With Our Dying Breath

by Unknown

  Chapter 22 "Sir, I concur with your analysis." McFarran set his tablet on the table. "Three months on rationing and the Luna City will be out of food. Our salvage teams have found nothing salvageable so far."

  The astrogation team had been using the big-eye on Roland. The wobbling rotation imparted to Luna from whatever cataclysm was responsible for her host's disappearance currently gave the telescope access to nearly all of the planetary ecliptic and the ability for the solar collectors to gather power. They would be in the dark in three days however and that darkness would last over a month.

  "I heard Breen radio in his team had found a section of Luna University easily accessible. Maybe he'll find the cafeteria." "Sir, oh, I hope they don't find that!" McFarran made a sour face

  and rubbed his belly, bringing a laugh from them both. "But to be more

  serious, we may not even have that long, sir. The relief given by living in

  the habitats is wearing thin."

  "Yeah, I noticed." Oswald drummed in fingers slowly on the table.

  Frustration crept across his face. "If we had more reaction mass, we

  could fly around. If we had more food, we could stay."

  "Danner—"

  "Burn Danner," Oswald growled.

  "—has been on and on about finding out what happened. That we

  need to explore and look for other bases. Maybe Mars."

  "Well, I have actually considered Mars," Oswald admitted. "But

  Sensors showed nothing on thermal, EM, or big-eye when we passed.

  Nothing since either. Even at this distance we should have seen

  something. And Anahita..." he left the sentence hanging in the low

  gravity.

  "Sir, those things are true." McFarran shrugged. "But if nothing

  presents itself, we may have to do something just to be doing

  something. The Devil's hands, you know."

  "I knew them alright." Oswald rubbed his scalp. "I see what you're

  saying. We just can't go burning our deltaV and hope there's some

  convenient tank the Centipedes forgot to destroy. And the next transfer

  orbit window is two months away if Kirsk figured it right."

  Oswald and McFarran sat silently sipping stale moon water and

  going over the same unchanging reports they'd gone over every day for

  the last two weeks. They dug for that one vital clue they both had

  missed that would pop out like a genie and wish their worries away.

  The men did so fully realizing that the world had ended and the genie's

  bottle was gone with it.

  Breen suddenly bounced in, ricocheting off the door to the hatch

  and catching himself heavily on the edge of the table.

  "Permission to enter, Colonel."

  Oswald lifted a brow and waved him in. "Yes, Breen?"

  "Sir, we really hit the jackpot!" Breen was breathing heavily and had

  to pause to catch his breath. "We found Luna University's computer

  lab!"

  "That is splendid, Breen," McFarran replied. "I take it you found

  something helpful? Some info? The cafeteria?" He and Oswald

  exchanged grins.

  "What?" Disgust twisted Breen's face. "Did you ever eat there, sir?

  Blech."

  "Continue," Oswald commanded.

  "Yessir. Most of everything was smashed, a few tool sets and

  scrambled data cubes, but we brought back a fully intact Q-puter sir!"

  Breen hiked a thumb over his shoulder. "It's on the back of the rover. I

  ran it by Roland first and it powers up all green."

  "That is pretty amazing," Oswald admitted. "But they're always built

  pretty tough. I guess I'm missing something." He looked to McFarran

  for confirmation or guidance and received an unhelpful shrug. "Sir?" Breen looked at him quizzically. "General Khadem's message

  included the jump coordinates to Beta Hydri. So we know where the

  Ay-Yon are." Oswald glared at Breen. "I meant the Centauri. I mean the Centipedes. But now we have a Q-puter and two sets of old

  coordinates. I know we can plug them in..."

  Oswald had not considered trying to get to the hated enemy's lair.

  Anahita's information told them it was in the Beta Hydri system, which

  hadn't surprised him given the star type. But too much time had passed

  to be able to plot a jump tunnel with what she had provided.

