by J. N. Chaney
“Jace!” Abigail responded immediately, her voice back to normal but with a slight edge to it. “Is Lex with you?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “And she’s okay, aren’t you, Lex?”
Lex leaned in close to the console. “We’re great, Abby!”
“Lex, oh, thank gods,” Abigail replied, relief flooding her voice.
Now that I knew it was her and not another Sarkonian, I switched from audio to video. Her face appeared on the holo, beautiful as always. There was a scrape down one cheek and some redness under her right eye.
“I take it you were able to take the ship,” said Abigail.
“We were,” I said. “Lex and I made quite the pair.”
“I saved Mr. Hughes,” said Lex, pride her voice. Her words tumbled out in an excited rush.
I winced, knowing Abigail would likely disapprove of letting the girl hold and use a gun.
“Oh really?” Abby’s gaze flicked to mine for a second, then back to Lex.
“Yep,” said Lex, oblivious to the fresh tension in the air. “And Mr. Hughes was hurt, so I treated him just like you taught me.”
“That’s great, Lex.” Abby was inspecting Lex, at least as well as she could over the holo.
“Is Bolin with you?” I broke in before Lex could dig my hole any deeper.
“No,” she said, her brow creasing at the mention of his name. “He’s with Freddie and Petra. They were fighting on a third ship when it took off through a different tunnel. Don’t you remember?”
“Would it shock you to hear that I don’t?” I asked, twisting my lips. “The details are scattered, and I can’t remember exactly how it happened. Must have hit my head pretty damn hard on entry.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh gods, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, but Felix is dead. Woke up to find him that way. My guess is that his suit malfunctioned and he suffocated.”
Abigail stared at me for a second, almost in shock, but then blinked.
I continued, deciding not to linger on that for too long. “Our next priority should be finding Freddie and Bolin.”
“Right, right, of course,” she muttered, clearing her throat. “All three ships separated into different paths. You and I are four systems apart, and since we can’t create our own tunnels, we’ll have to rely on the network. That means at least five hours travel time to get to you.”
“Smart,” I said, placing a thumb through my belt. “Divide and it’s easier to make their rendezvous. If that third ship makes it much farther, Earth’s location will be compromised.”
This wasn’t news I wanted to hear. Not only did we have to track down Freddie’s ship, but it likely meant one of us would arrive long before the other.
“Who’s with you?” I asked, scratching my jaw and stifling a yawn. Now that the initial danger had passed, the fatigue was setting in again.
“Alphonse and Octavia,” she replied, watching me with keen eyes. I knew I looked like hell, so I could only imagine what she was thinking. “They’re checking over the rest of the ship while you and I figure out what to do. We managed to take a few prisoners in the fight, so we’ve confined them for now.”
“Looks like you gave them hell,” I said, indicating the bruises on her face.
She smirked. “They gave us a hard time, but we handled it. What about you?”
I grimaced, the last few hours replaying in my head. “I took a hit, but the bullet went through clean. Might’ve hit a rib, but I can’t be sure. This ship is about as low-grade as it gets and the medkits are for shit,” I remarked.
“It’s crazy that these ships don’t have medbays,” she lamented.
“What do you expect from the Sarkonians? These things are built to be easily disposed of,” I said, letting out a short sigh. “I’m going to try and contact Freddie,” I said. “Maybe he and Bolin managed to take that ship.”
She nodded. “While you do that, I’ll figure out which route they may have taken. Based on the slip tunnel they went through, I’m guessing they’re still en route. In fact—” She paused. “Looks like Lex fell asleep.”
I looked at the girl, who was lightly snoring in one of the chairs, her head on her shoulder.
“It’s been a long one. I’ll take care of her,” I said.
Abigail hesitated, but I held a hand up. “I’ll fill you in on what happened later. Right now, let’s focus on finding the others,” I said.
She held eye contact for another long moment, her expression unreadable, then nodded. “I’ll send you the information as soon as I have it.”
We disconnected. Lex moaned a little but didn’t wake up. Poor kid needed the rest.
I pulled up the system logs and checked for the name of the other ship.
The last ship listed in the logs was a Union scout ship called the Nebula Prospect. This one, along with Abigail’s ship, made for all three Sarkonian vessels we’d need to recover. I activated a hail, waiting for a response from the crew. With any luck, I’d hear Freddie’s voice on the other side.
There was a hard click, followed by a string of broken words as the response came through.
“Under attack! Heavy . . . attacking the . . . three of them!”
“Prospect, this is Commander-Weir of the RFE Dark Star,” I said, adding some gruff to my voice. “Please give us your location so that we may assist you.”
“Too much damage . . . escape pods—” The line cut out, leaving nothing but static.
Dammit, I thought, staring at the holo. Sigmond would have been helpful right about now.
I tried calling the ship back but received no response. Luckily, the brief connection was enough to tell the system their current location and trajectory. It would be enough for us to follow and, if we were lucky, finish this fight.
“You’re closer than we are, so you’ll arrive several hours ahead,” said Alphonse. His shirt was torn in places, but he appeared otherwise fine.
