by Gus Flory
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re either a spy, or a fool trying to get into my sister’s pants.”
They walked together through the concourse. Sonny greeted everyone that walked by. They all knew him. They whispered to each other about Diego as they passed.
Above them, methane rain pattered against the glass ceiling.
“Personally, I think Zubin’s right. But I’m not the one who makes decisions around here.”
Sonny and Diego entered a large tunnel carved into the rock.
“If I were a spy, I would tell my handlers that you, Pristina and Tupo had no involvement in the Einstein Plaza Massacre. Zubin Zaba on the other hand…”
“Let’s be straight with each other, Zanger. You’re either using my sister and me to dig up dirt on the Noer, to find out about the Tesla Project, or else you turned traitor on the Army and your family because you’re attracted to Pris. You’re either a spy or a lecher. So, which is it?”
“Let’s be straight with each other then. When I learned Pristina was going to be arrested in Cassini City, I felt the need to help her. I knew it was wrong what they were doing, rounding people up without due process. I knew T-FORCE was in the wrong. I know you and Tupo are innocent and have been falsely accused. I don’t want to see the Federation lock you up for a crime you didn’t commit.”
“Come on, man. You don’t have to sell your line to me.”
They walked down a wide stairwell and entered a sports arena under a high ceiling of carved rock. Several people in Moon Rules Lacrosse uniforms were tossing a ball from stick to stick out on a large field of artificial turf. The ball zinged from stick to stick across the field.
A few children and adults were up in the seats watching.
“Nice facility.”
“Lacrosse was a big deal for the Noer before the war. All of Simon’s Bay used to show up here for matches. Each colony had a team. It was a big part of our culture. But we lost so many of our youth in the war, it’s not what it used to be. Now the Imcels dominate the sport here.”
Sonny waved to the group out on the field.
“Suit up, Sonny,” someone called out. “We’re going to play a friendly. Zube’s going to show us what he’s got.”
“I’ll be right out.”
“Who’s that with you?”
“Major Zanger.”
Zaba caught the ball in his stick. He stopped and turned his head and looked across the field at Diego. Everyone stopped and looked over at him.
“You sure you want to do this?” Sonny asked.
“Give me a stick.”
Sonny walked over to the lockers and tossed a helmet, pads and stick to Diego. They suited up and walked out onto the field.
“You play?” Zaba asked.
“Yeah, played for the Martian Military Academy. But it’s been a while.”
Zaba broke the group up into two teams of five each, plus goalies. Sonny and Diego were on the same team, both playing as midfielders.
Zaba put on his helmet and walked up to Diego. He looked Diego in the eyes.
“You collecting on me?”
“I’m not here to collect on you.”
“What are you here for?”
“For a friendly.”
Diego could feel ice in Zaba’s eyes.
Zaba turned. “All right then. Let’s play.”
The game started with a face-off between Zaba and a big man named Yong.
Zaba flipped the ball to one of his teammates.
The ball zipped from player to player. The players leaped high in the low gravity, twisting and turning acrobatically, zinging the ball, before floating back down to the turf.
Diego ran hard, leaping to intercept passes as his team played defense. Zaba caught a pass and with a quick bound and flick of his stick, scored a goal.
A few people up in the seats whistled and clapped.
Play started again. Diego caught the ball on the face-off and immediately passed it to Yong. Diego leaped hard and soared high above the turf, calling for Yong to pass.
Yong flipped the ball to Diego. Zaba launched from the turf like a missile. Diego caught the ball and then zinged it to Sonny. Zaba blindsided Diego, hitting him like a thunderclap.
Zaba had thrown all his weight into Diego’s midsection, smacking him hard with stick and shoulder. The impact whiplashed Diego’s momentum and sent him spinning toward the turf.
Sonny was in open field when he caught Diego’s pass. He took a clear shot at the goal. The ball zipped between the goalie’s legs for the score.
