The Resistance- The Complete Series

by Nathan Hystad

  Flint had to laugh. “I leave for a week, and so much has happened. What does the bastard have to say for himself?”

  “Nothing good. Something about the Faithful doing Ober’s bidding and destroying all of us.” Kat said it so casually, the words almost didn’t register. When they did, a tingle raced down Flint’s spine.

  “That’s not good,” he said.

  “No. It’s not. That’s why this place is sounding better and better, wouldn’t you say?” Kat asked, patting his shin with a hand.

  Flint nodded, but he didn’t think so. He needed to get healthy and find a way to get the Pilgrim up and away from Domum. If the time dilation was real, they had less than a year to find the Watchers’ nest and incinerate them before heading back through the Rift.

  The recent events solidified their need to band together in retaliation.

  Ace

  Ace was glad the fighter simulators were operational. Captain Hawk had ten fighter pilots on staff, but they weren’t training as often anymore. If they wanted to get out of here and into the fight, he suspected the pilots should get back at it to hone their skills. In the meantime, he wasn’t going to object to having full usage of them.

  The seat shook under him as he headed for the final target. His shields were at ten percent, which meant two more blaster shots from the enemy, and he’d be meeting his maker. The rest of his simulated squadron were gone – one remained, but their guns were offline, so they flew around, trying to distract the last enemy ship.

  Ace wished they had simulations using the Shift drives and the Watchers’ vessels. He wondered how hard it would be for them to program in the new variables if they had some details. As he fired toward the retreating vessel, he made a mental note to ask Captain Hawk about it.

  The vessel was boxier than an EFF-17, but it had more firepower, and the simulator wasn’t messing around when it came to intense maneuvering. But Ace was on him. He shot a string of blasts to throw his intentions off, and the CPU-operated ship took the bait. It banked right, pushing its thrusters just as Ace tapped the pulse cannon trigger. The ship exploded with a flash before the screen went dark.

  He’d been practicing for hours every day and was getting better. That was the first time he’d completed that mission, and it had taken twenty-three attempts.

  Ace’s heart leapt in his chest as he heard clapping from behind his simulator. He turned to see Oliv standing there in the dimly-lit room.

  “Nicely done, Ace.”

  “How long have you been watching?” he asked. He hoped she’d watched it all. He was surprised he wasn’t shy around her.

  “You’re a little rusty coming around those corners, but not bad.” Oliv’s mouth tilted on the edge, ruining her attempt at a straight face.

  “Sure. I suppose you can do better?” Ace pointed to the simulator beside him. They were four meters apart, five on each side of the training facility.

  To his shock, she obliged and climbed into the seat. “I always wanted to become a pilot. Dad wouldn’t let me take the Fleet Cadets program, but he let Nik do it. Nik doesn’t even like that stuff. He’d rather be working with his hands.”

  “Ever been inside a real EFF-17?” Ace asked her. Her hair was braided, hanging long down over her left shoulder.

  “We only have the EFF-15, and I’ve been inside one, but only in the hangar. They aren’t much use down here. I liked the way it felt, though.” Her eyes glazed over, and Ace knew the feeling. It was the same one he used to get when he’d see ships burn out of Earth’s atmosphere. But at least now he knew why the simulator wasn’t exactly the same as the fighters he was used to. They were two generations old.

  Ace activated the program, setting her pod to join the mission. “How about the simulators?”

  Her seat tilted and shook as they started a mission already in space. He saved her the trouble of having to get out of the hangar’s bay. Ace quickly learned she didn’t need that help. Oliv flew that simulator like she’d been raised by it.

  “You are killer!” he shouted as they flew into the programmed chaos, firing at enemies and rolling away from fire.

  By the time they were done, Ace was laughing and wiping beads of sweat off his forehead. “First time?” he asked, laughing again at his asinine query. Oliv was good. Maybe not as good as he was becoming, but she practiced; that much was obvious.

