The Resistance- The Complete Series

by Nathan Hystad

  “You made it. I was so worried,” Leona said. He knew she still loved him, but hadn’t been sure until that moment whether she was interested in a relationship. The look in her eyes told him he hadn’t been crazy to hope for them being a couple again. She was still so beautiful, where he was an old man looking twenty years her senior. She also swore there had been nothing between her and Trel, the man who’d interrupted their first dinner.

  “Where are the kids?” Jarden asked, hoping they’d be here to greet him too.

  Nik stepped out of the lodge, giving his father a grim look. “Dad, you’re here.” Nik hugged him, and Jarden knew something was wrong.

  “Where’s Oliv?” Jarden asked softly. “Where is she?”

  Leona’s hand came to rest on his forearm. “She’s gone, Jarden. She went with the Pilgrim.”

  He wanted to scream out his frustration, to curse and yell at Leona for letting it happen, to chide himself for not being there to make sure Oliv arrived on the surface, but he did none of those things. He walked inside the lodge with a slight limp, found a table, and slumped down in the wooden seat. A bowl of stew arrived shortly after, but he hardly noticed it.

  His little girl was gone, to fight in an unwinnable war.

  Benson

  Benson coughed, his throat burning with the action. It was hot, too warm by at least ten degrees Celsius. Either the Watchers liked it scalding hot or they were trying to make him sweat, but he’d have been perspiring in this cell whether it was cold or not.

  They’d thrown him into the lockup a week ago, and he was only judging this by his sporadic sleeping schedule. He’d arrived spouting phrases to catch their attention. He’d promised Earth’s surrender, as long as he was in charge of the negotiation. There was no merit to that, but Benson was confident he could make it happen. They didn’t seem to care one way or another. Perhaps they had news from the other side of the Rift.

  Maybe Benson’s worst nightmare had come true, and Earth was already gone, the Earth Fleet decimated by the more powerful Watchers. But he didn’t think so. The force of ships that had entered human space had been strong, but Benson didn’t believe the Earth Fleet would fold so easily.

  This gave him hope as he spent the week in containment.

  He imagined the looks on the crew’s faces when they’d learned he was gone. They’d assume where he’d departed for, but Benson had gone to extreme measures in hiding his tracks. It would be impossible to decipher where he’d traveled to.

  He sat up in the corner of the cell, noticing how similar it was to the one the Watcher had spent almost thirty years inside. There was no energy barrier here, though; just a thick metal door slab that had only opened once, when he first arrived.

  As if on cue, a rectangle on the door slid open, and a Watcher hand dropped a tray of slop on it. Benson had avoided accepting the tray the first time, and they’d quickly revoked the offer, taking the food back with them. He hadn’t made the mistake again.

  Benson grabbed it before they took the offered platter, and carried it to the corner of his cell, where he plopped down to the ground. He eyed the food suspiciously. Which was this? The slop that tasted like dog food or the slop that tasted like it was baked in dirty socks? He scooped some of it up with his fingers and brought it to his mouth.

  Option three: it tasted like sewage. He spat it out, but he had to eat. They only fed him once a day, and he was already feeling frail and worn out after a week. He might be here for a long time. No one had relinquished a meeting from his shouts for discussion, and that worried him. If they wanted to parley, he thought they would have done so by now.

  Benson looked around the small space as he forced the food down, trying to distract himself from the awful taste. It was compact, the ceilings only tall enough for him to stand without banging his head. His blazer was rolled up to use as a pillow, and with the extreme heat, he had no need for a blanket.

  To his amazement, they did offer him a beverage each day. It wasn’t water as he knew it, but it did quench his thirst. The liquid was stale-smelling and had a green tinge to it, but he had no choice. He drank every last drip down each time they dropped it off.

  He finished the slop, scooping the last of it with sticky fingers, feeling ashamed at the animal they’d so quickly turned him into. He’d saved the last of the water from earlier in the day, and now he dipped his fingers into it, using it as a wash basin. When he was done, he tilted the cup and drank the dredges, swallowing hard to get it all down.

