by Trent Falls
“No, I’ll get it. Thanks, sweetie.” John smirked, still trying to convince himself to get up.
“Okay.” Julie gave him a brief smile back before shutting the door again slowly.
John remained still in bed for a moment. The terror still lingered in his body. He wanted to remain still in the bed. He wanted to hide – to seek cover. A part of him still surveyed his own memory for where he kept his weapons. John eventually took a deep breath, letting out a long sigh before stirring to turn his legs over the side of the bed.
In his early forties, John was still in fair shape and retained some of his military conditioning. He had spent about fifteen years as an EEF Colonial Marine. The tattoo on his right arm had faded slightly in the twenty or so years since he had enlisted. It was of an eagle outlined within an inverted black triangle.
The war had lasted only eight or so years. John spent nearly another seven years as the Marshal of New Australia on the planet Proxima Centari Five. The job was that of, essentially, a glorified MP. Securing New Australia in the beginning was more of an anti-insurgency action; bringing law and order to the war torn colony until a real government could be established. He was aged by the years and the stress of that tough life, but yet he remained in relatively good shape – all things considered.
John, in typical t-shirt and shorts, walked out of his rather decently sized bedroom, through a small hallway into the kitchen. The kitchen was a bit narrow but long. A holo-clock hanging from the underside of the cabinets showed the time as 5:33 in glowing pale blue lettering that hovered faintly in the air. John opened a small brushed steel box container on his counter and pulled out a cylinder of purified water. Boynton Beach had fairly decent water but John preferred the purified cylinders for coffee. He mounted the cylinder in his coffee maker, put in a filter slug into the machine, and flipped the switch.
He looked over at the hall leading back to Julie’s room. She had the door closed but the lights from within came through the bottom of the door. She was getting ready for school on the other side.
This was routine.
John never expected to be a father-figure. Julie’s mother Wendy had been John’s older sister. Wendy had been a research scientist at one of the biomedical research centers up north in Port Saint Lucie. She had died in a lab accident about eight or nine years earlier; an argon leak of all stupid things. Julie and Wendy had lived in an upscale home in Stuart prior to the accident. Julie’s father, Major Adam Stevens, had died when she was a toddler in the war against the Xen. With no other direct family, John had moved back to Earth from Proxima Five to take care of her.
The adjustment had been tough in the beginning. John had landed a job teaching history at Palm Beach State College upon returning to Earth. While Julie was taken care of fairly well in Wendy’s will, John wasn’t able to afford the mortgage on his sister’s large home.
They had since moved into a fairly sized four bedroom condominium apartment in Renaissance Commons. It wasn’t lavish by any measure, but it was still spacious enough and comfortable. The living room looked out to the north. Being on the seventh floor, they had a decent view of the surrounding homes and the shopping center directly outside. They had a set of long white couches in the living room. A 50” thin screen monitor hung on the wall across from the main couch. The black table appeared to have a glass surface, which was also the cover of the holographic projector. The rest of the condo apartment was fairly standard. Two short book shelves were set on the far wall. Print images hung in regular wood frames on the walls. It was a fairly typical home.
The coffee percolated in the machine next to John. He yawned. Even though he didn’t need to be at school until 8 AM, he preferred to get up early at the same time as Julie; to make sure she was off okay.
Julie emerged from her room and walked over to the open counter across from her uncle. She wore a loose-fitting white shirt over a red body glove top and jeans. She set her backpack down beside her and looked up at her uncle.
“What do you want for breakfast?” John asked her in a routine manner.
“Cereal is good, thanks.” Julie sang.
John reached up to the cabinet above his head and pulled out a box of Cheerios. He then pulled a bowl out from another cabinet and milk from the fridge.
“Today your last day of school?” John asked her as he prepared her breakfast.
“Yeah.” Julie answered, allowing herself a smile.
John set the bowl of cereal in front of his ward and turned his attention to the coffee maker.
