by Joshua James
Eight
River went to the storage compartment and yanked the door back, rummaging in the contents.
Quinn cleared her throat. “Hello, River. How’s your head?”
River snarled over her shoulder while she ripped open a package of Grade 3 rations and clashed pans together. “You better not be speaking against Sarge on his own ship. If you want to bad-mouth him, you go tell it to the chasm.”
Quinn glanced back and forth between Tim and Eli. She sat down at the table like everything was normal. “We were just talking about why you’re so loyal to my dad.”
Tim sauntered to her side and threw his leg over the bench to sit down next to Quinn.
Quinn bestowed a big smile on River. “I think it’s nice that you think so much of him, River. He’s really good to you and the guys.”
Eli rolled his eyes. River Israel was nobody’s fool. She’d never fallen for a line of bullshit in her life.
“He saved my life by getting me off Pi Squared Two,” she said evenly. “I would have been worse than dead if he hadn’t.”
An awful silence descended over the galley. Those dreaded words killed a conversation like nothing else. No one wanted to think about Pi Squared Two, let alone go there. Only the worst of the worst patronized that den of sin. The only women on the planet were prostitutes, and they never lived long. Patrons from dozens of species traveled there, because no laws restrained them from doing things with the girls that they wouldn’t be allowed to do elsewhere.
Tim snorted again. Without looking up at Eli he said, “That tells you everything you need to know about him, doesn’t it? He’s no damned hero. He’s one of the patrons.”
A deafening crash blasted through the galley and a pan hurtled past Tim’s head. It smashed into the lockers across the room and food spattered the wall. “He is not!” River bellowed. “Don’t you dare say anything against Sarge or I’ll break your skinny ass in half!”
Her voice boomed through the ship, and Eli pivoted around to face her. Her massive body shook with rage. Her jowls trembled, gnashing her teeth. Only a fool would tangle with River. She could break a man twice Tim’s size in half. If Tim didn’t know that by now, he was a bigger fool than Eli had taken him for.
Eli extended a hand over the counter. “It’s all right, River. I’ve heard it all before.”
“I’ll bet you have,” Tim said.
Eli slowly turned to stare at the doctor. Tim’s eyes darted sideways before he summoned the courage to return Eli’s gaze. But he couldn’t hold it.
Just then, another set of footsteps entered the galley behind Eli. Jood’s toneless voice broke the ominous stillness. “I repaired the fuel line. The tender should be operational now. Is this seat taken?”
He walked around the table and scooted in next to Quinn obliviously.
“By all means.” She shuffled over to make room for him. “Help yourself.”
No one said anything for several seconds. River went back to rustling pans, but the clanking noise didn’t break the tension. Jood glanced from one face to another. “Am I interrupting anything?”
Quinn tried to smile at him. She rubbed her hands together and her nostrils flared. “River was just telling us how my dad rescued her from Pi Squared Two. Do you have a story like that, Jood?”
The Xynnar cocked his head and stuck out his chin, but his sparkling eyes didn’t miss a single detail. He might not be able to match human body language, but he was a master at reading it when he wanted to. “Nothing like that.”
“It’s all in the Squadron records,” Tim said, like it was his business to know. He carefully avoided looking at Eli. “Captain Eli Bryce, six-months into his first command, sacrificed half his crew trying to rescue a bunch of Xynnar from the Mysterium when the Xynnar were in the process of wiping out New Sydney Outpost. The Xynnar were our enemies, and what did he do? He put his crew in jeopardy by taking the Devilfish into Xynnar territory to save them, but he didn’t play the hero that time either, did he? All those people got killed and the Xynnar had to rescue him instead of the other way around. That’s why he was thrown out of the Squadrons in the first place.”
Jood gave his usual lilting response without a shred of subtext. “You do your research, Doctor.”
“Were you involved in that incident, Jood?” Quinn asked. “Is that how you met my dad?”
