A Line in the Sand

by Ryk Brown

  While Loki had been feeding an overwhelming amount of personal information to Joe, his interrogator had been sharing a surprising amount of his own. Yet Joe had always been careful not to reveal any details that would confirm the identity of his organization or where they were currently located.

  Still, it had been a pleasant conversation, not at all what he might expect from an interrogation. Even if the tone had been set on purpose, as a ploy to get him to reveal small details by accident, it was preferable to a more confrontational approach. In his current state, Loki was uncertain that he could have successfully navigated such an encounter.

  “You have been through much,” Joe admitted, pushing his own plate aside as well. “One can only wonder why you continue to fight.”

  “Honestly, I ask myself that same question nearly every day,” Loki admitted. “Especially since Lael died. But when I look at my daughter’s face, I cannot imagine what she would think of me if I turned my back on Josh and the others, if I walked away from the fight.”

  “Would she not appreciate that you did not want to risk leaving her fatherless?” Joe wondered.

  “I would hope she would realize that my belief in our cause was great enough to risk never seeing her again. Besides, she is safe and likely in better hands with the Montrose family.”

  Joe nodded. “Perhaps.” He stretched and leaned back in his chair. “You have been most forthcoming, Loki. I did not expect as much. However, there is one thing that you have not mentioned.”

  Loki pretended to be confused. “I’m pretty sure I’ve told you everything.”

  “Everything except who leads you.”

  “Like I said, I’m just a pilot…”

  “The memories we did extract tell me otherwise,” Joe insisted.

  It was not the first time during their conversations that Joe had alluded to the memories they had extracted. Yet each time he had only hinted at what they knew, as if the memories had been distorted. “I believe General Telles is the leader of the Karuzari Alliance,” Loki told him. “It might not be only him. There may be others with whom he shares leadership responsibilities. I can’t be certain.”

  “And who is your commanding officer on the Aurora?” Joe asked.

  “I told you. Captain Taylor.”

  “Yet there are very few memories of you taking orders from Captain Taylor, especially when under fire,” Joe explained. “What about on the Voss? Who was your commanding officer then?”

  “Commander Kamenetskiy,” Loki lied.

  “Yes, there are images and sounds of this man, quite recently in fact. However, there are memories of another man. One who frequently appears in your short-term memory. One who looks very much like someone who should not be alive.”

  “Maybe it would help if you told me who you think this person in my memory is?” Loki suggested, hoping to find out what the man actually knew, or at least what he suspected.

  “Nathan Scott.”

  Loki chuckled. “Captain Scott was executed by the Jung seven years ago. It was all over the news.”

  “If we had gone into your long-term memory, you and I would not be having this conversation.”

  “Is it possible that I just thought of the captain recently? Maybe that’s why he’s in my short-term memory?” Loki suggested.

  Joe sighed. “Anything is possible,” he admitted. “I have seen stranger results from the device. I once scanned a man who believed he was a goat. He truly believed this. His visual memories were even from the eye-level of a goat, and he was walking around within the herd. Through interrogation, we determined that the memories were in fact from a recent dream the subject had experienced. One that he had remembered quite vividly.”

  “Wow, that is unusual.”

  “Not really,” Joe said, dismissing it. “Turns out, the subject owned a small goat farm.”

  “So you’re saying dreams can be picked up as memories?” Loki surmised.

  “If they are recalled with enough clarity and are fairly recent, yes. To be honest, we don’t really understand how the device works. We just know that it does.”

  “But wouldn’t that make most memories suspect?” Loki decided.

  “Most dreams are too unusual to be believed,” Joe explained. “They are full of continuity errors and often violate the basic laws of physics. Like people flapping their arms and flying like a bird. So it is usually not difficult to tell them apart from memories of reality.”

  “Well, I do think about Captain Scott a lot,” Loki insisted, hoping to coax Joe into believing that those memories were actually dreams.

