The Dead Sun

by B. V. Larson

  Maybe, I thought to myself now as I looked into his familiar, bearded face, I’d considered giving up when this whole thing had started because he’d been part of it. If your own right hand turns against you, well, you start to think it might be time to quit. Could the rest of my species all be wrong? Every last one of them?

  I’d seriously considered exiting the stage and letting someone else take all the glory and blame. Only Jasmine had reversed me by using my kid-to-be as a goad. That was unfair, but I wasn’t sure it was uncalled for.

  I remembered long ago reading that every ruling group came to a decision point eventually—a point such as I’d met up with several times recently. Rulers were always challenged by rebels and had to decide whether to give up or to fight their own people. Historically, the ruling group would almost always win if they took quick action. If they had the guts, their regime would usually survive. It was all a matter of resolve.

  In the last century, the governments of Russia and China had both faced their day of decision. The Russians had blinked, not having the heart to order troops to fire on their own people in Berlin and later in Moscow. The Chinese, on the other hand, had held firm, slaughtering protesters in Tiananmen Square. Neither sequence of events was rare in history. There were often moments when a leader faced a coup or a rebellion. The trick to staying in power was to act quickly and ruthlessly.

  Earth loomed closer on my screen as did Phobos. I’d moved quickly, but the question in my mind was an internal one: did I have the hard heart to do this deed? I wasn’t sure—and I knew they weren’t either.

  “Colonel Riggs,” Miklos said. “I’m not sure why I’m speaking to you, sir. I would prefer to talk to Admiral Newcome, who is now in charge of the fleet.”

  I chuckled. “Is that really your best line, Nicolai? The man in charge of any fleet is the one giving the orders. Right now, I’m in command.”

  Miklos hesitated, but didn’t seem too flustered. “Is Admiral Newcome still alive?” he asked.

  “He’s right here.”

  I swiped the screen, and Newcome’s face filled the camera. He looked alarmed, and I knew he wasn’t happy I’d done that. He was now on record as being a willing rebel. Newcome hadn’t lived this long by openly taking sides in political conflicts. I knew all that, but I wanted him to feel committed.

  “I see,” Miklos said. “I can hardly believe all your officers are lockstep in this rebellion, Colonel.”

  “There was one woman, a lieutenant commander, I believe. She had her convictions, but she did not survive.”

  Miklos’ face shifted showing a thread of surprise for just a second. Then he nodded.

  “Look, Colonel, we don’t have to do this.”

  “No, we don’t,” I said.

  “In fact, this entire thing is madness.”

  “I absolutely agree.”

  We stared at one another for a few seconds.

  “It sounds like we are in agreement, but I sense we’re not,” Miklos said. “Are you really prepared to destroy Earth’s fleets, pitting one half against the other?”

  I shook my head. “No,” I said. “That’s not going to happen. Let me tell you what is going to happen. I’m going to fly to Earth. We’re closer to Earth than Phobos, and we’ll be there about a day before the big ship arrives. That’s all the time I need.”

  Miklos’ lips worked. He looked wary now.

  “All the time you need for what?”

  “I’ve removed one government from the face of my planet, and I will not hesitate to remove a second. Your supporters will run like rats, but they will not be able to hide. They’ve already been identified and tagged. Really, I’m only concerned with collateral casualties. That’s the unfortunate part.”

  Miklos opened his mouth then closed it again. “You don’t have resources to—”

  “Did you think I told you everything?” I shouted at him. “Did you really think I left you with the keys to the planet? That I had no one else? No watchful eyes? No supporters in the wings?”

  “Yes. I did believe that. You’re a very solitary man, Colonel.”

  I nodded. “We all make mistakes. I’m sorry, Miklos,” I said. Then I suddenly closed the channel.

  Jasmine and Newcome were staring at me. I smiled back.

  “Pretty good, huh?” I asked them. “Do you think he bought it?”

  No one knew what to say.

