Traitor

by Drew Avera

  As Dickson backed away and fought to catch his breath, Nesbitt sauntered over, blood dripping from his mouth. He smiled maniacally, exposing his bloodied teeth as he laughed heartily. The chief was cocksure of himself and his impending victory.

  "I don't know how you survived, Captain, but it looks like I’ll have to add another tattoo to my body when I kill you twice."

  Dickson backed into the bulkhead of the cabin. He reached for something to brace against as he sat up and waited for what was to come. There was no more fight left in him. No air in his oxygen-deprived lungs.

  Instead, he watched helplessly as Nesbitt drew his firearm, cocked it, and leveled it at Dickson's head. "Sweet dreams, Captain."

  "Sweet dreams," Chuck said from behind him, drawing the chief's attention. Nesbitt turned as Chuck brought the stock of his rifle barreling towards Nesbitt's face.

  The blow struck Nesbitt above his right eye and snapped his neck back with a pop. His head cracked against the deck with a wet thud and all the light was gone from his eyes. Dickson glared down at him, half expecting the monster of a man to keep coming, to keep delivering the pain until his life was extinguished.

  "Are you all right?" Chuck asked as he extended an open hand to Dickson.

  Dickson nodded his head but couldn't talk due to the pain in his throat. He gasped in heavy breaths, desperate to restore oxygen to his brain as his vision tunneled. Thankfully, the sensation settled to something less agonizing.

  "I thought he was going to kill me," Harrison said as he made his way over to the captain. "Thank you for coming to my rescue."

  Dickson let Chuck help him rise from the deck and used the bulkhead to support himself as he held his throat, rubbing it to get the pain go away. "I didn't do it for you," he croaked. "I did it to save Hoyt’s kids."

  "There were three others," Chuck replied. "Where are they now?"

  Harrison disappeared into the bridge for several seconds before returning. "They’re outside guarding Hoyt’s kids and one of the locals," Harrison offered.

  Dickson stared down at Nesbitt's unconscious body before glancing back at Chuck. "Do you think you could fit in that armor?"

  Chuck nodded. "What do you have in mind?"

  "Admiral Hardak sent a team to retrieve the lieutenant and I doubt Nesbitt sent word that they had hostages. Me, you, Harrison, and Nata can wear their armor as we go back to the Tempest. Harrison can lead us there and they won’t expect us. We can try to free the Hoyts," Dickson said as he pieced something resembling a plan together in his head. It was a longshot, but they were low on options.

  Chuck reached down and began unstrapping the armor and removing it from Chief Nesbitt's body.

  Dickson surveilled the scene, taking note of what happened and what needed to be done before they could execute the next stage of “the plan”. He noticed that Nesbitt was still alive, based on the slow rise and fall of his chest. And that was more than that treasonous son of a gun deserved. It was better this way, he thought, maybe justice would be served through a tribunal, though that would only happen if they could stop Hardak.

  Once the body armor was removed, Dickson used Nesbitt's cuffs to restrain him. They positioned the chief face down on the deck and pulled him out of sight from the passageway leading out into the cargo bay as a precaution.

  “What do we do now?” Chuck asked once the chief was secured.

  "Gear up and take Harrison down with you. Distract them and then take them out," Dickson said flatly.

  "You want us to kill them?" Harrison asked.

  Dickson shrugged. "Preferably not but do what you have to do. The situation has gotten out of control. It’s a disaster and much too convoluted to have gone this long without being found out already. But like I said, if you can take them out without killing them, that would probably be best."

  Chuck nodded and began strapping on the body armor. "I think I can restrain myself enough to keep from killing them," he replied, "but if they hurt one of those kids out there, then there are not enough bullets in these guns to fulfill what I will do to them."

  Dickson locked eyes with the Grotan man and nodded, "I agree wholeheartedly. So, let’s end this."

