Running Toward Home

by M B Panichi

  Josef poked his head into the cockpit. “All good here,” he said in an undertone. “Our boy is not happy.”

  Del looked over her shoulder and shot Josef a grin. “Good.”

  Shaine nodded, her attention on the landscape as she shot across the rocky sand. She hoped they were doing the right thing, bringing McKillan to the Temple’s colony dome.

  At this point they didn’t have anything on the guy other than circumstantial evidence that suggested he wasn’t where he should have been. Whippet tracked down a number of messages and blogs from Isaiah Abraham. Again, there were only a handful of references to Mathew McKillan, and most in passing, listing family members.

  Abraham authored several vitriolic rants against the development of mining in their pristine Martian utopia and against Mann-Maru for being the implementer of that development. His tirades railed against corporate culture generally, the immorality of corporate political power and the sin of wanting money and power more than the love of God.

  Shaine wasn’t sure what they would accomplish by bringing McKillan to the colony. She hoped it might shock him into admitting to the sabotage of the crane cable. A good man was dead. If she could prove McKillan was the culprit, she could prosecute and at least feel like justice had been done.

  If he wouldn’t talk, she was tempted to just leave the guy with his relatives at the Temple colony and call it done. That felt like punishment enough; stuck in a “utopian society”’ without access to the outside world.

  They hadn’t announced their pending arrival to the Temple colony, so that in itself could prove interesting. Josef said he’d do the talking, that it would be better than Shaine potentially antagonizing them. One of the Temple precepts was that women were for making babies and being wives, and the men ran the show. They would respond more readily to Josef being the leader. Shaine agreed although it grated on her sensibilities.

  It was a four-hour trip to the Unified Martian Temple of God dome, roughly six hundred and fifty kilometers from the mining site. Time dragged. Shaine concluded that the Martian landscape wasn’t any more interesting than the lunar one. It just had different colored rocks and sky. Del and Josef switched between acting as copilot and keeping an eye on their reluctant and silent passenger. McKillan seemed to get more uncomfortable as they got closer to the colony dome.

  Shaine wasn’t convinced that his discomfort was significant. Four hours was a long time to sit on a hard bench seat, especially with either a big, muscular guy standing over you, or a really hot, tough chick glaring at you like you were a speck of dirt on her shoes.

  Shaine glanced at the GPS map. They were about twenty kilometers out from the colony dome. She eased the skimmer between a couple of rocky sand dunes and onto a flat plain. The sun was a dim orange-yellow ball in the hazy bluish sky, painting the landscape with vague light and shadows. In the distance, she could see the Temple dome rising up from the horizon.

  Del said, “I’ll get Josef up here to contact them,” and pushed herself up from the copilot’s seat. She ducked out of the cockpit and Shaine could hear her as she tapped Josef on the shoulder. “Your turn, man. We’re coming up on the colony.”

  Josef dropped heavily into the seat beside Shaine. He grabbed a headset and pulled it on with one hand. He flipped on the com and scanned through the channels.

  “Incoming land transport to Unified Martian Temple of God colony. Do you read? Over.

  Incoming transport, we do not want visitors. Please leave the area.”

  “Unified Martian Temple, we have a passenger whom we believe you’d be interested in. The passenger is requesting asylum at the colony.”

  Shaine glanced at Josef. They hadn’t talked a lot about the approach they were going to take.

  “We don’t want indigents. Go away.”

  Josef smiled. “Tell your Elder, Isaiah Abraham, that his brother Mathew is here to see him.”

  Silence for several seconds, then another voice came on the line, deeper and more commanding. “Mathew?”

  Shaine heard shuffling behind her in the cabin and a thump that sounded like Del shoving McKillan back into his seat.

  Josef keyed the com. “If you want to talk to him, you’ll either have to come out to us, or let us in to you.”

  “If you’ve done anything to him, you will pay for it,” came the growling reply. “When you arrive, we will open the hangar bay door. You may bring your transport in.”

  “Roger that.” Josef killed the com.

