by G J Ogden
Aster moved the flat metal disc in circular motions a few centimeters above Maria’s skin, all the time watching the little panel on the device attached to his arm. Seemingly satisfied with whatever he was seeing, he removed the device, closed the panel and took out a square patch of material from the medipack. He tore open the outer packaging and then placed the patch over Maria’s shoulder; it was large enough to cover both entry and exit wounds. A few seconds later, the patch seemed to almost dissolve into Maria’s skin, as if forming a second skin over the top. In the murky silver light, it was practically invisible and Maria’s shoulder looked completely unharmed. Aster stuffed the packaging back into the medipack and then removed an injector. Ethan recognized this device instantly; even after nearly five years, he remembered being stuck with something similar on several occasions. Aster loaded a capsule into the injector and pressed it into Maria’s neck. Ethan couldn’t determine the color of the capsule since everything looked a similar shade of silver-gray in moonlight. Maria’s face contorted slightly as the injector hissed its contents into her bloodstream.
“Just one more, sir,” said Aster. “A stim to help get you back on your feet.”
Maria rubbed her neck with her good arm and groaned, “Okay, get it over with,” she said, blurrily.
Aster loaded the second capsule and repeated the procedure; the signature hiss of the injector indicating that the medicine had been delivered. Aster packed everything back into the medipack, stood and slung it over his shoulder. He then held an outstretched hand to Maria, but she waved him off.
“I can get up on my own, thank you, Lieutenant,” she said, hoisting herself upright and then flexing her wounded arm, which to Ethan’s surprise, she managed without any suggestion of pain. “I can feel that damn stim kicking in already. In a few minutes, I could probably cartwheel out of this forest.”
Summer appeared beside Ethan and almost made him jump; he had been watching Aster’s ministrations so closely he had forget she was standing in the shadows.
“Why don’t you cartwheel back to your lousy moon base, instead?” said Summer, acidly.
“I wish that were possible, Summer, I really do,” said Maria, “but I’m afraid it’s not. Coming here was a last resort, and our only choice.”
Aster’s PVSM bleeped, and he flipped open the panel to check the notification. “Message from base camp, sir. Everyone is accounted for. Some minor injuries, but nothing serious.” Then he paused and his tone became more somber. “I’m afraid there are no survivors reported from lifeboat six.”
Maria pressed her eyes shut for a few seconds and then opened them again. “Thank you, Lieutenant Aster.” Then, as if she had suddenly become embarrassed about forgetting an important piece of protocol, she introduced him to the others. “Oh, this is Lieutenant Jason Aster. Lieutenant Aster, meet Ethan and Summer; they are from a settlement near here, called Forest Gate.”
Ethan awkwardly raised a hand and half-waved at Aster, not really knowing what else he should do, but Summer was in no mood for pleasantries.
“I don’t care who he is,” she said. “Just tell us why you’re here.”
“Hey, you need to watch you tone!” Aster hit back, jabbing a fist towards Summer.
Ethan and Maria exchanged a knowing look and then both rolled their eyes. Meanwhile, Summer bristled and took a pace forward. Ethan knew he should stop her, but he didn’t want Summer’s venom to be redirected towards him any more than it already was, and he was also conscious of not appearing to leap to the defense of another UEC visitor, and reaffirm Summer’s opinion that he hadn’t changed, after all. Luckily for him, Maria acted quickly to diffuse the tension.
“Lieutenant, if I need your input, I’ll ask for it,” said Maria, and Aster dropped back in line, quietly.
Even Ethan felt intimidated by Maria’s sudden fierceness. It wasn’t that she had been lacking in the assertiveness department during their previous encounters, but the more formal way she addressed the lieutenant reflected her seemingly higher rank and status. Her decisive action had worked though; with the young lieutenant well and truly scolded, Maria had removed Summer’s reason to retaliate, and she had halted her advance only a few paces ahead of Ethan. Ethan quickly made up the ground between them and glanced at Summer’s expression, trying to gauge her mood. What he saw was a look he knew all too well, and he knew to stay out of Summer’s way whenever she wore it. He took advantage of her silence to take ownership of the conversation.
“Summer is right, what’s important right now is to understand why you’re here,” he said, addressing Maria directly. “I assume it must be related to whatever crashed into the city?”
Maria’s eyes widened; Ethan showing solidarity with Summer was a dramatically different dynamic to their last encounter, where Ethan and Summer had been on opposite sides. Her mind wandered, thinking of what had happened between them in the intervening years, and how their relationship may have changed, and she was glad that the gloomy light helped to disguise her curious glances. In contrast to Maria’s shadowy setting, Summer was illuminated by a beam of bright moonlight that gave her an ethereal quality, like some sort of mystical warrior goddess. The sharper illumination highlighted that Summer was also surprised that Ethan had sided with her, though her expression was tinged with suspicion too.
“The settlement is in chaos,” Ethan continued, oblivious to the looks on either of the two women’s faces. “What with your ships flying over the settlement and whatever bombarded the city, people feel like we’re on the verge of a second Fall. What the hell is going on?”
Maria sighed and crossed her arms, cradling her injured shoulder, though it didn’t actually hurt any more, thanks to the potent medication.