Diego landed on the turf on his back with a bounce. He shook his head and pulled himself up to his knees. Sonny bounded over with a smile on his face.
“Nice sacrifice pass,” Sonny said.
“Nice shot,” Diego said.
The pace of the game quickened. Diego and Zaba covered each other, aggressively jostling and bumping to gain advantage.
Pristina entered the arena and took a seat up in the stands.
Zaba scored again and again. Diego put a few shots in the goal and made several assists. After each shot or assist, he glanced up at Pristina to check if she was watching.
Diego’s team found its rhythm. As the seconds ran down, he evened the score with a long shot from midfield.
His teammates slapped him high-fives. They huddled up before the final face-off.
“Zaba’s tired,” Diego said. “He’s been carrying them but he’s out of juice.”
“This is what he lives for,” Yong said. “The clock winding down. The winning shot as time runs out.”
“We can’t let him get a shot off,” Sonny said.
“When we get the ball, take it around the horn,” Diego said. “Sonny, stay on point. I’ll open up a lane in the center so you can take the shot.”
“How are you going to open up a lane?” Yong asked. “Zube’s controlled the center all game.”
“Don’t worry about Zaba. I’ll take care of him.”
“What’s your plan?” Sonny asked.
Diego smiled and winked. “I’m gonna give him the Zang.”
In a violent clash of sticks, Zaba won the face-off, flinging the ball to a teammate. He leaped high in the air. He bounded off the turf, looking over his shoulder, calling for a pass. His teammate flung the ball across the field. Zaba kicked hard off the turf, leaping for the high pass. Diego bounded, launched himself at Zaba and crosschecked him with a crack, sending the big man spinning head over heels.
The ball sailed past. Yong caught it on the run. Diego bounded for the goal.
Zaba landed on the turf on his back, stunned by the hit. He shook his head and rolled over, springing to his feet.
Yong passed the ball around the horn. As Sonny caught a pass, defenders converged on him. Diego smashed a defender, sending him reeling, opening the shot for Sonny. But Sonny hesitated, faking shots, trying to throw the goalie off guard.
“Take the shot,” Yong yelled.
“Behind you,” Diego shouted.
Just as Sonny finally flung the ball for the shot, Zaba blindsided him with a bone-crushing check. The ball sailed upward from Sonny’s stick as he flipped upside down in the air.
Diego muscled through his opponents and leaped into the air, catching the ball.
Zaba had fire in his eyes. He launched off the turf at Diego like a charging bull.
Diego landed and planted his feet as Zaba flew toward him. The two big men collided with a crack of pads and bone. Diego snapped forward, driving his shoulder and stick hard into Zaba, who crumpled and collapsed to the turf.
Diego flipped a backwards no-look shot over his shoulder for the winning goal as the clocked ticked down and the horn sounded.
Sonny, Yong, and the team bounded to Diego, slapping him high-fives and congratulating him for the shot. Diego looked up at Pristina in the stands. She was walking down toward the turf.
Zaba sat on his haunches with his head in his hands. Pristina walked to him and h
elped him up.
The two teams congratulated each other for a hard-fought game.
“Lucky shot, Zanger,” Zaba said. “I’ll get you next time.”
“Next time,” Diego said.
“Beers on me,” Sonny said. “At Jupiter’s Ghost.”
The group stripped off their pads and left the arena, walking up the stairs, through the tunnel and out onto the main concourse. Up above, rain splashed against the glass ceiling. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled.
The group walked on the concourse past the potted trees as torrents of methane rain flowed down the ceiling above them.
They talked and laughed about the game and the shots and the passes and hits. Pristina walked with Zaba who seemed in a bit of a daze. He touched his fingers to his forehead and squinted as he walked. Diego kept glancing at Pristina. He heard her ask Zaba if he was OK.
Above the ceiling, a TH-60 aerial vehicle zoomed low, rattling the glass and shaking the floor as it shot past. Another flew past behind it.
“T-FORCE,” Sonny said.
