Terminus Cycle

by Dave Walsh

  There had been so much happening that day that it was difficult to let it really soak in. Some branch of humanity not only lived on Omega but was putting up a resistance against the forces of the Fourth Fleet. The Fourth Fleet existed, just like the fancy new HyperMass Drives that cut their journey to Omega by 81 years and two months. Plus there was this technology that allowed for Admiral Navarro to be “beamed” to somewhere else, somewhere across space.

  The broadcast had ended, and press was barred from the event, so the briefing room felt eerily quiet and almost surreal. Most of his announcements and broadcasts to the entire ship were large events. Usually press and troublemakers were everywhere with endless barrages of bizarre questions. This had been an emergency broadcast, and everything was under the firm control of Admiral Navarro.

  “Sir,” Dumas said as he approached him, looking as worn down as O’Neil felt.

  “It’s been a long day, Dumas,” he said, patting his friend on the shoulder. “Go get some rest. I’m sure tomorrow will bring more surprises. Maybe they can make food materialize out of thin air next.”

  “Sir,” Dumas said before he paused with a pained expression on his face. “It’s Jim Levine, sir.”

  “Jim Levine, the Minister of Finance Jim Levine? What about him?”

  “Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, just found about an hour ago in his office,” he said gravely.

  “What?” O’Neil turned pale. “Goddamn it. We're days away from this all being over, and this fool has to kill himself?”

  “We also have someone in custody,” he continued.

  “Custody for a suicide?” O’Neil scoffed, shaking his head.

  “Well, sir, the man whom we have in custody had visited the Minister right before his death. In fact, he was the last person to see the Minister alive at all. We simply felt that we couldn’t be too careful in a scenario like this, with one of the Ministers dead.”

  “We’ll have to keep this quiet for now,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “How many know?”

  “It’s all over the ship, sir. Everyone knows.”

  “Damn it,” he said. “We’ll release an official statement first thing tomorrow morning about this, but until then, try to keep everything else quiet.”

  “Okay.” Dumas stood silent for a moment, mustering up the confidence to bring it up. “Sir, there is one other thing.”

  “Fuck, what? Is there a bomb on the ship set to detonate? This day can’t get any worse.”

  “No, sir, actually, this is rather sensitive information...”

  “The whole thing is sensitive! A Minister is dead!” he shouted, turning red.

  “It’s about Jeanette,” Dumas blurted out.

  “Oh Christ, is she okay?”

  “She is. We have a detail on her right now, sir.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “Well, she, uh...” Dumas rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head, unable to make eye contact. “When we searched the man in custody, we found a crysdrive on him that contained some sensitive data.”

  “Are you claiming that he had some sort of data on my wife as well as data on the Minister?”

  “Yes, precisely,” Dumas said, nodding and still unable to make eye contact.

  “What was it then?”

  “Well, sir, there is evidence -- rather graphic evidence -- that Jim Levine and Jeanette were...”

  “Oh, fuck.” He could feel his head spinning. It was Jim all along. How had he not seen it before? “It was Jim. Have you secured this data?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “No one else has seen it?”

  “No, sir,” he said. “As per protocol in such a case, I inspected it myself. No one else has seen it. Although it did look he intended to go public about this, like he was blackmailing Levine.”

  “Blackmail,” he said as he scratched his chin.

  “He’s asked to speak to you.”

  “After the day I’ve had? I don’t think so.”

  “Well,” Dumas stuttered. “He claims that he’s already set in motion alternate channels to distribute the video. Multiple independent channels – and only he can call it off.”

  “Sounds like some sort of terrorist threat,” he muttered. “Damn it. This is treason. Just throw him out of the airlock.”

  “I don’t believe that’s wise, sir. He worked for the Ministry of Communications, which means that he’s well-connected.”

  “Ministry of Communications? Didn’t we have some issue with some kid from there just a few weeks ago?”

  “Jonah Freeman, sir,” he said. “That’s who we have in custody right now.”

