by Ernest Filak
“Lie down low on your belly. Maybe they won’t see us,” I said.
“What is going on?” Theodore woke up. The girl embraced him closer.
“Not now, buddy. We have guests. Lie low and don’t move.”
Theodore Schmitt was a former storm trooper and he understood me in no time. We lay on the wet ground. I closely watched the shades. Something loomed between the branches.
“Heads low,” I warned them and pressed my cheek into the moss.
For a few long minutes nothing happened.
“Hey, you there! Come out!” we suddenly heard an order.
None of us three even budged. This could have been a trap. Soon it turned out it wasn’t a bluff. Somewhere not far from our island we heard a bullet hit, but we didn’t hear the sound of a gunfire. Those guys were using silencers. They were no scouts.
“The next bullet might hit someone,” an unknown voice warned. “Your asses stick out.”
I slowly stood up and showed them my empty hands.
“Ok, we’re getting out,” I said. “We’re unarmed.”
“No sudden moves. You trip once, you stay here forever,” the voice came from the man standing in the middle. I instantly recognized their uniforms: Uroboros Star Troopers. The other two men served as cover and their barrels kept tracing my every move.
“Sunshine, stand up slowly.”
The girl was clever enough not to ask any questions.
“I now want the third one up,” the Star Trooper ordered.
“He’s wounded and needs help,” Sunshine protested.
“I’ll be fine,” Theodore spoke with his voice trembling. He was shaking as if he had fever. The dark circles under his eyes and white lips completed his miserable state. Somehow, however, he managed to get up to his knees and then stand up on shaky legs.
“You’re welcome to join us,” the Star Trooper commanded.
He didn’t need to warn us. I knew when I was talking to a pro when I saw one. We didn’t stand a chance. Running away was not an option. We were in hot water. We would have been better off if we had chosen to travel to Hades, not this planet.
“I chose our landing place to be close to human settlements. I don’t know how these guys managed to find us so quickly,” Ingrid was trying to excuse herself.
I didn’t blame her for anything. I was walking first, trying to find a way stepping on drier places, at the same time keeping the same distance from the soldiers. I worried about Theodore, but wasn’t brave enough to turn my head to see him. The plodding sounds behind me filled me with some sort of optimism.
The closer to the tree line we got, the higher up we walked and the water kept receding. Eventually, we felt hard ground under our feet. The three Star Troopers watched our every move, and there were more of them hiding in the forest, I was pretty sure about that. I couldn’t see them but some gut instinct detected danger.
“Lie down on your front, spread your legs and arms!”
I looked at their leader. He was armed lightly, with a rifle called prostheses, which was tailored especially for that particular soldier, with a grip molded for that particular hand. He was wearing a high class masking uniform with a helmet whose visor fully covered his face and was equipped with an HUD microcomputer projecting updated information. They were scouts.
Such guys have to be listened to first. We quickly carried out the orders. Somebody’s dexterous hands quickly searched us. Of course they found the bayonets we had hidden in out boots. Damn, I’d completely forgotten about them.
“Corporal,” a scout called out to somebody, “take a look. This doesn’t look like the standard equipment of a slave.”
“One more thing,” a different voice spoke quietly, “the rescue shuttle is marked after its flag ship – they’ve come here from Fury!”
There was silence for a moment.
“Let’s take him to the boss.”
My hands were twisted and tied behind my back with a plastic band.
“The area is cleared out,” the corporal reported.
We heard footsteps of the other soldiers from the squad coming from inside the forest. Strong hands lifted me up. I went inside the woods assisted by two soldiers. Sunshine and Theodore walked ahead led in the same way as me. Truth be told, Theodore was carried rather than walked on his own. I could see that he had had enough strength only to walk out of the marsh.
Behind the cover of a tree trunk there was a command post. A few Star Troopers sat over a portable computer console. A few meters farther three wounded soldiers were being watched over by a paramedic. Their dressing was a clear sign that the squad had taken part in fighting. Everybody was eyeing us suspiciously. The quiet conversations among soldiers died out. Their commander was the last one to look at us. He disconnected from the console, took off his helmet and pierced us with his cold steel eyes. I froze. The last person I ever wanted to meet was Sergeant Andy Gall, and it was him standing in front of me.
They stood us in line. He kept looking into our faces for a long while. I wasn’t especially surprised when he kept scrutinizing mine for longer than necessary. I was hoping that the loss of a part of my ear and the white cross on my head together with the tattoo of number 132 on my forehead changed me beyond recognition. After all, all slaves looked the same. And I had the dubious pleasure to have been qualified to that group by Uroboros Industrial.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Construction crew, section Kappa 12,” Sunshine said. Smart girl – she gave them our code name from before the revolution.
“What were you doing on board of HHMS Fury?”
“We helped repair the phase drive.”
“Don’t bullshit me,” he growled, “slaves are not qualified enough. Do you want me to pass you on to my people so that they can refresh your memory?”
