Jack Cabe

by Timothy Nguyen

  ...

  Two Weeks Earlier, Aerotec Tower…

  Ruan sat at his desk as usual, but now he had some rather peculiar orders. A shipment of… Drugs? Yes, drugs. Outgoing to the Russian and Chinese districts and… Oh god…

  His eyes darted across the words on the page. Young women? I thought the rumors were fake, lies by the rebels... Now we’re in the business of human trafficking and drug running? We’re in the middle of a civil war! This… This can’t get out, the rebels, they’ll… They’ll try to destroy it like they’re trying to destroy Aerotec. But that’s a good thing, isn't it?

  Ruan had been tasked with coordinating and ensuring the safety of several shipments. One bound for the Russian district that consisted of food and water that was laced with mood-altering drugs, another of the same going out to the Chinese district, and a shipment of ‘Human Cargo, Female’ from one of the other districts. Ruan took note of every path he made for it -physical notes on paper, rather than digital- and he made up his mind: he was going to do something about this.

  ...

  Present Day…

  Ruan continued, “It was at that moment, Miss Valerie, that I realized your rebels were doing good in the world. No one deserves to be drugged without their consent, and no one’s daughter should be kidnapped or coerced into whatever fate befell those young women. I saw the manifestos. The oldest was 17, the youngest was twelve or thirteen," Ruan looked like he was on the verge of sobbing, "I… I regret not defecting then and there. But what finally sent me over the edge was this-”

  Ruan pulled a crumpled but neatly folded paper out of his pocket. An old flyer from the beginning days of the revolution, one with Maria surrounded by flames and asking for support. It was reddened by sand and blood, but amazingly intact. Val took the flyer gingerly and looked into Maria's sad eyes.

  She's come so far… A tear reached her eye, and she wiped it away before she looked back at Ruan, "How? How did you get this?"

  Ruan looked scared, "I didn't intend to offend you, Miss."

  Val wiped another tear from her eye, "You haven't Ruan, it's just… This little girl means a lot to me. Jack, Stan, and I, well, we're like her family now. I didn't realize that these made it into the city proper."

  Ruan eased up a little, glad he hadn't done something fearfully wrong, "Well, a young boy gave it to me on my way home two weeks ago. I'm… I'm pretty sure he's dead by now, killed in the purges. I guess the purges will get worse now that Aerotec is definitely losing."

  Val perked up, "Purges?"

  Ruan's shoulders managed to slump even further, and tears came to his eyes, "Yes, purges. They gather everyone suspected or known to be against Aerotec and execute them en masse. Last week, I had to organize transportation for the bodies. I…"

  Ruan squinted like he was having a hard time seeing. "Miss… Valerie? I don't… Something is wrong…" He clutched his head but promptly collapsed in his seat.

  "Ruan!" Val jumped up and rushed over to him before taking him into her arms, "Ruan! Are you okay? Ruan talk to me!"

  He managed to barely draw breath and muttered, "Microchips… little… poison… Management…." He fell completely limp, his eyes vacant and his pulse gone. Val called for a medical unit and tried CPR. She had to stop when a series of explosions rocked the mine.

  ...

  Jack had just given Ruan's case to the intelligence unit and was halfway back to the room when the mine shook with the power of massive explosions. He tapped his communicator and opened a three-way call with Val and Stan. He shouted as he ran, "Do either of you know what's happening?"

  "It sounds like we're being bombed, but that's all I can tell you. I think there are drones, let me get outside," Stan was about to step out of the entrance of the mine when a drone flew overhead and dropped napalm over the city nearby, "Holy mother of God…. They're firebombing us!"

  Jack sighed, "And here I was thinking we were going to have a good day today. Val, how's it look on your end?"

  She sighed sadly, tired of all the constant death. "Well, Ruan's dead. Apparently, Aerotec implanted its management with kill chips."

  "What?" Jack was utterly confused. He just got here, how is he dead already?

