“And if we want more than the Empire is willing to pay?” He came back with.
Hawk studied him for a moment. He could understand their curiosity, their need for clarity but this bordered on belligerence. These Cyborgs no longer trusted anyone, including their own. Something had gone badly wrong.
He leaned forward. He’d offered friendship and they were pissing him off. “You do not have to work with the Empire,” he shrugged and indicated the wide open horizon, “you can continue on your way, no harm no foal. You didn’t know us, we didn’t know you. If you find you cannot work with structure right now, you have no obligation to us, you can go on your way, but, you fired on us without provocation, that concerns me, the Council and the Empire. If that, is how you do business then you should be on your way out of our space. We do not accept that, as a way of life.”
He noticed a lot of glazed over expressions. He gave them time to discuss it. D923 focused back on him. “We have found it beneficial to attack first, then find answers.” He told him. Hawk looked stonily back.
“Answers to what exactly?” Hawk asked.
“That would depend.” D923 told him. Hawk looked blankly back until he started to speak again. “On if they had anything to do with Earth Corp. If they posed us harm. If they had something we needed to survive. If they were raiders.”
Hawk realised that nearly everyone they were likely to come across, had to have something to do with Earth Corp. So many people, that posed them no harm at all but were once linked to Earth Corp, had been at risk, were still at risk. He felt the tension rise and his chest constrict. “You realise, I just told you that Earth Corp seeded this part of the Universe and dumped on those people, just like they did us, right? And you what?” He asked shaking his head, “hurt them more? Made their lives more dangerous than it already was? Does that really sound ok to you?” His sensors were telling him to calm down, his heart, that they could have harmed his mate, had they found her. They were wrong and needed to know it.
“You are being illogical.” D923 told him calmly. “We do what we must to survive.”
“That kind of survival stinks.” He told them disgusted.
“I do not understand the words or the meaning.” D923 told him flatly.
Hawk could feel himself becoming frustrated. “It means it’s not a good way to live, there are better ways. We embrace our human side.” He told him.
“Why, it makes us weak.” Another one asked.
Hawk shook his head. He wasn’t a teacher. This was a bunch of nuts and bolts and he was getting nowhere. “You should go see the Admiral. He can explain things better. My ship is on a mission, I have someone waiting on me. I cannot delay any longer.”
“What is your mission?” D923 asked.
“I am on my way to a new world that was once seeded by Earth Corp many generations ago. We found the world by accident on a data base. We believe they’ve had no contact with Earth Corp for nearly all that time. We do not know if they live or not, but there is a strong possibility that they do and my mate, is amongst them.” Hawk watched as a series of glazed over expressions continued on the vid screen.
Eventually D923 looked clear eyed at him. “We will join you.” The vid screen cut out. Hawk sat there for a moment not sure what had just happened. Fuck. Had he just brought a war machine to a peaceful planet? The Admiral was going to kill him….
Chapter Three
Franny worked her way through all the files, her father had. It was one of the most boring things she’d ever done but, she somehow knew it to be essential. The thought that one of their own, could betray them gnawed at her. Her people had been through so much. So many were gone, with nothing to show for all their hard work, the land was only a fraction of what it could have been, they could have had a good life here, had it not been for Earth Corp and the soldiers.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. Not only had Earth Corp given them the opportunity in the first place, they then sent the soldiers to pull the rug from under them. Franny shook her head. That last ship that had arrived, had dumped all their provisions and the last of their contracted equipment and supplies and scarpered really quickly. What the colonists had first thought were helping hands and people to help protect the game changing mineral, turned into something else entirely. She remembered her grand mother talking about how good it was, before the mineral was found.
Three generations, of running and hiding. Hitting them where it hurts and moving on. Her grandfather had talked about old school wars, where indigenous people waged war on the newcomers, trying to take their land. He said, it had turned out bad for them, but he wouldn’t let that happen here. He had faith. So, they’d started their own action against the new comers. Hit and run. Strike and go back into the hills. No permanent base, always on the move. Leave no tracks and nothing to find and it had worked well, until now.
Franny sat back, her neck tight. She moved it from side to side to alleviate some of the tension. She couldn’t imagine it was one of the first or second generation. They were so embittered, the numbers working with the soldiers were less than 20%. That only left her generation. She hated the thought of that. One of her own generation making a pact with them. She knew some were finding it hard. That there seemed no end to the fighting. She’d never had a real home herself, she understood the frustrations and had bad days herself. She got it, she understood. It just wasn’t possible to live like that, when retaliating against injustice. Some were fed up that it would never end. That food would continue to be scarce, education would be limited and homes non-existent, some just didn’t understand what the problem was.