People ran out onto concourse and the balconies and terraces, looking up through the ceiling, calling out to each other.
Pristina grabbed Diego by the arm.
“We have to leave now. Sonny, let’s go.”
She pulled Diego down the concourse.
“Tupo, T-FORCE is here,” she said into her handheld. “We’ll take the lake tunnel. Meet us in Substructure Five. Now.”
A squad of battlegroup troopers wearing armor walked onto the far end of the concourse. They carried rifles. Their helmets were on with visors down. Another squad entered at the other end of the concourse. More TH-60s zoomed over the ceiling.
People scattered.
One older man walked up to the squad leader and began talking to him.
“They’ve got us surrounded,” Sonny said.
Pristina pulled Diego off the concourse and down a hallway. She punched at the elevator panel on the wall.
“They’ve made a cordon around the colony,” Diego said. “They’ll conduct a search sector by sector to find what they’re looking for.”
“They’re looking for us,” Pristina said.
The elevator opened and they got inside. They rode it to the upper level. They ran over the walkway.
Down below them, more soldiers entered the concourse. They were sealing off hallways and corridors.
Pristina ran to her apartment. They rushed inside.
“Suit up,” she said.
Victoria came out of a bedroom as Pristina, Sonny and Diego slipped into TMS-4 moon suits.
“I watched them land,” Victoria said. “They’ve got the colony surrounded. There are at least ten of their aircraft out there. Maybe more.”
Pristina stood up, now wearing a white and yellow moon suit. She hugged her mother. Sonny did the same.
“Go to our safe house in the substructure,” Sonny said. “You’ll be safe there until they leave.”
“I know, honey. Get going. Hurry.”
They rushed out the door and ran down the walkway.
“Stay in your habitations,” a voice announced over the intercom. “Do not leave until instructed. T-FORCE is conducting an accountability muster of all colony residents. Cooperate or you will be detained.”
They rode the elevator down several floors until the doors opened to a dark basement.
Pristina rushed into the darkness. Sonny and Diego followed as she jogged, turning left and right down a maze of concrete hallways.
“Prissy, I’m here.”
Tupo stood in the darkness wearing a TMS-4.
“Thank goodness you made it,” Pristina said.
“Soldiers are everywhere. I barely got past them.”
Pristina and Sonny led them down a hallway and over a large metal grate. Sonny lifted a section of the grate and hopped down into a culvert. Pristina followed him in, then Tupo and Diego.
They walked hunched over through the culvert. Their headlamps illuminated the dark tunnel with white beams of light.
They stepped into a chamber. Sonny pulled the hatch closed behind him.
“OK,” Pristina said. “We’re under the lake, about fifteen meters below the surface. I’m going to open the top hatch and let the liquid methane in. Then we swim to the hangar. Stay close. It’s dark out there.”
“We’re going to swim?” Diego asked.
“Yes,” Pristina answered.
“Are these suits going to keep the liquid out?”
“Maybe.”
She closed her visor, reached up and opened the hatch. Liquid methane flooded the chamber. The air inside rushed out in a large bubble. The four of them were pulled out of the chamber with the air and swirled upward into the lake.
“Stay close,” Pristina said.
They were about ten meters down, floating in inky blackness, save for the white beams of light from their helmet lamps.
The white beams pierced the blackness, illuminating the rocky bottom. Red spires of rock reached upward from the lake floor.
Pristina floated down to the bottom and kicked off the rocks, shooting forward through the liquid.
“Follow me,” she said.
They kicked off the bottom and swam after her.
They swam for quite some distance, sinking down to the bottom, kicking off the rocks and gliding forward between the spires.
The surface became visible as the lake became shallower. Large methane raindrops were pattering and splashing on the surface above them.
“Turn off your lamps,” Pristina said. “Our ship is in a hangar beyond the shoreline. We’ll surface and run up the beach to it. We should be outside their cordon, but we need to move fast.”