  “Well, goddamn,” he laughed, unable to believe the circumstances. “I’ll go meet with this Jonah Freeman then. One thing: Does the admiral know?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Keep it that way.”

  “Yes, sir.” Dumas saluted him, and O'Neil stormed out of the room and headed for the detention block. Finally he’d get to meet this Jonah Freeman, the kid whose name seemed to keep coming up. It was as if their destinies were intertwined somehow.

  * * *

  The brig was a cold place, deep inside of the heart of the Ministry Square. There was not a bit of light that could find its way into the brig, and the location had been kept a secret from anyone not assigned to brig duty or O’Neil’s trusted few. There had been rumors about the brig for as long as the ship had been operational. It was a place that was feared, reviled and the topic of many longstanding myths.

  In reality, it was a safe place, O’Neil thought to himself as he walked past the guards, letting the door close behind him. Dumas had given the kid his own cell, a solitary place closed off via an energy field. There was a bed, a latrine and a sink, with a haggard-looking twenty-something sitting on the bed, calmly taking in the surroundings. He was taller than O’Neil. His hair was messy, and he hadn’t shaved in a few days. O’Neil had seen photographs of him, but in person, he looked like he had escaped from their psych ward.

  “You must be Jonah Freeman,” he said as he pulled a chair behind him, sliding it in front of the force field keeping Jonah locked in and sitting down facing him. “I’d offer to shake your hand, but son, under these circumstances, that would be a bit difficult.”

  “Why am I here?” Jonah asked, his voice cracking at first but then finding his confidence. “I didn’t kill him.”

  “No.” O’Neil smiled warmly, nodding. “He took care of that on his own, I suppose. Honestly, I didn’t know Jim all that well -- his role on the ship was far from vital -- but the Ministry always felt that a Minister of Finance was an important role for humanity’s future.”

  “Typical,” Jonah said, staring down at his shoes and not making eye contact.

  “Of what?” he inquired.

  “This whole bullshit system,” he said.

  O’Neil could see that he was upset and possibly scared. Freeman was on the defensive and probably felt like he had nothing else to lose. He was another angry kid who felt like their ship was unfair to him, and O'Neil didn’t blame him one bit.

  Jonah continued, “It's the only way to keep things the way they are, to keep us cleaning floors while the rest of you decide every bit of our lives.”

  O’Neil let out a laugh, shaking his head.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I don’t disagree with you, that’s what’s so funny. Although if I remember correctly,” he said as he looked up at the lights, reaching back into his memory. “You started off as a caretaker, but through service, you were able to work your way into the Ministry of Communications, where you met Jim’s daughter, of course.”

  “I guess I did.” Jonah laughed to himself, shaking his head. “I didn’t know that I was that important.”

  “I won’t say that this is the first time that your name has crossed my holoscanner, no. In fact, you and Professor Cox were a topic of discussion for a while. You’ve done a lot for being a janitor’s son.”

  “Yet
,” Jonah began as he motioned with his hands around the cell, feeling a sense of anger surge through him. “This is where I am, even though you admit I didn’t kill anyone.”

  “Jim’s death is unfortunate,” O’Neil said. He was amused to see the boy squirm, but he understood the gravity of the situation. O’Neil knew that he had to play it cool, but after the day he had had, he felt his defenses being lowered by the minute. “Although that’s not the reason that you are here. The contents of this crysdrive, though,” he said as he waved the drive in front of his face. “Now that’s another story.”

  “Look,” Jonah began. He hung his head, looking away. “I’m sorry. I know that she’s your wife and all, but it was the only way...”

  “The only way to what? Undermine my authority?” The playful tone quickly left O’Neil's voice. “We are days from Omega-zero day, from history, and you want to undermine the Ministry. You want to undermine me.”

  “I know where we're going,” Jonah said. “This whole facade -- you think that we wouldn’t find out? You're leading us all into danger! The people deserve to know!”

