by Mike Luoma
“Absolutely. It’s done. The camera’s here,” the captain says, pointing to a panel in front of him.
“Thank you,” BC says. “Okay. I’m Bernard Campion. This is Al Salid here,” he says, gesturing over at Al Salid. “And we are signing this document.” He holds it up to the camera. “This puts me, BC, in charge of Mars. Okay?” BC nods to Al Salid, “Let’s do this.”
BC puts the paper down on the slim desktop built into the captain’s seat. Before he can ask, Anita hands him a pen.
“Thanks.”
BC signs and then hands the pen to Al Salid. Al Salid sighs, but then leans in and signs the document.
“Okay? I’m in charge here, now.” BC again holds the paper up to the camera’s eye.
“Yes,” the Eldred says in a neutral voice void of emotion. “As long as it matters to you. These sort of papers do seem to be important to you ‘humans’.”
“They are!” Al Salid pipes up, trying to be helpful.
“Okay,” BC says, looking right into the camera. “Now it’s official, I do speak for Mars. I am not tainted by Dolomay. This planet is no longer a threat to you! Dolomay is the threat! I suggest you pursue him!”
“We are pursuing him, I assure you. We will leave this world alone for now,” the Eldred finishes. Their ships begin disappearing from the view screen, waves of blue dots blipping off the heads up display. The tension on the bridge melts and the gathered group lets out a collective sigh of relief. The brief breath and break in the tension is broken as an alarm suddenly rings out. Wentworth’s voice begins bursting out of the bridge’s com system.
“This is Wentworth to Campion. Do you read? We’ve been attacked!”
“What the fuck?” BC can’t help his outburst.
“It’s the next station over, Robelardier. It was just hit by a UIN ship!”
“Dolomay!”
Who else but? Gotta be the last surviving Ancient Enemy. Probably attacking with the same ship he just used to escape from Mars.
“It was a raid,” Wentworth says. “They hit the station, grabbed supplies and people, destroyed the other ships docked there, and then took off. Hit and run. Totally different tactics than we’ve seen from any UIN ship before. And the ship was fast, too. None of our ships could keep up with it.”
“I’ll bet Dolomay’s tuning that ship up as they fly,” BC speculates.
“That’s what I’d do,” Krish says. “Speaking of ships…”
“…Weren’t we going to go after that Eldred ship that crashed?” Dell asks, finishing the thought.
“That’s cute, the way you finish each other’s sentences,” Anita quips.
“Can’t wait to get your hands on it can you, Dell?” BC laughs. He turns to the com.
“Wentworth, we’ll send what ships we can to Earth orbit. I’m using this ship for a salvage mission. We’re going to try to recover an Eldred ship that went down on Mars during the battle. Do you have any idea where Dolomay went after the attack?”
“None. What’s happening with the Eldred?”
“I don’t know,” BC says, shaking his head. “They’ve left Mars alone for now. I was able to get them to back off.”
“How did you accomplish that?” Wentworth says with clear disbelief in his voice.
“I, um… I told them I was now in charge of Mars. Al Salid signed a paper, backing me up. It convinced them to leave!”
“Very well… Do you think we should convene the UTZ council?” Wentworth asks him.
“Will it do any good?” BC asks.
“That I don’t know,” Wentworth admits. “But we should take stock of what’s left, what resources we still have, and look at how we might be able to modify our production lines to speed things up.”
“Alright, then, call a meeting. And spread the word to watch out for Dolomay. He could be anywhere. You can be sure he’ll strike again, if only to keep his ship fueled and his crew fed,” BC says. Some crew. Shipload of Zombies, more like. I wonder if Fiza is one of them?
“Wentworth out.”
BC looks around the bridge. Al Salid catches his eye. Al Salid looks him directly in the eyes.
“So. YOU are the leader of Mars, now,” the tired old Arab says to BC, his gaze fixed on BC.
“Only emergency powers, Al Salid. I need you to really run things, to take care of the survivors here, and rebuild this place.”
“Rebuild? I thought we should evacuate.”