They emerged from the lake into a slow-motion blizzard of methane rain. The big raindrops were thick in the air, falling slowly in the low gravity, hitting the rocks in slow liquid splashes.
They ran in darkness up the beach.
Down at the end of the fjord, the lights of Simon’s Bay shone through the rain. Lightning flashed. The deep, slow rumble of thunder rolled over them.
They came to a hangar set between cliff faces. Pristina punched at a panel and pulled opened a door.
Inside the hangar was a spaceship. It was a moon-hopper on skeds, not much bigger than a TH-60, built for short-distance space travel, big enough to seat eight. It had large rocket engines and a sleek exterior.
“It’s my dad’s old ship,” Pristina said. “The Moon Runner.”
She pulled open a hatch and climbed into the airlock. Sonny, Tupo and Diego followed her in. They removed their helmets after breathable air had filled the chamber.
“You know the gunships are up in orbit, right?” Diego said. “They’ll engage any ship that leaves Titan without authorization.”
“We’ve been sneaking ships past them for months now,” Pristina said.
They entered the cockpit of the ship. Sonny sat in the pilot’s seat and began punching at the controls. The ship powered up.
“TH-60 inbound,” Pristina said.
“I see it,” Sonny said.
Diego sat next to him and turned on the display. “They’ve got overwatch on the cliffs. They might have seen us running up the beach.”
The TH-60 flew over the hangar and circled around. Its searchlight punctured the darkness and rain, illuminating the outside of the hangar with a brilliant beam of white light.
Sonny pressed buttons on the control panel and the hangar’s main door began to slide open.
“Are you sure about this, Prissy?” Tupo asked. “They know we’re here. The orbit window hasn’t opened yet for us to slip past the gunships. We need more time for them to pass.”
Another TH-60 flew up the lake toward the hangar.
“That one’s coming to land a squad,” Diego said. “They’ve got our number.”
Sonny powered up the engines and the spaceship began to slide forward out of the hangar.
The TH-60 set down near the beach. Its side
door slid open and cavalry troopers jumped out and ran toward the hangar.
Sonny gunned the engines.
“Hold on,” he said.
The Moon Runner shot out over the beach spewing fire, scorching the hangar behind it. It flew low over the lake surface. Sonny turned down the center of the fjord as they gained speed. He pulled back on the yoke and they rocketed upward into the dark clouds.
They were pinned to their seats as they shot through the clouds.
“Drone fighters,” Diego said. “Three o’clock.”
“Not good,” Sonny said.
The ship blasted out of Titan’s atmosphere into space.
An S.S.F. Space Force Gunship was already tracking them. Its big laser cannon fired.
Sonny yanked the yoke violently. The beam grazed them.
“We left too early in his orbit,” Sonny said. “Our escape window isn’t open. He’s got us dead to rights.”
“Get us out of here, Sonny,” Pristina said.
The gunship’s engines glowed hot in the blackness of space. It closed its angle of pursuit.
Sonny took no evasive action but stared forward out the front screen gripping the yoke tightly.
Diego reached for the center panel and tapped the priority setting icon.
“I’m taking the controls.”
Diego yanked the yoke hard just as the gunship fired its cannon. He dove their ship back into the atmosphere and shot downward toward the clouds.
Titan’s atmosphere glowed red around their ship from the friction. T-FORCE drone fighters fired missiles.
Alarms sounded in the cockpit. The heat seekers locked in on their ship. Diego pulled up and climbed out of the atmosphere with missiles zig-zagging after them.
He aimed the Moon Runner straight at the gunship.
“What are you doing?” Tupo asked with alarm.
“We’re going to give him a little scare.”
Diego blasted right for the gunship with the missiles on his tail. The gunship began to turn as Diego closed in on it.
“Zanger, you’ll kill us all,” Sonny said.
Diego pulled up, just missing the far larger gunship that was firing its engines wildly, trying to avoid a collision. The missiles corkscrewed away, redirected from the gunship by their internal computers.
