ByteMe: isn’t that mostly water?
Zhang, B: i’m a pretty buoyant guy. but yeah, got out when i could
ByteMe: family?
Zhang, B: mom and sisters. pay mostly goes into accounts for my nieces and nephews. don’t need much myself
ByteMe: uncle byron <3
Zhang, B: upstart
ByteMe: so what made you take up the fight, Mr. Information Liberty Activist?
Zhang, B: hush, I’m working
ByteMe: spill
Zhang, B: i’ll tell you when you’re older
ByteMe: oh come onnnnn
Zhang, B: (dramatic sigh)
Zhang, B: “The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.”
ByteMe: …
ByteMe: what?
Zhang, B: Wole Soyinka said that. he was a writer, back in 20C. studied him in college. wrote about injustice. Plays, poems, books. good stuff. u should read him
ByteMe: what’s a book?
Zhang, B: …
Zhang, B: hey what r u doing looking over in that core? dead there
ByteMe: checking shutdown + restart logs, might find something helpful
Zhang, B: good, smart
ByteMe: this is weird tho. there are like 6 shutdown attempts in a row here, all fail. AIDAN was blocking them
Zhang, B: when?
ByteMe: right when they were firing on the Copernicus
Zhang, B: … say WHAT?
Chau, A, Capt: You sonofabitch, David
Torrence, D, Gen: Excuse me?
Chau, A, Capt: It killed them. All of them. I have it all here on file. Launch codes for the nukes. Orders for your Cyclone drones to take out the surviving shuttles. AIDAN murdered over two thousand people, and you’re trying to bring it back online?
Torrence, D, Gen: Where did you get those files?
Chau, A, Capt: How long did you think you could keep this a secret? You didn’t think to mention your AI’s judgment is so critically impaired?
Torrence, D, Gen: Where did you get those files, Captain? I gave explicit orders your technicians were to access designated areas ONLY.
Chau, A, Capt: My God, what does it matter how I got them? My people are helping you get AIDAN up and running again and we have NO GUARANTEES it won’t kill us all as soon as it becomes operational.
Torrence, D, Gen: AIDAN is already operational. It was deactivated on my orders. And we’re working to ensure it doesn’t hurt anyone when we turn it back on.
Chau, A, Capt: And that’s supposed to comfort me?
Torrence, D, Gen: This is an act of espionage in a time of war. Do you realize the consequences? You are directly undermining the security of this fleet. I could have you and your entire command staff brought up on charges and shot.
Chau, A, Capt: We are done, do you understand me? My people are out. We are ceasing in any operations to bring the AI back into operational status until I have some guarantee it won’t destroy us all at its earliest opportunity.
Torrence, D, Gen: I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Captain. The Lincoln WILL destroy us when it catches us, and I need your crews to bring AIDAN online before they do.
Chau, A, Capt: Jesus, David, two days ago you were unwilling to let my people near your systems. And now you’re telling me they can’t stop?
Torrence, D, Gen: Is it any wonder I was reluctant to allow your people access, given the current circumstances?
Chau, A, Capt: My crew are civilians. They’re under MY command. I will NOT allow them to participate in an action that places my ship and personnel in danger.
Torrence, D, Gen: Then they’re not civilians anymore.
Chau, A, Capt: What?
Torrence, D, Gen: I’m conscripting your commtech staff into the UTA, effective immediately. You will have them assembled on your main hangar deck and ready to depart in 30 minutes. A shuttle is being sent to get them.
Chau, A, Capt: You can’t do this.
Torrence, D, Gen: A full complement of UTA Marines will accompany the shuttle and help escort your personnel back to Alexander. I would recommend you refrain from resistance.
Chau, A, Capt: David, think this through, please
Torrence, D, Gen: 30 minutes.
Torrence, D, Gen: Centrum tenenda. Torrence out.
