by SD Tanner
His hardened fingers were encased inside of heavy gloves, and he pushed them under the rim on the man’s helmet, tearing it open. The face underneath it was that of a young man around his own age. “I will kill you.”
“Don’t do it, Ark.”
“Stand down.”
“You know I can’t.”
That much was true. Any Navigator that surrendered would face treason charges. Whether by his hand or the Guild’s, the young man was dead. “It shouldn’t be this way.”
“You started it.”
Snatching the man’s weapon, he threw it down the corridor. Not wanting to kill him, he tore open his armored jacket and then sharply punched him in the gut. It was enough disable him, but he would live.
When the Navigator grunted in pain, he said sternly, “Stay down.”
Behind him, Tank emerged from a room carrying the long body of the bird over his shoulder. Without bothering to speak, he turned and ran along the corridor towards the exit at the other end. No gunfire followed him so he assumed the young Navigator had taken his advice to stay low.
Leaping up the stairs, he found Mariana, Lace and Samson already making their way to the next level. “Go! Go! Go!”
Outside of the main entrance, the four Bombardiers were surrounded. Pinned behind the walls at the entrance, they were returning firing at the Navigators heading towards their position. Running and crouching next to them, he fired at the ones trying to get closer to the medical center.
“Now what?” Tank asked.
He was saved answering by the sight of their battleship looming above them. It was firing its railguns and lasers at the Navigators, driving them away from the door. A spaceship wasn’t designed to fire inside of the atmosphere, meaning it was more destructive than he wanted it to be. The usually peaceful grounds of CaliTech were bursting in eruptions of dirt and dust, while the trees around them vaporized to ash.
Hovering only ten feet from the main entrance, the docking bay gaped open, forcing their attack ships to grip the platform so they wouldn’t tip through the hole. “Go! Go! Go!”
Dust was flying and Mariana was using her long fingered hands to cover her eyes. Holding her under the arms, he leapt aboard pulling her with him. Tank jumped into the docking bay, shoving the bird towards the slit that led into the main body of the ship. He didn’t have time to take care of Mariana and pointed at Tank for her to follow him.
While she clawed her way across the unsteady platform, he climbed aboard the attack ship, ordering it to fly low across the grounds. The battleship was still using suppression fire to hold back the Navigators around the medical center.
“Battleship, cease fire. Extract complete.”
Three more attack ships joined him and they flew in formation towards the Navigator barracks. “Open fire at the barracks. Suppression only.”
Tank was still aboard the battleship, but on hearing his order, he said, “Ark…”
His voice was thick with worry and he didn’t need to say anything else to make his point. Knowing Tank wouldn’t be happy with him, he ordered, “Battleship withdraw. We’ll catch you in space.”
Weaving in an uneven way, the attack ships fired on the barracks, avoiding a direct hit against the rows of buildings. Other ships were already taking to the air and he could only hope the renegades had time to escape. With his mission complete, he ordered, “Time to go.”
Tipping upwards, the attack ships zipped higher, pulling away from the ground at speed. The Bombardiers were their space fleet, so there weren’t that many spaceships or trained crews stationed at CaliTech. The Navigator airships couldn’t reliably travel into space, so once they left the atmosphere they would be safe enough.
As earth fell away behind him, he knew nothing would ever be the same again. He’d successfully completed his first rebel mission and it would be one of many to come.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Missing link (Ark Three)
“What do you mean it’s not on the radar?”
Seated in the command chair on the Battle Command Pod, Tank turned to face him. “The virus pod’s not out there so I’m guessing it hit the target.”
Sighing worriedly, he realized he’d miscalculated. They’d followed the most direct path to Mariana’s home planet, Aria, and there’d been no sign of the virus pod. Now only a day from the destination, they could only assume it had landed, meaning everyone on the planet was probably dead. With a heavy mind and heart, he left Tank’s side, making his way into the Bombardier quarters next to the Battle Command Pod.
Mariana was sitting on the edge of the lumpy bed, watching him as he walked into the room. Sitting next to her, he took one of her long fingered hands into his. “We missed the pod. It means they’re probably dead.”
She didn’t react, but he wasn’t surprised. Mariana never said much and what little she did say was mostly only to him. The bird-like creature known as Luki wasn’t as shy, usually scampering around them, curious about everything. It was smarter than a chimp, but not by much.
Still holding her hand, he said, “You don’t have to go down there. We’ll check it out first.”
Tilting her head, she gave him a sidelong look. “Why save me?”
The AI unit did its best, but it wasn’t good at conveying complex messages. Struggling to find a simple explanation, he replied, “The Guild, the ones who rule us, are not good people.”
Mariana surprised him when she replied using words he understood. “We know.”
“You’ve learned our language.”
Inwardly cringing, he realized his observation was a stupid one. She’d been with them for several months so he should have known she was learning. Attempting to recover from his statement of the obvious, he asked, “How do you know about the Guild?”
“I saw.”
