The Lost Gunboat Captain

by J. D. Oppenheim

  He pulled back. “You’re not with the BG. Jaylen is Fed.”

  “Jaylen is dead,” she said smiling. “But I am here. We are here. And we love you, Jolo.”

  Again, she pulled him gently by the hand. He remembered her soft, warm touch and looked into her perfect brown eyes.

  “This can’t be,” he said, the floor shaking as another boat crashed down. “I can’t join the BG.”

  “Are you sure, my love?” said Jaylen, both hands touching his cheeks, her lips sad and pouty.

  Jolo shook his head, no.

  Jaylen took a deep breath. “Well, I can help with that,” said Jaylen. She held up a small stick with a black handle. She pressed a button and out jumped a glowing red energy blade. “My father will be pleased that you came back to us. Dead or alive.” She waved the end of the blade near his ear and he could feel the heat but didn’t care.

  “Let me take you from this place,” said Jaylen. “She raised the blade above Jolo.”

  “Stand, you fool, and fight!” came a voice from the end of the room. “It must not end here!”

  Jolo looked up, and there across the room was a tall green creature holding a BG staff, lit up on both ends. And something turned on inside of Jolo. He thought of Katy, his father and his crew.

  Jaylen swung the hot blade down aiming for Jolo’s neck, and he ducked, pushed her back and stood up, pointed his gun at her.

  “You wouldn’t do that to me, baby,” she said, grinning at him. “I was just playing. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  The gun dropped a little. “Take her out!” screamed the tall humanoid.

  Jolo took his eyes off Jaylen for a split-second, looked up at the green creature making his way across the room. And suddenly the red blade arced down again into his field of vision. He jumped back, but the end of the blade tore into his clothes, gashing his chest.

  He darted to his left, out of range of the blade, and had the gun on her. But he didn’t take the shot. He looked at her face and couldn’t pull the trigger. It was Jaylen.

  By then the green creature was closer, but still standing a safe distance away from Jaylen. He held the staff awkwardly. Jaylen jumped into the air, and a heavy rod shot out from the bottom of the blade handle and she brought it down on Jolo’s right arm. The Colt fell out of his hand and bounced across the floor. She stepped forward, the blade end of the rod in Jolo’s face. He thought to jump, but there was nowhere to go. Jumping into a wall of Jaylen’s seemed worse than his current situation.

  The green frog-like creature took a tentative step forward, and Jaylen, her back to him, said without even turning around, “Don’t try anything, my dear Creator, or your death wish will come true. He is mine. I will take him for my father.”

  And she slowly stepped toward Jolo, that little smile still on her face. Jolo jumped for the gun, but she was faster and came down with the hot end of the staff. Jolo pulled back just in time, but he knew the next blow would be his death.

  Jaylen stood over him with the blade high in the air. Jolo closed his eyes. It was over.

  “Hey, bitch!” came another voice.

  Jaylen turned around and there was Katy holding Greeley’s shotgun. Jaylen turned on her but it was too late. The shotgun blast tore through her chest and she flew back beneath the bottom row of Jaylens.

  Jolo stood, picked up his gun, and walked over to Jaylen. He put his hand on her leg. She was nearly torn in half but she wasn’t bleeding. She was a synth. They all were.

  “I’m sorry, Jolo,” said Katy.

  “I can lead you out to your ship if you’ll take me,” said the green humanoid. “I am Merthon, a Vellosian, the last of my kind, I fear.” He took them through the door on the far wall as the rows of Jaylens began opening their eyes. Some screamed, “Murder!” Still others smiled at Jolo as he passed. “I read A Moveable Feast,” one of them said. “Come back to me, Captain,” said another. The green-skinned Vellosian ran through the door but Jolo just stood there staring at the Jaylens. Katy pulled on his arm, and he took a tentative step in her direction, the wet, red gash across his chest dripping blood onto the floor, but he remained. Katy yelled at him, looked back to the door, the Vellosian had returned. “Hit him across the chest,” he yelled at Katy. So she slapped him on his wound and he screamed out in pain, turned to look at them. “What’d you do that for?” he yelled. And they all ran out together.

