by J E Loddon
Cal showed us what we needed to do. Everyone watched in the end. Tasia had pointed out that Casper and I might get torn apart by enemy fire before we made it to either SAM site, and the rest of them might as well still make it home. The fact that she could say this with humour, and it didn’t instill a feeling of fear and dread in me suggested I might actually be getting used to the job. The procedure was, as Cal had said, fairly simple to remember. It was, though, incredibly fiddly, and I was concerned it wouldn’t feel nearly so easy in the heat of combat.
Once we were happy with what needed to be done, we set off back towards the area where the SAM sites were located. They were relatively close together, apparently. As Cal told it, we were on an island that was really quite small. I’d asked what else was on the planet, and he’d told me more of the same, as far as he knew. As to whether the enemy had a larger presence elsewhere on the planet, he didn’t have an answer. When we asked how many hostiles were likely to be guarding the SAM sites, he didn’t have an answer for that either. Despite the fact he’d been very confident he could remember where everything was after a short flight over the terrain, he was really very vague on the rest of the details. Once Cal was happy that we were close enough to the sites that it wouldn’t be too much of a trek to get to them, but that we were far enough away that we were unlikely to be found, he suggested setting up camp to get some rest.
“I thought we were gonna take the SAM silos out when it was dark?” Tasia asked him.
“We are,” Cal said. “So we might as well rest now until it gets dark.”
“It must be getting pretty dark now?” Casper said. Where we were, the trees were still fairly thick, so we couldn’t see much of the sky.
“Ha! No, it’s not gonna be dark for few hours yet,” he replied.
“What time is it?!” Casper asked him. Cal looked back at him in bemusement.
“The time is irrelevant,” Cal told him. “But it’s gonna be daylight for another six hours, if that’s what you mean.”
“Ugh,” Casper said. “Longest day ever.”
“At least we get to sleep,” I told him. “I thought we were gonna have to go another four, five, six hours. We’ve already been awake too long.”
“Well, I’d rather get it done now,” Casper replied. “Then we can get out of here.”
“There’s no rush,” Liberty whispered to him.
“Why?” he whispered back.
“The transport was taking the others back to the Anastasia,” she told him. “It won’t even be back in this area of space yet.”
“Ah, dammit,” Casper replied. “Longest day ever .”
We ate ration packs. We’d only eaten protein bars so far, and I hadn’t experienced what food we’d be eating on missions that went overnight yet. It wasn’t too great. There was some mushy stuff, and some hard stuff. It didn’t have a great deal of taste to it, but I worked out if you ate them both together, it was a lot nicer. I was trying to wash down the hardest bits with water, but I was worried about running out. If we didn’t get those SAM sites down that night, we’d have to live there for a while longer. We’d spoken about moving out of the range of the SAM launchers, and then calling for an extraction. Cal had reminded us that we were surrounded by water, and from what he’d seen, it looked like it was quite a wide expanse before the closest areas of land. Casper had suggested building a boat. I wasn’t sure if he’d been half serious, but it had been dismissed out of hand regardless.
After we’d finished eating, we all looked for a suitable place to sleep. We didn’t know if there were many wild animals around, or if the enemy would traipse through there looking for Cal, or us. So we decided we’d sleep up in the trees, where it should be safer. This seemed dangerous to me, too, but Cal assured us he’d done it before, and that we’d find trees where branches split out to created a bowl-like structure. He insisted, though, that we be in trees that were close together, so that we had a defensible position. Eventually, we found a section with some suitable trees stood together, branches from four trees all intertwined. Cal and Antonia took the two highest points, reasoning that their sharpshooting skills would mean their range wasn’t limited. Casper and Tasia took a section that was almost cage like, with numerous branches twisted around it. There was only one suitable part of the structure left, leaving Liberty and I to awkwardly share it.
I bedded down, as best I could, using leaves and branches. The curve of the tree underneath me made it very difficult to get comfortable. It was hard, and knotted. I rustled around for a good five minutes before Liberty scolded me for fidgeting. She was curled up against the curve of the branches on the other side of the recess, facing away from me. I looked up at the sky. It was getting dark, but up there, away from the gloomy forest floor, it was still too light for me to be able to fall asleep.
I lay there, watching the stars slowly appear on by one. I was in mortal danger, again. My mind was still cluttered with fear and uncertainty. I was in a tree, though. Despite the danger I faced. Despite the guilt I was feeling. Despite everything. I felt an odd sense of contentment. I’d survived long enough to see a tree. Not a ratty, old dying tree, either. A whole forest. Surrounded by luscious green grasses, bright flowers, and exotic, colourful birds. If I died that day, it was as good of a day to die as I was going to get.. The only thing missing was that Chris wasn’t with me. He’d made the sacrifice to follow me into the Galactic Division, but wasn’t gonna be there at the end. I thought about what the Administrator had said. The squad who’d rescued us that day had lost at least one member. They would be folded in with another team that had also lost people. If some of us made it off the planet alive, I realised, it could potentially be without members of our own squad. If I did die there, how long would it be before Chris even found out? Would he be allowed to know where and how I’d died? We were working with Cal, of course, so it might well be deemed classified. I thought about Chris back at the ship, and wondered if he’d been given his first orders yet. Or if he was out on an assignment already. I’d lost track of how long it had been since we left the ship. I started to feel very lonely.