“This is hardly a good place for a history update,” she began, and then before Summer had a chance to slip in an acerbic comeback, added, “but I’ll give the short version, as best I can. Can we move over to that outcropping so I can get off this cold soil?”
They walked over to the mound that Ethan and Summer had used for cover, and sat down, resting their backs against the hard stones. Summer remained standing, arms folded tightly, waiting for Maria to speak.
“There’s no easy way to say it, so I’ll get straight to the point,” said Maria. “The object that crashed through the atmosphere was part of the GPS space station, which was destroyed by the UEC a few hours ago.”
Ethan took a long breath and exhaled. His hunch had been correct, though he wasn’t sure whether this made him feel better or worse.
“The station was actually destroyed by an old friend of yours, Ethan,” Maria went on. “Major James Kurren, though he now calls himself a General.”
“Kurren? But why?” said Ethan.
“I’ll get to that later,” said Maria. “More important right now is the twelve ships you saw flying over. They contain the only survivors from the space station, and also some UEC refugees that defected when General Kurren took command. Sadly, one ship didn’t make it down. We were lucky not to lose more.”
“Refugees?” said Ethan. “How many of you are there?”
Maria looked to Aster to offer up the number. He checked his PVSM.
“Three hundred and forty made it down,” Aster said, flatly. “Two hundred and ninety six are children.”
“Two hundred and ninety six children?” repeated Ethan. “Where are they?”
“We landed by the edge of the forest,” said Maria. “A few of the ships had loaders and crawlers on-board; basic vehicles that were used to move cargo or ferry crew around the spaceports. We’re hoping to adapt them for use down here, to move the refugees to safety.”
Ethan rubbed his temples. Nearly three hundred children, none of whom had any natural resistance to the radiation that poisoned the planet’s soil and atmosphere.
“Maria, those children have never been exposed to the toxic environment we have down here,” said Ethan, sounding desperate. “There’s no telling how they will be affected.”
> “Don’t you think I know that, Ethan?” said Maria. “I had no choice, it was come here or let them die.”
“Children are more resilient,” Summer unexpectedly chimed into the conversation. “After the Fall, it was the children that remained unaffected by the Maddening, at least until they got older.”
“You’re right,” said Maria, encouraged by Summer’s apparent willingness to engage in the discussion, “but it may be that the children who survived the initial wave of radiation had a genetic resilience, which these kids may lack.”
“You’d better hope that isn’t the case then,” said Summer, slipping back to her earlier, icy tone.
Maria did not respond, though she inwardly wondered why Summer had involved herself on this point only.
The enormity of what had happened was now dawning on Ethan. He had been on the GPS station, and remembered how vast it was. There would have been thousands of people living there. Now, all that remained of that civilization was down on the planet in an environment that was toxic; even fatal. “What happened up there?” he asked.
“It’s complicated,” said Maria. “After you left, things started to change. Archer couldn’t understand why Diana hadn’t used the captured warship to strike back at GPS, and he couldn’t understand why I helped you escape. He came to speak to me in my cell, after I returned to the UEC base, and I got to him, just a little, but enough to prompt a proper dialog between Archer and Diana. And it was working. It was leading towards peace.”
“Destroying a space station doesn’t sound much like peace,” said Summer. “Then again, you always did struggle with giving accurate descriptions of events, didn’t you?”
Maria ignored Summer’s obvious attempt to goad her into another conflict. “Not everyone wanted peace; James Kurren most of all,” she continued. “When I disobeyed orders and sent you back here five years ago, Kurren was furious. He insisted I be stripped of rank and imprisoned, even executed, and he was enraged when Archer started listening to me instead of him.”
“You? Making someone feel enraged? It’s hard to imagine…” quipped Summer.
“Seriously, are we going to do this again?” Maria called out to Summer. “Why don’t you grow up!”
Summer started to advance towards Maria, who was still sitting down, propped up against the rocks, but Ethan anticipated her move and sprang up, again placing himself between them.
“That’s enough!” he said, calmly, but firmly.
Summer glared at Ethan, and her lips quivered as if she was about to say something back, but instead she shoved him solidly in his chest to make him back away from her, before storming into the darkness beyond the tree line.
“Five years and it’s like we’re picking up exactly where we left off,” said Maria, shaking her head.
“Look, it’s not that simple,” said Ethan, sharply. “You need to understand that I told her everything.”
Maria looked confused, and Aster fidgeted, uncomfortably. “What do you mean?” said Maria, feeling exposed.
“I told Summer everything that happened, including between us. I wanted to be straight with her,” said Ethan. “It’s been a long time, Sal. Things are different now, and you have to understand that you just turning up like this is like putting us right back where we were, before I went with you.”
Maria looked at Aster, who was looking like he wanted to be anywhere but in the middle of this conversation, and relaxed back against the rock, flinching slightly as her shoulder made contact with the surface. The effects of the painkiller were starting to dull a little.
“Okay, I get it,” said Maria, though she was curious about exactly what Ethan meant by things are different now. “At least I think I do. But anyway, I’ll cut her some slack, okay?”
