Chapter 31
Defection
Kulchz’ face appeared on the big monitor over the bridge. Everyone looked up expectantly.
“Just wanted to report that the vice president and Speaker of the House have been taken prisoner and are on their way to ES 13,” Kulchz said. “Senator Rubio is on his way to the White House to be sworn in as president.”
There was clapping and screams of joy from everyone on the bridge. Rupra Bruda embraced Evohn Cystrom and then offered his congratulations to the admiral and Lt. Lethrow. Cystrom raised his hand and quieted everyone.
“That is excellent news, Commander. Have you been able to eliminate Peter Turner and his family?”
“Unfortunately no. They’re being protected by the CIA and the FBI right now, but once Senator Rubio is sworn in that protection will be withdrawn. Then we should be able to put an end to their meddling.”
“I hope so. We can’t let them interfere with the transition of power. If they get desperate they may go to the media and try to expose what we’ve done.”
“As your father advised us cycles ago, we have created a domestic political organization, the International Justice Alliance, to take credit for the assassinations. This organization has caused much trouble since its inception and received a lot of bad press. The American people will not have any trouble believing that the IJA is responsible for the assassination of the President and his successors.”
“That’s fine, Commander, but once the new president is sworn in you must make sure he has impenetrable security,” Cystrom warned. “The Loyalists will try to kill him, as that would be the only way to stop OCE,”
“Don’t worry,” Kulchz said. “We plan to keep him in the White House bunker, deep underground. I’ll surround him with our soldiers. I don’t trust the Secret Service. Because of the continued IJA threat we should be able to keep him down there for at least a month or two. By the time he returns to the surface we’ll be so entrenched it wouldn’t matter if he were assassinated. We could seize power and if anyone tried to object they’d be crushed like a scrub bug. And if the military doesn’t fall in line, well, we have the Fleet to handle any uprisings.”
“Yes, that is true, but my father told me it was important to make the people think the government was legitimate. In America, I understand that everyone has guns, and if they ever believed their government had been taken over by aliens, they’d revolt and we’d have another civil war. If we do it my father’s way and take control slowly, no one will oppose us.”
Specialist Prill wondered if he should interrupt the Vice Admiral who was talking to Commander Kulchz. Finally he decided he had no other choice. “Sir, we’re being hailed by New Age. They say it’s an emergency.”
“Commander. We’re getting an emergency communiqué from one of our other ships. We’ll have to call you back.”
“That’s okay, Vice Admiral. I was about finished. I’ll report back tomorrow.”
“Very well. Put New Age on the screen,” Cystrom ordered.
The somber face of the attack cruiser’s Captain appeared on the screen. “Yes, Captain. What’s wrong?” Cystrom asked.
“It’s Earth’s Destiny. She’s attacking us. We think she’s trying to get close enough to use her plasma cannon.”
Evohn Cystrom’s stomach twisted. He’d feared this would happen. “Just don’t let her get too close,” he advised. “Go FTL if you have to.”
“We can’t do that, Vice Admiral. There are fighters all around us. If we try to go FTL we’ll collide with them. What should we do?”
Evohn Cystrom just stared at the cruiser Captain for a long moment, shaking his head. “Use your lasers, you idiot! Clear a path! And then go FTL.”
“Find a path through the fighters,” the captain screamed to his first officer. “Take us FTL! She’s getting too close—”
The screen went blank. Evohn looked at Lt. Lethrow. He shrugged. All eyes were on the blank image in front of them.
“Get him back!” Cystrom ordered. “Get that connection back.”
Specialist Prill nodded and tried to reconnect the link. Then he looked at his sensors. “Ah, sir . . . Ah . . . New Age has disappeared.”
“No! This can’t be happening!” Cystrom screamed. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel his chest expanding and contracting with each beat. He’d never been so angry in his life. He looked at the admiral and pointed.
“You made us leave Earth’s Destiny behind!” Cystrom shouted. “This is your fault!”
The admiral stepped back in shock and fear over the outburst. Suddenly, Cystrom pulled his pistol out of its holster and aimed it at the admiral’s head. Before anyone could react he pulled the trigger.
The admiral’s head exploded, splattering blood all across the bridge. There were screams of horror, but nobody moved, fearing they’d be Cystrom’s next target. They all just looked at him with his pistol still pointing at the spot the admiral’s head had occupied.
Lt. Muri was the first to act, rushing over and cradling the admiral in her arms. Blood began to soak through her uniform. “What have you done?” she screamed.
“He was responsible for this catastrophe!” Cystrom replied, still shouting. “He left Earth’s Destiny behind. I told him it was a stupid thing to do, but he didn’t listen. He deserved to die. He’s jeopardized OCE, and that is inexcusable. Now get that incompetent skutz off the bridge. And I’ll shoot anyone who utters his name from this day forward!”
Two enlisted men rushed over and took the admiral’s body away. Lt. Muri followed them. She was beside herself with grief and anger but feared if she stayed on the bridge Evohn Cystrom would kill her, too. She wondered if Cystrom had gone mad. His behavior lately had almost been maniacal in her judgement.