“It’s in the Osiris system,” continued Abigail, sending me the information as she spoke. “There’s a habitable moon there, Z-28K. It has a thriving colony—oh, hold on.” She paused and her eyes narrowed on something I couldn’t see.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Ah,” said Alphonse, nodding along and tapping his chin. “The moon appears to be host to an orbital debris field, which by itself isn’t unusual, but you’ll need to approach with care and precision.”
Abigail continued. “The debris is orbiting around the moon at a dangerous speed, and at a low enough altitude that the mining colony had to build protection domes due to the falling asteroids.”
“Unfortunately, while most Union ships are fully capable of navigating something like that, these Sarkonian ships give me pause,” admitted Alphonse.
“Fantastic,” I said, leaning back in my seat. “Well, send me what you’ve got on it and I’ll head out. Should have a few hours to read it over before I get there.”
They both nodded.
“Incidentally, because of the debris, satellites are impossible, making long distance communication from the surface a nearly impossible feat,” explained Alphonse. “The colony has one station capable enough of sending such a signal, but nothing more. With any luck, the Nebula Prospect will have avoided landing there and you won’t need to pursue.”
“Won’t know until we get there,” I said. “Who owns the colony?”
“The Union,” replied Alphonse. “However, there’s hardly any military presence on the moon itself. You might call it a low priority asset.”
“At least there’s that,” I said, stretching back in my seat. “I’ll send a message once we’re there. Try not to take too long, would you?”
Alphonse gave me a half smile. “We’ll be right behind you, Captain.”
9
Eight hours had passed by the time I finally opened my eyes again. I sat up, taking a few seconds to orient myself, groaning at the stiffness. Surprisingly, I had clean bandages again, no doubt thanks to Lex, and the p
ain was a little less than it had been before.
I looked around but couldn’t find Lex. She wasn’t on the bridge, so I pushed up to my feet and went to check the cameras in the brig. Commander-Weir was still there, but there was no sign of the kid. A few seconds of scanning the feeds and I found her in the kitchen. I could certainly use a bite myself, now that I thought about it.
I decided to wash up before joining her.
In the bathroom, I rinsed my hands and face, filling the sink with blood and grime. My reflection showcased a colorful array of bruises, but the swelling wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. I pulled the torn and bloodstained shirt over my head, replacing it with a clean one stolen from one of the crew bunks. After a full ten minutes of scrubbing, I decided that was as good as I was going to get and opted to leave to catch up with Lex.
When I got to the kitchen area, I heard her laughing. I pushed the door open to see her sitting at the table, those skinny legs not quite touching the floor.
“Good morning, Mr. Hughes,” she said, taking her eyes off of something in her hands and offering me a wide, toothy grin. “I made you some breakfast. I was gonna bring it to the bridge for you, but—”
“That’s nice of you, kid,” I said, smiling back. Her statement distracted me from what she was holding, and I walked closer to inspect the plate on the table, half expecting to find more cookies or protein bars. Instead, there was a steaming bowl of honest to goodness eggs and sausage links. A quick glance at the counter told me the eggs were powdered and the sausage was made from some kind of engineered soy, but hell if it didn’t look like a feast to me.
“Did you eat already?” I asked, pulling the bowl toward me.
“Uh huh,” she replied, distracted. I could see a pad in her lap below the table, and she appeared to be watching some kind of show on it.
I tousled her hair and sat down across from her, finally shoveling the food into my mouth.
She laughed without looking up from the pad.
“Something funny?” I asked, biting into the sausage and eggs.
“There was a pad in here on the table,” she explained, holding it up for me to see. “It had some videos on it. One was a cartoon called The Earthers. It’s set on Earth, but it doesn’t look anything like it. Earth doesn’t have purple oceans!” She giggled. “There’s also dragons and monsters. I never saw any of those.”
I laughed. “No, I guess they got those parts wrong, didn’t they?”
I’d seen shows like The Earthers when I was her age. They always depicted the planet as some mythological place, often as a fantasy world but also the realm of the gods. I remembered a story about Decias, the god of valor, sailing through the sky on a golden ship called Thados, chasing after his brother Protias who’d stolen some kind of cup. The way the story went, this cup represented Decias’s birthright, and without it he would never become the head of his house.
Every story had its own twist on Earth, but some pushed the fantasy elements to almost comical extremes. From the images I’d seen on Titan, the planet had never looked so ridiculous. It was beautiful, vibrant, and full of all manner of exotic lifeforms, but nothing that stretched imagination. There were no wizards or gods to speak of.
Not unless you counted Cognitives or mechanised trilobites.
I went back to eating, polishing off the rest of my food within minutes while Lex continued to watch her show.
The kitchen didn’t have much else going for it, but I did find some water canteens, a few more protein bars, and a couple sleeves of food.
After breakfast Lex went through a few medkits, taking a small pack and filling it with things she thought might be useful. She’d proven herself more than capable over the last day, so I didn’t argue. Anything could be waiting for us on the other side of the tunnel exit, so we had to be ready.