  This was his life now.

  Benson pushed the tray near the door, where it sat stacked beside six others, and stepped back to his sleeping corner. Since he had nothing else to do, he curled up, head on his blazer, and prayed he could fall asleep and wake up outside this nightmare.

  Just as his mind settled enough for him to begin dozing off, the door boomed under duress. Benson shot to attention, pushing his back against the hot metal wall. Sweat beaded off his forehead as the door swung open, revealing a large Watcher with a weapon that looked big enough to take down a carrier on its own.

  It spoke, and Benson quickly translated the rough words. “She will see you now.”

  20

  Ace

  It had been a whirlwind of a week. The two large vessels were latched to one another, each of their beams joined as one.

  Ace had the lingering suspicion that the Watchers would be coming, and soon. If Benson had been caught by them on whatever crazy mission he’d sent himself on, then they might know where the humans were currently congregated.

  “How are you holding up?” Ace asked Oliv across from him. They were planted in the simulators, along with eight other pilots. Now that they were preparing for war, the simulators were in full use; down-to-the-hour scheduling had begun. Those who’d be flying the older models aboard the Pilgrim would be training on that ship, using the out-of-date technology.

  “I’ll be better when I get the hang of these EFF-17s. They’re so much more responsive than the Fifteens. It must have felt like going back in time for you,” Oliv said, and Ace nodded. They hadn’t been that bad, but there were enough differences to be noticeable.

  Oliv had asked to come aboard the Eureka, and with Ace’s urging, Captain Barkley had allowed it. Everyone knew that Jarden was going to be upset with her disappearance, but there was no way to get her back to the surface, not without more resources than they had left. The last batch of Distractors had taken more materials than they had to spare.

  Their mission ended, and the squadron had succeeded. Ace had flown that scenario countless times and knew it like the back of his hand. The Watchers were going to be a lot more unpredictable.

  “I have an idea. Let’s go. The briefing’s about to start.” Ace jumped down and headed for the door. “Good work, everyone. We have to take off, so I’ll send the next two inside to do double duty.” Somehow Ace had become a defacto leader, even though some of these pilots had more years in service than he’d been alive. None of them seemed to mind deferring to him when it came to the simulators, so he took the role without hesitation.

  “They don’t want me there,” Oliv said, catching up to him in the corridor leading them away from the simulation station, toward the large boardroom. It was halfway across the ship, and Ace wished he’d cut out of the training a few minutes earlier.

  “Sure they do. They just don’t know it yet. We’re already late. How do you feel about going for a run?” Ace asked, and didn’t wait for a reply. He set down the halls at a decent pace, hearing Oliv’s light steps behind him.

  By the time they reached the right door, Ace was warm, and Oliv bent over, gasping for breath. “You run marathons too?” she asked between pants.

  “Hardly.” He knocked on the double-wide door, and it slid open to reveal a group of uniformed people already in mid-meeting. “Sorry we’re late.” He turned to Oliv and grinned, letting her know it would be okay.

  “It’s fine. We’re just getting settled in. And who is this?” Captai
n Heather Barkley asked.

  “I’d like to introduce you to Oliv Fairbanks.” Ace swallowed hard as they approached the table. He expected some backlash, but he didn’t know how much.

  “You’re the girl I’ve heard so much about,” Barkley said. “Have a seat, you two.”

  Ace saw Captain Hawk staring at Oliv. He suspected the two of them had already exchanged words over the situation.

  Captain Barkley was standing at the end of the table, and she nodded to her left. “I may as well introduce everyone. This is Lieutenant Harry Tsang, my weapons officer and second in command as of right now. Beside him is Dr. Wren Sando, followed by our own Lieutenant Flint Lancaster.” She flipped her gaze to the other side of the table, where the Pilgrim members sat. “Oliv, you already know Captain Aldene Hawk and her first officer, Commander Banks. To my right is Ben Palmer, a former Marine colonel and decorated veteran. He prefers to be called Bull.”

