Alone in the Night

by Richard Tongue

  “Twenty seconds to impact,” Singh said.

  “Trying to recharge,” Crawford added, “but there’s been just too much strain on the systems, with the damage we suffered when the screens went down. I just can’t power the cannons fast enough. Helm?”

  “They’ve got a perfect lock, sir,” Novak said. “I’ll try a last-second evasion, but I wouldn’t hold out much hope. Anywhere they hit us will do enough damage that we’ll never climb out of this dive.”

  “Twelve seconds,” Singh said. “No time to get to the escape pods, I guess. Not that it would do very much good if we did. I doubt we’d have a friendly reception waiting for us anywhere on the surface, assuming we could escape the fallout.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Corrigan said, “it has been an honor and…”

  “Wait one!” Dixon said. “Ajax! She’s turning our way, weapons charged, hot as hell itself, just like when they were targeting asteroids.”

  “Are you trying to…”

  “They’re firing!” Singh yelled. A heartbeat later, he said, “Missile destroyed, sir. They got it on the first try. I never thought I’d say this about a Belter cruiser, Commander, but that was some damn fine shooting.”

  “Contact Ajax, Ensign,” Corrigan said. “Thank them for me, and inform them that I will permit the shuttle to dock directly with them to unload their civilians, as long as they’re willing to return Lieutenant Carter.”

  “Aye, sir,” Singh replied.

  “You think they will?” Rojek asked.

  Nodding, Corrigan said, “Somehow, I think we can trust them. Frankly, I trust them a damn sight more than I do our own side right now. Dixon, I presume there is still a destruct code for the defense network?”

  “Certainly, sir,” the hacker replied. “I left it built in, just in…”

  “Destroy them, Dix. I want those damn things out of my sky. So far, they’ve done far more harm to the people they were meant to protect than they have to the enemy. I think Atlantis will be safe enough without them.”

  “Aye, sir,” Dixon replied. “It’ll take a few minutes.”

  Shaking her head, Novak said, “And after all of this, all the death, all of the destruction, we’re just going to turn Atlantis back over to the enemy.”

  “I don’t think it’ll come to that,” Corrigan replied. “And even if it does, this time I have a feeling that the population will welcome the invaders. However many of them are still alive.” He turned to Crawford, and asked, “What about Icarus? Any chance of a firing solution?”

  “I don’t think so, sir,” the gunner replied. “Not unless they make some major, major mistakes. They’re heading right for the gravitational threshold, and they’ll be leaving the system in five minutes.”

  “And Harrison gets a new identity, along with the others, courtesy of the black ops division of Fleet Intelligence,” Rojek said. “It’s enough to make you sick. This isn’t what we’re fighting for. It isn’t what I’m fighting for.”

  “We can’t let them get away, sir,” Novak said.

  “How can we stop them,” Singh replied.

  “As a wise man said recently,” Corrigan said, “the truth shall set you free. I’m going to throw another maxim at you, Lieutenant. The pen is mightier than the sword. Or in this case, the press release. Where’s the nearest Martian communications relay?”

  “Just about in range, I think,” Singh said.

  “You aren’t seriously suggesting…,” Dixon began.

  “I will not permit this to happen,” Corrigan interrupted. “The only way they get away with this is if nobody knows just what they did. Elements of our own government have conspired to bring a planet to its knees, allowing war criminals to go free to serve their own ends. If I can stop them, I will.”

  “They’ll shoot you for this, Commander,” Singh said.

  “Only if they catch me first,” Corrigan replied. “Major, see to the transfer of the shuttle passengers. I’ve got a press release to write. It’s been a while since I took Public Relations at the Academy. I never thought it would come in useful.”

  “Bill,” Rojek said, “I’m not arguing against this, but you realize that this is your Rubicon. Once you do this, there’s no going back.”

  “If I don’t,” Corrigan replied, “There won’t be anywhere to go back to.”