  The Emperor

  Montag

  The Vellosian made a series of lefts and rights through the large hallways of the big room marked Quarters on Jolo’s map. Jolo was still trying to process what he’d just seen, but his mind couldn’t let it go. I’ve got to save her, he thought. But something is wrong. It was like his mind had reached a dead end and he couldn’t go anywhere else. Why was he here? he wondered. He missed the girl. The girl on the boat. His boat.

  “Look at me,” said Katy. “Snap out of it. I need you.”

  “Where is your ship?” said the Vellosian.

  “Airborne,” she said. “Take us topside and they’ll pick us up there.”

  She called the Argossy on her wrist comm. “We’re coming!” she yelled.

  “Roger that,” said George.

  And then a strange noise echoed through the entire building. It got louder and louder. “Some kind of BG weapon?” said Katy.

  “No,” said Jolo. “It’s oscillating. It’s a Fed thruster about to explode.” And then there was a thundering crash and the building shook and they were thrown to the floor. Dust fell down from above and everything went dark for a second. They looked down the hall where they had just come from and sunlight from outside streamed in. Half the building was gone and through the giant hole where the wall was they could see the hull of a ship, burn marks up and down, black scars on its shiny surface.

  The Leviathan had fallen.

  “George, everyone okay?” said Katy into the comm.

  “Yeah, but make it snappy!” he said. “The Emperor’s here.”

  They jumped up and ran down the hall, the floor of the old Vellosian building now leaning to one side. The rooms they passed were empty, the air thick with dust and smoke. Soon they made it to a small staircase and began climbing up as fast as they could. It was dark and they stumbled their way to the top. The door was locked so Jolo raised his gun to shoot the scanner lock but Merthon stopped him. “Wait, this building was made by my people.” He put his large hand on the biometric scanner and the door slid open and the three spilled out into the blinding sun on the roof of the synthetic humanoid production facility.

  For a moment no one could see. But soon the sound of a furious battle below brought their attention down to the ground thirty meters below. The Leviathan’s marine group were firing on the Emperor’s guard. Green battle-suited soldiers and BG warriors lay fallen on the ground in the rubble of the destroyed building. The Leviathan lay on her side, the giant rail gun nearly torn off, half dug into the ground during the crash. The Emperor’s boat was burning. Her nose stuck into the soil, her tail sticking up at an odd angle. There wasn’t much left of the Emperor’s guard, and the BG buildings beyond were nothing more than burning piles of rock and metal. Jolo had started to regain his composure and pulled Katy towards the other side of the roof.

  But when they turned it was then they noticed a large black warrior with a cape standing twenty meters away on the center of the roof.

  “You thought you could come here and take whatever you wanted? You fools!” he screamed. “Can you not see,” he said, pointing behind him. On the other side of the building long rows of black-suited Jaylens were running towards a large BG transport ship. There were thousands of them. Two Leviathan marines fired on them and several fell. But then two teams of ten broke off and each group attacked the marines. One ran at each marine head on, drawing his fire, while the others surrounded him. Their speed and coordination was amazing and they killed both marines with small red blades. It all happened in a second, seemingly with no communication. It was as if each knew ex
actly what to do. As if they were one organism. They picked up the two fallen Jaylens and carried them into the ship.

  Jolo looked around for the Argossy, but it was nowhere to be found.

  “Your ancient transport ship is being hunted by a far more powerful adversary,” said the Emperor. He stepped forward, his staff burning red on both ends, his forcefield shimmering when the dust blew against his armor.

  Jolo turned to Katy. “This is the end. Run down to the marine team.”

  “I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” she said.

  Suddenly the Vellosian screamed as a large, dark shape came down upon them. Jolo and Katy instinctively dove away as the Emperor’s blade cut Merthon’s staff in two. Both pieces skipped across the roof and left the tall, green humanoid utterly defenseless. “And now, it is time for you to go home once and for all,” said the Emperor, the red end of his weapon angling in to cut Merthon in half. Jolo fired twice at the Emperor, the force of the bullets throwing him off balance, the tip of his blade finding nothing but Merthon’s jacket. Jolo fired again and the Emperor turned on him, swinging the blade at his feet. Jolo jumped, but the blade caught his left leg and he fell, bleeding, the black monster stepping in for the kill. Katy fired the shotgun, pushing the Emperor back as Jolo scrambled to his feet.

