by Gwynn White
The Vengeance would miss the Terran carrier, but that had never been its primary target.
Punctuating Katelyn’s thoughts, new light appeared in the sky and she cried out in victory.
From within the Vengeance, a brilliant light flared as an antimatter bomb merged several pounds of antiprotons with protons, turning the ancient warship into a blazing explosion of plasma, energy, and deadly shrapnel.
When scan was finally able to get a reading, it confirmed what they had hoped. The Terran fighters and elephants were all but wiped out. The path to the carrier was clear.
The eight rocks accelerated toward the Normandy, bracketing it, giving the carrier nowhere to turn. The carrier and what few fighters remained turned all of their beams on the asteroids, and a sea of missiles arced toward them.
The pilots of the 52nd squadron watched in horror as the Diskers detonated an antimatter bomb inside the decrepit old hulk. Now they saw that the action had cleared the way for their eight rock pushers to move in on the Normandy.
The carrier was throwing everything it had at the approaching asteroids, and the few fighters who had survived the Pathfinder’s explosion were attempting to disable the tugs.
Crassus obeyed the order without further protest, and Joe set his plot and his fighter began ramping up its boost. He looked over the combat net and saw that every pilot had followed suit. No one was going to play it safe while their carrier was under such an imminent threat.
Ahead, the remnants of the Disker armada created a protective screen around the tugs, and a new batch of civilian ships, emboldened by their fellow’s success, broke from the blockade and moved to intercept the 52nd squadron.
Joe gritted his teeth, clenching down on the soft membrane filling his mouth as the force from his acceleration began to fracture his bones and break his cellular walls. The pain was intense, even with the neural blocks, but he wouldn’t slow, the carrier must be protected.
The distance closed rapidly and the pilots selected their targets, preparing to work from two sides toward the center—if they were successful, it would give the Normandy maneuvering options.
The tactical display showed that their timelines would be tight; the fighters may not be able to fully engage all the tugs.
Joe’s mind flailed for a moment, and then he realized what the captain meant.
He banked his fighter away from the Normandy changing his vector as steeply as his screaming cells could manage. On scan he saw the eight tugs and their asteroids, still pushing toward the Normandy, closing the distance to less than a thousand kilometers.
He wondered if they saw the fighters disengage; if they suspected what it meant.
Then a brilliant light erupted in their midst.
The Normandy had fired a planet buster at the eight asteroids. Point blank range for a missile of that magnitude. The wave of light, fire, and plasma raced across battlespace and beyond. It would wash over Ouke, then Makemake, wreaking havoc on stations and satellites alike.
Joe’s own fighter shook and rolled with the force of the blast, but his shields held. He looked at scan to see his squadron intact, but as the shockwave hit the disabled ships of the Disker armada, many crumpled and broke apart. Those that remained intact rolled and twisted through space in its wake, many venting atmosphere and crew.
The scope of the damage was hard to process. Makemake would spend years, maybe decades trying to rebuild.
Only one thought passed through his mind as he watched in horror.
I. Need. Out.
6
Breaking Ties
STELLAR DATE: 3223498 / 07.16.4113 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Makemake
REGION: Makemake, Scattered Worlds, Sol Space Federation
Samson sat at the head of the small table with a heavy sigh and nodded in greeting to Admiral Jeavons and Governor Dasha.
“What now?” he asked simply.
“We fall in line,” Jeavons replied, her expression showing neither concern nor remorse for the current situation of the Scattered Worlds people.
Samson’s head snapped up and he looked long into Jeavons’ grim eyes.
“You. You planned this all along!” he hissed, feeling his face redden as anger overtook him. “You set up this blockade, this failed attack. You sacrificed tens of thousands of our people.”
Jeavons didn’t reply, but her silence spoke volumes.
“It presented the perfect opportunity,” Dasha replied. “Our people hate the Terrans more than ever, we can unite them and they will support a rebellion.”
“A forced separation,” Jeavons corrected. “We can now begin a military buildup with our population’s support. They will assist in hiding our operations, and when the time comes, when the Jovians, Marsians, and others are finally ready, we’ll throw off the Terran yoke and finally be free.
Chapter Seven
The artificial sun slipped below the horizon and dusk settled in as Joe walked down the nearly deserted street. A cold wind blew, and dead leaves swirled around his feet, crunching loudly. He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, and watched as his breath frosted. It was not the sort of weather he remembered Makemake having, and he knew the cause.
He looked up at the night sky. Amongst the stars, the Normandy was clearly visible, still catching light from Makemake’s sun.
It hung low in the orbit the captain had originally intended to take up. No blockade impeded its progress; in fact, few Disker ships orbited at all. Ones that weren’t involved in the cleanup had left for better ports.
