by Pirx Danford
“As you say the war is on its own regard is going well, how well is that exactly?” “Very well in fact. In the last two weeks of your imprisonment the middle decks have been completely taken over and secured and we are close to push into the inner decks. Although rumors about ancient powerful weapons the Benefactor is planning to bring into the game have surfaced. Shortly before being leaked out we just had learned about the supposed location of his secret armory. Our reports indicate that to our luck the weapons are not ready for action anyway.” My face must have become pale, because Richard looked at me in surprise. With tense voice I explained “While working at the treatment plants his technicians did ask me quite some strange questions. I fear that with the answers they got from me they might be able to put the weapons back into a working state.”
Horrified Richard jumps up and paces the tiny room in circles. I feel with him, but try to remain calmly seated at the makeshift table created from some boxes.
Unnerved and in despair Richard throws his arms up “First the break-up and now this. With you we are only four, any attempt to get to the weapon storage would mean certain death.” After circling some more he slouches down on a box beside me. “How in the world can I relate this to Irene and Ernest?”
I get up and examine the map.
“Marple, are you able to locate the position of Marks device and show me the position on the map?” And while Richard is throwing weird looks at me I search a pen and flag the position that Marple is displaying, after that I hand the pen to Richard. “Please could you flag the location of the armory?” And while hesitantly he steps in front of the map impulsively I add: “And if you do know where the resistance fighters are being held captive, then do also flag this please.”
So we both stand broodingly before the map. Richard asks “What is a Mark?” “Who” I reply “Its a boy I had promised to not forget.” “Anyway that position is where the training camp of the recruits is located.” The city wasn’t especially big, as the ships largest settlement it had to be regarded as city anyhow. “Normally only about a thousand people are living here, but with the troops it surely are more like a two thousand and the camps on the outskirts certainly hold the same number in refugees.” So nearly half of the ships maximum active crew capacity was here tightly packed at one location. I had to mull over what this meant for us.
The flagged positions on the map were located on the other side of the city in regard to our position, but were nicely close by together.
Probably for security reasons and out of a bit of paranoia the Benefactor had the weapon stash located close by, the flag was directly on the palace, but my gut feeling was that it was to be found in the basement. Directly adjacent his barracks and then the training camp compose the cities boundaries. Below the barracks the prison is located. Richard points out that if even a half hundred resistant fighters might still be alive, the most inhabitants would be discontented citizens without any fighting experience.
I look him up and say “Trust me, if we are able to, then it is our duty to bust them out. I have been handled gently and that was bad enough already.” He only shrugs “Either way this is just a suicide mission anyway.”
The tiredness on his face makes it clear that he is about to give up, the expression in his eyes resembles the look of an animal that is reaching the end of its death struggles. Again I survey the map and then put a flag mark on the treatment plant I had just fled from. Wily I smile at Richard and say “But its actually quite simple. First we have to go here,” I point at the plants location “then we destroy the weapon storage, bust the prisoners out and invite all willing recruits to follow us.” The disbelief in Richards face is priceless and it takes a lot not to simply laugh out loud. Then he shakes his head in sadness “Oh you poor child, the time in captivity must have driven you crazy.” In response I free my gun from its holster and put it in front of him. With a sincere voice I explain “There in the treatment plant is a fabber, a device I can use to craft equipment like this for us. Nobody will expect me to go back there, if we manage to stay undetected we have all time in the world to get everything we need in regards to weapons and protective gear.” Sceptically Richard is eying the small pistol, but then to my surprise states “I have heard reports in the last two weeks about the achievements of the new security service… maybe, yes maybe there is hope after all?” he ends his sentence in a questioning ponder. That moment I see from my eyes corner a movement at the door, there in the half-dark small corridor Irene and Ernest stay in wait. Richard notices my look and watches the two as they now enter the room.
“How long have you two been back?” he asks and Irene replies “We have heard the whole attack plan.” I try to guess what the two are thinking, but their still faces leave me clueless, so taciturnly I say “And?”
After a short glance towards Ernest Irene replies “Obviously this plan is total madness, we want in!” As I distribute the three completely charged shield generator to my new companions I explain their function and how to use them. My generator would not hold out too long, but would suffice in a pinch. In case we are detected while entrenched at the fabber I already explain the use of the gun, so the three would be capable to fight on the spot.
After that we sit together for a meal, there is some stale water and an oily bread-soup, which had been deviled until the oily taste was masked. My first spoon drove tears into my eyes and had me gasping, when clutching my water, Ernest raises his voice for the first time in my presence. His raspy voice gives him away as chain smoker. “We had tea, but that grew moldy in the first week already.”
Without a word I force down some more spoons of the soup until my stomach loudly starts rebelling and I begin to think that the reason for the many successful arrests maybe was for a completely different motive.
Just at that moment I had to think back to the history lessons in school. Space travel was constantly progressing and suddenly the limits for further progress weren’t technical but social. Social limits in account of ethical barriers as well as the understanding of human nature. All of a sudden anthropology received an enormous increase in popularity, after having been dismissed as irrelevant since the middle of the third millennium.
