Trever had purposefully left behind.
He found it. Cold, smooth. He pulled it out carefully, and slowly maneuvered it into position, the tip at the center of his abdomen.
In the gut and up? Between the ribs and in?
Nathan moved the tip of the knife up to his chest, feeling with his free hand for his ribs. They were easy to find, given his undernourished state.
He felt something hard, in his shirt pocket. He reached inside to see what it was, pulling his hand out from under the blanket.
The bullet.
It was the bullet that he had fired to kill his brother. It was the only thing that the Jung had allowed him to keep when he surrendered. Nathan’s eyes began to swell with tears. “Forgive me, Eli,” he whispered.
With the bullet still in his hand, he pushed carefully with his fingers, finding a spot between his ribs that he presumed to be directly over his heart. He moved the tip of the knife carefully to the same spot, lining it up alongside his finger.
‘You’ll never know how important you are to me.’ They were Jessica’s last words to him. Odd that they would be his last thought before taking his own life.
I can do this.
Nathan closed his eyes.
One……two……
A distant sound startled him. The gate again. Boots, several of them. Different types, and even different weights. And j
ust as many voices… One of them was familiar…
The boot steps stopped for a moment, the voices continuing in Jung. Nathan lay there, frozen, the tip of his knife against his chest, ready to dive in and take his life.
The voices ceased, and the boot steps began again. This time, there were only two pairs, but they were getting closer.
Nathan moved the knife slowly back down to its hiding place under the edge of the mattress along the wall, then pushed his covers back and sat up on the edge of his bed, just as the door locks on his cell door deactivated.
The door swung open, and another guard stepped in. Nathan did not know the guard’s name, but he had seen his face before, usually on night shift. The next face that appeared, he did recognize.
“Bacca,” Nathan said, his voice full of contempt.
“Captain Scott,” the general replied, an arrogant smile on his face. “Happy to see me?”
“You were not on the short list of people I wanted to see before I died,” Nathan replied icily.
“You mean, before you are put through excruciating torture, and eventually allowed to die,” Bacca corrected. “Let’s be accurate, shall we?”
“Don’t tell me you came all the way here, at what surely must be well past your bedtime, just to rub it in.”
“On the contrary, my dear young captain, I am here to ensure that you do, in fact, die.”
“What?”
“You see, our nanites are quite good at keeping the human body alive,” the general explained as he paced the length of Nathan’s cell. “Especially the ones that we gave you upon your surrender. We couldn’t allow you to die during your interrogation.” The general turned to look at Nathan. “You do remember your interrogation, don’t you?”
“Vividly,” Nathan replied. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“You’re quite welcome. Anyway, it seems that some idiot—although a well-connected idiot—forgot to disable those nanites before turning you over for trial. And we can’t have you refusing to die for the cameras, now can we?”
“Yeah, I suppose that wouldn’t make for a very good execution, would it,” Nathan replied mockingly. “So, what are you going to do?”
“Well, we have to deactivate them, of course.”
“With what?”
The general turned to the guard, barking orders in Jung. The guard nodded, grunted acknowledgment, and disappeared back through the door.
“We have a special device,” the general explained, turning toward the door. “And a special person to operate it,” he added.
Nathan squinted, unsure of the general’s meaning. He then noticed the light on the surveillance camera go out. Then two more pairs of boot steps in the corridor, followed by two more uniformed Jung officers entering his cell.
Nathan’s eyes widened. He could feel his mouth about to fall open, but a stern look from General Bacca as he turned back around warned him against it. Nathan immediately regained control, as the guard peeked inside the room and asked the general a question in Jung. The general answered, after which the guard closed and locked the door.
General Bacca put his index finger to his lips, as Jessica and Commander Telles pulled a device out of Jessica’s bag.
The commander opened the device, then removed several components, pressing them in strategic locations to break them apart and reveal an interior cavity. He pulled out another small device and activated it. “It is safe to speak, but quietly,” he said in hushed tones.
Nathan allowed his eyes to open wide again, and his mouth to drop open. “What are you all doing here?”
Commander Telles immediately stepped in front of the closed cell door, effectively blocking the view of anyone attempting to peek through the tiny window from the other side.
Jessica quickly set her bag on the floor and stepped up to Nathan, throwing her arms around him.
Nathan was speechless, his mouth still agape. He closed his eyes and embraced her, savoring the moment. “Is this really happening?” he whispered. “Are you really here?”
Jessica pulled back from him slightly, “What? You weren’t expecting us?”