  Val screamed into her communicator, having finally reached a breaking point, "He's dead Jack! And I don't think it's a coincidence that he died moments before all hell broke loose either. For all that we know, every defector has died where they stand, and we're about to be flooded with freaking napalm!"

  Jack growled sternly as he took command, "Calm down Val, we just need to mobilize. Stan, if you can get outside, do it. Our people need a rallying point, and I'm going to have to close off the entire mine before it gets flooded with fire."

  Stan spoke simply, "As you say, Jack." He disconnected his communicator and looked out on the city as he ran out of the mine. Across the city of New Columbia, spires of flame reached high into the ebony night.

  Chapter 49

  The firebombing had stopped by midnight. The ambassadors from the other districts' whereabouts were unknown, but they were presumed dead. Jack had ordered the main entrance to the mine sealed, and the heavy blast door luckily impenetrable to all practical weapons, but that didn't change the fact that Stan was trapped outside, the entire Outer City was ablaze, and any former Aerotec personnel above the rank of sergeant were dead.

  Now, in the early morning hours of September 22nd, there were great black scars across the city, and the fires were still burning. Jack and Val were in the planning room of the mine, and their exhaustion and shock showed.

  Jack spoke, his voice slow and obviously exhausted, "Well, there's nothing we can do about the fires. The local fire departments were the first targets, so we're just going to have to evacuate everyone and hope that Aerotec doesn't bomb the camps we stick them in."

  Val groaned, "The only good news to come out of last night is that TC is sure he got every last drone with his cannons. The anti-aircraft guns worked, but not as well as they would have if we had an early warning system." She rubbed her red and weary eyes.

  Stan spoke from the communicator they had put on the table, "As far as our military casualties go, most of our infantry were either in the mine or the non-flammable wall of scrap, and they're working on making tunnels to the mine now. As for civilian casualties, I'd say at least 10,000. Land has quite obviously stopped caring about the repercussions of his actions."

  Stan growled at the senseless killing, but he kept a positive attitude, "On the plus side, Aerotec forces have fully withdrawn to the Inner City, the skirmishes are now directly on the border, and the other districts are in a state of full rebellion."

  Val took notice of that last statement, "How are you so sure about their allegiances, Stan?"

  Stan spoke matter-of-factly, "Because I have the leaders of every District right here in my tent. I'll organize with them and see if I can bring them in, but they are fully allied with and subservient to us, because -apparently- we have a better idea of what we're doing than they do."

  Jack sat up and spoke, "That's good. But I think there's one thing this Resistance needs more than anything right now guys."

  Val and Stan both asked the same thing, "What?"

  He said a single word, "Sleep. I'm going to give an order that everyone who can do so must take a mandatory 9-hour break for sleep or rest. Most will be sleeping or mourning."

  Stan told him to go ahead and gave the order to the Resistance outside the mine. Val got up and grabbed some blankets out of the closet.

  As soon as Jack finished giving the order over the Mine's intercom, she joked, "At least we thought to store some blankets, right? Late nights are good for something…" Jack laughed at that, and the two made a pallet on the floor and fell asleep within moments, cradled in each other's arms

  ...

  Several hours later around noon, Jack stepped out onto a stage in what had once been the flogging coliseum. The people needed hope, and he was going to give them hope. After the nig
ht they’d had, New Columbia needed a guiding hand, a comforting hand, and a hand to let them know what the plan was now. The makeshift auditorium would have to do. After he and Val woke up from a much deserved rest, they met with the other districts’ ambassadors and made plans for this speech.

  Jack walked onto the stage and took his place behind the podium while thousands of eyes and millions of ears focused on him. He wore a standard military uniform of sorts, and his voice thundered across the city, “People of New Columbia. Today is both a day for celebration and for mourning. I am happy to report to you that Aerotec has been pushed entirely out of the American Outer District, and will very soon be cast out of the other districts. We have also entered into an alliance with the other districts, as we are not just Americans, or English, or Russian, or Chinese. We are New Columbians, Martians, and this is our home. "

  He continued proudly, "Our new allies are just as dedicated to the cause as we are despite some misgivings with our past. I hope that we can all welcome them with open arms, and share some of our great burdens so that everyone carries a more equal load.”

