by Dave Walsh
Professor Cox took another bite from the apple. His words hung in the air for a moment while Jonah digested them. Jonah was still pacing before he stopped and looked at the professor on the chair. This felt like old times, and it was comforting and familiar. The ominous feeling of the Sword of Damocles dangling over his head faded, even if just for a second. Professor Cox eating an apple, getting his shirt snagged, Jonah pacing. This was a life that he once knew.
“Well, fuck,” Jonah said, feeling uneasy, but knowing that there was no other choice. “Let’s just fucking do this then. Is there any way that you can send a message to your contact that we’ll be coming? I don’t want to be stopped.”
“We should be okay. We just need to play it cool. I’ll find one of my guys when we get there. We’ll need to just -- I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Just do this.”
* * *
It felt alien yet familiar to see those halls again. Jonah felt overwhelmed to see the same Omega hallways that he had traversed for his entire life, but to see them in a new light. He had lived on Andlios for well over two cycles, and it was home now. This was a fragmented memory, a waking nightmare in a way.
Professor Cox wasn’t. No, he was a good friend, and it felt good to see him. He still knew him as Jonah, but Ingen barely remembered what it was like to be that guy who grew up on the Omega Destiny because he was Ingen now, a Krigan warrior.
They walked undisturbed through the halls. There was definitely less activity than he ever remembered. A part of him wondered if it was because of the few who went to live in Speera, but Speera was still small, leaving hundreds of thousands of lost souls aboard the Omega. If this didn’t work, if his plan somehow failed, all of these faces surrounding him right now would be no more.
He gulped hard while Professor Cox continued casually strolling in front of him, munching on his apple No one would think anything of it, outside of his Krigan pulseaxe strapped to his back. Hell, this wasn’t just any Krigan pulseaxe -- this was the Krigan pulseaxe worn by the leader of all Krigans. Jonah was a king of sorts, walking amongst mortals. He chuckled to himself, hoping that people would ignore it or write it off as some sort of memento from planetside.
They were in the A-Block, which meant that wealth and souvenirs from the planet weren’t unheard of, he figured. He bet that they got a kick out of them, referred to them as savages, uncivilized cretins who swung big axes and were mowed down by Earth forces. Jonah could feel his blood beginning to boil at the thought, but he tried to remind himself to remain calm, that they had to remain innocuous until they reached the bridge.
Walking through the posh A-Deck after living in a cave for so long was a culture shock for Ingen. He had lived simply the whole time, struggling to get by, while on the A-Deck, life simply went on like it did before. There were signs up celebrating the yearly Culture Festival that was a few weeks away, a gathering for the rich and famous aboard the Omega Destiny that Jonah had remembered writing a report about for his job in what felt like a lifetime ago.
These people may have turned their noses up at him in the past, but he was trying to save them now, to free them. These people had never cared about Jonah Freeman, but he wanted to give them a better life, to give them the same opportunities that everyone else had, even if it was going to cost him his own life. He let out a sigh and shook his head as they continued down the hall, which felt increasingly longer with each step. So much of what he had done before felt like it was about other people, but it was really about him. He doubted himself still because of those indiscretions, but he had to be sure of himself now more than ever.
“Jonah?” an uncertain voice called from behind them. Jonah cringed, pushing on Professor Cox’s back.
“Keep moving,” Cox whispered. Jonah nodded.
“Oh my god,” the voice screeched. He knew the voice, and he knew it well. It was Kara, but they had to keep moving. They couldn’t let this slow them down. “Jonah, what the fuck?”
“I, uh,” he coughed out, trying to hide his voice. “I don’t know who you are talking about.”
“Oh fuck you,” she snarled. “You fucking piece of shit. I thought that you were dead, Jonah!”
Jonah turned to face her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy. She stood there, wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top. “Didn’t I mean anything to you?”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered.
“You have longer hair. You have that beard,” she cried in between sobs. “But I know your face, Jonah. I know you.”
“Kara...”
“Fucking hell, man,” Professor Cox blurted out. “We don’t have time for this!”
