by L S Roebuck
A spray of bullets filled the space where the barricade once stood, and soon after pocked the flesh of nearly a half-dozen Chasm exiles in the corridor. Misty blood drifted in vaporous clouds, and the muted moans of the dying filled the air.
“That was for Holly,” Eaton said calmly.
“And Von Bumble!” Snodgrass shouted.
The sound of rapid footfalls projected up the corridor.
“There are more coming,” Dek shouted, as he took a step toward the door to get a better view down the bridge access hallway. “Get ready.”
Dek stepped into the hallway, his back to the bridge crew, gun drawn, and shouted. “Stop and surrender, now. It’s over.”
“Dek, what are you doing?” Ramos said between gritted teeth. “Eaton is going to kill all these guys. Stay alive!”
“Surrender, please, my Chasm friends, and beg for mercy,” Dek said. “Let’s stop the bloodshed now.”
A person Dek did not recognize appeared in the hallway with his hands up. His face was scarred, and Dek figured from his thinning hair slight hunch that he was in his sixties.
“Dek Tigona,” the man said. “I am one of two Hawks sent by the Chairman. She would be so disappointed in you. I’m sorry Alan had to die, but he knew the price of perfection. Come to me now, and you will be spared. Help us perfect humanity.”
“Dek, I don’t have a clean shot,” Eaton said. “Get out of the way. There is no mercy that will tame this insanity. Dammit. Move!”
Dek was torn. He wanted to do the right thing, to end the bloodshed. He thought that God, if the deity existed, would not want him to murder an unarmed man, and hoped that Eaton and her crew would not kill unless they had to. Maybe I am naive, but this is what I believe, Dek thought.
“Just stand down,” Dek said.
“Didn’t Raven One tell you the legends of the Hawks?” the man said, stepping closer to Dek. Dek’s gun was trained on the Hawk’s forehead. “Didn’t she tell you we will do anything to win?”
The Hawk smiled mischievously. And then Dek saw it. A remote detonator on the Hawk’s sleeve. “Forgive me,” Dek said, and he pulled his trigger.
Dek’s aim was precise, and the bullet put a hole in the middle of the Hawk’s forehead. His eyes rolled back, but his smile became more twisted and bigger as he fell to the ground, his fist dropping the depressed trigger.
“Noooo!” Dek said, but his words were swallowed by the sound of the explosion.
A fireball expanded through the bridge, and the force of the blast knocked the Dek to the ground.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dek woke to the sensation of being dragged across the metal floor. The rivets scrapped his skin. He choked on an acrid haze. His eyes burned. Ramos was dragging the 70-kilo man toward the bridge. Fire suppression systems had already engaged, and XO Snodgrass handed Ramos and Dek an emergency air filter mask.
“How bad?” Dek asked Ramos.
“Bad,” Ramos said, through his mask as he rubbed his bald head.
Dek sat up and rubbed smoked from his eyes, trying to assess the situation. Snodragss held one arm to his chest and winced in pain. Dek could see bone and sinew protruding from what used to be the XO’s elbow.
“Caddo, take this and make sure no one comes on the bridge,” Snodgrass indicated the sidearm in a holster on his hip. The tech officer reached for the gun and went to the main portal.
Dek stood. The bridge lights flickered. Fragments of twisted metal and various carbon polymers littered the once orderly command deck. Dek look to the far side of the room, and his heart felt like it had been punctured. Two bomb-mutilated bodies rested near the hole torn open in the interior wall by the bomb. Dek didn’t even try to choke back his tears as he recognized Captain Eaton and Communications Officer Ortega, both dead.
My sins revisit me, Dek thought as he strode over to the officers. I will never be able to escape the evil I have brought.
A Marine whose name Dek did not know was sobbing in the corner. Dek went up to the young woman, who he thought couldn’t be much older than Amberly Macready, maybe 21 or 22. Her eyes were swollen from smoke and grief. She looked up at Dek.
“Why?” she asked, as Dek pulled her into an embrace of support.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Dek spoke softly as the Marine collapsed into his arms, fully in shock. “But we are going to end this.”