When he answered, Jood pronounced each word carefully, measuring their meaning down to the dot. “As a matter of fact, it is. I was in Mysterium custody when the Devilfish attacked. We all watched it break the atmosphere and descend over the outpost.”
Quinn gulped. “What was it like? What did you think when you saw a Squadron ship coming to rescue you?”
“We were relieved, because the Mysterium immediately stopped slaughtering Xynnar and turned all their firepower on the Devilfish. I was tenth in line for the execution block when the Devilfish broke the atmosphere, but our relief turned to despair in a second when the Mysterium destroyed the ship. We all watched it crash into the bay. They dragged out the surviving crew with plans to put them in line with the Xynnar. They would have been executed, but in the chaos we learned of another Mysterium ship at the outpost. The surviving crew of the Devilfish helped us overthrow the Mysterium, and we took the crew with us when we escaped the planet.”
“Big damned disaster,” Tim mumbled. “He deserved the firing squad for that stunt.”
“You watch your mouth!” River snapped.
The way Tim kept avoiding eye contact while still bad-mouthing Eli was so cowardly that it angered him more than direct confrontation would.
“I have a better idea,” Eli said. He walked over to one of the equipment lockers and took out a charged laser pistol.
Quinn started back. “Whoa, Dad! What are you doing?”
Eli came back to the table, flipped the gun around, and took hold of the muzzle. He held out the grip to Tim. “Here you go. If you think executing me is the only just punishment for the Devilfish, go ahead and do it. Here I am. Restore the balance and kill me right now.”
River lunged forward, snarling. “You touch that gun, you son of a bitch, and you’ll be eating it next.”
Eli held up his hand, and she stopped on a dime. He never took his eyes off the doctor. “You’re in the middle of empty space, Knox. This is your chance. None of these people will report you to the authorities, and River won’t touch you.”
“Sarge!” she bellowed.
“None of you will lay a finger on him,” Eli said, not taking his eyes off Tim. “Come on, Knox. Put your money where your mouth is. I won’t make any attempt to defend myself.”
He pushed the gun toward Tim. A tense silence held everyone in breathless stasis. No one twitched.
“I’m a doctor,” Tim said at last.
“You can still pull a trigger,” Eli said.
Tim tried to shrug the challenge away, but when Eli didn’t budge, his eyes darted up to meet Eli’s, then immediately went back down again. “I don’t kill people.”
Eli scanned Tim’s face for another second before returning to the eyes that refused to meet his gaze.
“You don’t kill people,” Eli repeated. He quietly took the gun back and returned it to the locker in silence. “I guess that makes one of us,” he said as he strode out of the hushed galley and up to the cockpit.
Eli had spent too many sleepless nights in the last twenty-five years reliving the Devilfish disaster to allow it to drag him into a depressive spiral all over again. That’s what he told himself as he settled into the command chair.
The truth was, he’d held a gun to his own head plenty of times, especially in the beginning. Maybe it wasn’t fair to call Tim a coward for not doing what he couldn’t do.
Eli took a heavy breath and shoved those thoughts back into the corner of his mind where he kept them.
He’d feel better when the Boomerang was back in action.
Nine
21 Hours Until Annihilation
Eli punched in the
activation sequence and held his breath, listening to the port tender power up. It coughed once. The Boomerang shuddered, and the tender whined to a shrill whir. River called over from the engineering console. “She’s up to ninety percent power.”
“That’s good enough.” Eli depressed the intercom button to call Jood, then saw him step into the cockpit.
“Hatch is closed and we are secure,” Jood said.
Eli clapped his hands. “Get us ready to go. Lay in course for Epsilon Outpost. We’ve got a date with the bank.”
Jood nodded and began working at the Engineering console.
Quinn swiveled around at the pilot’s station. “What about those capsules? They’re on their way to Earth and we have to do something.”
Eli didn’t look up. “Didn’t you hear? Jood sent that message hours ago. Earth probably already knows.”