  Shaine said, “You and I go in with McKillan. Del stays and keeps the shuttle on hot standby.”

  A couple minutes later Shaine eased the ground transport up to the colony dome, hovering in front of the hangar bay door. The dome’s outer shell was scratched and dusty from the blowing sand, the glassteel cloudy and reddish. The hangar door opened slowly, jerking its way up. Shaine imagined she could hear it creaking and squealing as it rolled upward and she wondered what kind of maintenance they were doing.

  When the door was fully open, she eased the transport into the hanger. The center of the hangar was open and she spun the small ship around so they were facing the door before she set down. Along the sides of the hanger, she noted various small skimmers but no spacecraft, and she thought it odd that they would have no way out if anything were to happen to the dome. At the mining site, they had a couple of emergency shuttles.

  As she idled the main engines, the hangar door clanged shut. The red emergency lights continued on, but started flashing blue as the atmosphere in the hangar was restored. Shaine glanced at the exterior scanners, watching the temperature and oxygen levels slowly come up to Earth-normal. She had no intention of cracking the hatch on the transport until she saw people in the hangar to greet them.

  Del reported, “Exterior life support reading normal.”

  Shaine nodded. “We’ll sit tight until they show up to greet us.” She watched the wide-angle rear camera view, currently showing the airlock hatch in the back of the hanger. They waited nearly ten minutes before the hatch opened. Five men created a half circle behind a tall, dark-haired man in a long black tunic and loose black pants. He was clean-shaven and had dark, deep-set eyes. Shaine recognized Elder Brother Isaiah Abraham from the photos they’d seen. She smiled to herself. At least they were going straight to the top of the food chain, and not dealing with underlings.

  She stood up and dropped a hand on Del’s shoulder. “Keep an eye on things.”

  Del nodded. “Not a problem. I’ve got the guns warmed up, just in case.”

  Shaine grinned. It was good to have people who thought the way she did. The ground transport had hidden guns in the upper rear of the ship as well as on either side and to the front. They were well-armed, whether it appeared that way or not.

  Shaine stepped from the cockpit. Josef waited by the hatch with McKillan, one hand wrapped around the young man’s bicep. McKillan faced the door.

  Shaine couldn’t see McKillan’s face, but she read tension in the tight set of his shoulders and neck. Good. She nodded to Josef. “Let’s go.”

  Josef palmed the exit controls, extending the short ramp as the hatch unsealed with a hiss and slid open. He pulled McKillan along beside him as he strode down the ramp. Shaine stayed a step behind on McKillan’s other side. For a left cross-draw, she had a sidearm in a waistband holster only slightly hidden under her jacket.

  They stopped at the bottom of the ramp.

  The Temple group came to a halt about three meters from them. The men around Abraham stood silent, arms crossed over thick chests, standing at parade rest, watching their visitors closely. Abraham took a step forward. His eyes were on the young man between Shaine and Josef.

  “Mathew, are you well?”

  McKillan nodded but said nothing.

  He addressed Josef. “Why do you bring my brother to me?”

  Josef said, “We suspect your brother has killed a man on our construction-site.”

  Abraham lifted a brow. “Indeed? Has Mathew admitted
to this accusation?”

  McKillan hissed, “Of course not!”

  Shaine grabbed McKillan’s other arm and snapped, “Shut up.”

  Josef said, “We thought perhaps you would take him in since he is family. We have no use for troublemakers.”

  Abraham seemed to consider this, dark eyes piercing as he studied his younger brother. McKillan seemed to shrink under the glare, dropping his gaze and hanging his head. “If we were to take my brother in, there would need to be a trial, of course. We do not abide murderers here.”

  Shaine raised a brow. “Even to save their souls?” she asked.

  Abraham frowned. “Do not mock me, woman.”

  Shaine shrugged.

  “When would you have this trial?” Josef asked.

  McKillan said, “I didn’t do anything, Brother. I should go back with them.”

