Pursuit of the Guardian (Children of the Republic Book 2)

by Jason Hutt

  The realization hit Akimbe quickly. Illegal. Akimbe depressed a stud on the pistol’s grip as he brought the weapon to bear. The weapon clicked as it changed states. Akimbe pressed the trigger and a laser lanced out across the field. The beam caught the young man in the midsection. It quickly burned through flesh as Akimbe kept it focused on the young man. Within a second, the boy was down, screaming in pain.

  Akimbe aimed at the young man’s head and a moment later the screaming stopped.

  He pressed the stud again, the weapon rapidly clicked, fired a torrent of electricity, and took out a small crowd who were trying to take advantage of the boy’s distraction. In the next moment of relative quiet, Akimbe’s heart pounded in his chest. He gritted his teeth in frustration at being off-target with the laser beam. If he got back to the ship, he would have to take in more target practice. He tried to calm himself with some slow breaths and the thudding of his heart subsided.

  Akimbe heard a footstep behind him.

  ***

  Two men and two women answered Sharon’s call for help. One tall, awkward-looking, blonde-haired, young man saw Max and immediately broke out a first aid kit. He began smearing nannite-injected salve across Max’s burned skin. Within seconds, Max felt a cool sensation begin to spread across his chest.

  “This isn’t too bad,” the kid said. “You’re in better shape than some folks out on the field.”

  “How bad is it out there?”

  The young man didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. Max could see the dried blood on his hands and the sweat and ash that dirtied his face.

  Max watched as a young woman handed Sharon a pistol. Sharon’s expression was one that would normally make Max give her a wide berth. For once, it was nice to see that steely gaze pointed in someone else’s direction. For a brief moment, Max admired her strength and courage the way he had on so many days long ago, days when looking at each other didn’t conjure so many painful memories.

  Sharon and three of the others charged into the room. The young woman in front, a short, stocky, dark-skinned woman with legs like tree trunks and arms that looked like they could pound a man flat threw a wrench at the little child-robot to try and keep its hands distracted for just a moment. Max heard the wrench strike its target with a thud followed quickly by the zap of another energy discharge. The young woman screamed in agony.

  Max pushed off the young man tending to him and forced himself off the floor. A mixture of screams, grunts, and bangs came from the control room. Max grabbed the door frame and pulled himself into the room.

  The three people who went in with Sharon were all lying on the floor, smoke rising from their bodies. Sharon knelt with her pistol pressed to the abominations left eye. She squeezed the trigger and a plasma bolt discharged. The damned thing collapsed to the floor.

  Only then did Max notice that its right hand had been buried up to its wrist in Sharon’s abdomen. When the terrifying little robot slid to the floor, its hand removed itself with a sickening slurp. Sharon fell face down on top of it.

  Max rushed over to her. A small puddle of blood blossomed on the floor beneath her. He knelt beside her body, wanting to do something, but he quickly saw there was nothing to be done. Max put his hand in her tangled mass of graying hair and gently pulled her close.

  ***

  An alert flashed on Akimbe’s wrist computer, but he didn’t have time to check what was wrong with Holly. He spun, barely parrying a downward strike from a wooden staff. He tried to bring his pistol to bear, but the staff struck the barrel and the beam of the laser fired harmlessly into the earth beneath their feet.

  The young woman who confronted him didn’t show up as a red silhouette in his HUD. Another damned illegal. They locked eyes; hers ablaze with hatred. Akimbe’s thumb slid over the pistol’s mode stud. At the same time, he stopped resisting her downward blow and instead spun, letting her momentum carry her forward.

  He leveled the pistol at her again and squeezed the trigger, but she had just as quickly maneuvered the staff behind his knee. She upended him as he fired and the laser beam ricocheted off the hull of the spacecraft.

  A clock had started in Akimbe’s head. With each extra second he was distracted by this girl, it was another second for some of the others to close in on him. Time was running out.

