The meeting went on for a few minutes more, then broke up. Harry was at her side immediately. “Is that all true?” he asked.
“Yes!” Mio exclaimed, trying to hold back the tears that had suddenly come to her eyes. “Why would I lie about it? What do I have to do to get people to take me seriously?”
Harry gave her a sad smile. “Age ten years overnight?” he asked. “Twenty would probably be better though.”
“But I can’t do that!”
“I know,” Harry said. “How about this. When we get back from the assault today, you can take me and show me what you’re talking about.”
“Fine!” Mio said with some vehemence. “But it’s still not fair,” she added under her breath as she walked away.
* * *
“Thanks for coming with me,” Mio said. She looked around their position to the east of the starport. They were well away from anything that would be attacked; they were there ‘in case an easterly withdrawal was necessary,’ even though an easterly withdrawal wasn’t listed in any of the assault plan’s options. “There’s nothing like proposing the best idea in the world, then getting punished for it.”
“No problem,” Harry replied. “Trust me, I don’t think you’re going to want to be part of this attack. First, it’s dumb. It’s betting everything on this one throw of the dice, even though we’ve been doing okay. Also, if what you say is true, and we do have a traitor in our midst, this may very well be the safest place to be.”
“Hurray, safety,” Mio said bitterly. “I would much rather they had listened to me and done the smart thing. I don’t want to be proved right by having something bad happen. That would be even worse than being proven wrong.”
“Looks like the attack is commencing,” Harry said, staring at something through the one pair of binoculars they had been given. He handed them to Mio.
Mio put them up to her eyes, adjusted them, and could just barely see explosions at the edge of sight. “Yeah, looks like it is,” she agreed. “I really do hope they get the shuttle and are successful.”
“Me too.”
The two resistance fighters took turns with the binoculars, even though neither could see very much.
“I think our forces are advancing,” Mio said as she handed the binoculars over. “It looks like they may make it to the shuttle.”
Harry sighed. “I don’t think so Mio. Unfortunately, I think you’re about to be proven right.”
He pointed at the sky to the west of the spaceport. Two burning lines were streaking across the sky toward the starport.
“Oh, no!” Mio cried. “We have to warn the others!”
“How?” Harry asked. “We don’t have a radio, and they’re going to impact long before we can get there. All we can do is find shelter quickly from the blast wave that’ll roll through.”
* * *
Dawn had nearly broken by the time Harry and Mio made it back to the base. They stumbled into the central area to find 20 people conversing.
“There she is,” Garcia said, pointing at Mio. “See, I told you she would make it back; she’s probably the one who told the Terrans we were coming. Any time one of our groups runs into Terrans, she’s around. First, when we raided the arms warehouse, then the food warehouse, and now at the starport. We’ve taken massive casualties during all these operations, yet she’s come through with nothing more than a bump on the head. She’s a traitor!”
“Me?” Mio squealed. “I’m the one who first told you there was a traitor. If you’d listened to me, everything would have turned out fine.”
“Exactly,” Garcia agreed. “She was the one who told us there was a traitor, and then she proved it by selling us out to the Terrans. Tell me, child, how much did you get for the 60 people who were killed today?”
“I was with Harry the whole time,” Mio countered. “How could I have told the Terrans we were coming?”
“Is that true?” Ashley Beaufort, the tall woman on the ruling council, asked.
“Indeed it is, ma’am,” Harry replied. “Ever since the plan was first briefed, she’s been with me. Even if she had a radio, which she doesn’t, there’s no way she could have called them without me knowing.”
“Which leaves him!” Mio exclaimed, pointing at Garcia. “See? He’s the traitor.”
“I am not the traitor!” Garcia said.
“That is true,” Beaufort added. “I have been with him ever since we devised the plan. There is no way he could have told anyone, either.”
“Well, I heard the Terran soldiers talking,” Mio said, “and they said we had a traitor.”
“We may never know who the traitor was,” Garcia noted. “They may have gone up in the ball of fire the Terrans sent…just like our hopes and dreams. Go to bed everyone; we will reassess once we’ve all gotten some rest.”
* * *
The camp was quiet when Mio woke up. Although she was still tired, she knew she couldn’t go back to sleep. Not only was the midday sun shining down, but she also felt the need to do something. Garcia was the traitor, of that she was sure, but he had obviously covered his tracks well to keep from getting caught.
She needed more information on him if she was going to expose him for what he was. She’d probably need a lot of it, too, since everyone would take his word over hers. Mio would find it, though. She had to; it was the only way she could get the rest of the resistance fighters—those that were left, anyway—to listen to her plan.
Harry was already up when she went to get something to eat. He was sitting on the ground with his back against a log, staring into space.
“Good morning,” Mio said, startling him.
“Oh, hi,” Harry replied. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No,” Mio replied, opening a meal pack. “Too much on my mind.”
“Me too.” He continued to watch something only he could see for another fifteen seconds but finally said, “I think I know how he did it.”
“How who did what?”