  “Deserve to know what?” He raised his voice, darting to his feet and standing close to the field, staring down at the seated Freeman. “Information that we all believed to be bullshit, petty superstition from our ancestors?

  “You are angry! You are hungry! I understand that. You don’t trust us; you don’t trust me. If you believed this, why take a video of my wife fucking a Minister public and not take your truth?” he asked, emphasizing the word truth and letting it hang between them. “Make that public, not my marital problems.”

  “Be labeled a heretic or a traitor? No one would listen to me. I’d just be silenced like the rest.”

  “Being guilty of treason does make you a traitor.”

  “A traitor to the Ministry, not to my people, not to humanity!”

  “So,” O'Neil said as he slapped the sides of his face and paced back and forth to collect his thoughts. He had to admire the kid; he had a fire within him. “We don’t have humanity’s best interest in mind then?”

  “I’m not sure what the purpose of this mission is. I’m not sure that it has a purpose at all. Imperialism? Humanity needing another planet to claim and ruin?”

  “Well,” he said as he sat back down. “Tell me then: What was it that you were trying to get from Levine?”

  “I believe that I just got what I wanted, although I didn’t imagine it this way.”

  “Oh? Now I’m curious.”

  “Access to you.”

  “Now I’m even more curious.” He had to admit that he was intrigued. “Here I am, so I guess things did work out.”

  “In a way,” Jonah said. “I didn’t plan on sitting in a jail cell in the brig to have our first meeting, but I guess that's how life works out for us C-Deckers sometimes.”

  “Well, Mr. Freeman. You’ve defied the odds a few times in your life, and it looks like you’ve done it yet again. You’ve got me -- I’m here. If I answer your questions, will you call off your dogs?” He waved the crysdrive in front of his face. “I heard you had a backup plan to release this to the ship.”

  “I know people,” he said. “Not people of great power, but people who help those in power, and they all have sealed copies of that video,” he said as he pointed to the crysdrive in O’Neil’s hand. “In three hours, they'll simulcast it everywhere on the ship unless I tell them to stop.”

  “Thus destroying my image to an already on-edge population and effectively ending a career that I had already considered coming to a close.”

  “This isn’t about you,” he said. “This was my last-ditch effort to get an audience. These people deserve better -- they deserve the truth. Your career isn’t my concern.”

  “Collateral damage,” O’Neil said as he nodded gravely.

  “I guess.” Jonah folded his hands in his lap and looked up at the captain. “You said you were done anyway. Why? We aren’t even at Omega yet.”

  “I guess you’ve been in here, haven’t heard about the Fourth Fleet...”

  “Fourth Fleet?” Jonah asked, puzzled.

  “Admiral Navarro of the Fourth Fleet made contact today. Apparently we’ve created something called the HyperMass Drive that can travel far beyond speeds that we could have ever imagined.

  “This mission is now in his hands, and I’m but a captain who will soon not have a ship to command. I don’t see there being a lot of room in the Fourth Fleet for another captain, either. They want me for a ceremonial role, a public one, as a symbol of hope. Are you hopeful in my presence?” he asked sarcastically.

  “A fleet, as in warships?”

  “Correct.”

  “So that means that they did encounter life on Omega?”

  “I’m not sure that the fleet was brought here under that pretense or not, but I do know that they have made contact.”

  “I knew it!” Jonah hopped to his feet, slamming his fist into his palm. “I knew my hunch was right!”

  “Hunch?”

  “This is home!” Jonah looked down at the captain, unable to contain his excitement. “This is where humanity came from, Captain O'Neil.”

  “I didn’t say that it was humans whom we made contact with.” He bit his bottom lip. “How did you know that?”

  “Just research, theorizing.” He started to pace around himself, trying to contain his excitement. “The device that Professor Cox and I found, the similar devices that we found on the moon, on Mars, the gaps in humanity’s history that didn’t seem to line up...”

