Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two

by Jerry Aubin

  “You know, I’m terrified of heights so I’ve been getting super nervous watching everyone else swinging across that big hole. It looks pretty scary to me. I think I would feel a lot better if I could have someone ride with me. Do you think you could climb on my back and hold on tight to keep me company and help me not be afraid?”

  Zax stared with his jaw slack. It was one of the most sweet and tender displays he had ever seen from anyone in the Crew, and it was coming from the Boss. Nolly’s terror had rendered him mute, but he managed to nod his agreement. The Boss looked up at Zax.

  “I’ll carry the boy. You go next.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Zax backed up and ran as fast as he could. He was two-thirds of the way to the point where he intended to let go of the cable when it came slightly loose from whatever anchored it above and slipped a half a meter. Zax had been on track to stick a perfect landing, but the cable slippage threw him off balance. He landed instead in a twisted heap at Kalare’s feet and let loose a stream of curses. She laughed so riotously that even Sergeant Bailee couldn’t avoid a smile.

  Zax stood up and saw the Boss had caught the cable on its return and held it firmly in both hands. Nolly was perched on the officer’s back with his arms locked so firmly around the man’s throat they threatened to squeeze the life out of him. The Omega backed up and then sprinted towards the edge where he leapt for the far side.

  The full combined mass of the Boss and Nolly on the cable forced something to finally give way up in the bundle of tangles it emanated from. The Boss had already established enough angular momentum that he didn’t instantly plummet downwards, but rather than arcing over the edge of the chasm to land with everyone else, he crashed into the wreckage just inside the fissure.

  In a flash, everyone peered over the edge and saw the Boss’s predicament. He clung to the side with the barest of handholds as the cable unspooled uselessly into the crater below. The group looked at each other as they each thought about out how to save the officer and child without access to all of the additional cable on the other side of the divide. Imair rushed forward and pointed at Zax and Kalare.

  “You two—grab my legs and lower me down. We can pull them up!”

  The two cadets held tight as Imair dangled into the chasm. A moment later she yelled for them to lift and she emerged with Nolly in tow. Once the boy was safely on the deck, she went over again for the Boss. Zax held with all his might but felt the civilian’s leg slipping from his grasp once she was also supporting the officer’s mass. Sergeant Bailee saw the impending disaster and reached down with his one functional arm to grab a handful of waist from the back of Imair’s pants. Aleron jumped in as well and all four of them hauled the civilian and Omega back up over the edge of the wreckage.

  The Boss stood and smiled at the civilian woman as he brushed himself off. “Thank you, Imair.”

  The civilian grinned at the Boss addressing her by name for the first time during their hours together. “My pleasure, sir. I understand how important it is we keep you alive.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Everyone take a deep breath.

  “OK, Zax, how much further?” The Boss still had a flush in his cheeks from his misadventure as he looked at Zax expectantly. With the bomb wreckage behind them, there appeared to be a clear path to the destination. Only a few hundred meters of passageway stood between them and the target compartment, and Zax relayed this information. The officer smiled in response. “We just might make it after all. Everyone—let’s move.”

  The dissipating adrenalin from rescuing the Boss and Nolly combined with the relief of being so close to their final destination resulted in the group moving in more of ragtag fashion than the tight formation they had maintained previously. The three cadets led the way, followed by Nolly and then Imair, with Bailee and finally the Boss bringing up the rear.

  They reached a Tube junction which Zax recognized as the last milestone before they would get to the compartment with the safe room. He walked past the useless Tube and a few secs later heard a commotion behind him. He turned and saw Imair had tripped on something and crashed to the deck.

  The civilian was not hurt, but she seemed embarrassed and paused for a few secs as she appeared to gather her wits. Sergeant Bailee, uncharacteristically, offered her a hand up once he was close enough, but she brushed it away. The Marine shrugged and walked past her, and Zax turned to move on as well. He had only taken a half dozen steps when he heard the Marine bellow behind him.

  “Drop it or I kill the boy!”

