Peacemaker: The Corona Rebellion 2564 AD

by Gordon Savage

  “My job has always been to enforce peace, not wage war. Yes, it can involve knocking someone’s teeth in, but only when they’ve crossed the line. Admiral Remington said it best at my class’ graduation: ‘Our job is to maintain the peace, but that means if some dumb sum’ bitch won’t listen to reason, our job is to slap him upside the head until he will.’”

  “But still, that does mean killing people.”

  “It does, but only to keep them from hurting the people I’m supposed to be protecting, and even then, only when absolutely necessary.” He paused. “Of course, the job’s a lot easier to do if the opposition knows you’ll do whatever it takes when push comes to shove.”

  Lindsay considered that for a moment and sighed. “I suppose it isn’t fair of me to blame you, or the navy for that matter, for what happened to Ed. I just keep thinking if he hadn’t had to join the navy, he wouldn’t have died.”

  Colt looked at her for several seconds before he spoke again. “If it doesn’t hurt too much to talk about it, can you tell me what happened?” he asked.

  Lindsay paused for a moment. “It’s been two years and it still hurts,” she said with a catch in her voice. “Ed and I came here right out of school. We took the post-immigration service option. Ed signed up for two years of military service. I served my two-year commitment as a free veterinarian.”

  “So Ed went into the navy?”

  Lindsay nodded. “I had made enough as a veterinarian to pay off his debt, but he insisted he had an obligation. God! I hate that word.”

  She continued, “It was right after our ninth anniversary. Ed was protecting a group of Shaleen students from rioters when someone rolled a grenade inside his shield. He died instantly. I know it’s not fair of me. I’m not wishing someone else had died, but why did it have to be Ed?”

  “I’m sorry―” Colt began.

  “Breaking News,” the webcast blared. They turned back to the screen. The newscaster’s monotone voice filled the room with ugliness, “There is news just in from Pretoria. Separatist forces have taken the city after several hours of fierce fighting. Home Guard Troops trying to protect the provincial capital were surrounded in Province Hall when a fire broke out. Only three of the troops were able to get out of the building alive. They were badly burned and have been transported to St. Mark’s Hospital where they are listed in critical condition. It is also reported that several members of the provincial legislature were trapped in the burning building, including loyalist leader, Hiram Forsythe.”

  Colt looked back at Lindsay, “I wonder how many more will die before this thing is over. We humans never seem to learn.”

  Lindsay continued to stare into the screen. “What are we fighting for anyway? Do we want to steal this planet from its rightful owners?”

  Colt played the devil’s advocate. “There are those who would argue it’s possible to share the planet.”

  “Yes, but the technically unsophisticated always end up losing out.”

  “I don’t know about that. Before The Event, China had a habit of absorbing any group that invaded it. These natives seem to be as highly sophisticated as we are, just different.”

  “You’re taking the separatists side?”

  “Not really, but I figure I need to understand both sides of the argument.”

  “Ed was like that,” Lindsay observed. “He’d get you into an argument and pretty soon he’d have you so twisted around you were arguing against yourself.”

  “He sounds like someone I would have liked,” Colt responded.

  “Yes,” Lindsay said absently while glancing back at the webcast. “I don’t know about you, but I need some air.” She stood and walked out of the room.

  Colt caught up with her on the porch. He stopped next to her and leaned both hands on the porch rail. They stood in silence surveying the countryside. To the west the sun slanted orange rays through clouds and mountains and scattered them across the fields. The mountains’ dense forest walked up to the edge of the plain and disappeared. Colt remembered the report on Corona and could see how over the millennia, silt dropped by streams flowing out of those mountains had created the fertile farmland where Lindsay’s home now stood.

  Almost due west he could see the mouth of the valley he had followed to get here and a brief glint showed where the stream flowed. To the north, a range of granite stuck out of the valley floor looking like the dorsal fin of some gigantic sea monster. The plain itself swept to another range of mountains on the east and to the horizon in the south. Clumps of trees dotted the plains, lining the streams and the lakes, and appearing as islands in the midst of the cultivated land.

