by J W Murison
‘Please sit down.’
She was forced to sit on the couch beside him. Steven poured a cup.
‘Sugar, milk?’
‘No thank you.’
He handed her the hot cup and the two sat side by side for a few minutes watching the asteroids slide by.
‘May I ask why you want to see me Captain?’
‘I just wanted to take a few minutes with you Hailey. You have been with me since the beginning. We see each other every day, yet I can barely remember having a conversation with you about anything that wasn’t work related.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about it Captain.’
‘Please, call me Steven, we are in my private quarters.’
She glanced at him; he caught the look and laughed, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not hitting on you because Komoru isn’t here.’
She flushed, ‘I never said anything like that!’
‘No, but your eyes did. I may be Captain but we are both Doctors now. I think you have more than earned the right to call me by my first name if we are in private like this.’
She smiled, ‘That’s nice of you Steven, thank you.’
‘You are also one of the few people who have been able to stick by me since we first began our wee adventure.’
‘I was doing my thesis.’
‘Yes, but you have your doctorate now and you could have walked away, but you haven’t. You are right here alongside me, risking your life in this god-forsaken part of the galaxy.’
She smiled, ‘Well the pay has gotten a lot better in the past few years.’
They both laughed together. ‘I just wanted to say thank you Hailey, and also congratulate you on your doctorate. Do you realise that you are the very first person on Earth to get a doctorate on astral navigation; who is actually a real astral navigator?’
She flushed with pleasure, ‘It has been mentioned a few times.’
‘I should think so too. I also wanted you to know that I consider you a backbone member of this crew. A very valued member Hailey.’
Now she was completely embarrassed. ‘Thank you Steven. That is really nice to hear.’
Steven shook his head, ‘I should have said something sooner. I have simply been so wrapped up in everything, I haven’t had the time to do things like this.’
‘It can’t have been easy for you Steven. I mean, you lost most of your memories when you were fourteen, then you got them back all in one day. What work experience did you ever have?’
‘I was a security guard. You’re right Hailey, I really wasn’t prepared for any of this. The days between the accident and getting my memory back are like a strange dream. They don’t seem real somehow. I missed all those teenage years, spent most of them in hospital.’
‘You did act a bit like a teenager back then, I wondered at that.’
‘I suppose I did. It was as though someone flipped the lights back on, and there I was, fourteen-years-old again.’
Hailey rolled her eyes, ‘I think that’s all been burned off now though.’
‘The turning point was the fight in the city ship. I haven’t quite felt the same since then.’
‘You have saved the Earth at least twice Steven, think on that rather than the bloodshed.’
‘I think it was less the bloodshed than what I couldn’t do, what I couldn’t bring myself to do.’
Steven faltered, but now Hailey’s curiosity was on full alert. ‘What was that?’
Steven’s smile was more of a grimace, ‘It doesn’t matter. I think it is time we got back to work.’
Hailey finished her coffee with a smile, ‘Thank you, that was lovely.’ She hesitated a moment. ‘I think you are a hero Steven, you are one of mine anyway. You held the fort all by yourself until the rest of Humanity caught up with you. Don’t be hard on yourself.’
Steven’s smile was genuine, ‘Thank you Hailey, I have really enjoyed this.’
‘As have I.’
Chapter 14
Amanda Freeling’s mind raced at the information that Hailey had brought her.
‘Do you think he was talking about that?’
Hailey took a sip of her coffee, ‘By the look on his face, it had to be.’
‘It also means it had to be one of his group that switched off the oxygen in the residential areas. He actually said that?’
‘Sure did; something he couldn’t bring himself to do. It has to be that. He looked really serious.’
‘Which leaves no one with the technical know-how in that group.’
‘It’s why we always thought it was Steven.’
Amanda cocked her eyes, ‘Steven is it?’
Hailey smirked a little, ‘It sure is.’
Amanda’s mind switched back to the mystery that had plagued her for so long. ‘What else did he say?’
‘Nothing. Although I did get the impression it was one of his group.’
‘Why?’
Hailey shrugged, ‘Intuition. You know there was only one other person in his group that could talk to the ship.’
‘I would rather think it was one of Colonel Howe’s group, or Tapper’s.’
Another voice joined in the conversation. ‘Why don’t you two leave this alone?’
‘I’m sorry Babes. One of our people was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent civilians. I for one would like to know who it was, and you won’t tell us.’
‘There were no innocents on board Amanda. You know that.’
‘Babies can’t hold guns.’
‘No, but their mothers could, and all were willing to do so to save their children.’
‘We know in most of these races the females are incapable of bearing arms.’
‘Every group from our ship, battle reports from every unit that encountered civilian resistance, reported females bearing arms and shooting at them.’
‘So you say.’ Amanda returned to her cuppa. ‘Were they left with a choice, really? Is that what you are trying to say to me Babes?’
‘She is just frightened it was Charlie,’ Grinned Hailey.
‘What if I am?’ Snapped Amanda. ‘We are the same rank now, it’s official. But I could never look myself in the mirror again if I slept with a mass murderer. There are other considerations too. Someone capable of a crime like that must have severe mental problems and should be confined for the safety of this crew.’ Amanda’s face had turned scarlet.
