The Last Child

by Troy Osgood

  *****

  Turesa came into view.

  A small blue green planet, mostly green with some blue, that had a single small moon orbiting it. The system had four planets revolving around the sun and Turesa was the third and only inhabited one. They had no space station, all traffic going to the planet. Out of the way and colonized by the Thesan, there was no native race to the planet, the traffic was relatively light. And since the war, the Thesan heavily patrolled the system.

  Our hop put us at the end of the system, just past the fourth planet.

  Kaylia was looking out the view window at the planet before us.

  Is that Turesa?

  “No, I don’t know what it’s called,” I replied to her signing. She hadn’t actually said the planets name but I knew what she meant. She had signed ‘home’. “No one lives on it. See that larger bright spot just beyond?”

  I stood up so I could point. She came around and leaned against me so she could use my arm to help find the spot. Her fur tickled the bare skin of my arm.

  “That’s Turesa.”

  She stayed standing as we flew that way. The fourth planet grew larger as we passed it, filling up most of the view window and then disappearing behind us. I saw the moving points of light before she did. Her eyes widened as she caught the movement and turned towards me.

  Shooting stars?

  “No, other ships.”

  I had known they were coming, they had shown up on the scanners a couple minutes ago.

  The streaks, two of them, came closer and details could now be seen. They became gray pyramid like shapes, the point facing us with the lower half of the pyramid larger than the top half. A wing separated the two. Lights dotted the ship, some blinking and some constant. The barrels of two weapons could be seen mounted to the ends of the wings.

  They each came along the side of the Wind, taking up position behind me. Kaylia looked both ways as they passed. She recognized the shapes.

  Those are Thesan.

  “Yeah, patrol ships, should be hailing us,” I started to say when they did.

  “Freighter, identify yourself,” the voice said over the comms.

  I had turned the speakers on so Kaylia could hear.

  “Nomad’s Wind, Terran registry bound for Choni City.”

  During the hops to the system I had asked Kaylia where she was from, which was a small settlement outside the capitol city. I then needed to figure out the best way to get onto the planet. I had no official cargo documentation, no cargo flying in and no order to pick some up, so we needed a reason to be allowed to land.

  “Please transmit documentation to land.”

  “I have none but I am seeking an audience with Governor Yoterra.”

  This was the hard part. They could just choose to ignore me, in which case I wouldn’t be landing. If that happened, we’d leave the system and I’d have to track down a cargo or try to contact the Governor from off system.

  Why didn’t I do that in the first place? Too many eyes and ears that way. Bringing a cargo would have taken time and all incoming ships could be watched by the Tiat or whoever else was involved. If I had been them, I would have set up a trap using cargo knowing I would need a way to get on planet. No one would really expect me to just go straight to the top There would be a lot of ears that could and would hear this request but now it’d only be hours compared to days.

  And with bounty hunters looking for Kaylia, the quicker she got to the safety provided by Yoterra, the better she’d be.

  “Reason for the audience,” the pilots voice came back and the tone was one of annoyance. Could tell the pilot would have rather given me the brush off but someone on the other end had told him to humor me. The oddity of the request would have made someone interested.

  And here came the risky part.

  “Tell the Governor that I have something she is missing.”

  I was making a lot of assumptions. It started with assuming that Yoterra knew Kaylia had survived, that the Tiat had faked her death. That led to there being a cover-up of some kind to keep the news quiet. The Tiat were keeping it quiet and there had been no broadcast by the Thesans, so that was a safe assumption to make. If the Tiat had bounty hunters out looking, another safe assumption was that the Thesans would also.

  That all led to me assuming that if I told Yoterra that I had what she was missing then she’d see me.

  The minutes dragged as I waited for a response. We were still heading towards the planet and the patrol ships had yet to warn me off, so that was a good sign. Kaylia had sat back down at the co-pilots station and was looking worried. I flashed her a thumbs up and what I hoped was my most reassuring smile.

  “Nomad’s Wind, you are cleared to proceed to Choni City,” the pilot finally said and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Proceed to docking pad 13.”

  “Acknowledged,” I said. “Pad 13.”

  Kaylia smiled, not looking as worried. I kept the reassuring smile on my face. I didn’t want her to know that was probably the easiest part.

  The more I thought about, the more the whole situation stunk. My gut told me that Yoterra could be trusted with Kaylia, but I wasn’t ready to relax just yet. Something about all of this still bothered me.

  Scanners showed one of the patrol ships veer off, back on it’s route. The other stayed right behind the Wind, where I couldn’t get at him but he could get at me. Nothing I could do about that one, so no need to worry about it.

  The course set in, I leaned back in the chair and tried to relax. At these speeds, Turesa was about an hour away. Kaylia watched the planet get bigger and I tried to run through scenarios of what to expect once we got planetside.

  I wondered what Kaylia was thinking. She sat in the co-pilot's chair, legs pulled up tight, and looked out the viewwindow not showing any emotion. This was where her parents had died, so she would need to confront that. But she was also going home after being kidnapped, so she had to be happy about that. She was probably also wondering how safe she really would be. No family and not knowing why the Tiat had taken her. Would they try to do it again?

