by L S Roebuck
“Well, her sister and dad were religious,” Dek said. “But yes, she wouldn’t be too keen on my new religious… study. And that’s why I am not sure if I believe, Ramos. I mean, I want to think there is more to my confined life then pull-ups and old movies. Maybe I believe because I want so much right now for it to be true.”
“Maybe,” Ramos yawned. “I could use a cup of coffee.” Ramos looked around the room, but knew that prisoners had no personal food service of any kind. Just three meals delivered daily.
“This is why I know I don’t believe. Because if Amberly were here right now, and she said she would never visit me again unless I disowned Christ, then I would disown Christ. How could anyone turn down the love of a real woman for the love of an invisible God?”
“You might surprise yourself,” Ramos said.
“Or not,” Dek said as he reclined on his bed. He abruptly sat back up and looked Ramos in the eye. “Why are you here? I mean, you are going to die on this bird if you don’t get off on a waypoint along the way.”
“Oh, I am going to die on this bird.”
“But why? Why didn’t you stay on Magellan?”
“Because I believe in God and his infinite love,” Ramos said. “When I was younger, I was foolish and full of doubt. But I was blessed to have good friends in the faith along the way – Alroy Macready, ironically, was one. So that’s why.”
“I don’t get it,” Dek said, turning to face the fall.
“God gave me the people I needed to carry me in my doubt, and now God has called me to do the same to others. Freely you have received, the good book says, freely give. Someday, after I’m dead and my body has been cast to the stars, God will give you the chance to bless someone else. Maybe someday soon.”
“God called you? You mean you heard God’s voice? Or had some sort of a feeling?”
“Well I did have a feeling. But feelings can be deceptive. But God did tell me. It’s right in the book. ‘I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Well, he called me to visit prisoners, and here I am,” Ramos smiled and opened his arms wide.
“Sometimes I wish God would just… you know… give me a sign,” Dek said.
“You don’t need a sign, you have the good book,” Ramos said.
A loud rumble shook Dek’s cell, and the men exchanged inquisitive looks.
“That could just be a coincidence,” Ramos said.
“Or it could be a sign,” Dek stood up. “You should call the guard and go see what is going on. Come back and let me know!”
“You’re probably right; I should go,” Ramos said as he stood up and hit the intercom button.
A disembodied voice came through the speaker. “We’re on our way to get you, Ramos,” the guard said.
“Read through the book of Jude before I come tomorrow,” Ramos said as he prepared to leave, “I’d like to see what you think about –”
The door slid open, and both Ramos and Dek were surprised to see three Marines, heavily armed. One of the Marines pointed his firearm at Dek while another cuffed his wrists. They all looked angry and crestfallen.
“Dek Tigona,” the third Marine said. “Captain Eaton wants to have a few words with you.”
After months of peaceful monotony, the bridge of the American Spirit was anxiously active.
The youthful zeal Ortega saw in Captain Eaton’s eyes when she punished him in the sparring arena had transformed into a somber gaze. Eaton felt like she had aged 10 years in the past hour.
“Ortega, sound a general curfew. All crew and passengers, except essential personnel, are confined to quarters until further notice,” the Captain ordered. She turned to security chief West. “Pair off your civilian officers and have them patrol the ship, reporting back to you every fifteen minutes. I don’t trust our electronic surveillance – it could be compromised. Kimberly Macready apparently gave her cult followers all sorts of toys to play with. If Chasm is attempting to sabotage American Spirit, we need to restrict their movement.”
“Engineering Chief Grace is calling,” the ship VI, Jefferson, interrupted the captain.
“Grace, what’s going on over there?” Eaton asked as she sat back in her command chair.
“April, it’s bad,” Himari’s voice came over the internal comm. “The explosion busted a crack in the antimatter housing and the core vented out into space. We’re lucky the whole ship didn’t go up – the bomb wasn’t powerful enough to bust the internal casing and the antimatter mix chamber.”
“By design?”
