by Trent Falls
“I wasn’t too happy about it, trust me Ana.” John noted.
“That’s some kind of dedication.”
“She’s my niece, Ana.” John explained the obvious. “She’s my family.” John again turned to look at Ana. “I would have done the same for you.”
Ana remained silent with the comment. She was silently confused. She and John had been apart for ten years. Prior to that, they lived as unmarried spouses in New Australia. Many back then had even voiced the question as to why they weren’t married. Maybe it was because they wanted to still be seen as professionals. Ana was helping to build a colony. John was the chief of police. Ana, in the present, found herself searching her thoughts as to why they never married. They had discussed it a few times. Maybe they thought there would always be time. In the end, though, John left to go back to Earth to take care of Julie.
“Listen, do me a favor.” John spoke. “You and I both know that they’re going to throw me in jail over this. I broke several treaties and interstellar law. When we dock with Alex I don’t want you to mention this. Please.”
Ana nodded. “Okay.”
“Jules has been through enough. She’ll find out quick enough once we get back on Earth.” John added.
“Alright.” Ana replied. “What’s the plan once we get out of warp?”
“I’ll transfer over to the Tequesta. You can continue on to Mars. You’ve done a lot already. I didn’t really want to drag you into this.”
“I think I might already be in some trouble taking this ship.” Ana noted flatly.
John looked over at her again. He sighed. Ana had saved his life, but he felt terrible if she’d have to pay a price for it.
“I’ll be alright.” Ana looked over at John, noticing his concerned expression. “Don’t worry. The important thing is we’re all alive and safe. So, what happens after you get on Alex’s ship? You heading back to Earth?”
“I don’t know.” John answered. “I don’t know if they’ll have shoot down orders for us at the outer marks. They probably don’t but I’m not sure if I want to risk that with Jules on board. I might make a stop on the way home.”
Ana looked again at John, expecting him to tell her where he was headed.
“Proxima Five.” John explained. “I still have connections there. Maybe I can contact the EEF commanders on Earth from there and get a deal for us to land safely.”
“New Australia?” Ana raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know, John. New Oz is different from the place we left.”
“Julie’s eighteen. I think she can hack it. Besides, I’m hoping we won’t be there long.”
“No, I wasn’t talking about that. Actually, it might be a little safer for kids.” Ana explained. “It’s just… different. There are a lot more politics.” Ana again looked at John. “It’s more of a company town now than it was before.”
“You still deal with them?” John asked.
“Sometimes.” Ana answered. “I haven’t been there in a long time, though. I’ve been too busy on Mars.”
“Well, at any rate I’m hoping we won’t be there long.” John went on. “I also want to see if I can cut a deal for Alex. All he was trying to do was help me out.”
“Yeah, you held him at gunpoint.” Aiyana smirked, noting the obvious lie with a snarky tone.
“Who’s to say I didn’t?” John smirked.
“Yeah, right.” Ana rolled her eyes.
“Well, I have to try something. He wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me.”
HD209458. Scott Euler looked it up on the console in front of him at the conference table. The computer, set into the black table, brought up the star’s listing in the ships maps.
HD209458 was 150 light years from Earth. Deep into The Breach, unknown space, the star system was only charted in passing by remote craft. Sending humans that far out into space had been a dangerous endeavor when the charts had been made. So far, there had been no expeditions to the planets on record.
Euler sat in a secured briefing room with Captain Shin and Lieutenant Zao. They had just viewed the playback of Dekker’s memories. The three men sat in awe of what they viewed on the 3D holographic playback in the center of the table.
“Unbelievable!” was all Shin could manage to speak.
They had all just realized that the age old rumors had been true. The Norn DID exist! This made their mission all the more important. First contact with an alien species had been achieved. They had seen it. They had seen Lyle Ramirez, very much alive and altered into some alien creature. They had witnessed the rock creatures. The sight of that alone was gripping; impossible to remove from their conscious mind.
