by G J Ogden
She smiled broadly and laughed, which was not the reaction Ethan had expected. But again it was a warm and genuine laugh; he sensed no hint of malice. “This is just my attempt at subtlety,” Diana said. “I don’t want to overwhelm you. But, if you prefer, I will talk plainly – I would actually prefer that. But you may not like, or believe, what I have to say. Nevertheless, it will be the truth.”
Ethan took a deep breath and rubbed his temples, which still throbbed. He thought about Maria, lying unconscious back at the moon base. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll go along with this, for now.”
“Thank you, Ethan,” said Diana, speaking his name for the first time.
“So, you do already know who I am,” said Ethan. “And you clearly know something about my time on the moon base. Who are you?”
“Who I am is not important right now, Ethan,” she replied coolly. “But what I am not, is a general.” Then she gestured, open palmed, towards the door. “Shall we?”
Diana’s obvious reference to Archer was again not lost on Ethan. The militaristic nature of the UEC had always concerned him, most especially because their leader was both civil overseer and military commander. Diana wanted it made clear that she was not a military leader, and more than that, she knew that highlighting this fact would engender his trust. He admired Diana’s subtle tactics, and understanding that her careful choice of words was clearly intended to manipulate him into trusting her, Ethan felt himself starting to trust her all the same. But he was also deeply suspicious of her, and her motives. And always at the back of his mind was Maria. He would play this game and see where it led, and hopefully along the way there would be an opportunity to escape – although how, he couldn’t begin to fathom – or at the least find a way to contact the UEC.
He moved to the door, turned the handle, and stepped out.
Chapter 24
Diana and Ethan walked through a series of corridors and rooms, some of which were populated with people working at desks. Diana had commented that they were in the main administrative wing of the station, which dealt with mainly service matters, such as power, water, food and reclamation. Ethan was only vaguely paying attention though, because his senses were focused on gathering as much information as he could about his new surroundings. The most obvious difference was how much more basic the station was compared to the moon base. It was bright and clean, but functional in design, with none of the grand, sweeping domes of the moon base, and it seemed somehow much older, as if most things could do with being refurbished or replaced. In fact, it wasn’t until they reached the ‘central concourse’, as Diana had called it, that Ethan saw any windows out into the starlight. The central concourse was, however, quite impressive, in an industrial sort of way. They were standing on a balcony at the eighth level, and below and above them were additional levels, reaching perhaps sixty or seventy meters above him and perhaps another thirty below. At the bottom was a plaza with a number of stalls and seating areas and a healthy bustle of people. The plaza itself was perhaps a hundred meters from one side to the other, although as it disappeared under the first level balcony, it could have extended further.
“There are twenty-five floors in total,” Diana said, as if reading Ethan’s mind. “The lower level is a recreation area, where people can go to eat and relax. It is about the only part of this station where the original use has been preserved after the cataclysm that stranded us here.”
“You mean the war you started that killed billions?” said Ethan, candidly, leaning on the railings and still looking down over the plaza. It was a deliberate attempt to provoke, to see if he could test her composure.
Diana turned and rested her back against the balcony railings. She folded her arms across her chest and looked at Ethan. For a moment they were silent, but Ethan was determined to play this out, and let her move next.
“Okay...” said Diana, breaking the impasse. “I’m just going to lay it out for you, and then we’ll see. All I ask is that you hear me out, and then I promise I will answer any questions you have. Deal?”
Ethan remained pressed against the railing, but turned his head slightly to look at her. Her face was more serious now. The lips pursed tighter, with no hint of a smile. She looked almost sad. He looked away and stared aimlessly at the hubbub below. “Just say what you have to say.”
“Very well,” said Diana. Ethan heard her clear her throat, and could tell she was anxious, nervous even. “I know that you were recovered from the planet’s surface by a UEC expeditionary unit,” she said. “We tried to destroy the UEC ship before it reached atmosphere, but failed, obviously, since you are here.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” said Ethan, sarcastically. Diana did not react.
“We know from our own intelligence-gathering and surveillance that you have been shown holos depicting the circumstances that led to the destruction of the refinery, and the near total annihilation of the planet’s surface population. In fact, for many decades, we thought life on the planet was extinct,” and then she added more casually, “all human life, anyway.” Diana turned around slowly and rested on the balcony, mirroring Ethan, staring down at the people below. “We know that you have been told the ship you recovered, the one we captured with you on-board, contains specialist equipment needed to synthesize a medicine to combat the toxic effects of orrum radiation poisoning. We know that you were told that we – or to be more precise, Global Power Security – instigated a plot to eradicate the UEC, thus ending the generations-long war that GPS started. And we know that you believe this equipment will also save your friend, Captain Maria Salus.”
Ethan felt shivers run throughout his body and he fought hard to remain calm and composed, but he was deeply shaken by how Diana had described everything with chilling accuracy. What did that mean, he wondered? He kept his gaze focused on the plaza below.
Diana waited for a reaction, and when none came she stood up from the railings and faced Ethan. “Am I right so far?” she asked, with genuine interest, rather than presumption.