  “Perhaps, but you have many memories of Captain Scott,” Joe pointed out. “Most of them fairly recent and quite clear. And those memories, while fantastic, do not seem to violate reality as we understand it.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Loki lied. “I guess I’m just a realistic dreamer.”

  Joe leaned forward again, putting his elbows on the table and crossing his arms, a determined look on his face. “I believe I have a more logical explanation.”

  “I’d love to hear it,” Loki invited.

  “I believe that you are an excellent officer and are trying hard not to reveal that Captain Scott is alive and is leading the Karuzari Alliance.”

  “Your logical explanation is that a man whom everyone saw executed and buried is actually alive?” Loki rolled his eyes. “Yup, sounds completely logical to me.”

  “I have seen many things revealed by the memory extraction device,” Joe insisted. “However, I have never seen memories so clear resulting from dreams, even recent ones.”

  “So you’re accusing me of lying,” Loki surmised. “Why would I do that? You have a machine that will get you the truth and turn me into a vegetable in the process.”

  “One can hide the truth without lying,” Joe insisted. “Perhaps you believe what you are saying, or more likely, you are saying it in such a way that it does not feel like a lie to you…like a partial truth.”

  “I think you’re giving me more credit than I deserve,” Loki countered.

  Joe assumed a less confrontational pose in his chair. “Let us assume, for the sake of discussion, that I am correct, and Captain Scott is alive. If this was revealed to the public, it could change the balance of power on Earth.”

  “How so?” Loki asked.

  “As the son of a slain leader, Nathan Scott would have the legal right to act as president, at least until an election could be held. If he exercised that right, it would be the end of Admiral Galiardi’s reign over us.”

  Over us, Loki thought. It was the first time that his interrogator had said something that might belie his allegiances. The question was, had he done so intentionally?

  “From what I saw earlier, half the people on your planet like Galiardi,” Loki stated.

  “Like is a strong word,” Joe insisted. “Many agree with his position on the Jung, for various reasons. However, many might not agree with him remaining in power should a legal heir to office appear.”

  “Which I’m betting Admiral Galiardi wouldn’t like.”

  “Indeed,” Joe replied, his expression revealing nothing about his feelings on the idea.

  “What about you?” Loki pressed. “How do you feel about him?”

  “I neither love nor hate the man. As far as I’m concerned, he has as many agreeable objectives as he has faults, assuming that the information that we have been given is the truth. Your memories seem to contradict that truth.”

  Loki shook his head in dismay. The man was good. If Loki’s suspicions were correct, and Joe was working for Galiardi, then life as he knew it was over. It was only a matter of time before they would put him back on the memory extractor, ending his life in the process.

  * * *

  The Voss had spent the night maintaining a position near the Sol comm-relay s
tation, awaiting a response before planning their next move. During that time, Nathan had ample opportunity to reassess his options. Unfortunately, they were unchanged.

  Nathan ascended the stair ladder to the command deck and made his way aft through the short corridor connecting it to the common room at the ship’s center. Most of the crew had spent the short, simulated night in their racks, getting some rest while they could. As expected, most were gathered in the common room, sharing stories and insults over their morning meal.

  “Morning, Captain,” Kit greeted.

  “Finally,” Jessica exclaimed from the center table. “I was wondering when you were going to get up.”

  “Sorry,” Nathan apologized as he made his way over to the kitchenette. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “Funny, I could’ve sworn I heard you snoring,” Jessica remarked.

  “I’m pretty sure that was Marcus,” Josh insisted, snickering.

  Nathan removed a mug from the overhead cabinet and placed it into the beverage dispenser on the counter, pressing the button to activate the machine. “Any word from the Aurora?”

  Jessica picked up her data pad from the table, and then leaned back, handing it to Nathan with an outstretched arm. “Reply came back a few hours ago.”

  Nathan pulled his mug from the machine. “Anything interesting?”