“Thanks,” said Ethan, slumping back down to the ground again and glancing over his shoulder, trying to see where Summer had gone. He thought about going after her, but decided it was best to give her some space. He hadn’t wanted to intervene, but their bickering had bothered him, especially in light of the seriousness of the situation that Maria had described.
“So, you were just talking about Major… I mean General Kurren…”
“Right…” Maria replied, trying to reconnect with her earlier train of thought, but the meds were fogging up her mind. “Let’s just say that while Diana and I were working towards peace, Kurren was laying the foundations for something else. And he pulled it off, the sadistic bastard. So we’re here, and we won’t survive long without your help. I had no choice but to come.”
“Wait, is Diana with you?” said Ethan.
Maria held his eyes for a moment, thinking of the best way to tell him, but there was no best way. “She’s dead, Ethan.”
The words hit Ethan like a punch to the sternum. He hadn’t known Diana for long, but during the few hours they had spent together, she had had a profound impact on him. She was driven and idealistic, like Ethan, but her drives were towards the future, while Ethan’s were to the past. Diana had made him realize the significance of their fledgling planetside civilization, and that he needed to protect it at all costs. In doing so, he had prevented Diana, five years ago, from fulfilling her own personal hopes of returning to the planet and bringing old and new together. Now James Kurren had made sure she would never go planetside. Kurren was responsible, Ethan knew that, but guilt still stabbed at him for the part he’d played in denying her dreams.
“She distracted the UEC long enough for us to escape here,” continued Maria; a tear rolled down her cheek and she brushed it away, angrily. In the gloom, neither Aster not Ethan saw it. “She was a proud, stubborn woman.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Ethan softly. “I always thought that one day it would be her flying down from the clouds, instead of you.”
“Yes, well Kurren put a stop to that,” said Maria, forcing back the emotions that were now dangerously close to spilling over. She focused on her anger, letting this rise above all her other feelings, and pushing those deeper inside her. “Once I’ve made sure the survivors are safe, I’ll find a way to repay him for what he’s done. I don’t know how, but I will, I swear it.”
After the death of her parents during a GPS raid on the base, Maria had learned to channel her anger in a way that helped to suppress her other emotions, but this was becoming harder and harder to manage. Before, she could easily focus her anger on someone or something, usually GPS, but now her anger was split between Kurren, for what he’d done, and herself, for allowing it to happen. The anger and guilt she felt at her own failure was threatening to overwhelm her and it was taking every last ounce of strength to keep it from overflowing.
Ethan stood in silence for a moment, his mind filled with past events – thoughts of Diana and the space station, and of James Kurren; a man who he had once trusted and believed to be honorable, like his brother, Maria’s former partner.
“How did you get back to the UEC base?” asked Ethan. “Kurren was closing in on us, before you…” then Ethan hesitated.
“Before I shoved you through the airlock and blasted you off into space?” Maria suggested.
“Yes, that.” Ethan did not find Maria’s candor amusing in light of the circumstances, but he was also not ready for that conversation yet. “For a long time, I believed you had been killed that day. I tried to tell myself that you were okay, that you had surrendered or were captured maybe, but I didn’t believe it, not really.”
“Kurren wanted to kill me,” said Maria. “I could see it in his eyes. I think he would have done it had there not been other soldiers with him. Eventually, the GPS security forces broke through and stormed the dock, forcing an uneasy stalemate.”
“So, how did you get out?”
“It was a trade. We traded Diana Neviah, who Kurren’s forces had already captured, for safe passage back to the moon base. She didn’t give in without a fight, though. That woman had some steel, that’s for sure.” Maria again had to fight back a surge of emotion; she clenched a fist and
pressed it against her wounded shoulder, allowing the pain to shroud the sudden misery she was feeling, like a cold blanket.
“It sounds like you two became close,” said Ethan, but this time Maria didn’t answer; she looked away, pressing her fist harder into the flesh around her wound.
“Commander, sorry to interrupt, but we shouldn’t stay in one place too long,” said Aster.
Maria had forgotten the lieutenant was still there. “Yes, Lieutenant, very good,” she said, glad of the interjection. “We should get moving.”
Ethan held a hand out to Maria. She looked up at him for a moment, studying his face; he hadn’t changed much at all in the last five years and she wondered if he saw her the same way too. She took his hand and Ethan helped her to stand.
“I’ll take you to Forest Gate,” he said. “But, honestly, I don’t know what we can do to help. I wish it were different.”
“Thank you, Ethan,” said Maria. “I know it’s a long shot, and I’m not expecting anything. But that silver haired administrator knew more than she let on the last time we met, and so maybe she still has a few secrets to reveal.”
“Administrator Talia?” said Ethan. “I doubt she’ll be very pleased to see you again.”
“I can’t image why.” It was Summer again. She was shrouded in darkness a few meters away, having evidently crept up on them unheard. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to start a fight,” she said, stepping into the light. Then to Maria, she added, “Look, I don’t like it that you’re here, but I understand that you had no choice but to come.”
Ethan realized that this was probably the closest Summer was ever going to come to making an apology, and the words had clearly had a sobering effect on Maria and Aster too, because both looked to be in a state of shock.