INCEPT: 07/28/75 (06:58 shipboard time)
LOCATION: Wallace Ulyanov Consortium Science Vessel Hypatia
OFFICER IDENT: Winifred McCall (UTN-961-641id)
RANK: First Lieutenant
_________________________________
At 02:07 (shipboard time) on 07/28/75, Sigma Squad and I were scrambled to a Code Blue alert issued by Alexander command staff. Squad mustered in a timely fashion to deck 146, where we were briefed by General Torrence.
The boss looked tired. More tired than I can ever remember seeing him.
Sit-rep: Hypatia’s commtech crew had been forcefully conscripted into the UTA after an (unspecified) act of espionage instigated by Hypatia officers. A shuttle was being sent to bring the conscripts back to Alexander where our TechEng crew could keep closer watch on them.
My boys were still jumpy after the incident in Hangar Bay 4, but my vets had more experience than the Alexander’s other marines, so we were up. Having lost McNulty, Henderson, Parker, Montano and Gandolfini, I had no choice but to put my Kerenza rookies in the firing line. Corporal Sykes had been in a darker mood than usual since Bay 4—if it was up to him, I’m sure he’d have flushed every civi in the fleet out an airlock.
“We expecting resistance, boss?” he asked.
“Negative,” Torrence replied. “These are civilians, they’ll do what they’re told. Still, you’re packing hot ballistics. The chipheads are off-limits, but if anyone else is stupid enough to get in your way, you be the push that makes them move.”
Sykes’s smile put ice in my belly. “Roger that, sir.”
“Sir,” I asked. “Aren’t we there to pacify rather than neutralize?”
“You are there, Lieutenant, to bring back personnel vital to fleet operations. If we didn’t need all our own people, I’d have already brigged Hypatia’s commanders and replaced them with UTA personnel. So if anyone gets in your way, they are to be considered enemy combatants and dealt with accordingly. Is that understood?”
“Sir, yessir.”
“Good hunting.”
On the way down to Hangar Bay 1, we passed the airlock to Bay 4. I tried my best not to think about the man trapped inside it, the people beyond it. Who they were and what they’d become. The gold UTA sigil on my sleeve caught the light of the alert globes spinning above the sealed doors. Red as the blood on my hands.
The trip across to Hypatia was taken in complete silence. I should’ve been talking to my people, making sure they were chill. I could barely stop my teeth from chattering. One of my Kerenza rooks was looking at me—Doherty was her name. Staring from behind her wire-rimmed spectacles like I had the answers. I kept my eyes to the floor. Spoke to no one in particular.
“Follow my lead. Do not fire unless I give the order. The first itchy trigger on my watch gets to learn what the outside of an airlock tastes like, crystal?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” came a dozen barks.
We came into Hypatia’s docking bay at hard burn. The artificial grav kicked back in and dropped me into my seat and I was up and out of it before I could get cozy. If I’d let myself, I’d have stayed there forever—buckled in tight and wondering how it came to this.
I spoke to the pilot as we touched down. “Kilpatrick, keep engines running. We may need to jet quick.”
“Affirmative, LT.”
“All right,” Sykes barked to the squad. “Suit up, let’s roll.”
Out the shuttle door and across the bay, the stink of fuel and char in my mouth. Patching my
self into the local Command frequency and speaking through gritted teeth.
“Hypatia, this is First Lieutenant Winifred McCall from UTA Marine Squad Sigma. We are here to escort Hypatia commtech personnel in accordance with Alexander Command directives. Please open internal hangar bay doors, over?”
“Lieutenant McCall, this is Captain Chau of the Hypatia, over.”
“Roger that, Captain, I read you. Please open internal hangar bay doors, over.”
“Negative, Lieutenant. You’re not taking my people.”
I tried not to sigh then. Tried not to acknowledge I knew exactly how she felt to have one of my guys ripped away from me, or remember McNulty’s face as that airlock slammed closed.
“They’re not your people anymore, Captain. They’re UTA conscripts. Now you can open these doors, or the plasma missiles on our shuttle can open them for you.”
Silence down comms, then. Doherty looking at me the way kids must look at their mothers. Wondering if any of this was real. Sykes spat on the deck, spat down his transmitter.
“Open the fucking doors before we blow them in, goddammit.”