  “Jasmine,” I said, “get Marvin to open a private channel for me. I need to talk to General Kerr.”

  “Kerr? Why?”

  “He’s my one-man secret network, that’s why.”

  -34-

  Miklos had been correct. I didn’t have a super-secret network of agents ready to finger traitors and perform midnight assassinations.

  But what I did have was one sneaky bastard named General Kerr. He’d been a thorn in my side for many years, but somehow he’d always survived the twists and turns of fortune, serving one side or another whenever the advantages were clear.

  At the point of my last return to Earth, I’d used him to locate the ruling elite for me. Once pinpointed, I’d erased them. This time it would be different. I didn’t want to kill a thousand members of parliament, or even those who had voted to remove me from my duties. Instead, I wanted them to think I was going to kill them all.

  “Let me get this straight, Riggs,” General Kerr said a few minutes later. “You’re still in charge of the fleet? How the hell did you pull off that one?”

  “Just take a look at the data, sir. The fleet is not heading to our designated station. We’re heading to Earth instead. We have one important mission to perform there before the Macros can be dealt with.”

  “Oh shit. Not again. Do you know how hard it was to get all these offices filled with viceroys and undersecretaries after the last stunt you pulled on them?”

  “Not hard at all, sir,” I said. “Politicians magically appear, sprouting from the land like fleas hopping on a dog.”

  “Well, you got me there,” he grumbled. “But I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to preside over the deaths of so many innocent—”

  “First of all, General, I’m not buying your newfound virtue,” I interrupted him. “Secondly, we’re not going to kill anyone, if we’re lucky. We’ll just tell them we’re going to slaughter them all.”

  “What? That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth—and by the way, did you know your mouth looks funny? You sound a bit off, too. I think you’re missing a few teeth.”

  “Never mind about that. Can I count on your support?”

  Kerr eyed me with a narrow stare. I knew he was calculating his odds.

  “I don’t bet on losers,” he said. “So, I’m dumping Miklos. The man barely won the vote. I think he must have bribed half of them and lied to the rest. I don’t know what you ever saw in him.”

  “I liked him,” I said. “He was loyal and effective. But I think he came to believe that I was too crazy to be allowed to run things. Barrera was like that.”

  “Oh yeah, that guy. What’d you do to him?”

  “He died a hero, fighting against the machines until his untimely death in a gun turret.”

  Kerr chuckled wickedly. “A hero, huh? What? Did you chain him in there?”

  I twisted my face in annoyance. Kerr was the ultimate cynic.

  “No, sir, he fought to the end as a matter of pride. He thought it was better than facing court-martial and execution.”

  “I bet!” Kerr said, guffawing rudely.

  I didn’t like his attitude. I never had. Kerr was a necessary evil, one of the few I tolerated. I’d thought about removing him after my victory, but somehow I’d known I might need his unpleasant expertise again.

  We worked out the details, and the plan was set into motion.

  The fleet arrived the next day and parked in orbit over Earth. The largest vessels were visible with the naked eye from the ground, but the people of Earth knew they had nothing to fear. The general
public was only curious about the ships in their skies.

  The news reports were confused. A few talked about a change of leadership but were vague on the details. They’d planned to put me on the nets, publically retiring. But that wasn’t going to happen. At least, not today.

  While the public felt more at ease when they looked over their shoulders and saw a flock of silver ships in the sky, the ruling elite grew ever more panicked. They tried to call us, but we continued to ignore them. The only message they heard from us had already been transmitted. It was distributed by General Kerr purposefully and by Miklos accidentally.

  Kerr quietly informed them a second purge was coming. The political class was to be removed as it had been before. A new generation of fresh faces was destined to meet their benevolent leader, Kyle Riggs, the next time parliament was summoned.

  Miklos played it differently—and all wrong. He told them to hide: That they needed to sit tight in a safe, unknown location for about twenty-four hours. By then, Phobos would arrive, and it would all be over.