We had an hour left before we arrived, so I decided to use the time to my advantage. Lex was on the bridge with her pack and the pad she’d commandeered from the kitchen.
“Stay put,” I ordered. “I’ll be right back.”
“What are you going to do? Why can’t I come?” she demanded.
“Because I said so, kid. Now sit. Just watch your show.”
“Okay,” she said, dropping back into the chair and picking up the pad.
I left the bridge and went straight for the brig.
Commander-Weir was awake, sulking in a corner with his arms wrapped around his torso. He snapped his head up when I entered the cell but said nothing. I pulled my gun from its holster and let it hang at my side.
“Going to kill me then?” he snickered. “I’m unarmed and no threat to you. It’s murder if you shoot me now.”
He wasn’t altogether wrong. Even when I was a Renegade, I’d never hasten to kill a man in cold blood.
Not unless I thought he was about to kill me.
Or rob me.
Or if I thought he was thinking about doing one or the other.
But Weir was here because of his own choices. Whatever bullet came his way, it wouldn’t give me a minute of pause.
I didn’t say anything, just loaded my revolver with a fresh round.
He looked me up and down, then nodded. “I guess the things I’ve heard about you are true, then. Is this why you didn’t bring the girl? You didn’t want her to see the real you? That’s it, isn’t it? You’re playing house like some kind of—”
“Shut up,” I said, opening his cell. “You’ve got nothing to bargain with. The other two ships are in our control and the Union still doesn’t have Earth’s location. The details of your mission are stored in the ship, so keeping you alive is pointless. All it would do is risk lives. Normally, I’d have let you go, given you an escape pod, left you with a beacon to get picked up, but you took the girl.”
I pressed the barrel into his forehead. “Turn around.”
Weir’s eyes were cold as they locked onto mine for a long moment. He sighed, finally turning and doing as I told him. “My superiors won’t let this go.”
“Maybe not, but you’ve seen Earth’s defenses,” I told him. “You know what we’re capable of. If your little empire comes knocking at my door, I’ll have a fleet of drones rain fire and blood on them with a trail so thick it leads all the way to Sarkon.”
“You mean to attack us?” he asked, raising his voice.
“I’ll do what needs to be done,” I said. “And you know what that’ll mean for your homeworld.”
He said nothing.
“But you know,” I continued, “there’s always another way out of these things. Something you could do to help the outcome and make things easier for all of us.”
“What’s that?” he asked in a low voice.
“I know Vice Admiral Vick had you follow us. What I want to know is why,” I said, thinking back to the meeting where I sat across from him on the Union station. “What do you know about him?”
Weir laughed. “What’s there to know?” he asked. “He had us follow you all the way from—”
I pressed the gun into the nape of his neck. “I already know that. I’m asking you why that asshole chose to do it in the first place. We had a ceasefire. Shaw and I agreed on it.”
“Shaw?” he asked. “Admiral Shaw?”
“That’s right,” I said.
“He had nothing to do with our assignment. The orders were from Sarkon, but at the request of Vice Admiral Vick.”
“Shaw wasn’t involved?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” admitted Weir. “We were given as much information as we needed to know. Shaw wasn’t mentioned in the operation brief I received.”
“Second question,” I said, tapping the barrel against his for punctuation. “The man in charge of the Nebula Prospect. Tell me about him.”
“Why do you want to know?” asked Weir.
“Don’t worry about that. Just tell me everything,” I said.
“His name is Oda Gentre. He’s new to the job. Former armsman. I believe he has a wife.”
<
br /> “And?” I asked.
Weird paused. “I heard he likes Swing Ball.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
“I don’t have time for gossip,” said Weir.
I lifted the gun from his neck and stepped back. “Let’s go.”
He turned around slowly. “What?”
“This way. Come on,” I said, motioning with my gun for him to move.
He stepped out of the cell and into the open brig. “Where are we—”
“I’m putting you on a shuttle,” I said.
His eyes widened, filling with both relief and confusion. “I see. Then you mean you’re just going to let me—”
“If I were you, pal, I’d shut up before I change my mind about this.”
He slammed his mouth closed.
We walked through the hall of the ship and I shoved him into an empty escape pod. Once the door was sealed, I activated the microphone. “Once we’re clear of this, you’ll be released. I’m disabling your transmitter, but we’ll send word of your location to the nearest Sarkonian ship. They’ll pick you up before you starve. You’ve got—what? —two days of food in there?”
“Three days,” he corrected.
“Even better,” I said.
“Whatever reason you have for doing this—”
“Ain’t for you,” I said. “I see you again, I’ll take back the life I just gave. You think on that and make sure it sticks, because there won’t be a second chance.”
He nodded.
I left him in the pod, the lights of slipspace passing through the nearby glass. We would arrive soon, and then the next fight would begin.
“You were gone a long time, Mr. Hughes,” said Lex, sitting up when I entered the bridge.
“Sorry, I had to take care of something, kid,” I said, and walked to the controls.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Are we almost there?”
“Yeah,” I answered, pointing to the screen. “See that number on the holo? Means we’re only a few minutes away. Best you go ahead and strap yourself in.”