  He kicked and the heel of his boot connected with her left knee. She gasped from the pain and fell to one knee. Akimbe didn’t hesitate; he slammed his pistol into the side of her head. She collapsed without a sound.

  Akimbe jumped to his feet and he quickly switched the mode on his pistol. He only had time to register the many red silhouettes in his HUD before someone large slammed into him. His head struck the unforgiving landing strut of the craft. Akimbe’s world went dark.

  ***

  “Max.”

  It was Reggie’s synthesized voice breaking through the haze.

  “Max, time has run out. Republic ships will overtake our position in five minutes.”

  Max planted a kiss on Sharon’s cheek and stood.

  The young medic that had treated Max had tried in vain to treat the others, but was now kneeling in silence, staring vacantly ahead. Max grabbed the young man’s arm and hauled him to his feet. He dragged the young man behind him through the corridors of the colony. Max saw a few families gathered in the cafeteria, sitting down to a meal with smiles on their faces. He passed another mother and son locked in embrace in the corridor, ignoring the world around them.

  Max pushed passed them all and raced for the ship. His lungs burned as he reached the lowered landing ramp. A man and woman were on the ramp struggling to get the limp form of a young woman on-board.

  Long brown hair fell away from the unconscious girl’s face and Max’s knees weakened once more.

  Hannah’s faced was bruised and beaten. A cut had opened up from ear to mouth on her right cheek.

  “Is she all right?” Max asked. His hands shook as he grabbed ahold of the ramp’s railing. His chest tightened; the world became a little hazy around the edges of his vision. Flashes of memories of his lifeless little girl cradled in his arms played through his mind. He stepped back involuntarily.

  He squeezed his eyes shut and only reopened them when he was sure he had looked away, when her battered face was no longer in view.

  The young woman who was carrying her looked back at Max. “She’s alive. Thanks to her, a lot of us are.”

  Max let loose his held breath with a stuttering gasp.

  “Are you okay, mister?” The young man carrying her asked.

  “Yes,” Max said. “Please strap her in; then, get yourselves secured. I’m the pilot for this rig.”

  Max stepped through the hatch, hit the control stud, and the ramp closed.

  “Reggie, how long do we have?”

  “Less than one minute, sir.”

  Max blinked heavily, trying to clear the tears from his eyes. People were still all over the pad, some tending to the wounded or dying, some still running for his ship. Max glanced at the threat display and gritted his teeth.

  “Start the lift-off sequence.”

  “Already underway.”

  Max threw himself into the pilot seat and checked the console.

  “Any damage to the ship?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Small blessings,” Max said. His eyes swept over the landing field. A soft light came from the dying fires that had blossomed from the Mayflower’s wreckage. Bodies and wreckage were strewn across the field. In the distance, the faint silhouettes of colonists could be seen fleeing from the cave entrance towards the rock-strewn paths that marked the way down from the plateau.

  The Guardian eased above the landing field. Just above him, Max could see the running lights for the Bounty and the New Horizon. Max edged the nose of the craft up when a message burst through the comm system.

  “All craft are required to set down immediately. Failure to comply will result in the use of deadly force.”

  The message cu
t out. Max didn’t alter the craft’s course and the Guardian continued its ascent. The console emitted a loud ping and Max’s display instantly shifted to focus on three tracks moving rapidly toward them.

  “Sir, the New Horiz-”

  Before Reggie could finish his statement, the night sky blossomed with fire as three explosions tore through the large freighter that had lifted off just before them. The ship split in two with the forward section rising momentarily and then plummeting back toward the earth. The aft section with engines still firing plowed forward and smashed into the looming mountain, erupting in an enormous fireball.

  Max shielded his eyes from the bright ball of fire while desperately banking to avoid ramming into the free-falling forward section.

  “Shit,” Max said, “No. Damn it…Were they full?”

  “Yes, sir, to capacity.”

  The comm crackled again.

  “Max, you hear me?” Captain Louis Locke of the Bounty.

  “I’m with you, Lou,” Max said, “Coming up behind you.”