Jonah knew that Professor Cox was right, but he looked over at Kara, who was a sobbing mess, and his heart burned in his chest. It was guilt, for sure, but also longing. He had never meant to hurt her. In fact, she had hurt him so much, and things between them were so complicated that he had done his best to forget about her, to make her seem less than human. Yet he still felt for her, still loved her. He had done so much to try to forget about her, but he still thought about her, still felt guilty about what he had stolen from her. No matter how she had made him feel, he had no right to do what he did to her family.
“Go on ahead,” Jonah said as he turned to Professor Cox. “Get everything ready. I’ll be right there, I promise.”
“Do you know where to go from here?”
“Yeah.” He turned and looked at Kara. “I’ve been to the Ministry wing before -- only once, though.”
“Okay. The professor shook his head, taking another bite of his apple out of impulse. “Be fast, Jonah. This is bigger than you or me. It's bigger than her.”
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
“Jonah, I don’t understand,” she said as she looked up at him. Jonah quickly wrapped his arms around her. “I thought you were dead. What about all of the things that they said about you? About my father? Jonah, I --”
“Kara, look.” He grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her back so he could look into her eyes. “Look at me. Please.” She looked up at him, eyes red, glassy. “Kara, I’m sorry.”
“Oh, Jonah.” She broke out into a hysterical crying fit as Jonah stood in the middle of the giant hallway, holding her tight with her pulseaxe strapped to his back.
“Kara, I didn’t mean for anything to happen. I found out about the affair and, well, I...”
“I don’t understand.” Her hazel eyes looked right through him. “What affair?”
“You mean it didn’t get out? Jesus.” He let her go, putting his hand over his mouth and pacing back and forth. “What did they say, Kara?”
“They said,” she sniffled, “that you were trying to blackmail him for your own freedom. They said that you were going to hurt me and...”
“What?” he shouted, before looking around and trying to contain his anger. “What? Kara, I’d never hurt you. I’d never intentionally...”
He paused, thinking back to his plan, to him stealing the data from her father’s study. Maybe he had stopped thinking about her as a human being, as a person. Maybe he had simply seen her as a pawn for him to play with. “Oh, Kara,” he finally let out. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“Jonah, where have you been? They said you were dead.”
“As far as anyone knows,” he said, “I’m dead. I’m dead to these people. My name is Ingen now. Kara, I had always felt that you were really shitty to me.”
She let out a loud sob.
“No, wait, please. Just listen. You hurt me a lot. I understand now. I understand that you weren’t ready for what we had. I’m sorry, Kara. I pushed you too hard. I was wrong, Kara. I hurt you -- I know that. I wasn’t perfect, either. I fucked up, Kara. I fucked up.”
“I never meant to do anything,” she sobbed. “I don’t under --”
“Please, listen. I don’t have much time. I did some things that weren’t great -- I can see that now. No one was ever supposed to get hurt, though, Kara. I was d
oing what was best for everyone, for everyone aboard this ship -- I thought -- I just got so caught up in it that I forgot about trying to be a decent person. Kara, I know that I fucked up, but you gotta believe that I didn’t...”
“No!” She tugged away from him. “What happened to my father, Jonah? Tell me!”
“Look, Kara.” He looked around, noting everyone’s eyes on them. “Please, calm down. If they find me...”
“If they find you, what?” she shouted. “Get your fucking hands off of me. Tell me what happened!”
“Ma’am,” a man said as he walked over toward them. “Are you okay? Is he hurting you?”
“I’m fine!” she shouted.
“Okay, okay,” he said, backing off.
“Kara, please,” Jonah said in a hushed tone. “I need you to understand, okay? I need you to understand that...”
“Sir,” a voice came from behind him.
“What?” Jonah turned around, only to find himself staring down two Ministry officers, guns pointed at him. “Oh, fuck.”
“Sir,” the officer said as he grit his teeth. “Put the weapon down and leave that girl alone.”
