The Resistance- The Complete Series

by Nathan Hystad

  It was less than an hour later that she entered her lab aboard the Eureka. She turned the lights on and saw Larspen stand up from her cell. Wren hated this. The others had been different. They were faceless, nameless to her. Larspen had been kind and had offered them information they’d used to find Flint. The others had also promised her a trip home, but that had never been true. There was no way they could let her go. They would torture information out of her if they did. And Wren couldn’t keep her alive, or in the lab on this ship, forever. There was really no choice.

  Wren’s heart was heavy as she approached the lab cell door. The first Watcher Jish Karn had stowed away so long ago had found its death inside this very room, as would Larspen.

  “You’re going to kill me. Tell me, was there ever a time where your word to set me free was honest?” Larspen asked in English. Her voice was low, her eyes averted.

  Wren shook her head. “I’m sorry. We don’t have a choice.”

  “Did you win, then?” Larspen asked.

  “We won. The Watchers are done with for now,” Wren answered.

  “Don’t do it like this. End it quickly, with honor. I don’t want to die slowly,” Larspen said with grace and courage.

  “Very well.” Wren had other ways to kill a creature in this lab. She’d use one of those. “For what it’s worth, I think we could have been allies.”

  “So do I,” the Watcher woman said before saying a phrase in her own language. Wren didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded like a prayer.

  She found the needle and the solutions under lock and key. After a minute, she was ready. “I’ll put you out first, then inject you. You won’t feel a thing.”

  The Watcher nodded and lay down on her bed. Wren pressed the gas, and when the alien was out cold, she stepped into the room. She went to Larspen’s side and touched the tip of the needle to her arm. But her hand shook, and she had to grab it with the other hand to keep it still.

  She couldn’t do this. Larspen wasn’t like the others. Wren stood there for a minute, wrestling with her own thoughts. In the end, she pressed the needle.

  The liquid dripped to the floor.

  “A deal’s a deal. You’ll have your ship,” Wren said to the unconscious Watcher.

  Flint

  “Did anyone give clearance for a lander to leave the hangar?” Flint asked.

  “It’s likely heading for Earth. I wouldn’t worry about it,” Tsang said. Flint was acting admiral of the Eureka for the time being, and things were pretty quiet around Earth’s orbit.

  “Sure. If you guys have this under control, I’m going to get to my meeting.” Flint could get used to calling the shots.

  Harry glanced over at him with a knowing eyebrow raise. “Say hi to the others for me,” he said.

  Flint laughed and vacated the bridge. Admiral. What a series of crazy events. He’d gone from leaving the Earth Fleet, to running supplies and antiquities, to being coerced by Fairbanks into joining his insane adventure. Now he was welcomed into the Fleet after denying an invasion, and as an admiral at that. If he hadn’t lived it, he wouldn’t believe the story.

  The others were already in the cafeteria when he arrived. Wren was wearing a crisp blue blouse, the top button undone, her hair wild and loose, just as he liked it. Their eyes met, and he knew he was in trouble. In any other life, she was a respected doctor, and he was just a brutish scallywag, but after being through everything, their connection was unbreakable. He was all in, and if that look was any indicator, she was as well.

  “Flint!” Ace called out, raising a glass. The young man stumbled over and hugged Flint with his free arm. Flint could smell the beer on Ace’s breath, and he grinned as the others waved him over.

  “We did it,” Ace said, his voice loud. Oliv set a hand on her boyfriend’s forearm, beaming at him from the side.

  “We sure did, kid,” Flint said, accepting a pint of dark ale.

  Wren stood close beside him, her fragrance following, and he fought the urge to drag her out of there. “What do you say, Admiral? Are you too big-headed to have a drink with the likes of us?” she asked with a laugh.

  “Okay, Councilwoman Sando. Or had you forgotten already?” Flint asked, and took a seat at the table. He noticed Charles there finally, sitting behind the rest of them. “Charles, I haven’t seen you in a couple of days. Where’ve you been?”