“That is doubtful,” Jood said.
Waylon snorted derisively. River glanced away.
“Well, whatever,” Eli said, waving his hand. “They’ll know soon enough.” Even a low priority message across the Backbone would make its way to Earth faster than any ship ever could.
“The message was rejected,” Jood said.
Eli frowned. “What?”
Jood looked up from the console. “It was strange, but we received a direct relay response. The message was rejected.”
Eli stared at Jood. He could have told him that he’d found sea rats in the engine room and it would have come as less of a shock. “Why?” Eli sputtered.
“No reason given.”
Eli shook his head. “That—that can’t happen.”
He knew, of course, that it could. Here was the proof, in fact. But he’d never heard of it happening. Bad headers, misformatted sends, insufficient funds. Those were reasons to reject. But no reason given?
Eli sat back. It slowly dawned on him that this was good news. It was very good news. He’d managed to look like he cared enough to try to warn Earth—when he didn’t—while at the same time, he got to keep his credits. Win-win.
“Well, we tried,” Eli said apologetically to Quinn. To Jood he said, “Transfer the credits back to the ship pool. I’m sure we’ll find another use for them.”
Waylon guffawed aloud this time. River concentrated even harder on her console.
He looked back at Jood, whose face was as expressionless as ever. “What am I missing?”
“There was no refund,” Jood said.
Eli blinked. “What?”
“It seems the Backbone considered it a good send, but somewhere along the line we got a bad send response. Very curious,” Jood said, as if it was a natural phenomenon worthy of further study.
Eli felt his grip tighten on the command chair until his knuckles went white. “They didn’t refund?” he stammered.
Waylon finally couldn’t hold it in. He broke into loud laughter. When he caught his breath, he said, “So long, credits,” and made a butterfly shape with his hands as he moved them up toward the ceiling. “It was nice knowing you.” He slapped his knee.
Eli felt like he’d been punched in the gut. No, scratch that. He felt like he’d been kicked in his manhood. Repeatedly.
His beautiful daughter picked that moment to speak up. “We still have to warn Earth, Dad.”
Eli felt a wave of fury roll over him that he had to tamp down. “With what? I’m completely broke. Your credits are only good on Earth. How do we get them a message? Do you want to just fly over to Earth and drop it off?” he asked sarcastically.
His daughter nodded vigorously. “Yes, exactly.”
Oh god, he realized. That’s actually what she wants to do. She actually expects us to go to Earth.
“We aren’t going to Earth,” Eli said, clearly enunciating each word.
“We have to,” Quinn said.
Eli could suddenly feel tension descend over the cockpit. He glanced around to find River and Waylon eyeing him expectantly. Tim and Quinn, too. Only Jood was blissfully unaware.
“We nearly lost our asses against those things,” Eli said firmly. “And only a handful of them came after us last time. We’re not going anywhere near ‘em.”
Tim rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “You didn’t think he’d go for that, did you?”
Quinn ignored him and addressed Eli alone. “What about the people of Earth? We can’t leave the planet undefended. Those things will overrun the Squadrons if they attack Earth without some advance warning. I shouldn’t even have to explain this to you.”
Waylon guffawed with laughter. “Will you wake up, little girl? Open your eyes and look around you. This ship ain’t defending anyone or anything. We’re a speed scout. That’s it. We don’t have the firepower to fight even one of those things, let alone a whole fleet of ‘em.”
Quinn rounded on him. “You wouldn’t have to fight them. All you’d have to do is get ahead of them and warn the Squadrons that a force is advancing on Earth. That on its own could tip the advantage toward Earth.”
“Did you miss the part where they can match us for speed?” Waylon asked. “Even if we wanted to run them down, there’s no way we can catch them now. They have a huge head start.”
Jood looked up from his console and said, “Actually, it’s very likely that we can outrun them.”
All eyes turned to him.
