by Dave Walsh
“Stand down,” O’Neil shouted from the doorway. “Stand down everyone. Alpha team, we are on,” he said loud and clear. There was a look of confusion on a few of the faces on the bridge; others nodded to each other and took their places. “Mr. Freeman, I hope your little detour was worth it.”
“Love hurts,” he said. He looked up at Captain O’Neil and laughed, hand over his side. “Then again, so does anything worth doing, I guess. We gotta do this fast, Captain. I’m losing blood here, I think.”
“Everyone, listen up,” O’Neil shouted, facing the people on the bridge. “Some of you have already been filled in; some of you are with me on this. The rest of you -- well, I simply didn’t know you well enough to know if I could trust you. Don’t be hurt by it -- just understand that the fate of many lives and even humanity’s future rests upon these moments.
“Today we oppose the slaughter of those on Andlios. Today we stop this pointless bloodshed, and we share the planet. We end this nonsense. If you stand with us, you are free to stay. If not, then you are free to leave. It was an honor serving with you, and I do not blame you. You are simply following your orders. I salute you.”
There were hushed whispers throughout the crew. A few quickly moved toward the door while a few others stayed, scattered among those with their sidearms out, those that were already in on the plan. “Good,” he nodded. “Everyone who’s left, guard the exits, and don’t let anyone through. I don’t care about their ranks or their orders -- you do not let them through. Jonah.” He turned to Jonah. “What happened?”
“Two guards.” He grimaced in pain. “I’m sorry. I had to. They were going to shoot me.”
“Looks like they did shoot you.” He turned back to the bridge crew. “Stevens, is the feed up yet?”
“Coming up now,” the woman said, intently focused on a console in front of her. “We’ll be live across all channels on the forward bridge camera in ten seconds.”
“Okay, folks, showtime.” O’Neil clapped his hands, feeling the knots in his stomach multiply.
“In five, four, three, two,” she trailed off before pointing to Jonah, who stood as straight as he could, a bloody mess, the feed now live.
“Greetings,” he began as he winced in pain again, forcing a smile. “You may not know who I am, and you may not remember me, but I’m the man who was once known as Jonah Freeman. I came to Andlios aboard the Starship Omega two years ago now. I came here with the same hopes and dreams of everyone else on the Omega Destiny: to come to Andlios and to find a new home. I wanted to live a peaceful, free life. I endured life aboard the Omega in hopes of things getting better.
“Along the way, though, I realized that something was wrong. We were being lied to.” He took a deep breath, trying to hide the pain while tightly grasping the pulseaxe in his hand. “The planet that we were calling Omega was not uninhabited -- in fact, humanity lived on this planet. It’s still not clear where humanity began or who inhabited what first, but what was clear from a few findings on the journey was that someone would be waiting for us when we reached the planet.
“Myself and others had done some investigating and found out that there were some truths being kept from all of us. In an attempt to uncover those truths, there were certain incidents.” He cleared his throat. “One of which involved Vice Minister Jim Levine taking his own life. We had something on him, which I’m not going to discuss now, and just wanted answers. Instead of helping us find those answers, he took his own life.
“Very quickly, none of that mattered, though, because we were introduced to the Fourth Fleet, Admiral Navarro and the reality that Omega was not Omega, but Andlios with human life already there. The Fourth Fleet was engaged in hostilities against the natives on Andlios, and everyone who came here with hopes for a new life, for humanity to have another chance, was seeing it go up in flames. With the help of Captain Peter O’Neil, I was sent to Andlios and reported to be dead.
“During the past two years, I have lived among the people of Andlios. I have become one of them,” he stated as he held the pulseaxe up proudly. “I am Ingen of the Krigan war tribe, and this pulseaxe signifies that I not only speak for the Krigan, but that I am their chosen leader. I’m not coming to you today as a Krigan, though, just like I’m not coming to you as an Omegan or a former member of the Ministry Military. I’m coming to you as a human being.
