The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  “Get ready,” Sarah’s guide said, drawing her out of her thoughts.

  When she stole a peek over the side of the freight car she was startled to see they were now in the city. She didn’t know how much time had passed, she had been lost in her own thoughts.

  “We’re going to slow down in about thirty seconds,” her guide said. “That’s our cue. You will have ten seconds to jump. If you don’t, your next stop will be the main unloading yard.”

  “I understand,” Sarah said with a steely tone to her voice. She had just seen the Elder’s large tower in the center of the city. They were still too far away to see the Governor’s building, but she knew it was there.

  As the train slowed Sarah stumbled forward. After steadying herself, she looked up to see the surrounding buildings were going past very slowly. The train had almost come to a complete stop in seconds. Movement to her left drew her eye. Her guide was already in the air. Looking back out, she saw a small gap in the buildings. This was her only opening. Grinding her teeth together, Sarah quickly moved to the edge of the carriage. Placing her arms on its side, she jumped with her legs and pushed with her hands.

  As she hit the ground she tucked her head down and went into a roll. The landing still sent a painful jolt through her body. She lay still for several seconds as she tried to catch her breath.

  “Come on,” her guide said from just a few inches away. “We can’t stay here. Someone will ask questions if they see us.”

  Opening her eyes, Sarah saw her guide was leaning over her, holding out his hand. She gratefully took it and then heaved herself up onto her feet. “Where are we going now?” she asked.

  “A safe house,” her guide answered. “From there I can get a message to the leaders of the Resistance. They will tell us where we will meet them. If they decide to meet you.”

  “I thought they already had,” Sarah said.

  “I got the go ahead to bring you into Washington,” Her guide said. “I don’t have any orders beyond that.”

  “I see,” Sarah replied.

  “Just follow me and stay quiet,” her guide said.

  Sarah nodded and fell in behind him. As they made their way through the city, Sarah kept her eyes open. Washington was a strange place. It was a hodgepodge of old and modern buildings. Some were built from wooden boards, ones that looked to be at least a hundred years old. Others were constructed from permacrete and still others from a translucent metallic material that shone brightly in the sun.

  The streets were just as diverse. There were men and women moving about in carts, horseback or just on foot. Most of them were dressed in little more than rags. Every now and again, someone else on foot would appear dressed in very expensive looking material. Overhead, an occasional air car would fly over. From the ones Sarah could see into, their occupants were also finely dressed.

  “Who are the ones in the fancy clothes?” Sarah finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

  Her guide shot her a warning glance.

  “Come on,” Sarah said. “Surely people out walking together talk to each other on occasion.”

  “They work for the planetary government,” her guide answered, though he sounded unhappy. “There are certain perks for helping the Elders keep your people enslaved.”

  “Oh,” Sarah said. She looked at the men and women who looked better off in a new light.

  A few minutes later, Sarah sensed something was wrong. Her guide’s shoulders had tensed. Peeking around his large frame, she saw why. There were several men ahead. They were wearing the exact same body armor she remembered from her dream. Blackshirts, she thought.

  “Don’t look them in the eye,” her guide whispered. “Just act causally. They can stop and search us if they want.”

  Instinctively, Sarah moved her hand to rest on her laser pistol. It was tucked into her waist under the baggy shirt Vera had given her. As they walked past, she did her best to look down. She couldn’t help herself from glancing up once. Thankfully the Blackshirt was looking elsewhere. Scolding herself, she kept her eyes on her feet.

  “We’re past them,” her guide said. “They are questioning someone else.”

  Glancing back, Sarah saw that he was correct. The four Blackshirts had surrounded someone else. It was a girl, she looked several years younger than Sarah. Fear was etched on her face. “What are they going to do with her?”

  “Hopefully nothing,” her guide said. “Though who knows. If they suspect something, they could take her in for questioning. You don’t want to experience that.”

  Sarah nodded. She had read a few files from Alexandra’s memory banks on Elder interrogation techniques. Most of them were ancient. Back from the days when the Elders didn’t just kill their opponents on sight. There were some that were far less humane than the one she had used on Ranack. It was likely the Elders had passed on some of the techniques to the Blackshirts.

  “This is it,” her guide said when they came to a stop outside a very old looking building. It was made from brick rather than wood. The brick was extremely worn, some of the blocks looked like they could crumble into dust at the slightest touch.

  “Is it safe?” Sarah asked genuinely concerned.

  “It will do for a night,” her guide said. “There should be some food inside. You can rest after that. There won’t be a meeting until tomorrow now.”

  Sarah nodded. Having a few hours to herself was fine by her. When she got inside her guide showed her to a table. He disappeared for a few minutes and then returned with some food. Like the food Vera prepared, it was unlike anything she had seen before. Though this time is it wasn’t nearly so pleasant. After eating in silence, her guide showed her to a small room. “Sleep,” he said before closing the door. “Tomorrow will come soon enough.”