I had Sykes’s collar in my fist before I knew it. Hand over my mic so Hypatia couldn’t hear. Dragging him close enough to smell the hooch on his breath.
“You secure that bullshit right now, or I’ll kick your teeth so hard you’ll need to unzip for me to lace up.”
Silent rebellion in his eyes. I should have benched him right there. I could see the names written on his face. Parker. Henderson. Gandolfini. Montano. McNulty.
“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” he said.
The airlock doors opened wide. What passed for Hypatia’s Sec Squad was waiting for us on the other side. Their Lieutenant looked former military, but he was about twenty years too old, about eighty pounds too slow.
“Where are the commtechs?” I asked.
“On the bridge,” the LT replied. “They’re still working to get us out of this mess.”
“You ex-UTA, LT?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then you know what a VK assault rifle does to a human body at close range?”
A swallow. A glance to the weapon in my hand. “Yes, I do.”
“Lead the way.”
Through long gleaming halls, boots squeaking on rubber floors. All of it surgical white once, but just a little faded now. Pale faces peering at us from behind grubby plasteel windows. Unshaven cheeks or pink dye jobs with six months of regrowth at the roots. Frightened eyes. All of us fraying at the edges.
The Hypatia bridge was semi-circular. Humming with static. Chau had cleared most of her personnel out in case things went south of heaven. The remaining crew glanced up as we entered. I could imagine how we looked. All in black. Hollow eyes. Thirty-eight rounds of murder in every clip.
My hands were shaking.
Chau was short. Carved out of wood. Dark hair. Pistol at her belt. Running on no sleep, by the look, standing at her post like some old lighthouse keeper—the only thing between us and the rocks. I identified the commtechs from their shipboard IDs—both still pounding away at their consoles, like nothing was happening. I spoke loud enough to be heard across the whole bridge.
“Byron Zhang, Consuela Nestor, you are hereby ordered to accompany me to the UTA Battlecarrier Alexander.”
“Tell me how you think this ends, Lieutenant.”
It was Chau speaking. Hand on her pistol. She was looking out the huge viewscreen dominating one end of the room. I could see a tiny spark on the long range scanner, out there amid all the black and starlight. Its ID tag and countdown to intercept pulsing red:
BT042-TN. 52 hours: 17 minutes.
Lincoln.
“I don’t get paid to think,” I said. “I follow orders. Stand aside, Captain.”
Chau smiled like I’d said something funny. One of the commtechs stood up, then. Byron Zhang. Supposedly a top-tier console jockey. He sure looked the part. Overweight. Thinning hair. Underarm stains.
“It’s a good thing they don’t pay you to think,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like your thing.”
“Zhang, get your gear, you’re coming with us.”
“No.” He set pudgy hands on his hips. Tried to keep his voice from shaking. “You’ll have to drag us. Kicking and screaming.”
“I’ll give you something to scream about,” Sykes growled.
“ ‘The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny,’ ” he said.
“Listen, Zhang, I appreciate the rhetoric, but anyone can do math this simple. We need every swinging dick back on Alexander and you two are the best chipheads on Hypatia.”
Zhang’s lips twisted, then. An “I know something you don’t know” kind of smile that turned my mood darker. I wanted this over. I wanted to be back in my rack with a canteen of rocket fuel and a few hours of the forgetting it would bring. Still, I knew what kind of edge Sykes was dancing on. I should have given the order to someone else.
“Corporal Sykes, secure the conscripts for transport back to Alexander.”
His grin went all the way to his eyes. “Ma’am, yes ma’am.”
He slapped Hart and Bedggood on the arms, and the trio loped forward, pulling zip ties from their belts. I could feel my Kerenza rookies beside me, all of them playing at being soldiers, all of them just nerves and gritted teeth. Doherty in particular looked jumpy. What had she done before this? Security guard at a shopping mall? A library maybe? I couldn’t remember …
My eyes were on the Hypatia security team—they all looked a crossed word away from drawing. Sweat in my eyes. Hard to breathe. Chau’s voice rose above the pulse in my ears.