Dek looked over to Snodgrass. “There are more. They still need the bridge. They will come.” Dek’s eye was drawn to a firearm on the floor, half hidden under a charred wall panel. The gun was probably Eaton’s or Ortega’s.
A tapping came from the floor hatch. Caddo pulled his infopad off his utility belt and checked the bridge surveillance video feed. “It’s Engineer Grace!”
Dek pulled the stick that had jammed the hatch, spun the wheel and pulled the heavy door on its hinge.
Engineering Chief Himari Grace, emerged from the hatch. Her white jumpsuit was soiled with lubricants and blood. Her dark hair that had been pulled back was now loose, and chaotically arranged around her face. Her eyes were dark, and devoid of hope. Dek re-secured the hatch.
“I came back as soon as I could,” Himari said, looking to Snodgrass. “There is a force of about a dozen people, my guess Chasm, who are armed in the Starboard command deck observation room. So, I had to go around and down a deck and come up through the hatch.”
“I’m so glad you are here, Himari,” Snodgrass said.
“Where is the Captain?” Grace said, scanning the room.
“I’m sorry, she died in the blast,” Caddo said.
“Oh, my Lord, no,” Grace exhaled, reaching an arm out. West caught it and steadied the engineer. “What is this all about? What can we do?”
“I have a plan to end this once and for all,” Dek said to Snodgrass, “but I’ll need your guns.”
“Not a chance you are getting our guns,” West said. “In fact, I think your terrorist friends just forfeited your amnesty.” West pulled his assault rifle and pointed it at Dek’s head.
“Stand down, West,” Snodgrass said. “That’s an order. I’m in charge now.”
“How’s that Snodgrass?” West replied, and took a step towards Dek. “There is no law out here anymore. It’s broken. You have no power. I am going to do what needs to be done. What should have been done back on Magellan. Any last words, Chasm traitor?”
Ramos stepped between West and Dek. “No, this isn’t right.”
“Get out of my way preacherman,” West said. “I am not afraid of God.”
Dek placed his hand on Ramos’ shoulder and nudged him out of the way. “Ramos, step aside.” The pastor hesitated, so Dek more aggressively stepped around him, and was now less than a meter from the end of West’s rifle.
“If you think it will make things better, West, go ahead,” Dek said, now pressing his forehead into the barrel of West’s gun. “Go ahead. I deserve to die. We all do. But… I can end the Chasm threat on American Spirit once and for all if you just trust me.”
Tears rolled down West’s eyes. Snodgrass slowly flanked West, drew his gun and pointed it at the insubordinate security chief. “Drop it, West. Drop it. Stand down, now.”
“No!” West shouted at Snodgrass. “You’d really kill me to save this worthless sack of manure?”
“No, he won’t,” Dek said as he slowly raised an open hand, and pushed it face down in the air. “Snodgrass, lower your weapon. I’m ready to die, if West wants to kill me, let him. It will be all right.”
“I am going to kill you, Chasm bastard.” Sweat beaded on West’s forehead as he felt the hard curve of the metallic trigger beneath his finger.
“West, listen to me,” Ramos pleaded. “God forgives. We can, too.”
“No, we can’t,” West said. “Dek Tigona, traitor to the American Spirit and Magellan, Chasm, you are going to die in three seconds.”
Dek closed his eyes and recalled something he’d read in the Jewish scriptures about death, and recited it in his mind. F
or I know my redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God.
“Two…” West said.
A shot rang out, and West dropped his rifle and clutched at his heart, and then he fell to the floor as well. “What? Who…”
Caddo dropped his gun and ran to West and dropped beside him. “I’m so sorry. But you were going to kill–”
“You,” West coughed some words out, spitting in the direction of Caddo. “Curse you, Caddo. Someone kill Dek… so I can kill him again … in the afterlife.” The light left West’s eyes.
“Dammit,” Snodgrass cursed as his mind reeled. As XO he would have to assume command of the American Spirit, a job he didn’t want, especially without a security chief. He was at the emotional brink already.
Dek exhaled slightly. He was happy to be alive, but with Chasm not contained, the loss of West’s skills would be felt. “I’m so sorry.”