  The android looked up. “I’m working on a new tracker that will expand our radar system to search out any non-Fleet or human-issued IDs. It should assist us finding any remaining Watcher vessels within the solar system and prevent further attacks.”

  Flint hadn’t heard that before. “That’s great work. Thank you again.”

  “For what?” Charles asked. His body was repaired, but Flint noticed there were still thick seams where the bashed-in torso had been fixed.

  Wren took his question and rolled with it. “Charles, we can’t even begin to say how much you’ve done for us. Without you, we’d all be dead.”

  “What about you, Wren, or Ace, or Flint?” Charles asked.

  “He’s not wrong, you know,” Flint added. “The kid here did save a lot of us on countless occasions. Wren, you created the virus and helped get the Pilgrim off Domum. You also stole something very dear to me.”

  “Your heart?” Ace asked, with wide eyes and a smile. Wren’s glance told him she was curious for the answer too.

  Flint shook his head. “No. My lucky boots. Have you seen them?”

  They all laughed, and Wren whispered in his ear, “They may be at my place.” Flint was mid-drink, and he nearly spat the beer out as she said it.

  “Sorry I’m late. I guess things are going just fine without me,” a voice said from the doorway. Heather Barkley walked in, out of uniform. Flint had never seen her without the Earth Fleet clothing on. She looked… more human.

  “Heather! Glad you could make it,” Wren said, getting up to hug their new Grand Admiral.

  “I wouldn’t miss a celebration for the world,” Heather said, grasping a beer from the bartender before pulling up a chair.

  “What’s next?” Oliv asked.

  All eyes went to Heather, including Flint’s. “We move on. We rebuild on Earth. The Council will be delegating those tasks, and we’ll restructure the Fleet. We’ll be ready in thirty years, should they decide to come back.”

  “Do you think they will?” Ace asked, his voice much quieter now.

  Barkley pursed her lips and didn’t speak for a minute. “I think we’ve opened up a can of worms, and our system’s now on the universe’s radar. We know the Watchers have taken over several other worlds, which means there are far more civilizations out there than we know. Perhaps thousands. As a race, we’ve only cracked the surface of what’s out there. We’ll create new ships, like the Eureka. Exploration vessels.”

  Flint hadn’t heard that, and his arm hair rose as she spoke. Exploration vessels.

  “That’s so cool,” Ace said, ever the excitable one.

  “It’s cool until you reach a hostile system,” Wren said.

  Barkley nodded. “There will be some of that, but we can’t let it stop us, can we?”

  “No. No, we can’t,” Wren answered.

  “Are you taking names for those exploration trips yet?” Flint asked, getting all eyes on him as a result.

  Heather took a sip of her beer, leaving a foam moustache on her upper lip. “We have a short list.”

  “Ace, where are you off to next?” Flint asked, feeling the need to change the subject.

  “Oliv and I are heading up the fighter training on the moon. You’d be amazed at how many new recruits we’re getting as a result of this win. Almost every able-bodied young adult on the planet wants to volunteer,” Ace replied.

  “That’s a good sign,” Barkley said, and they settled in to more talk about their futures, and the state of the world.

  It was a happy, hopeful discussion, and Flint was warmed by the company and conversation. Benson raised a glass
to him from the corner of the room, and Flint raised his in return.

  Things would never be the same, but for him, that was the exciting part about life.

  24

  Charles

  Three years later

  The radar beeped as the vessel entered Pluto’s sensor range. It relayed to Titan, to Europa, to the Mars colony, and over to Earth, where Charles sat stationed in orbit.

  “What do we have?” his assistant Henrick asked.

  Charles had spent the first year on the station with an android to help him, but he’d requisitioned a human to work with. Androids were so boring. He preferred the company of a person: someone he could banter with or discuss topics with other than binary coding.