  “Will do,” Chuck said. “Will do.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Auden shifted her weight and winced as another shard of glassy sand dug into her knee. They had been held at gunpoint for several minutes and she sensed a growing agitation coming from her guards.

  "What’s taking Chief so long, is he having fun at the lieutenant’s expense without us?" the man in the center said after a long moment of silence.

  "I haven't heard any shots yet, so he ain’t having that much fun," another man joked eliciting chuckles from the group. He smelled suspiciously of alcohol.

  Auden locked eyes with her sister and noticed the anguish on her face. For all their wondering of whether things would get worse before they landed here, it was clear that it could, and Auden didn’t want to see it continue the downward spiral.

  A sound caught her attention as she glanced towards the cargo ramp of their ship to see Nesbitt marching towards them with an unknown man behind him. She concluded that that must be Lieutenant Harrison. There was a look of defeat on his face and his shoulders were slumped.

  "It's about time, I wasn't getting any younger here," the voice said behind them.

  The two men approached, and Auden noticed the frightened expression on the lieutenant’s face. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that the lieutenant was just as afraid of Nesbitt as she was.

  Maybe it wasn’t defeat that I recognized, she thought.

  "Are we good to go, boss?" one of the men asked, but Auden couldn't read his name tag in the dark.

  Nesbitt glanced over to the lieutenant, stirring the officer to speak, "Yes, I was able to get into the system finally," Harrison said flatly. There was no enthusiasm to his voice to match his statement and it struck Auden as odd.

  "I wasn't talking to you, I was asking the chief," the man spat indignantly.

  Nesbitt tapped on his helmet and a muffled voice answered, "The transmitter is jacked up.”

  Harrison stepped between them. “He said that his transmitter is messed up," Harrison chimed in.

  "I heard that," the man seethed. "Prisoners, get up and form a line," the man ordered.

  Auden, Tara, and Nata rose and stood in a line as they were told. The armed men stalked around them like predators, their weapons trained on their unarmed targets.

  "What’s up with the local, Anderson?" Harrison asked.

  The man that Auden presumed was second in command stepped up to the officer and looked down at him forebodingly, which was a challenge considering the mask covering his face. "What business is it of yours? Chief, can we just shoot him and leave him for dead?"

  Nesbitt shook his head, a motion that Auden noticed seem to unsettle his second-in-command.

  "What's going on here?" The man she now knew to be named Anderson muttered. He turned to the side, narrowing his profile as his eyes seemed to fixate on the chief.

  "What do you mean, Andy?" One of the men asked looking away from his target and towards the commotion taking place behind him.

  "Something isn’t right here. Remove your helmet, Chief."

  Auden watched as the situation dissolved in front of her eyes. Anderson's treasonous attitude towards his superior grated against Consulate policy and she couldn't imagine the situation going well. It worried her that she and her sister would be caught in the crossfire.

  "Did you hear what I said, Chief? I said to take off your helmet, now." Anderson took a forceful step closer and raised his weapon. She watched as Nesbitt took a step back, a counter move that she didn't expect from trained infantry. She expected the man to fire on his superior, but then Anderson went rigid and collapsed onto the sand. Auden's eyes fell upon Lieutenant Harrison standing behind the guard with a taser in his hand.

  "What the?" One of them said as he tried to get his friend’s attentio
n. Nesbitt came forward and cracked his rifle against the man’s head, driving him to the ground.

  The other man turned and charged, but Nesbitt was ready for him and swung his rifle like a bat toward the approaching man's face. He struck him hard enough to turn the man one-hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction, but his oncoming inertia caused him to fall in the direction he had been moving.

  Auden stood with her mouth agape. She had never witnessed such a breakdown in the chain of command. Was this a mutiny, or was it tyranny? Something didn’t add up and she could not find the words to ask for fear of reprisal from the chief.

  Nesbitt stepped forward and took hold of his helmet with both hands before pulling it off. "Are you three all right?"

  Tara gasped replied, "Chuck?"