Right then sociology and psychology were deeply concerned with infighting, clashing of interests and simply too entrenched in unmovable positions to be utilized in a useful scientific manner.
The first attempts to colonize the Moon and Mars had failed spectacularly. Questions about the ethical side of colonization gained weight through the loss a many thousand lives.
Soon it became clear that the greatest challenge in space travel by now was understanding the machinery of human nature.
All of this came to my mind as it had determined my path through life, triggered by my desire to comprehend my families history. Comprehend, why my parents had me sent away from Mars below the age of ten to grow up in a university for privileged families on Earth.
Anyhow, I was a second generation Martian, this time thing were much better thought through, still the social imbalances that by now even divided the solar system were a stodgy fare.
Eventually I signed up for this mission, as I was fed up with not fitting in.
So now I am sitting in a hole, buried together with three strangers, fighting in a war I did not understand and any moment the space ship could break completely apart.
“Why are you laughing?” the two Richard and Irene ask at the same time and happily I reply “Because this is where I belong, as mad as it sounds it is true.”
Of course the three of them look at me like I totally lost it now, yet I feel the deep truth in my words, for the first time I am sure of the path lying ahead of me.
We had decided to wait until dark, so I tell of how I awoke aboard the ship and how the tribes from the outer hull banded together.
Richard and Irene speak about their well sheltered city life, which they decided to leave behind, when they learned about the injustices against the middle deck p
eople. Ernest on the other hand, as slight as he seemed, had been a gladiator in the arena.
This also was where is smoky voice stemmed from, an injury of his lungs had been the end of his career and very nearly even the end of his life.
I wanted to understand the reasoning behind doubting the very existence of the space ship, we so evidently were living in.
Asking this transpired to be a bad idea, only after Richard employed the impressive mass of his body to divide Irene and Ernest the loud argument between them ebbed away.
Richard indicated to the two squabblers to remain silent and explained to me: “The ideology of the doubters goes back two hundred centuries. There were periods in which citizens that still believed in the existence of the ship and the importance of the mission were banned or imprisoned. During my time in the resistance I came to belief that the whole thing is only a try to defame the people of the outer segments, which has gone completely out of hand.” With an intent stare Richard inhibits Ernest to utter the protest that wants to burst out. “Whose reasons carry weight doesn’t matter by now anyway, the ongoing indoctrination leaves not much room for any other beliefs among us citizens. Yet all of this has relevance in regard to the inhuman treatment the middle deck people have to suffer under. Some of us…” and he points at Irene “by now belief that the Benefactor is lying to us in regard to everything and so the ship and the mission compulsory have to be real.”
I ask Richard about what he beliefs in after all. Just asking feels surreal, before my visit to the white cell I would not even have dreamed of doubting something that was so fundamentally real.
Richard looks at me with a calm expression and then replies “I belief, that I don’t want to base my actions upon an abstract truth. There are fundamental ethical values and those have to guide my action.”
A weird sense of guilt sweeps through me hearing his words and nervously I fumble my gun. On seeing this Richard smirks and adds: “Sadly sometimes force is the only remaining possibility, if we want to survive.”
“Speaking of violence.” Irene calls from the door “Its dark enough outside by now.” So we set out. In the front Irene checks if the coast is clear, closely followed by Ernest. As he waves to me I carefully make my way upwards to the hatch. Looking down I am astonished by how nimbly Richard glides up the wall. When his head alone already fills half of the hatch size I doubt he can fit through, but unhindered the rest of his body follows through the hatch, which he then silently shuts tight behind him.
As I see the sympathetic house owners greet us unharmed at the back entrance of their house, I am run through by relief.
The route across the roofs quickly brings us back to the plant, also the alleyways and streets only are being controlled by a few patrols.
However arriving at the treatment plant we are in for a big and unpleasant surprise, everything is brightly lit up and a proper turmoil is going on.
We observe the ado from the roof, at the entrance to the plant we noticed pack animals, which were being laden with parts from the plant. “Marple scan the cargo.” I mumbled. “Helen, the measurements indicate energy cells. Oh stand by, there is an acoustic signal you probably should hear. I’ll amplify it.” In my ears the alarm sound, I already knew the fabber gave off when weapon parts were being produced, resounded. I cursed and then explained to the others. “This is ammunition meant for the weapons the Benefactor had been hiding, with this he will be able to deploy them.”
Marple reported more results: “I cannot detect any operational firearms, the energy cells are only located in the cargo.”
“Okay, we can handle this.” The others look at me in disbelief, but I ignore it and hand out two stun grenades to everyone.
“These grenades will send everyone to sleep in a five meter radius. Watch, first you have to flick this safety switch, then you press this button to arm the grenade, now if you throw it and the grenade hits anything solid it will go off.” As all three nod their understanding I explain my plan. “We are close enough, first we put everyone down there, then I’ll rush the entrance and you three follow as soon as it is safe. I will be able to get everyone missed by the grenades with my gun - I hope.” Richard objects “And if one of the soldiers manages to hit you?” I smile at him. “No worries, my shield generator should work long enough, they cannot harm me. But you folks have to remember using your generators too.”