  Jack paused, while the crowd applauded, “In other news, Administrator Perkins has announced that, after a month or two of trial and error, he has enough implementable plans to create a school and care system for our youth, ages five to thirteen. He promises that this will be universally expanded to older and younger children as soon as this war is over and peace has been attained.”

  The audience cheered a little, unsure of why Jack was mentioning schooling.

  “We also have further cause to celebrate our youth. Yesterday, in the great battle to push out Aerotec, our very own Maria Vulkov, Grand General Vulkov’s daughter, managed to single-handedly destroy an Aerotec Command Inquisitor. But this wasn’t just any old Inquisitor unit: we believe that its designation was SI-75g, “Goliath”. A hulking monster, this particular unit was in charge of coordinating Aerotec’s ground forces -their entire army- and he reported directly to CEO Land.”

  The crowd cheered, and Jack motioned Maria and Stan to the stage as he pulled a medal off of the podium’s shelf. He carried on, “It is for this reason that Maria Vulkov will be receiving the very first ‘Hero of New Columbia’ medal: for risking life and limb, for showing outstanding bravery, and for taking an initiative that should not have been and was not expected of her. And for those of you who are jealous, it’s a brand new award, and many of you deserve it and will get it. But for the sake of time, we can’t honor you all at this moment.” That earned a good laugh from the audience, and they cheered while Jack gave the medal to Stan, who affixed it to Maria’s chest.

  As soon as they were made their way off of the stage to raucous applause, Jack spoke again. “But as much cause for celebration that there is, we all know about what transpired last night. In a cowardly and desperate move, Aerotec, no, CEO Land ordered an attack on civilians that was five times worse than the attacks on the Twin Towers 49 years ago. Not only did he order the firebombing of every Outer District -displacing tens of thousands and killing more than ten thousand innocent civilians and over two thousand military units- but it has come to light that he ordered everyone above the rank of sergeant within his own ranks to be implanted with kill chips that, upon their activation, caused the victims to suffer a massive stroke."

  Jack's eyes narrowed and his voice became edged with spite, "And this is where I have another story to tell you. Thanh Ruan was a Vietnamese-Chinese citizen who worked with Aerotec’s transportation apparatus. He worked with some of Aerotec’s most dastardly projects in the last few weeks of his life, and he was so overcome with guilt, so disgusted with what he was being forced to help with, that he defected yesterday morning. While his information was mostly useless on a tactical level, Ruan gave us something far better.

  As you all know, we have long suspected that Aerotec has had its hands in the Human Sex Trafficking and Drug Trafficking businesses, turning a lucrative buck by making young girls turn tricks, or even just forcing them to serve as the slaves of Aerotec management. Ruan gave us direct evidence of this, and for that we thank him. This gives us even more reason to pursue Land and his corrupt cronies, and Ruan’s death will not be in vain. In spite of dying because of a wannabe dictator’s kill command moments after giving us this information, Ruan will live on in our efforts not only to stop Aerotec and Land, but to extinguish sex and drug trafficking on Mars, and he will live on in the valiant efforts of people working for Aerotec who wish to defect.”

  Jack let the crowd take that information in, but then returned to an earlier subject. “But now I have a message for all of you. In spite of the cowardly attempts to wipe us from the face of the planet with bombs and terror, we will live on. We are not going to attack Aerotec in a foolish rush of rage and grief: we will bide our time and rebuild, and our forces will never rest. We will rise from these ashes like the great Phoenix of ancient myth, and the fire from our reborn wings will spread; not just throughout New Columbia, but everywhere that Tyranny has made its home.

  We will rebuild. We will mourn. And we will conquer.”