“You want coffee?” John asked her.
“Yes please!” Julie answered with certainty.
“Senior year.” John smiled as he poured her a mug of coffee. “I remember my high school graduation.” John grinned. He was quick to put in cream and sugar, preparing it the way Julie liked.
“Did you go right into the Marines after?” Julie asked.
“No. I basically did nothing that summer but run around in an old convertible. Got into a bit of trouble. Your granddad was mighty pissed one night when the police brought me home. I think I decided to enlist a few months after that.” John explained.
“You were arrested?” Julie asked with some surprise.
“Well… never formally charged.” John explained, preparing his own mug of coffee. “Anyway, that was another life.”
“Hmmmm.” Julie took a sip of her coffee and paused. Her face became drawn for a moment. “I wish mom was here.” She said in a somber tone.
“I know, sweetie.” John grinned, clasping her shoulder. “Me too.”
Julie smirked. It was visible in her expression that she was finally able to brush aside a little of the pain and regain her composure. She ate another spoonful of her Cheerios. John looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was thinking. Having grown up without a father, Julie had been extremely close with her mother. While the eight years had allowed Julie to cope better, he wondered how much of that pain still lingered, hidden behind the teenage girl’s bravado.
“You got finals today?” John asked her.
“Math.” Julie replied.
“Well, you should do well with that.” John noted.
“We going grocery shopping tonight?” Julie asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good, I need to pick up a few things.” Julie said, taking another spoonful of cereal.
“I should be home at normal time.” John noted. “Only two classes today.”
“Do you have finals today?” Julie asked.
“They start in four days. Well, four school days anyway. Next Wednesday is my last day.” John took a sip of his coffee and shook his head slightly. “I gave them a writing assignment as part of their final.”
“Hah! Just make sure you get your grades in on time.” Julie grinned.
“Come on. When have I ever cut it close to the wire?” John said with a jocular frown. “Some of these kids, though. Their writing is really crap! I think next semester I’ll go a different route.”
“It’s community college. What do you expect?” Julie smirked.
“Hey, I went to community college on Proxi Five.” John grinned.
“Just messing with ya!” Julie smiled.
“You want me to drive you to school?” John asked.
“No, it’s nice out. I want to take my bike.” Julie answered.
“Okay, just be careful out there.” John doted.
“I’ll be fine!” Julie reassured him. She handed her bowl to John, who put it in the sink. “I need to message some more with Jill before class.” Julie moved away from the counter, carrying her coffee away with her.
“Okay.” John replied flatly.
As was common, Julie retreated back to her bedroom after breakfast. She usually finished her coffee in there while on the Internet with friends. She would leave for school in about fifteen or twenty minutes. John watched her walk away. She was tall, with long strait blonde hair. Julie had a cheerful manner to her movements; a very sunny dis
position. She even had a kind of happiness in her step, even if she did feel grief on the inside at times.
Julie was the ghostly image of Wendy in so many ways.
The former Marine took another swig of his coffee and carried his mug into his own room. He needed to get ready as well.
Light years away…
Dawn was overtaking the forest. Pale light strained through the clouds and the mountains far to the west. The light refracted in a white haze, produced by the smoke from the burned Dekker home many yards away.
A unit of Xen soldiers moved from a nearby troop transport towards the tree line. They dispersed, assault rifles ready, up the gentle slope of the forest, moving quickly out into a search line. The grey uniformed heavily armored soldiers suspected what they might find. The thin trees offered little cover. With a fairly clean field of vision and such an overwhelming force, the soldiers rushed out through the skinny trees to find their quarry.
It didn’t take long to find what they were searching for.
“Sir. Over here.” One of the Xen soldiers stood still over an unmoving dark mass.
The Xen Lieutenant and his Sergeant rushed up to the dark mound. It was one of their Xen snipers, dead for what looked like a few hours from small arms fire. The sniper’s black and dark grey uniform covered the dead body tightly, showing only a pair of bullet holes in his chest. The head was thrown back and obscured.