‘Then why don’t you ask him?’
‘It’s not something you really bring up in a conversation. Besides, I have asked him, I have asked all of them. None of them will tell me.’
‘Ask him again.’
‘Ask me what?’
Amanda jumped about a foot in the air. Hailey burst out laughing. She had seen Charlie come in and his head come up when his name had been mentioned. Hailey was breathless with anticipation. Amanda had fancied Charlie for so long, now was an opportunity to help her friend. She was quite sure the culprit wasn’t Charlie.
‘She wants to know who turned off the oxygen in the civilian quarters on the city ship.’
‘That old chestnut. Why do you care so much?’
Amanda really was scarlet now. ‘Call it professional interest.’
Charlie pulled out a chair and sat down with his coffee and his tablet. He was paying more attention to the tablet and the coffee than he was the women.
‘Is it that important?’
‘Yes I believe so.’
‘Fine; then it was me.’
There was a moment’s stunned silence.
Amanda didn’t believe it. ‘No, you didn’t!’
‘Babes, make the battle reports available to Amanda.’
‘Those reports are classified Charlie.’
‘Let her see the truth Babes, rather than fumble around in the dark spreading rumours, talking shop about it to everyone. You know how the Doctor loves a bit of gossip.’
‘I see the sense in your words Charlie. Steven will not be amused.’
‘I will talk to Steven
about it later.’
‘Yes Charlie. Amanda, I am downloading Steven’s account of that part of the operation to your tablet. I will delete it once you have read it.’
Amanda’s hands trembled as she took her tablet from her pocket. A stunned Hailey shifted her chair round and the two women read the report together. When they were finished, they sat and observed Charlie scrolling through his tablet looking for something to read.
Hailey reached out and placed her hand on Charlie’s. He was surprised at the gesture. ‘Charlie, how could you?’
‘We were in a battle for the right to exist. How could I not? I had a duty to the men I was with, and the people of Earth. Babes told Steven what he was looking at, and I overheard her. Steven shied away from it, I can’t blame him, it was his first battle after all. It wasn’t mine. I saw an opportunity to severely curtail the enemy’s fighting ability and took it.’
‘Still, it couldn’t have been easy Charlie.’ Hailey tried again.
Charlie put down his tablet and closed the cover. ‘No one said it was easy, but I did the right thing. I made the right choice. So I’m sorted.’
‘Sorted!’ Amanda snorted. ‘Is that it?’
Charlie took a moment to clear his mind. He leaned forward onto his elbows. ‘I have never been involved in a war where the only realistic outcome was the complete extinction of one side or the other. It makes you far more determined to sell your life more dearly. Neither have I ever faced a deadlier or more determined foe before. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, would charge at one time. Not a single one gave up or tried to surrender. Males, females, children, all bore arms if they were big enough to carry a weapon. The fact that they didn’t look like us wasn’t as much of a help as I thought it would be. We were there from the beginning to the end. The days, the killing and carnage all began to blend into sleepless nights and teetering exhaustion. It is far easier to kill someone when you no longer have the mental ability to do anything other than react instinctively to any situation that presents itself. Yet there are always moments in a battle that stand out.
‘One of those was of an Albany child. We had just slaughtered his parents, there must have been a couple of hundred of them piled up in front of us. This kid was running back and forth bawling its eyes out. It even had a pistol dangling from one of its mitts; none of us had the heart to shoot the wee bugger. He wasn’t aiming it at anybody anyway. It seemed to go on for ever, this wee fella running back and forth, looking for his parents, unable to see them and unwilling to start wading through the bodies. All of a sudden he simply stiffened, his eyes rolled into his head, and he fell backwards like a log. No one fired a shot. We weren’t sure what the hell had happened. We thought maybe his heart had burst. A wee while later I stopped at the body. It wasn’t anything we had considered. It was a neutron from our sun that had done the poor wee bugger in.
‘We all felt it though; we all knew that the kids suffer the most. As soldiers, for those of us who had fought before, it was always the most upsetting sight. You did what you could for them, enemy or not. So many kids die in the carnage of war. It is the horrible brutality of war. We hate it, it’s the kind of thing that really fucks up your mind. Sorry for the language.
‘Anyway, I can’t remember when it was, it is all a bit of a blur. We found ourselves in one of those residential areas that I had killed the oxygen too earlier in the week. I was freaking out. By then all my mates knew what I had done. None of us wanted to be there. It was so quiet it was giving me the major creeps. One of my mates dragged me bodily into one of the houses I had refused to enter. On the couch was the whole family. The father was at one end; his wife was lying down with her head on his lap. The child was embraced in her arms.
‘“It’s just like they are sleeping,” he said, and he was smiling in a kinda weird way. As I was watching, he lifted a blanket from the floor and placed it over the woman and child.
‘Of course, I was in major freak mode by this time. He tucked the blanket in and stood back from the couch. I was ready to bolt. “If these buggers get through to Earth, I hope my kid gets to go like this, in the arms of her mum, and no like that poor wee bugger that was bawling the other day there.”
