by Luigi Robles
Chaos erupted in the restaurant, with everyone apart from the young woman, Kya and Fain looking for a way out.
That was when Fain saw two other men approaching them, both with large combat knives in their hands.
“It’s all over for ESAF,” one of the men said as the two approached. “Captain Jegga.”
The young girl pulled out a small but heavy-looking box that expanded into a large mallet.
A mallet? Fain thought. Is she planning to use that on Kya?
When the mallet was fully expanded, the young girl launched at Kya as she twitched on the floor, unable to stand or move. The two men also began running towards Fain.
“Time to pay the council what you owe,” the young woman yelled as she ran.
So, she was part of the council. She used to work for Cross? Fain then remembered exactly who she was. It was Joan Rondendai. But the details of who she was weren’t important at the moment. Fain knew that he had one chance at getting between Kya and the mallet, and if he failed, it could possibly cost Kya’s life. Fain kicked two nearby chairs towards the men and hurled a half-full bottle of wine directly at one man’s face.
“Ahh, my eyes. Damn it, my eyes,” the man screamed. It was a direct hit; the bottle broke in his face and lacerated part of it. The other man hesitated. Fain turned towards Joan and tackled her from below; he wasn’t going to let Kya die no matter what.
Joan groaned as Fain’s shoulder ploughed into her stomach and launched her back. As they stumbled onto the floor, Fain took hold of the mallet. He got up as fast as he could and ran back towards Kya. Joan was right behind him, but this time she too had a large combat knife in hand. With newfound courage, the uninjured man ran towards him, but Fain paid no attention. When he reached Kya, Fain took a deep breath, lifted the mallet over his head and aimed for the contraption. The mallet struck down at the contraption will full force, instantly breaking it.
“Nooo,” Joan screamed and stopped running towards Fain.
“Boss?” the man asked as he stopped running. “We aren’t doing this anymore?”
It didn’t take long for Kya to get up.
“You have no chance,” Kya said as she kicked the contraption to the side and shook her head. “I suggest you drop your weapons if you have any kind of appreciation for your lives.”
All three dropped their knives at once.
9
Pact
The Neo LA police force inundated La Grande Torre delle Scale minutes after Fain got Kya free from the contraption. By Fain’s estimate, there were at least thirty to forty police officers. Crime was unusual in Neo LA, since everything was heavily monitored and the authorities were alerted as soon as something happened, so it was hard for any assailants to get away. Most criminals didn’t bother to try. The supervising police officer approached Fain, though the position was only Fain’s guess based on the stripes on his shirt.
“Ms. Kya, Captain Jegga,” the officer said as he got within a few steps of them. “I’m Lieutenant Adams from Neo LA’s upper fifth division. Quite a mess that happened here.”
“Yep, lucky us,” Fain said.
“Hey, but in all seriousness,” Adams said as he held on to his belt. “Thank you for what you two have done for us up there. See, I’ve done a bit of reading, and if it wasn’t for ESAF, I’m not sure we’d be here. Thank you.” Adams swallowed hard.
“Don’t mention it,” Fain said. He didn’t particularly like it when people thanked him. He appreciated the gesture, but he never wanted anyone to feel forced to say it. He knew what he had signed up for, and getting recognition wasn’t even on his mind.
“We have the suspects in custody,” Adams said. “But ESAF wants them, so we’ll just hang around until some of your officers show up and we can pass them over. You are free to go. And one last thing, are you sure you don’t need any medical attention? We have some medics just over there.” He gestured towards the medics attending the man with the lacerated face. “It won’t take them long to check and make sure both of you are OK.”
“As we told them, we are fine, thanks,” Fain said. “But if you don’t mind, we’ll just hang out here until ESAF gets here.”
“Yep, that’s fine with me,” Adams said as he began to walk away. “Hang out for as long as you like. I think kicking you out of ESAF matters is way beyond my jurisdiction. Thanks again. Stay out of trouble.” He waved at Fain and nodded at Kya. “Ms. Kya.”
Fain didn’t know how ESAF could have found out about the incident so fast, but then he remembered who he was with.
“Was it you?” Fain turned towards Kya.
“Yes,” Kya said as she nodded once. “I was the one who made the call to Lieutenant Adams. Don’t worry, I made the call to his superiors as well, and I just finished talking to Truman. We are taking these three with us. Who knows how many more roots the council has?”
Fain noticed Kya’s left hand, the hand she had caught the apparatus with. It was not moving naturally with her body.
“How are you, by the way?” Fain asked. “What was that thing that grabbed on to your hand? I never would have thought that there was something out there that could take you down.”
“I’m fine, though my hand needs some serious rebuilding. If that device had been stuck to my hand any longer, its effects would have made their way through the rest of my body. It was a powerful device. I believe it’s a slightly evolved form of an old, almost forgotten technology, the electro-magnetic pulse. I’m planning to take it with us for further study.”
“I’m glad you’re alright,” Fain said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. And I’m not just talking about the saving my ass part.” He smiled.
“That means more than you know to me,” Kya said. “But right now, you might want to go ahead and check your wristband. I think it’s important.”