Never surrender, Al Salid…
“Evacuate? Admit defeat? Retreat? Not really my style,” BC tells him.
“Since when?” Anita cracks.
BC shoots her a look.
“You’ll have whatever resources I can get you. Anything the UTZ can provide. I’ll make sure of it when the council meets.”
“Well, then… okay,” he sighs. Exhaustion weighs heavy in his voice. “I will agree to this,” he says, looking down at the deck. He looks back up at BC. “I should be going. Could you put me back down on the surface? There is much work to do,” Al Salid says.
“We can,” BC tells him.
The pilot brings the ship down. They land near what’s left of the spaceport and seal their ship up to an emergency airlock in the side of one of the remaining domes. Al Salid nods to BC. He turns and leaves the bridge. After a minute, the pilot informs BC, “He’s clear.”
“Alright! Let’s go see if there’s anything left of that Eldred ship!” BC can’t hide his excitement.
“Yes sir. Taking off now.”
Their Stinger Ship rises from the surface, kicking up clouds of sand and dust as they blast off. They accelerate sharply, but a moment later they slow down.
“How long until we’re at the crash site?” BC asks the pilot.
“We’re here. It impacted right here… but, damn.”
“Damn?”
“There’s nothing left.”
The pilot puts a close-up of the nearby surface of Mars on the view screen. A crater marks where the Eldred ship came down, but the only sign left of their vessel is a spray of fine silver shards lining one side of the crater.
“Looks like we go back empty handed this time,” Krish observes.
“It would have been nice to take a look at their technology,” Dell muses in disappointment.
“We need to find a way to disable and capture an Eldred ship. Before its crew has a chance to self-destruct the thing,” BC declares. “Well Krish, Dell… there’s your new project. Come up with a way to capture an Eldred ship!”
“What? Now it’s our job?” Krish mock-complains.
“I always enjoy a challenge,” Dell says with the hint of a smile crossing his face.
“Shit,” BC says.
“What is it, BC?” Anita asks with concern in her voice.
“Now I’ve got to go to the UTZ meeting,” BC says, frowning.
“There are worse things,” Krish points out.
“You can put it off a little longer,” Dell observes. “As you need to give us a ride back to the asteroid base.”
“An excellent point, Dell! Best news I’ve heard today.”
BC smiles. “Pilot, let’s go back to base!”
“On our way, sir,” the captain answers. The ship pulls up and away from the red planet.
Chapter Seven
“BC’s shuttle service!” BC jokes with the pilot of his Stinger Ship as he gets ready to disembark on Wentworth Station. “Hope I haven’t been too much trouble! Me and all my friends.”
“Not at all, sir. It’s been a fun assignment for me, traveling out to the asteroids, to the Moon, up here, all over the solar system,” she says. “And the Eldred have been quiet, too, so that’s been nice.” She pauses, wondering about what she wants to say. She smiles as she decides. “Those scientists are real characters, aren’t they, sir?”
BC smiles.
“They are.”
“That first leg of the trip with everyone on board was pretty noisy,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun noisy. I had
fun. That Indian scientist, Doctor Krish… he knows a lot of stuff.”
“And he’s all too willing to share his knowledge,” BC cracks.
“Doctor Dell seems like the quiet type, but when he talks he’s almost scary smart.” The pilot again ponders her next statement. “Seems like you and Doctor Capituna are kind of a couple, huh?
That’s nice, if you ask me. Not that you did. I’m sorry, is that bad?”
“No, s’okay.” BC admits, “I think we are, kind of.”
“Yeah. Still. It was a lot quieter going back to Lunar Prime, and then here. Are you okay, sir?”
“Oh, I’m fine, captain! Just not looking forward to these UTZ Council meetings,” BC explains his quiet mood. “They always bore me to tears. It takes forever to accomplish anything, so nothing really gets done!”
“Well, sir, as much as I’d like to keep talking with you and give you an excuse to procrastinate longer before you get off the ship, I’ve got to get going. I’m sorry,” she apologizes.
“Not to worry. You’ve been a great pilot, thank you!”
