Emancipation

by Jason Paul McCartan

  That got their attention. He took Stone’s dog tags out of his pocket and handed them to Anderson, who took them hesitantly. He then reached under his armor and took off his own, handing them to Bandura.

  “This way we all come home, right?”

  Without saying a word, Anderson and Bandura stood at attention and saluted Jack. He returned the salute, feeling intense pride in these two fellow marines. They knew what he was ordering them to do. They didn’t like it, but they’d still do it.

  Because they were marines.

  “Now, get those civvies ready to get out of here.”

  Anderson and Bandura walked to the scientists and began reviewing using the firearms with them. Caroline walked to Jack.

  “I overheard what you told them. Thank you, Jack.”

  “All in a day’s work, Caroline. I told you I’d get your people out of here safely.”

  Caroline extended a hand. “You did.”

  Jack shook her hand, trying to hide the slight trembling in his own. “I hope your data helps. That all this helps.”

  “I believe it will. Tell me, Jack. Do you have anyone back home? Lover, spouse, family?”

  “Family on Tantar V. They weren’t happy that I signed up. Said it’d be the death of me.”

  Jack laughed softly to himself. Looks like they were right.

  “Prove them wrong, Jack,” said Caroline.

  Jack’s plan hinged on the Shiveen only chasing him down and being unaware of the others as they made their escape and that meant making himself highly visible or loud. Preferably both. He’d told Bandura and Anderson to keep the chatter down as they led the scientists out of the tunnels, but he had some deep concerns about Jeff’s ability to do this. He’d considered taping the scientist’s mouth shut, but considered that may be an extreme response.

  As the others followed the path the drone had identified through the tunnels, Jack sat and monitored all the drone feeds via his alek, flipping between all of them but keeping the feed from the drone in the ritual room continually open. The Shiveen in the room had dropped to their knees and were bending their thoraxes forward slowly together in sequence, strange hisses and clicks emanating from their mouth areas as they did, prostrating themselves and splaying their four arms wide. The actions reminded him of the praying various historically orthodox religions performed throughout the day; full deep body movements in time with chanting specific prayers or sections of holy books. Prescribed worship, determined by tenets and beliefs all bound up together.

  Jack made sure that his alek was recording the drone feeds so he could share this additional information with MilCom if he could make it out of the cave and tunnels. If not, he’d already set up a dead man’s switch tied to his heart rate; if his heart stopped beating, his alek would pulse the recorded data out to his team’s aleks. He also had them recording and a backup just in case things went sideways.

  As Jack watched the drone feeds, he also plugged into the feeds coming from his team’s aleks. They were making slow progress, but they were ascending. Bandura was in the lead with Anderson covering the group’s six. Smart move; there was a greater chance of something coming at them from below than from above, and if they needed to hustle, then Anderson could lay down some impressive fire and bring down a ceiling behind them. Stone had trained these two well. Even without someone in command issuing orders, they knew how to assess a situation and make decisions to maximize success. Of course they did. They were marines.

  The group had made enough headway that it was safe for Jack to implement the next part of the plan. The plan he knew would probably end with his death.

  He thought he’d be more terrified at the prospect, even worried, but he was strangely calm. His sister and her husband, both Original Catholics, believed that after death there was a waiting room that you went to, where you’d be judged. Depending on how you did in life, you’d either live an eternal life of luxury, or one of damnation. There was nothing else. Were there different levels of luxury and damnation, a sliding scale that used what you did in this life to determine what you did in the next? It didn’t make much sense to Jack, but it’s what countless billions believed. Just as countless other billions believed all manner of other things. Himself, Jack didn’t have any brilliant insights into what came next, just what mattered now, and he wasn’t sure if that was what he had always thought, or something that he’d learned as a marine. Marines were trained to put themselves in harm’s way for others without a second thought, that other lives were just as important as theirs but some received priority, especially those who were endangered and couldn’t protect themselves.

  What did the Shiveen believe in? They were obviously far more culturally diverse than data had shown. Not the highly dangerous space crustaceans that many made them out to be. This entire cave system was proof enough of that, as was the evidence of them performing a ritual with the dead. How would this new information be received by MilCom? Would it change the way things could move forward? Would it save lives? Possibly stop things escalating before they did?

  Jack could feel the tension in his neck and shoulders as he prepared for what he was about to do. He tilted his neck and heard the bones pop. He shrugged his shoulder a few times, releasing them.

  An instructor at OCS once told Jack that there was no higher calling than to give your life for someone else. At the time he hadn’t quiet understood the nuance involved in that statement, but now he thought he did. Because of what he was about to do, several

  Sacrifice.

  Duty.

  Honor.

  That’s what it meant to be a marine.

  Time to be a marine.

  Stepping slowly with his rifle close to his body, Jack made his way back up through the tunnels they’d first used to come down to the well room. He walked low, hugging the walls with his back, keeping his breathing low and quiet. The Shiveen had excellent hearing and any noise he made in these tunnels could carry far, even all the way up into the ritual room. The question was whether the Shiveen up there would hear anything over the droning noise of their praying.