  “I can’t outrun those things,” he said, “Had to do a cold start of the reactor. I need a few minutes to have enough power to jump.”

  “Shit…” Max looked at the tactical display. Three Republic Interceptors were swooping around. They would have a lock on the Bounty within a minute.

  “Max, this is Victor. I’m on the Bounty. Get your people clear. Get them out of here. Don’t worry about us.”

  “No way in hell, Victor.”

  The sorrow and shock that had clouded Max’s mind on lift-off was gone. His cheeks burned red. Hundreds of good people had died today, mothers and fathers desperate to find safe harbor for their families, dozens of kids whose only crime was being born without the consent of the Republic.

  “No one else is dying today.”

  He pushed open the throttle and the Guardian’s white drive trail flared in the night.

  “Reggie, let’s pull in front of them,” Max ordered, “Victor, Lou, we’ll open a jump, you just get right on our tail and follow us in.”

  The console started beeping. Missiles had launched toward the Bounty.

  “Intercept and microjump, Reggie. Now!”

  The Guardian lurched and someone in the passenger hold screamed. Max gritted his teeth as the tactical display showed him barreling down on the Bounty in a direct collision course with half a dozen red dots, each representing a possible fiery death for those aboard the other freighter.

  A collision alarm rang.

  The air in front of the Guardian flickered and the fabric of reality ripped at the seams. The Guardian erupted through the fissure in space-time with the missiles following closely behind.

  Max took a split second to get his bearings; Reggie had brought them in mere kilometers behind the attacking Republic ships. The missiles that had tagged along raced forward and suddenly exploded behind the squadron of Republic ships. Failsafes had triggered an early detonation; the Republic ships weren’t damaged. The trio of ships broke formation with only one ship still in direct pursuit of the Bounty.

  “We need to buy some more time, Reggie. Let’s reroute the lead ship.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Space-time ripped again. The Guardian jumped forward and appeared just meters above the Republic ship that had stayed in pursuit of the Bounty. Proximity alarms in the cockpit shrilly annunciated. Max silenced them with an annoyed jab at his console.

  Another wormhole formed. The Guardian and the Republic ship disappeared in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, Max was staring at a field of stars. The view spun as the Guardian peeled away from the other ship. The Guardian jumped again.

  “We weren’t fully charged, sir,” Reggie report, “Only three more jumps until we need to recharge.”

  “I know. Target the ship closest to the Bounty.”

  The Guardian vaulted back into the fray. The two remaining Republic ships had spread out, changing their attack vectors.

  “Lou,” Max called, “Time to jump?”

  “Three minutes, Max.”

  “All right, sit tight. We’ll pick you up in just a minute.”

  Reggie had jumped the ship directly above another interceptor. Max gave a slight nod. The wormhole opened and the Republic ship suddenly slammed on its reverse thrusters. The ship decelerated rapidly. As the wormhole aperture closed, the Republic ship was sliced in two.

  The Guardian was once again floating through space; Max had to squeeze his eyes shut momentarily to fight off the disorientation. When he re-opened his eyes, he quickly found the remains of the Republic ship. He watched with resignation as small explosions rippled across its exposed interior. The ship’s lights momentarily flickered and then went out entirely.

  Max shook his head. “Let’s get the Bounty.”

  The Guardian jumped back into the fray and Max checked the tactical display. The third interceptor was a thousand kilometers behind them. Max allowed himself a slight smile.

  “Lou,” Max said, “Are you ready to go?”

  “Damn, Max,” Lou said, “How the hell…”

  “Save it,” Max said, “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Nicely done, Reggie,” Max said, “Now, let’s get going.”

  The air in front of the Guardian rippled and tore and both ships slipped through the wormhole.

  ***

  Maria trudged into the nondescript conference room nestled beyond the maintenance robot shed in the third sub-basement of the Capitol building. She sat down heavily in the chair at the head of the table. The twelve other representatives of outer colony worlds had already arrived, many of whom were engaged in small talk that Maria avoided by quickly checking her messages.

