by G J Ogden
Ethan’s mind was still a blur. Between the technical terms he didn’t understand, and the simple facts he did understand, such as their suggestion that he would venture out into space itself, he was struggling to process the situation. Life had very rapidly become unreal. He considered for a moment if this could all be a dream, but if it was then he was sure that any one of the many terrifying events of the last few days would have shook him violently from his sleep.
Everyone in the room was silent, conscious that Ethan was processing a lot of information. Eventually, it was Archer who again broke the silence. “Well, Ethan, this is a lot to take in, on top of what was already a considerable amount to deal with,” he said smoothly, but with genuine feeling. “You’ve gone from a local Ranger of a small settlement to confronting the descendants of your space-faring ancestors on a technologically-advanced station on the moon. And then to be told only you can save them. If I were you, I wouldn’t believe it either!” The last sentence was rounded off with a sort of stuffy guffaw of laughter.
Ethan nodded his head. “This is pretty unbelievable,” he agreed. “It feels like a dream.”
“Perhaps some time to reflect is in order,” said Archer. “Major Kurren will prepare the mission, and tomorrow, if you agree, we will guide you through what needs to be done. For the rest of today and tonight though, get some rest and give yourself some time to adjust.”
“I’ll take you to your quarters, Ethan,” said Maria, looking at him, expectantly.
Another question surfaced in Ethan’s head, but he decided not to ask it. He felt out of control, and this was making him anxious. He had no real idea what was going on, but was uncontrollably swept up in it now, like a twig sweeping down a fast-flowing river. He realised then how much his own feelings had changed, and how foolish he must have seemed to friends back in the settlement, who put up with his regular pining for ‘the truth’ and ‘to know what really happened’. The truth was ugly and unsatisfactory. There was no great mystery to unravel, just the usual story of people fighting over one thing or another.
Ethan also did not believe Archer’s claims that their two stories were similar. These people were nothing like the Planetsiders. The war between the UEC and GPS had cost almost everything, and it still threatened to destroy one or both of them. Neither side had evolved beyond what they were generations ago. But down on the planet, they had rebuilt, and through struggle and common purpose they had created a new civilisation, with the settlements living in peace with one another. Only The Maddening remained to threaten that peace, and yet even this was a by-product of these two warring factions. Ethan realised now that he didn’t care who started it, or who was right or wrong. It didn’t change what had happened on the planet, and what was still happening today. Though now distant and detached from the world below, their deadly influence lingered on.
He remembered how he had looked up at the flashes in the sky and seen guardians and protectors, and how the death of his family had driven him to question his beliefs and want to know more; to know the truth. Well, his wish had come true, and what a fool he had been! He had walked away from his sister and nephew, and from people who cared for him and loved him. Summer had warned him, but he would not listen. Administrator Talia was right, Ethan realised. It was better to forget these people, forget the past and move on without them. And if it wasn’t for Maria, he would. Uncertainties now lingered around her, uncertainties that would have to be dealt with, but not now. Not yet. She was still the reason he was here. Strip away everything else and there was still Maria, and Ethan’s need for her to live.
“Okay, Captain,” he said, emphasising Captain a little too much, as if to tease her. He pushed himself out of the cavernous black chair and stood beside her. “I could do with some time to reflect I think.”
Maria smiled at him, and then nodded in the direction of Archer. She put her hand to the small of his back, as if to usher him gently back to the elevator, and they moved together out of the room and away from the two men standing at the head of the table.
“You’re doing us a great service, Ethan,” the governor announced levelly to their backs as Ethan and Maria entered the lift. As the doors slid shut, Ethan turned around and saw on Archer’s face the same, easy smile.
chapter 19
They walked back out into the hustle and bustle of the base’s neatly laid out, clean streets and Ethan followed Maria as she led them past blocks of buildings of varying sizes and configurations, all built from the same dark, glassy-looking material. Ethan paid no attention to where he was going, and neither of them spoke as they walked. Ethan observed the other people on the streets and noticed that most appeared to be dressed in uniforms similar to Maria’s.
“Is everyone here part of the UEC military?” he asked the back of Maria’s head.
Maria briefly turned her head towards him and smiled. “We’re not the military,” she said, and then looked ahead again and continued walking.
“You all certainly dress like you are,” said Ethan.
Maria stopped opposite a door in the building they had been walking alongside, one of the larger and grander looking of those they had passed by. “We’re here,” she said.
“If you’re not in the military then why is your governor called a ‘General’, and why are you ‘Captain’ Maria Salus?” Ethan pressed. “Almost everyone I’ve seen dresses like you.”
Maria’s smile faded. “What are you getting at, Ethan?” she asked, agitated by the continual questions. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
Ethan looked at her wide-eyed, and almost laughed. “What’s going on in my head?” he said, amazed at the question. “I feel like I’m in a dream, Maria. This place, the things you’ve told me, it’s just so unreal. I came here to help you. I didn’t expect… any of this.”
Maria reflected for a moment. “I know it must be overwhelming,” she said. “But you must have known things would be different here.” She paused again and then added; “But that’s not what’s really bugging you, is it?”