  “There isn’t much to do down here, and I only go up to the surface a few days a month. Mom prefers I stay close to her,” Oliv said as she swung her legs toward Ace. He did the same, and they sat there in their simulator seats, facing each other.

  “Do you miss home?” he asked her softly.

  “From what I hear, there’s nothing to go back to,” she said.

  “That’s not true. We don’t know what was happening. Serina wouldn’t let those Watchers get to Earth.” As Ace said the words, he noticed how fake they sounded, like a small child so sure his sister would protect him. It wasn’t true. Serina was inexperienced, and the Earth Fleet was in shambles. There were too many new recruits; the command structure felt flawed.

  Oliv fidgeted with the controls beside her. “Who’s Serina?”

  “Just a girl I went to boot camp with,” he said.

  “Wait. You’re actually Earth Fleet? I thought you were maybe a Cadet.” Her words normally would have stung, but she was right. He was far too small and young to be piloting a million-credit fighter. Ace often wondered how they’d let him into the camp to begin with. Then he remembered what they were about to face, and realized it was for one reason only. Desperation.

  He hadn’t spoken, so Oliv asked him another question. “How old are you?”

  Ace considered this. He’d assumed he was sixteen, but was never sure. His ID chip was so basic, he didn’t have one until he was thrown into the system around ten years old. They’d added Ace – with no last name, at his request – and told him his birthday was in July, which made him seventeen. He’d missed his own birthday, which was fine, because he hadn’t ever really celebrated it.

  “Is it that hard to count?” Oliv asked, not mocking him, but being playful. He liked that about her.

  “Sorry, I forgot for a second. I’m seventeen.”

  “Wow, the Earth Fleet must be in tough if they’re letting recruits in that young,” she said.

  Ace didn’t want to lie to her. “Want to hear a crazy story?” he asked, almost hoping she’d say no. Instead, Oliv nodded her head quickly, and he shared a glossed-over recount of his short existence, ending with arriving on the Eureka.

  “You’re a hero, Ace!” she said, bouncing up and down in her seat.

  “I don’t know about that. I only did what I had to. It’s funny. I’d never considered the Earth Fleet might be corrupt, or anything but perfect, growing up. How quickly perceptions can change.” Ace wanted to learn her story.

  “Don’t be too vocal about your views down here, Ace. The captain and many of the others are still Earth Fleet strong. They haven’t been around for the last sixty years while things seem to have gotten worse. I know my dad has expressed his concerns, and they’ve respected him enough to listen and consider his opinions.” Oliv impressed him with her frankness.

  “Thanks for the tip. I’ll be careful. What was it like growing up the daughter of Jarden Fairbanks?” he asked.

  “He was just Dad to me. Remember, he was a commander back then, far younger, and maybe even more power-hungry. It looks like he got all his wishes. The power and wealth, and his family back.” She looked away, and Ace read something into that.

  “I could tell how much he wanted to get to you guys. He loves you.” Ace hadn’t understood a parent’s love, not the real fierce love like Jarden had for his kids and wife, until he’d met the old man. It gave him a new outlook on life and relationships. He would never push loved ones away… if he ever found any.

  “I know he loves us. I love him too. It’s hard, though,” Oliv said.

  “What is?”

  “It’s
hard seeing him like this. I know he’s taken Extenders, and that makes him only look twenty years older, but he’s an old man now, Ace. It’s harder on Mom than on Nik and me too.” Oliv looked back over at Ace and locked eyes with him. “What’s it like back home… on Earth?”

  Ace could tell she was feeling nostalgic for her life before the Rift. There was no going back in time. What was done was done; if and when they did make it to Earth, another thirty years would have passed.

  “It sucks, Oliv. It really sucks. At least for me it did,” he told her, wishing he could have said more.

  “We still need to help them, right?” she asked. Ace didn’t know exactly where the girl’s father stood on the issue, but he could take a guess at what side of the line Jarden would be standing on when the dust settled.

  He looked around the room, making sure no one was listening. “We do.”