Dek looked at the people remaining on the bridge. Snodgrass, Caddo, Grace, Ramos and two Marines, whose names he didn’t know. Everyone else was dead. The living were scared, and in Dek’s estimation, Snodgrass was not up to the task of keeping the survivors on American Spirit alive.
Caddo looked over to Snodgrass, the implications of what he had done starting to sink in. “I… had to shoot West. He disobeyed a direct order… and he was going to shoot Dek.”
“And what of it? I would have much rather of had Chief West than that Chasm prisoner if I had to choose,” said one Marine. The other Marine, whom Dek had comforted over the loss of Captain Eaton, wiped tears from her eyes, and asked, “What if West was bluffing?”
“To what end? No one else had anything to fold,” Caddo argued.
“You just shot the security chief, Caddo,” the first Marine said. “You should be court martialed!”
The Marine pulled for his stun gun and aimed it at Caddo.
“XO, permission to stun and incarcerate this murderer,” the Marine asked Snodgrass.
“I don’t know…” Snodgrass said. Dek looked at the XO to give him a stop-the-madness look, but Snodgrass’ gaze was distant, and he was trembling.
“He’s in shock,” Dek said. “Everyone, listen to me. I have a plan to neutralize Chasm. We must stay calm. Once we have eliminated the threat, I will return to the brig. We will mourn our dead after we survive this…”
The other Marine grabbed her stun gun as well – only she pointed it at her follow trooper. “We follow orders. Put your weapon down until the XO says otherwise.”
“XO?” The first Marine said, “What are your orders?”
“I … don’t … know,” Snodgrass said, as he sat down on the floor.
“Oh, he’s losing it,” Grace said. “Okay, everyone, stand down. I am invoking Deep Space Maritime Code 2.4. I’m captain now.”
The Marines knew what Code 2.4 was. The Engineer was claiming that Snodgrass was incompetent, and she was taking command.
“Sir,” Caddo looked to Snodgrass. “Are you okay with that?”
“Sure, sure,” Snodgrass said, growing more distant and focusing inward, wrapping his arms around his legs. “Listen to Himari.”
“Okay, please put your weapons away,” Captain Himari told the Marines. “Dek, what’s your plan?”
In the Starboard Command Observation Room, the eleven remaining Chasm exiles, who had been incarcerated and isolated for seven months, gathered to plan their next move.
“Both the Hawks are dead. We don’t know what we are doing,” said Philonius Marcher. Marcher, who was an assistant to Kimberly Macready for nearly a decade when she was working undercover in Magellan’s Science Corp, was having second thoughts about the Chasm operation to take over American Spirit. “I mean, the Hawks busted us free like what, just over an hour ago. We were following their plan. But they are both gone.”
“They both killed themselves so we could complete the mission,” said Mirandi, a tall blond woman who had a menacing look that made Marcher shrink. “This is our chance to redeem ourselves. To succeed where Raven One failed us!”
“If Raven One couldn’t finish the task, why do we think we can?” Marcher asked, dubious. A few of the others threw some comments of support.
“What choice do we have now?” Mirandi said, as she lifted her assault rifle off the ground. “We should storm the bridge while they are reeling from the bomb. Let’s stick with the plan. What is the alternative? Surrender? Do you think they will just quietly put us back in our cell?”
“This is it then? So, we fight and die.”
“No,” Mirandi said, “we fight and win. The new world is destined. Let’s bring it.”
The observation room’s comm systems crackled to life.
“Mirandi? Are you there? This is Dek Tigona on a secure channel from the bridge,” Dek’s voice projected from the speakers.
“This is Mirandi. Authentication codes, please.”
“Tango, delta, three, beta, beta, four, zeta, alpha.”
“Dek! The Hawks are dead, but we are armed and free. Join us, brother. Shall we complete what Raven One could not?” Mirandi asked rapidly. Already wired on adrenaline, the chance to be rejoined with Dek Tigona, favored disciple of Kimberly Macready elevated her excitement.
“I have good news for you, sister. I have captured the bridge,” Dek announced. “Captain Eaton is dead, and I have the first officer as a prisoner, along with the rest of the bridge crew. I have secured their firearms. But it will only be a matter of time before Earth loyalist reinforcements arrive. How many of us are there?”