  “Not really,” Jessica replied. “Cam’s been keeping an eye on the Dusahn, but so far, they haven’t left the Takar system. Intel shows they’re putting every effort into upgrading the rest of their newly acquired ships, though.”

  Nathan took a careful sip of his beverage. It wasn’t the same as the coffee back on the Aurora, but it was the closest thing SilTek had to offer, and it seemed to do the trick. “Did she send the maps?” he asked, studying the data pad.

  “Yup,” Jessica replied. “She also mentioned that she was surprised we weren’t dead…especially you.”

  “Based on these timestamps, it looks like it took about four hours round-trip,” Nathan said as he examined the comm-log. “Not too bad.”

  “The Aurora’s comm-drones could make the trip in an hour,” Vladimir insisted, his mouth full of food.

  “Well, until we get a few more of the long-range variants, the relay system will have to do,” Nathan commented. “Have you studied the maps yet?”

  “I had to write a conversion algorithm to make the map files compatible with our holo-projector,” Dylan told him. “I just completed the conversion as you came in.”

  “Load it up, and let’s take a look,” Nathan said as he moved toward the table, mug in hand.

  Dylan pressed a few buttons on the remote for the common room’s conference table, activating the holo-projector. A three-dimensional image of the volcano near Klyuchi appeared at the center of the table.

  Nathan took a seat next to Jessica, studying the projection. “Zoom in on the base,” he instructed.

  The projection switched to a semi-opaque representation of the mountain, revealing several lava tubes branching out from the center of the volcano and opening around the base.

  “That one looks to be the largest,” Nathan said, pointing.

  “The one on the near side is closer to town,” Jessica suggested.

  “Yes, but the opening is only about fifteen percent larger than the Voss,” Nathan explained. “The other one is more like twice our size.”

  “That one is fifty kilometers from Klyuchi,” Jessica pointed out. “It’ll take us at least an hour to get there using the rover, depending on the terrain.”

  “Let’s stick with the larger one,” Nathan insisted. “For Dylan’s sake. It’s his first time.”

  “Thank you,” Dylan said, relieved.

  “Hell,” Josh exclaimed, “I could make that jump with my eyes closed.”

  “That’s the only way I would do it,” Dylan commented. He looked at Nathan. “Just how accurate are these maps, Captain?”

  “They were originally created to enable accurate targeting of Jung forces on the surface, as a precaution in case of invasion,” Jessica explained. “So they’re pretty damned accurate.”

  “The update stamps show them to be just over a year old,” Nathan noted.

  “How do we even know the tubes are still there?” Dylan asked. “What if someone has built something in there? What if it has caved in since these maps were made? What if…”

  “I get it, Dylan,” Nathan said, cutting him off.

  “He’s got a point,” Jessica decided.

  “What do you think, Josh?” Nathan said. “Care to do a little recon?”

  “I’d love to,” Josh replied. “I can jump in low to the northwest between the mountains and that volcano. In and out in about a minute, tops.”

  “Make sure you keep it to that,” Nathan urged. “There probably aren’t any air traffic sensors in the area. Only the higher altitude stuff. But if you’re in there for too long, surveillance sats will detect you, no matter how low you fly.”

  “I’ll keep it short and sweet,” Josh promised. “Just long enough to verify our insertion point.”

  “When do we go?” Kit wondered.

  “We’ll move in closer now,” Nathan explained. “We’ll make the jump to Earth as soon as Josh gets back, assuming that tunnel opening is still there.”

  “I’ll jump us to Proxima Centauri. I can jump into the system from there,” Josh said, rising from the table. “Come on, kid. We’ve got work to do.”

  Nathan reached over and took a sausage from Vladimir’s plate, taking a bite. “How sure are you that Aleksi is in Klyuchi,” he asked Vladimir.

  “The only way Aleksi would not live in Klyuchi is if he had no choice,” Vladimir replied.