  A quick glance at his alek’s feeds let him know that they were still prostrating themselves. Echo team and the scientists were continuing on their way out of their tunnel. According to altimeters, there were only a few hundred meters away from reaching the surface. At their current pace that would take them about fifteen minutes to travel. Jack hoped there wasn’t trouble waiting for them outside their selected exit.

  When he was about a few hundred feet from the ritual room, he stopped.

  This was it.

  He closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

  Once he did this, there was no turning back, and whatever happened happened.

  He thought about his mom and dad back home. They were probably still mad about his decision to join up. How were they going to react when they got notification of him not returning from Pallas IV. Would they even attend the ceremony that would be put on for him and hundreds of others that passed during service? If they did, would they receive his dog tags and the flag of the Panhumanic Sphere military forces instead of having him back home again? His last moments with his parents had been angry and emotional, and even though he’d sent them video and other messages, they rarely did the same. And when they did, the replies were short and to the point. Fact-based. The farm is doing well. Your sister is pregnant again. There’s lots of opportunity for a smart young man here.

  Jack scoffed softly.

  Perhaps he should have stayed back home. Was a boring life with access to money and a lifestyle better than most of the Sphere knew such a bad thing? Could he have spent his life that way? Found someone to love and settle down with? Have kids and take over the family farms? Grow old and pass them on to the next generation.

  No.

  To all of that.

  He’d always felt out of place and always felt that life had to have meaning above and beyond what gratification you could get right here and right now.

/>   The marine corps had called out to him because they provided what his life back home could not: a life of meaning.

  What’s the point of living if all you’re doing is existing?

  He’d read that somewhere, or saw it, or heard it, back when he was just starting high school. It had struck a chord with him and had never let him shake it.

  Hey God, if you exist, know that I tried to do some good. Take that into account when you measure me.

  Didn’t hurt to stack his cards.

  That includes all you others, he added, just in case he was talking in the wrong direction.

  This was it.

  This was the moment.

  Do or die.

  Do and die.

  No.

  Do or die. He would make it through this. He would survive.

  “Hey, you crusty-assed space bugs! Come and get me!” he yelled.

  18 The Chase

  Grel stopped praying as soon as he heard the noise, cutting his connection with the Great Watcher. Although it echoed, he recognized it instantly.

  It was a panhuman voice, and it was coming from the tunnels below the Honor Room. It seemed the machines at the entrance to the Great Vault hadn’t been abandoned. Those that had traveled in them had found sanctuary in the most sacred Shiveen place.

  He turned around to face those in his combat pod. They were readying their weapons and awaiting his command.

  The creatures have defiled the Great Vault. Find them and bring them to me. They may serve us.

  The pod warriors scattered, each of them heading towards a different door leading down.

  Grel turned his attention back to the well entrance. His inky black eyes blinked, and he reached his mind out below. He felt the connection with the Great Watcher re-establish and felt its mind tickle his own again.

  I am sorry, Great Watcher, for this interruption and travesty, he said. I will atone for it.

  Jack watched via the drones as every other Shiveen except for the leader rushed out of the room. The drone couldn’t follow every one of them, but it glimpsed what they were doing.

  Each of the Shiveen were leaving by a different tunnel, heading down towards the well room, hoping to find the invader that had just announced his presence.

  That meant one of them was coming his way.

  Exactly as he’d planned.

  He heard the scampering of Shiveen legs on the floor of the tunnel leading towards him. Jack braced himself for the creature to rush into the killzone he’d chosen at a branching Y-section of the tunnel. He had connected the targeting system in his rifle to his alek, and his lens HUD displayed all of his vital combat information

  The creature tumbled into his vision, tall and terrifying, its six legs powering it along as it held its long body low to hurry through the tunnel. It had its own rifle close to its body, aiming it in front of it as it moved. The glow from the ammo chamber lit up the tunnel, and some of its face. He could see its sinister black eyes and its mouth, which wriggled frenetically. His alek identified the key target points on the Shiveen’s body and fed it to his lens HUD and the rifle.

  He opened fire, using armor piercing shots with his rifle in suppressor mode. Three shots flew from the barrel, ripping through the small space between the Shiveen’s arms that led to its chest. Now it was softened up, Jack switched to explosive rounds with a flick of a finger. His alek fed the target information back to him and he fired another shot. It followed the previous three shots to find the sweet spot in the creature’s weakin chitin and exploded. Jack saw the creature split apart, its internal fluids splashing in all directions, just before the shockwave and pressure wave from the explosion rebounded through the tunnel. He had known it would come, and he dropped to the floor as soon as he had fired the last shot, but it still hit him hard. He felt a physical wave pass over him, pushing him backwards with invisible hands along the floor, and his vision flashed white as the shock wave overloaded his ears.

  Bright lights invaded Jack’s vision as he tried to raise his head. Through pulsing waves of light and pain, he looked over at the remains of the Shiveen warrior. Most of the body was in the tunnel, although some of it splattered out in a burst along the walls and the ceiling. What remained of its weapon was laying not far in front of Jack — its ammo chamber had exploded and the rear part of the gun was missing. Although the Shiveen remains were drenched in acid, they weren’t being attacked or dissolved by it.