“Good luck with your meetings. And with staying awake!”
“Thanks!”
BC notices some changes as he enters Wentworth Station. The isolation glass is gone. Wentworth himself is out walking in the open to greet BC as he arrives.
“Campion!”
“Wentworth? Is that really you or is it one of your doubles?”
“It’s me,” he says. He comes up to BC to shake his hand.
“All done worrying about the plague?” BC asks, surprised.
“We’ve stopped the current strain, BC! Good news!” Wentworth exclaims. “I wanted to break the news to you in person. We’ve stopped it! Unless it mutates again. We’re okay, for now.”
“Really? Huh. Well, that is some great news… Have you begun mass producing the antidote?”
“It’s not an antidote, more a vaccine,” Wentworth says. “We’ve begun to mass produce the vaccine. We’ve started inoculations here at our meeting.”
Making sure you and yours are safe first, of course, Wentworth.
‘Tell me about it in person.’
Right.
Man, people never change, not even in the face of death, or war… damn. It doesn’t bring out the best in us. So typical of Wentworth. “Work together to find a cure… that I can use first!”
M’Bekke arrives for the meetings to represent the NcC. BC meets him in the station’s port.
“Hello, BC!”
“M’Bek… Pope John Paul the Fourth, how are you?”
M’Bekke smiles. “I am well. Did you hear? The college of cardinals has finally confirmed my papacy! I am officially the Pope now!”
“You’ve been ‘officially the Pope’ since I abdicated, M’Bekke,” BC insists. “I don’t care what anyone else says.”
“Thank you, BC. But it is nice to have their nod. Officially.”
It takes a couple more days for Wentworth to pull the meetings together. Dolomay surfaces briefly. He and his crew hit three new targets, all isolated orbital stations. The news media identifies them as “rogue UIN elements”, after a UTZ spokesman calls them that in a press briefing. Like modern pirates, Dolomay and his crew descend on their targets and wreak havoc, grabbing supplies, kidnapping and killing, and usually destroying any other ships that happen to be docked. BC gets the news of their raids as he waits for the rest of the council to arrive on the station. Wentworth won’t call the first meeting until all the UTZ council members arrive. BC waits three days before Wentworth finally makes a general announcement over the com that they’ll be starting the meetings the next morning. Council members are paged a half-hour prior to their first meeting, and instructed to assemble in the main hall.
The first day is preliminary and boring. BC acquiesces to Wentworth for most of the formalities. BC only lets himself get bossy and heated when pressing for faster distribution of the vaccine. The details and logistics of distribution then occupy council business for most of the afternoon. The council breaks for dinner. BC sits at the council table after the other members have gone, massaging his temples and trying to stave off a headache.
I think my head’s going to explode! And this has nothing to do with those headaches.
“Ping!”
A small light glows in the table top in front of BC.
Must be the com?
BC pushes the light.
“Mr. Campion?” the table top speaks.
“Yes?”
“Ms. Capituna on the com for you.”
“Put her through, thank you.”
“BC?”
“Hey Anita,” BC answers. “What’s up?”
“Couple things. Dolomay just hit Mars,” she informs him.
“What?” BC can’t believe it.
Like he hasn’t already done enough damage there!
“Just got the word from Al Salid,” she says. “We sent a couple ships to see what’s up.”
“That’s good. Probably wise to keep patrols going around the clock where you are, too.”
“We’ve got a couple ships out dodging rocks at all times. That’s a no-brainer,” Anita says, sounding insulted.
“Sorry,” BC apologizes. “What was the other thing?” he asks her, trying to change the subject.
“Ceres.”
“A series of what?”
“Not series. Ceres, the asteroid. First discovered? The largest?”
“Gotcha,” BC says, figuring it out. “What about it?”
“I think we should move some of our facilities there, start building ships nearby. Ceres’ size gives us room we don’t have here,” she explains. “We’ve been discussing options.”
“What other ‘options’ do we have?”