  “Now that I know where the hell Klyuchi actually is, I think there’s a good chance this guy might be there,” Jessica agreed. “It’s pretty damn remote. Not a bad place to run covert ops from.”

  “Well,” Nathan said as he stole another sausage, “I guess we’ll know soon enough.”

  Vladimir pulled his plate away from Nathan, wrapping his arm around it. “Get your own breakfast!”

  * * *

  After the events of the preceding day, none of the caste leaders had been surprised when their kor-dom called an emergency session of the Leadership Council. What the leader of the Jung Empire had to say, however, was entirely unexpected.

  The council chambers echoed numerous protestations of doms and caste representatives alike, so much so that one could barely hear themselves speak.

  The banging of Kor-Dom Borrol’s gavel rang so loudly, it was if it were amplified. Despite its ability to cut through the noise of the crowd, it took a dozen strikes to produce the desired effect. “Enough! Enough!” the kor-dom demanded. “Everyone will get a chance to speak!”

  “The Tonba-Hon-Venar has already begun!” Dom-Jaya Jung-Mogan protested at the top of his lungs. “It has taken seven years to get our fleet into position! We are only days from vengeance!”

  Several of the doms vehemently echoed the Jung-Mogan representative’s sentiments, while others argued in opposition with equal fervor.

  Kor-Dom Borrol banged his gavel repeatedly. “Do not make me clear this room!” he threatened with conviction. “I have called for a general assembly of all doms, regardless of rank and standing! But if we cannot have order, I will clear this chamber of all but the Leaders of Nine!” The kor-dom set his gavel down, determination on his face. Once the unruly occupants of the gallery had quieted down, he continued. “The council will hear Dom Jung-Viyakh.”

  The elderly leader of the ninth of the original Jung castes rose, allowing his gathered robes to hang freely before he began his oration. “We stand on the precipice of annihilation. This empire rose from disaster a millennia ago, when our founder saw an opportunity to save his people. Still, it required that he go against eve
rything he believed. It is because of him that we all stand here this day. We now have the opportunity to show our people that we are not so foolish as to allow ego and tradition to cause us to forget the sacrifices of all those who came before us. Yes, this great empire can be rebuilt from the ashes of the Tonba-Hon-Venar, and in another thousand years, it will be bigger and stronger than it is today. But I ask you, what kind of leaders would we be if we allowed trillions of innocent people to die needlessly? Men, women, and children, all of whom trust us to protect and care for them.” The old statesman paused a moment, his head hung low. “Kristoff Jung was no great leader of men,” he continued, slowly raising his head again. “He was just the captain of an old cargo ship who did what was needed when it mattered most.” Dom Jung-Viyakh paused again, looking around the council chambers, exchanging glances with as many of the caste leaders as he could before finishing his statement. “Who are we to let ego and politics stand in the way of the survival of this grand empire?”

  “The Tonba-Hon-Venar must proceed!” someone yelled from the gallery. Immediately, several more joined him in voicing their opinions, both for and against.

  Again Kor-Dom Borrol was forced to use his gavel. “Clear the gallery!” he ordered, pointing at the doors at the back of the gallery.

  The arguing of the lesser caste leaders seated in the gallery became even more raucous. Half of them demanded that the Tonba-Hon-Venar continue, while the other half cursed them for ignorance in their call for violence and destruction. A few even demanded an immediate vote of no-confidence in Kor-Dom Borrol. More than a dozen of the empire’s elite council guards were required to control the chaos and clear the gallery.

  “Sequester them all until after this session has concluded!” Kor-Dom Borrol instructed his chief of security. It was an unprecedented step, even by a kor-dom, but their unwieldy behavior had left him little choice. Thus far, he had managed to avoid revealing the identity of the representative from the Karuzari Alliance; the man who wished to lead his own Jung caste. Were any of the doms to discover the truth, even those in the Leaders of Nine, they would get their vote of no-confidence. Even worse, there would be no turning back from the Tonba-Hon-Venar, and the empire would end.