  He tucked the helmet under his arm and smiled. "Surprise," he said with a grin.

  "I thought I noticed something different when I saw you walking down the ramp. The hatred emanating off that military man's aura was very heavy, but not so much when you and this officer returned. I'm glad to see that it was you," Nata said.

  "Likewise," Chuck replied. "But we don't have time for idle chitchat. We need to secure these men on the ship. The captain has a plan."

  Auden exhaled heavily, trying to let her stress fade. The roller coaster of emotions during the evening threw her for a loop, and she could hardly keep up. Still, she was focused on getting to her parents. All of this was to help them. "What do you need us to do?"

  Chuck bent down and retrieved a set of cuffs from one of the men and handed them to Auden. "Restrain them before they wake up. Me and Harrison will strip off their armor and use it for the next part of the plan.”

  “Which is?” Tara asked.

  Chuck smirked as he began unclasping the man’s vest. “You’ll see.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  He watched from the monitor on the bridge as Chuck swung and struck the guard with his rifle. All members of the team were down and not a single shot fired. "Thank God," he muttered under his breath as he exited the bridge.

  Nesbitt lay unconscious on the deck of the lounge as Dickson walked past. "It's about to get crowded in here, Chief. We have company," he said as he resisted the urge to spit on the thorn in his side.

  Dickson exited the Interceptor via the cargo ramp and jogged towards the group. He couldn’t fight back a grin as he thought about the miracle that took place in his life that night. He should have been dead, yet here he was, jogging, and he hated running.

  Chuck was standing over the last member of the team when he arrived, and Dickson saw the look of relief on the kids’ faces.

  Harrison turned to the captain and said, "I can’t believe that worked.” There was awe in his expression. “I’m still not convinced that we can get past the admiral’s guards. He surrounded himself with an all Heshian team and we both know how observant they can be."

  Dickson shrugged and clapped the man on the back. "We’ll get through it. The disguise only needs to work to get us on board so we can find the Hoyts. But I have to say, Harrison, I’m proud of you. Despite betraying me in the first place, you faced your fear of Nesbitt and his men and proved that you can be trusted; at least once you realized who the real enemy is. But remember, don't let your fear get in the way of doing what needs to be done. An innocent man's life is in our hands and we have to act to do the right thing."

  Chuck spun on his heels, the sound of crunched gravel grinding under his feet. "Agreed. We can’t let this tyrant get away with this. No one on this world is safe. If he's willing to turn on his people, then how long will it be before he focuses his attention on the allied races? My people narrowly escaped genocide during the last war."

  Dickson nodded, "Chuck is right. Millions of lives hang in the balance. We already know that Heshian extremists want to remove any threat to their power. Their superiority is the only thing that matters to them and they’ll kill anyone who gets in their way."

  "What shall you have me do, Captain?" Nata asked.

  "Are you opposed to wearing this uniform so that we can enter the admiral’s ship? We need to return as a four-man team to keep from raising suspicions." Dickson asked. Nata nodded. "Good," Dickson continued, "Once we bind these men on the ship, Auden and Tara will stay behind."

  "We don’t want to stay behind," Auden shot back. "We want to see our parents."

  Dickson swallowed back his retort and contemplated a better way to get his point across before speaking again. "I understand your concern, Auden. But there's no way I can take you into that gauntlet without knowing what I'm facing. There's a very real chance that this is going to get ugly despite having the element of surprise."

  "Listen to the captain," Chuck said. "We’ll come back to you with your parents."

  Auden nodded but kept quiet as she bit at her bottom lip.

  "That just leaves a little bit of prep work for us. We need to drag these men on board and take off their armor. We have to hurry up and return to Hardak’s ship because I'm certain he's expecting them at any minute."

  Dickson reached down and lifted one of the unconscious men and slung him over his shoulder with a huff. The man was heavier than expected, but Dickson knew he could manage. “Not bad for a guy who got shot, huh?” He said casually as he walked off with the other man in tow.