Ethan looked at her nervously out of the corner of his eye. Diana’s hands were clasped in front of her in the same position as when he had first seen her. Adrenaline was surging through Ethan’s body, making him feel sick. He just wanted to run, to get away, but to where?
Diana waited a few moments longer and when it was clear Ethan wasn’t going to answer, she sighed heavily. “All of that is a lie.”
The words hit like a hammer, but Ethan’s first reaction was denial and anger. He shook his head and laughed. “Why would I believe a word you say?” he demanded. “Of course you’ll try to turn me against them. You captured that ship so that they would die. So that you can finally win this war, admit it!”
“Don’t be a fool!” Diana replied, her voice suddenly powerfully assertive. She looked strong, resolute, and just as angry as Ethan felt. “If all we needed was the ship, why am I talking with you?” she added. Ethan tried to hit back, but Diana had a point, and instead he vacillated. “Look around you,” Diana continued with voice lowered, but no less forthright. “This is not a military base. We are not soldiers. You have been with the UEC for days. You’ve seen how they live. Do they look like the victims?”
Again, Ethan tried to think of a counter, but could not.
“You have been fed lie after lie in order to coerce you into getting the one thing they need, but for years have never been able to secure.”
“Stop talking in riddles!” shouted Ethan, pushing away from the railing. He was desperate to fight back, but in his gut he felt that Diana was speaking the truth. “Just tell me what is going on here!” he said, desperation creeping into his voice.
Diana saw the chink in his resolve and continued to chip away. “The ship you recovered is a warship, Ethan,” she said. “They want it for only one purpose, which is to destroy this station, and everyone on it, once and for all. To end the war they started.”
“What are you talking about?” said Ethan, his head in a spin. “You starte
d the war, not them!”
“They are the aggressors, Ethan. They always were,” said Diana, coolly. “The story you have been told is a twisted fiction. And deep down, I think you know it.”
Ethan shook his head again. “But I saw the images; they showed me what you did.”
“A fabrication,” said Diana. “We can make the holos show whatever we want, just as they can.”
Ethan paced up and down the walkway. “This is crazy,” he said, despondent. “You’re telling me that they lied, but how do I know you’re not lying too?”
“I understand your predicament,” said Diana, the softness returning to her voice. “It’s why I have chosen not to show you holos, or give you the alternative, real, history. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what happened all those years ago. What matters is what happens next, and what you do.”
“But why am I so important?” said Ethan. “They needed me to get this ship, but what do you want from me? You already have the ship.” Mention of the arrowhead-shaped ship reminded Ethan of the suited figure he had encountered inside. “Wait, you sent your own man to the ship,” he said. “You didn’t need me at all?”
Diana’s eyes dropped to the floor. “Ah yes, the pilot,” she said. “Sadly, like our friends on the moon base, we also can’t tolerate the levels of radiation out where the vessel became stranded. However, once you inserted the spike and re-enabled the ship’s systems, we only needed a short amount of time to take control.”
“But then why not kill me, or throw me out?” Ethan challenged her. “He had the opportunity...”
“She, actually,” interrupted Diana. “And she died from radiation poisoning. She was dead before the ship even reached this station.”
Ethan was dumbstruck. “She’s dead? You sent her knowing she would die?”
“No!” said Diana, firmly. “She volunteered, knowing it was the only way.”
“And what about the attacks on the base, were they also the only way?” said Ethan, pushing.
“If we had succeeded in disabling the UEC’s remaining fleet and launch bays, there would have been no need for Kayla’s sacrifice,” said Diana, angrily. “That was her name, by the way, in case you care at all?”
The last remark was deliberately spiteful, and Ethan could see by the tightening of her expression that Diana immediately regretted it. Ethan had finally pushed her into an emotional reaction, but it had only reinforced his feeling that she was sincere, and made him doubt the UEC even more.
Sensing her emotions starting to take over, Diana tried to compose herself. She took several deep breaths and gripped her hands even more tightly in front of her, and when she spoke again, she was more restrained. “I am sorry, you did not deserve that,” she said. She stared down at her hands. “I am not an unfeeling woman, Ethan,” she continued. “Perhaps now you see how serious this is?”
Ethan gripped the railings tightly and again stared down at the people below. His mind was a mess of conflicted emotions and conflicting information. Was it true that he had been lied to and manipulated? Had Maria been complicit in that? Or was he being lied to and manipulated now? It was impossible to know one way or the other. But his instincts told him there was at least some truth in what Diana was saying. He sensed a sincerity he had never felt from Archer.
“So, if you’re not the aggressors, what is it that you actually want?” he asked levelly, still looking out across the chasm occupying the center of the station.
“Ultimately, I want us to return to the planet,” said Diana, confidently and without hesitation.
Ethan was stunned. He turned to face her. “Return to the planet? Why?”
“The warship,” said Diana. “We can convert it from an instrument of destruction into a vessel of salvation, literally. We can use it to transport our people off this station, and take them home.”
“But why?” said Ethan, incredulously. “The planet is a wasteland. You have more here than we could ever dream of down there.”