“How long ago was this extracted?” Zao asked.
“The logs say a few hours ago.” Euler looked at his console to verify the imprint date on the file.
“Remarkable.” Shin held his right hand over his mouth, still stunned. “If this is true, then the stories we heard… about warp drive.”
“With all due respect, sir, this would only confirm the presence of extraterrestrial life.” Zao noted. “Whether they’re the Norn is another thing.”
“Regardless…. This is truly a remarkable find.” Shin shook his head. “To pursue the Norn is one thing but to see this… is… I can’t describe it.”
“The little we’ve decoded of the Denebola Tablet seems to verify that HD209458 might be a possible Norn outpost.” Euler noted. “I don’t see how we have a choice.”
“Agreed.” Shin stated seriously. “We’ll set course immediately.”
“If I may, I think we should still try and find John Carn.” Lieutenant Zao added.
Shin and Euler both turned their heads to look across the table at Zao.
“I really don’t think that’s necessary.” Shin stated bluntly. “This man killed over thirty of our soldiers. I’d just as soon wash my hands of him.”
“There is one thing you’re missing though, sir.” Zao noted.
“What’s that?” Shin demanded sharply.
“Of all the people in Dekker’s memory engram, John Carn is the only one still alive.” Zao explained.
Shin stared at Zao for a moment. “Yes, I see. The rock monsters. The Fortress. John was inside that building in that memory.”
“That’s right.” Zao stated.
“He’d know how to get past their defenses.” Shin added.
“We think he would.” Euler noted. “Dekker and Carn might have just got lucky getting inside.”
“Carn is probably long gone.” Shin stated. “He was only after his daughter. He’s probably on his way back to Earth.”
“It wouldn’t be much of a problem.” Euler noted. “We still have resources on Earth and all the colonies.”
“I don’t want to burn through any more of them.” Shin argued. “That business on Mars was very costly. We should just let him go. We have enough armament on this vessel to handle any contingency.”
“Sir, it couldn’t hurt to try.” Zao stated. “There’s certainly no shortage of money-hungry Terrans out there.”
Euler smirked snidely at Zao in response to his poor stereotype.
Shin gave the matter some thought silently. The conference room was still as both men awaited his response.
“Alright.” Shin replied flatly before adopting a serious tone. “Send word out, but we move ahead as planned. This doesn’t get out to anyone!” Shin pointed at the holoprojector in the middle of the black conference table. “Have your teams prepare. We’ll set course for HD209458 as soon as all units are ready.”
“Yes sir.” Zao replied obediently.
Euler eyed Shin, then Zao. He then tapped on the control surface of the computer embedded into the desk in front of him. He locked down the Dekker engram file and placed it under high security before shutting the computer console off.
Zao shut down his own computer and stood up from the table. In a few steps he was at the door of the secure conference room. He depressed a key sequence in a panel
fixed into the wall near the door. The door slid open with a hiss, allowing Zao to leave.
Shin remained sitting, looking across the table at Euler.
“Your man Rochette is dead.” Shin noted bluntly.
“Yeah.” Euler breathed. He silently tried to hide his bitterness. Rochette had been a comrade in arms. They had been in battle together. It was like losing a brother. Euler, though, was numb to Rochette’s death – at least he tried to appear so outwardly.
“I honestly never expected this out of this man Carn.” Shin noted evenly.
“Yeah,” Euler breathed, “neither did I.”
“Thirty three men.” Shin noted the number killed.
“The report said he had help. Someone in a small fighter or transport.” Euler noted. “Maybe we should have expected this. Maybe that was the problem.”
“We no longer have our bargaining chip. His daughter.”
“His niece, actually.” Euler corrected him. “We won’t need her. I think we have enough with what we got out of Dekker.”
“I hope you’re right.” Shin noted. “All the same, I’m going to have an entire fighter squadron ready along with several EMP warheads.”