  She leaned forward. “What is it?”

  “I think we can do it. I know, kind of crazy to want to fight them,” Ace said.

  “Can I… you know… join you when it’s time?” Oliv asked.

  That was a touchy subject. While Ace would like nothing more than to sit side by side with this pretty girl every second, what they were going to do was beyond dangerous. By the look of the enemy’s fleet from Ace’s vantage point that day, he didn’t expect to pull out of it alive, but he had to fight. Fight for the lives of the helpless people on every colony and Earth alike. He knew there were a lot of people of his class left out there, struggling to survive, and that was before the invasion.

  That answered it for him. “We’re going to need every able-bodied person on our side. How about we practice some more?”

  Oliv threw her legs back into the seat and gripped the throttle. “My choice this time.”

  Ace let out a whoop as the simulated fighter raced toward a battle already in progress.

  15

  Jarden

  Jarden sat in the pilot’s seat on the bridge of the Pilgrim, waiting for the others to arrive. He used to make it a habit of his, a long time ago, to be the first to any meeting. It forced his staff to be exceptionally punctual, and even though he was a busy man, he thought it was an important perception for them to have of him.

  Today was no different. Captain Aldene Hawk was the first to arrive. Back in the day, Commander Fairbanks had had a few run-ins with the old bat, but he respected her and knew she was a great military mind. The Earth Fleet had lost one of their finest when she’d left, but maybe it was for the best. Had she stayed, she would have been dead by now, or at least older than himself.

  The door opened and in walked the kid, Ace, with Flint beside him. The older man was telling the kid a dirty joke, and they were laughing like old buddies. That was interesting. Next came Karl, a man who apparently held no official title, but was looked at as the leader of the colony, followed by his very own wife. Oliv tailed her, and Jarden noted how she caught Ace’s eye as she entered the room. He’d have to watch out for that one. His little girl needed to focus on her family until the Earth Fleet ships left them alone on Domum, where they could live together for good.

  “Welcome, everyone. Kat Bron was kind enough to bring us a communicator from the Eureka. The technology didn’t exist when you left, and that’s why we’ve been resorting to piggybacking off the beacon signal. As you all know, that was time-consuming, so now we can talk directly to them once again. Captain Heather Barkley has some news to share with us, and she asked we bring the team together to overhear it.” Jarden was angry she wouldn’t give him a heads-up on the meeting details. She must know he was staying. She was always an apt student.

  “Are we waiting on anyone else?” Flint asked, leaning casually on the console beside Jarden.

  Captain Hawk answered the question. “My crew can be filled in later,” she said, glancing over at Jarden’s family, likely wondering what they were doing there.

  “Then let’s get started.” Jarden plugged the communication device into an adaptor on the console and spoke to Heather. “Hello, Captain Barkley. Are you there?”

  “Yes. I’m here with Harry Tsang, Dr. Wren Sando, and Charles,” Heather answered. Precious few of them.

  “Where’s Benson?” Jarden asked, wondering why his right hand wasn’t present. He’d want to be there for any planning and important decisions. He was leaving all his properties to Benson, should they survive the incursion. No point in having it go to waste. The man had proven indispensable over the years.

  “That’s part of what we need to talk about,” Heather said. “Benson left a few days ago.”

  Jarden didn’t give her time to expand on that. “What do you mean, left? Where did he go? Why have you waited so long to tell me?”

  “Jarden, I think you need to calm down. I’m the captain of this ship, a ship you aren’t planning on setting foot on again, if my gut is correct,” Heather said. Jarden didn’t respond to that. She continued. “Benson took Grand Admiral Jish Karn’s modified fighter. We told him to stand down and ordered him to return, and when he didn’t, we fired on him.”

  Jarden couldn’t believe his ears. “So he’s…” He didn’t want to finish the sentence.

  “No. He Shifted. He used the Shift drive and vanished,” Heather said.

  “This isn’t good. Where did he go?” Jarden’s mind raced, trying to determine just what the man could have been thinking.