“How?” River said. “They overtook us before, and I had our engines going all-out. They’re at least as fast as the Boomerang.”
“Over short distances, yes,” Jood said. “But their size suggests that they won’t be able to make a trip of that duration without stopping for refueling. And their path from the point where we initially encountered them suggested a gravity assist, which further reinforces the idea that they’ll need multiple stopovers.”
“See? We have to try,” Quinn said.
“This is stupid,” Waylon said shortly. “We’d have to fight them to get in front of them. How do you propose we punch through their ranks without them seeing us and blowing us to kingdom come?”
“You’re all cowards,” Tim muttered. “You pretend to be big and bad, but you’re all chickenshit under the surface.”
“You’re one to talk,” Waylon snarled.
Tim reflexively leaned away from him.
Quinn leaned closer to Eli. “Come on, Dad. You know it’s the right thing to do. I know you don’t like the chain of command, but the Boomerang is your ship. You can still do the right thing and warn Earth.”
“You go do the right thing and warn Earth,” Waylon interjected. “Go on. Go out there and stick out your thumb. See how far you get.”
“Don’t listen to her, Sarge,” River chimed in. “You’d be throwing away the Boomerang and all our lives, doing something like that.”
Just then, Jood looked up from his console. “We’re ready to fly.”
Eli leaned back in his chair and fixed his eyes on his daughter. “Lift off, Lieutenant Bryce.”
Her glowing face fell before his eyes. Eli didn’t expect her to like his decision; he just wasn’t expecting her disappointment to affect him like this. He hated to hurt her feelings, but more than that, he hated to confirm Tim’s worst assumptions about him.
She turned to present her back to him and bent over the pilot’s station. Her hands followed the usual routine. The starboard tender fired up, and the Boomerang quivered off the ground.
Eli turned his attention elsewhere. He couldn’t think about Quinn and her feelings anymore. “Scan the atmosphere,” he told River. “Make sure none of those things are still hanging around before we get too exposed.”
River frowned at her controls. “The atmosphere is all clear. It’s just….” The console gave a beep, followed by another.
“What’s the problem?” Eli asked.
“I’m picking up a life sign on the other side of the moon.”
“A life sign?” Eli repeated, sure he’d heard wrong.
River’s head shot up. “It’s human.”
Ten
“You’re human,” Jood pointed out. “And you’re here.”
“It’s fluctuating,” River reported. “The heartbeat is unstable.”
“Divert to pick it up,” Tim ordered.
River raised her eyebrows at him. “Excuse me? You don’t give orders on this ship.”
“If someone is alive and injured out here, you can’t just fly off and leave them to die,” Tim said.
“Sure we can,” Waylon said. “Besides, it’s a trap.”
“You’re just paranoid,” Tim said.
“Better to be paranoid than dead,” Eli muttered.
Tim looked apoplectic. “Do you really think someone is down there faking an unstable human heartbeat just to get us to land?”
Waylon ran his tongue over his teeth. “That’s what a trap is, Doc.”
Eli turned to River. “Why didn’t we spot it before?”
River shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly bothering with full scans the first time we took off from this rock, if you’ll recall.”
“It probably has something to do with those bug ship things,” Waylon said.
“All the more reason to go down there,” Tim said. He turned to Eli. “Not even you could do something as low as turn your back on a stranded person in need. You have to at least try to help them.”
Eli wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to try to do anything. It might be breaking some Squadrons rule to leave this human out here, but this wasn’t a Squadrons ship. Would anyone blame him for flying away after what they’d been through?
Then he thought about Tim’s words earlier. I don’t kill people. And Eli’s own response to that. I guess that makes one of us.
He sensed his daughter watching him. Was he really the bastard that Tim made him out to be? Was there even a chance Eli could be the person his daughter thought he was?
Eli took a deep breath. “Nothing else out there, River?”
“Clear,” she said. “None of those damn ships.”