“I don’t understand,” Nathan said still trying to fully grasp the situation. He looked at General Bacca, who was smiling with one eyebrow up. “Wait… Are you guys prisoners?”
“Of Bacca’s?” Jessica scoffed. “Fat chance. If anything, he’s our prisoner.”
Bacca cast a disapproving glance at Jessica. “Actually, we have ‘an arrangement’.”
Nathan looked skeptical. “Are you crazy? You can’t trust this…”
“It’s a long story,” Jessica interrupted, “and we don’t have much time.”
“You can’t be here,” Nathan objected. “You’re jeopardizing everything.” He looked at Commander Telles. “I’d expect something like this from Jessica, but not from you. Of all people, you should understand why I must die.”
“I do understand,” the commander replied in hushed tones. “As I also understand that you must live.”
“You’re saying that because you’re programmed to protect me,” Nathan insisted.
“On the contrary, Captain. I was programmed to protect you. But such programming requires periodic refresh, lest its effect fades. I am here of my own volition. I am here because I believe you have a much greater destiny to yet fulfill.”
“You’re not buying into the Na-Tan crap, are you?” Nathan wondered, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Prophecies are born of ignorance, oppression, and discontent,” the commander replied. “My belief in your destiny is based upon my observations of facts and events, and of your response to them, nothing more. I am no more likely to believe in Na-Tan than I am to believe in any of the gods of the various human religions.”
Jessica pulled the Nifelmian device from her bag and set it on the table.
“This is insane,” Nathan continued. “I cannot walk out of here with you. Doing so will start a much greater war. Billions will die, perhaps trillions. I cannot live with that.”
“We are not asking you to do so,” the commander said. “Captain, you must trust that we have a plan.”
Nathan noticed the device that Jessica was setting up on the table, and the odd-looking cap to which she was connecting several cables. “What plan?” he asked. “And what the hell is that?”
“They’re going to clone you,” the general proclaimed in amusement.
Nathan looked at Jessica, who was now standing in front of him holding the wired, cloth cap. “He’s kidding, right?” Nathan looked at Telles. “Tell me he’s kidding.”
“I cannot.”
“We’ve got it all worked out,” Jessica began, talking quickly. “We copy your memories and consciousness, everything that makes you, you. Then we take it, and a DNA sample back to the lab that Sato and Megel are setting up on Corinair. They’ll clone you, and then transfer your consciousness and memories into your new body. The Jung will have their dead war criminal, and you’ll still live.”
“As who?” Nathan demanded. “And who the hell are Sato and Megel? Where did you get this device?”
“Sato and Megel are cloning specialists from Nifelm.”
“The clone world?”
“Yes. They volunteered to help, but we had to sneak them off their world,” Jessica explained.
“What? Why?”
“Another long story,” Jessica replied. “It will work, Nathan. It has to.”
“But where am I going to live, and who am I going to be?” Nathan demanded to know. “I can’t go back to Earth. I can’t be Nathan Scott any longer.”
“We’ll figure all that out later,” Jessica promised him. “It’s a big fucking galaxy, Nathan. Surely we can find somewhere you can live out your life, in peace. You deserve that much.”
“Wherever it is, it’ll have to be far away from the Jung, that’s for sure,” Nathan insisted. “How are we going to get around?”
“We have a ship already,” Jessica told him. “Nathan, trust us. We’ve got this all worked out.” Jessica looked in his eyes. “You trust us, don’t you?”
Nathan looked at her, and then Telles. “Of course I trust you. Both of you.” He cast a disapproving look at Bacca. “You, not a bit.”
“No offense taken,” the general replied.
Nathan looked at Jessica again. “And I’ll remember everything? I’ll still be me?”
“Yes…” Jessica looked down, suddenly avoiding his eyes. “Probably.”
“Probably?” Nathan looked at Telles for an explanation.
“The device was designed for use on Nifelmians,” the commander explained. “They have been genetically altered over the centuries to facilitate the transfer of consciousness and memories along to each successive host body. There is no guarantee that it will work as intended on you.”
Nathan turned to General Bacca.
“News to me, my boy.”
Nathan looked at Jessica next. “What are my chances?”
“Sato and Megel are pretty sure that your consciousness and personality will be intact, but they are unsure about your memories.”
Nathan noticed the worry in Jessica’s eyes. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“There is also risk of psychiatric disorders,” Commander Telles added.
“How bad?”
“It is impossible to estimate.”
“At least it’s a chance,” Jessica urged.
“Not much of one,” Nathan muttered, contemplating the idea.
“Nathan, say the word and we’ll take you with us, as you are. We’ll blast our way out and be jumping to safety before you know it.”