by J. N. Chaney
“Why?” asked Lex, beating me to it.
“Because sometimes we get visitors like yourselves,” explained Angus. “And because sometimes they’re not as nice.”
“Like the Sarkonians,” said Lex.
He nodded. “Or the Union. We’ve even seen our share of raiders, but most of the time they can’t break orbit.”
“So you’re the early warning system, is that it?” I asked.
“Not officially, as you might have figured out,” he answered. “The station announces when a ship arrives at the dock, but that only gives us so much time.”
“Why don’t they tell you before?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It’s operated by the city and we have a disagreement in how things should be around here. I keep an eye on the sky so we’re not caught off guard.”
I smirked. “Sounds like you might be a wanted man around here, Angus.”
He smiled. “Might be, Captain.”
I stared up at the screens, impressed by their ingenuity. “But you can’t get communications in or out because of the field?”
“Oh, we can receive, but without a long range satellite in orbit, sending messages can be tricky.”
“But not impossible,” I said, hoping there was more to it.
“You catch on quick,” he said with a nod. “We can signal ships in high orbit. So, if your friends show up, we can call them and tell them what’s going on. Give them our location.”
“Perfect,” I said, satisfied at the answer. If this was true, the Sarkonians wouldn’t be able to send for help. We’d be safe as long as we could get off this rock before anyone came to investigate.
“And where are my friends?” I asked, setting the coffee cup down. “You said you knew where they were. I’m all ears.”
“In the mining dome,” replied Angus. “I can have you there in no time, once you’re ready to go. I have a friend of ours watching them. They’re safe and waiting for you.” He leaned forward and cocked his brow. “So, do we have a deal? What do you say?”
“Start gathering your people,” I told him, giving a quick nod. “I need them ready to leave at a moment’s notice. The second my ship arrives, we’re gone.”
“They’ll be ready,” he said with a confident smile. “I’ll make sure of it.”
13
The mining dome was built into the side of a mountain. The mines themselves, according to Angus, had been built before the dome. The Union had invested little into the project, only putting in what was necessary to continue daily operations. I figured that was about typical for them, always focusing more on the resource than the people. It was no wonder Angus and his friends were fed up with the way things had gone down here. The trip to the mines didn’t take very long with the land transport. Angus warned us that the Union had established a small peacekeeper unit to look over the mines, most of them recruited through the mining crews. Their pay was higher, and they were given special privileges, their main priority being to look after the mines, rather than being simple peacekeepers. The way he told it, they sounded more like security guards than officers of the law.
This concerned me, but Angus dismissed it.
“They’re not well trained or equipped enough to handle a real fight. The Union gives them guns, but I don’t think most have ever used them, except to shoot cans off posts near the back of the dome,” he’d explained.
“Sounds like a bunch of kids,” I said.
“You’re not far from the truth on that,” he admitted. “I’d say the average age is twenty. Maybe twenty-one. But what they lack in skill, they make up for in stupidity. Try not to kill anyone if you can help it.”
“No promises,” I said.
Talia had come with us. This had been done against Angus’s will, but the old woman argued until he couldn’t stand it anymore. Now, she was sitting beside me in the cab, staring at the horizon as we passed through the gate between the two domes.
“There’s another bar near here,” said Angus as we entered the outer edge of the mining area. “Talk to Daxel. He’s the one who found your friends.”
“You didn’t bring them back to your cave?” I asked, referring to the basement I’d met him in. “Seems safer than a bar.”
“One of your people was injured. Leg had to be set. Figured it would be easier to take you there than to move them,” said Angus.
“Sure,” I said.
“The girl will draw attention, I think,” said Talia. She cocked her head in Lex’s direction. “The skin and hair are a dead giveaway. Really, child, you should dye that if you’re going to travel.”
Lex tilted her head. “Dye?” she asked, testing out the word. “What’s that?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” I answered.
“Should she stay behind?” asked Angus. “She might be a problem for you in there.”
“No,” I said. “The kid stays with me.”
“In that case, here.” Talia took off her coat and handed it to Lex. “Put the top over your head so no one sees that hair.”
Lex looked at me, and I nodded.
“Try to be back in two hours,” said Talia. “If you’re not, we’ll have to leave you behind. There’s a curfew at night and they’ll dock rations if we’re out.”
“Not sure why you’d need them if you wanna leave,” I said.
“We’ll need them in case you die in there,” she replied, honestly.
I whistled. “Thanks for the confidence.”
The dome surrounding the mines was a little smaller than the one the colonists lived in, but it was still huge. Navigating it with Lex might prove difficult, but I’d rather have her with me than the alternative. She was my responsibility and I couldn’t rely on Angus or the old woman to protect her. Part of me wondered why I was so willing to believe these people at face value in the first place. Were my instincts growing dull? I didn’t think so, but then here I was, relying on a couple of strangers to keep me alive.
I pushed the thought out of my head. No sense letting myself get distracted. I was here with Lex and I’d have to do the job in front of me. That was the only thing that mattered.