  Standing there he became aware of her warmth and her faint but pleasant scent. As he looked back at her, one of the sunbeams splashed through the leaves of the Norcross Elms, dappling her face. Once again Colt was struck by her beauty.

  Lindsay leaned against the porch rail, staring unseeing at the mountains. “Do you ever regret being in the navy?” She asked.

  “If you mean am I happy being in the navy, the answer is, I am.” He hesitated briefly. “If you mean have there been times when I’ve missed out on something important to me, definitely. I missed Caitlin’s third, fifth, and sixth birthdays. I missed several wedding anniversaries. And I can’t help but feel that if I had been there, Caitlin and Rachel somehow wouldn’t have been on that flight when it crashed.”

  Lindsay stepped away from the rail and looked at him. The sunset glow lit the side of her face and highlighted her hair. Colt felt his breath catch. “Brady told me about your daughter. You lost your wife in the same accident?” she wondered. “Do you blame yourself for their deaths?”

  He hesitated. “In a way I do. I made a decision that kept me from being home when the accident happened,” he answered. “Of course, to be honest, I know if I had been with them, I would probably have been aboard the shuttle when it went down. Yes, it wasn’t my fault, but things could have been different.” He paused. “Unfortunately they aren’t, and nothing will change that.”

  “Do you miss them?”

  He looked away at the sunset. “Every day, and it’s been more than five years.”

  When he turned back to her, she looked down and spoke in a low voice, “I guess I feel the same way about Ed. Only―” She moved back to the porch railing so she was standing next to him. For a moment she looked into his eyes, and her expression was unreadable. When she reached for the rail, her hand brushed his. Colt felt an electric thrill surge through him. For a split second he thought, Whoa! What's happening to me?

  “Still looking at the sunset she said, "I know I shouldn't blame you for what happened to Ed. I apologize if – no – that I've been rude to you."

  He smiled. "I understand what you're going through. No need to apologize. What say we start over."

  She nodded. "I’d like that."

  They both spoke the same time. She said," Hi, I'm …" He said, "This is …"

  When they laughed, the smile brightened her face, and Colt felt another thrill.

  "Sorry," she said. "What were you going to say?"

  "That this is a beautiful place you have here. The views …" He hesitated imperceptibly. "Are magnificent."

  "I fell in love with it the first time I saw it."

  Colt noticed that she didn't mention Ed.

  They stood in silence as the sun finished dropping behind the mountains.

  A small creak behind them made them turn around. Brady stood in the doorway. “Mom, when are we going to eat?”

  Lindsay looked at her watch. “Oh, for Heaven’s sake! It’s almost eight o’clock. I’m sorry, Brady.” She started for the door. Before she went inside, she turned back toward Colt. “Are you coming?”

  Back inside, Colt’s head whirled over what had just happened, but a glance into the web screen slammed him back to reality. The fighting continued to take lives, and he had to do something about it. He felt a growing anger at whoever had blown up the Invincible. “I’m beginning t
o really dislike these guys,” he commented to no one in particular.

  He pulled out the business card he had gotten from “Dennis O’Toole” and scanned it for a web address. After several false starts he got to a protected login. He entered his full name and answered some very personal questions. When the AI on the other end was satisfied with who he said he was, it gave him an address for future contact and brought up a communication form. Just as he finished typing out a brief message, Lindsay walked in. He cleared the screen.

  “Dinner’s ready,” she announced, looking at the screen. “What are you doing?”

  Colt signed off the link, stood up, and started walking with her to the dining room. “A friend of mine is a ‘spook.’ He’s here on some mission. I left him a message to pass on to the Admiralty about what happened, and I told him I need a job that won’t prevent me from looking for the rest of my crew. I also asked him for a new identity to use for the time being.”

  “Why do you need a new identity?”