“Weapon?” He remembered the pulseaxe on his back. “It’s just ornamental, okay?”
“Put the weapon down and get on the ground,” he ordered.
“You don’t want to do this,” he muttered, his hands in the air. He slowly reached for the strap on his pulseaxe, unlatched it and took the hilt in his hand. “This is all just a misunderstanding. I’m just having a conversation with her.”
“Sir, I repeat, put the weapon down and get on the ground,” the first officer said as he jabbed his gun into his chest.
He sighed, shaking his head. “I told you not to do that.”
In one swift motion, Jonah brought the ax up in an arc, and the flash of the blade caught them off guard. The ax head moved up, a quick harbinger of death and destruction. The blade caught the first guard right under his right arm, slicing through flesh, bone and uniform cleanly. Blood splattered out from the wound, and the man cried out but it was too late; it had cleaved clean through him. His body hit the ground, and the giant, gaping wound was gushing blood before the second guard could react.
Jonah used the nozzle of the pulseaxe and smashed it against the officer's forehead, knocking him back. The officer dropped his gun, and it clanged against the cold metal floor. The officer recovered and tried to wrestle for his holoscanner to send an alert. Jonah acted quickly, kneeing him in the groin and sending him doubling over before lifting the pulseaxe high above his head. Kara screamed out for him to stop, but it was too late. The ax came crashing down, connecting with the back of the officer’s head and cutting cleanly through with a splat and a thud.
Jonah was breathing heavy, looking at the chaos surrounding him. “My god,” he muttered under his breath. “What have I done? Kara?” He turned to see her, covered in blood, scrambling on the floor for the gun. “Kara?”
“Jonah, get away from me!” she screamed, gun outstretched in her hands, pointed at him. “Get away from me, you monster!”
“No, Kara.” He shook his head, wiping blood off of his brow. “You have to understand, I just...”
“I said, get away!” In an instant, a shot rang out. He could feel the warm burning in the side of his stomach.
“You shot me?” he asked, more confused than anything. “You fucking shot me?” He felt his legs give out, and he fell to his knees, dropping his pulseaxe on the ground.
“Oh, god,” she cried out. “Oh, god.”
“Kara, wait.” He reached out toward her. “Kara.”
“Oh, god,” she repeated again.
“Kara,” he said as he reached out, fighting through the pain, swatting the gun out of her hand. She screamed and scrambled to her feet. He wanted to chase after her, but pangs of pain were rising and falling in his side. He also had a date with destiny, and he was late. He had to go. “I’m sorry, Kara. I’m so sorry.”
020. Omens and Portents
Captain O’Neil
Captain O’Neil paced in his quarters with his hands clasped behind his back. Today was a huge day, and he had no clue what to do with himself. “Act natural” was the only thing that he could think of, but knowing that everyone’s fate aboard the Omega rested in the hands of Jonah Freeman and himself was a bit daunting.
These kinds of pressures weren’t entirely new to him, that’s for sure, but today felt final. Things had spiraled out of control, far too out of control for his taste. Something had to be done and the only thing that Navarro and the Earth Ministry understood was force, compliance and regulations. If everything went according to plan, then Andlios would be freed of this tyranny, and everyone aboard the Omega would have the option of relocating permanently to the planet.
This was about many things, but it was mainly about the promise that O’Neil had made when he was sworn in as Captain of the Omega: to bring the people aboard the Omega to their new home, to settle the new world and bring hope to humanity. War and atrocities weren’t a part of this promise, nor was trying to wipe out this planet’s entire existence to suit their own needs. All of this had felt wrong from the second that Admiral Navarro had introduced himself.
O’Neil stared down at his holoscanner’s projected screen in front of him, pulling up a new message to Dr. Susan Brandis. He let out a sigh and stared at the screen for a while, wondering what he should do. What could he say? Things between the two of them had been strained for so long now, and he was never quite sure how it got to that point. Things got messy with Jeanette when he decided to finally divorce her, and somehow Sue got dragged into the whole thing.