They’d never experienced having the gift of free land, working it and then, having it forcibly taken away. Told they needed to leave or work under someone else’s rule. The originals had paid to have this world, given everything they had, to come and find a new life, a better life, for their children. Only this wasn’t better now, and her generation had started talking about the good life on offer with the soldiers. The rewards they could get for working for them were better than living in caves and dirt. They had better opportunities to survive. The charm offensive the soldiers were doing, was paying off. A lot of her generation didn’t get, that they would be working on their own land, their own animals and crops, their own mineral and giving it all away, for three square meals and a comfy bed. They had nothing, so what was the problem with doing it for nothing and getting better than they had now? Franny blew out a breath. She understood it, just didn’t like it.
It was easier for her to understand. She’d been brought up knowing what had happened. Knowing how bad it had been. Some of the others, didn’t have that exposure, their parents and grandparents didn’t talk about it much, it was too painful. The sacrifices they’d made and the people they’d lost. They chose not to face what they had lost. It left their next generation unsure of what all the fuss was about.
Franny thought it was time to get out the old testimonies out and brush them off. The first generation’s record of what had happened here and start playing them again. It was wrong to forget. Forgiving would come later. This wasn’t a case of one view over another. This was far more than that and maybe they all needed a reminder.
She got up and went in search of her father.
***
Hawk stepped off the off-worlder in the Cyborg cargo bay. He’d come alone. Bringing more men with him wouldn’t have saved him if this was a trap. Three Cyborgs would not be able to win over a company. D923 was waiting for him, he had no guard and other Cyborgs were going about their business around him.
Hawk took it all in in a single sweep of the area and relayed it to his ship. D923 looked confused at him.
“I cannot ping you for communication over my neuro net.” D923 told him. “I do not understand, is your neuro net faulty?”
Hawk shook his head, “no, I have new software, you are using old Earth Corp programming. We erased that and uploaded a new programme one of the mates created, and another was able to install in u
s without causing harm. Unless you have access to the new software, you will not be able to communicate via your net with us. It means Earth Corp, or anyone else with their information, cannot hack us.”
“I understand.” D923 told him. “We would benefit from that upload.”
Hawk nodded. “You will. The Admiral will offer it to you.”
“What will it cost us?” He asked.
“Nothing, it is freely available to all Cyborgs, we do not profit from each other in that way,” Hawk told him honestly.
“Then that is one of the first things we will do.” D923 told him. “My ready room is this way.” He indicated the direction and they both moved. As they walked thought the ship, D923 would know he was recording everything. It was impossible for a Cyborg not to. Everything they did was recorded and stored for later retrieval if needed.
“How did you get this vessel?” Hawk asked. He recognised it as an Old Earth design.
“We fought our way free from a containment camp shortly after the last war. Our last human commander, in the last few months before we were free, had been concerned and worried over something. He was often angry and agitated around the officers. We all picked up on his emotions. We were waiting on the order to be free of our obligation, but it didn’t come. He’d had a meeting on that final day with his General. From across the compound, I saw him came out, my optic vision is above average. He looked unwell and straight at me for a moment, then walked off. At 2.58am the following morning, he came to our barracks covertly.
“Most of us were not in a sleep cycle. He pulled a data pad, on it, it said to check for listening devices and other men. We did and removed the devices no other humans were around. Then he asked me, as the group leader to acknowledge he was the command leader. I did. Then he told us that our Contract was terminated with Earth Corp, our obligation completed, and we were free to leave. He showed me the paperwork on the data pad, I verified it and acknowledged the change of status. It was only then, that he told us that we would have to fight out way out, if we wanted freedom and take this ship, currently on repairs outside the compound. He opened the armoury and told us to arm up for a fight. We did, and he was right, once they knew we were free, they came at us hard, many were injured but we carried the day and were free.”
They entered an office and Hawk took a seat facing the desk and chair that D923 took. “What happened to the human commander?”
D923 gazed off for a moment. “He led as he always did, from the front. Made sure we were heading in the right direction, avoiding patrols where possible. At the time, I wondered why they didn’t use the kill switch on us, as he died, I knew why. He’d messed with their computers to give us time to get free. He nearly made it with us but took several bullets to the chest and went down. We were unable to save him. As he died, he told me the General was going to sell us to fight another war, rather than honour our contract and set us free as he should have the next day. For the first time in his career he refused an order and set us free.”
Hawk looked across at D923. He was sure he’d seen a flicker of emotion. “He set you free and made sure you made it. He was a worthy male.” Hawk told him.
D923 nodded. “He was a rare human and we owed him much.”
“Did he have family?” Hawk asked.
D923 nodded. “He’d come to the end of a long career, was retiring and mentioned looking forward to spending time with his son and his family. His son was a Captain in the forces and had retired to take on a colony. My logic tells me, that in helping us, we took that from his son.”