  Zax spun around and was startled by the tableau before him. Imair had backed herself against the Tube entrance and held the Boss in front of her as a shield with one hand clutched against his wound. She had a mini blaster in the other hand which was pointed at the Omega’s temple as he grimaced in pain. Sergeant Bailee knelt a few meters away with his back to Zax. The Marine was crouched behind Nolly to shield himself from Imair and held an identical mini blaster pointed at the boy’s head.

  The Boss remained perfectly still as he spoke calmly and deliberately.

  “Everyone take a deep breath. No one has to get hurt here—especially the boy. Imair—let me go and drop the weapon. You’ve got nowhere to go. Trust me, you’re not getting away from here and killing me won’t get you anything. Let me go, drop the weapon, and everything will be OK.”

  Time seemed to slow down for Zax as he watched what happened next as if in slow motion.

  Imair’s resolve appeared to waver as she listened to the Boss’s words, and she lowered the blaster away from the officer’s head. As she did so, the Tube entrance opened behind her. She pointed the weapon at Nolly and pulled the trigger. The blast still echoed in the passage as she yanked the Boss into the Tube, the door shut, and they were gone.

  Sergeant Bailee bolted for the Tube and pounded on the entrance to no effect. Nolly remained standing for a moment and looked down at his chest. Then, he crumpled silently, face down, onto the deck. Zax dashed for the boy and got there at the same time as Kalare and Aleron. They rolled the boy onto his back and revealed the massive damage the blaster had done to his small body. He opened his eyes and looked at Zax.

  “It hurts so bad, sir.”

  The boy coughed twice and then his slight frame spasmed for a few secs before going still. Zax checked for a pulse and found none. Nolly was dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  You need to look at the big picture.

  Zax couldn’t comprehend what had just happened in the blink of an eye. He stared quietly for a few secs until it truly sank in. Then he pounded on Nolly’s chest in a poor imitation of a medic trying to revive someone’s heart.

  “No, no, no, NO!”

  A strong hand gripped Zax’s shoulder and he whirled around. Sergeant Bailee looked down at him with compassion. Zax slapped the Marine’s arm aside.

  “Don’t touch me! This is all your fault! How could you use that boy as a bargaining chip, as a shield? He’s eight! What kind of monster tries to save himself at the expense of an eight-year-old? Where the hell did the blasters come from, anyways?”

  The Marine remained stoic in the face of Zax’s attack.

  “The Boss retrieved the blasters from a hidden weapons cache which Omegas can access. He visited it earlier when the two of you were traveling alone. He and I thought it was better to keep their existence a secret in case we needed the element of surprise at some point. She must have discovered the Boss’s somehow and took it when she grabbed him.

  “As for the boy’s death—the woman had absolutely no reason to do so and she killed him anyways. Doesn’t it seem like that might have been part of her plan all along? It was probably a distraction to prevent me from taking a shot. Or maybe the boy has some information she wanted to guarantee we didn’t get. Or maybe she was just sick and tired of him clinging to her all day long. I have no idea, but it doesn’t matter. She killed the boy. More importantly, she has the Boss.”

  Kalare had sidled ov
er and placed a calming hand on Zax’s shoulder. He allowed it to stay but maintained his outrage. “I couldn’t care less about him right now! Nolly’s dead.”

  The sergeant sighed loudly. “You want to be a pilot, cadet? You’re doing that because you want to be an officer someday and lead, right? Maybe even be an Omega? Well, today’s your lucky day. You get the lesson early in your career that so many Flight officers don’t get until much later—people die. As part of the Ship’s Mission, people die. Some will be people you detest, but some will be people you appreciate. Some will die for good reasons, some for bad. Regardless, your job is to learn from each death and move on as fast as possible.

  “I know you’re upset because the boy was your friend and he was young. I get all of that. But you have to put that aside and think about the big picture. If she was able to get that Tube to function, it means the woman has been working with the civilian insurgents all along. That means they have the Boss and that’s a massive problem which is entirely on me for not killing him before that door shut.”