  Ace enjoyed the big man and hadn’t even known he was once ranked in the Earth Fleet Marines. Ace had met the hard-nosed first officer only once and had instantly gotten the feeling the man didn’t like a kid on his bridge. Banks still scowled, his bushy gray eyebrows knotted up in what appeared to be a permanent frown.

  “Pleasure to meet you all.” Oliv sat down beside Captain Hawk, so to keep the consistency, Ace walked around the table, eventually taking a seat beside Flint. The older pilot gave him a light punch in the arm, smirking.

  “Now that we’re all here…” The door opened, and Charles wandered in. Ace smiled at the sight of the android.

  “Begging your pardon. I was finishing up my data gathering for the meeting. I think we have everything we need for today’s purposes.” Charles walked over to the far end of the table, inserting a stick into a receptacle.

  “Thank you, Charles.” Captain Barkley sat down, and Charles came to sit beside Ace. “We’re entering into a new phase for us and the Earth Fleet alike. I know not all of you have been Earth Fleet officers – some of you far from it – but we’ve all been gathered together by circumstance, and many of us by Jarden Fairbanks’ hand.”

  Ace glanced over at Oliv, whose mouth formed a surprised O. She didn’t know how much influence her father’s actions had over the remaining group.

  “Things have changed, obviously. It doesn’t matter if you’re Fleet or not; you’re human, and we have to stick together to survive what’s happening. We have a plan, what we consider a strong one, and we’ll share this with you all today to mull over and debate. We’re open to discussion on almost all points. The only thing we won’t consider is an attempt to negotiate. The Watchers must be destroyed at all costs. It’s the only way to give the Fleet back home a chance.

  “Charles, if you will,” Barkley commanded, and the android stood. Ace pushed back, giving Charles some room.

  “As most of you are aware, I was able to decode Benson’s removed files. We now have the location of the Watchers’ home planet. There are not many details of it on the file, but it appears we’re facing a race of over ten billion Watchers.”

  A gasp echoed over the table, Ace included. He’d hoped for far fewer but had expected more.

  Charles continued. “They also have two strategically placed outposts in their system.” A 3D hologram appeared at the far end of the table. First a planet appeared, marking it as the Watchers’ world.

  “What are they called?” Flint asked. “We call them Watchers.”

  “And will continue to do so. We still don’t know their actual identifier, unless it truly is ‘the Faithful’.” Captain Barkley motioned for Charles to keep going.

  “Very well. This is their world. From the rough data I was able to extract, we think there are four major regions on the planet with dense populations. We will strike the virus into the heart of each of those regions,” Charles said.

  “If you think that sounds easy enough, it’s far from it. They have advanced detection data. Charles found it on their ship’s manuals from the files he stole from Jish Karn. If we get so much as ten thousand kilometers from their world, they’ll know, and we’ll be destroyed,” Flint said with a scowl.

  “So how do we get to the surface?” Oliv asked.

  Flint took the lead on this, and Ace noticed that everyone looked happy to let him. “We have a three-part plan. First, we noticed their smallest outpost is halfway between us and their world. We Shift there using the Eureka. We quickly destroy it before alarms can be sounded, and we find a way to get at least six of their ships.”

  Ace sat back in his seat. This sounded a lot more difficult than Flint was making it out to be. He thought about saying something but bit his tongue.

  Flint glanced around the room, as if expecting comments; when no one spoke, he kept going. “We then take those ships, board them onto the Eureka, and hop outside range of their sensors on their moon outpost. This is the farthest moon from their planet. We take a ship in, claim to be damaged or lost or whatever we decide, then we release the virus inside.”

  “And how do you plan on getting access?” Wren asked, and Ace thought she was playing devil’s advocate well.

  “Charles has worked with engineering on a program that allows us to type responses and translate, using recordings of the deceased Watcher’s voice.” Flint grinned as if this answered everything.

  Ace finally asked a question. “If we release the virus, won’t they still have time to notify the others that they were infiltrated?”

