Alutia Rising

by Craig Gerttula

  Minutes passed as she lay panting, letting the water wash over her trembling body. Something had happened, she thought desperately, it was the only explanation. Why would Trent, now a Lieutenant in the TSB, be crawling around in the walls? An idea suddenly struck her and she thought about the face of Sir Simwa, concentrating like she'd done on Tiana, hoping to locate her enemy. Another minute passed and nothing happened. Sasha thought for a second.

  "Vin..." She held the bracelet up to her mouth as she finally caught her breath. "...can you tell me what's going on at TSB Earth Base?" Silence was the only response.

  "Vin?" she asked again...but still nothing. Shaking her head in disbelief, wondering why Vin wouldn't answer now of all times, she pulled herself to her feet and slipped out of the shower. Drying off quickly, she forced herself back into the too tight jumpsuit, letting Terra climb into her now wide open cleavage and prepared to exit the washroom, but stopped. The mirror showed her reflection, a woman she suddenly didn't recognize, one who couldn't do anything right, had been useless and careless, letting those in her responsibility come to harm...and die. But not this time, she thought, this time she would do something...she would save him. Her mind made up, she rushed out of the washroom, looking at the women sitting quietly at the table as she came to a stop, standing stiffly. She'd constantly been placing her friend's in danger...did she want to do so again?

  "I need some air...I'm going for a quick walk." She turned, making the painful decision, and left the room, ignoring their curious stares. She wondered if she was right, asking herself while running to the elevator on the far side of the floor....but she couldn't answer, her mind racing with thoughts of Trent.

  Sasha's heart beat briskly as she stared at the pond, the small platform seeming to take forever to finish its descent. She was scared. This was the first time she'd ever done anything alone and she felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of Tiana, who'd decided at the age of six that they would always be together, being left behind. But she knew placing her friend in danger was wrong...her mind telling her she was doing the right thing...she had to do this alone.

  "Standard communication with Earth is currently offline." Vin's monotone voice suddenly broke her out of a trance of negativity.

  "Why didn't you answer sooner?" Sasha almost yelled at the bracelet as she held up her arm, seeing the small sphere had returned, hovering over the red, glowing amethyst.

  "All standard communication options had to be explored before a proper answer could be returned." Vin replied, not seeming to have a problem waiting five minutes to answer a question.

  "If it will take more than a few seconds to answer, please tell me..." she continued shaking her head as she spoke. "... But for now, I have another question. How can I get to Earth...quietly?" she asked as the fear of having to talk to Commander Talan about borrowing a starship entered her mind. She could order him, of course, but she had the feeling he would be less then accommodating. Plus, there was something about him that seemed off...something she couldn't quite place.

  "Yes, Grand Duchess Sasha Alutia. A single seat unpowered transport shuttle is available. Please proceed to a transport tube." Emboldened by the news, she started running towards the door as soon as the platform stopped descending.

  As she weaved her way down the stone walkway, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder. The sight of someone looking down over the railing caught her attention, but she ignored it, already having made her decision. She entered the first transport tube she came upon, which left in haste before she had a chance to speak her destination. It came to a stop a few minutes later at a dark corridor, its walls curved and barely tall enough for her to stand upright. Lights embedded in the wall lit as she exited, illuminating the round hallway that extended into the distance.

  After walking past a multitude of closed off side passages, she finally reached the end of the tunnel. A small room opened before her, containing a human sized cylindrical shuttle, lying horizontally in a track that vanished into a tunnel cut into the side wall.

  "Lie down inside the personal transport shuttle and place the life support device over your head. There should be sufficient space for Terra to fit inside." instructed Vin. She took a deep breath, telling herself once again she was doing the right thing, before climbing the steps to the tube, grabbing the helmet and allowing Terra to climb in before placing it over her head. Terra found a comfortable spot below her chin to curl up, purring contently...she was thankful for his reassuring presence. Once she climbed inside, laying her body flat, a hidden door slid shut as the interior of the tube turned to jelly, completely enveloping her. A sudden pressure told her she must have launched and a metallic voice entered her mind through her BC node.