My pad had the coordinates where Freddie and the others had gone. A bar called Dax’s Axel. Angus had deleted any footage the system had regarding their arrival into the dome and subsequent movements. He’d also done the same for me, but he couldn’t do much if someone saw us out in the open. I’d have to look out for myself.
Lex, wearing the cloak Talia had given her, walked beside me as I came to a stop inside an alleyway. The mines were nearby, surrounded by workers and a few peacekeepers. Down the street, closer to my position, the bar stood between two tall storage buildings.
“Captain Hughes, can you hear me?” Angus asked in my ear.
“I got you, Gus,” I responded.
“It looks clear for the moment,” he informed. “You should be good.”
Angus had parked near the far end of the dome, using his pad to link up with the local security system remotely.
There was already a stark difference in quality between this area and the residential dome. Most of these buildings appeared to be made of finer materials, suggesting that most of the Union’s investment had gone here. The mines were the entire reason this colony existed in the first place, so it made sense that a bunch of bureaucrats would weigh the scales like this.
We stepped into the street, leaving the alley and walking toward the bar. Hover carts passed beside us, carrying tools and various parts toward the supply buildings. Miners and personnel busily marched back and forth, only occasionally giving us a sideways glance.
The comm in my ear clicked as I reached the first corner. “Hold up, Hughes. I think there might be someone headed your way,” informed Angus. “The building immediately to your left is used for scrap. If you go in there you can exit out the back and circle around.”
Lex had a comm of her own and moved inside the building without being prompted. I followed, closing the door
quietly behind me. She hurried to the rear of an almost empty bottom floor. “Over here,” she said with a quick wave.
We fled through the rear door and into another street, this one far less active than the last. There were only two people: a man and a woman, dressed in their brown and gray work uniforms. By the look of them, I guessed they must be part of the processing team inside these buildings. At the moment, though, they seemed more interested in each other than their jobs.
The man mumbled something to the girl, and she giggled, leaning in to kiss him. Lex made an audible groan.
We hugged a nearby fence, sticking to the direction that would lead us to the bar. The adjacent street had a few dozen people on it, none of them wearing a Sarkonian uniform. Still, I waited for Angus to give me the go-ahead.
“You’re clear,” he said, after a short pause.
We crossed the road and went straight into the bar, its doors painted an ugly shade of green.
It was the middle of the day, but the bar was already swarming with patrons. It was enough to unsettle me, at the very least. Lex clutched my hand tight as we stepped inside.
A man at the bar with spiky black hair watched his off-brand holo with passing attention. A shopping channel, by the look of it. I eased closer to the bar and tapped my finger on the counter.
He shot a glance at me and Lex, pausing briefly to consider us. “Not really a place for kids, ya know.”
“I’m not a kid,” protested Lex. “I’ve done all kinds of—” Before she could launch into details about her recent adventures, I squeezed her shoulder.
“Looking for Daxel,” I interrupted. The man locked eyes with me at the sound of the name. “Supposed to meet up with him and some friends.”
“That right?” he asked.
I nodded. “Know anyone by that name?”
“I might,” he said, a half-grin forming. “You’re in the right place. I’m Daxel, owner and operator of this fine establishment.”
“Angus says you’ve got a few guests in the back. Folks from out of town,” I said.
He snickered. “You cut straight to it, don’t you?” he asked. “Guess that’s fitting for a fella trying to avoid attention.” He looked over his shoulder. “Hey, Merril!”
A skinny kid in his late teens came hurrying from some back room, a dirty rag in one hand. “Yeah boss?”
“I gotta take five. Watch the bar.” Without waiting for an answer, he took off the apron he was wearing and motioned for us to follow him.
“You got it, boss,” said Merril, scurrying up to the counter.
Daxel motioned for us to head through the rear door. We followed him, but I kept one hand on Lex’s and the other on the gun inside my coat. I half expected someone to leap out and drug me, but instead he simply turned and locked the door behind us.
He moved to a set of shelves on the opposite side of the room, most of which held a small selection of wine and liquor.
Lex and I watched as he rolled one of the cabinets away from the wall. He placed his shoulder against the wall and pushed, moving a section of it inward like a door.
“Wow,” said Lex, stepping close enough to see the stairs leading into the hidden basement.
“Not too bad, huh?” asked Daxel. “The old owner used to hide contraband down here. I’ve never had to use it before your friends showed up.”
“Old owner?” I asked.
“My uncle,” explained Daxel. “Smart enough for this, but stupid enough to get caught.”
He walked a few steps down and paused, motioning for us to follow.
“Coming down,” he called as the wall closed behind us. “Brought some friends.”
The walls of the passageway only spanned about a meter across, making for a tight fit. It widened out at the bottom and we found ourselves in the antechamber.
“Captain Hughes!” I barely had time to register the voice before Freddie almost tackled me in a bear hug. “Gods, I can’t believe it’s really you,” he exclaimed. “And Lex!”
“I”m gonna need you to let go,” I said, muffled by his shoulder.
“Sorry, Captain,” he said sheepishly. “I knew you’d come for us.”