  “As soon as I can, I’m going to have to get back to work. Right now I don’t know what I’ll be doing, but for the time being it’ll be easier if I can pass for a local; especially if my fingerprints and retinal pattern agree with a local identity.” He hesitated, “It’ll be safer for you and Brady as well.”

  “Safer?”

  “It isn’t likely, but rebel troops might come around and find me. If they have my full name and description, a local identity won’t matter, but they wouldn’t know you have any idea who I am so they should leave you alone.”

  ###

  A little over an hour later the website had an encrypted message from Fitzhugh: “To William August. Took care of missing ID. Congratulations on new job. No subspace. Out of contact with headquarters. Have about thirty folks from your office working for me. Looking for your other friends.”

  Peering over Colt’s shoulder, Lindsay looked baffled. “What does all that mean.”

  “Basically, it means he has put a new identity for me in the system. I think the reference to the new job and the subspace says I’m working for him for now. It appears about thirty members of the Invincible crew, besides the ones who were with me, have been found. I don’t know what he has them doing.”

  Colt logged in to the government website as “William August” and downloaded a temporary ID to Lindsay’s printer. Other than the overprinted word “Temporary” it looked like a standard ID including a driver’s license, a flyer’s license, and a pilot’s license. Although neither ground cars nor airplanes were that common any more, either might be useful at some point.

  Colt pushed back from the terminal. “Now all we have to do is convince Brady that my name is Mr. August.”

  Chapter 17

  That night he slept in the guest bedroom, which Lindsay and Brady had cleaned out earlier in the day. When he woke in the unfamiliar bed the next morning, it reminded him of a different awakening five years before.

  Princess Jana Stewart had been standing beside the bed in a nightgown and robe, looking at him. Her light tone contrasted with the disturbing expression on her face. “Up and at ‘em, sailor. I need you in the kitchen in five minutes.”

  He had been too groggy at the moment to even wonder what was going on. He had thrown on a robe, and hurried out into the corridor. Because of his job his cabin had been next to the royal suite. Jana’s husband, David, had answered the annunciator. His expression had been grim when he had let Colt in. Jana had been sitting at the table in the nook, a piece of paper on the table in front of her. She stood and took both his hands. She said, “I’m so sorry,” and when she handed him the sheet of paper, the content had hit him like a physical blow.

  His reverie ended with a flood of painful memories. That piece of paper had been the notification about the accident Rachel and Caitlin had died in, and he had been out escorting a princess around her domain. If he’d been home …

  Jana had been highly supportive. She immediately made arrangements for him to be transported back to Earth. She even recognized that he felt guilty and tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault.

  He shook his head as if to clear it. Why did he still feel guilty? But he knew. He had made a decision in favor of his career and had let Rachel and Caitlin down.

  As he got up he could hear Lindsay busily at work in the kitchen. He checked the red blood cell sensor on his arm. It registered near normal. Testing, he found he was strong enough to walk without his crutches. He quickly dressed and went into the kitchen. Lindsay was fixing something at the counter. He walked around to her side. “Good morning,” he said quietly.

  She turned and smiled up at him. “Good morning. You look bright eyed this morning. Help yourself to breakfast. I have to get Brady ready for school.”

  "Can I help you clean up?"

  "I can take care of it. When you get through with breakfast, why don’t you go feed the livestock?”

  Later, as he fed the animals, he kept coming back to how he was feeling about Lindsay. Have I somehow stumbled onto someone I can care about? If so, what can I do about it?

  He had finished feeding the animals and stopped in front of Sarah’s stall. He stood gazing at the big draft horse. “Well, Sarah,” he said. “Looks like I’m about done here, The only question is what do I do now? I don’t want to leave. Every time I look at her, it takes my breath away. I haven’t felt this giddy since I was dating Rachel. But, dammit, that’s not an excuse to not go back to work.”

  He leaned against the partition and reached out to scratch the big horse between the ears. “I should probably get back to First Landing and report to the governor general. Of course, I outrank his navy liaison. And the honor guard at the palace is the only permanent Republic unit on this planet. They must have all of twenty troops.”