“Lieutenant, do you know your commanders plan to re-activate the artificial intelligence responsible for destroying the Copernicus? Do you know Major Hawking and two other Alexander officers were executed under General Torrence’s direct orders—”
“Shut up. One more minute and this will all be over.”
Sykes and the others reached the commtechs. Zhang had sat himself on the floor and folded his arms—some gesture of peaceful protest that earned him as much latitude as a faceful of spit. Sykes grabbed his arm, and when Zhang resisted, the corporal popped him with the butt of his VK. Zhang’s nose spat blood, the other commtech shouted protest. And that was all it took. Fists and elbows and knees. Pasty flesh slapping the floor. In about five seconds, Zhang and Nestor were trussed up on the floor like abattoir meat.
“Stop it, Jesus!” the SecTeam Lieutenant roared. My VK was right in his face.
“Stand down, LT,” I warned.
“This is bullshit! You people are animals!”
“Captain, order your people to stand down! No one needs to get hurt here!”
The LT’s hand was on his pistol.
My finger on my trigger.
Doherty beside me, her voice rising an octave. “Lieutenant?”
“Lieutenant, stand down!” Chau barked.
I think that’s what did it. Simple mistake. Chau should’ve used his name. Should’ve made it clear she was ordering her own LT, not me. Because to someone with a few light-years under their belt, it would’ve been obvious Chau was drawing her pistol to surrender it. I’ve watched the recordings a hundred times. You can see it on her face. Resignation. One hand up in surrender. But to a terrified rookie who used to guard the school library, it might have looked like Chau was drawing the piece to use it. That she was shouting at me to stand down, and if I didn’t, she was prepared to shoot me in the back.
So Doherty did what she’d been ordered to do.
“… you be the push that makes them move.”
It was a good shot. Took Chau right in the head. I heard a scream from the Nav-Comp, and Syra Boll, one of Chau’s 2ICs was charging across the deck, cradling her dead Captain in her arms. The SecTeam were shouting, we were roaring, VKs in
their faces. I don’t know how it held together. I don’t know what stopped us heading south of heaven, right then and there. Maybe it was Zhang. Sitting with his bleeding face, tear-filled eyes locked on his Captain’s body. Legs crossed. Back straight. Not fighting. Just resisting.
What had he said?
“ ‘The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.’ ”
The woman, too.
I can’t do this. I can’t pretend this is what I signed up for. I brought them back, just like I was told. Both Hypatia commtechs, delivered to General Torrence, hog-tied and just a little bloodied for their troubles. I did what a good soldier is supposed to do. But now I’m done.
Lock me in the hole. Fuck, space me. I don’t care anymore. I’ll keep your secrets. Shut my mouth. But I can’t shut my eyes.
I am hereby formerly resigning my commission as a Lieutenant of the United Terran Authority, effective immediately.
I’m sorry.
I just can’t do this anymore.
Winifred McCall
Former 1st Lieutenant
UTA Marine Division
Battlecarrier Alexander
Mason, E, LT 2nd: dorian
Mason, E, LT 2nd: DOOOORRRRIIIAAAAAANNNNNN
Dorian, C, Corp: Go away, Mason
Mason, E, LT 2nd: I’ll be quick
Mason, E, LT 2nd: Rumors you may have heard to that effect are all lies, btw
Mason, E, LT 2nd: *crickets*
Mason, E, LT 2nd: You heard anything on Jimmy?
Dorian, C, Corp: Mason I have more important things on my mind than James right now.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: chum, our friend is still stuck in that airlock, don’t you think we should find out if command are at least gonna TRY to get him out?
Dorian, C, Corp: Mason, the personnel aboard this ship dont’ amount to a bucket of shit as far as Torrence and his officers are concerned. WAKE UP.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: dorian, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you swear. Or botch an apostrophe for that matter
Mason, E, LT 2nd: like, EVER
Mason, E, LT 2nd: u ok?
Dorian, C, Corp: No. I am not. A friend of mine just got locked in the hole.
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