  Twenty-four hours is a long time to wait with a gun held to your head. Miklos’ message only confirmed what they’d heard from General Kerr’s campaign of whispers.

  Even more convincing than Kerr was the fact they’d seen me do it before. They’d watched their predecessors magically vanish.

  Terror blossomed in the halls of government and beyond. No matter where the ministers fled, to their vacation homes, mountain chalets, aboard their yachts and even in the arms of their mistress’ in hidden apartments—no matter where they hid they feared the ships overhead.

  They didn’t hold out for twenty-four hours. They lasted about six. That was how long, I estimated, that it took all of them to learn about the situation, wet themselves, and then quickly come to the only logical decision they possibly could.

  “Sir?” Jasmine asked.

  I turned to her and raised my eyebrows questioningly.

  She smiled. It was very slow, like the moon rising from the sea. Her dark eyes were at their prettiest when she smiled.

  “The prime minister would like to talk to you. He’s got a crowded room behind him. They appear to be members of parliament. They look scared, Colonel.”

  I nodded. “Leave them on hold for…two more minutes. Then, open the channel.”

  The talks went well. I got everything I asked for and more. I wasn’t really surprised.

  “Colonel Riggs, we’d like to extend to you two things,” said the Prime Minister in summary. “The first is our most sincere, most humble apologies. That man—we were misled, sir.”

  “I understand,” I said.

  “Excellent. Secondly, we’ve taken a new vote, and the decision was unanimous. We want to give you a new title, sir.”

  I frowned. “A new title? What title?”

  Jasmine squeezed my arm. I glanced at her. She had come to my side very quickly. There was a pleading look in her eyes.

  I turned back to the screen. “What title?” I repeated.

  The Prime Minister was a large man, and the flesh of his neck spilled over his collar. His eyes were watchful, and I knew he was measuring every word spoken. Every action and reaction was being carefully weighed.

  “We would like you to be our emperor—or king, if you prefer.”

  My frown had been a flickering thing before. Now, it was full-fledged.

  “I don’t want to be an emperor. Crow was an emperor.”

  The Prime Minister looked befuddled for a moment, but his smile quickly returned.

  “But sir,” he said, “surely you can see that the title of ‘colonel’ isn’t great enough for the person commanding all of Earth’s military forces.”

  He had a point there. Jasmine was squeezing my arm tightly. I knew she wanted this. Did she imagine her child would be the heir to some kind of throne? The idea seemed preposterous to me.

  “I’ll consider it,” I said, and thanked him. “We’ll be in touch. I must prepare our defenses.”

  Jasmine wasn’t happy. Her mouth was tiny and tight, and she didn’t look me in the eye. I pretended not to notice.

  “Next on the agenda is dealing with Miklos,” I said. I looked at Jasmine. “What do you think we should do with him?”

  She appeared to be startled. “I don’t know. It’s a difficult choice.”

  “I agree. That’s why I’m asking you what we should do.”

  “Well, we should arrest him. That’s for certain.”

  “On what grounds?”

  “He tried to assassinate you—with that golden head thing.”

  “We haven’t proven that. He might be innocent.”

  She shrugged. “Let the courts decide, then.”

  “The judicial people don’t like me. Maybe they’ll take their time drawing up charges. Should I let the man who almost brought me down run around freely?”

  Jasmine frowned, uncertain. “Why are you asking these things?”

  “You want me to rule the world, don’t you?” I asked. “Why don’t you want to help?”

  “Well…this is hard. I know Miklos. We’ve known him and fought alongside him for so many years. I don’t even know why he did this.”

  “Right,” I said. “It’s a hard decision. I’m ordering you to make it. This is your chance to help me out. I’m putting you in charge of his case.”

  Her mouth fell open. “What? You can’t do that!”

  “I’ve already done it. I can do whatever I want, remember?”