  "Two hours till arrival on Earth." The voice faded as her own turbulent thoughts took its place. What would she do when she arrived on Earth? The question suddenly frightened her.

  Chapter 13

  The dust was all encompassing, creeping into his jumpsuit as he crawled, attacking his skin in the most annoying of places. Trent tried his best to ignore it, but found the itching unbearable, stopping every few meters to rub against the walls that closed in around him.

  The maintenance tunnels did exist, as he'd thought, but they were very small, and very dirty. From what Taku had explained, there were special vehicles that allowed maintenance personnel to easily traverse the tunnels without having to crawl. Unfortunately, the medical bay wasn't where they were stored, and it was much too risky for anyone to try and pilfer one from the area controlled by Sir Simwa's men.

  Trent sighed, stopping once again to try to adjust his ripped jumpsuit, hoping to keep out the itchy dust that would just not relent. He noticed a peculiar shifting shadow out of the corner of his eye, causing him to freeze. But as he stared at the pile of dimly lit dust, realizing his mind was, yet again, playing tricks, he thought back to the strange sighting of 30 minutes earlier and the woman from his dreams.

  He'd been crawling through the maintenance tunnels between the medical and hanger bay's within TSB Earth Base after having no luck locating Sir Simwa in the command center. It was then that the unthinkable happened, the face of the black haired beauty that had been stuck in his mind, the same that appeared when he was about to shoot Jan'Lus, coalesced before him. Her hand had slowly reached forward and gently caressed his cheek. The touch was warm and his heart responded, beating uncontrollably, forbidden emotions peeking from their deep prison. He was positive she was there before him, but when he reached out, to return the touch, she vanished. But that wasn't the end, 20 minutes later she appeared again as a ghostly, full body image...that he swore was unclothed. She vanished after a couple of seconds, but the beautiful sight was burned into his heart and mind. He returned his thoughts to the present, feeling noticeably flush, shaking his head in an attempt to dislodge the feeling's that had snuck into his heart, then continued his slow crawl forward.

  The tunnel running parallel to the enormous hanger bay seemed to go on forever. Every 20 meters or so he would come across an access port, with an adjacent PDU that allowed maintenance personnel to view what was beyond, along with access to the maintenance systems The setup was great for spying, Trent thought with a smile, which probably never crossed the minds of the base designers.

  The latest access port was about two-thirds of the way through the hanger bay, still leaving him a couple hundred meters from his destination. He was making his way to the hanger bay control room, assuming that was the most logical place, outside the command center, for Sir Simwa to be. He flicked the activate icon on the adjacent PDU, noting a group of three men in green uniforms, along with a woman wearing the blue and white of the TSB, heading towards the lobby, possibly to launch another assault on the medical bay. He quickly found a BAP and sent a quick message to Taku...he needed to be warned.

  The next few access ports provided a clear view of the enormous hanger bay. A large metallic rail ran along the ground adjacent to the far wall and vanished into g
igantic circular openings on both ends, similar to a subway station. Piles of sliver crates were scattered, at apparently random locations, surrounded by strange U shaped devices with a single vertical handle emerging from its base. Trent figured they were used to move the crates, probably some sort of hover technology, like the new magnetic field based hover cars that were all the rage with Earth's corporate elite.

  After having some time to mull over past events while crawling through the tunnels, he once again began to question what exactly was going on. How could so many people be fully immersed in such a grand deception? What was the purpose? The questions kept appearing one after another and he once again started to assume that he must be involved in some sort of corporate sponsored illegal human testing...brainwashing on a mass scale. It was a ridiculous notion, he knew, having been unable to find any proof, but he still couldn't believe this was all part of some grand human space empire...that idea was even more ridiculous. So instead of continuing to question those around him, he decided to play along while he continued his investigation. So not only would he try to find the reason for Sir Simwa's actions, but also locate someone out-of-character, providing him an opportunity to prove his fledgling theory.