  He stopped at the ramp and turned back to see Chuck and Harrison following suit. Nata and the teenagers followed behind them.

  He continued onto the ship and dropped the man onto the deck. He didn’t waste time before he started stripping away the armor and piling it up on the deck next to him.

  Chuck and Harrison made short work of stripping the gear off their men and Harrison was halfway decked out in Anderson’s gear when he asked, "What's next, Captain?" He strapped another buckle into place and adjusted it.

  "We can't leave them like this in case they can get loose," Dickson replied. "Auden, do you have any tape?"

  She nodded and disappeared into the cargo bay before returning a few moments later with two rolls. "What do you need this for?"

  "We need to put these guys back to back and put tape over their hands so they can’t pick the locks. These men are trained too well to leave anything to chance," Dickson replied. “Once that's done, we’ll bind their arms together and we should be good to go."

  Harrison got to work with the tape while Dickson and Chuck helped Nata put on the armor.

  Dickson had never seen a Nepham before, but it didn't take long to see where the rumors that they were angelic beings had come from. There was an internal glow about her, a radiance that she tried to hide behind her cloak and hood, but she couldn’t hide her beauty. He questioned why anyone would ever want to cover it up. Of course, given the nature of their relationship with the Heshians, he should've been more surprised that he was able to see a Nepham in person at all.

  "Now that that's done, here’s the next step," Dickson began. "The four of us will go to Hardak’s ship. Harrison, you'll lead the way. We’ll have to march in formation in case they’re watching. Once we’re on board, we will immediately begin our search for Kevin and Sarah. We should be armed enough to take care of anything they throw at us, theoretically."

  "The last time I was on the ship, they were separated," Harrison interjected.

  "Makes sense to me," Dickson replied. "It’s a psychological form of torture to keep them away from one another. It shakes their confidence. Auden and Tara, you two will stay on board and keep an eye on the prisoners. Should they get loose, both of you will lock yourselves on the bridge. Just in case that happens, I don't recommend either of you two getting separated. Do you understand?"

  The girls agreed.

  "Good. I wish you two luck," he said.

  "What about us, Captain?" Harrison asked, his voice cracking.

  Dickson nodded as he put a round in the chamber of his firearm and holstered it. "Yeah, we’re going to need it too. But let's not think about that. Let’s do our job and do it well."


  “Yes, sir,” Harrison replied.

  For the first time, Dickson saw resolve in the young officer’s eyes. He might be terrified of what he was about to face, but he was going to face it anyway.

  That was all anybody in their position could ask for.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Auden pulled another book out of the box trying to distract herself from the four men tied together in the corner of the lounge. The technical manuals were so full of jargon, and her nerves were so rattled, that she couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was reading. Still, the books kept her from wanting to stare at those men, not that Tara had the same problem.

  "Are you seriously sleeping right now?" She asked as she canted her head to Tara to see that she was curled up in the corner next to her.

  Tara muttered something unintelligible before drifting back to sleep, and out of the awkward tension building up around her older sister.

  "Let her sleep," a man's voice said, startling her from her thoughts. She couldn't hold back the gasp that escaped her lips as she turned to see Chief Nesbitt staring up at her with wild eyes. "You shouldn’t hold that against her."

  "Don't talk to me," Auden spat her words without holding back her vitriol at the fact that he was awake and cognizant enough to talk. Though, the bruising and dried blood on his face did give her some satisfaction.

  "What's the matter, kid? Do you think I'm the bogeyman or something?"

  "You know exactly what's wrong," she replied as she stuffed her face back into the book, trying to retreat inside the binding instead of having to coexist in the same space as that maniac.

  "That's cute. You’re just like all the other snooty kids who grew up on Valara thinking that their stuff doesn’t stink. You have some naïve notion of how the world and society works and then you label people like me the bad guy when I was just following orders. Not everything is personal," he replied filling the room with the stench of his rhetoric.