  “You will all die. You cannot match me,” screamed the Emperor, the last words a hissing, electric buzz.

  “He has weak points!” screamed Merthon.

  “Where?” yelled Jolo.

  “Find them. Use your powers for God’s sake. There is more to you than you know.”

  And then something clicked in Jolo’s mind. All this time he’d been trying to be the man he wasn’t. He was trying to be Vargas, but just like Jaylen said, Vargas was dead.

  He took a deep breath and everything came clear in his mind. The world slowed down. The screaming stopped. The Emperor’s cape, flapping wildly in the wind, became a slow, undulating black wave.

  Computer, Jolo thought, play back the first time I saw the Emperor during the Inquisition. And instantly he saw the Emperor on that day like a video playback in slo-mo. The Emperor’s chestplate was larger and thicker than his warriors. Bullets didn’t have the same effect as they did on the rank and file warriors. So he focused on the legs: each with two perfectly crafted alacyte sections, a metal femur and tibia joined by a mechanical knee, a simple offset hinge. Jolo watched as the Emperor turned during his speech at the inquisition, and there, in the center of the knee, was a small circle flush against the upper section. You could only see it from behind as the front of the knee had a coverplate to protect the components. But from behind it was there plain as day, a small circle that marked the end of a pin. One clean shot to the pin at the right angle would break his leg in half.

  Jolo popped back into reality as the Emperor was gearing up to attack again. “Pull him in towards you,” said Jolo. “I need to get behind him.” Merthon grabbed a piece of his broken staff and waived it defiantly. The Emperor charged again and Katy caught him square in the chest with Betsy as Jolo jumped over him. Jolo rolled, found his feet and turned to fire but the cape blocked his shot. Meanwhile Katy and Merthon had been backed up to the edge of the building.

  The Emperor took another step and the cape moved, and there, for a split second, Jolo found the tiny round target. He fired once, the sound of the Colt echoing out in all directions, but the Emperor remained standing. Katy and Merthon were backed up to the edge and Katy tried to fire Betsy again but the Emperor knocked the shotgun out of her hands. It fell down to the ground below.

  This is it, thought Jolo. I’ve failed. But then the Emperor took a step forward and a funny thing happened: the lower half of his leg remained on the ground, his upper leg waved in the air and he lost his balance and fell. Katy and Merthon were still in danger so Jolo fired again at the Emperor’s head to get his attention. The Emperor had been reduced to an angry pile of black alacyte covered with a cape. He tried to regain his feet and fell again, the worm inside screaming out, cursing. Jolo fired again and the Emperor used his powerful arms to steady himself and brought the blade around keeping Jolo at a safe distance. Then suddenly the black beast started laughing and turned its upper body back towards the edge of the building. It lunged. The red blade aimed at Katy. There was nowhere to go so she jumped off the building.

  Jolo screamed, saw Katy disappear over the edge, as the Emperor, still laughing, struggled to stand and fell again. Jolo fired the Colt at the Emperor until he was out of bullets and then fell to his knees. He’d lost everyone.

  But then he heard the unmistakable sound of an old thruster, a deep grumble compared to the new Fed ships’ high-pitched whine. And suddenly he saw Katy, hovering in mid air, then rising up above the roof standing on top of the Argossy. One of the railguns was torn off, but George kept the one still attached trained on the Emperor as he picked up Jolo and Merthon.

  Once on board they picked up the survivors from the Leviathan. Only five were left: four marines and one bridge officer. Some were killed during the fight. Falkowski and the rest died in the crash.