  Jasmine thought she wanted to be the consort of a legendary ruler, but I knew she didn’t really have the ruthlessness and guile to pull it off. I’d decided to give her the old Damocles treatment. Let her sit in my chair for a day and see how much fun it was. Sometimes, perspective adjusts a person’s thinking.

  “I don’t know if you’re trying to teach me a lesson or something, Kyle, but I don’t like it.”

  “Will you handle the case or not?”

  “Do I have any choice?”

  “No.”

  Miklos was arrested for treason the next day. I have to admit, Jasmine did it tastefully. He was taken into custody by Star Force MPs without any public announcement. We had our planetary morale to think about, after all. Seeing a top commander in chains wasn’t going to make anyone fight harder in the coming dark days.

  What was more important to me was the shift in attitude among the ruling elite due to recent events. They were positively groveling when I called them to my offices the next day and requested they use the new orbital ship construction facilities to build my balloon-like transports. They didn’t even complain when I further ordered them to fill the transports with every civilian that could fit aboard in the time remaining.

  Then we began laying the final defensive groundwork. Night and day, ships like huge silver balloons drifted up into orbit, slowly gaining speed using overtaxed engines. The transports wallowed clumsily like flying shopping carts, but once they rose up into the sky, they kept accelerating. They wouldn’t stop until they got to Eden.

  At first, the people of Earth were skeptical about leaving their homes. Only one in fifty families wanted to go. We only took aboard families, preferring young people with children.

  But after a few days, numerous news reports about the process broke on the net, and the crowds began to come. It had finally sunk into everyone’s mind that if the government was evacuating Earth, we might not be one hundred percent confident of victory. People began to realize that those who escaped now might well be the only survivors.

  They’d seen the Macros devastate large regions of the planet before. They were under no illusions that they might be spared if the machines won the day in the end. Soon, we didn’t have enough room and each ship was full within hours after it landed beside a major city. We had to turn people away, and there were ugly riots.

  I handed the situation over to Jasmine, and again, she looked upset.

  “You’ve got to be kidding? I’m supposed to police billions of terrified citizens
?”

  “It’s not all about ordering lobster and silk drapes,” I told her. “This is the business of leadership. You have to lead.”

  “You’re not getting sex this week,” she muttered.

  Come-backs roiled in my head, but I managed to hold them in. I figured she’d change her mind sooner if I didn’t complain.

  I forgot about the riots and the transports. I turned to the larger issues such as keeping the planet alive.

  I had access to Miklos’ planning files, and I opened them. They weren’t even encrypted, and they were incredibly detailed. There were bases being built on moons—not just our moon, but all the moons in the Solar System. Jupiter alone had a dozen bases on various floating rocks.

  Frowning, I went over the numbers. I was a little confused. Why put a base on every moon? There were generators stationed there but not many laser batteries. What kind of defensive network would this be?

  I thought about getting his aides in to explain it to me but finally, in a growl of frustration, I contacted Miklos himself in his cell in the underground city prison.

  “Miklos?” I demanded when they’d brought him a com-link and he’d reluctantly put it on.

  “Hello, fearless leader,” he answered. “What can a political prisoner do for you today?”

  “You can stop being a sore loser for one,” I said. “I’m looking over your defensive plans, and they make no sense to me. What’s with the moons?”

  Miklos looked at the ceiling and twisted his lips. “That is no longer my concern, Your Highness.”

  “Don’t call me that. You tried to kill me.”

  “No, I didn’t. I merely tried to have you removed from office”

  “Yeah, permanently,” I said, shaking my head. “Let’s not argue about this now. We have to save our planet. Can I at least count on you having the same goals as I do in this single regard?”

  “What’s in it for me, sir?”

  “What? Bargaining? The machines are coming, man! The survival of your species is in your best interests, isn’t it?”

  Miklos sighed and nodded.

  “All right,” he said. “We’ll go over the plans. Please do not dismantle them until you understand their purpose.”