Another obvious answer to a stupid question. Perhaps he was imagining it, but he always felt she was trying to tell him something, but every attempt to draw her out was only met with simple replies. Now she was learning to speak their language perhaps her answers would be more helpful.
“Do you care if the virus has killed your people?”
Without answering him, she turned her face away, indicating that their conversation was over. Unsatisfied, he stood and turned to face her. “I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to save you.”
Tilting her face and looking up at him, he couldn’t read her expression and her tone gave nothing away. “I know.” Feeling irritable with her reply, he turned to leave and felt her hand on his. “Sorry.”
Turning to face her again, he asked, “For what?”
When she looked away again, he sighed to himself. Not for the first time, he was left wondering what she was trying to tell him. Leaving the room, he returned to the Battle Command Pod.
Not wanting to spend another night on the ship, he said, “Tank, let’s saddle up.”
Leaving two of the attack ships on the battleship, they took the other pair to Aria. Drawing closer to the planet, it shone brilliantly into space, still giving off the strange energy they’d seen during their first visit. Unlike the last time, he expected to find only the dead and the dying, so he wasn’t excited at the thought of landing. He’d tried to save them, but Mariana was probably the last of her kind.
Tank landed the attack ship on the clearing next to the blue river. Just as before, everything appeared tranquil, only this time the broken parts of the pod were scattered across it. Dunk Two’s engineers had sent the device to the exact coordinates where they’d landed during their first visit. Serving just one purpose, it contained only thrusters and a tube with the airborne virus. There was so little left of the pod the virus was definitely in the air.
“Do you think being underground would have saved them?”
Tank kicked at the remains of the pod. “Not if they have to eat and drink.” Flicking his head at the river next to them, he added, “The virus would have gotten into the water.”
He was about to suggest that they find the entrance
to the underground city, when the wall of green next to them parted, and one of the elongated aliens walked out.
To his surprise the man spoke. “You are back.”
His AI unit hadn’t needed to translate his words meaning, like Mariana, he’d also learnt their language. “Why aren’t you dead?”
“Strange question.”
“How did you learn our language?”
“Stupid question.”
Waving his hand at them indicating they should follow, the man led them to bank of the river and dropped into the blue water. He gave Tank a quizzical look and then followed the man. Just as before, the underground city was filled with people moving along the brown pathways between the buildings. None of them paid any more attention to them than they had during their first visit. The tall alien led them along a path to the same building where they’d met with the elder. Sitting in one of the eight chairs in the circle, he noted the reliefs on the walls still had one empty panel, waiting to be filled with the picture that would finish their story. When the elder walked into the room, a feeling of dread and déjà vu passed through him, but he couldn’t explain why.
“You return.”
Everyone now spoke their language, making him wonder if they were telepathic. “How did you learn to speak to us?”
“Mariana seeks, we learn.”
“Do you know about the virus?”
“Yes.”
“It’s designed to target the DNA that Mariana has. Is her DNA unique?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t it kill you?”
“Evolution.”
He didn’t know what answer he’d expected to hear, but that wasn’t it. “I don’t understand.”
“You evolved.”
Looking down at his transformed body, he hadn’t seen it that way. CaliTech created Bombardiers by mutating their genes, not by accelerating evolution. “Are you saying that we’re the next generation of humans?”
“One type.”
“Are there more types?”
When the elder smiled at him, he thought he understood. The Bombardiers weren’t a different species, only one of the ways humans could evolve. Mariana’s people were just another evolution of the human race. Although they’d both evolved from similar genes, each had taken a very different path.
“Is that what we are, the next generations of humans?”
Smiling enigmatically, the elder waved his long fingered hand at the reliefs around the room. “One species.”
CaliTech had developed the virus based on the assumption that the critter’s DNA was alien, only it wasn’t, so why had the birds died? “But the virus killed another species.”
Raising his hands, the elder cupped the left one. “You.” Cupping his other hand, he said, “Other.” Then he placed his left hand well above his right. “You.”
“So, are you saying that they were behind human evolution and we’re ahead of it?” The elder didn’t reply and he turned to Tank who was standing behind him. “What does this mean?”
“It means the Guild are well behind the eight ball.”
“Are we the next dominant version of the human race?”
“It makes sense if we are. We’re built to withstand anything.”
“But you said we’re like the critters. Does that mean they’re also the next evolution of our species?”
Tank shrugged. “Nah, I think they’re like our ships. They don’t have much of a brain so they’re just tools.”
If the virus had failed then there was nothing the Guild could do to Aria other than to send a fleet of Navigators to attack them, and he couldn’t see how or why they would do that. Turning back to the elder, he asked, “Mariana is with us, do you want me to return her to you?”
“No.”
Feeling relieved that Mariana would stay by his side, he realized she’d become part of his life as a feral Bombardier. He supposed if she stayed with him then they would know everything she learned, but he couldn’t see any reason for them not to. If anything, he needed allies, making him wonder if they had any military capability. “Can you fight?”
“No.”