“Hard to say.”
“Are you sure it was a bomb, and not just a coincidental accident?” the captain rubbed her temples.
“We found traces of ammonium nitrate, so probably a bomb,” Grace replied. “Captain, if our bomber was trying to disable rather than destroy us, they knew exactly what they were doing, exactly where to bomb.”
“But why would they disable us?” the captain asked.
“If we find out who, we’ll know why,” West said. The main portal to the bridge slid open, and XO Snodgrass had returned. The captain shot him a look as a silent question, and he replied by shaking his head once.
“Bad news, April,” Ortega looked up from the magnetic resonance screen at his post. “We’ve been knocked off course about point zero, zero two degrees. If we can’t get navigational power back, we are going to miss Waypoint Gilbert by, I don’t know, maybe several million kilometers now, assuming we can even slow down.”
Eaton punched her engineer on the ship’s comms. “Himari, can we get back on course?”
“I’m not sure, Captain. I’m still picking up the pieces here,” Grace said over the bridge PA. “It’s possible the reserves don’t have enough power to redirect us and slow us down.”
Eaton looked at her navigation chart. “Himari, so based on the vectors I’m seeing here, were going to be better off using our power to dead stop now, and rotate our heading to make a run for Magellan?”
“That sounds right, captain,” the engineer said. “But I’ll have to confirm those calculations. Let me get this fire put out captain. We’ll figure it out.”
“Copy,” Eaton said. “Get engineering buttoned down, but be careful; I need you now more than ever.”
“Without main power, we could limp back to Magellan, but it would take us four or five years,” Snodgrass said. “No main power, it’s hard to say how long we’ll keep food synthesis running, much less life support. Captain, there’s a good chance we’re all dead already.”
Everyone on the bridge fell silent, absorbing the news. Ortega started to sweat. West bowed her head and fingered her rifle.
“Unfortunately, I concur with the XO’s position,” Grace said over the comm.
“Understood, Himari,” Eaton said. “Please immediately put the ship on minimum power consumption protocol. Only essential operations are to be powered at this point. And let’s keep the artificial gravity on for now, too. Otherwise, any exceptions to be approved by me.”
“Yes ma’am; Grace out,” the engineer said.
“Options, ladies and gentlemen. I need options,” the captain surveyed her bridge crew.
“Our best bet is going to be trying to make it back to Magellan,” Snodgrass said. “I haven’t read Ortega’s latest transmission report, but there is no ship en route to Magellan that is close enough to have any hope of rendering aid. And we’d never make it to Waypoint Gilbert with enough power to slow us down, at least not with many of us alive.”
“No one would be alive,” West snarled. “We’d waste our power getting us in the right direction, and we’d just keep sailing by at half-light speed.”
“But we don’t have enough power to make it to Magellan without the antimatter rectors either,” Ortega said.
“Like I indicated, we’re almost certainly all as good as dead,” Snodgrass said. “But if we turn around now, and we get a message out to Magellan, they could send us some help. A runab
out outfitted for custom range, maybe?”
“To fit a everyone on the American Spirit for months of space travel? Unlikely,” West said. The door to the bridge silently slid open, revealing a bound Dek and his Marine escort. Ramos was also in tow, standing to the side.
“But they could send supplies and personnel to repair our antimatter core,” April smiled. “Maybe. Still, I feel we are being tricked into going back — that Chasm has set us up to return to Magellan to finish the job. You all heard what Alan said. Are just playing into one of Macready’s contingency plans?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” said Dek. The entire bride crew looked up, surprised by his presence.
“Reporting with the prisoner as ordered, captain,” the Marine escort leader reported.
“Dek Tigona, condemned traitor, what do you know about this?”
“Nothing ma’am,” Dek said, matter-of-factly. “I was unaware of any continuing Chasm activity.”
“Liar,” West seethed. “Maybe we should see if throwing him in an airlock will loosen his tongue?”