The street lights blinked on and he saw his mother’s home ahead, a large, rambling structure. Not quite an estate, but larger than any other home along the road. A pair of large maple trees grew in the front yard, a pair of swings hanging from a low branch. Scattered beneath them were various toys discarded at the end of a hard day’s play.
The walk seemed shorter than he recalled and he was at the entrance before he knew it.
He raised his hand to knock and was saved the trouble as the door was pulled open to reveal the surprised face of his half-brother, Seraph.
Neither man spoke for a minute before Joe remembered himself and held out his hand.
“Seraph, good to see you.”
Seraph looked at Joe’s hand for a moment before he clasped it for a brief shake.
“Joe.” I didn’t expect to see you here. I didn’t expect to see…anyone…”
Joe nodded. “Not a lot of folks about tonight. May I come in?”
Seraph looked surprised and then nodded. “Yeah, sure, of course. Let me get Mom.”
Joe stepped inside and closed the door while Seraph disappeared down the front hall. He slipped off his jacket and kicked the
shoes from his feet. The house looked and smelled just as he recalled; completely unchanged from his previous visits—though very different from his small childhood home back on Venus.
He peered into the family room to the left of the hall and chuckled as he saw two small girls constructing a doll house. Unchanged in every way, except for the faces of the children.
He wondered how many children his mother had borne, and was surprised to see, upon a quick check over the Link, that the two girls were the eighty-fourth and eighty-seventh out of ninety-one. He placed just ninth in her brood.
The girls looked up at him and one smiled. A frown creased the older girl’s forehead as she looked him up on her retinal HUD.
“Joseph?” she asked. “Our brother?”
Joe nodded. “In the flesh. It’s nice to meet you…Jennifer and Linh.”
They rose and approached him, expressions solemn, yet curious. “You’re from her first family, aren’t you?” Jennifer, the older of the two asked.
Joe nodded. “Yup, the Evan’s bunch we like to call ourselves.”
The girls were looking at him curiously and he wondered why when the voice of his mother called out from behind him.
“Joseph! You’ve come home at last!”
Joe turned to see his mother, Mary, smiling ear to ear approaching with open arms. He returned the smile and wrapped her in a fierce hug, reveling in the unchanged scent of her favorite perfume.
“It’s good to see you, Mother,” Joe said as they separated and looked into one another’s eyes.
His mother was just as he remembered, unchanged in the years since he last saw her—since his childhood in fact. She was tall, just a centimeter shorter than him, and her steel grey eyes appeared to see right through him, though managed to do so with love. Hers widened and he saw a brief flash of the same expression the two girls had. Then it was gone and she took his arm.
“Forgive us, girls, I need to have a private chat with this son of mine.”
Jennifer and Linh nodded solemnly and turned back to the doll house, surveying their work thus far. He overheard Linh whisper to Jennifer in soft tones, “he doesn’t look evil; I thought the Terrans were evil.”
Seraph followed them down the long hall and through the kitchen—which was occupied by several children cleaning dishes from the evening meal. A pie sat on the counter, most likely for a desert now put off with his arrival.
“Gerry, three coffees,” she called out to one of the boys as they walked through.
“Yes, Mom,” came the reply, and then they were in her office.
His mother ushered them in and then closed the door. She gestured for them to sit in the grouping of deep, leather chairs arranged artfully beside her desk.
They settled into the brown leather seats and no one spoke for several minutes. His mother looked at him long and hard, while Seraph’s eyes darted between them.
“I’m surprised they let you down here,” she said at last.
Joe gave a rueful laugh. “They weren’t happy about it. As much out of spite, anger, and fear as anything else. They know they may have to protect me while I’m planet-side from their own people.”
“It was no laughing matter down here when your ship showed up in our skies and made war on us,” Mary said.
Joe shook his head. “No, I imagine it wasn’t—though all that wouldn’t have happened if those—.”
“Don’t you blame our people,” Seraph interrupted. “They were defending their world. You killed them!”
Joe often wondered why Seraph had stayed with his mother all these years. He wasn’t the most patient person in the worlds. He didn’t really make a great father figure—though he didn’t really need to. There was always a crop of young men rising through the ranks eager to guide the younger children.
“I’m reasonably certain that I didn’t kill anyone in the battle, though I lost a lot of friends,” Joe replied, then turned to his mother. “Did I lose anyone else?”
She shook her head. “No family died over in our skies that I know of, though two of your sisters nearly did.”
“Who?” Joe asked, praying that they were innocent bystanders, not a part of the armada which attacked the Normandy.