“Do you think that would be enough?” Euler noted with a hint of sarcasm. “An advanced species like the Norn could probably crush us like bugs. You saw the video.”
“Yes, well… we’ll see, won’t we?” Shin stood up from his chair. “Just make sure your team is ready.”
Shin left the conference room, leaving Euler alone to look out across the reflective black ebony table.
“Tell me about Julie.” Ana asked, breaking the silence as they fell out of warp.
“Jules? She’s a smart kid.” John answered somewhat proudly. “She reminds me a lot of her mom actually.”
“How did her mom…” Ana paused herself from asking the obvious question, “I mean…. How did your sister…”
“It was an argon leak in her lab.” John answered. “It was a freak accident, actually. Someone smacked a canister or a piece of equipment – a sample container I think they said it was. I can’t remember. The argon filled the room quickly and suffocated her.”
“I’m sorry… I…” Ana suddenly felt awkward. It had been over ten years. She could barely remember John telling her the same story back then… when he had been forced to leave her.
“It’s okay. Really.” John reassured her.
A few seconds of silence passed between them. Ana looked down at her tracking screen to see the Tequesta was just ahead.
“You know… Ana. If things had been different….” John began.
“Please let’s not… start that again.” Ana cut him off kindly. “It’s been over a decade. We’re different people now.” Ana allowed herself a second to turn her head and look John in the eye. “You’re different.”
“I know why you couldn’t come with me.” John noted.
“And I know why you couldn’t stay.” Ana was brisk to stop him short. “Really, John. It’s okay.”
Ana changed the bearing of her ship, slowing it down to take a smooth approach towards the Tequesta. The white and light blue trim Tequesta grew ahead of them in space, low and to their eleven o’clock.
“There were people we couldn’t leave behind.” Ana explained. It was the old argument again. “New Oz was at a delicate point. If I had left the town could have fallen into lawlessness. Nothing would have been built. You know my boss and her boss were both fired after you left? Corruption! They had taken millions of credits in sweetheart deals and vanished to their own private islands on Proxima Five’s tropical zone. I owed it to the families there to stay.”
“I know!” John replied quickly, pulling back on his tone immediately to a kinder voice. “I know. A part of me wishes I could have stayed.”
“The new Marshal was good. He did his job well.” Ana assured him. “Not that… you could be replaced, of course.”
“I was the only family Jules had left.” John said, looking sideways out the canopy glass towards the eternity of space beyond. “She was the only family I had left. Well, I mean….” John glanced back at Ana.
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Ana noted kindly, but in a kind of disappointed tone. “You’re a hell of a dad coming way out here to do what you did. Really.”
John glanced over at Ana for a moment. In a brief second, John thought he could hear jealousy or regret in her voice. From the beginning of their relationship to the end, Aiyana had been sternly against having kids. John had been the same way until leaving Earth to look after Julie. Silently, John wondered if Ana was jealous. Was she really sad they never had kids? No, that was probably his own vanity creeping into his thoughts. If Ana really wanted kids she would have found someone else to have them with after he had left.
John looked away again, back out into space. Ana was right. It was a lifetime ago. It was better if he had let sleeping dogs lie.
“I was one hundred percent convinced Euler would have killed her.” John explained. “It was a tradeoff. My life for hers.”
The Nightwing was nearly on top of the Tequesta. In the last fifty meters, Ana rolled her ship over so that the top of her black prospecting vessel was directed down towards the dorsal line of the Tequesta. Ana looked up as they approached slowly. She cut speed to zero and let inertia do the rest.
“If I’m going to go to jail for the rest of my life then at least I know she’ll be home… safe.” John said finally.
The Nightwing came to a halt. The universal docking collar atop her ship extended up towards the top of the Tequesta, covering its topside airlock. The Nightwing lurched as the magnetic collar caught on to the hull of the Tequesta.
Ana pulled back her throttles to dead zero and looked at John.
“You’re an unselfish bastard, John Carn. That’s why I loved you.”
