by Ryan Kirk
Kindra was dead on her feet. Her sense of time had become distorted, and everything happened in slow motion. They were nearing the end of what they could do for the wounded, but until they reached that point, she refused to stop, or even sit down.
She was reminded, too much, of her childhood, and one of the worst days she had lived through. She and her family had been out, visiting the gardens of the habitat that her father so often took her to. Out of nowhere, a rebellion ship had jumped into the system and dropped an orbital bomb on their home hab, adjacent to the one they were in. The bomb hadn’t been big. Habs were strong enough for the elements, but had never been designed to protect against weapons, at least not in those days. All they needed to do was poke a big enough hole and the hab was immediately destroyed.
Weeks passed before they could return to their home, and her dad, when he could summon the energy, joked that Kindra’s love of plants had saved their lives. He was right, but Kindra’s love hadn’t done anything to save the hundreds of other residents. That day had been the first time Kindra had experienced death on any scale. It colored her entire childhood.
Sometimes, she was surprised she hadn’t become a medic. Looking back on everything in her life, she could see exactly how she had made the decisions that defined her. After that day, she had wanted to avoid death as much as possible. Some part of her must have thought she had seen enough for a lifetime. She became even more fascinated with life and how it developed, and had guided her plans to that purpose, eventually bringing her to where she was today.
More than once, she had thought it would be useful to have more medical training. Today was certainly one of those days. Their healing pods were powerful medicine, but they only had four between the two dropships, and they were reserved for the most serious cases. Others needed to be healed using more old-fashioned methods, and several methods which Kindra had no familiarity with. Everyone who had any experience with healing was doing all they could, and that included any of Tev’s people who could help. But Kindra was limited in what she could do and what she knew. Her role on a small ship meant she had a greater degree of first aid training than any of her colleagues, but to her mind, that still amounted to far too little at this moment. With more medical training, she might have been able to save more.
But that was why she had never pursued it, even though medical professions were in high demand at the time. She might save people, but she would also have to watch many die, and when she was younger, she hadn’t been sure she could handle that.
Her experience with Tev had changed her, though. Saying she was comfortable with death was perhaps too much, but she had come to recognize it as a part of life, and she had come to terms with the fact she had ended life herself.
Alston shook her out of her reverie. Their geologist looked at her with a concerned look on his face. “Are you doing okay, Kindra?”
The shock of Alston asking her anything forced her back to the present. In the years she had known him, she wasn’t sure she had ever had him ask her anything about her life, even as mundane as asking how her day was.
Kindra looked out over the wounded, seeing not only the pain, but the healing and concern that was present. “Yes, I’m doing okay. Thanks, Alston.”
He nodded, an awkward question taking a few moments to escape his lips. “I was wondering if you could use some more help?”
Would wonders never cease? The rational part of Kindra’s mind reasserted itself for a moment, and she studied their geologist. She had always thought there was more to him than meets the eye, but that thought was twisted ever so slightly, and she began to think there was far more to him than what she had believed. He was a quiet man who didn’t seem to have a care in the world besides his rocks, but he had continued to follow the rest of the crew of the Vigilance without any hesitation whatsoever, even when they had contemplated treason. Then her rationality slipped just a little, realizing there was only one question that really mattered at the moment. “Do you even know first aid?”
Alston looked torn, as if she had asked him a difficult question. “Probably not as much as you, but I think I know enough to help, if you’ll let me.”
Kindra nodded. “Please. If you can help, we’d be grateful to have you.”
Alston gave her a short bow, a gesture Kindra considered terribly odd, and scurried away. Kindra pushed the geologist out of mind. There was still work to be done. She went to the next patient, a young girl from the village Tev had gone to rescue. She had been shot, but during triage they had seen the bullet had gone straight through the shoulder, so she had been put down near the end of the list. Kindra cleaned the wound as best as she could and bandaged it with cloth strips that had been torn from spare uniforms. They had run out of bandages long ago, and if there were many more wounded, they would have to strip their own clothes off and dress as Tev and his people did.
When she was finished, the girl ran off, seemingly oblivious to the fact she had been shot. She ran straight up the ramp to the Vigilance, curious to explore the shiny object. For just a moment, Kindra wondered what kind of world they were going to build for the children of this planet. Would they be like Tev and be able to switch between two worlds, or would something different happen?
Kindra pressed her palms to her eyes, trying to force some energy into her system. Just a few more patients, and then she could allow herself to rest. When she went to look at the lists, she was surprised to see how close they were getting to the bottom. Had she passed out for a few minutes?
She heard Alston call another name, and her world got even weirder. Alston was working on a young man who had a bullet lodged in his upper arm. With deft movements, Alston pulled the bullet out and sealed the wound. His hands were sure and steady, and as he called a new patient, their eyes met. Kindra didn’t know what to say or do, and at the moment, she didn’t really care. Alston was helping, and that was all that mattered. She mouthed a silent thanks to him, and then called for the next patient.