  He thought for a second. “I suppose I can do as much good here as I can in First Landing.” He smiled as he looked at Sarah. “Yeah, I know. I’m rationalizing. Still, I need to do whatever I can to complete the Invincible’s mission. I can work on disrupting the rebels until reinforcements arrive, and I can try to find the bastards who blew up the Invincible. I can do that from here as well as anyplace else.” He paused. “The first thing I need to do is get in touch with Fitz to find out exactly what kind of help I’ve got: what’s happened to the Clermont crew and what are the other Invincible crew members doing?”

  Lindsay’s voice behind him said, “That sounds like an awfully serious conversation for a horse to understand.”

  He spun to look at her. “I was just thinking out loud about what I need to do next. I don’t particularly want to leave, but I have to report in. I can’t just sit around with a war going on.”

  Lindsay looked dismayed. “Are you well enough to leave?”

  “At the rate I’m recovering, I suspect I will be by tomorrow or the next day. Of course Doctor Strauss will have something to say about it.”

  “Are you really in such a hurry?” She asked. “I’m getting used to having you around.”

  He hesitated. Does that mean she feels something too? “I don’t want to leave, but I have a job to do.”

  “Well,” she said, “If you want to stay, the spare bedroom is yours.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that. In fact, if my friend doesn’t have something specific for me in First Landing, it would probably be better for me to stay away from the Governor General. I just need to get a plan together.”

  She smiled.

  ###

  “Goodnight, Sport.”

  “Goodnight, Gus. Goodnight, Mom.”

  Somehow the day had passed in a flurry of activity. One of the irrigation ditches had sprung a leak, and Colt, despite still being weak, had spent several hours repairing the leak. The containment field around the chicken enclosure had failed while he was working on the ditch, and he had taken time off to help run down the chickens and get the field working again. Lindsay had a visit from her neighbor to the south that took more than two hours. By the then it was time for dinner.
Afterwards Colt had helped Brady with his homework. Now they were alone.

  “Are you up for a walk?” Lindsay asked. “I haven’t been down to the lake in ages.”

  “I think I could handle that. But don’t expect me to hurry.”

  She laughed. To Colt it was almost musical.

  Outside, because Selene was so close to Corona, in its first quarter it shone nearly as brightly as the moon on the Earth. Lindsay stared at the little moon for a moment. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” she said.

  Colt was looking at Lindsay. “I’ll say.”

  She looked at him, eyebrows raised. Then she smiled. “I was talking about Selene, but thanks.” She led off.

  Because she was walking slowly, Colt caught up after a few steps. “I hope I didn’t embarrass you. I didn’t mean to stare.”

  She laughed again. “You seem to be the one who’s embarrassed,” she observed.

  For a while they walked in silence through an open field. In the distant north a thunderstorm towered. Lightning danced silently between the clouds and the ground. Lindsay stopped and stared at the light show. “You know,” she said almost to herself, “Ed and I used to go down to the lake in the evening.” She resumed walking. “We’d sit and talk for hours. Of course that was before Brady. Now he’s old enough for Jeffrey, our AI, to watch him as long as I’m close, but Ed …” She stopped speaking.

  Colt looked at her. Her eyes were dry, but even in the half light from Selene he could see the discomfort in them. “Are you sure you want to go to the lake?” he asked.

  For a second her pain remained. Then she smiled faintly. “Ed’s gone. Nothing I can do will bring him back. I’m still learning to face those old memories, so yes, I want to go to the lake.” She smiled and took his hand.

  Colt realized she was compensating, but he held her hand as if she meant it. He decided to change the subject. “Where’d you get your degree?” he asked.

  “I graduated from Hudson University. That’s where I met Ed.” Without hesitating she continued. “I was making spending money by tutoring. I was finishing up my post-graduate work, and Ed came to me for tutoring in organic chemistry.”