  Turesa loomed larger; the blue, green and white of the clouds filling the viewwindow. Less and less of the black of space was shown, replaced with a full view of the planet. The Wind shook a little as it entered the atmosphere.

  I glanced down at a screen on my console and saw coordinates and navguidance. I didn’t let them have control of the Wind but I followed the route they outlined. The patrol ship was still behind us and as we broke atmosphere and came in under the clouds, the ship veered off. It flew across our front, letting us get one last look and a last warning that they’d still be around, before returning to its patrol.

  We came in over an ocean dotted with small islands with a larger landmass ahead. I could see buildings appearing, a seaside city. Details sharpened into focus. The city was made up of short structures, only ten stories at the most and that was very few of them. Most of the buildings were only five stories with many down to two. Built of brown colored metal with curving architecture. There were a lot of windows, with rounded shapes and decorations. Visible beams were at the edges, extending up past the curved roofs and out past the walls. Small ships could be seen flying around the city in what looked to be orderly chaos. None got that high, never over the tops of the tallest buildings. There were even ships on the water, just floating along.

  The route had us turn so we lost our view. Choni City had looked interesting. Not overly large, maybe only a hundred thousand citizens. The water below us was crystal clear, a bright blue. Waves crashed against the shore and the cliffs.

  Sunlight glinted off what appeared to be buildings off to the side along the top of the cliffs. We were directed towards them and saw rows of long hanger buildings. The ground was a dark gray with lights embedded in it forming traffic patterns. Even the hangers were curved, half circles. That made them larger than they needed to be but made for interesting shapes. Like the buildings, there were visible beams that ext
ended out past the edges.

  The one we were directed to was near the front edge. I could see many ships of different shapes and sizes but most were of Thesan construction, civilian and military. Where their buildings were rounded, their ships were all sharp angles like the patrol ships. I saw none of those there, so they must have been docked somewhere else. I half expected to see some hovering over the hangers but nothing was visible.

  I figured there were some space defense cannons somewhere tracking the Wind. I had that itch between my shoulderblades that I used to get when someone pointed a gun at me. Not a comfortable feeling.

  Slowing the Wind, I brought it to a hover over the designated landing spot, a ring of lights in front of a hanger. The doors were closed, a clear indication that I was not to park inside the building. Yeah, they definitely had some weapons pointed my way. The thrusters mounted to the underside of the ship held us up and I slowly lowered it, turning in a circle so the nose was pointed the way we had come.

  The nice thing about a starship in atmosphere was that it didn’t need a specific direction to fly in order to get off the planet. Get into the air and point it anywhere. But this direction I was facing towards the city and put the Wind’s aft towards the other ships. That was where the strongest shields were.

  With a little bumping the Wind settled down on the ground. I shifted the engines to standby and unbuckled from the seat. Kaylia stood up, setting the tablet down on the console.

  “Come on kiddo.”

  She tried to smile but it faded. She was nervous. I put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into me, squeezing. We walked out of the bridge and she ran her hand along the smooth metal wall of the bunk hall. I took the spiral stairs first, walking down into the galley. Kaylia was slow, somewhat reluctant.

  The hold was empty, it seemed giant and our footsteps on the metal seemed to echo through the space. We got to the aft mounted door and I stopped and turned, pointing Kaylia to the side where she was out of sightline from the door.

  “Wait here.”

  She looked up at me questioningly. I shrugged. There was no real reason why she couldn’t come out with me. I was probably being paranoid. Or maybe I wasn’t ready to hand her over yet?

  Either way she was staying right there for now.

  “Wait here and I’ll call for you,” I said and added. “Don’t come out for anyone else okay?”

  Kaylia nodded. She was a smart kid, I think she got it.

  I checked to make sure my blaster was on stun. A good rule of thumb when dealing with different cultures is to not kill. There have been plenty of misunderstandings that usually can be talked around if you only stun someone. Killing tends to end negotiations and encounters.

  Keying in the code, the door slid open and I stepped out onto Turesa.

  The air was thick, humid. I hadn’t realized that it was a jungle world. The sun was bright in the sky and I reached a hand up to shield my eyes.

  In a small group in front of me were half a dozen Thesans. Two looking official, one of them I recognized as Yoterra and a male that was probably her assistant. The other four were military, dressed in uniforms I recognized from my time in service, and all armed. None looked on alert so that was a good sign.

  I took a couple steps forward, hands hanging loosely at my side.

  “You are Arek Lancer, Captain of the Nomad’s Wind and former Captain in the Earth Expeditionary Forces,” Yoterra said, a statement. She looked exactly like she had in the news article but the film had not captured her commanding presence. She stood straight, hands clasped behind her back. If she was nervous or excited or anything at all, she didn’t show it.

  Attractive but stark. There was no softness to her.

  “That’s me,” I said.

  “You said you have something that I’m missing,” she prompted. This was not a woman that had a lot of patience. From the tone of voice, I could tell she knew what my message had meant.

  I glanced at the others around her.

  “You can trust them.”