  Sometimes the universe presents its own answers to a person's

  dilemma. God, Creator, Jehovah, Karma, Fate, Coincidence, Chance; the

  god of the universe had many names. Oswald had never been told by

  the creator which name was preferred. But he thanked it anyway. "Our new purpose in life is to take it to them," Oswald spoke

  cheerily. "Now that is some busy work worth doing, Hashi." McFarran didn't look so sure.

  "Breen, get that Q-puter on Roland. If we can get it on a rover, we

  can get it on our rocket. Get it churning out some numbers." Oswald

  stood and slapped Breen on the back. "What do you think, a couple of

  months? We have comparative data already."

  "Yes, sir," Breen agreed. "I'm even familiar with this particular

  model sir. Well, at least its predecessors." He bounced happily back out

  the hatch.

  Oswald rubbed his hands together

  McFarran. "There's our mission, Hashi.

  about that."

  "Sir?" McFarran stared long and hard at the flight commander. "We

  of course don't know what we'll find there. But perhaps we should

  consider some options that don't include Roland going out in a blaze of

  glory."

  Oswald's grin fell like a stone. "What are you suggesting, Hashi?

  That we turn ourselves in? Pop in and say 'Hey guys, we're ancient

  Earth warriors, don't kill us like you killed our entire planet!'?" "Sir, no, of course nothing so simple. We don't know what we'll find,

  like I said. Perhaps we'll find supplies, perhaps battle. But I just want

  you to be willing to consider more peaceable outcomes." McFarran and grinned gleefully at Everyone should be happy shrugged. "You are the most successful battle commander I have known, Colonel. But even Roland only has so much fight left in her." He gently waved of Oswald's coming rebuttal. "Sir, I only wish to put it out

  there. I'm not looking to cause issue."

  "Very good, Aux. Dismissed." Oswald watched McFarran slowbounce out of the room. "Don't worry, Anahita," he whispered. "We'll

  pay those murderers back with our dying breaths if needs be."

  Chapter 23 "I think we have it, Colonel." Breen beamed as Oswald climbed into the cargo space where the Q-puter had been wired and secured. "Final checksum passed. We can jump whenever you like. Beta Hydri." Breen slid his finger across the Q-puter's star map to highlight the destination coordinates. "Tail of the Serpent."

  "Appropriate enough." Oswald checked the coordinates, did some quick mental math, and was pleased that his numbers were so close. "Twenty four and a half light years."

  "Another record breaking jump." "Our last record didn't turn out very well. But I guess we'll see how this pans out."

  "Uh, Colonel. What will we do when we get there?"

  Oswald shrugged. "I don't know. It depends on what we find. What do you think we should do? Should we even go?" Oswald tilted his head slightly and waited.

  "I don't know, Sir." Breen shook his head dourly. "Some are saying we should go out fighting. Make them pay for killing Earth. Others are suggesting that it would be better to live in a Centauri prison than to die in a plasma burst. But I don't know."

  "At this point I'm really more interested in finding Earth, Breen. I have no rational explanation as to what happened. Maybe Earth is safe and sound somewhere and
all we need to do is find the dimensional doorway it popped through." Oswald pursed his lips. "I mean, we disappeared from the universe as we know it for four-hundred something years. We still have no answers for all of our meetings and our clock is running out. So we won't lose hope or do anything rash until we get there." Oswald pointed to the brightly highlighted star on the map. "Let's start getting Roland back on line."

  +++ To the aimless children of Roland any plan was a good plan. The lunar habitat had grown smaller as the weeks went on and there was precious little to do about nerves already frayed by fire and fear. Space Service deployments were expected to last up to six months or more. Roland was getting close to that point, but there was no end in sight to this mission. There couldn't be until Earth was found. But the crew was not just facing time in space but the trauma of battles and the loss of friends in those battles. Not to mention the end of their world. Oswald was surprised that there hadn't been any suicides in the past two months.

  The Centauri had been very thorough in their bombardment of Luna City and its environs. Aside from the Q-puter and those things found at the landing facility, they had found precious little. They would be able to take some food with them and a few tanks of hydrogen for the LANTRn. Everything else they'd found had not been salvageable or not worth the risk of trying among the wreckage.