  “I’m not sure about all of that,” O'Neil said as he opened his eyes wide for a brief moment at the stream of thoughts coming from the younger man. “I do know that the Fourth Fleet is currently engaged in hostilities with the forces planetside and that --”

  “So our cycle continues. The violence continues. It was never about finding a new home, about saving the race. It was just about power, again. You watch -- this will be the end for us.”

  There was an awkward silence while O’Neil played with the crysdrive, moving it in between his fingers and not making eye contact with the young prisoner. Jonah slumped over onto the bed, cradling his head in his hands and letting out what can only be classified as a deep existential sigh. O’Neil didn’t feel much different at that moment, either.

  “Everyone aboard this ship deserves peace,” O’Neil declared, breaking the silence. “Regardless of whatever caste or bum role they were assigned. I never thought that I’d have any real power when we finally get there, but I always had this foolish notion that I could push things in the right direction, even a little bit. I know that you think that I’m some sort of monster, some sort of symbol for all that is wrong with humanity.

  “But I’ve never had real power. My power is this ship, this crew. The Ministry relies on me from time to time, but as soon as we hit that surface, the plan was always to establish new Ministry roles and power, for the continuation of our system that we had back on Earth and what we have out here. I know that all of human history led us to this system, but I’ve kind of always held out hope for something different.”

  He paused, asking himself why he was spilling his guts out to some kid in a cell. “I’m not really clear why I’m telling you all of this, honestly. It’s just been a long day for both of us, I’m assuming. We probably have more in common than you’d think.”

  “What’s that? The whole rat-trapped-in-a-cage thing?”

  “This whole blackmail thing,” he said as he waved the crysdrive in front of him again. “Was that about you searching for the truth?”

  “Yeah,” he said as he hung his head. “It was my only play.”

  “Oh, Jonah.” He saw that Freeman was looking for answers, that it wasn’t about harm or disruption. “You probably didn’t think too hard about this one, did you? Our own Don Quixote right aboard the Starship Omega. Our own noble fool.”

  “Not many windmills aboard the ship, sadly.”

  “Oh, you�
�ve found your share of yours, and I’ve got mine.” He dropped the crysdrive on the floor. “I’m going to level with you here -- not for myself and not for Jeanette, definitely not for Levine’s family, either.

  “I’m leveling with you, one noble fool to another, to call it off. My value aboard this ship, my value to humanity right now, is like we’ve been talking about -- as a symbol. If Captain Peter O’Neil can’t keep his own personal life in order, how could he be the man who led us to our destiny, to Omega? Do you see what I’m getting at here?”

  “I do,” Jonah said. “Although I’m not entirely sure how it’s my problem. This is all just a house of cards, and someone has to tear it down. The whole thing has to be destroyed, the image has to be shattered, for everyone to wake up. These people are conditioned.

  “Do you really think that they could live in a world with true freedom? These people aren’t ready for freedom, but they deserve to be set on the path to understanding it, to take it for themselves. The truth can set them free, I truly believe that.”

  “Like I said, the noble fool.”

  “Maybe someday, maybe years from now, maybe hundreds of years from now, but that’s a distant dream. Like you said, these people need a leader.”

  “Being a leader isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be,” he said as he tongued at his cheek. “Who could lead these people? Would you do it?”

  “What?” Jonah said. He was reeling, clearly taken aback by O’Neil’s question. “Me? Why?”

  “Oh, just seems like we were heading in that direction. Like I said before, you’ve got a fire inside of you, kid. You’ve got balls. You care about these people, and I’m not sure that you have all your ducks in a row here, but you and I just want the same thing.

  “Hell,” he said. “You are probably more fit for this role than I am.”

  “I was born to be a caretaker,” Jonah answered as he rolled his eyes.

  “And I was born to be a captain. I was born to marry that woman,” he said as he waved at the crysdrive on the ground. “As you’ve seen, our relationship is merely ceremonial and has been for a while. I should thank you, though. I knew that she was cheating but never quite knew who it was. Maybe I was trying to avoid finding the actual answer -- I don’t know -- but there it was.”