“His Ghillie is missing.” The Sergeant noted. “They left his Laze rifle too.”
“How many you think, Sergeant?” one of the soldiers asked.
“The wife was unaccounted for.” The Lieutenant interjected.
“I’d say one, maybe two private guards.” The Sergeant noted, looking down on the bodies. He shifted his rifle aside and crouched down to examine the body. “Well placed shots. Probably one of Dekker’s former EEF soldiers.”
“Sir! I located the other one.” A soldier several yards away called out to his Sergeant.
The Sergeant hurried over. The soldier turned the body over. The body was unmarked, with only a single bullet hole to the head.
“He killed Case first, then Maxus.” The Sergeant noted, pointing to the first sniper’s body, then the one he was crouched over.
It became apparent that the haze over the forest was also a diffuse rain cloud. Droplets of rain began to fall from the sky, popping off the small leaves and the cotton and nylon blend fabric of the grey Xen BDU’s.
“We need to disperse. Set up search groups.” Lieutenant Zao. “Sergeant Hawn. Take Alto, Ferris, and Xian and fan out to the east. Gi, Lake, Crystal, and Ido will run left. The rest of you will come with me up the center.”
“They’re probably in those mountains we saw on the way down.” Sergeant Hawn noted, looking in the direction of where the mountains began a few miles into the forest.
“I’ll report to Captain Shin.” Zao replied to his sergeant. “I’m sure we don’t have much time. He mentioned he wanted to be underway in the next few hours.”
“No way we can search those mountains in a few hours.” Hawn replied.
“We’ll see what he says, Sergeant.” Zao looked to his wrist computer and called up the transceiver tuner interface. He punched up the preset frequency for the Ao Shun, the name of their carrier ship orbiting the planet. “He might want to stay for a bit. Make sure there aren’t any survivors.” Zao looked at Hawn with a deadly serious expression.
Hawn looked out at his men, seeing that they were already breaking into their assigned search groups.
Petersen ventured into the narrow valley first. The emergency hangar had been built years before Dekker or any of the other colonists had moved to the planet. Due to its proximity to Xen space, the EEF decided it would be best to leave an emergency escape vehicle for key personnel of the planet. Only Dekker and a handful of other colonists knew of the hangar’s location. Dekker, in turn was restricted to telling only two or three of his own men. Jensen and Petersen were the only two to know the location of the hangar aside from Dekker himself.
The valley itself was very narrow and extremely treacherous to footing. Petersen did his best to keep his weapon trained out while helping Mary Dekker over a few difficult patches of the ground. He came to a series of small shrubs set against the side of the rock face. He weaved uncertainly around the shrubs, finding the entry hatch set into the rock wall. The hatch was an identical color to the rock face with a continuation of the rock pattern painted on its surface. No one would know the hatch was there unless they knew to look for it.
Petersen waived Mary to come closer. She seemed hesitant to walk into what she thought was a narrow bend in the rock wall.
She spoke once she was within a few feet of Petersen. “What the hell is…”
“Shhhh!” Petersen held his right hand up to his mouth. Petersen turned around and entered his service access code into the hidden keypad.
The seams of the hatch hissed, allowing a brief waft of stale air to come out from behind the door. The heavy hatch swung open on long upper and lower pivoting arms. The cavern inside was dark. Petersen flipped on the light set beneath the barrel of his rifle. A long narrow unlit steel walled corridor stretched out beyond the door.
“Follow me, ma’am.” Petersen led the way in.
“In there?” Mary exhaled.
“It’s okay. Please, Mrs. Dekker.” Petersen waited at the open hatch.
Mary Dekker smirked and pushed her way through. Petersen took one last scan of the area, his head over the shrubs, then pulled himself inside and sealed the hatch.
“I can’t see anything.” Mary Dekker noted. In the dark confined space, Petersen was right on top of Mary.