Fain had been feeling his wristband vibrate for quite some time now, but he kept ignoring it in order to focus on what was happening all around him. He took a quick glance at his wristband screen on the inner side of his hand. He had twelve missed calls, A few were from Green and Truman, but most were from Mikey. Fain knew that if Mikey was that persistent, something really important must have happened.
Fain pressed his name to return the call; he didn’t bother setting up a video call using his mobile.
“Holy shit, Fain, I’ve been trying to get hold of you for a while now,” Mikey said as soon as the connection was established.
“Yeah, hello to you too,” Fain said.
“Fain, I’m not kidding,” Mikey said. “This is really freaking big stuff.”
“OK, well, what happened?”
“A full Acram subspecies fleet showed up at the ISCO,” Mikey said hurriedly. “But don’t worry, they didn’t come to blow us up or anything. Long story short, they brought some kind of hyper transmitter device or something. They call it a node anchor or something like that. And supposedly, the leader of the Acram wants to talk with you. They didn’t say about what. The subspecies fleet is not leaving without their node anchor and without talking to you. There are a dozen or so Acram subs on board the ISCO, and they don’t look too friendly. So, I suggest you get here as fast as you can.”
Does this have anything to do with the Immortals? Fain wondered, but he knew that he had to act, and he had to act fast. He knew he would get his answer in due time.
“We’ll be there as soon as possible,” Fain said. “Just hang tight, don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do, and inform Commander Felix that we are on our way. Tell him to stand by but be ready for anything.”
“Alright, alright, OK,” Mikey said. “I can do this, just let me know your ETA when you have it.”
“I will,” Fain said, getting ready to end the conversation. “Take care, buddy.”
“I was able to confirm everything Mikey said. The information he provided was accurate. Sensors were triggered in our watch net, though at the time, I don’t think I could have done anything about it.” Kya pointed to
the area where she had fallen earlier that evening.
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Fain said as he noticed Kya put her head down. “I’ve never expected perfection from you, and I never will. It’s not all on you. That’s why you have us and we have you. So stop that.”
Kya nodded with a slight smile.
“Thank you,” Kya murmured.
“But I do need you right now.”
“Anything,” Kya said, still in a low voice.
“While we wait for ESAF to get here,” Fain said as he took off his half-ripped jacket, “make all the necessary arrangements to leave for the ISCO, and let Truman and Green know that I’ll call them on the way to Sodenia. We leave tonight.”
It was 0400 hours by the time Fain and Kya had gotten Sodenia ready to go. With the threat of the Immortals looming, Fain made the decision to leave the rest of the ESAF fleet behind to protect Earth. In the event that anything were to happen while Sodenia was away, Earth would at least have a slim chance versus not having one at all. As Fain walked towards the bridge, he saw a familiar figure standing next to the main entrance. It was Pycca.
“Aww, crap,” Fain muttered as he approached. “So, this is happening now?”
“Captain Jegga,” Pycca said as she walked towards Fain. “May I have a word with you before you enter the bridge? I promise it’ll be brief.” She opened a nearby meeting room. “I know that we’re pressed for time, but since there’s no immediate danger, this is also important.”
“Looks like I don’t have much choice in the matter,” Fain said as he walked into the small meeting room.
Pycca walked in after him and closed the door. She stood in front of Fain, arms crossed, impatiently tapping her foot on the floor.
“Well?” Pycca asked.
Fain detested this sort of broad question, where the answer could be literally anything. And no matter what the answer was, it would be wrong. So he decided to play it safe. He shrugged.
“I guess I should start, since you don’t know where to,” Pycca said, eyebrows furrowed. “So, how was the pizza?”
“We didn’t get a chance to taste it,” Fain said with a sigh, knowing that things could have started off much worse.
“I heard you and Kya were dressed for the occasion. So, was it a date or something?”
“We went out to eat. She deserves to see the world just as much as any one of us. This time it just happened to be with me. Before we could try the pizza, we were attacked, I was nearly stabbed, and she was nearly killed.”
Pycca let out a long sigh, and her foot stopped stomping.
“Are you OK? Is she OK?” Pycca asked, changing her tone of voice to one of concern.
“Nothing happened to me, but maybe that’s because they weren’t after me. Their target was Kya, and that girl Joan managed to take Kya down with this contraption.” Fain formed a small ball with his hands. “It was so small but so powerful.”
“I know, I heard it was a persistent form of EMP. Did you bring it with you?”
“Yes, Kya believes that with some alterations we can possibly turn it on the Immortals. Would you help us take a look at that?”
“You know I would. You don’t have to ask.”
“Good, at this point we need everything we can get. Maybe something will eventually work.”
“Maybe… Fain, there’s something else I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. Something that to me is more important because it will define my life, our life.”
Fain felt his heart flutter and his stomach tighten.
“I’m here.” Fain took in a deep breath, knowing that this would be one of the toughest conversations he would ever have. “I’m listening.”
“What were you thinking? Is it really that easy to surrender your own life when some dumb alien asks for it? Like, screw everyone else that depends on you, and royally screw me, right?”