With this we begin executing our plan.
At first everything works as intended, we had agreed on a throwing pattern, which in practice is working out effectively enough. The two remaining soldiers, watching their slumping down comrades in alarm, are being hit by my stunner, before getting their wits about.
The others follow with a few meters distance, as I hurry toward the entrance.
Suddenly shouts from the treatment plant and the street to the prison sound loudly.
I ready my gun and fire at the entrance without taking aim to barrage long enough so we can take cover at the pack animals. They appear to be donkeys, uptight watching our approach, obviously the stun grenades had no effect on them. As the other three arrive I ask them hurriedly to unfasten the load and let the animals loose.
A handful soldiers fall victim to my firing, before the five animals are able to flee the chaotic scene. With the gun in my left and still firing I set one of my explosive charges on a two minute timer and then prime it.
While jogging towards the plant entrance I turn my shield generator on, the soldiers lying in wait stand no chance.
A sword strike bounces off as well as two spears, wildly I shoot everything that moves until finally everything is quiet.
I signal my companions to follow me and expeditiously we move towards the maintenance room with the fabber.
And again I meet Gustav, who notices our arrival with eyes wide open. “Danger live firearm!” Marple warns me and a red overlay appears hovering over a silhouette behind the fabber.
My shield is still active and has a bit of charge left, while I pray that it will be strong enough to hold I bring the the opposer to bay. The shot rips through the remaining protection of my shield and sears my belly a little. My shot is unhindered though and the technician holding the gun slumps to the ground. Gustav jumps towards the fallen rifle, but is crushed under Gustavs massive body.
Right then a loud detonation resounds throughout the water treatment plant.
A short look at the fabbers reserves unveils that there is far more available in raw materials than we will need.
I set my gun on heat fire and seal the door behind us. “Now we have all the time we need” I explain with a grin. We laugh at each other alleviated and then start our preparations.
It takes the better of ten minutes to finally shut down the fabbers alarm. The silence does not last for long, as I just manufactured the fourth backpack a clanging resounds from the door. Of course the Benefactors soldiers are trying to breach through to us. Irene provides an idea which should take care of this annoyance. “One should be able to have a permanently triggered stun grenade.” “Hey something along this line is possible, wait a moment.” With this I have the fabber produce a gas cylinder filled with sleeping gas. After that I cut a small hole in the door and have the gas flood the hallway. “Now we should finally remain undisturbed. Richard could you be a darling and coax Gustav into telling us about the exact location of that weapon storage?”
With a grim face Richard gives me a nod and turns to face Gustav together with Ernest. In the meantime I have the fabber create three weapon belts, two stun guns for each of us and stuff the backpacks with stun grenades and energy shields for a hundred fighters. An additional twenty pistols fit into the backpacks after some creative shuffling. After short consideration I have four medkits made, which are a bit of a hindrance attached to our belts. Still its better to be prepared for the worst case in regards to the state of health of the prisoners.
Originally I had planned to avoid spreading too many data glasses around, yet with such sup
erior numbers opposing us we would need every little advantage we could get, so I have three more glasses manufactured.
First I explain the equipments manner of functioning to Irene and when she puts on her glasses she attentively listens to its introduction, after which she sets her glasses name to “Veda”.
Then we step up to Richard and Ernest and the scared eyes of Gustav greet us. As a matter of fact he had affirmed the weapon depot to be located below the palace and even better news was that a tunnel between the palaces basement would provide a direct route to the barracks prisons.
As final equipment I have two explosive charges made for each of us, then I teach Richard to use the equipment, while Irene instructs Ernest. “Oh it talks like a bug in the ear.” Richard exclaims on putting the glasses on and this stays his choice of name.
This time around I am not in any hurry, so I erase all construction plans from the fabber with exception of the spare parts needed for the water treatment plant. To be really sure I disable all data interfaces, so only if one would take the fabber apart it would be possible to link into a direct connection and activate the interfaces again.
I take a deep breath and tell Marple a command I had never expected to need. “Marple activate the warfare mode.” Instantly my field of vision is changed, everything is tainted in grayish green hues, my three battle companions are being shown in dark green. Gustav and the unconscious technician are being shown as grayish yellow schemes and are marked with a symbol indicating captivity. Behind the door in the hallway at least a dozen dark red silhouettes are shown lieing on the ground, above them float sleep indicators, which looks just like a scenery straight from a comic.
“Don’t be startled.” I hail to the others to then command “Marple, create a squad.” Instantly I see status bars for Richard, Irene and Ernest. Baffled exclaiming affirms that their data glasses had switched to warfare mode automatically. I explain how we now can employ the data glasses for the maximal benefit in the fighting ahead of us. One by one I shake hands with each of the three, before turning off the sleeping gas and welding open the door. We look at each other once again with stout expressions, then we step out and come over the waiting soldiers like angry demigods.