“You’ve been lied to for too long. You’ve been forced into a life of war and uncertainty when you were promised hope.” He motioned behind him, and O’Neil moved beside him. “Captain Peter O’Neil stands with me today before all of you because we all should stand together. What right do we have to come to this planet, to conquer this planet, to make it ours at the cost of their way of life? Those on Andlios are open to a peaceful co-existence with everyone on board the Omega as well as everyone from the Fourth Fleet.
“Andlios is not a perfect planet, and we are not the perfect inhabitants, but we have an opportunity now to start over, to do things the way that we see fit. We are here to break free from the Earth Ministry and to exercise our sovereign rights to live as free people of Andlios. You are all welcome to join us on Andlios, to live in peace and harmony together as free people!”
“Hold it.” The voice of Admiral Navarro boomed from Captain O’Neil’s office. “Terminate this transmission at once, and drop your weapons.” He was surrounded by five elite guards, all armed with rifles, all pointed at O’Neil and Freeman. His right arm, which he was clearly favoring, was heavily bandaged.
“No.” Jonah shook his head. “We refuse to.”
“Well then,” he laughed, grimacing when he went to move his arm. “I guess we’ll just have to make an example of you for all to see.”
“You could,” Jonah said, pulling his holoscanner from his pocket and holding it up. “Which could mean that this whole thing was in vain when I trigger this explosion.”
“What explosion?” he asked mockingly. “Some sort of public suicide? Very touching, but I’m not sure it will have the intended effects, my dear boy.”
“Sir,” O’Neil said as he held his hand out toward Jonah. “There are approximately four thousand nuclear missiles being prepped right now, all ready to go, pointed up here at the Omega and the Fourth Fleet, each about 300 megatons of force...”
“O’Neil!” Navarro barked, eyes wide. “Stop this madness at once! This is beyond insubordination -- this is treason! I’ll have you airlocked for this, your bloated body paraded around for all to see!”
“There won’t be much left, I suppose.”
“You are a madman,” he snarled. “You think this little stunt will solve anything? We have another two full fleets headed from Earth right now. Go on -- kill us, kill every last one of us. It will fix nothing! There will be more forces here in a matter of weeks, and Omega will be ours to do with as we please.”
“So you’d be willing to sacrifice all of their lives along with your own in the name of imperialism?” Jonah said.
“Do you know how many are on Earth waiting for us to clear the way right now? You were the landing party! My god, the ego. Humanity is still at critical mass and has a need for more planets to live on. This isn’t the only world that we’ve found, not by far, but it is the one best-suited. You wouldn’t dare destroy all of these people. These people look at you like a god, not the broken-down old cuckold that you are, O’Neil. This is about our survival, you fools!”
“I love humanity,” O’Neil said. “But if this is how we choose to survive, then humanity has no future, sir.”
“This isn’t the future that any of us wanted,” Jonah agreed. “Although Admiral, I will commend you on one thing. You are right. Blowing up these ships and making these sacrifices won’t fix the wrongs, and it won’t get us what we want. I’ve redirected all four thousand missiles to self-destruct, to destroy Andlios.”
“Jonah, no!” O’Neil turned to him, a pale white washed over his face. “They’ve done nothing to us. They don’t deserve this.”
“You have to be willing to sacrifice for great change,” Jonah continued, ignoring O’Neil. He had truly gone mad, O’Neil deduced. “I speak for the Krigans. I speak for everyone on Andlios. And we’d rather die than give our land to you. We’d rather die than know that a people so unworthy would inhabit the land that we love so much. We’d rather no one else have it.”
“You are mad!” Navarro shouted. “Stark raving mad! Who would want to get into bed with you? You are a madman? Andlios is of strategic value to all of humanity, and to destroy Andlios is to destroy the hope of --”
“Then there is no hope for humanity!” Jonah shouted, holding out his hand with the holoscanner in it, his thumb over the button.