  Sarah merely grunted. It had been a long day. Yet it was nowhere near close to dark. Even if she wanted to sleep, she would have struggled. Nevertheless, she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. If her guide had some way of watching her, she wanted him to think she was indeed tired.

  After pretending to be asleep for as long as she could, Sarah opened her eyes. Quietly, she listened. There was no sign of her guide moving around in the house. Slowly, she swung her legs out of the bed and stood up. Moving over to the window, she checked its latch. It was locked. Reaching behind her she pulled a small handheld device from the waist band of her trousers. Alexandra had made sure she had come to Earth with all the Elder technology she could carry.

  With the touch of a button the device released several nano drones into the air. Sarah connected to them via her neural implant. She then ordered them to enter the window’s lock and open it. Moments later, the lock clicked open. Sarah ordered the drones to return to their carrier, pushed the window open and hopped out. It was time to go pay her mother’s killer a visit.

  Chapter 35

  As soon as she landed in the street, Sarah fell into a crouch and darted her eyes back and forth. Seeing no sign of any Blackshirts, she relaxed. The giant Elder building was clearly visible over the rooftops of the nearby wooden and brick buildings. She set off towards it. As she walked through the city, she passed two groups of Blackshirts. Thankfully, keeping her head down and walking slowly kept their attention away from her.

  She was less than a kilometer away from her target when she ran into a third group. Turning onto a new street she saw three Blackshirts a little bit ahead of her. She froze, she wanted to turn and back out. She was the only other person in the street. If she walked past them, all their attention would be on her. Before she could spin around, one of the guards made eye contact with her. Sarah let out a mumbled curse. There was no chance of running now. Putting her head back down, she started forward.

  “Well, well, what do we have here?” one of the Blackshirts said as she approached. “What are you doing out all alone?”

  Sarah didn’t answer, instead she moved to the opposite side of the street and tried to continue past them.

  �
�Not so fast,” another voice called out. “We want to talk to you.”

  Sarah sped up.

  “Stop,” the first voice called out. “Where do you think you’re going? Not away from us I hope.” He finished his warning by levelling his gun at Sarah.

  Sarah froze. Very slowly she looked up to meet the Blackshirt’s eyes. “I apologize,” Sarah said as sweetly as she could. “I didn’t see you there.”

  “Ha! I’m sure,” the first voice said. “Well, you see me now. Come here so that we can get a better look at you.”

  Sarah nodded her head and moved forward. The Blackshirt lowered his weapon in response to her apparent compliance. Immediately, Sarah acted. She leapt at the Blackshirt and kicked him in the groin as hard as she could. As a grunt of pain escaped his lips, Sarah whipped out her laser pistol. Before either of the other two Blackshirts could bring their weapons to bear on her, she shot them in the chest. Turning back to the first Blackshirt, she found him lying on the ground looking up at her. His hands were cupping his groin. Raising her weapon, she shot him as well. She couldn’t leave any witnesses.

  Hiding her weapon under her bulky shirt, she broke out into a run. She needed to leave the area as quickly as possible. She turned down a small alleyway and then another. Only once she felt she was far enough away from the scene did she step back onto a larger street. Slowing to a walk, she melted into the crowd.

  It took her five minutes to get to the large Elder skyscraper. One of the buildings standing beside it had a large picture of Governor Adams over its main entrance. Sarah smiled. The Governor’s vanity was making it easy for her to find him. Standing on the opposite side of the street, she watched the building for ten minutes. Several Blackshirts guarded its main entrance. They didn’t look particularly alert. Sarah hoped that meant no one had found the ones she had killed yet. The people who were going in and out of the building were all dressed extremely smartly. Some of them even had flight suits on that weren’t entirely different to Sarah’s. Further inside the building it looked like there was some sort of security checkpoint. Each person was swiping a card before they were granted access into the main part of the building.

  Satisfied that she could get in, Sarah moved away from the main street and into another side alley. There she removed the clothes Vera had given her. Dressed in her flight suit, she made her way towards the Governor’s building. Keeping her eyes up, she nodded to the Blackshirts as she approached them. None made as if they were going to stop her.

  As soon as she was inside, she joined the queue to go through the security checkpoint. There were eight people in front of her. Quickly, she pulled out the second device Alexandra had given her. Activating it, it scanned everything in range. Sarah could communicate with it through her implant. Closing her eyes, she could see the room through the device’s sensors. Identifying the cards being held by the people around her, she instructed her device to isolate them. Quickly, it analyzed the cards and copied their signature.

  Opening her eyes again, Sarah moved forward. When it came to her turn to scan her card, she held her device over the scanner. With a beep the security machine approved her. A metallic gate split in two and opened to allow her access to the building. Nodding to the Blackshirts who were on the opposite side of the security checkpoint, Sarah moved into the building. She quickly spotted what she was looking for, turbolifts. Given what she had seen of the Governor, she guessed his offices would be on the top floor.