Petersen, very cautious with his weapon, especially in proximity to the boss’ wife, lowered his muzzle towards the ground. His gun light reflected off the steel treaded deck. Petersen then found a knob on the wall. Upon turning it, the two rows of fluorescent lights running along the top of the narrow hall flickered to life. The knob was a light timer. They would stay on for five minutes by default.
Petersen opened a panel on the wall beside him, revealing a twelve character keypad. He entered in the security code he had been made to memorize. The panel at the end of the hall slid upward, allowing access into a cylindrical lift car. Petersen let Mrs. Dekker enter first, then followed her into the car. The car itself was more spacious than the secret corridor.
A short ride up an untold number of meters and the door slid open to a wide hangar bay.
The hangar was little more than metal decking in a chamber cut out of the rock. A small transport shuttle was parked in the center of the hangar. Several thick lines ran to the underside of the white ship from one of the rock walls. A small tool chest and workstation was set several feet to the starboard side of the shuttle. Petersen hurried to the white work console next to the tool chest. He set his rifle aside, feeling he was secure in the hangar bay. Petersen set his rifle on the table next to him before pecking away at the touch-sensitive screens of the workstation computer.
“I hope I’m wrong.” Petersen breathed. The workstation powered up as he touched its control surface. The screen beneath his hands flickered to a standard keyboard configuration. He tapped in a quick command, bringing up a globe map of Kappa Ceti Five. An arced line extended up from the image of the planet. A large rectangular form was set in the space ahead of the dashed arc line.
“Shit!” Petersen cursed.
“What is it?” Mary Dekker asked, looking over at the screen in front of Petersen.
“That.” Petersen pointed to the undefined rectangle. “That looks like it has the mass of a Xen carrier - and it’s parked right on the egress path to Earth.”
“Can’t we get around it?” Mary asked shakily.
“The carrier, yes. If it can launch a squadron of fighters before we get by it then forget about it.” Petersen smirked bitterly. “They’d cut us to pieces within seconds.” Petersen stared at the screen for a moment. “Their Captain’s smart. He�
��s sitting on the exact spot where we’d have to be to jump back home. He’s sitting in front of the hallway back to Earth.”
The two looked at the flat screen for a moment. Petersen quietly racked his brain for a plan.
“There is one option.” Petersen finally spoke, tapping in a series of commands on the touch console.
The line on the screen changed trajectory. Instead of curving out towards the Xen carrier, it instead arced away.
“Perfect!” Petersen smiled in satisfaction. “We can use the planet for cover to boot!”
“What? Where are you thinking on going?” Mary leaned forward to read the small print on the tag pointing to the trajectory line. “Proxima Five!” She read the name aloud with some trepidation. “Are you sure? There’s still a lot of mercenaries, gangsters, and thugs living there.”
“We’ll, ma’am, the only other option, I’m afraid, is to sit here and let the Xen find us. And they will find us.” Petersen explained grimly. “By attacking us here they’ve risked compromising the cease fire. They won’t want to leave any survivors!”
“This is insanity!” Mary Dekker complained angrily. “THEY violated the ceasefire and came across the border and killed OUR people! We’re on our side of the line.”
“We’re technically in disputed space.” Petersen explained. “And your husband had a colonial home stockpiled with a considerable arsenal. The Xen could say what they want. I don’t think the EEF has any more stomach for fighting another war any more than the Xen do.”
Mary took a deep breath. “I supposed you have a point.” Mary turned her head to look at the white shuttle. It had two fairly sturdy main engines mounted to the top of the arrow-shaped vehicle. It was a stout vessel. It was small but looked bulky enough to handle its own. The boarding ramp at the back was open. “How long before that thing can fly?” Mary asked.
“Two minutes.” Petersen explained. “I just need to spin up some fuel for the conventional engines. The coordinates in the warp nav computer are updating now and setting a flight plan. I can fly through the preflight pretty quick too.”