O’Neil looked on in horror. He knew that everything would be difficult, and he knew that Navarro would personally see to the disturbance, but he never thought that Jonah would pull a play like this. Their lives were no longer in danger; now the danger was losing the entire planet and everyone on it. His mind quickly raced to Sue, remembering that she was on an expedition into the eastern mountain ranges.
There was a certain sense of peace that came over him knowing that he’d die for his cause and that she’d live on. But now that the tables were turned, he felt his stomach churn. He knew it was the right play, that Jonah calling that audible was the only move that they had left that could help them win this confrontation. They had to be willing to sacrifice everything in order to secure their own peace or else it wasn’t worth winning.
“Admiral.” O’Neil broke the tense silence. “We are ready to make this sacrifice if we need to. We are here to say that we no longer want to be associated with you or the Earth Ministry anymore. Let us live in peace, or we choose to sacrifice all of our hopes and dreams to make our point.”
“This is bullshit,” Navarro exclaimed, turning to his guards. “Just fucking shoot them before they can do anything stupid.”
The guards paused, looking to each other, and then looking at Jonah and Captain O’Neil. Jonah was hunched over, blood staining his hands and clothing. O’Neil was in his uniform, with his hands clenched behind his back, standing tall. The guard on the left of Navarro threw his gun down, cursing and walked over behind Captain O’Neil and Jonah. A second followed.
“What are you doing?” Navarro raged, looking like a madman. “Kill them, kill them now!” The other three guards followed suit before the bridge crew threw their sidearms into the pile that was accumulating at Navarro’s feet. “This is a mutiny!” he screamed out, pointing with his right arm extended only to quickly pull it back in pain.
“Sir,” O’Neil said, shaking his head. “I disagree. This is not a mutiny; this is our resignation.”
Jonah raised the pulseaxe up and pointed it at Navarro. “This is the birth of the Andlios Republic. This is beyond your control. Now touch your Transporter Module, and get off of our ship, Admiral. Run back to Earth and tell them that Andlios is a free Republic, outside of the Earth Ministry’s control.” Jonah turned back toward the floating camera. “People of Andlios, People of the Omega Destiny, I give you two options right now: Come to the planet with us, build a new world where we can live free from this tyranny, free from the Ministry’s caste system.
“I promise you this: For as long as I’m alive, Captain O’Neil and myself will do everything in our power to ensure that everyone is treated fairly on Andlios,” he said as he clutched at his side. “If you do not wish to be a part of the Andlios Republic, you have three days to gather up your belongings and transport yourself to the Fourth Fleet, where they will return you to Earth.
“For the rest, we cannot promise you that life on Andlios will be easy. It will take work, and there will be struggles, but I promise you that it will be worth it. I have smelled the air, felt the breeze, seen mountains and sunsets. Earth is a rotting husk full of sick individuals,” he said as he pointed the pulseaxe at Navarro, who was standing there, gritting his teeth, unmoving. “Sick individuals who want to control you, to take advantage of you, to --”
“I’ve had it.” Navarro raised his sidearm, his hand shaking. He raised his left hand up to steady his ailing arm. “This is...”
“I could take your head right now,” Jonah laughed. “I could take it, display it on a pike on the planet, and there would be no tears shed for you. The blade of my pulseaxe is always hungry, Admiral, but today is not about you, and it’s not about me. It’s about these people. It’s about justice. I’ve already been shot once today,” he said as he moved his hand from his wound, blood seeping out of it. “What we’ve started lives on after I die, after Captain O’Neil dies. You can’t instill revolution in people -- to give them a taste -- and expect them to go back.
“Transport ships are already ferrying people down to the planet right now,” he coughed. “Krigans, Helgeans, Omegans, all helping each other for common goals, to make Andlios thrive once again. ”He moved closer to the admiral, gun still pointed at his chest. “Admiral, I need you to take these people back, the ones who don’t want to live this life. I need you to tell them back on Earth what you saw. If you won’t do it,” he began as he pushed the point of the ax up into Navarro’s chin. “I’m sure that someone else would be willing.”