“Ethan, I am the third generation to be born on this station,” said Diana. “We are all children born after the event you call the Fall. And like you, we bear no responsibility for it. Or blame. The planet is still our home, just as it is yours.”
Ethan shook his head. He was trying to process Diana’s words, but it went against everything he thought he knew to this point. “This is hard for me, Diana, I just don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Diana moved closer to Ethan and rested on the railings next to him, so that they were almost touching. If she had offered to hold his hand, or even hug him, Ethan would have probably accepted. She didn’t, but still he appreciated the closeness of another person.
“Much of what you were shown in the holos is actually true,” said Diana, “at least in terms of how things happened. What is different is who played which part, and the parts we play now.”
“I used to believe that knowing the truth about the Fall was the most important thing in the world to me,” said Ethan, sadly. “But when I was finally told what had happened, or at least the UEC’s version of it, I wished I didn’t know. The truth is, I really don’t care anymore. I came here only to save Maria. I left my family and friends behind for her, because she told me she would die if I didn’t help her, and that everyone on the base would die too. But if what you say is true, she is the biggest lie of all.”
Diana shrugged. “For generations, people on both sides have grown up hating each other, and believing the other to be at fault. She perhaps believed the deception to be necessary; that it was the right thing to do, from her perspective.”
Ethan hadn’t expected Diana’s response to be so diplomatic or balanced, and he admired her for not using his doubt over Maria to press her advantage. But, the realization that Maria may well have been deceiving him was hitting Ethan hard.
“As to the question of why,” Diana continued, “that’s the simple part, Ethan. It’s simply one side wanting to defeat the other. Two old enemies, unable – or unwilling – to reconcile their differences. The finer details are unimportant now.”
“Talia warned me, but I wouldn’t listen to her,” said Ethan, solemnly.
“Talia, is that your mother?” asked Diana with interest; encouraged that Ethan seemed to be opening up to her more.
Ethan laughed. “No, I suppose she’s a bit like you;” he said, “a leader. She warned me that we’re better off not knowing about the Fall. She told me that we needed to create a future free of the past.”
“She sounds like a smart woman,” said Diana with obvious admiration.
“Could you even survive?” said Ethan, returning to the subject Diana had raised earlier. “Down on the planet, I mean.”
“Yes, for a time, if we can find areas of low toxicity,” Diana said nodding, the thin smile returning to her lips. “Your natural resilience is down to being born on the planet, as a descendant of a survivor who also possessed an innate resistance,” she continued. “It is woven into the very fabric of your body, in a way that no medicine can replicate fully, at least none that we have discovered. But there are treatments that can counteract the toxicity, and extend life-expectancy, hopefully by long enough.”
Ethan gave her a puzzled frown. “Long enough for what?”
“We hope…” and then Diana paused for a moment and corrected herself, “…my hope, Ethan, is that we too can build settlements and have children. And that our children who are born planetside will possess a powerful natural resistance to the radiation, just like you.”
“Your children would have a better life here,” said Ethan, looking around the vast structure of the space station.
“More comfortable, perhaps,” said Diana, “but not better. Either due to the UEC, or simply the advance of time, eventually this station will decay. Many sections already have, and many others have been adapted and repaired so many times that it’s a miracle it’s still functioning at all.”
“Is it worth the risk, though?” wondered Ethan. “Maybe you could
defeat the UEC, or destroy their ships. Then you would be safe.”
Diana thought for a moment before answering. “Do you ever have nightmares, Ethan?”
Ethan swallowed hard and a knot tightened in his gut. “What?” he asked, shaken.
“Nightmares, bad dreams,” Diana clarified, unaware of his discomfort. Ethan didn’t reply. He fought back the images in his mind. “I often dream about the station being attacked,” Diana went on. “Sometimes, I wake and it’s actually real,” she added, wistfully. “But, sometimes I have the same terrible dream. The station is burning, people are dying. There are UEC soldiers everywhere, killing men, women and children, indiscriminately. I try to get to my office to broadcast a warning and to tell people to escape, but instead of my office, I step onto a ship, dead in space, and I’m looking out of the cockpit at the station. It’s no longer burning, but it’s broken, crippled. And inside are bodies, pressed against the windows, with tormented looks on their faces. Hundreds of tormented dead bodies, and all I can do is stare. I can’t look away.” Diana swallowed hard, paused for a moment and then stared blankly at the plaza below. “Then I’m standing in the middle of the plaza,” she continued, eyes fixed on the circular GPS motif in the center of the floor. “Everything is smashed, the lights are out, and dead bodies are floating all around. And they are all staring at me. Judging me with their dead, unblinking eyes...” She paused again, and closed her eyes tightly.
“That sounds horrible,” said Ethan, his mind filled with images of his own nightmare.
“Yes,” replied Diana, weakly. “Yes, it is. And it’s what I fear will happen if we stay. I fear this place will become a graveyard, and that nothing of who we are – the people we are now – will survive. I couldn’t bear that, Ethan. Can you understand that?”