Harry looked over both shoulders to see if anyone was nearby, then lowered his voice and said, “How Garcia told the Terrans our plan. It’s pretty ingenious, really.”
“Why’s that?” Mio asked.
“If I’m right, the whole setup was his plan, beginning with the raid to capture the operations officer. That was his idea. He led the attack, something he normally doesn’t do, and he was the one to find the shuttle schedule. Convenient, eh? Then he immediately turned that into an attack on the starport.”
“I don’t get it,” Mio said, her brows knitting. “That tall woman said she was with him the whole time. Is she in on it, too?”
“I don’t know,” Harry said. “I kind of doubt it. It doesn’t matter, either way; I suspect when he planted the shuttle schedule, he also left behind what our plans would be. Heck, for that matter, he may have coordinated with the Terrans long before that. They may have left the schedule in plain sight for someone to find, knowing Garcia had told them they would attack the next day.”
“Why would they do that?”
“It was a great way to gather up a bunch of our fighters, so they could all be killed at once. Your friend Dan made it back last night after you went to bed. He said the second bombardment round hit the other resistance group’s main camp, where the attack was staged. Their entire group is gone, as well as their supplies, including the main food and arms stockpiles.”
“What?”
“Most of the food from your warehouse raid was being stored at the other camp,” Harry explained, “as well as the extra weapons the resistance had. That’s all gone.”
The color drained from Mio’s face, and her jaw dropped.
“What’s wrong?” Harry asked.
“I’ve been to that camp.” She remembered the nice medic with the red hair. She was dead now, like most of the other people Mio had come into contact with.
“So?”
“They’re going to blame me for that, too. Everywhere I go, people die.”
Harry
gave her a crooked smile. “You’re not the traitor, are you?”
“No!” Mio exclaimed. “Never! I want them off this planet, so my father can come home. The longer they stay, the more likely he’ll be killed by them.”
“I know that,” Harry said, “just like I know you’re not the traitor, and I’ll stand by you. The problem, though, is figuring out how to expose Garcia as the traitor.”
“Yeah, that’s a problem. I was thinking about it, too, and could only come up with one plan.”
“What was your plan?”
“Well, we need more information on him,” Mio explained. “We need something that’s going to prove he’s the traitor. I could only think of two places. The first is to follow him back to the city and watch what he does there. We can’t do that; it’s far too dangerous, and we’d surely be caught.”
“In all likelihood, yes.”
“The other place is even more dangerous; it’s the same one where I got the information in the first place.”
“The tunnels.” Harry didn’t sound thrilled.
“Well, the missile system at the end of the tunnels, but yes, we’d have to go through the tunnels. It’s going to be dangerous.”
“If we’re going to win this fight and drive the Terrans out,” Harry said, “we have to expose the traitor. If the only way to do that is to go through these tunnels you keep telling me about, that’s what we have to do. Besides, I told you I’d go with you to see them when we got back.” He stood up.
“Are you ready to go right now?” Mio asked.
“Just let me get my flashlight and a rifle.”
* * *
“Behind the bush, huh?” Harry asked. He didn’t sound enthused. “Guess that’s why no one ever found it.”
“I wouldn’t have found it either,” Mio replied with a shrug, “if I hadn’t fallen into one of the tunnels. Don’t worry, though, you can get under it without getting zapped.”
Mio got down on her stomach and slid through after removing a firethorn branch that had fallen. “See?” she asked. “It’s easy.”
“Yeah, for you, but you’re a good deal smaller,” Harry said as he slid the rifles under the bush. “Just wait until you get older and put on some weight.”
Harry was indeed thicker, Mio saw; it wouldn’t be as easy for him. “Wait!” she ordered. She slid one of the rifles back under the branches and lifted, making more room. “Try it now.”
Harry made it under the bush and stood up. “I never would have found this on my own, because I never would have come that close to a firethorn.”
He walked to the door. “This is…odd.”
“I know,” Mio agreed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Mio, I’ve been to a lot more planets than you, and I’ve never seen anything like it, either. I don’t know what kind of metal this is, but it doesn’t look like any I know of. The workings of the door are…incomprehensible. And the shape? It’s all wrong. This door wasn’t made by humans, nor was it meant to be used by them. Whoever built this was taller and wider, I’m guessing.”
Mio walked past the door and into the tunnel. “The light switch is higher, too.” She pointed to the metal plate. “If you push that, we’ll get light.”
Harry pushed the plate and the green lights illuminated. “Interesting…” He looked down the passageways. “I’m guessing we’re not going that way,” he said, pointing to the chasm down the left passage.
“No. We could go around that crevasse, but I didn’t see much that way. Of course, I was kind of messed up and didn’t have much light, so I might have missed something. Besides, the other door is locked.”
“Locked?”
“Yeah—that other pad near the light switch is how you unlock the door. I didn’t know the code, though, so I couldn’t get it to open. Also, it’s in a foreign language, which didn’t help.”
“Really?”