She went back to her quarters and sat on her bunk for a long time. She wondered how the rest of the crew felt about what had happened. She knew Lt. Lethrow and Rupra Bruda would support Cystrom no matter what, but she wasn’t sure about Lt. Hanze. Even if he’d been as outraged as she was about the cold-blooded murder of the admiral, there was nothing either of them could do about it. Lt. Hanze would probably keep his mouth shut, even if he was upset. He’d be okay, but she was another story. With the admiral gone, her murder was now just a matter of time. What am I going to do? Oh, God. What am I going to do now?
A while later, when her grief had subsided, outrage welled in her again and her thinking became clearer. She had to escape. She had to get off the attack cruiser before she was murdered, for it was time for her to end the charade and show her true colors. It was time to avenge the murders of Admiral Vin Lugart and Vice Admiral Brunns and find a way to destroy Evohn Cystrom and stop the Purists from conquering Earth!
She sat for a long time thinking of how she’d get off the ship. Then she decided. It wouldn’t be easy, but somehow she had to steal a fighter and take it to Earth.
After she’d formulated a plan that she thought had a good chance of success, Lt. Muri gathered her essential gear and stuffed it into a bag. Then she started for the flight deck. Her plan was to sneak into a fighter and take off with one of the standard patrols going out. Then she’d slip away, hopefully undetected.
She got into the pilots’ dressing room early, put on a flight suit, and closed the helmet visor so nobody would recognize her. Then she stuck a note on the duty board addressed to the patrol pilot she’d selected, advising him he wouldn’t need to go out that day, as they had an extra pilot. She’d slept with that pilot before and knew he wasn’t a dedicated Purist. She was sure he wouldn’t complain about being removed from patrol duty for the day.
When pilots started coming in to suit up, Lt. Muri was ready to go. She walked out on the flight deck and went to the first fighter that was fueled and ready. She was a little nervous, as it had been awhile since she’d flown, but fortunately she’d been trained well, so everything she needed to know to fly the fighter came back to her quickly.
After s
he flew out of the ship, Muri waited for the others to join the formation and then flew with them on patrol in accordance with their flight plan. When they were far away from Videl’s Revenge, she broke out of formation and gave her T-69 full throttle, headed straight for Earth.
“Squad leader to VR23. Where are you going?”
“Thought I saw something,” Muri replied. “Going to check it out.”
“Wait. We should all go.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”
“No! I gave you an order. Wait!”
“Oh, my God,” she said. “There are two Loyalist fighters on my tail. They’ve locked on. Oh, skutz!”
Lt. Muri shut off her communicator. She hoped they’d think she’d been shot down, but either way she was already out of their range and would soon be plunging into Earth’s atmosphere. As she approached the big blue planet, she marveled at its beauty and wondered what her destiny there would be. Could she find a way to thwart Evohn Cystrom’s plan to conquer the planet? She knew she couldn’t do it herself, but perhaps she could help the Loyalists do it.
She’d never liked Videl Lai. He’d forced himself on her, and she’d gone along with it for the sake of self-preservation. You didn’t disappoint Videl Lai and live to tell about it.
It was during that time that Threebeard had contacted her telepathically, and she’d agreed to become a Loyalist spy. It had been easy since all she had to do was pay attention to what Videl was up to and then pass it on telepathically to Threebeard. When Videl died she’d been gobbled up by the admiral. She hated being his bedroom toy and had to exercise a good deal of self-control to keep from vomiting every time they made love. On the other hand, she liked the Vice Admiral, as he’d been like a father to her and never tried to exploit her sexually. His betrayal and forced suicide angered her more than the admiral’s murder, but neither death had been justified. She was determined to make Evohn Cystrom pay for all his atrocities.
The cockpit got very hot as her ship slipped into Earth’s atmosphere. She hoped the heat shields would do their job. Beads of sweat dripped down her forehead as she plunged deeper into the atmosphere. Finally, she felt the buoyancy of the air around her and shifted into atmospheric flight mode.
As she streaked across the sky, Muri set a course for Washington, DC, determined to find Leek Lanzia and the Loyalists. When she got within radio range she set her communicator on what she knew to be a common Loyalist channel.
“This is VR23 to anyone listening,” Muri said. “I’ve escaped Videl’s Revenge and desire to defect. I am not hostile. I am a defector. . . . This is VR23. I’ve escaped from Videl’s Revenge. I’m a defector. I mean you no harm. Please acknowledge.”
“We hear you, VR23,” a voice responded. “Release your onboard computer and we’ll program in a flight plan. When you land you will get out of your fighter. Take off your flight suit and put all weapons on the ground. Do you understand?”
“Acknowledged. Releasing onboard computer.”
She released the controls and sat back while the fighter landed itself. When it came to a stop she got out, took off her flight suit, laid her personal weapons on the ground beside her, and waited. A few tiks later she saw a female officer and a seafolken, armed with a laser, approach her.
“Identify yourself,” the seafolken demanded.
“Lt. Aerial Muri.”
Captain Shilling smiled and looked curiously at Lt. Muri. “Well, well. Videl Lai’s lover. Whatever did they do to you to make you defect?”
“Huh!” Lt. Muri snorted. “You wouldn’t believe it.”
Captain Shilling shrugged. “Maybe not, but I can’t wait to hear every word of it.”
Tarizon, Conquest Earth, Tarizon Trilogy Vol 3 Page 39