Ethan’s wide-eyed expression remained, but was modified now by a wry smile. “You are getting to know me, aren’t you?” he said. Maria just winked in reply. “Or maybe it’s your secret military training allowing you to read my emotions,” Ethan added, teasing again.
“That’s not funny,” said Maria, seriously. “So, come on, out with it. What’s really bothering you?”
Ethan bounced the question around his mind for a moment. The question he had wanted to ask Archer, but hadn’t for fear of what he might say. And although Maria had been acting a little differently since returning, away from Archer or any other observer, he still felt he could trust her.
“What if I say no?” he said after a tense pause of a few seconds.
“No to going inside this building?” said Maria, jovially. “I guess you can sleep on the streets if you want.”
“I’m serious, Sal,” Ethan replied. “So far, everyone has assumed that because I’m here, I’m game for whatever you need me to do. I just want to know, what if I did say no? What if I say to Archer, I want to be sent back home?”
Maria’s face fell, and suddenly she looked older, more serious. “Ethan, this isn’t a game.”
“I know that Sal, I just want to know what he’d do,” Ethan said. “I came here because of you. You, Maria Salus, not the UEC. I didn’t really think about what would happen when I got here.”
“I know that,” said Maria, looking and sounding concerned. “But you did come, so it’s only natural to assume you will do what’s needed. Am I wrong? I don’t understand what you’re telling me.”
Ethan threw his arms out to his side. “I don’t know how to explain it!” he said, frustrated by his own ability to clearly define the doubts and questions that were swimming around his head. “I don’t trust him, Sal,” Ethan then admitted. “I wish I’d never learned about the UEC and GPS. I just didn’t want you to die, and that’s all I was thinking about.”
&nbs
p; “Archer has been far nicer to you than your Administrator Talia was to us,” said Maria, focusing in on Ethan’s mistrust of Archer.
“He’s nice while he thinks I’m helping,” replied Ethan. “But if I say no, what will he do? Force me, coerce me somehow, threaten you to get to me? It’s obvious he can tell we’re…” he thought carefully about his next word, and chose caution over valour, “...close.”
Maria raised an eyebrow at this and pressed her hands to her hips. “Close?” she said, sounding insulted.
Ethan’s cheeks flushed and he looked away. “You know what I mean, Sal. I’m not good at this stuff.”
Maria closed her eyes momentarily and when she opened them again, she was calmer. She moved closer and took hold of Ethan’s hands, squeezing gently. Ethan looked back into her eyes. “I know what you mean,” she said, and she held his hands for a second longer and then let go again. “Look, the truth is that no-one has even considered the possibility that you’d say no,” she added, starting to worry that Ethan’s doubt was real and not merely hypothetical. “Do you want to say no?”
Ethan shook his head gently. “No, I want to help,” he said. “I just wish it was simpler. I just want to help you. Everything else makes me, I don’t know, uneasy.”
Maria grabbed him by the waist and pulled him closer. “Then forget about everything else, and just focus on me,” she said, sounding like the old Maria; the Maria from the planet. “You came here for me, I know that, and I’m thankful of that. I know what it meant for you to leave. And so I’m here for you now.”
“And what about after?” Ethan replied, nervously. It was another question that he was afraid to ask for fear of the reply.
“After what, Ethan?” asked Maria, looking at him quizzically.
“After you make this serum and everyone is safe, and you all go on living your lives up here. Then what happens?”
Maria shrugged. “If you still want to return to the planet, we’ll find a way to…”
“I don’t mean about me, Sal,” Ethan interrupted. “I mean what happens about us?” He was almost physically shaking as he spoke the words.
Maria looked down and was silent for a moment. Ethan felt her grip on his waist tighten. “Do… you want there to be an ‘us’?” she asked, softly, still looking down.
Ethan lifted her chin so that their eyes were level. “Yes,” he said.
A pulse of energy swept through them, shaking the ground and causing the windows of the nearby building to shatter violently outwards, assaulting them with jagged fragments of the opaque material. They grabbed each other instinctively and ducked away from the blast, covering their heads, but the force of the pulse knocked them to the floor. The vibrations subsided and they helped each other to stand, shaking fragments from their hair and clothes. Save for a few grazes and minor cuts, they had escaped serious injury. Maria was first to look in the direction of the explosion. A fireball had erupted outside the base, beyond the protective dome, but still clearly visible from where they stood. Liquid fire poured into the blackness outside as reverberations from the unseen cause of the detonation throbbed throughout the base.
“It’s an attack!” said Maria, urgently. “The raids have started again, I need to go and help!” She pushed off from Ethan and began to run down the street in the direction of the explosion.
“Sal, wait! Where are you going?” Ethan shouted after her, his ears still ringing from the blast.
Maria slowed and turned back towards him. “I’ve got to help, Ethan, I’m a pilot,” she called back. “Go inside, they’re expecting you. You have to stay safe!” And then she turned again and started running.
“Wait!” Ethan called after her, but it was no use, she was already too far ahead.