“Liberty?” I whispered. There was no response. I paused for a few moments. “Liberty?” I whispered again.
“Go to sleep Milo,” she whispered back. “You’ve got a big day at school tomorrow.”
“Liberty?” I whispered again. She sighed.
“What is it Milo?” she replied.
“Are you awake?” I asked her.
“Seriously, bud?” she retorted.
“I mean… did I wake you up?” I asked her.
“No,” she replied. I couldn’t tell if she had any interest in talking to me, or if she just wanted me to go and jump in a lake. I couldn’t sleep, though, and I needed to talk to someone. I decided to risk her wrath.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” I asked her.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” she countered.
“I definitely asked first,” I said. I didn’t have much experience of conversations with girls. I spoke to Liberty, Antonia and Tasia, of course, but it was usually a squad-business kind of thing. I didn’t really know what to say under those circumstances. I’d never spoken to a girl whilst curled up in a tree before.
“I can’t stop thinking,” she admitted.
“About what?” I said.
“Everything,” she replied. We fell silent for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep.
“Liberty?” I said. She groaned in what I was pretty sure was mock exasperation.
“What’s up, bud?” she asked. That was good. I liked when she called me ‘bud’, cos it sounded like she was much more relaxed, and not uptight. It felt like she hadn’t called me ‘bud’ for a very long time.
“I’m sorry,” I said. She was silent for a moment.
“For what?” she asked.
“Everything,” I replied. “I know you’re just doing your best. You’ve kept us alive this long, which is a miracle.”
“
It’s not a miracle,” she said. “You’re all very capable. I’m lucky, I got a good bunch.” I wasn’t sure if she meant it or not, but she definitely sounded sincere.
“Are you scared?” I asked her.
“About the operation?” she asked, turning over to face me. I nodded. “Of course,” she replied. “I wouldn’t be an effective leader if I wasn’t.”
“Are we gonna die tonight?” I asked her.
“Milo,” she scolded me, “don’t talk like that.”
“Come on,” I said, “it doesn’t look good.”
“We’ll do whatever we have to do,” she said. She frowned at me, then felt around her. She picked up her water flask, and a leaf. Dropping a bit of water on the leaf, she reached up towards my face. I moved my head back a little, confused as to what was going on. The wet leaf felt cold on my face, as she rubbed it over my cheek and temple, then down the Derm suit on my neck and shoulder. “We should have cleaned this off earlier,” she said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’m sure there’ll be more blood on me fairly soon any way.” She glared at me again. “Sorry,” I said.
“So how are you liking the tree, Milo?” she asked me, smiling slightly. She looked around. “Nothing like this on your planet, I guess?” I looked around.
“Possibly,” I replied. “Not that I ever saw, though.”
“Do you miss it?” she asked me. I laughed.
“Home?” I said. “Not much to miss at home. The only thing I would have missed back there came with me!”
“Your friend?” she said. “What’s his name?”
“Chris,” I replied. “He’s more of a brother than a friend.”
“You didn’t have any other friends back home?” she asked. I felt embarrassed for a moment, and my face flushed.
“No, not really,” I admitted quietly.
“Don’t worry,” she said quickly. “I didn’t really have any friends either. Didn’t have much time for it.”
We spoke about our respective home planets for a while. I didn’t really have much to tell, and we’d already all spoken about our homes as a squad. I think we both just needed to talk, though. Liberty had joined the security force on her planet at the age of fifteen, having lied and said she was sixteen. She’d been quite popular at school, she said. She’d been a dancer, and had hung out with other dancers at school. When she left, though, she’d lost contact with them. They didn’t understand why she’d choose to leave the fun life they had, in order to go out every day to confront criminals.
She spoke about her dream again. How she felt during it when she saw the members of her family, some for the first time. They always looked the same in the dream, she said, even though she didn’t know what most of them really looked like.
“I’d seen pictures,” she explained, “but they were pictures of them from much younger. In the dream, they’re the right age. I don’t know how my brain fills in those blanks, but to me, that’s what they look like now.”
“How often do you have the dream?” I asked her. She went quiet for several moments.