  Abraham glared at McKillan and the young man fell silent, his eyes returning to the floor. Abraham said to Josef, “We can have the trial here and now. We have witnesses.” He gestured to the men around him. “As the Vessel of God, I am judge and jury in this colony.”

  Shaine had to work hard not laugh. What an arrogant, power-hungry bastard.

  She heard McKillan swallow audibly, though he never lifted his eyes from the ground. Yes, she thought, this might just shake the truth loose.

  Josef nodded, accepting Abraham’s statement. “All right. We accuse Mathew McKillan of cutting into the crane cable on the construction-site, causing it to snap and killing one man. We know someone was outside while the camera surveying the area around the crane was out of order. By interviewing all of our people, we have placed all but two men for the time that the crime would have taken place. The other has an alibi. Which leaves Mathew McKillan as the only man unaccounted for during that time. He has a motive—his ties to your organization, which is very much against our presence on this planet. He has the skills to have both disabled the camera and to have cut the crane cable. He doesn’t have an alibi, other than that he was sleeping, and we have witnesses to say that he was not in the barracks at that time. During his interview, bio-scans indicated agitation and fear when questioned about his whereabouts and his ties to your organization.”

  Abraham said, “Your evidence is quite circumstantial.”

  “It’s only a matter of time before we find definitive evidence,” Josef said. “Meanwhile, we’d have to keep him in lockup at the construction-site.”

  Abraham nodded slowly. Dark eyes assessed his brother like a hawk eyeing its prey. Shaine tried to read his expression, but all she could sense was a coldness that made her glad she wasn’t the focus of his attention.

  “Look at me, Mathew,” Abraham ordered.

  McKillan raised his head hesitantly. Shaine could almost smell the fear coming off him in waves.

  “Tell me.”

  McKillan remained silent.

  “Tell me!”

  “I failed, Brother!” McKillan’s head dropped. “Forgive me, please!”

  Abraham walked forward and grabbed McKillan by the chin, forcing the younger man to meet his forbidding dark gaze. “Are you guilty?” he demanded.

  Tears leaked at the corners of McKillan’s eyes.

  Abraham shook him. “Tell me!”

  “Yes! Yes! I am guilty! I have failed!” McKillan sagged between Josef and Shaine, and they were forced to hold him up to keep him on his feet.

  Abraham gestured to his officers. “Take him. He will be punished by our laws.” Two men stepped forward.

  Josef held up a hand to stop them and turned to McKillan. “You say you failed. What does that mean?”

  McKillan’s voice broke. “I did not complete my mission for God,” he whispered.

  “What was your mission?” Josef asked.

  “To stop you all. To make you leave this Holy place. Mars is for the righteous, not for immoral corporate sinners. But I did not succeed.” He hung his head.

  Shaine looked from McKillan to Abraham, but her gaze lingered on the elder. “I hope to hell you didn’t have anything to do with this mission.”

  Abraham glowered at her. “Watch your mouth, woman.”

  Shaine shook her head. “Whatever.”

  Josef looked seriously at Abraham. “Did you send Mathew on a mission to sabotage us?”

  “I did not set him on this course. God did,” he said. “You should not be on this world, but I would not resort to murder to remove you.”

  Josef nodded. “Thank you.”

  Abraham glanced at the two men who’d stepped forward, and they took McKillan by his arms. “Come, sinner, to your punishment,” one of them intoned. As they pulled him away, McKillan broke down sobbing.

  Abraham said to Josef. “Thank you for bringing my brother to me. He must be punished for his failures and be brought back to redemption.”

  Josef nodded and turned, striding back up the ramp. Shaine gave Abraham a final warning glare and followed Josef into the shuttle, sealing the hatch behind her. As the hatch closed she called, “Del, fire this puppy up as soon as they’re clear. I want out of this place.”

  “Roger that, boss. These people are fucking creepy.”

  Josef said, “You record that whole thing?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Shaine dropped into the pilot’s seat. Josef braced himself behind them. “Fucking cultists,” she muttered. “Be interesting to know what McKillan’s punishment will be. He was practically wetting his pants.”