  There was a split in the tunnel ahead, the right path curved sharply away from the hanger bay as the one on the left curved down while angling slightly left, in the direction Taku said he would find hanger control and the general staff offices. Trent slid more than crawled down the tunnel to the left, coughing as the fresh cloud of dust appeared when he disturbed its rest. Apparently, some rather large piles had collected on the down slope, as if no one had been this way in a very long time.

  At the bottom of the slope he found access ports on both sides of the maintenance tunnel every few meters. He activated the first two PDU's, being directly across from each other, and was presented two identical rooms. Against the far wall of each, a human sized black capsule, open in the front, sat in a cylindrical recess that extended into the ceiling. Trent shivered, suddenly thinking the capsule looked like a cylindrical coffin, ready to be launched skyward. An empty recess sat parallel to the one containing the human sized capsule, with open holes on both ends. A single PDU sat on a thin post in the middle of the room, looking very out of place. He moved on, passing hundreds of identical rooms, the majority containing the strange capsule like coffins he'd seen in the first, but some with both recesses empty or full.

  Finally, the strange rooms came to an end and after about 20 meters, what looked to be office space took their place. The first few were empty of people, having been converted for storage, but the next few began showing obvious signs of habitation. Makeshift bunks filled one, while another had a group green uniformed men and women talking over a three-dimensional map, which he figured was of the base. He activated the audio for the room through the PDU, but they were talking in whispers, too low for him to hear.

  Trent moved on, thoroughly scanning each office in the hopes of stumbling across the information he required. The thought made him laugh...was he more interested in what Sir Simwa was up to, or finding something to remove his doubt? He wasn't sure himself.

  The offices ended and after about 10 meters of no access ports, he came upon one of a slightly different shading of blue then the others. He activated the PDU at its flank, which displayed an oval room, much larger than the rest. On one end sat a massive PDU, set as a viewscreen and wrapping around the curved walls, display data Trent couldn't even begin to decipher. Ascending rows of workstations curled out, following the bend in the wall and climbing like large, curved stairs. At the far end, above the last row of ascending workstations, sat a single, occupied seat...his blood began to boil.

  Trent would never forget the man sitting casually, appearing as bored as the first time he'd met him, in the seat overseeing the rest. Sir Simwa, dressed in a dark green suit that was even gaudier then the one he'd worn during Trent's enlistment trial, sat idly as he talked with another man, dressed in an ostentatious, bright green uniform covered with gilded gold and platinum markings. The unknown man seemed to be panicking as he spoke, wiping sweat from his brow, before nervously rubbing his hands together. Sir Simwa, apparently becoming tired of whatever explanation the man was providing, waved him away dismissively. The man froze, before saluting stiffly and running down the rows of workstation, yelling at the suddenly furiously working personnel. Sir Simwa rose, a smirk on his distant face, and slowly walked out the doorway behind him.

  Trent panicked, not able to view the hallway since the maintenance tunnel ran above. He quickly moved to the next two offices, finding them empty, but sighed in relief as the adjacent office appeared to be the only place Sir Simwa could be heading. The room contained a single elaborately decorated desk, on top of which sat a statue of a large man holding an alien planet in the palm of his hand. Behind the desk, sitting larger than life, was an enormous cushioned chair that looked completely out of place, being something he'd expect to see as a throne in a majestic palace. In the center of the room stood a banner, with two coiled serpents, one bright green and the other dark, wrapped around a blue world...somebody thought highly of themselves, Trent mused. Behind the banner Trent could make out a large bed, much more luxurious than the bunks he'd seen in the previous rooms, adjacent a long, elegant dining table made of a dark red wood. There was no way this was anybody but Sir Simwa's room...if he'd read the man correctly, Trent cautioned himself.