  Nodding I studied her. She was a Planetary Governor, she had power and she had to be somewhat ruthless to get to that position. She had been in the Thesan War Applications Division, which told me another thing about her. Willing to do what needed to be done for her people. I searched harder and there it was. In her eyes. She held her body rigid, controlled, but the eyes. There was hope there. Worry and caring.

  “Kaylia,” I called and watched Yoterra’s eyes.

  I could hear Kaylia behind me, stepping down out of the Wind. Yoterra’s facade cracked. She smiled, her eyes lighting up. I glanced behind me and saw a similar smile on Kaylia’s face. Kaylia was about level with me when I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye. One of the guards.

  “Down,” I yelled and dove at Kaylia.

  I grabbed her, twisting so we fell onto my back and heard the sizzle of an energy blast hit the side of the ship. The sparks flew, falling around us, as the bolt dissipated into a fury of energy.

  “For A New Thesa,” a voice rang out.

  Standing up, pushing Kaylia behind me, I drew my blaster and switched it from stun to kill.

  I pointed it at a shocked looking Yoterra. She was looking at me or Kaylia but at one of the guards, who was now surrounded by the others. His weapon was on the ground and he was being forced to his knees. The other official looking Thesan looked like he wanted to run away and hide.

  “What the hell was that,” I said angrily weapon pointed at Yoterra.

  The guards now saw my weapon and pointed theirs at me.

  A stand-off.

  I could feel Kaylia behind me. Her body was shaking against mine. The girl was crying silently.

  Someone was going to hurt for this.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I kept my blaster pointed at Yoterra while two others were pointed at me. The guard that had shot at us was down on his knees, the last guard’s blaster at his head.

  Yoterra took a couple steps forward, putting herself between me and her guards. She turned from one to the other, hands up.

  “Lower your weapons,” she ordered her guards. They hesitated and finally did at a commanding look from her. She turned to me, hands still raised. “Please Captain Lancer, lower your weapon.”

  I didn’t.

  The guards moved away from Yoterra, so now I was back in their sightlines and she wasn’t. They didn’t raise their weapons but they held them ready. I pushed Kaylia tighter behind me and moved us towards the still open hatch to the Wind.

  “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just board my ship and leave,” I said the point of my weapon never wavering.

  There was a long pause, Yoterra studying me as I inched us closer to the hatch. She turned and nodded at the guard with the weapon pointed at the prisoner.

  The shot of a blaster was the only sound. Followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground.

  Smoke drifted out of the hole in the dead guard’s head, the one that had shot at us was now laying on the ground.

  I didn’t lower my weapon but stopped moving us.

  “Please,” Yoterra said, almost pleading.

  “Who was he,” I asked motioning at the dead body.

  With the prisoner dead, the last guard was now able to point his weapon at me. I hated having blasters pointed at me and now there were three of them.

  “A fanatic,” Yoterra replied staring down at the body. “I do not know how he got into my personal guard.”

  “What kind of fanatic?” I didn’t care how he had gotten into her guard, just that he was there. Was he the only one?

  “The kind that believes in a pure Thesan culture,” Yoterra explained. “He and his kind want to erase the sins of our past, not learn and grow from them. They do not like that we expanded beyond our own solar system and they do not like what we did during the war to protect those expansions.”

  We had folks like that on Earth. They hated the Earth Expeditionary Force and our ‘expansionist’ ways. They want
ed to keep us on earth and not out into the stars, or if we did go out to not take territory. They saw the Third Galactic War as our fault and we should atone for all those lives lost. On one hand they were right, we shouldn’t take territory from others and that was what started the war. But on the other hand, if the 2Es hadn’t fought the war then we’d all be speaking Tiat right now.

  I know which side of that argument I fell on.

  “That’s great. What does it have to do with Kaylia?”

  Her head poked out around my body. I could see streaks of tears down her cheeks. She looked at the dead body and quickly buried her head in my side. She was clutching me tightly. The wind blew the last of the smoke from the wound away.

  Yoterra was facing me, but not looking at me, she was looking at Kaylia. Lots of emotions flew across the Governors face. Regret being a big one.

  “The Third Galactic War was a terrible one,” she began. “You were in the Terran forces, and while it was before your time, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories. The Tiat were winning and so we started looking into alternative weapons. They outnumbered us and we needed something to even the odds. I oversaw many of those projects.”

  She paused, shaking her head and looked off towards the city. Her gaze drifted back to me.

  “Tell me Captain, have you ever heard of the Thesan Wilders?”

  I thought back through all the war stories I had heard or been told. I’d met lots of vets from those days as well as what was told during my classes in basic training. I was a kid for the later part of it, so there was even some stories I had heard when a kid. There had been some stuff on the Thesans and their tactics. What they had done that was different from how we fought a war.

  And there was something about a group called the Wilders.

  The way I had heard it from an old sergeant was that there were some Thesan special forces. Scary and lethal. If they got dropped into a fight, it was going to be bloody and the Thesans would win.

  “A little,” I told her. “Thesan special forces. Really black ops, wetworks kind of stuff.”