Ana shut off the artificial gravity. She then keyed in the call signal over her headset com. “Explorer do you read?”
“Loud and clear.” Alex’s voice called back.
“We got a hard seal and set artificial gravity to zero.” Ana noted aloud, still looking at John. “Recommend you do the same.”
“Copy that.” Alex’s voice replied.
John freed himself of the five-point harness of his seat. He floated over to Ana, daring to give her a kiss. For a moment she seemed compliant. She shut her eyes and wanted to kiss him. Before he could reach her Ana raised her right hand, stopping him from floating any nearer.
“No.” she said simply.
“Why not?” John asked.
“Because it’s over between us, John.” Ana replied bluntly. “We’ve both moved on. I’m sorry.”
They both floated in the small confines of Ana’s ship for a moment. The world, literally, seemed still between them.
“Let’s open that airlock.” Ana broke the silence.
“Yeah.” John nodded. He raised his eyebrows briefly. He veiled his disappointment in a stoic expression. He brushed aside what he felt for Aiyana. He knew she was right. They were very different people. It was best not to complicate matters. “Let’s go.” John said finally.
John grabbed his carbine carefully. He had unloaded it and placed the clips in his shirt, but he used caution all the same. A live round through a ship’s hull in the vacuum of space far from any settlement was bad news.
Aiyana was already floating at the top of her ship. It was an odd sight as she was oriented upside down in relation to her cabin. The large round airlock door was below. A light next to the round hatch glowed green, indicating a hard seal and an atmosphere in the collar. Ana’s deceptively strong hands grabbed the release handle of the hatch and pulled. The seams of the hatch hissed. The door rotated out with a clank from its heavy mounting arms.
Ana dove in first, slowly drifting down in the weightless air through the short docking collar. John kneeled at the top of the airlock as there wasn’t enough room in the collar for two. The familiar powder blue finish of the Tequesta’s oute
r hull was at the bottom of the collar well.
“I’m outside your door.” Ana spoke into her headset com.
“Opening up now.” Alex replied.
There was another clank from the Tequesta’s airlock. There was yet another slight hiss as the air equalized between the open airtight door of the Tequesta and the collar. The door swung in to open, revealing Alex Scoffield floating on the other side.
“Permission to come aboard?” Aiyana grinned.
“Permission granted.” Alex moved away from the opening, gesturing her with a wide stretched arm for her to come inside.
Aiyana floated down into the vast cargo area of the Tequesta. It was bigger than she imagined. Beyond Alex floated a sheepish eighteen year old girl in a dirty blue top, black slacks, and long blonde hair that floated in the weightlessness like it was underwater.
“Hi.” Julie greeted Ana in a low shy voice.
“Hi there.” Ana floated down towards the girl.
Julie was hanging on to a grab bar extended out next to one of the fold down chairs at the side of the cargo bay. Alex had likely instructed her to do so. The girl’s blue eyes widened as she saw her uncle float down towards the deck of the hangar bay.
“Uncle John!” she shouted with a beaming smile.
“Hey sweetie.” he floated towards her, grabbing onto a similar grab bar further down the row of seats.
“Give me a second to sort out the gravity.” Alex noted as he sealed the upper hatch. “Get down to the ground and no one move.” Alex locked the hatch down. He then rotated his body around, kicking off the top wall towards the life support control panel at the front of the cargo bay. Alex floated quickly across the open space like a swimmer kicking off a wall, only he used inertia to take him the entire distance. Alex extended his arms before hitting the wall, stopping himself in front of the panel.
“Hold on. I’m bringing it up slowly.” Alex tapped the access code on the panel. He then slid a single slider up on its side.
Slowly, John, Alex, Ana, and Julie found their own weight increasing. It was like slowly being set down by a massive invisible hand. Their bodies found weight above their legs. In a few moments the artificial gravity was at 1 Earth unit g: 9.8 m/sec.