“I’m not lying,” Sunshine said and I could detect a hint of panic in her voice. She knew what men in uniforms were capable of. I had told her my whole story and everything that had happened in the military orbital station. I witnessed Gall and his boys brutally rape and murder an innocent woman. Sunshine had also gone through her own hell, about which she had only told Theodore. He didn’t want to reveal any details to me, but based on some random remarks I heard I had drawn some assumptions.
“We took part in the successful repair of the new shipyard,” I said to back her up. “Then we were summoned on board of the flag ship in case we were needed to work on the core.”
What I said was quite plausible. Nobody cared for the lives of the slaves. Gall didn’t pay any attention. He was facing Theodore.
“And you? You have nothing to say?”
My buddy was unable to speak. He barely stood on his own feet, which of course the Star Trooper didn’t leave unnoticed.
“Medic,” he beckoned the man responsible for the wounded. “Check them out.”
The paramedic quickly fished out a scanner from his bag and moved it up and down Theodore.
“He’s ticking,” he said. In such a way he announced that my friend had been irradiated. “He took in about 8 Grays.”
A check up on me and Sunshine also showed that we had been under the influence of ionizing radiation, although the doses had been smaller. The first impulse of the paramedic was to give us something already prepared that he was holding in an applicator and waiting for the commander’s approval. The man, however, didn’t hurry with his decision.
I couldn’t hear Ingrid. Where was she when I so needed her? I didn’t really believe that we could get out of this mess with her help. I just needed to feel her close and hear her voice.
“I don’t have time to play cat and mice,” Gall finally spoke. “Unfortunately for you, we don’t have a data verification expert here. You either tell me everything, or we stab you to death right here right now.”
Our escort, the Uroboros bandits immobilized us in case anybody was trying to run. One of them took out a black oxidized knife. I knew I was just about to panic.
&n
bsp; “Calm down, honey, I’m here.” Despite the immediate threat to life, my breathing evened out. I regained clarity of mind.
“We were on the flag ship when it was attacked.” Obviously, the most important thing about lying was to make it as close to the real thing as possible. “There were hundreds of attackers and they got deep inside the ship. In the end they fired a nuclear weapon. There was chaos all over the ship and we were stranded. The line of command got broken. So we decided to save our asses. We saw other sailors do exactly the same thing.”
“Rats abandon a sinking ship first,” one of the soldiers said. I could hear contempt in his voice.
Well, it was better to confess to a minor offence like escaping from the ship rather than to taking an active part in a revolution. Even more so considering that the soldiers surrounding us also looked as if they were hiding from the enemy. If they wanted to scorn us, I didn’t mind as long as they kept us alive.
“We are back online, sir!”
Gall lost interest with the three of us. He went back to the console of his tactical computer.
“What about them, Sergeant?” the medic still stood there with the applicator in his hand.
Chapter II
Military Orbital Station.
Admiral Samuel Black finished his briefing.
“Any questions?”
Nobody raised a hand. There were four pilots in the small cramped room. They attentively listened to the orders, in a manner expected of the self-confident pros they were. Nobody protested. That’s what they were made for. They were supposed to do something that those trained in a standard way could only dream of. One of the most secretive research projects of InCorporation was about to be verified in real combat conditions. Project “Gemini” was coming into its final stages.
“Thank you for your attention,” the Admiral spoke again. “We’re beginning in 15 minutes. Please head to your machines.”
All four got up from their seats and stood at attention for a second. Salute! The admiral returned the honors. He led the young people towards the exit and closed the doors behind them carefully. When he turned around, two of the empty seats had already been taken. He had not even heard the two persons enter from an adjacent room.
“My Queen,” he was about to kneel as required by the protocol.
“Don’t make a fool of yourself, Samuel,” Her Highness Linda Collins stopped him.
He listened. The Queen, who once used to be the Vice President of InCorp, had a reputation for expecting her orders to be followed immediately. Hence her nickname – Razor. The creation of monarchy and her acceptance of the crown did not in any way soften her temperament. He stood up straight in front of her majesty like a first year cadet. He had failed the hopes she’d had in him. The plan that had been prepared for years which was supposed to change the political situation collapsed like a house of cards. The illusory power of the distant Earth was supposed to be replaced with a hereditary monarchy. Queen-nominated Governors were to be given extensive prerogatives. The plan was going well. Too well. They had been able to gather up financial means, managed to strike up deals with the largest financial powers – huge corporations. They made the first mistake when recruiting new workers. It turned out that trade unions had also prepared themselves well. A revolution broke out, stabbing the separatist movement in the back. The arrival of Aliens was the last nail in the coffin. The first contact was established in very difficult circumstances during heavy fighting, when the vessels of the fleet expecting easy victory were deprived of the most important thing – their main drives. Phase piles switched off following an unknown phenomenon, and in such a way the armored colossuses lost their military capacity. And even if it was not possible to foresee the arrival of the Aliens, the full responsibility for being unprepared to face an inside enemy was all his. And he believed there could only be one punishment for it.
“What does the situation look like?” she asked.