  Del’s hands darted over her controls, starting to bring the primary systems back up to full power. “They can kill him as far as I’m concerned. That would pay for Alec’s death.”

  “Gotta love frontier justice,” Josef commented. “Very efficient.”

  Shaine glanced at the vid monitor. “The interior hatch is sealed.”

  They waited impatiently for the hangar door to open. After a couple of minutes, it started to jerk upward. Del engaged the engines. Shaine was relieved they weren’t going to have to shoot their way out.

  As soon as the hangar door cleared, Shaine gunned the throttles, hurtling out of the hangar and over the sand.

  Josef asked, “You think that was just a show for our benefit? Or are they actually going to punish him?”

  Shaine considered. She would have liked a real, legal confession out of McKillan, but she supposed this was as close as they could get. “You saw Abraham’s eyes. He was cold. And there’s no way McKillan was faking that kind of fear.”

  Del added, “These guys are into hard-core corporal punishment. I read a couple accounts of whippings and even eye for an eye kind of stuff. Out here, who’s going to stop them, right?”

  Josef nodded.

  Shaine frowned as she guided the transport away from the Temple dome. She didn’t condone their kind of justice. She didn’t agree with the way they lived their lives. Of course, they didn’t agree with the way she lived hers, either. She shook her head. Had they done the right thing, leaving McKillan at the colony? Was she any better than Abraham and his goons? She and Josef decided to log this officially as McKillan returning to his family. There would be no accusations of wrongdoing. They had nothing other than circumstantial evidence, and his confession in front of Abraham wouldn’t stand up in court. It would be considered coercion.

  Del smacked Shaine’s arm. “Your girlfriend had the right idea. Smart one, bringing him here.”

  Shaine managed a weak smile and continued guiding the ship toward home. And Morgan.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Shaine worked dutifully at the desk in her tiny office. The month following Alec’s death had gone quickly and smoothly. The new living dome was sealed and life support brought online. It wasn’t fully commissioned yet, but at least they didn’t need to wear full vac suits to work inside. The emergency radiation shelter was ready and available if needed.

  The days had become frighteningly routine. Shaine was happy that she and Morgan had at least a little time just to themselves. They’d settled into
a very comfortable existence, though both of them seemed to be working a lot of extra hours lately.

  Tonight Shaine flipped through paperwork from the group of twenty workers who’d come in today. They were taking on more personnel as construction ramped up inside the primary dome. Everyone was cheering the fact that they’d finally brought in real kitchen staff and had started to serve fresh “home cooked” food as well as the preprocessed packaged meals from the dispensers. She’d hired additional security personnel to balance out the numbers. Five had come up today with a supply ship. Ten more would be along on the next supply run, but it was still a relatively small security team.

  Someone rapped on the doorframe.

  Shaine looked up. “Come in.”

  The door slid open and Morgan walked in, dropping heavily into the chair in front of the desk. “Hey.”

  Shaine smiled. “Hey, yourself. What’s up?”

  “Nothing. I wanted to see how you were doing. And let you know there was still food in the cafeteria, if you wanted to eat.”

  “Ah. Food. Guess I forgot about dinner. Did you eat?”

  “Naw. I was waiting for you.”

  Shaine grinned. “You are way too sweet, hon.”

  “Yeah, well don’t tell anyone, right?”

  “My lips are sealed.” Shaine grinned. “Unless of course, I’m using them on you,” she added.

  Morgan flushed and let her head fall back. “Oh, baby,” she intoned.

  Shaine chuckled and got to her feet as she logged out of her terminal. “Let’s go find some grub. I’ve had enough for one day.”

  Morgan sighed dramatically. “Work, work, work. You’re turning into a regular corporate administrator,” she teased.

  “Watch it, Rahn.”

  “Watching.” Morgan waited until Shaine preceded her out the door. “Nice ass, Wendt.”

  Shaine laughed as she strolled into ops. Gohste was at the com desk, feet up on the console and a pad in his lap. He lifted it up. “There’s a new weather bulletin coming in from the System Space Administration.”