It wasn’t the answer he’d hoped for, but he supposed his argument with the Guild wasn’t theirs to have. If they didn’t want to be allies, at least they weren’t enemies. It wasn’t a satisfactory end to their meeting, but he’d expected them to be dead. At least he wasn’t responsible for destroying another species. The visit was helpful in that he’d learned they all came from the same DNA. If the Bombardiers and the Arians were the next evolution of the human race then they had as much right to the universe as the Guild.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Lost in space (Ark Three)
Tank had set a course for deep space, which meant he had no destination in mind. They were rebels, roaming the universe with no fixed address. He’d taken a stand, rescued the aliens, and even tried to stop a virus pod, but he didn’t know what to do next. Not for the first time since they’d left Aria a month earlier, he found himself listening to the squad squabbling about what they should do now.
“Blow CaliTech from orbit,” Cardiff said decisively.
“We don’t have the weapons for that, plus I’m sure they’ll be patrolling their orbit,” Samson countered.
“What we should do is call the other Bombardier ships,” Lace suggested.
“How are we supposed to do that? We can’t use the grid,” Cardiff argued.
“Poison the water,” Mex said.
Cardiff looked at him in disgust. “That’d wreck the whole planet, plus we don’t have any poison.”
He knew the argument well and it would end with no plan he could agree to. Attacking the Guild from space was impossible. They didn’t have the firepower, plus the Navigators were no small army to deal with. Finding the other Bombardier ships was virtually impossible. They were too far from Ark Command to use the grid and there was no long distance ship-to-ship communications without it. The best he could hope was that they might run across another ship by chance, but in the vastness of space, it was unlikely they would. There were only four hundred battleships in the fleet, and although that sounded like a lot, it wasn’t when they were spread in all directions across deep space.
Dunk’s plan to keep earth safe from the Bombardiers had been a good one and it was stopping him from pulling together even a small army. Frustrated, he was about to leave when Tank said, “We have boo coo movement ahead.”
Wishing it were a fleet of Bombardiers, he knew it wouldn’t be. “What is it?”
By way of answer, the screens in the Battle Command Pod filled with images of black, oddly shaped vessels, all moving towards them. It was a wall of enemy aliens, far too many for their lonely battleship to deal with. “Pull back.”
Staring at the screens, her eyes wide with shock, Cardiff asked, “Don’t you mean turn tail and run like fracking hell?”
“That’s what I just said.”
Tank had already ordered the ship to take flight away from the advancing enemy horde, but they were still gaining on them. “Get to the attack ships.”
The best he could do was break up the enemy formation by giving them more targets to deal with. He would probably lose some of his ships, but it would give the slower battleship time to escape. Leaving Bombardier One-Zero-One and Mex to manage the battleship, the rest of the crew headed to the docking bay. Once the four attack ships were in space, the advancing wall of aliens were so close that they could see them without their visor screens.
There appeared to be over a hundred ships, all roughly the same size, but he knew that wouldn’t remain true. Enemy ships had already proven that they could split apart, doubling their numbers and lethality in a heartbeat. Their ships had been modified to carry nuclear missiles, but that wouldn’t be enough to take down this many enemy vessels. In space, the blast radius of a nuclear missile was small, so it had to hit very close to the ship to do any damage. Thinking fast, he used the only weakness they were giving him.
“Nukes away. Target center mass.”
Clustered together as they were, they offered a single target, so hitting the wall hard should at least take some of them out and provide the best chance for the nukes to hit more than one target. Following his orders, the four attack ships and battleship unleashed their nuclear missiles. When they hit the wall of enemy ships, the explosion lit up that small part of space, but the remaining alien ships simply regrouped into a slightly smaller cluster, still heading directly towards them.
“We need to split them up. Each ship take a different direction.”
Where they had been lined up on either side of the battleship, they zipped off heading away from one another. Hoping it would force the enemy to chase them, he waited to see if they would take the bait. It worked, but not how he hoped. Staying in a tight cluster, twenty of the alien ships split away, chasing one of the attack ships.
It was the one Cardiff was piloting and he heard her shout, “They’re on my tail.”
Twenty more ships took off in the direction of another of their attack ships. In the meantime, Cardiff’s ship was lost under a sea of blackness. The light from small explosions showed in the gaps between the ships, and he guessed she was firing everything she had at them. Before he could do anything to help, Tank ordered their ship to retreat. A wall of twenty lumpy and spiky enemy craft were heading towards them.
Targeting the one in lead, he fired a Space Spear missile at it, causing it to explode into fragments. It didn’t do him any good, unleashing a hundred smaller fragments that turned into tiny critters.
“Dammit,” he muttered.
“Abandon ship!”
Through his visor, he saw that Cardiff’s ship was lost. It meant that there would be two Bombardiers floating in space needing to be picked up by the battleship. Still trying to monitor the fight between the aliens and the attack ship, he called, “Mex, pick them up.”
“Can no do, sir. Situation not stable.”
Turning his head to locate the battleship, he saw Mex had a point. The battleship was under attack from five ships that were spiking its hull. Thinking he could go and get Cardiff himself, he targeted the ships now closing in on them.