‘It took a wee bit of time for it to sink in. In the end though I got what he meant. There was no blood, no guts. No screams of the dying or wounded. They knew what was happening, the people in those areas. They tossed their weapons and grabbed their families. Many, like in that house, died on the couch. Bigger families lay down on the biggest bed in the home and cuddled in. As the oxygen levels dropped, they fell asleep first, then simply slipped away. I sometimes wonder if they even had time to dream.’
When Charlie’s eyes refocused on the women, he saw Hailey’s face streaming with tears. Amanda was white and visibly shaking. He got up.
‘Well, got to get back to it. See you later.’ Charlie walked out of the canteen.
Hailey moved her chair back round to the other side. She wiped away her tears. ‘I don’t know what to say Amanda. I’m sorry.’
Amanda shook her head, ‘I am still trying to wrap my head around it Hailey.’
‘I am so glad I wasn’t there. I think the most horrible thing about it all is, I kinda get where he is coming from.’
‘I have seen the aftermath of battle Hailey. The mutilated children, the orphans left behind.’
‘There wasn’t that many left was there, at the end?’
Amanda shook her head, ‘No, most died long before they arrived on that floating bio-dome. I was told some died from sheer fright. Others stopped eating. Most were killed by the neutrons from our sun. Only a handful made it to the bio-dome and they all perished when they released that agent.’ Amanda brought her hands up to her face. ‘Oh God! I am actually thinking that dying in the arms of their parents was a blessing in disguise.’
‘Maybe it was.’
Amanda stood. ‘No Hailey, I can’t think like that.’
‘What are you going to do now Amanda?’
‘There is nothing I can do Hailey. I have to accept the situation.’
‘What about Charlie?’
‘There is no Charlie, Hailey, there never will be. If that big-boobed slut from the Sir William Wallace wants him, she can have him.’
‘What big-boobed slut?’
‘The Captain. The one who saved him. Kicked up a stink remember.’
‘Oh right, I have never met her.’
‘Well she definitely likes him, that’s for sure.’
Amanda left Hailey alone at the table.
Chapter 15
Amanda was standing on the other side of Steven’s desk, and he wasn’t in a good mood.
‘Babes tells me you are thinking of having Charlie sanctioned.’
‘It had crossed my mind.’
‘You won’t; you had no right to that information in the first place.’
‘Take that up with Charlie, Steven.’
‘I have already taken Charlie to task for it Amanda.’
Amanda looked down her nose at him, ‘How did that go for you? I bet it wasn’t pleasant.’
‘Charlie apologised and gave me his reasons for telling you.’
‘He apologised! Charlie apologised… I don’t believe that.’
‘Well he did. I accepted his apology and the reasons behind his actions.’
‘May I ask what they were, those reasons?’
‘He told me that you had taken a bit of a shine to him.’
‘That’s a lie!’
‘Do I have to play back a recording of you and Hailey’s conversation just before Charlie arrived?’
‘I thought you didn’t do that kind of thing?’ She snapped, her face turning scarlet.
‘I normally don’t, but I wanted to see if there was any truth in what he was saying. You were considering having a relationship with him. That is a fact.’
‘How does he always know?’
‘Take a seat Amanda.’
She sat down. ‘I am sorry S
teven. That man is so bloody good at reading body language; it is sometimes terrifying.’
Steven smiled a little, ‘I have been on the receiving end of that so many times, you don’t have to tell me.’
‘So he was able to tell I fancied him. What else did he say?’
‘He said that there was no way you would ever be able to have a relationship with him if you knew the truth.’
‘Then he didn’t fancy me back, is that why he told me?’
‘No, that wasn’t it. How did he put it?’ Steven had a wee think. ‘Babes, play that scene for us will you.’
‘Yes my heart.’
Charlie and Steven appeared on screen. Charlie was sitting where she was now. He sat forward.
‘She is a lovely woman Stevie. If I went out with her, I have a feeling that would be it for me.’
‘Is that not a good thing Charlie?’
‘She is a Doctor man. She’s been fishing for who was responsible for the deaths of all those civilians for years now.’
‘Aye, but couldn’t you have concealed it from her?’
‘This is the kind of shit that always comes back to bite you on the arse Stevie. It’s the same kind of shit that brought me to this state, more machine than man.’
Steven had scratched his head, ‘That’s a valid point I suppose.’
Charlie pressed his opinion home. ‘What if, ten years from now, we were happily married with kids, and this came up. There is no way she would accept the situation; then what? Divorce on a starship light years from home. I couldn’t do that to her Stevie, I have far too much respect for her. At least this way, if she came to terms with it, then I know we would start a relationship with nothing hidden. You get what I mean?’
‘Aye Charlie, I get you now. You broke a lot of rules though.’
‘She is an officer in the army Stevie, a trusted workmate. She won’t do anything stupid or reveal top secret classified information. You can trust her.’
‘I do. I am still going to have to punish you though.’
‘Peeling spuds is it?’
‘You can take my shift tonight. That will give me a chance to catch up on some other work.’