Another explosion rocked the base, this one a little farther off, and in the direction that Maria was running. Ethan saw her stumble and fall, tumbling down the street, before he too was knocked off his feet again. He got up, rubbing bruises on his elbows and shoulders, and looked for her. “Sal!” he shouted, but there was no answer. He could see her, climbing back to her feet. She looked back and motioned with her arms, pointing towards the building, and then she set off again, running away from him.
Ethan looked at the building to his side. There were people inside, shouting for him to come in, to shelter, but Ethan ignored their cries. Instead he ran, legs and arms pumping, desperately trying to catch up with Maria. If she got herself killed, this was all meaningless. It would all have been for nothing. The surroundings became a blur as Ethan accelerated, heart pounding in his chest. The floor shook again as another explosion erupted further ahead, and he had to fight to stay upright. Far beyond the perimeter of the dome he could see objects moving in the darkness. The shapes were similar to the crashed spacecraft that Ethan and the other Rangers had found, a world away below them. He saw that Maria had stopped at a gate to a large compound and he ran up beside her. His body was shaking from a combination of adrenalin and exertion.
“Ethan, what are you doing?!” Maria shouted over the roar of more ships leaving the dome and entering into the blackness above them. “You have to get to safety!”
“Not without you, Sal,” said Ethan, the words a struggle as he gasped to regain his breath.
“I have to get out there, Ethan, I’m trained for this, they need me,” said Maria.
“Others can do that, Sal. I need you with me, I can’t do this without you.”
Maria turned and started working on the panel again. “We don’t have time for this,” she said. “There might not be anything left to save if we don’t stop this assault.”
A searing shard of light blazed overhead and Ethan saw one of the spacecraft silently erupt into flame and spiral away from the base in a chaotic, almost hypnotic pattern. The gate opened and Maria stepped through. Ethan put a foot into the threshold and gave Maria a determined look. She knew he would not do as she asked.
She let out a cry of frustration and then said, “Okay, come on, I can find you shelter inside.”
She ran through the door and Ethan followed her onto a large open strip, which seemed to jut out beyond the main domed habitat. The overall design looked similar to the hangar of the space port on the planet, but several times larger. On the strip were sitting six angular, aggressive looking spacecraft, the same shape as those that he’d seen moving rapidly in the darkness outside. In front of each was a large metal door, beyond which was a short corridor that poked out into the blackness beyond, like silvery fingers.
Maria surveyed the surroundings as Ethan caught up with her. He was about to speak, but Maria knew what he was going to say and headed him off. “I’m still going out there, Ethan.”
“Sal, if you get killed out there…”
“I won’t,” she said with conviction. “I’ve landed on a planet, and I’ve flown back to the base. No-one has ever done anything like that before. I think you can trust my piloting abilities. I think you can trust me.”
Ethan was silent for a moment. “I do trust you, Sal,” he said, “but, if I remember correctly, you crashed on the planet.” Though not actually meant as a joke, Ethan couldn’t help but choke back a laugh.
Maria scowled. “You’re as bad as Kurren!”
A man dressed in thick coveralls ran up to Maria, holding a helmet and some kind of harness. “Captain, she’s already fuelled and ready, Sir,” he said urgently, pointing to the spacecraft closest to them. Maria took the items and nodded at the man, who promptly ran off. They were briefly illuminated by more streams of light flashing overhead. It reminded Ethan of the lights in the night sky back on the planet, only far more intense.
Maria pointed towards a building at the base of the open strip they were standing on. “Go into that building. It’s the pilot’s ready room. You’ll be safe,” she said. Ethan opened his mouth, but Maria again headed him off. “No buts, Ethan!” she said, forcefully. “Go, now. I’ll be back soon.”
“If you get killed, I’m going to be really
annoyed,” Ethan said, admitting defeat.
Maria smiled. “That will make two of us. Now go.” Ethan nodded, and started to run towards the building. Then he heard Maria call his name, and he stopped suddenly and turned back to face her. Shouting over the commotion of ships taking off, she called out, “If anything does happen, Ethan, I want you to know one thing. That this… us… this is real. Okay?”
Ethan nodded reactively, but was confused. He was about to shout back, but Maria had already turned and was running at full speed to the spacecraft, poised ominously on the deck. He stood and watched. Flashes again illuminated them, reflecting off the smooth surface with an intense red hue. Two more explosions, more distant this time, reverberated through the base. Outside Ethan could see the spacecraft moving through the blackness, visible only through the glow of their engines and the bright shards of light that erupted from one towards another and then vanishing off into the distance.
Maria arrived beside her ship and hurriedly put on the harness and helmet. She was about to climb the ladder to the cockpit, but something made her stop and look back. Seeing Ethan still standing on the pad, watching, she lifted a hand and waved. Light danced around them and then the spacecraft on the deck next to Maria’s exploded into flames.
The shock wave hit Ethan moments later, knocking him cleanly off his feet. He landed on the hard deck, stunned both from the blow and the blinding flash of light from the fireball that had utterly consumed the ship. Dazed and disorientated, he scrambled back to his feet and tried to find Maria, but there was just a white haze. He struggled to stay standing, an intense ringing in his ears causing his balance to falter. He pressed his eyes shut and clasped his hands to his temples, shaking his head, trying to clear the fog. “Sal!” he yelled, desperate to find her “Sal!”