  Epilogue

  “Preparing for docking,” Corrigan said, gently guiding the shuttle into position, the Belter transfer vehicle allowing him to take the lead. A green light winked on, and the two ships linked, the docking clamps locking into position to provide a tight seal between the airlocks. The hatches slid open, Corrigan turning to see a trio of figures at the threshold, two of them familiar, one not.

  “Lieutenant,” he said. “Are you all right?”

  “No,” she replied. “But I will be. I guess Clyde wasn’t the man I thought he was.” She looked down at the deck, sighed, and said, “I’ll be fine, sir.”

  Nodding, Corrigan turned to the others, “Squadron Leader Falco, I hope that you agree that we’ve kept our part of the bargain?”

  “Admirably,” Falco replied. “May I introduce Captain Sofia Garcia, the commanding officer of Ajax.”

  “My pleasure, Captain,” Corrigan said.

  “Likewise, Commander,” Garcia replied. At his expression, she said, “Yes, your intelligence reports were quite accurate. I’m afraid that I’m only an amateur to this business.”

  “One putting many professionals to shame,” Corrigan said with a smile. “Crossing swords with you have been a privilege that I am not anxious to repeat any time soon.”

  “Ajax is going to need a few repairs,” she replied. “Casualties were light, though, and no fatalities, by a miracle. I trust the same is true of you?”

  “Field Regulations would, I suspect, require me to tell you that we weathered your assault without a care in the world, but my engineering team has spent the last few hours cursing both of us. No dead, though. At least not on my ship. I wish the orbital platform and the planet were as happy a story.”

  “Most of those who committed those crimes are either dead, or running for cover on Icarus,” Falco said. “We’ve still got a few friends on the surface.” Turning to Carter, she added, “Just how do you think I was able to get into the spaceport so easily? I assure you that it wasn’t my charm.”

  “That would never have occurred to me,” Carter replied.

  “What happens now?” Corrigan asked.

  “On Atlantis?” Garcia said. “I honestly don’t know. That’s going to be down to the Control Committee, and those decisions are way above my pay grade. I don’t think we’re likely to spend much time trying to garrison it, even now you’ve been so kind as to knock out the orbital defenses for us.”

  “They weren’t defending anything,” Corrigan said. “It seemed the safest course of action. I don’t think Atlantis is in any danger, not now.”

  “Without the mines, Atlantis is a washed-out outpost in the middle of nowhere with nothing special to offer,” Garcia replied. “As I’m sure you have already guessed, the most likely outcome is that a ship is left in orbit, some supplies and volunteers are sent down to the surface to start relief efforts, and the world will be left to itself until the war is over. We’ve not got the resources for anything else, and I doubt Earth does, either.”

  “I think you’re probably right about that,” Corrigan said, shaking his head. “There’s got to be something that can be done…”

  “Not until the dust settles down there,” Falco replied. “And the fighting stops. It sounds terrible, but those eight nuclear blasts might actually do them some good. Make them stop and think about what they are doing, what might happen if they don’t clean up their act a little. Ultimately, though, if they want to commit planetary suicide, there’s not much we can do.”

  “At least Icarus ought to get a hot reception,” Garcia said. “I’m not sure I would have had the nerve to break cover like that. You’re going to pay d
early for that leak. I mean the Terran Republic. None of it exactly puts you in a good light. Governments have collapsed for yet.”

  “If that was all officially sanctioned, Captain, then the government deserves to go down, and hopefully we’ll get a better one in the aftermath. It’s not going to end the war…”

  “Just your career,” Falco interrupted.

  “Technically, I’m already wanted on an awful lot of counts,” Corrigan said. “I don’t think one more is going to make any difference. Once all of this is over, I guess my best course of action is going to be finding somewhere to hide for a long, long while.”

  “If the Belt wins,” Falco said, “I think you’ll probably get a free pass after what you did today. I honestly didn’t believe that you would risk your ship for us, and when that second missile launched…”

  “I never had a doubt,” Carter replied.

  “Neither did I,” added Garcia. “Not after what I’ve seen of your character so far. You’re a ruthless adversary, Commander, but an honorable one. If more people on your side thought the way you did, we might not even be at war at all.”