They stood in silence for a long pause, with Navarro’s gun pointed at Jonah’s chest, and Jonah’s pulseaxe pushing into his jaw. The whole world was watching their every movement, their every twitch. O’Neil stood still, showing no emotion. He knew how important it would be for Jonah to look strong here. This wasn’t O’Neil’s play. He was helping and would continue to lend his support, but this was a young man’s new world, and they needed a strong leader, someone with unwavering passion and intensity.
Jonah Freeman was a flawed individual, he knew that. The image that stood before them all was a blood-soaked man with long, wild hair, a braided beard and an axe-rifle hybrid jammed into the jaw of one of the most powerful men in the Earth Ministry armada like he was just another guard to be pushed around. Professor Cox had done a lot to help shape Freeman, but he knew that for their new Republic to work, he’d need to lend a hand for the coming years or this situation was bound to turn dark very quickly.
They had to keep him aware, grounded, but to keep up this image as a larger-than-life crusader for the people. He let out a sigh before clearing his throat. “Admiral Navarro,” he said in a loud, clear voice. “I’m relieving you of command here.”
“Sir.” A younger woman who had been working on the bridge for the past three months looked up at Captain O’Neil. “Don’t you think that he deserves to die? All of the horrors, all of the butchering that went on down on the planet... someone has to be held responsible.”
He tried to suppress his anger at the question, knowing that it was a popular belief among many. He looked at Jonah, hoping that he wouldn’t act on impulse and take his head off while they were broadcasting this whole show to everyone in the system. He knew this video would get back to the Earth Ministry and knew what the beheading of an Earth Ministry admiral would mean. There would be no peace. O’Neil wanted to cry out for Jonah to stand down, but he knew that he couldn’t make him look weak in front of everyone like that.
“No.” Jonah shook his head, lowering the ax and letting the handle slide down his hand. He turned away from Navarro, with the gun still leveled at him, and looked at the woman. “There has been enough bloodshed already. If Navarro wants to kill me, then he can kill me. Andlios is still free, and Andlios is still ours, not theirs. He knows when he’s beaten. He knows that we are willing to destroy our whole world, to sacrifice our lives, to prevent them from getting what they want.”
An uncomfortable hush grew over the room. O’Neil let himself exhale. That was what he needed to do, he thought to himself, relaxing ever so slightly. There was a chance that this all could work out after all. Jonah Freeman was a madman, but he was their madman. He was a true believer. That was all that mattered.
Navarro lowered his gun, shook his head and groaned before
he tapped something into his holoscanner. “This isn’t over,” he muttered before slapping the Transporter Module on his chest. His image decomposed before their eyes.
A cheer rang out throughout the bridge of the Omega. O’Neil held his hand out to Jonah, who nodded, clearly a bit embarrassed, before taking Captain O’Neil’s hand.
“What we accomplished today,” Jonah shouted over the crowd as O’Neil motioned with his hands for everyone to quiet down. “What we accomplished today was just a first step. I understand being excited with this victory because this is a victory, but the road ahead is not an easy one. I commend each and every one of you who chooses to walk this path with us. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He reached down and grabbed his side. “I think that I need to get stitched up or something.”
The room broke out into nervous laughter before the cheers started up. O’Neil motioned for Stevens to shut down the feed, and she nodded from the console. He watched while Jonah pumped his fist into the air, pulseaxe standing tall, a symbol of hope. He let a smile escape, but felt a cold chill down his spine. Today was a day that human history would remember. He just wondered if he would be remembered as good, evil or simply foolish.
“Well done, sir.” Dumas stood next to O’Neil, watching as Jonah exited the bridge with the enthusiastic crew trailing behind him. There was an eruption of applause when they walked out into the hallway, at which both Dumas and O’Neil smiled.
“You too, Jack,” he said as he patted his friend on the shoulder. “Now we gotta keep this whole thing together and hope that we didn’t back the wrong horse here.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
“Never mind,” he said, shaking his head. “Just an old Earth saying. I do believe that we saw the birth of a new legend tonight, a new emperor.”