It was all kept very private, due to Jeanette not wanting to lose her status, but Sue’s name had come up, and Jeanette wanted to blame it all on her. O’Neil had done everything in his power to make sure that it hadn’t impacted her, but somewhere along the way, Sue had decided to focus on her work, heading planetside and never turning back. He had always wanted a change, to pick whom he got to spend his life with, and there were those daydreams of settling down somewhere, growing his own garden and spending the rest of his days with Sue. They were just that, though: daydreams.
Maybe he hadn’t been considerate enough of her, of what she went through, and that she had waited her whole life to this chance to study a planet. No matter what, somewhere along the way, things got messy and O'Neil ended up alone, just him and his plants. He knew that his penance would be different than everyone else’s, but this day could be the day he had to pay that price for his opulence, just like the rest. And he was ready for it.
The feeling in his stomach was a combination of dread and excitement. Dumas and Hideo were helping him to organize the whole thing, helping him convey messages to Professor Cox and back. He kept Dumas and Hideo at the bridge, knowing to expect Jonah and Professor Cox soon, knowing that things could get ugly in a hurry. There were a few on the bridge whom O’Neil trusted with his life, and he had kept all of this a secret from them until earlier today.
He kept things brief, but he had explained the situation to those whom he trusted. Over the past few years, he had felt their uncertainty with particular orders, heard their grumbles and frustrations, and he was now giving them a chance to do something positive. They wanted things to be different. Today was their day to act, to keep everyone else in line, and let Jonah and Captain O’Neil do what they needed to do. There would be blood, he knew that, but hoped that the bridge crew would not be among those who tried to fight back against them.
“Sir,” Dumas called as he charged into the room. Professor Cox was not far behind him, with a concerned look on his face.
“What is it?” He looked up from his screen, at the blank message to Sue, and closed his holoscanner. “Wait, Professor Cox -- where’s Jonah?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he shook his head. “He was with me, then he ran into Levine’s daughter and told me to go on ahead, that he’d be right behind me.”
&
nbsp; “Fuck.” O’Neil could feel the plan unraveling. “How long ago was that?”
“Five, maybe ten minutes, I think?”
“How far off?”
“Not far. A-Deck, no more than a few kilometers away, I think.”
“Jack.” He turned to Dumas, who was monitoring a few feeds. “Anything?”
“I really don’t know.” He shook his head. “I’ve been scanning for anything. There was report of a commotion in the A-Block, and guards were dispatched just moments ago, but --”
“Fuck!” O’Neil let out, jumping up from his chair. “That has to be him.”
“There are officers en route,” he added. “Not ours.”
“This is bad,” Professor Cox interjected. “I’m sorry. I tried. I really did.”
“I know you did.” O’Neil took a deep breath. “This is on Jonah now. He has to get here. We’ll give him another five minutes. If he doesn’t, then I’ll just have to go it alone.”
“I don’t have the launch codes,” Professor Cox added. “Only Jonah did. What will you do?”
“I guess that I’ll just have to lie. And hope that they listen and let this happen. We have to improvise and think on our feet. Dumas and Cox, you two head back out there. Let me know in five minutes if he hasn’t arrived, and we’ll start this show on our own.”
“Understood.” Dumas said, saluted and left the room.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Cox added. “I really tried to keep him on task, but she was there.”
“I understand.” He looked down at the holoscanner in his hand. “This was something that he felt that he needed to do, and I understood that.”
“I guess so,” he shrugged. “I’m not sure that I really get it, but he’s fucking this up.”
“He’ll be here,” O’Neil said. “I believe in him. I’m not sure why, but I do.”
A commotion came from the bridge, and Dumas started shouting for everyone to calm down. A few screams emerged, and O’Neil quickly pushed past Professor Cox into the bridge only to see a bloodied Jonah Freeman, with a blood-stained pulseaxe in hand, hunched over on the floor of the bridge. The blood pouring from him was a contrast to the bright whites and metal of the bridge, and no one knew quite what to do. A few of the younger crew were up, with their guns in hand and pointed at him.