“It used to be that I’d have it every few days,” she said. “Sometimes, it would be every day for a few weeks. Not now, though,” she continued. “Since we arrived at the ship, I’d only been having it about once a week,” she said. “Now… I haven’t had it since after the Evaluation. I’m not sure if I’ll ever have it again.” She started drawing deeper breaths, and her eyes became moist. She looked away. “The dream is about our race overcoming our enemy, making our galaxy safe for the rest of our lives,” she said. “Now, knowing the enemy is at our back-door, and only a ship full of cadets stands between them and our families…” Tears started flooding down her face. “How can I have that dream now?” she asked me, sobbing. “What chance have we got to save the people we love if we can’t even save ourselves?” She laid back down, curling herself into a ball.
My heart went out to her. I wanted to comfort her, to tell her that her dream would come true. I didn’t really believe that myself, though. We were supposed to be one of the most experienced teams out of all the cadets, and we were still pretty hopeless. What chance was there? If we couldn’t even take out two missile silos that night, what hope could we have? I started to tear up too. Not because I shared Liberty’s dream, and not because I was worried about anyone back home. I cried because I felt completely helpless. I couldn’t comfort Liberty. I couldn’t guarantee I was even going to make it off of that planet. I looked at Liberty, wondering if I should at least put an arm around her, hold her, to try to make her feel a bit better. That seemed too weird, though, so I just laid down next to her, watching her shoulders move up and down with her breaths.
I don’t know if it was all the talk about dreams, but that night, I had one of my own. I don’t remember where it began or where it ended, but the main part of the dream was pretty clear. I was going home. For some reason, we’d been discharged, and were allowed to return to see our family and friends. A shuttle arrived to pick us up from the ship. I looked for Chris, but he was nowhere to be seen. The shuttle took us all back to Ayoer. When we got there, though, we weren’t greeted by family and friends. We stepped off of the shuttle onto a wasteland. The whole planet was in ruins. There was no-one to be seen. Buildings lay in rubble, charred, burning. We all stepped through the wreckage, looking for some sign as to how it had happened. Then, I saw Denn. Why he was there, I have no idea. He was definitely not from our planet, but he had come on our shuttle anyway. Completely devastated about what I saw around me, I walked up to him and asked him if he knew where Chris was. He just looked at me sadly.
“Chris didn’t make it,” he said…
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I was awoken by a firm hand shaking me vigorously by the arm. It took me several moments to work out where I was, and what was happening. I opened my eyes wide to try to see who was shaking me in the darkness
“You’d be dead already,” Cal growled at me. “Wake her up,” he said, pointing at Liberty, “and I’ll get those two.”
I pulled my rifle towards me, and switched on the torch attachment. Cal started to move climb away, then grabbed me when he saw the light go on.
“What are you doing?” he hissed. I looked at him in confusion.
“I can’t see,” I said. “It’s too dark.”
“That’s the point, you moron,” he said, reaching over to switch the torch off. He shook his head, and carried on climbing away. I considered ignoring him, and switching the light back on. It really was too dark to be able to climb around this forest safely. Then I thought better of it, remembering that things didn’t usually go well when I didn’t follow orders. I turned around, and laid a hand gently on Liberty. I could feel her body rising and falling with her breathing. I left my hand on her back for a few moments, feeling the warmth of her body. Then I realised what I was doing, and started to shake her, though still fairly gently.
“Liberty?” I said. “Liberty?”
“Mmmm. Again?” she said groggily. “If you keep trying to wake me up Milo, we’re gonna have a problem, bud.” She opened her eyes, then started blinking them. “I can’t see,” she said, sounding confused.
“Yeah, it’s dark,” I said. “General Grumpalot says it’s time to go.” Liberty started to move, stretching her arms and shoulders.
“Sleeping in a ball in hard branches isn’t really the best,” she said. She started fiddling with her shoulder.
“Does it still hurt?” I asked her.
“Yeah, a bit,” she said. “That guy is like a brick wall.” Liberty grabbed her rifle, and motioned for me to start climbing down. I looked at the trunk doubtfully. I couldn’t even see the bottom. “Get going, Milo,” she said. “You don’t want to upset General Grumpalot.”
We assembled at the foot of the trees. At least, that’s what I was told. I couldn’t see everyone, though Cal insisted everything was visible to him. He had pretty good eyesight for an older guy.
&
nbsp; “OK, does everyone have the same time on their chronos?” he asked. We all checked, despite having done so before we’d all gone to sleep. “We all have to be in position by o’ four hundred, cos that’s when it’s gonna start getting light,” he reminded us.
“That’s pretty early for it to get light,” I said. Cal sighed audibly.
“It’s not actually gonna be o’ four hundred, that’s just what time it’s gonna say on our chronos,” he replied.
“So what time will it actually be?” Casper asked him. Cal closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples.
“Time is arbitrary,” he said. “We didn’t agree on how the two teams were going to be made up last night,” Cal reminded us. “I’ll take slim and shorty, and you guys go with madam here,” he said.
“I take it I’m slim?” Antonia asked him.