  Jack pressed his fist to his chest, the other hand idle, and shouted: “Long Live the Resistance, and Long Live the Right of every man, woman, and child to live lives full of Liberty and Peace!" The multitudes cheered and saluted, and work began on an army to crush Land’s fortress, and the building up of the indomitable will of New Columbia began.

  Chapter 50

  This has gone so far south that we’re coming across the north pole now, Land thought to himself in his study, I may have gone too far in a few places, but it was for our own good. The survival of the fittest is less kind than I. I could have -no, should have- killed them all. But no one would be left to run the machines. It’s not quite the future yet… It was just him and his cabal of Advisors that were left. Everyone had come against Aerotec, or at least the people that mattered had anyway. Media outlets could be bribed, workers could be made to vanish in the night, but the Resistance -New Columbia rather- wouldn’t die so easily.

  Don’t they realize how much I’ve saved them from? Everyone has their place, and at least I tried to make their place greater than that of a slave. They can’t win against- Land’s cogitation was interrupted by the secretarial Inquisitor -now known as APU-1- entering the room.

  The droid beeped in a friendly tone, “Sir, I have a status report from the front.”

  “I’ve already seen the speech. What do the few loyal people in intelligence have to say about it?” Land spoke gruffly before lifting a glass of whiskey off of his desk and taking a draught.

  The droid's modulators hummed, “Well sir, based on recent information, we believe that Cabe was not posturing with the vast majority of the information he gave, and all of the Outer Districts are in a state of open rebellion.”

  Land sighed morosely; the days of his pride in Aerotec's military were long gone, “They really did shoot down every last drone we had didn’t they?”

  What could be assumed to be a sad beep came from the droid, “Indeed sir. There is also a message from the investors in your mailbox, as well as a few of your business partners.”

  Land rubbed his temples with his hands, “Let me guess, they want me to put down this rebellion as soon as possible and make sure it doesn’t spread to other Aerotec properties? I can’t do that when ninety percent of my administration has been terminated, and I can’t do that without support from these business partners.”

  APU hummed for a minute while he ran calculations, “Well sir, I think your best move would be to deliver a speech of your own," APU took notice of Land's rather disheveled appearance, "Though your appearance may have to be… Adjusted. Cabe is not the only rallying point for the people sir.”

  Land sighed, “Very well. I’ll think of something.”

  ...

  In the waning hours of the day, Land’s face popped onto screens all across New Columbia and Mars. He looked rough, but he only looked as rough as one would expect from
a man fighting a civil war. He spoke calmly and with authority, almost taking the air of a father:

  “As you are all well aware by now, a terrorist faction has taken over much of the outer reaches of New Columbia, leveling baseless accusations at myself and my administration. I want to make some things very clear to these rebels: I do not endorse or condone any of the assassinations and defamatory propaganda, none of which belong in a modern and civilized society. I do not endorse or condone the sex and drug trafficking industries, and any ‘evidence’ pointing to the contrary is actually the result of my attempts to quash these vile industries via various agents and undercover operations. I do not enjoy having to take extreme measures to combat you, but you leave me no choice. There will be no more strategic bombings and open combat, but this is out of pure humanitarianism only. There will be no more ‘secret purges in the night’, as you like to call my efforts to diligently seek out those who wish to disturb the peace.”

  Land paused for a moment, knowing full well that he was lying to New Columbia as a whole, but he took at least some pleasure in painting the Resistance in a somewhat negative light for the rest of Mars. He continued, “From this moment on, New Columbia is under total civilian lockdown. No one comes in, and no one goes out, except for the brave peacekeepers of Aerotec’s top of the line Armed Forces, as well as the brand new line of Peacekeepers and Inquisitors, who will set out on rooting out every last shred of treason and usurpury. This goes for all external communications as well.”

  ...

  Land continued his speech for a few more minutes, but Jack turned the screen off in the planning room. They’d all seen enough. He spoke, “Well, Alex, Val, Stan, this is what we’re dealing with apparently. Welcome to our new reality. Luckily, we know that Land doesn’t have the forces or the resources to steamroll us while the rest of the universe is kept in the dark.”