“Rory and Katelyn,” Seraph provided. “They were on the lead tug when your ship detonated a planet killer.”
Rory and Katelyn. Joseph knew them. They hadn’t grown-up in their mother’s house at the same time as he had, but they had met several times during holidays and family reunions. They were, amazingly, the only twins in the family. Rory was always the serious and studious one and Katelyn a gregarious hot head. He had gotten along famously with her.
“I heard that tug’s pilots made it. They detected the missile as it passed and spun their rock to protect themselves from the blast,” Joe replied. “It was a slick maneuver.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Seraph said acidly.
“I’m impressed, glad they lived, and pissed off that they’d do something so stupid,” Joe said with a scowl. “The entire attack was moronic. Everyone knows that carriers have planet killers. Push comes to shove and they’ll use them.”
“I had always believed they needed an order from the triumvirate to launch those missiles,” Mary said, a worried frown creasing her brow.
Joe nodded. “Yes, if they launch them at planets. This one was far enough away to launch at the captain’s discretion.”
“I don’t know if that’s a distinction anyone not in the military was aware of,” Mary replied with a sigh.
Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door and Gerry entered with three cups of coffee on a tray. Joe took his black and stared into it while Seraph and his mother added cream to theirs.
That his kin were involved in the attack on the Normandy was not a fact that military intelligence was likely to miss. He suspected that his conversation with his mother was being monitored. It was likely why he was allowed to come to Makemake in the first place.
“Are you upset about the position they put you in?” his mother asked after taking a sip from her cup.
She had always been perceptive, his mother. He supposed raising nearly a hundred children and not having them take advantage of you made a keen eye and mind a job requirement.
“More about what they’ve done to you,” Joe replied. “You’re to be having some very uncomfortable conversations in the upcoming days.”
Mary nodded, her eyes filling with worry. “I know. I’ve already been informed of that eventuality. Luckily they have a long list of suspects, and I’m likely to just be a follow-up.”
“Are you not worried about Rory and Katelyn?” Seraph asked. “They’re likely to undergo corrective re-conditioning for this.”
Joe wished Seraph wasn’t here; was starting to wish he had never come. Seraph never could see beyond his own hurt, beyond what affected him.
“Why don’t you shut up,” Joe said. “What would you rather, that they rotted in a prison for a hundred years? That they were severed from the nets? I nearly killed my own sisters! Do you understand that? I was seconds, seconds away from firing on those tugs when the captain warned me off!”
Joe realized he was half out of his chair and saw that Seraph had drawn back, cowering in his.
His mother stood and spoke kindly to her younger son. “Seraph, I think you should go. I’ll continue with Joseph alone.”
Seraph didn’t speak as he left the room, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hate.
Joe found that he didn’t care.
His mother turned back to him once the doors to her office had closed and held out a hand. He rose and she wrapped him in a deep embrace.
“It’s OK, son. These are hard times, and the family often does not do what you’d like—trust me, I know.”
Joe nodded and settled into his mother’s arms, the memories of a thousand hugs and comforting embraces filling his mind. He felt the tears well up, and a moment later he was sobbing on his mother’s shoulder.
“There, there love, it will be alright. You’ll figure this out. You’ve always been able to make your own way in the world. I know you’ll figure this out. No matter what, I’ll always love and support you.”
She spoke other comforting words and he lost track of how long she held him before he finally pulled away and wiped his eyes clear.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m just so sorry.”
“I know dear, but you have nothing to be sorry about.”
Joe looked into her eyes and saw nothing but love and forgiveness. This was why he had come, to have her tell him that she forgave him, that everything would be OK. And to say goodbye.
She drew him to the sofa and they sat beside one another.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked. She always had a way of divining his intentions. She knew he was facing a change.
“I’m leaving,” he replied.
“Leaving the Terran Space Force?” she asked.
He knew she didn’t approve of the Terrans, but he was surprised at the way she emphasized the word Terran. Did she expect him to enlist with the Scattered Worlds?
“No,” he shook his head. “I’m leaving Sol.
The Story Continues…
See what happens when Joe boards the GSS Intrepid and joins the mission to get out of Sol.
Pick it up for free here: https://instafreebie.com/free/ZNG8t
Appendices
Be sure to check http://www.aeon14.com for the full appendices (including glossary, wiki, and timeline) and the latest information on the Aeon 14 universe.
About the Author
Michael Cooper likes to think of himself as a jack of all trades (and hopes to become master of a few). When not writing, he can be found writing software, working in his shop at his latest carpentry project, or likely reading a book.
He shares his home with a precocious young girl, his wonderful wife (who also writes), two cats, a never-ending list of things he would like to build, and ideas…