“It wasn’t that easy; it wasn’t easy at all. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. How did you think I felt? Knowing that before us was an alien that the combined firepower of four spaceships didn’t even make a mark on. Knowing that that same alien had disabled the ships and Doka’s anti-aircraft heavy artillery. I’ll answer that for you. I felt insignificant. And when that same alien offered to spare you guys, to spare you, it felt like it was an easy bargain. I didn’t want to hesitate when I had a chance to save your lives.”
“Fain, you’re smarter than that! You know that you can count on us, and Kya was there. We weren’t leaving you alone. You would’ve died for nothing, and then what? Earth would be so screwed. You think you are easily replaced?”
“I would have died in order to give you a chance, to give Earth a chance. August would do just fine as captain, and you would’ve learned what we know now about them, versus all of us dying just because I wanted to live. That doesn’t seem fair to me.”
Fain’s eyes began to water, and so did Pycca’s.
“Just fine isn’t good enough, Fain, and you know that. And what about me? I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to replace you, and what about you? You have your whole life ahead of you. Our life is ahead of us. You can’t be jumping into the edge of the knife just because you feel defeated. You have to learn to push beyond that. Especially with the odds we face now. When you think it’s over, it’s not over. I promise you that even if it takes everything, even if it takes all of us, we’ll find a way.”
Fain had a lump in his throat. He knew that Pycca was right. She was right in every sense of the matter.
“Now I need you to promise me something,” Pycca continued as she rubbed her eyes.
Seeing Pycca go through this broke Fain’s heart. He hated himself for having hurt her this way. He didn’t want to see her suffer or go through heartache. If only there was a way he could just take everything she was feeling and feel it for her so she wouldn’t have to.
“What is it?” Fain asked softly.
“I need you to promise me that you won’t do that again, no matter what. I can’t live with myself if it’s going to be that easy for me to lose you.”
“I can’t do that; it will always be you before me.”
“Dammit, Fain,” Pycca said as she sobbed. “Why does it have to be like that?” She tossed her hands up. “Then I’m going to fucking do the same thing, and you have no right to tell me what to do.”
The realization that Pycca might very well end up sacrificing her life in order to save Fain made him realize that above all else he didn’t want that. Fain took a step towards Pycca and fully embraced her. She wrapped her arms around him as well.
“I promise,” Fain whispered.
“You promise what?” Pycca asked, looking up and meeting Fain’s gaze. “I’m not stupid. Be specific.”
“I promise that I won’t sacrifice myself in order to save us, or anyone,” Fain said in a low voice.
“It’s us, it’s always us,” Pycca said, her voice normalizing. “We’ll do whatever we can to the extent that we can. Together. And if we fail, we fail together. No one jumps into the blade. Do you understand that?”
“I do,” Fain said as he held Pycca’s face in his hands and wiped the tears with his thumbs.
Fain thought about kissing Pycca, as he was caught in a romantic moment. But then he remembered where he was and his position, and then he remembered Mikey.
“You better, Fain Jegga, you better.”
“Let’s put this on hold for now,” Fain said as he let go of Pycca’s face slowly. “We’ll pick this up back on Earth. We have to go help Mikey.”
Pycca nodded with her eyes closed and a slight smile on her face.
Fain reached back with one hand to open the door.
“Come on, let’s go. Our friend needs us.”
“If you don’t mind, Captain, I’ll join you in a few minutes. I just need to gather myself.”
“Yeah, take your time. But we have to leave for the ISCO in five minutes. See you on the bridge.”
Fain didn’t expect
to see a large alien fleet positioned near the ISCO. He expected maybe a dozen ships, but hundreds was pushing it. When he saw the large fleet on the main screen of the bridge, marked as squares, he slowed Sodenia’s approach. According to the main screen counter, there were a total of 175 ships.
For a second he thought they might be heading into a trap, but then he thought better. It would be a pretty crappy trap if it turned out to be one. The fleet of alien ships was not in defense or attack formation; they were just lined up in rows, one behind the other.
“Shields up,” Fain said from the center console of the bridge. “Weapons hot. Eora, I want you to identify any possible threat. If you find any, let me know.”
“Yes, Captain,” Eora said through the coms.
A few minutes later Fain stationed Sodenia within fifty miles of the ISCO, as close as he could without causing some serious disruption to the station’s communication and gravity instruments.
“Eora, did you find anything?” Fain asked, pressing the button that allowed him to communicate with the weapons bay from the center console.
“No, not at all,” Eora said. “Their weapons are not even hot, and their shields are down. If you wanted to take out an alien fleet with little effort, now is your chance.”
“Alright, suit up,” Fain said. “Bring two of your best with you. Give instructions to keep our weapons pointed at them and inform us if the situation changes. Meet us at the docks in five.”
Fain walked away from the center console and looked around the room, deciding who to choose for an away team.
“August, she’s all yours,” Fain said. “Larissa, keep an eye on August, will you?”
“Hey,” August complained.
“Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Larissa said as she nodded, looking at August with a smirk.