  “We’re going to try to block their transmissions… that’s still being worked on. If all else fails, we’ll blast the tower,” Flint answered.

  “How many of them are on this moon outpost?” Barkley asked.

  “Twenty million.” Charles answered this one as the map zoomed into the image of the spherical rock.

  Ace let out a whistle.

  “Okay, go on. Let’s say we’re able to pull this off. Then what? We’ve ended the distant outpost, received ships to trick them with, and now we waltz down to their planet and release the virus?” Ace asked, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “I’m sorry, but this three-part plan sounds like it might only be one part… because we’ll all be killed that quickly.”

  Flint scooted his chair away from the table and crossed one leg over the other. “What would you do differently?”

  “Their ships are far more advanced than ours. I’m the only one here who’s been in a dogfight with one of them. They can Shift. Do you know how much of an upper hand that gives them?” Ace asked.

  Flint cleared his throat. “Okay, what do you propose?”

  Ace found a glass of water on the table and grabbed it, taking a sip before speaking. “We need to adjust the simulators. We need to program enemy vessels that can Shift. It’s the only way we can be even close to prepared.”

  Flint glanced over at Captain Barkley, who nodded and spoke. “Very good idea. You’ll be in touch with the programmers. We have staff working here that should be able to make this happen. Great work, Ace.”

  “We’re also going to need to know how to use their ships. Charles, do you have their ship schematics among the files you dug up?” Ace asked, getting excited. Were they really listening to his suggestions? He caught Oliv staring at him from across the table.

  “That I do have,” Charles answered, tapping the console. The 3D map was replaced by a 3D line drawing of one of the Watchers’ vessels. The hair on the back of Ace’s neck rose at the sight of the ship.

  “Good. We’ll need to train with their ships as well. If we’re taking six, we need at least a dozen people competent with them,” Ace suggested.

  Captain Barkley steepled her fingers together. “We have less than a year to return to the Rift. Let’s see if we can get the simulators up to speed in the next few weeks and have a solid two months of practice. I want to head to that first outpost within three months.”

  Captain Hawk finally spoke. “This is all well and good, but what will the Pilgrim be doing while all of this is happening?”
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  “Your colony ship doesn’t have a Shift drive, and we don’t have the resources to modify it out here. You’ll be leading the charge back to the Rift when we leave on our mission. You’ll have a contingency of fighters and whatever else we can spare.

  “The Watchers may very well be sitting there waiting to enter the Rift once it opens again. You’ll need to prevent that, at all costs.” Captain Barkley’s face was grim as she said it, and they all knew what it meant. There was a good chance the Pilgrim wouldn’t succeed, just like there was a good chance the Eureka wouldn’t pull through on their side.

  Commander Banks slammed his meaty paws down on the table. “This is ridiculous. You’re sending us to our deaths! Aldene, you can’t seriously be considering this as a viable plan, can you? Did you hear what those Watchers did to the Fleet, or have you already forgotten?”

  Captain Hawk of the Pilgrim spoke quickly and with authority. “Calm yourself, Kep. We have a role to play in this. Where they’re going, there’s guaranteed danger. Where we go, there’s only a chance of an enemy being there when we arrive.”

  Captain Barkley looked over at the disgruntled man. “If we time this right, we’ll arrive there before you anyway. With the Shift drive, we expect to be able to execute our plan of releasing the virus within a few days after leaving here. You’ll be here with us for the next three months, training for the coming war against this new enemy. They’re unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and we need everyone to buy into what we’re doing.” Barkley paused, looking from each person to the next. She got nods from everyone, and she stopped on Commander Banks. “Commander?” she prompted him.

  “Fine. I’m in, but I’m beginning to regret coming up with the ship. Maybe living my days out on a world with no power would have better suited me,” Commander Banks said.

  Ace doubted the man would be able to cope down there, not with his crass attitude. Ace was surprised Captain Hawk had put up with him this long. As if she read his mind, Captain Hawk whispered to the man beside her, loud enough for the room to hear, “I can always find a replacement for you, if that’s what you wish.”