“It’s shitty,” he honestly admitted. “We’ve practically lost control over the tactics. Each captain is now fighting on his own. We’ve sent a message to the revolutionaries proposing a cease fire, but there has been no reply. Two of their units Independence and Victory have taken positions but still haven’t opened fire, which is why we can be having this conversation.
“Maybe they need more time to coordinate their actions,” Linda’s companion said.
“They most probably do. But I’m afraid their units can be described as having a lot of autonomy, and what they do is typical in such situations. Besides, their leadership might suspect us of purposeful disinformation.”
“Have you tried to establish contact with the Aliens?”
“Of course we have,” the Admiral let himself show a bit of impatience. “We’ve started all the procedures provided for the circumstances, no matter how stupid they seemed to be. To no discernible effect. Although, not exactly. There is some effect – those guys fucking blow off everything in their way. And seeing how they entered our system, we can judge that we’re technologically far behind.”
For a moment the room was quiet with only the humming sound of ventilators in the background.
“Shall we deploy plan “Moses”?” Her Highness asked quietly.
Samuel Black sighed and before answering sat down without asking for permission. He glanced at the clock on the wall.
“This is the only reasonable solution. We’ve already lost this system. Even if the Aliens left now, I’m seriously worried whether we would be able to stand any longer.”
“The Earth?” Linda asked enigmatically.
“Yes. We thumbed out nose at them and they have to react. But we’ve lost our strong fleet boogeyman. It’s enough for them to send any team against us. We’re done for.”
“Moses doesn’t guarantee success,” she remarked.
“And what does? Thanks to it we will keep the kingdom.”
“Can I ask what this plan is all about?” Linda’s companion asked.
“Johnny, honey,” the Queen placed her hand on his, “it’s about an evacuation to a safe place. I’ve bribed the right person in the Cartographic Office. The newly discovered deposits in the asteroid belt never made it to the official maps. I’ve already sent there a ship or two as an insurance policy in case we didn’t make it here. It’s like Hades, but on a smaller scale. This means we do have a place to escape to.
“The captains of our ships have got the codes of this place,” Black joined in the explanations. “Obviously, each of them has a different plan of flight. There are intermediaries between them and the destination point but the checkout points are in our hands.”
“But time is needed to build the infrastructure,” Dillins quickly got the gist of the problem. He was the boss of logistics himself and knew very well what kind of problems were involved.
“Exactly,” the Admiral confirmed his assumptions. For a longer while he kept looking at the Queen’s lover. This was not the first time he realized that she had not taken just anybody into her bed. “That’s why we need one of the Governors.”
It was clear to everybody in the room that each of the candidates would ask the Queen’s hand in return. Originally, this place was supposed to be taken by Samuel Black, but he fell out of line now. He lost Hades and his trump card in the form of a strong fleet was no longer in the game.
John took a flask out of his jacket pocket. He unscrewed the lid and smelled the inside. Happy with the aroma he extended his hand to his lover. She refused, surprised at his unusual behavior. He took a swig of strong alcohol.
“Forgive me, sugar, but the prospect of some other guy coming after your honey pot doesn’t make me feel good.”
“You’re forgetting yourself!” Linda was indignant at her lover’s uncouth behavior.
The admiral froze in place knowing Razor’s reputation.
“Let me finish,” Dillins calmly continued undaunted. “The Admiral is a tolerant man, but what guarantee do we have that the other princesses are the s
ame? I’d rather deal with the evil I know than with the unknown.”
John passed the flask to the admiral, who, to Collins’ surprise, didn’t refuse the offering.
“Thank you, John. Can you see a constructive solution?”
“Since when are the two of you on first name terms?” Linda hissed.
They were walking on thin ice of good manners. For both men it was clear that she was close to exploding. Despite the fact, her lover was in a calm conversation with the Admiral.
“I can remember one old proverb popular on Earth.”
“Yes?” the Admiral showed polite interest, trying not to notice the crimson blush on the face of the beautiful woman beside them.
“It says: while two dogs are fighting for a bone, a third runs away with it.”
The Queen and the Admiral both pondered a while on the meaning of the saying.
“I don’t think the Aliens will be satisfied with taking over this system. I’m sure they will do further than that,” John took the flask from Black and handed it to Linda. This time she didn’t say no. “If they somehow discovered data leading them deep inside the human civilization. . . .”
The sentence hung in the air unfinished.
“How deep should such a map go?” Linda asked, coughing on the strong alcohol in her mouth.
“And how much time do we need?” Dillins answered her question with his own.
“A lot,” Admiral Black stated coldly.
“Johnny, you scare me,” Linda complimented her lover on his idea.
“Thank you. I share a bed with the best teacher in this field.”
☼ ☼ ☼
Clone H1 took the pilot’s seat in a new state-of-the-art jet fighter still smelling of fresh paint. His brothers were already sitting in the three remaining units. Two other fighters were getting ready for take-off, but the four pilots didn’t feel any connection to them, even though they were wearing the same uniforms and reporting to the same man in charge.