“I understand.” Hawk told him. “Now, I need to update you on this mission. There is to be no engagement, unless I order it, are we clear?”
“Affirmative.” D923 told him.
“Good, here’s what we have. We are approximately two weeks out, we do not know the condition of the colonists or the world itself …….”
***
Franny continued eating her evening meal as the vid library showed the original colonists and what had happened to them. She could see the impact on those sitting around her. What was showing, where true human emotions, raw, deep, some, unable to get the words out for crying. It told the tail of how excited people were to be picked to go on this journey. How they’d sold up everything they owned to get the money Earth Corp demanded for their place on the ship. The risks they’d taken back then, with space exploration in its infancy, just for the chance of a new life and a better life for their children.
They spoke of their fears going into stasis, knowing there was a chance some of them wouldn’t come out of it and still they went. Some spoke of how desperate they were for the chance to go. Others, how scared they were to go to a new world that no human had seen. Earth Corps seed ships had been unmanned, took samples and sent back the data then moved on. They spoke of the new skills they had to learn, how they had to be self-sufficient. They needed doctors and nurses, farmers, woodworkers, miners, architects, builders, engineers and soldiers. They had to take it all.
People’s faces show how excited they’d been to see the ship, to learn how to re-use it to make the colony and how wonderful it had been, to finally arrive and find the planet a haven and not a hell.
Until they’d found the ore, then things changed. It was their forth year. Earth Corp had delivered on their contract for those first three years. They’d found good water, sourced power, built the town, put down crops, the animal stock was doing well, and they’d started mining. Life was good, until they found the ore. Testing had shown it to be more volatile and have more explosive power, than anything back on Old Earth. They had carefully mined it and put it to one side. It wasn’t what they were actually looking for. Samples had shown there was a mineral close but more valuable than Platinum. They were contracted to extracted that and send it back to Earth Corp. This other mineral, was a big surprise to everyone and had nearly killed someone before they realised what it was.
On the next ship, they loaded the Platinum then took the Captain to view the other ore. He was highly excited by it and a truck load was loaded into the ship. They never knew what happened after that. The next ship brought the soldiers, and their expected materials and everything changed. The people on the vid screen got more tearful now. They talked about what they’d hoped, when they saw the soldiers and how quickly that hope died.
Then they spoke about how they’d welcomed the soldiers to their colony only to be told, it no longer belonged to them. They were told they had not delivered on their contract and Earth Corp were pulling the plug. The people spoke about their shock and dismay. It was shortly followed by the bombshell that they had to get off the planet and had to earn their trip back. Franny knew everyone could see the devastation on people’s faces on the vid screen. How they hadn’t believed it at first. Then came the forced labour, then the threats, then the killing started and the forced evictions and some of the women, started going missing. The men were devastated.
One of the female originals, described an encounter, how one of the wives had been dragged away by the soldiers. She was her friend. Her husband and children had been desperate to find her. By the time she had found him and told him what had happened and the men got together to confront the soldiers, she was gone and he was beaten nearly to death for ‘interfering.’ Sobbing, she told them that he was never the same after that and the wife, turned up dead two weeks later, beaten and raped. That’s when people understood, she told them. This was how life was going to be, if they didn’t fight back.
Franny felt it was hunting and ugly. Not one person in the room was unaffected. She hoped it did the job.
Finishing her meal, she stacked her plates, thanked the cook and headed outside for some fresh air. Everything around her seemed to close in on her all of a sudden. She needed to get out, feel the breeze on her face and feel alive.
She sensed Cassidy and Lorraine on her shoulders. “That your idea?” Lorraine asked.
Franny nodded. “It’s a good idea to remind everyone
of why we’re doing this. Some will still want an easier life, hell I do, but not at the cost of those people. This world belongs to us and those soldiers, shouldn’t be here.”
“It won’t stop some going over,” Cassidy told her sadly.
“True, but now maybe, they’ll think twice.”
Lorraine shook her head, “I don’t think some of them care about right and wrong, the younger ones just want a life other than this.” Franny nodded. She agreed. They all did. But this was what it was. She gazed out over the mountains. “How’s the leg?” She asked.
Franny looked down at it and the stick in her hand. It was better, but she needed another few days off it. “Getting there, be back on duty next week.”
“Good,” Lorraine told her. “we need you. People are down, and we need more men. Kiumo is trying to kill us.” They all smiled, and the two females walked off in the direction of the bunks. Franny took a deep breath. What they needed was an army….
***
Hawk looked at the world below them. There were no makers around it signalling its sovereignty. That unsettled him. This world was seeded and yet, there was nothing to indicate that around it, telling others to keep out. It didn’t make much sense, unless the people had not survived. His gut felt twisted, his logic told him he didn’t have that information. He connected his neuro net.
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