  There were no messages of consequence and Maria looked up. She could feel Senator Effren staring at her. Maria focused her attention on the empty chair opposite Effren. She stared at it vacantly while the others talked.

  “Has anyone heard from Batwa?” Maria asked with a nod toward the empty chair. Senator Batwa Dhawan had sat in that chair for the last twenty-four years, far longer than Maria had sat in her spot. Maria had always found her to be a voice of reason and focus in the often scattered debates of the caucus. Now Batwa’s chair sat empty as the Senator’s colony had been deemed non-viable. In response, Maria heard a couple of murmured no’s and a few shaking heads.

  “She’s leading some of the relocation efforts for her people,” someone called out. “The Sergeant-at-arms removed her access rights and stripped her of title formally as of yesterday evening. I hear she didn’t stick around.”

  “How many refugees?” asked another Senator.

  “At least ten thousand. We’re taking on half of them. That’s all we can support.”

  “Hazel is accepting the other half,” responded the representative from that world.

  “What does that do to you?” Maria asked.

  Senator Rose MacGahee grimaced. “Our food stores are already stretched, but we’ll manage.”

  Samir Effren started laughing. “You’ll be joining the former Senator on the refugee train soon enough,” He said, “All of us will if we don’t make some changes around here. We’ll go down one-by-one and nobody else in that chamber will bat an eyelash.”

  Maria sighed. “Samir, please. This is not what we need right now.”

  He harrumphed in return and crossed his arms over his chest. “You were pretty supportive of Senator Graham and his cronies up in that hearing, Maria. What did you get for us? More magic beans to sell us?”

  Maria cracked a smile. “If we had anything as healthy as a cow to trade, I might’ve gotten that. As it is, we don’t. If we support the Family Planning Act, we’ll get reforms for xenobiology and genetic engineering, some emergency aid, and I’ve asked for some Conglomerate facilities to be installed on some colonies. If we can follow through on this, that should help a couple of our colonies stabilize, Demeter included.”

  A tan-skinned representative di
smissively waved at her and said, “That’ll never happen, Maria. That’s all a pipe dream. If you think one Senator in the core worlds will let a Conglomerate research facility uproot and move then you don’t deserve to be sitting in that chair. They are not going to let anything happen that would take one red cent out of their pockets. It’s just not going to happen.”

  “You really think they’re just lying to me?”

  “Yes!” Effren yelled. “Once they get what they want, they’ll conveniently forget about any agreement they had. We won’t see a damn thing except a few freighters of emergency rations that the Conglomerate has already made a pretty profit off of.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Samir,” Maria said, “They won’t have our votes until we know our needs have been met. We won’t waiver on that. Any attempt to change our mind will be a waste of breath on their part.”

  Effren shook his head.

  Yesu Temujin, an older gray-haired woman representing Taraq, looked at Samir with a pointed glare. “Shut your trap, Samir, and get in-line. Maria’s always done well by us and there’s no reason to think she won’t this time.”

  Effren sneered and leaned back in his chair. After a moment’s hesitation, he pitched forward looking all the while like he was going to throw something in Yesu’s direction. Maria cut him off before he had a chance to unload.

  “Yesu is right,” Maria said, “We all need to toe the party line on this. I have promised Hunter our support in exchange for those modifications. We will all support publicly or stay quiet on the issue. All of us. Even you, Samir.”

  He harrumphed again.

  “Look, I don’t care if you have confidence in me or not,” Maria said, “But you will do this. Do you understand?”

  Samir stared at her.

  “Do you?” Maria pressed again. She waited and the entirety of the room seemed to hold its breath as the seconds ticked by at an agonizingly slow pace. Samir Effren stared at her but Maria met his gaze.

  Finally, he rolled his eyes and said, “Okay, I’m silent. But if I catch one whiff that this is going south, I’m challenging you for that seat Maria. You hear me?”