  Jolo wanted to take out the Emperor, but the one gun still attached didn’t work. Hurley had welded it back on for show. All of the BG ships had been destroyed or had jumped out. Greeley, who’d been injured earlier and had limped back, wanted to try and crush the Emperor with the ship. But that would have just endangered his crew, thought Jolo. In the end, Jolo decided the best thing to do was to run now before any BG reinforcements came. The Argossy and her crew were in no shape to challenge the Emperor and his army of synths, even if the mech giant was down to one leg.

  “Take us out of here Katy,” said Jolo. And just like Marco said she would, the old ship made it topside and they made four quick jumps in succession, getting as far away from Montag as they could.

  Home Again

  A few jumps outside of Duval

  Jolo pressed the button on the intercom. “Where is Jaylen?” he said.

  The tall Vellosian stared back at him with calm eyes through the dirty glass window of the Argossy’s lower hold airlock door. “Must we speak like this?” He voice small and tinny through the small speaker.

  “Start talking or I’ll send you out into space,” said Jolo through the comm, eyeing the red button on the wall that would suck the green creature out into the cold black.

  “Don’t you want to know who you are?” said the Vellosian.

  “I want to know where Jaylen is!” Jolo yelled.

  “Please, Jolo, don’t do this,” said Katy, coming down the stairs into the cargo hold.

  Jolo squatted down, his hands in his head. “All of this. Falkowski and his crew. The Leviathan. Was for nothing,” he said. Katy put her arm around him.

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “There’s more going on here.”

  “Yes, listen to her, Jolo,” said the Vellosian. “This is bigger than you.”

  Jolo pulled out the Colt and put it up to the glass level with the green man’s head. “You don’t know anything about me!” yelled Jolo.

  “My name is Merthon. And yes, I do know about you. I created you.” Jolo fired twice at the thick alacyte door but neither round penetrated. The Vellosian jumped back and Katy moved between Jolo and the door.

  “Are you gonna shoot me, too?” she said. And Jolo lowered the gun. “Please let him at least speak before you dump him out into space. This isn’t like you, Jolo.”

  “How would you know?” Jolo snarled. “You don’t know me!”

  “Yes, I do,” she yelled right back. “I’ve watched you do the right thing every time,” she said. “You saved the people on Qualus. You allowed Marco to call you son, to love you, even though you weren’t sure. You tried to save the girl you loved.”

  Jolo stood and pressed the green button on the wall and the door slid open and the Vellosian stepped into the hold. He sat on a small box and stared at Jolo and Katy like a teacher pondering two students.

  Jolo holstered the Colt. “What do yo
u mean, you made me?”

  “My friend and colleague Jamis and I were pulled from Vellos before the BG destroyed the planet. At first, we thought fate had spared us, but soon we realized the Bakanhe Grana had taken us so that we could build them an army of synthetic beings under their control. They used one of the old Vellosian labs on Montag. We could not escape and could not get word to anyone in the Federation powerful enough to matter so we thought we would be forced to do the Emperor’s bidding and then be surely killed when he had no use of us.

  And then there was an attack by the Fed on Montag led by none other than Jolo Vargas, the great Federation war hero. The BG were victorious and Vargas died. The Emperor celebrated your death and when other Fed marines’ bodies were simply recycled, yours was kept as a trophy in the hall of the Emperor.

  It stayed there several days until one day it was gone. I got a hold of the body and went to work. I am a Vellosian, a Creator making a bio-synth army for the BG, yet they underestimated my abilities, did they not realize what I could do with you? They left Vargas’s body in stasis box in a pile of recyclable waste. I took your body and placed it in one of my growth tanks surrounded by thousands of other tanks. Once the recycle bot took your stasis container away no one was the wiser.”

  “So who am I?” said Jolo.

  “You are a mix of bio-synth and human,” said the Vellosian. He put his hand on Jolo’s face. “You are your own man, but there is a large part of Jolo Vargas in you as well. Your body knows who you are.”

  “So I’m no better than one of your synths?”

  “No. You are much more than that. You have all of their powers. And you have your humanity. That frail and wonderful quality the BG consider a weakness, yet makes all of you so confounding and wonderful.”

  “What about my father? He thinks I’m Jolo.”

  “Well, you are Jolo. Mostly. And why should he not love you and accept you.