by Ryk Brown
“Captain, Comms,” Naralena’s voice called over Nathan’s comm-set.
“Go ahead.”
“Flash traffic from Lieutenant Telles. He has captured the Jung capitol in Geneva and has ended the missile launches against surface targets.”
“That’s good news,” Nathan said.
“There’s something else though, sir,” Naralena continued. “He has a situation. The lieutenant has encountered a man claiming to be the governor of Earth. He is holding a hostage at gunpoint, threatening to kill him if he is not allowed to depart unharmed. The man insists on speaking with you, sir.”
“Me? Why me?”
“The lieutenant did not say, but the man knew you by your first name.”
“Who is the hostage?”
“The lieutenant says the man claims that the hostage is your father, sir.”
Nathan closed his eyes. A feeling of incredible dread washed over him. He had accepted the fact that his father, and everyone he knew and cared for, were long dead. He had no evidence to support that conclusion, but it had made it easier for him to function. He opened his eyes, turned his head, and looked at Josh again. “Can the Falcon still fly?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I need a pilot, Josh.”
* * *
Nathan entered the reception area to the governor’s office escorted by four Ghatazhak soldiers. “Lieutenant,” he said as he approached.
“Captain.”
“From what I have just seen on the way in, you may have been a bit premature when stating that you had control of the area.”
“I did not say I had complete control over the area,” the lieutenant corrected, “only that I had captured the capitol building and ended the missile launches. There are still at least a thousand Jung troops to deal with in this complex, let alone the rest of the planet. It will take some time to defeat those forces as well.”
“Are we sure the hostage is indeed my father?” Nathan asked.
“I cannot verify his identity,” the lieutenant said. “He does bear some resemblance to the images I have seen of your father, but I believe he has undergone some interrogation involving physical coercion.” The lieutenant removed his helmet, handing it to the captain.
“What’s this for?” Nathan wondered.
“We are similar in size, so it should work for you,” the lieutenant said. “Put it on and look at the visor. It will show you exactly what I saw when I initially entered the next room.”
Nathan placed the lieutenant’s helmet on his own head. A video began to play on the inside of the helmet’s face shield, just as the lieutenant had stated. It was as if Nathan himself were charging into the room, firing weapons, and killing Jung troops. The sound of weapons fire boomed and screeched in his ears. The sound of sizzling flesh invaded him as the weapon seemingly fired by Nathan himself burnt through the flesh and bone of his enemy. The experience was overwhelming, lacking only the smells and the physical sensations of movement. The weapons fire suddenly stopped, and Nathan’s view turned toward the captor and his father. “Oh my God!” Nathan exclaimed, quickly removing the helmet.
“Then it is your father?”
“And my brother, Eli,” Nathan exclaimed. His pulse was racing as thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind. His hands went to his face as he twisted about in confusion and shock. “This can’t be happening,” he exclaimed. “This doesn’t make any…” Nathan’s hands pulled away from his face as his body froze and a realization washed over him. He looked at Lieutenant Telles. “That son of a bitch,” he cursed as he turned and marched toward the door to the governor’s office.
Nathan burst through the doors and marched into the room, unconcerned with his own safety. Lieutenant Telles was in step a half meter behind him and to his right.
“Well, that was faster than I expected,” Eli said as he tightened his grip on his father, holding him up as a shield. “In the neighborhood, were we?”
“Not exactly,” Nathan scowled as he approached. He looked at his father. He was bound and gagged, and he looked like he could barely stand on his own. His eyes, however, were open… open and pleading to Nathan. Pleading for him to do what was right. “What the hell’s going on here, Eli?”
“I’m surprised to admit that I find myself somewhat proud of you, little brother.”
“Wish I could say the same,” Nathan retorted. “Are you working for the Jung now?”
“Would you believe me if I told you I was doing this for our people?”
“Probably not,” Nathan replied, “especially while you’re using our father as a personal shield.”
“Ugly, I admit, but it seemed necessary, considering the muscle you’ve hired.”
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Nathan asked. “You told the Jung about the jump drive test. You even got me assigned to the Aurora.”
“Actually, it was our mother’s idea. She has always babied you. I just contacted one of Galiardi’s aides. You might want to ask the admiral about that one, although I wouldn’t believe everything he says. My dealings with that man have proven difficult, to say the least.”
“The captain’s father or not,” Lieutenant Telles said, “the man you are holding does not offer you the protection you seek.”
“I disagree,” Eli responded. “I doubt very seriously that my dear brother would risk our father’s life just to take a shot at me.”
“I, however, would,” the lieutenant said.
“Which is why I must insist that you wait in the outer office,” Eli said.
“I am sworn to protect my captain,” the lieutenant said. “I stand by his side, in front of him if need be.”
Eli laughed briefly. “Where did you find this guy?”
Lieutenant Telles leaned toward Nathan. “I do hope your safety is disengaged,” he whispered.
“Since I climbed out of the Falcon,” Nathan whispered back.