They finished less than an hour later. There would be far more work to do in the coming days, but everyone was stable, at least for now. They could all rest and regain their energy. Kindra spent a moment looking for Alston, but quickly gave up when she couldn’t find him. She was certain he was hiding somewhere, but all she wanted to do was find her bunk and crash into blissful oblivion.
Kindra was tired of living in fear. The journey returning to Tev’s planet had been a miserable one. They had been relentlessly pursued by the Hellbringer, and one of the worst aspects of that chase had been the silence between battles. The silence wasn’t peace. They were still in constant danger, only hours away from attack at all times. Every time they jumped, there had been a degree of fear that they would be attacked as soon as they arrived, before their jump meds even wore off. There was a very real chance that when they went to sleep for the jump they’d never wake up again.
The only way to deal with that creeping fear was to do your best to ignore it, to treat every jump like it was routine, to go about your day as if there wasn’t a warship with the same destination as your own. Sometimes, you could even succeed for a few minutes at a time.
The fear wasn’t the kind that froze you in place. This fear crept upon you slowly, invading your dreams, making you jump at everyday noises. It wore at you, nibbling gently at the edges of your sanity. Kindra had almost gotten to the point where she welcomed the attacks, because then at least she knew what she was facing.
Their current situation was the same. The Hellbringer’s orbit had changed, dropping into a low orbit suitable for bombardment and quick dropship release, and Derreck was certain that Nicks was getting closer to the truth, if he hadn’t guessed it already. They would run more frequent scans of the surface, and it would only be a matter of time before an alert tech saw through the camouflage and ended this game of cat and mouse.
They weren’t safe on the planet once they were discovered, and they certainly wouldn’t be safe in space. The clock on their journ
ey was winding down, they just didn’t know how much time they had left. Like their race to Tev’s planet, they knew the final fight was coming, and the silence before the storm was more frightening than the event itself.
Kindra did everything she could to keep herself busy. There were patients to check on, and she rotated the more serious cases through the medical pods as quickly as she was able. The activity kept her mind off the impending doom they all faced.
There was also the mystery of Alston. He had been an enigma for as long as Kindra had known him, but recently, that feeling had become even more pronounced. Something about him was off, but she couldn’t figure out what. It was as though she was working on a puzzle and discovered extra pieces after she was sure she had finished it. She didn’t know how they fit. Part of her worried that Alston posed a danger, but as she went through all her memories of him, she couldn’t come up with any where he wasn’t polite and helpful. More than once she turned towards the Vigilance, where Derreck was keeping watch on all the events surrounding the planet, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She questioned her own judgment, painfully aware of the lack of rest affecting her thoughts.
Eleta would have been good to talk to, someone to share a woman’s intuition with, but she was gone. She had left with Derreck on his rescue run to be dropped off at the site of Tev’s battle. They were going to salvage every suit they could, giving the surviving and uninjured villagers the very basic training needed to pilot the suits. All of them—Tev, Eleta, the hunters, and the brand new recruits—were on their way back, but the progress was much slower returning than going. The pilots were too new and moved too slowly. They were still at least two days out. Xan’s group wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow, their own captured suits in tow.
Kindra was left on her own to stew in her thoughts. So she continued to check on patients, far beyond what was necessary.
The sun was beating down on them in the middle of the afternoon when Kindra saw Alston come out of the ship. He had been lying low for the past few days, acting exactly like the Alston she had always known. Kindra hoped he was just out to collect some rock sample, but his eyes focused on her, and she knew that wasn’t true.
The medical camp was bustling with activity. There were the injured, starting to move around more, as well as dozens of caregivers, both crew from Destiny and villagers. Alston moved without hurry, allowing a group of children laughing with joy to run around him.
Kindra held her ground, trying to act as natural as possible.
When Alston finally reached her, Kindra was just finishing up with another patient.
Alston began to speak. “Kindra, I just wanted you to know…”
Kindra held up a hand to interrupt him. In the back of her mind, she noticed that his speech pattern had changed slightly. It was more confident, more neutral than she was used to.
“Alston, you’re a mystery to me, but only one thing matters to me.”
He fixed her with an inquisitive look.
“Are you with us or against us?”
The geologist held her gaze as he answered. “With you. Always.”
Kindra was about to tell him something about that being everything she needed to know, but Alston’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at something behind her. Kindra turned around and followed his gaze. A hunter was walking up the main path through the camp towards the ship. She wasn’t sure what was making Alston so suspicious, but she looked at the hunter more closely.
A small alarm went off in her mind, but her rationality overrode it. There was nothing wrong with a hunter being in the camp. The man wasn’t injured, but that didn’t indicate anything. She was about to turn around and ask Alston what was wrong when she noticed something herself. The way the man walked was different.
The difference was subtle, but Kindra had spent a long time around the hunters, and one trait they all shared in common was the way they moved. They were always careful, always in balance, never stepping on a stone or twig without cause. This hunter was also in balance, but his motion was straight. His foot placement never altered, no matter what was in his way. The man was no more a hunter than Kindra was an exosuit pilot.