  Oswald was happy to see that all of Roland's systems were showing green—Danner had been especially busy getting the systems ready. The navigation and astrogation plots were laid in, and most of the crew at their hazard stations. Those few he'd talked too today seemed to be in good spirits as they had suited up and strapped in. The cargo manifest showed everything loaded except the surviving rations from the site. Danner had been leading the engineering team making one last sweep for anything useful and which would bring the last rations to Roland with the rover. It was taking a long time for him and the five crew on his team to check in, but it was better safe than sorry.

  After another thirty minutes with no status report, Oswald keyed his mic. "Danner, this is Oswald. Is everything OK down there? All we need are those rations and to drop off the UXA."

  The sound of a mic being keyed hummed slightly but no answer came for several seconds.

  "Negative, Colonel," Danner stuttered. "The six of us plan on staying here."

  "Say again," Oswald answered incredulously. Perhaps some folks had decided to commit suicide after all.

  "I said we're not leaving, Oswald." Danner voice was more decisive. "You go. We stay. Simple."

  "Not quite so simple, Danner. Roland needs those rations. Not to mention that you are attached to this rocket, Mister."

  "Not any longer. If this placed died four-hundred years ago, so did Earth Force. No one on this team wants to go hunt down Centauri with you, sir." Danner had gone from stuttering to venomous. "We are going to stay here and live peacefully until we die."

  Oswald realized with horror that he'd waited too long. He'd lost these people and hadn't even seen it coming. "There isn't enough food to last, Danner. Don't be foolish. We don't know what we'll find at Beta Hydri."

  "Yes we do. We'll find either nothing or we'll find more war and death. The six of us have decided we'd rather die close to home that in some fireball or alien prison."

  "If you don't get that food on this rocket, I'm going to come down there and—"

  "You come down here and no one leaves Luna, ever!" A video feed from Danner's helmet flickered on Oswald's display, showing a small remote control.

  "Is that the control for the funerary rockets?"

  "Yes it is," Danner shrieked triumphantly. "I've done what you asked. Roland is as good as I can make her. However, I also planted several of those rockets in her."

  "Even from inside," McFarran argued, "those things couldn't destroy Roland."

  "Not in the way that Charger went out. But I have them set in places that would burn away systems that would keep you from getting off Luna." The remote shook in the camera view. "Just go away and there won't be an issue. When you're too far away to hurt us, you'll be too far away to be hurt. This thing doesn't have much range."

  "We are not leaving that food or your team behind." Oswald's voice was firm, but he knew it rang hollow. If Danner had found five others to join him then he'd snatched a third of the surviving crew away. Oswald knew his hand was weak and Danner had already sucker punched him.

  "If anyone leaves that ship, Oswald, you won't be leaving Luna." Danner sighed heavily into the mic. "Look, Colonel. I don't blame you or even Earth Force for all the crap that's happened. But we don't want to live the rest of our short lives running from battle to battle. I've made sure all of Roland's automation systems are still working. You barely need a crew as it is."

  Oswald sat in silence. He didn't think his flight engineer was bluffing. The crew, the people behind the name tags, were all well known to him now. He knew them before, had worked and trained with them, but Oswald had been living with them in those habitats. There hadn't been much in the way of duty or hierarchy or even busy work; just socialization. Four men and two women had decided to stay on Luna and threaten violence against their spacecraft to make it happen.

  The biggest mystery to Oswald was how such a putz as Danner, his appreciable engineering skills notwithstanding, had convinced five other crew away from Roland. The man was not well-liked. If others had agreed to follow someone like Danner, they must be just as serious. He was going to have to update the schedule to say the least.

  "Command, Tactical. At least let me get the UXA off the ship. I'd rather stay with that dingus back there than jump with that thing again."