“You know, it wasn’t supposed to be this way,” Eli said, looking off to the side.
“Be what way, Eli?”
“The Jung were supposed to flatten a few cities, kill a few million people, and that was it. With a smaller population and an increased demand for production to fuel the Jung’s galactic expansion efforts, everyone would be better off.”
“Are you crazy?”
“It was already working,” Eli insisted. “Unemployment is all but gone. Wages are up… With the Jung setting prices, everyone gets paid a livable wage for their efforts.”
“As slaves?”
“No one is working as a slave,” Eli defended.
“The market controlled by the Jung? The population culled to ensure loyalty? How is that not slavery?” Nathan wondered.
“What do you want, Nathan?” Eli demanded. “Freedom?”
“Yes!”
“Freedom is a myth,” Eli argued. “It can only exist if limitations are placed upon it. Can’t you see that?”
“That’s bullshit!”
“Typical Nathan!” Eli exclaimed. “You always think you have the answers, but you don’t even know what the questions are!”
“What are they, Eli?!” Nathan demanded. “What is it you want?”
“I want safe passage for myself and my family!”
“To where?”
“Anywhere! Anywhere but here! You have a jump drive. You have several of them, don’t you? Aren’t there other human-inhabited worlds out there? Take us somewhere and leave us to live out our lives in exile. Isn’t that what they do with deposed leaders?”
“You’re not a leader, Eli, you’re a traitor…”
“…You are not going anywhere,” Lieutenant Telles interrupted, waving one finger on his left hand as he spoke.
“Lieutenant,” Nathan said under his brea
th.
“No, I have heard this before, Captain,” the lieutenant began, “from nobles who had promised to do what was best for their people, when all the while they had been lining their coffers and building their base of power. He does not seek prosperity for your people; surely you can see through his lies. He speaks of freedom, yet he doesn’t even know what it is.” The lieutenant turned back toward Eli, disdain tainting his very tone. “Freedom is not a physical thing. It exists in the hearts and souls of the human animal. It is in our genetic code. It is at the root of our very existence and, therefore, can neither be given nor taken away, especially by people such as you.”
“Lieutenant!” Nathan yelled.
“This is getting us nowhere!” Eli hollered. “Provide what I ask, or our father dies!” he added, putting his gun to his father’s head.
“Don’t do it!” Nathan demanded, his left hand reaching out in front of him, his right hand going to his sidearm but hesitating to draw the weapon from its holster.
Lieutenant Telles had no such hesitation. In the blink of an eye, his sidearm was drawn and aimed at Eli.
“Wait!” Nathan ordered the lieutenant.
Eli shifted, moving his helpless father into the lieutenant’s line of fire.
“Draw your weapon, Captain,” Lieutenant Telles instructed.
“Lieutenant, you can’t…”
“Draw your weapon now.”
“He’s right, Nathan,” Eli said, desperation creeping into his voice. “But you never were man enough to fight your own battles, were you?”
Nathan slowly drew his sidearm. “Happy now?” he asked as he raised his weapon and took aim at his brother. Oddly enough, Eli did not shift to attempt to shield himself from his brother’s line of fire.
“He’s right, Eli,” Nathan said. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here on Earth and stand trial.
“I don’t think so,” Eli answered, a slight maniacal lilt in his tone.
“If what you’re saying is true, that you were trying to avoid total destruction, then perhaps you’ll be spared.”
“You’re a student of history, Nathan,” Eli said. “Surely you know that history always needs a scapegoat.” Eli shook his head. “No, if I am to die, it will be at a time of my choosing.” A desperate smile crossed his lips, as if he was about to get something he had always wanted. “And you will be the one to kill me, little brother.”
“I’m not going to do it,” Nathan refused, releasing his grip on his weapon and letting it dangle on his index finger. “I’m not going to be the one to kill you.”
“Then history will remember you as the coward I always knew you to be,” Eli said as he took aim at Nathan and squeezed the trigger. At the same moment, Nathan’s father went limp, his weight pulling his oldest son off-balance and to the left.
Both Nathan and Lieutenant Telles fired. Nathan’s weapon’s bullet struck Eli in the chest just to the left of his sternum. Lieutenant Telles’s energy weapon’s blast struck Eli just to the right of his sternum, barely missing President Scott as he fell to the ground.
The lieutenant ran to Eli’s body, his weapon trained on him the entire way. Nathan ran to his father, rolling him over and pulling the gag from his mouth.
“Eli!” President Scott cried.
Nathan stood up, taking a step back in horror as his father dragged himself across the floor, his hands still bound, to get to his firstborn son, who now lay bleeding to death on the marble floor of what was once Eli’s seat of power.
Nathan put both hands to the sides of his head, his still-smoking gun in his right hand, as he realized what he had just done. His face grimaced and his eyes squeezed tightly closed, as he tried unsuccessfully to stop the flow of tears and the pain that now tore through his very soul.