“Eleven, sir,” Miranda beamed.
“We’ll need everyone here on the bridge now,” Dek said through the speaker. “I have five people held at gunpoint, so I’ll be compromised if I have to take my attention off them to face loyalists. So please hurry.”
“En route already. We’re just a minute or so from your position,” Miranda replied. She raised her rifle and looked at the others. “We don’t need the Hawks. We have Dek. Let’s go.”
“But Dek betrayed Chasm,” Marcher said. “Can we trust him?”
“None of us is pure,” Miranda said. “We all pleaded innocence or ignorance, which is why we are exiles and not among the executed. Dek did what he had to do at the Battle of Magellan. So did we. And now we have a chance to make it right.”
Marcher bought Mirandi’s logic.
When she arrived on the bridge a few minutes later, Mirandi liked what she saw. A pile of weapons, mostly sidearms and a few assault rifles were in a pile on the command chair. Between the chair and the starboard side of control stations were a pair of Marines, Executive Officer Snodgrass, Chief Engineer Grace, and another officer she did not recognize. All were kneeling, with their hands clasped above their heads.
She saw Dek, his messy brown locks seeming more dramatic than the last time she had seen him – more than nine months ago, with his arm outstretched and a stun gun in hand. Across the bridge, she saw several bodies – one she recognized as Capt. Eaton’s. Mirandi smiled.
“Is this everyone?” Dek asked, as Mirandi led the Chasm group on the bridge.
“Yes, yes,” Mirandi said. “We’re all here. Do you have a plan to turn us back to Magellan?”
“We can probably get ourselves pointed in the right direction, and if we get our calculations correct, and we leave an AI active to do last minute thruster corrections, we can use American Spirit as a sub-light missile to decimate Magellan, once and for all,” Dek said.
“That’s not going to happen,” Himari said, clenching her fingers tightly over her head. “You’ll never get me to cooperate, and I’d like to see you get this bucket of bolts turned about without a chief engineer.”
“I think we’ll manage,” Dek said flatly.
“There’s no way,” Himari said again, her face flush. “I swear, I’ll blow this whole thing sky high as soon as –”
Dek pulled the trigger of his stun gun, and Himari Grace slumped to t
he floor, passed out.
“Don’t think I won’t shut the rest of you up,” Dek said, and then briefly took his attention off of the bridge crew he held at stun point to look around at the eyes of the Chasm exiles. He could tell they were ready to follow his command, to the death. He knew Kimberly Macready would want him to take advantage of his position, to destroy Magellan and make the chasm between Earth and Arara, once and for all. But Raven One was dead. Dek used to believe there was no afterlife, but now he wasn’t so sure. Would the spirit of Macready be trying to influence his thoughts? Would she try to control his actions from the undiscovered country?
“We’re probably all dead,” Dek said. “Without the antimatter core, life support and food generation systems will fail. We’ll all be dead well before we reach Magellan. But since I intend to use this ship as a missile – what our lost Sparks failed to do – and destroy Magellan, we will die anyway. We just won’t be alive to see the glorious conclusion of the final voyage of this grand vessel. But time is short. We must move quickly – every minute we have less power to get our grand work complete.”
Dek could almost hear Kimberly Macready’s voice resonating the words coming from his mouth. “Who is ready to secure a perfect humanity?”
The group of rebels cheered, and the four remaining un-stunned American Spirit crew grumbled as Dek’s stun gun threatened them.
“Okay, everyone, please each of you take a control station, and I am going to tell you what to do.” Dek motioned to the control panels, five on each side of the bridge, and the Chasm conspirators slowly fanned out across the bridge.
“First, we need absolute control of American Spirit. These have all been locked down by passcode, and we need to enter the correct code, simultaneously to easily unlock them. If we don’t do it with the correct timing, it may take us months we don’t have to manually take control of all the ship’s system. We don’t have months.”
Mirandi noticed Ramos in the shadows.
“What is the preacherman doing here?” Mirandi said, leveling her assault rifle at Ramos.