  Oswald remotely unlocked the cargo seal on the artifact's box. Mathesse was right, they'd have to get rid of that thing one way or the other. They'd planned to leave it next to Anahita's crypt. He had planned on setting at her tomb, taking one last opportunity to run his fingers across her stone likeness.

  "Roger that, Mathesse. Even if we just have to kick it out the door as we leave, we're not taking that thing with us. I've unlocked it. I'm not sure Danner would want you to be the one to deliver it though."

  "Sir," McFarran offered. "I will volunteer to transfer the artifact to the habitats. He won't take issue with me as he might his good friend in Tactical and he can't threaten the flight commander."

  "Either way, I'll get it ready," Mathesse said quickly. "Tactical is ready for launch but we're just spectators at this point. I'll meet someone at the airlock with the box."

  "Danner," Oswald said into his mic. "I need to get rid of the UXA. I'd like to put it by Anahita's crypt as we had planned."

  "Hmm... Standby, Oswald." After several minutes Oswald tried to speak again. "I said standby, Colonel."

  "Attention, Roland," Oswald spoke over the intercom. "I want all hands looking for any sign of these rockets. Take off vacc-suits if you have to."

  He sat fuming, considering the ridiculousness of the situation. It seemed not only ridiculous to him because his war rocket had been sabotaged with fireworks, but because Danner's crew had chosen such a ridiculous plan. Just sit and starve? Die peacefully as we waste away in our crumbling lunar habitats? Finally it seemed so ridiculous because there was nothing he could do. He had no doubt about Danner's ability to sabotage Roland. It would be easy for him to ground the rocket eternally.

  "Colonel, this is Trese."

  "Go, Trese."

  "Yes, sir. I've found one of those rockets. He's got it bonded to the frame in such a way that if it goes off it'll fry the optical processor. Bigeye would be dead and I'm not sure we have enough spares to fix it." Trese clucked his tongue, forgetting to kill his mic as he inspected the trap further. "It looks like there are some extra wires running out of the casing of that thing. Maybe some sort of trigger if it is messed with."

  "Oh, snap," Oswald whispered. No reason to think the other rockets weren't as dangerous.

  "Oswald? You still there?"

  "Go Danner."

  "We've talked it over a
nd don't think it's a good idea to let anyone from Roland into the habitat."

  "Burn it, Danner," Oswald yelled. "You know what will happen if we jump with that thing on board! I need to give it too..."

  "Sir, I know you want to visit the general's grave, again. But we're not sure you won't try to trick us somehow."

  "Like setting bombs?" Oswald asked angrily.

  "Touché', Colonel. But you only make my point. Have someone drop in the crater we dug for the rockets," Danner sounded apologetic for a moment. "I promise we'll put it down there."

  "I want to hear everyone else say they are there of their own free will. Admit to their flight commander that they are purposefully abandoning their rocket." Oswald waited and shook his head in disbelief as five other voices nervously stated their name and intension to stay.

  "Sorry, Colonel," Danner replied unapologetically. "'Burn with your rocket or burn alone,' doesn't hold true anymore. We all died a long time ago. You just haven't accepted it."

  Oswald thought about just how wrong the man was on that point. "Then why do you need the food?"

  "This is our home." Danner said simply. "It belongs with us. Roland needs to take off soon sir. We're not changing our minds and I don't really care if you get stranded with us."

  "There will be no coming back," Oswald warned coolly.

  Danner responded after a long moment, his voice less sure sounding. "Good. Drop your box and leave." The mic and video feed went dead.

  "Sir, we can get the lasers from the armory and take the food." McFarran was not one to offer violence lightly. "We cannot let them get away with this offense, sir!"

  "We don't have much choice, Aux. If anyone goes out except to drop that box off, he's likely to burn us. I've seen too many suicides lately to chance doubting his intentions—or desperation." Oswald took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't want to fall victim to his suicide."

  Oswald clenched his teeth angrily. Mathesse was right about Danner; he was a dip-tard. He had intended, had needed, to visit Anahita one more time. His heart pounded heavily at the lost chance to run his fingers over her delicate features one last time.