  Stepping into the nearest turbolift, Sarah requested to go to the top floor of the building. The lift beeped back at her, demanding an access code. Sarah pulled out her device again. This time she commanded it to hack the turbolift control panel. Two metallic wires snaked out of the device and bore into the panel. Within seconds the turbolift doors were closing and it began to ascend.

  When the doors opened again, she released the nano drones she had used to unlock the safe house’s window. With a mental command, they took off and spread out. Quickly, they mapped out the top floor of the Governor’s building. Sarah moved through the building towards the largest room on the floor, it was her best shot at finding the Governor’s office.

  As she moved along a corridor a door just in front of her opened. What looked like an office worker stepped out. Without hesitating, Sarah pulled out her pistol. She lowered the intensity of the weapon’s beam and then shot the man. He fell over, unconscious. The pain of being hit by the weapon knocking him out. He would wake up with burns over most of his body, but he would live.

  Less than a second after he hit the floor, Sarah was stepping over him. She kept her pistol out. Her drones were telling her Adams’ office was guarded by two Blackshirts. As she rounded a corner and stepped into the corridor that led to Adam’s office, Sarah opened fire. Both Blackshirts were dead before they knew what hit them. When she got to the two large wooden doors that led to the Governor’s office, she wasn’t surprised to find them locked and protected by a security protocol. Taking out Alexandra’s hacking device, she waited for it to work. Within five seconds it sent a signal to her mind to inform her it had overridden the locking mechanism. With one hand Sarah prepared to open the door, while with the other she held her laser pistol.

  “What are you doing here, you can’t...” a woman sitting behind a large desk began to say as Sarah barged in. She didn’t finish her sentence. Sarah dropped her with a lower powered beam.

  Sarah guessed the woman was the Governor’s secretary. Her target would be through the next door. Again, she readied her pistol as she burst through the door.

  “Don’t move,” she barked as the Governor looked up at her in surprise. “Put your hands on the table. Any sudden moves and I will kill you.”

  “You’re making a mistake,” the Governor said. “This isn’t going to end well for you.”

  “Shut up,” Sarah said as she closed the door behind her. As she studied the Governor’s face, she had to resist the urge to kill him there and then. It was tempting, but she wanted answers first. “I’m going to do the talking,” she said.

  “Who are you?” the Governor asked, ignoring her. “What do you want?”

  “Who I am doesn’t matter,” Sarah said as she moved into the Governor’s office and sat down on a chair facing her mother’s killer. “What I want is information. If you aren’t honest with me, I promise, I will kill you.”

  Instead of the look of fear Sarah was hoping for, as she stared into the Governor’s eyes, she saw his face crumple. “Sarah,” he whispered. “Is that you? After all these years. Is it really you?”

  Sarah’s head began to spin. “How do you know my name?” she demanded.

  “Is it really you?” the Governor repeated as his lip trembled. “You have your mother’s eyes.”

  “You killed my mother,” Sarah spat. Her heart was starting to race. “Don’t talk about her.”

  Tears began to flow down the Governor’s face. Sarah didn’t know what to do. He didn’t seem like the cocky man on the visual broadcast she had watched with Vera. Still, Sarah told herself as she gritted her teeth. He killed my mother. “Stop crying,” she demanded. “Tell me, why did you kill my mother? Tell me now or I will shoot you right in the face, just like you did her.” Sarah lifted her pistol and pointed it right at the Governor’s head. “Does this seem familiar to you?”

  “Familiar?” Adams said. “How do you know how she died?”

  “I was there,” Sarah spat. “I saw it with my own eyes. I dream about it every night. Every night I have to watch you killing my mother. Now tell me why. What did she ever do?”

  “You were there?” Adams said as he looked away from Sarah. More tears were streaming down his face. “Heavens forgive me. You were supposed to be away. You were supposed to be in space.”

  “How do you know that?” Sarah demanded. “I’m getting tired of this. If you knew what it was like to see your mother killed over and over again you would realize how little patience I have.”

  “I do know,” Adams said. “I
see it in my dreams too. Every night. I see the look in her eyes. The love, the hope and the fear. I see it too.”

  “What are you talking about?” Sarah commanded. “Tell me what you are babbling about right now. I didn’t come here for a sob story.”

  “She was my wife,” Adams said, looking her right in the eyes. “You Sarah, are my daughter.”

  Sarah sat back, stunned. He’s lying, he must be, she told herself. He’s trying to trick me.

  “It’s true,” Adams said when he saw the look on Sarah’s face. “I killed my wife and sent my daughter into exile. I have lived with the consequence of that day ever since.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Sarah said.

  “Melissa was the woman who took you to safety,” Adams said. “She was your mother’s best friend. Though she obviously didn’t get you far enough away in time. You were to be stowed away on a small freighter. It was to take you to safety. How else would I know that?”