  A few minutes passed and just as Trent began to doubt his initial assumption, fearing the room may actually belong to the man who wore the overly pretentious uniform, Sir Simwa and another man he didn't recognize, who was dressed in the blue and white of the TSB, entered the room. Sir Simwa took a seat behind the desk while the other man grabbed a tiny chair from the far wall, placing it carefully before the noble. Trent toggled the PDU's settings, finding the sound option, being forced to suppress a sudden fit of humor. The designers of this system were definitely not concerned with spying. He turned up the volume and began listening carefully.

  "...do you have any idea who it might be?" The voice was from Sir Simwa, with the airy arrogance that Trent recalled from his earlier meeting. His blood continued to simmer, but he held himself back, knowing now was not the time ...he needed information.

  "No, My Lord. The only people left on the TSB Fleet Base should be the faculty at the general, command, and officer training schools. Commander Talan has informed us that they have no interest in what is currently occurring on Earth Base, so it would be highly unlikely any of Quinn's men would have noticed that we cut communications." The man dressed in the TSB colors stated. Trent noticed what appeared to be a shooting star with two tails on the man's collar, some sort of rank insignia. He made a quick query with his BC node and found that would make him a TSB Commander, or he'd assumed the role of one after defecting...which Trent found much more likely.

  "Well then....I guess it will be a surprise. I want whoever it is captured alive." Sir Simwa frowned while smoothing out the front of his green suit, appearing to not like the fit.

  "Yes, My Lord. I will personally see to it once the Program registers which dock it will land." The man was fidgeting as he spoke and at closer inspection Trent thought he looked very much like a rat with an evil stare...he definitely belonged with Sir Simwa.

  "But...My Lord, I am beginning to have concerns. Intercepted communications have stated that Princess Sasha survived the assassination attempt. If that is the case, how will Duke Zehman seize control of the Alutian Duchy?" This sounded like the information Taku was looking for. He quickly accessed his BC node and used the trick he'd been taught about how to automatically transcribe messages as he listened.

  "Commander Guo...as I stated before, your cooperation will be rewarded with a noble title once the Duke provides me with the Alutia Duchy." Trent listened intently to Sir Simwa's arrogant, airy words, trying to fit what was being said into his original theory that this was all some grand corporate experiment. He wasn't having much
luck.

  "The eventuality that the assassination would fail was well within our calculations. All we really needed was to force Princess Sasha into the Earth star system, and once the TSB Fleet is annihilated, we can easily capture her. This is actually the simpler route, since it will allow me to marry the Princess and then quickly dispose of her in a......accident." Sir Simwa had a cruel smile that Trent would never forget, the same that pronounced his fate and attempted to carry it out. His anger started to boil over as he slowly moved one hand towards his laser arc and the other towards the access port release icon.

  "I am glad to hear that, My Lord, your plan to fool everyone into thinking this entire matter had to do with the Noble-Killer Quinn, by lying about the Earthling Trent attacking your honor, and not the recovery of the Alutia Duchy, was a work of brilliance." Commander Guo's smile quickly faded as Sir Simwa snarled in his direction. Trent froze, forcing his anger away for a moment.

  "Commander, I would keep that particular piece of information to yourself! This is not over and that is privileged information I would rather not have fall into the hands of my enemies..." he paused, staring intently at the cowering Commander. Guo. "...I'd hate to have to remove you after all you have done for my cause...Commander Guo." The man, apparently adept at begging for his life, quickly recovered and bowed repeatedly.

  "I'm sorry, My Lord, I will watch my tongue from now on." his voice shook with fear.

  "That would be very wise. Go monitor that incoming shuttle, I want to know immediately when it arrives." stated Sir Simwa, causing Captain Guo to continuously bow while he backed towards the door.

  Trent, having regained control over his anger, quickly completed the message to Taku, verifying that he did actually record the conversation correctly, before sending. While he waited for the response, he started to go over his plan for storming out of the access port to take down Sir Simwa. It was all about timing, he thought. He would be clearly visible when he exited, so he needed to wait until Sir Simwa either retired or his concentration turned elsewhere.