  Zax wanted to argue about the importance of Nolly’s death but was shocked by the sergeant’s words. “Wait—you would have killed the Boss? What is it with you and officers today? First you take out the Chief Engineer and now you turn around and say you were ready to kill the Boss too.”

  “Big picture, cadet. You need to look at the big picture. What’s about to happen here? The Captain is going to shut down the life support system and vent the Ship. Why is she willing to kill ten million civilians and some large portion of our Crew? To prevent the worst possible thing from happening—civilian takeover. This group of civilians is well-prepared compared to those of past attempted revolutions, but like all of the others they don’t have a truly effective bargaining chip. The Captain needs to guarantee they don’t get one.”

  Aleron’s eyes had gone wide at the mention of the Ship being vented. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it rather than interrupt the sergeant as the man continued.

  “In the big picture no one cares if they bomb a bunch of compartments and kill hundreds or even thousands of Crew. We can replace everyone on this Ship and almost everything. What is the only thing on this Ship that is truly irreplaceable?”

  The Marine looked at each of the cadets and waited. Kalare removed her hand from Zax’s shoulder and broke the silence.

  “The FTL.”

  The Marine smiled. “If I gave a damn about credits, you’d have just earned a bunch. The FTL engine is the only thing on this Ship which we can neither repair nor replace. That’s why it’s isolated and protected the way it is. The civilians managed to pierce the first layers of security and got into Engineering. But they’re still blocked by the impenetrable armor which surrounds the FTL compartment.

  “Only four Omegas have the security permissions necessary to access that compartment. The Captain, the Boss, the Chief Engineer, and a fourth who is known to Alpha and only identified if the other three are incapacitated in an emergency. Each of those officers has been trained to withstand nearly inhuman levels of pain, but every person has a breaking point. Who knows what kind of crazy torture is possible with these collars patched into our Plugs. Killing the Chief Engineer was the only way to guarantee she never gave the civilians access to the FTL. She knew we would try to do it and almost certainly welcomed the reprieve from the torture she faced.”

  Aleron finally got up the nerve to jump in. “I don’t get it, Sergeant. What benefit would the civilians have from getting access to the FTL? They would be just as screwed as the Crew if they destroyed it. We’d all be stuck on this stupid rock in the middle of nowhere, unable to reach anywhere else before running out of fuel.”

  “Good point, cadet, but in the big picture they have nothing to lose. If you already believe you’ve hit absolute bottom, then even something as insane as marooning the Ship for all eternity is a rational strategy. The Captain is no doubt well aware of this dynamic which is why she’s willing to take the drastic action of venting the Ship.

  “The game theory changes once they have the Boss, though. That’s one crazy tough man, but eventually he’ll crack. Everyone cracks—it’s just a question of how long it takes. Once he does, the civilians will access the FTL compartment and load it up with explosives. A legitimate threat of FTL destruction will guarantee them the upper hand, and the Captain will have no choice but to surrender and give the civilians whatever they want.”

  The cadets were quiet for a few secs as they processed the Marine’s words. The pause allowed Zax to recognize why he had reacted so viscerally to Bailee’s statement about killing the Boss. It was not driven by any concern for the officer’s well-being, but instead by what Zax feared it would mean for the nascent recovery of his career. The harsh reality of Nolly’s death combined with the sergeant’s revelations about the high stakes involved in their situation finally made everything click into place. Any worries about his career were absurd in the middle of this revolution. If the civilians managed to wrest control of the Ship, the whole idea of credits and the Leaderboard would be moot. Yes—the person who spoke on their behalf said the civilians wouldn’t change things once they were in control, but Zax had to believe that was a lie. Why else would the Omegas be so afraid of civilian control that the Captain would be willing to vent the Ship and kill almost everyone rather than let them have it?

  One thing nagged at Zax about the Marine’s explanation. “Excuse me, Sergeant, but if the Captain is about to vent the Ship, why does this matter at all? Surely the Boss can manage to hold out against even the worst torture knowing it will all be over soon enough.”