  “If it was left up to the soldiers,” Corrigan said, “nobody would ever fight a war. It’s a shame we can’t go back to the old times, have our politicians fight it out on the battlefield.”

  “That would be an entertaining fight,” Garcia replied, “though more for the humor than the action, I suspect.” She paused, then said, “You could have let Icarus go, you know, and we’d probably still be having a variation of this conversation. I wouldn’t have kept Lieutenant Carter, not after what she did, though I can’t necessary speak for every Belt commander.”

  “It was the right thing to do. It was just that simple.”

  “But the cost…”

  “I got dragged into this nightmare against my better judgement, because I made the mistake of trusting somebody I thought I knew. I’m sure Lieutenant Carter will tell you the same story. Everything was presented to be so perfect, so wonderful, that I pushed aside my doubts until it was too late to go back. If I had it to do all over again, I never would have come to Atlantis in the first place, and I’ve have blown up that damned defense network instead of setting it up. It’s caused nothing but pain.”

  “Regrets? Second thoughts?”

  “Also the knowledge that one day, someday, the war is going to be over, and realistically, there isn’t going to be a Trafalgar to cap it off with a final, glorious victory. Space warfare just doesn’t work that way. Which means that we’re going to have to learn to live with each other when peace comes, or spend the next century staring at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move and spark a worse war than this. Someone had to take the first step. I decided to make it me. And if Earth exiles me for it, well, nobody told me that I’d get a parade when I went home.”

  “And Atlantis?” Falco asked.

  “In all likelihood, against all the odds, Atlantis is going to get what it wanted,” Garcia said. “They’re going to be a free, independent world, albeit with none of the assets they had expected to have. Though you’d have seen to that anyway, right, Commander?”

  “What?” Carter said.

  With a sigh, Corrigan replied, “It seemed the only way to prevent the world falling back into enemy hands. I didn’t like the potential consequences of the Belters retaking the world.” Looking at Garcia, he said, “With all due respect, Captain, there are a lot of people on your side who would have spent a long, long time getting revenge.”

  “That’s perfectly true,” she said. “In your place I’d probably have done the same thing. At least considered it.”

  “But it was…”

  “We didn’t fire,” Corrigan said. “I still don’t know if I could have gone through with it. I’ll never know, and that’s a question I’m going to ask myself many, many times, whenever I lie awake at night.” He paused, and said, “We’ve got to make things right on Atlantis, once the war is over. Don’t ask me how, but there has to be a way.”

  “There will be,” Garcia said. “When we win, I’ll do everything I can to see to it.”

  “As will I, when we win,” Corrigan replied.

  “At least we can agree on something,” Garcia said. “We’re going to face each other in battle again, I suspect.”

  “More than likely.”

  Nodding, she replied, “We’ll have to do our best to kill each other.”

  “That’s the nature of the beast.”

  “Until then,” she said, holding out her hand.

  He shook it, and said, “It’ll be a privilege to face such a worthy enemy once more.”

  “Likewise.” Looking at her watch, she added, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but in the spirit of our temporary amity, we’ve got more ships arriving in about an hour. Unless you have a burning desire to bring your mission to an abrupt end, I think you might want to get out of the system.”

  “I think you might be right,” he replied. “So long, Captain.”

  Stepping back through the airlock with Falco, she said, “So long, Commander, and good luck.”

  The door slammed shut, and Carter looked at Corrigan, saying, “The only people we’ve been able to work with here are the damned enemy.”

  “One day,” Corrigan said, “one day we’ll be able to call them friend, and mean it, and on that day, we’ll be able to take off these damned costumes and start to live life again, instead of enduring it.” He took a deep breath, and said, “Let’s get back to the ship. We’ve got a war to win. And a peace to find.”

  Thank you for reading ‘Alone in the Night’. For information on future releases, please join the author's Science-Fiction Mailing List at http://eepurl.com/A9MdX for updates. If you enjoyed this book, please review it on the site where you purchased it.

  The saga will conclude in ‘Wrath of the Dead’, coming soon.

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