  Heather spoke slowly, methodically. “There’s a lot more. We think Benson spoke with the Watcher. We think he had coordinates to get to their world.”

  “That’s crazy. How would he have…”

  “It is not crazy, sir,” Charles the android answered. “I have determined it was Benson who entered the lab and used technology unknown to the Interface to modify the footage. I am currently working through his personal consoles and tablets, trying to find any data related to a location, so we can find out where he traveled to.”

  Benson, what the hell have you been up to? Jarden would have been impressed if he wasn’t so angry with the backstabbing bastard. I should have kept an eye on you.

  “What else? What else do you have?” he asked, aware there had to be more.

  Wren Sando’s calm voice carried over the speakers. “Charles is also able to communicate with the Watcher.”

  “He is? Cool,” Ace said from behind Jarden, who looked back to see his daughter standing beside the boy. His head started to ache, and he rubbed his temples with warm fingers.

  “And just what is this Watcher telling us?” Jarden asked.

  “It’s better if we play the message and translate,” Heather said, sending the sound bite through. What came were a series of growls and groans: the sounds of a trapped animal.

  Charles translated. “He is saying this: ‘You will all die. The Ober guided our Faithful to the window to watch you. Now we do Ober’s bidding. You will all die’.”

  A bead of sweat dropped down Jarden’s forehead, landing in his bushy gray eyebrow. He’d known it all along. There was no negotiating with these creatures. They were bad news. The Watchers were only poking their noses through the Rift once a year, not thirty like on the human side. They weren’t as thoughtful and patient as the Earth Fleet had always assumed. They were aggressive and impulsive.

  “Jarden, I don’t like the sound of this.” His wife arrived beside him, her hand found his shoulder, and she gave it a squeeze.

  “Neither do I.” Flint was the first on the translation. “I assume they’re calling themselves the Faithful, and Ober is a leader or god to them?”

  “The only thing I hate more than wars are wars fought under the pretense of religion. Those are the ones no side relents on. Wren, where are we on this virus?” Jarden asked, feeling himself drawn into the conflict more with each breath.

  “It’s ready to test. The sample runs have all been successful. The only way to be sure is to use it on our captive,” Wren said. Jarden could picture her saying the words. He knew she was going to get the virus done, but the har
d part for someone like her was pulling the trigger, so to speak.

  “Are you going to be able to do this?” Jarden asked her, his voice firm.

  “Yes, I think I can. I agree. There was a time I started to feel sorry for the pitiful being, but after hearing its words, there can be no doubt. We need to turn the tides, or we’ll all be wiped out, and hiding on the surface of Domum won’t solve anything,” Wren said.

  It felt like a dig at him personally, but Jarden doubted she meant it that way. She only meant they needed to get the colony ship off the planet and out, so it could help when the time came.

  “Where are we on plans to extricate the Pilgrim?” Captain Hawk asked.

  “Those thrusters are going to function underwater, correct?” Heather asked. “We know the containment fields stay active, and the engines should be fine, but I couldn’t find a record of a ship flying out after being underwater for over two years.”

  “They should be fully functional. We have no reason to think otherwise. The question is, can you duplicate the effectiveness of the Distractor once again?” Hawk asked.

  “We’re building five more and are confident they’ll work. We’ll get you off the planet, and soon.” Jarden smiled as he heard Heather’s sure voice. He’d chosen well. No doubt Captain Young would have been wetting himself in the corner right now if he’d been the one leading Eureka.

  “Very well,” Jarden said absently. The others continued talking amongst themselves, but it all became white noise as he pictured Benson’s smug face. Just what was Benson doing? Something didn’t add up.

  Charles

  Charles sat inside Benson’s private chambers. They were three times the size of the regular crew quarters, and Charles noted how everything was custom made, all from different materials than the other rooms. Where others had resin-formed furniture, Benson’s was all made from real wood, exotic ones from hard-to-reach places on Earth. Charles had investigated thoroughly.