  “You would be right, cadet, except for one important thing. When they vent the Ship, there are certain critical compartments which will be excluded. The Bridge, Engineering, safe rooms like the one we were trying to reach, Marine garrisons, and a few others. Even after the Ship has been mostly purged, the civilians will remain in control of Engineering and continue to work on the Boss. If they are smart, and all indications suggest they are, they will throw everything they can at keeping us out of that compartment until the Boss cracks and they access the FTL.”

  The Marine waited for his last revelation to sink in. Eventually, Kalare spoke up.

  “So how are we going to kill the Boss before that happens?”

  Sergeant Bailee smiled. “I thought you’d never ask. Corporal—lift your visor.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  I need you out of that suit, Corporal.

  Aleron and Kalare gaped as a disembodied face appeared and floated next to Sergeant Bailee. Zax, already familiar with the capabilities of ChamWare after his previous adventure with the Marines, smiled in recognition. The presence of this Marine who had been invisible thanks to his chameleon suit finally explained some of the odd behaviors by the Boss and the sergeant which Zax had noticed earlier. The corporal addressed Bailee.

  “Sergeant—the Boss was in my way so I couldn’t shoot at first. I had almost moved into position for a clean headshot on the woman when the Tube opened. They were gone before I could react.”

  “Understood, Corporal, that took me by surprise too. Beyond the fact it’s been shut down through all of this, who would’ve ever imagined civilians gaining access to the Tube. Fully disengage your camouflage.”_ The corporal closed his eyes for a moment to interface with his Plug and then his entire body materialized next to Bailee. The Marine was carrying a standard blaster and also had a mini blaster in a holster on his hip. He appeared to be almost the same height and weight as the sergeant. Bailee looked the man up and down and smiled.

  “I was hoping we’d be about the same size. The fact you’re carrying a mini blaster is a huge bonus. I need you out of that suit, Corporal.”

  The Marine hesitated. “Begging the Sergeant’s pardon, but your arm—”

  “I need you out of that suit, now, Corporal.” Bailee’s tone made it clear there would be no further discussion, so the younger Marine started to remove the ChamWare.
The first step in this process was removing his holster which he handed over to the sergeant. Bailee accepted the weapon and turned to present it to Zax.

  “I thought I’d be forced to give you the blaster rifle, but thankfully we managed to connect with a Marine who breaks regulations and carries an unauthorized sidearm. It’s a pretty stupid regulation, so I’m glad he’s smart enough to disregard it. This mini blaster can be disengaged from the ChamWare and remain invisible for a few hours, but doing so limits it to firing only two shots because the rest of the energy charge is needed to maintain the camouflage.

  “I’m going to get into this Marine’s suit and then you and I are going to doubletime it to Engineering. I’m certain that’s where the Boss is headed, so you need to get us back in there again. There’s no way they’ll be stupid enough to let us take a shot at him the way we took out the Chief Engineer earlier, but hopefully the suit will let me take them by surprise. Worst case, you’ll have the mini blaster. You need to be sure you don’t let them find it, even when they frisk you, so you can take the shot if they manage to incapacitate me. Understood, cadet?”

  Zax was at a loss for words. If someone had handed him a blaster and ordered him to kill the Boss earlier that day, he would have done so with a smile. But having seen the gruesome aftermath of blaster shots up close with the Chief Engineer and Nolly, Zax’s stomach dropped at the thought of pulling a trigger and being responsible for that outcome.

  He had also become entirely conflicted about the Boss, and this wasn’t solely due to self-interest. Zax still felt the man was likely responsible for Mikedo’s death, but Kalare’s exhortations over the past year combined with the Omega’s behavior during their time together had created sufficient doubt that Zax no longer took this as a certainty. But if the sergeant was telling him that killing the Boss was necessary to save the Ship, then Zax had to believe him. He took a deep breath and finally nodded in response to the Marine’s question.