  The good news is that the Shiveen was dead.

  The bad news is that its acid-strewn body now blocked his way up to the tunnel, which screwed with his plan to get into the ritual room, launch covering fire and bolt as promptly as he could back up the main ramp. On the way he’d be able to use the ruins as cover, and it would all go fine as long as he didn’t get pinned down on two fronts.

  Or if a Shiveen ammo chamber exploded and stopped him from following his plan.

  The only thing he could do now is find another way out. That meant going back down to the well room and trying another tunnel, or looking for a branch in this general area and taking it, hoping it went higher. Right now the Shiveen were split up, which meant that the odds were only slightly in their favor.

  A single Shiveen warrior was heavier and tougher than a human being, which countered that with speed and agility. An uplift drawn from a predator species could go head to head with a Shiveen with no problem, as they maintained their animal instincts. A synthetic could rip right through a Shiveen; if MilCom only used platoons of synthetics to fight, they’d overcome the Shiveen rapidly. That went against the Ascension Accords and the concept of a citizen’s free will. Slavery of all kinds was illegal across the Panhumanic Sphere, although it still existed as long as there were those with power and those without.

  He had to sit and wait for his head to clear fully. That meant another few minutes of waiting when he could be discovered. That blast would bring every Shiveen right towards him. He was in no condition to move though, feeling nausea wash over him as if he were some flotsam bobbing in a river.

  He shook his head. The best he could do is secure his position. The distance between individual Shiveen was his one saving grace right now. If they turned up, he should be able to fight them one at a time. If two or more came at him, well, game over.

  He sat down with his back to the wall, scanning up and down the tunnel he was in, sweeping his rifle to point down the corridor.

  The noise and light and pain ebbed.

  He could move.

  He should move.

  His body hurt as he got on his knees to stand. He felt suddenly woozy, but that passed quickly.

  Jack tried his luck and used an adjoining tunnel. The drones had mapped most of the tunnels, although there were still gaps in the data. None of the tunnels had chambers so far, just branches that split into other tunnels in a pattern that was precise, as if it designed according to a computer algorithm. But no Shiveen had ever been recorded using any piece of technology. They were a species entirely focused on biology.

  He checked the feeds from Echo Team again. They were almost out of the cave system.

  They would make it!

  Go go go! he willed them on.

  He came upon a Y-branch and looked at the drone map for some guidance. No matter which way he went there was missing information. Neither of the two paths looked better than the other.

  Fantastic. This is how it ends.

  Jack remembered reading a story years ago about a kid lost in a labyrinth. He didn’t have any string to get out, so he ended up just going right hoping he’d eventually find the way out. It wasn’t a sound strategy, but wasn’t bad for a tactic.

  So, he went right.

  Moving with less stealth that before, Jack covered ground faster The Shiveen knew he was down here, and the benefit of stealth over speed was lost now. No doubt were at his last location looking at what remained of their fallen comrade. He had to keep moving and hope that he encountered none of them, or that if he did, he could easil
y take them out.

  He rounded a corner in part of the map that was incomplete and came face-to-face with another Shiveen. It caught him by surprise and raised its weapon. Jack rolled onto the ground as the creature hissed aloud, spitting what sounded like a combination of static and a high-pitch screech at Jack. Multicolor neon light burst into life in the walls of the tunnels, spreading out from the Shiveen’s position, tracing lines away from it, and almost blinding Jack.

  He dropped to his knees, averting his eyes from the overwhelming light. Everything was phosphor white and pain.

  Jack waited for the inevitable shot from the Shiveen’s weapon to hit him, to melt into his body just as it had done countless times in simulations.

  Nothing.

  No shot.

  No pain.

  No hole in his body.

  Nothing.

  Stunned at what just hadn’t happened, he turned, squinting against the light, to look at the Shiveen. It was pointing its weapon at him and creeping towards him.

  They meant to capture him.

  Well, he wasn’t about to let that happen. Too many military service members had been captured by Shiveen, never to be seen again. Jack wasn’t planning on that being his fate.

  He pulled his rifle up, switching it to full auto and armor-piercing rounds. It might not be firing on him, but he sure as hell wouldn’t offer it the same terms. Rounds streaked out of his rifle, spattering the Shiveen, which had realized what he was about to do and had ducked its body down into a ball, drawing its armored carapace over its head and weak underside so that the shots fired either impacted shallowly or ricocheted off of the creature.

  With it distracted by defending itself, Jack stood up and bolted back in the direction he came. All along the walls, bright neon lines and patterns reached ahead of him.

  He almost reached the Y-branch when another Shiveen appeared in front of him. Its weapon was out and pointing in his direction, but it didn’t fire. Jack raised his rifle and fired on the Shiveen just as he did to the previous one. Just like that one, it rolled its carapace over, allowing its armor to take most of the damage.