“Yeah, that would kill me,” Dek rolled his eyes. “Then I’d be a great help.”
“Now, West,” Eaton sighed, literally putting a hand up to keep her top military officer from bounding across the bridge and physically hurting Dek. “Let’s hear him out.”
“Well, as you were speculating, Chasm always operated with contingencies. One of them was the Hawk program. Chasm Hawks were deep undercover, hand chosen by the Chairman herself, completely loyal to the will of the Chairman, and they were supposed to make sure, should a Chasm cell like mine fail, that our mission would still be carried out. No doubt Alan Martinez was a Hawk,” Dek explained.
“Why didn’t you tell us this a long time ago?” Snodgrass demanded. “Withholding this information does give us grounds to rescind the commutation of your death sentence –”
“Whoa… wait a minute,” Dek became defensive. “I always thought the Hawk program was a bluff or rouse or something to keep us in line. Just something the Chairman cooked up to scare us. And part of the point was that Hawks were completely anonymous, not supposed to reveal themselves until Chasm had full control of a waypoint, which we never had at Magellan, despite the best efforts of Kimberly Macready.”
“Pastor Ramos, you are a good judge of character, is this traitor lying?” Eaton looked at the bald man.
“Well, um, I didn’t want to get involved, I was just… visiting Dek in his cell when your Marines came, and –”
“And yet here you are,” Eaton said. She quickly paced across the room and put a hand on each of Ramos’ shoulders. “You know Dek as well as any of us. And if I can’t trust you, I can’t trust anyone. So just tell me your honest judgement.”
“I don’t think Dek is lying,” Ramos said, looking Dek in the eyes.
West’s eyes were wild with anger. “Well I think Dek is full of sh–” A loud warning klaxon sounded, and immediately both Snodgrass and Ortega moved to their stations.
“What now?” Eaton looked to Dek.
Dek shrugged shook his head “no” and then brushed some of his brown locks from his eyes.
“Captain, low power mode disabled the cyber-warfare processors. Those guys suck up a lot of power applying encryption algo–”
“I know what they do, Ortega,” Eaton was hot. “What is the alert?”
“Captain, it looks like someone was waiting for the hacking defense to go down,” Snodgrass sighed. “And lookie. They’ve unlocked all the doors.”
“The Chasm exiles!” Eaton steamed. “Kimberly! Dammit! We keep playing into her hands. Anyone else have any bad news?”
“Kimberly Macready is dead, Captain Eaton,” Dek said.
“Then why is she still taunting me?”
The Magnus bridge VI Jefferson’s disembodied voice spoke through bridge speakers, “I am sad to report the Armory VI just told me it has been compromised. Several assault rifles have been stolen.”
“This is not going to end well,” Dek warned the captain. She gave a look of understanding back to Dek.
Two of the remaining Marines entered the bridge, both had their weapons drawn and were out of breath.
“Captain,” the shorter Marine panted, “They’re out. Chasm. They overpowered a pair of civilian security officers and they have weapons.”
“West, secure the bridge,” Eaton said, then looked around at the bridge crew. “They are coming for us.”
“Captain, the doors won’t lock,” West replied. “The whole system is haywire.”
“Barricade them,” Eaton commanded. “They have the be physically on the bridge to set course. We have to keep them from finishing their plan, whatever it is.”
Eaton looked to the console next to the command chair. “Jefferson, please reengage the cyber warfare security measures.”
“I’m sorry captain, I’ve been locked out of all systems, as of two minutes ago,” Jefferson said.
“On whose orders?”
“Yours, captain,” Jefferson said. “You made them non-rescindable.”
“I did no such thing. Oh, hell,” the captain swore again. She looked over at the junior tech officer, a twenty-year-old who looked green with nausea. “Caddo, shut down all automated systems with bridge manual override. Cut us from the ship network. And turn off Jefferson. He’s compromised.”
“What? I am nooooooottt….” Jefferson went silent.
“How many Chasm detainees do they have?” Ortega asked.