“Yep,” Mio said. She pointed at the pad near the light switch. “Press one of those buttons.”
“Interesting…” Harry said again as he cycled through the buttons. He looked back at Mio. “No one knew about these tunnels?”
“Not that I’m aware. Well, not before the Turds got here, anyway. They found another door, so they know about them.”
“Well, this is a very intriguing puzzle, but we’ll have to save it for another day. Why don’t you lead on to where we need to go?”
* * *
Harry followed Mio down the passageway for as long as the light lasted, then he turned on his flashlight.
“This is a lot better with light,” Mio noted.
“We’re creatures of the light,” Harry replied. “We have thousands of years of evolution that tell us terrible things exist in the dark, and they’ll grab us if we’re not careful.”
“Umm…sort of, but sort of not. There is something that is…worse, somehow, in the dark here. You can almost feel something sneaking up on you in here. I think there are ghosts.”
“Ghosts, eh?” Harry asked with a chuckle. “Hang on; let me check this out.”
They stopped, and Harry turned off the light. Mio didn’t feel as scared this time; she was sure having Harry helped.
“That’s weird,” Harry said, turning the flashlight back on. “I don’t think I felt any sort of ‘presence’ but it did feel like the walls were pressing in on me. I’m not sure; it could just be that I’ve never been in a tunnel in the dark.”
“Try being lost in here for several days with no light,” Mio suggested. “You’ll feel it then.”
“No thanks.”
The pair continued for another hour, and Harry’s flashlight started to dim. “Are we almost there?” Harry asked. “All things considered, I’d rather not walk through here in the dark.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t so bad.”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“You’re in luck,” Mio said as they came to a cross-passage. She pointed to some words written on the floor. “We’re almost there. This marks the end of where the Terrans patrol. You should probably turn off the flashlight, so they don’t see us coming.” She put one hand on the wall and held out the other to Harry. “Hold my hand so we stay together.”
Harry took her hand and turned out the light, and she led him further down the passageway. They continued that way in silence until the passageway grew brighter, and they could see again.
“We’re almost there,” Mio whispered. She put a finger over her lips. “Shh.”
The pair continued on, creeping along the passage as the light grew brighter. They reached the door, and Mio set her rifle down on the floor. “There’s a firethorn bush, but part of it has been cut away,” she mouthed. “Follow me.”
She laid down and crawled to where she could see out. The missile system in front of her still blocked most of the view. Crawling further, she looked to the left. The other truck was still there, although there wasn’t anyone around it. She slid to the left and motioned for Harry to join her.
He crawled out next to her. “Missile truck,” she whispered pointing at the one in front of them. She pointed to the left. “Another one.” She pointed to the right. “Something else.”
Harry pulled himself forward to get a better look at the vehicle to the right, then turned and whispered, “That’s the command and control vehicle. That’s what runs the system. Those things on top are radio antennas.” He looked back, studying the vehicle. After a few moments, he turned back to Mio with a frown on his face. “I found your traitor,” he said. “He just walked out of the command vehicle.”
“Garcia’s here?” Mio asked, excited to get the confirmation.
“No,” Harry said simply. “Look.”
Harry slid back so Mio could get a better look. Three people stood next to the command vehicle. Two were wearing Terran Union uniforms, and the third was…Dan.
* * * * *
Chapter Seventeen: Benno
Commodore Ethan Carter looked around the damage to the P
uller’s bridge and shook his head. “I can’t believe the things you say you’ve gone through to get here, Captain.”
Benno bristled. As casually as he could, he put his hand near the pocket of his uniform. Below the cloth of his shipsuit, he could feel the rigid outline of the small pistol Captain Palmer had once carried. He looked over at CDR Ashton, floating a few feet away, facing the commodore. Her poker face stayed strong, betraying nothing.
Entropy was a law of the universe. All systems tend to disorder in time, and it seemed the more complicated or delicate something was, the more precarious its position, the more likely it was to crash and burn as soon as possible. Scientists thought of it in terms of impersonal mathematics. The military, however, had a very personal relationship with things going to hell at the worst moment possible. And that person was named Murphy.
Every service laid claim to Murphy. He was a soldier, a sailor, a spacer, and a marine. He was the silent partner of every plot, of every plan, no matter how intricate, no matter how many back-ups or alternate courses of action. Eventually, Murphy and his Law would get a buy-in. The only unknown was when it would happen and how catastrophic the damage would be when it did.
That uncertainty tended to keep plotters nervous, especially when things went too smoothly, too well. And thus far, Benno’s plot to bring the Puller into the central Alliance worlds and the heart of the displaced fleet, to try and trick that fleet into going with them to free Morgan’s Rock, had gone well.
The Puller had transited into the Magi system—home to the outermost central ALS world—and was immediately targeted by several Alliance Navy ships. Her Identification-Friend-or-Foe interrogation had gone off flawlessly, however. The encrypted IFF codes had not been changed, nor had the Puller been listed as lost, a deserter, or a mutineer. The first wicket passed.
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