“Hi, Freddie,” Lex said with a cheery tone.
Freddie nearly tackled the poor girl with another hug, squeezing her so tight she wheezed.
Bolin and Petra were on the other side of the small room, sitting on a cot. “Good to see you, sir,” said Bolin. His leg had been bandaged, wrapped in a thick piece of cloth.
“Frederick said you’d show up soon,” said Petra, smiling at him.
Lex ran over and gave the woman a hug, and Petra embraced her, sliding her prosthetic arm around the girl’s back.
“It wasn’t easy to find you three,” I said.
“Blame the Sarkonians for choosing the worst colony in six systems to land on,” said Bolin. He looked at Daxel. “No offense.”
“None taken,” said the barkeep with a slight shrug. “Ask anyone here and they’ll tell you the same.”
“Looks like you took a fall there, Bolin,” I said, pointing to his leg. “That from a bullet or just clumsiness?”
“A little of both,” he answered, rubbing his thigh. “The patch is solid, though. I can walk, but not for too long.”
“It was chaos after we landed on the ship. Worse when the alarms went off,” explained Freddie.
“We managed to set off some explosives,” said Bolin. “We disabled the ship right out of slipspace, forcing everyone to evacuate. We made it to the pods first, but not before the crew showed up and tried to stop us. That was when I took the hit.”
“You made it out alive,” I said. “That’s the important part.”
Freddie laughed nervously. “I wasn’t so sure we’d make it. The debris field almost took us out, and then the landing was a little rough.”
“Ahem,” the voice in my ear startled me. I’d totally forgotten about Angus. “Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but you may want to collect your friends and leave. We don’t have long before we need to go.”
He was right. We could catch up later.
“You guys okay to move?” I asked. “Abby’s on her way with another ship. We need to get the hell off this rock and back to Earth.”
“We’re good, sir,” confirmed Bolin. “Is Felix with them?”
I wanted to wait before I told him the news, but now that he had asked, I would be direct with him. “I’m sorry. He didn’t make it. His suit malfunctioned and he suffocated, best I could tell.”
Bolin said nothing for a moment, then lowered his head. “Damnit,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not your fault, sir,” said Bolin, shaking his head. The weight of the news was evident in his eyes, but I didn’t have the words to help him. Not right now. Not in this place.
“Can you move?” I asked him.
He got to his feet with Petra helping him.
“Good,” I said, turning back to Daxel. “Is it safe for us to leave?”
“Should be,” he replied. “I can’t speak to the activity outside, but the Sarkonians already checked the bar an hour ago and moved on. I wouldn’t expect them back here for a little while.”
“How many soldiers made it down?” I asked.
“Nine, if I remember right,” said Bolin.
“I already took care of two of them. Gave another a bullet in the leg. That leaves six walking, breathing grunts to deal with. If we can avoid them and get to a shuttle, we can—”
“You’re not getting any shuttles out of here,” said Daxel. “The only ships that come and go are monthly transport ships.”
“When’s the next one set to leave?” I asked.
“Two weeks,” he answered. “The only other ship is an emergency craft that the city controls. It’s locked up and under high security.”
“Guess that means we’re stealing a ship,” I said.
“But none of them are capable of slips
pace travel,” said Daxel.
“Doesn’t matter. We just need something to get us in orbit so we can get picked up by Abigail’s ship when she arrives.”
“You make it sound easy,” said Freddie.
“From what I’ve seen, the only hurdles we’ve got are the peacekeepers and the Sarkonians, and Angus tells me the former are nothing but a bunch of teenagers.”
“Still, a gun is a gun,” said Daxel. “You’re talking about taking on thirty armed men.”
“I wouldn’t worry about the peacekeepers,” said Angus, speaking through the comm again. “If you can get rid of the Sarkonians, I can settle the rest.”
“How’s that?” I asked.
“It’s a small community, Captain. I know half their parents, and those parents want to leave, if you get my meaning.”
“I do,” I responded. “And now I think I know what we have to do.”
14
With the crew together, I decided it would be best to send Bolin back with Angus and Talia. He was a good soldier—one of our best, in fact—but with an injured leg and the news of Felix’s death weighing on him, I couldn’t risk bringing him along. Not when we were about to go after the remaining Sarkonians, no doubt now on alert.
There was something else, too: with them having gone to Earth, these Sarkonians were a liability I didn’t need right now. Outside of killing them, there wasn’t much I could do except check them for pads or data storage devices that might contain Earth’s coordinates. I’d probably have to interrogate one of them to find out for certain, but it was the only thing I could think to do.
To make everything worse, Abigail was late. She’d only been a few hours behind me, but here we were a full seven hours after landing and there was still no sign of her. My only guess was she ran into some trouble somewhere along the way. Either that, or she was farther out than she first thought.
Petra and Freddie filled in some of my gaps from the attack back home as we made our way through the streets, but they couldn’t give me a straight answer about why the Union had turned on us. The answer seemed clear to me, however, and I wagered they either didn’t believe me about the Celestials or they simply didn’t give a damn. Either way, we’d be on our own in the fight.