“We could move the facilities to one of The Project outposts. Crankshaft might be best suited for it. Rigel Four is too small, and too close to The Flaze. Dimwit’s too close to The Domo worlds. And Cat’s Eye turned out to be too close to the Eldred.”
“I think we’re asking for trouble with the Eldred if we go outside of the solar system and start building ships,” BC tells her. “I don’t want to provoke them. Yet. Defend against them, sure. But not provoke them.”
“Do you think your council would support this?”
“We’ll see. I’m sure we’ll have to discuss it at length, over and over,” BC sighs and rolls his eyes.
“Enjoying the council are you?” Anita says with an evil chuckle.
“You betcha. At this rate, we’ll be here for weeks! I was hoping for a couple of days, but there’s no way.”
“Poor baby BC,” she laughs. “Keep me informed, huh? Talk to you later,” she signs off. The first week, the UTZ Council meetings are occasionally interrupted by sporadic reports of attacks by Dolomay. His ship is spotted raiding sites on Earth as he gets bolder. Bolder still, the second week Dolomay and his crew raid the UTZ shipyards, stealing a Transpace engine off the assembly line. BC and Wentworth leave the meetings to visit the shipyard and survey the damage. At least it’s a break from the monotony.
“Ceres, huh?” Wentworth asks. BC is filling him in on Anita’s ideas as they travel. “You’re bringing this up with the council?”
“Will you support it?”
Wentworth pauses, thinking.
“Well?” BC prods when Wentworth doesn’t answer.
“I’ll support it. Why not? We should try to keep it secret, though, eh?”
“Try. Of course.” BC chuckles. “The Project is actually pretty good when it comes to secrecy.”
Wentworth smiles. “Indeed. But the council might not be. Let’s just make this happen, without subjecting it to endless discussion, shall we?”
“I’m all for that!” BC can’t help his enthusiastic outburst. “But… can you do that?”
Wentworth actually laughs out loud. “That’s what I do, BC! I make things happen.”
“Can you make these meetings happen any faster? I’ve been through tortures t
hat were easier to take! Let me tell you, there was this one time this cult…”
“One more week, probably,” Wentworth answers, interrupting BC. “If I know my UTZ Council meetings.”
The meetings do drag on for another week, but Dolomay is strangely silent, off the radar. No attack reports to break up the monotony.
The Eldred remain drawn back, silent and aloof while the UTZ Council considers their demands. Wentworth and BC explain the stakes of the war and the Eldred demand that humanity stay within the orbit of Jupiter. No Eldred ships appear during the two weeks of meetings. The UTZ Council agrees to reject the Eldred’s demands and restrictions, but also agrees they’ll keep the decision secret. They will offer no official response. They also decide not to acknowledge the existence of the Eldred, or the alien nature of Dolomay, or any other aliens to the general public. The UTZ spokespeople will continue to identify Dolomay’s ship as “A rogue UIN group.” They see no need to tell the public about the Eldred attacks on Mars, either. They officially dismiss Dolomay’s allegations of alien collaboration as “fantasy”, the “ravings of a madman.”
BC disagrees with the decisions, but lets the majority of the council have their way. In his final address to the council he wonders aloud at how long they can fool the public and keep them in the dark. Anita calls BC from the Project asteroid base as the meetings end.
“We’ve got a problem,” she tells him.
“Tell me about it,” BC says. “I’ve been on Wentworth Station for two weeks now. I’m getting stir crazy! At least there have been no new attacks by Dolomay.”
“Actually,” Anita corrects him, “that’s the problem. I just heard from the Flaze. The Domo called earlier today, too. Dolomay’s out there, BC. He’s hitting them, now. They want to hit back. And they may not care to distinguish one rogue human crew from the rest of us.”
“Don’t they know about the Ancient Enemy?”
“Of course they do. But they’re still pissed off. At us! They know it’s a crew of humans following Dolomay’s command.”
“Don’t they know he’s controlling them? If they know about the Ancient Enemy?”
“I don’t know. They might regret shielding our development from the Eldred, at this point. Their tone was kind of ominous. As if the Eldred were right, and we will turn into them.”