Lieutenant Telles kicked the handgun away from Eli’s body as President Scott moved next to his son, cradling his head in his hands. Telles looked over to his captain, who had collapsed into a ball on the floor. Nathan sat and watched his father mourn over his eldest son, killed by his youngest. The four Ghatazhak in the outer office burst through the door. The lieutenant gestured for them to stand down.
Eli coughed and sputtered, his face in disbelief as he tried to catch a glimpse of his chest wounds. He looked at his father’s eyes, welled up with tears as they were. “I was only trying to save us all,” he whispered as the life drained out of him.
“I know,” his father said as he cried. “I know.”
Lieutenant Telles looked up at the vaulted ceilings of the massive office. For the first time since he had reported for training some fifteen years ago, the lieutenant felt sadness: sadness for his captain, sadness for his captain’s father, and sadness for the world he was about to liberate.
CHAPTER TEN
Nathan sat, staring at the images being displayed on the view screen that filled the forward bulkhead of his ready room. He watched as Captain Roberts’s dog chased the waves in and out, barking happily whenever his feet got wet. It was a peaceful scene, one he had played many times over the months since the captain’s passing, but he had never played it for as long at a single sitting.
The hatch swung open, and Lieutenant Telles stepped quietly inside. “Am I interrupting, sir?”
“No, Lieutenant,” Nathan answered, turning off the display. “I didn’t realize you were back on board.”
“I required medical treatment.”
“Nothing serious, I hope.”
“Serious enough to warrant my return. The hospitals on Earth are quite busy at the moment.”
“I imagine so. Will you be out of action long?”
“Only long enough for the Corinairan nanites to mend my injuries. A few days at the most, during which I will remain well behind the lines, so to speak.”
“How may I help you?” Nathan asked.
“I thought you might like a personal report on the ground campaign.”
Nathan gestured for Lieutenant Telles to sit, something that the lieutenant normally did not do in the presence of a superior officer, especially one whom he was programmed to protect and serve. “How is my father?” Nathan asked.
“Stubborn beyond belief,” the lieutenant answered bluntly.
Nathan nodded his agreement. “He is that.”
“He has been through as much as any of us, has even suffered physical torture, yet he insists on remaining in the command center… even though he has yet to issue a single command. It is most curious.”
“He calls it ‘leading by presence’,” Nathan explained. “I take it you are having a difficult time of it.”
“It has been a difficult three days, and our losses have been heavy, but most of the Jung ground forces have been eliminated. However, when facing capture, many of them retreat and disappear.”
“I thought the Jung didn’t surrender,” Nathan commented.
“Indeed, which is why I am concerned. Many of them are reported to be quite adept at English. This may be by design.”
“You think they may be trying to set up an underground network similar to the resistance the EDF prepared ahead of time.”
“It is possible,” Lieutenant Telles said. “Not a resistance, of course, but an intelligence and sabotage operation would make sense, especially considering that reinforcements are only four to five months away.”
“That is unsettling,” Nathan admitted.
“To say the least, it will make the return of order more difficult, as the people of Earth will be suspicious of one another. We are already seeing cases of innocent people being killed by angry mobs simply because their accents sounded similar to that of the Jung.”
“Really? That doesn’t make sense. The last thing a Jung spy would have is a discernible accent.”
“Of course. However, t
hese are chaotic times for your world. Your people are not thinking clearly. They are desperate to feel safe. Some are even taking advantage of that desperation by attempting to set up security co-ops that act as tiny nation-states.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It is not, as such organizations are usually started by nefarious men, those who enjoy feeding on the fear and desperation of others.”
“It seems the fall of Jung rule on Earth has created a power vacuum,” Nathan observed.
“I believe it is why your father is doing his best to provide leadership, at least in the North American Union where he is still accepted as the duly elected leader by the majority of the surviving population.”
Nathan nodded his agreement.
“I should warn you, however, that you should not rely on the Earth for any assistance in preparing for its own defense, as it may be some time before they are able to do so.”
“Yes, I’d thought of that,” Nathan told him. “We should be able to handle our repairs ourselves using our fabricators, and there are ample resources within the system, even without the Earth’s support. We were hoping, however, for some additional manpower.”
“That is unlikely to be a problem,” the lieutenant assured him. “Many have volunteered to help with the fight, providing support in whatever way possible. We have even received messages from survivors of the Intrepid asking to serve aboard the Aurora.”
“With two ships to repair and crew, we could certainly use them,” Nathan agreed.
“How is the Celestia?” the lieutenant asked.
“She is on a slow return trajectory. She should arrive in ten days.”
“And the Aurora?”
“Badly damaged, but repairable,” Nathan said. “I loathe the return of Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy. The Russian expletives are sure to fly.”
“And your jump drive?”
“We’re still replacing the damaged emitters. It should be operational in a day or two. The hull repairs, however, will take considerably longer. There was a lot of damage, especially to the outer hull, both fore and aft.”