“There were 15 of us,” Dek said.
“Will they all really try and take the bridge?”
“Of course, they will,” Dek replied to the communications officer.
“West, bring me my sidearm,” Eaton said.
The security chief opened the bridge reserve armory and distributed pistols to Ortega, Snodgrass, Eaton and Caddo. He offered Ramos the last gun.
“No thanks,” the preacher said. “Give it to Dek. He knows how to use it.”
“Captain?” West indicted the last gun and Dek.
“I am a pretty good shot,” Dek said to Eaton. “I betrayed Chasm. If they get control of this ship they will kill me. I am with you.”
The captain nodded her head and handed the firearm to Dek.
“That was a mistake,” Snodgrass muttered.
Caddo and Ortega had unfastened the tactical conference table from the floor and flipped it on its side, blocking the main sliding door. A rarely used hatch was the only other method for accessing the bridge. Snodgrass broke a chair arm and stuck it through the hatch wheel so it could not be turned.
“What else do we have to secure the barricade?” Snodgrass asked the room.
“If you pry that panel off, there are some reserve oxygen tanks,” Caddo said. “Those are heavy.”
“Until someone turns off the artificial gravity,” Dek commented.
“Well, let’s get them,” Eaton said, and several of the bridge crews went to work on the panel.
“What good will it do to hold them off? I mean they can just wait us out,” Ortega asked.
“Hopefully, we can organize a counter-resistance,” Eaton said. “As long as we hold the bridge, and we have the automated controls shut down, we have the power.”
A loud series of pings resonated from the barricade.
“Gun fire. They’re here,” West said.
“I’ve almost got the panel off,” Caddo said.
“You know, putting oxygen tanks into gunfire might not be a good idea,” Dek said, as he joined several of the bridge officers in taking up defensive positions against the door.
Caddo screamed.
“What is going on, Caddo?”
“Bomb. Bomb. Bomb.”
Underneath the panel was something Eaton clearly recognized as an explosive device.
“How long has that been there?” Ortega said. “Who could have planted that?”
“It must have been planted when Järvinen had control of the ship before the battle of Mage
llan,” Dek said.
“You knew?” Eaton demanded.
“No. No,” Dek said, putting his hands up defensively and slowly. “This is clearly the work of the Hawk or Hawks.”
Some more gunfire hit the barricade, then the sounds of people pushing against it on the outside. Snodgrass and two Marines rushed to hold up the barricade.
“Ortega, can you deal with that bomb?” the captain looked at her communications officer.
“What? I don’t have explosives training?”
“But you have basic electronics training,” Eaton said. “See if you can find the power source for the detonator.”
The flipped table began to slip a little. A voice shouted through.
“Captain Eaton, surrender the bridge or we will kill everyone on this ship,” a young woman’s voice carried from the other side of the barricade. Dek recognized the voice of Maria Alton, a small tour de force and a Chasm true-believer.
Eaton saw the Marines straining against what she figured were Chasm prisoners pushing on the other side. “You have one chance.”
“Forget it,” Captain Eaton snapped.
“You are making a big mistake, Captain,” Maria said. “We have the power to end you now, but why do more people have to die? Let’s save lives. Surrender the bridge.”
Eaton waved at the bridge officers and crew, signaling them to ready their weapons. She made eye contact with Snodgrass, and her executive officer understood. He signaled to the Marines helping him prop the barricade. She looked over at a confused Ortega, and he looked back at her and shook his head. The bomb was still hot.
Eaton stood tall in the center of the bridge, stepped into an athletic stance, and drew her sidearm, aiming it right at the barricade. The others followed suit, until nearly a dozen firearms were aimed at the portal.
“You made the mistake. We know about the bomb,” Eaton said. “This will only end one of two ways. Either we all die today, or you die. Either way you will die. So, prepare to meet your maker.”
“How do we di–” Maria sputtered, but before she finished, the Marines holding the barricade suddenly dropped it down.