  “It appears to be alien in origin,” Charles said, seeing the readouts. They wouldn’t have clear images for another couple of days, but he pulled up what he had. The picture was pixilated, zoomed in for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. It was just a blob now, but he could see the rough interplanetary vessel shape to it, and it wasn’t Watcher or human in nature. At least, he didn’t think so from the blotchy image.

  “This is amazing. Did you ever expect the radar to catch something new?” Henrick asked. He was nervously tapping his finger on the console, a habit Charles noticed every time the man was excited about something.

  “I did expect it at some point. Not so soon, though.” Charles’ invention had allowed them to track down the last nine Watcher vessels still within their system. They’d destroyed them with impunity, never worrying about confiscating the ships as Serina had.

  “What do we do?” Henrick asked.

  “You stay here and pass the information on to the Grand Admiral.” Charles got up from the desk. Lights blinked along the entire wall as the intricate sensor system worked, starting from the station they were on.

  “And where are you going?” Henrick asked.

  “I’m going to investigate,” Charles said, happy to have a mission again.

  He’d enjoyed his project at first, but after two years, he’d begun to go a little stir-crazy. He’d been able to visit his friends on occasion, and Ace had come to the station only last week for a few hours, but the thrill and excitement of a real mission was missing from his existence. Now Charles felt the familiar emotions course through his android synapses. He’d done more research, but there was still no proof that he was any different from other androids – at least, not by any known tests.

  Benson claimed he hadn’t programmed Charles in any way that would affect his emotions or likeness to a human. At the end of the day, Charles had accepted that he was different, and was grateful.

  “Wait, you can’t leave me here. What if that ship is dangerous?” Henrick called to him as he walked down the wide hall toward the cargo hold. Charles found an assortment of weapons inside, and he took what he needed, suiting up in full armor before exiting through the containment field into the small fighter outside the orbiting station. This fighter was custom-equipped with an android charger, which made it suitable for longer excursions.

  Charles knew he should wait for the Fleet, but something drove him to get into the cockpit, fire up the engines, and start charging the Shift drive.

  Henrick’s voice carried through the speakers. “What do you want me to tell them if they ask?”

  “Tell them I went to investigate. I’m not hiding anything.” Charles cut the line and moved away from the station. The Shift drive told him it was fully charged, and he hit the icon.

  He arrived on the far side of the Kuiper belt and moved toward the incoming vessel. Judging by its trajectory and speed, compared to his own, they would meet in an hour.

  The time passed quickly, and Charles detected the much larger ship on his viewer, zoomed to full capacity. It was smooth, unlike the Watchers’ ships. The rounded cylinder shape had a spinning ring around it, moving slowly and surely. Perhaps a gravity ring? Charles wasn’t sure.

  He sent a transmission to the vessel but received nothing in return. The ship was running on next to zero energy emissions, and that had his interest piqued.

  Charles spent the next two days following it, searching for signs of life. A steady flow of communication attempts all came back unanswered, and Charles was ready to make the risky contact. He would find a way onto the ship.

  Three days later, Charles found himself latched on to the vessel’s smooth gray edges. He’d spent the last day decoding the hatch controls, and as it finally opened with a hiss, Charles raised his weapon. It had a built-in gas grenade, as well as a stunner feature, and 10mm rounds for good measure.

  He entered the vessel through the hatch and scanned for sound. Nothing. It was silent. As he moved, his sensors picked up a near-silent beep. The room he found himself in was virtually empty. Supplies lined the walls, but the boxes and crates were opened, lids tossed around the floor. His intuition told him someone had been on this ship for a long time.

  Charles kept moving, his android sight switching to night vision so he could see in the near-dark space. The corridors were wide and tall, the walls smooth as glass, the flooring carpeted with a soft but short material. It felt human in nature, but it wasn’t quite so.

  The corridor led him to a door, and he found the manual control when it didn’t open automatically. The ship was bigger than his fighter, but still smaller than most corvettes. It was only two stories, and when he entered the next room, he could see why. The ceiling went up twenty meters, a giant viewscreen wrapped around the inside of the cylindrical edges.