Kindra’s mind raced with questions. If the man wasn’t a hunter, who was he? How did Alston pick him out so easily? Why was the man here? Her mind repeated the questions, but she couldn’t find an answer to any of them.
She wasn’t going to get the time, either. The man who wasn’t a hunter saw her looking at him, and his expression changed. He knew he had been discovered, and he broke out into a sprint.
Alston grabbed Kindra’s shoulder and pulled her back towards the Vigilance.
Kindra, too confused to argue, followed.
The two of them ran, chased by the mysterious man. Kindra wasn’t called on to sprint very often, and within a few seconds, her chest was heaving, her breath coming out in ragged gasps as she dashed for the ramp. She had never seen Alston run, but he was fast, reaching the ramp seconds before her.
Kindra didn’t dare look back until she reached the ramp. Alston slapped the controls to bring the ramp up, Kindra tumbling forward as she lost her balance. She worked her way back to sitting, looking behind, expecting to see the man give up the chase. But he didn’t. The man was incredibly fast, and he leaped and grabbed the ramp as it closed. He threw himself up and over the lip with ease, as though explosive pull-ups were something he did on a daily basis. Their attacker landed lightly on his feet.
She knew they were dead. Derreck was several seconds away on the other end of the ship, and the way this man moved made it clear he would waste no time killing them. The man stepped towards Kindra, and suddenly Alston was there, moving silently between the man and her.
She thought the idea was brave, but she also knew it would cost Alston his life. The two opponents faced each other for a second before the tableau exploded into an action scene. The man struck out at Alston, but Alston wasn’t there anymore. The geologist drove his fist into the man’s kidneys, but the blow didn’t seem to faze their attacker at all. Kindra saw Alston’s eyes narrow.
The next exchange was too fast for her to see. Both men tried to strike each other, elbows and fists flying in close quarters. Eventually, the other man got hold of Alston’s wrist and drove him to the ground. Alston rolled out of the throw, coming to his feet with a knife in hand. The man who wasn’t a hunter grinned and closed the distance, heedless of the weapon.
Kindra’s wits returned to her, and she started scrambling away from the fight, looking around the hold for some kind of weapon. If they could just last a few more seconds, they could survive. But her eyes darted around hopelessly, the hold almost entirely empty.
The fight resumed, and Kindra couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her. Alston was attacking with a renewed focus, and if the fight was determined by who was landing the most strikes, he was winning, by quite a bit. Alston’s knife sliced and stabbed, red cuts and wounds opening up all over the other hunter, who paid them no more attention than if he was being bitten by a mosquito. Alston was tiring, and it seemed he hadn’t done anything to the man. The hunter, their enemy, landed a solid kick to Alston’s leg, sending him crashing to the ground, barely holding on to his knife.
Alston tried to struggle to his feet, but the last kick must have caused him more pain than Kindra realized, because he wasn’t doing a very good job of standing.
The hunter moved in for the kill, but then part of his head disappeared. Kindra’s eyes widened in shock as their assailant dropped to the ground, his remaining eye lifeless. She followed Alston’s gaze, who was looking directly at Derreck, who had just come in, a weapon in his hand. A weapon that was currently pointing directly at Alston.
Derreck lowered his weapon slowly, his steely gaze never breaking contact with Alston’s. His voice was cold. “Intelligence?”
Alston nodded.
“Figured. Are you with us?” The question was an echo of Kindra’s.
“Yes.”
Derreck studied Alston’s face for a moment and then came to a decision. He holstered his weapon and came to help Alston up. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just got tossed around a bit.”
Derreck looked over at the body lying in the hold. “Looked like he was enhanced with some pretty illegal technology.”
“Effective, though. He would have killed us both if you hadn’t shown up.”
The two of them came over to Kindra and helped her up. Kindra, for her part, was still trying to process everything that had happened. The fake hunter she understood. He had to have been crew of the Hellbringer. But she stared at their geologist.
“Alston?”
The man she had known was gone, replaced by another man entirely. “Yeah?”
Derreck interrupted them. “Explain as we walk. We need to get to the bridge right away.”
They walked together, Kindra helping Alston along the narrow passageways. He gave his explanation. “As Derreck has already guessed, I’m with Fleet Intelligence. I was posted with Derreck almost immediately after the rebellion.”
“Why?” Kindra didn’t understand. She had thought Fleet Intelligence was a myth. And Derreck was a hero of the rebellion conflict. There wouldn’t be any reason to spy on him.
Derreck himself filled in the blanks. “They were worried about me. I went on a lot of secret missions, a lot of dark missions that would bring Fleet down if I spoke of what I’d done. They tried to get me a desk, promote me so high I couldn’t cause any damage, but I refused. I only wanted to fly. Their only option was to send someone to watch me.”
Alston confirmed Derreck’s explanation.
Kindra was beside herself. Alston had already been on board the Vigilance when she had joined. He had been there almost as long as Derreck. She couldn’t believe Fleet would trust one of their own heroes so little. “Are you even a geologist?”