  There were seats on either side, as if the ship had two designated crew areas on their bridge. Still, there was no visual sign of any living beings on the ship. Charles spent the next two hours searching for a way to activate the ship’s computers, and finally hacked through an intricate barrier. When it came down to it, most everything related to a ship’s system was mathematical, and Charles used his understanding of that to get through the layers.

  A screen powered up, and a completely foreign language scrolled over the console. After another thirty minutes, he found a way to activate the backup power source. He could now see as lights came on throughout the vast open bridge. It was far less eerie now, even though Charles was still alone on the alien vessel.

  His sound sensors were still running in the background, and he was pinged by a notification. Noises coming from the other end of the ship carried past the corridor and to his radars.

  There was still much to learn, but Charles knew he’d better check the other side of the ship before he explored the computers more. Soon he was at the spot where he’d entered the vessel, and he chose to walk down the other direction. He could hear the sound echo, a louder beeping.

  The end of the corridor gave him two options, and he went left first, opening the door, ready to fire if needed. Charles gaped internally at the sight.

  Three pods stretched out on the ground, each at least three meters in length. They were rounded, with frosted glass covering them. He understood them to be cryogenic casings, meant to preserve life as the ship traversed far distances.

  A red light blinked in time with the beep, and when he checked each pod, one after the other, he was disappointed to find that none of the beings inside were still living. Only bones remained, but Charles knew Wren would want to have access to these skeletons to decipher what they would look like. He checked the adjacent room and found another three pods, with the same results.

  “Charles, come in,” a voice said through his communicator.

  “Go ahead,” he replied.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Are you on board?” It was Flint, and he didn’t sound happy.

  “They’re dead.”

  “Who is? Whose ship is it?” Flint asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ll download the computer files. Tell Wren she has some remains to inspect.” Charles was already moving from the room back towards the bridge.

  “She’ll be thrilled. Don’t forget to go to the decontamination hangar before comi
ng aboard the Eureka. See you soon,” Flint ordered. “And be careful.”

  Charles had expected Flint to arrive at some point, but what surprised him was the man’s calm demeanor at the arrival of the ship, and at Charles’ obvious breach of protocol.

  He went to the bridge and began downloading everything he could, starting with the expansive star charts. It appeared there was indeed much more out there than humans had ever dreamed.

  Epilogue

  Jarden Fairbanks gazed into the sky again. Today was the day. It had to be.

  “Honey, they might not be coming,” Leona whispered in his ear. It was hot, and Jarden dabbed perspiration from his forehead with a handkerchief.

  “They’ll come. If they’re alive, they’ll come.” Jarden had counted out each day on the planet, aligning their year with Earth’s. A full day on Domum was about eighteen Earth hours, making their time spent on the surface feel longer than it really had been. He wasn’t sure if his body would ever get used to the odd hours.

  “Thirty years is a long time.” Leona didn’t want him to obsess with what was happening on the other side of the Rift. They’d been there with silence from the outside since the Pilgrim had lifted from the surface, taking their daughter Oliv with it. Jarden had only just gotten his family back, and she’d run away, leaving him without his only daughter.

  “They’ll come,” Jarden said again, squinting into the light. There were no clouds today, not even a slight breeze as the heat beat down on him.

  Leona left him to stand watch in the center of their bustling colony. He was surrounded by thick fences, their perimeter expanded to twice their size in the last year. Jarden heard the familiar sound of Karl giving daily tasks out to the floaters at the side of their village square. He peeked over to the noise and noticed Kat was at the bearded man’s side, smiling as she handed out papers to a few colonists.

  He’d expected a different life: one with fancy buildings, with drones and robots making high-tech advanced machines to expedite the creation of a colony city. Instead, he was destined to swat strange bugs off a wrinkled uniform and fight off Wendigo attacks on a monthly basis.