The Lost Gunboat Captain

by J. D. Oppenheim

  There were a few BG Cruisers at the first jump point, but with each successive jump, there were fewer and fewer. They couldn’t predict where the Leviathan would go in a galaxy of stars. Jolo rendezvoused with the Argossy on New Tupin at the fourth jump point, and continued to jump further out towards the BG held planet called Montag. If there were any worries if the Corsair was, in fact, the Leviathan, these fears were laid to rest when she made the seventh jump into Talen, just outside the BG patrol zone. Until then she’d never been out of Fed space, had never made more than a two-jump trip beyond Sol. It was forbidden by the President.

  McCarty calculated she still had enough juice for another six jumps. At this point Jolo gathered everyone on the bridge, Katy and his crew, plus the commander and seventeen volunteers from the Corsair: four bridge officers and thirteen marines, most older veterans of the war, some who’d fought with Jolo Vargas.

  “Our advantage is surprise,” said Jolo. “They don’t know we’re coming. As far as the outer patrols go, we’ll send the Argossy first to draw the BG boats in, then crush them with the Leviathan.”

  “What about guns? The Cors—, I mean, the Leviathan has no offensive weapons,” said one of the commander’s officers.

  Jolo nodded to McCarty. “The commander led us right to them,” the engineer said. “We found the guns hidden behind the stabilizers, both port and starboard have massive ion cannons, unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And under the observation cap up top is a giant rail gun. It’s got Fed markings, but it looks like a one-off.”

  “So you knew?” said Katy to the commander.

  “Not many did. But I had a feeling she was more than advertised,” he said.

  “Are the guns online?” said Jolo to McCarty.

  “They’ll be ready by tomorrow.”

  “Okay. Tomorrow we go,” said Jolo. “We’ve got to jump into the first patrol point and take out the long-range Cruisers, and keep going until we make it to Montag. The commander will take the Leviathan and I’ll take the Argossy. Commander, destroy everything in your path except the old Vellosian building separate from the main installation.”

  ……

  That night the Leviathan was eerily quiet: a ship the size of a small settlement but with only twenty-four people on board. Hurley and Koba made sure the Argossy’s fuel cells were charged and ready. Greeley and George busied themselves making sure the weapons were functional. And after Jolo had gone through the official Argossy pre-trip checklist on his computer, he strolled the empty corridors of the Corsair, eventually ending up on the library on level IV.

  The library was a series of small rooms made of glass, each with a glowing orb in the center. He stepped into one of the rooms and the door slid shut and all was quiet. He could hear his own breathing, almost hear his own thoughts. The walls went white and he was alone for the first time since his father’s house. It was perfectly clean inside, not a speck of dust, every surface was like a port screen, even the floor, and suddenly he felt like he needed a bath. He could smell his own sweat and the old leather holster.

  “Computer, find Jaylen Voss,” said Jolo.

  “There are no entries for Jaylen Voss,” came the reply.

  “Is your data up to date?”

  “The Corsair carries the current Federation database. There is no other more current.”

  Jolo sat on the floor.

  “Who am I?” he said. The light shifted and there was a green flash across his eyes.

  “I do not know,” came the reply. “You are a hybrid. Man and an unknown organic, not synthetic, yet not human.”

  “Am I Jolo Vargas?”

  “You cannot be Jolo Vargas. Captain Vargas died in battle.”

  Jolo took a deep breath. For a moment he relaxed, was not worried about escaping the BG or the Fed, or worried one of his crew was in danger; if he wasn’t being attacked by two black alacyte warriors, then Jaylen was there. He watched her in his mind, wondered if she’d finished Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Wondered if that was just a dream.

  “The answers aren’t here,” said Katy, stepping into the small room.

  “Then where?”

  “Out there. On Montag. We’ll find her.” She sat down next to him and they were quiet for a moment. “Computer,” she said. “Take me to Regalus VII, pre-war, to the fields of fire in Spring.”

  And suddenly the room changed and they were sitting in the grass on a sunny day, a meadow full of bright red cosmos flowers in full bloom. There were trees in the distance and blue skies above, birds flew past.

  “Thanks,” said Jolo.

  And they sat together and didn’t worry about anything.

  Attack on Montag

  Bakahne Grana Controlled Space

  The Leviathan jumped into orbit above Montag and the Grana Cruisers swarmed around her like bees. The big Fed railgun screamed and rocked the ship, each blast a horrific wail and then BOOM as a BG boat was ripped in half, burned metal tearing into other Grana ships nearby. There were so many of the shiny black boats and the ion cannons were firing and charging so fast that McCarty had to manually slow them down so they wouldn’t overheat.

  Jolo and the crew launched from the Leviathan in the thick of battle, diving straight down into the atmosphere. Two Cruisers caught off guard by the old ship suddenly appearing from one of the Leviathan’s hidden bays tried to bring their guns on the Argossy but were too late, and Jolo told Katy to ram them. The heavy old ship crushed the bridge of the first and sent it into a spin, which slammed into the other. Meanwhile the Argossy built speed and dove down, down to the planet.

  The old ship shook and rattled during the descent, but once they broke into the light and air of Montag’s atmosphere, they had another problem.

  “Whoa, Captain, she’s still dropping like a rock,” screamed Katy, a death grip on the controls. The Argossy continued its high speed plunge toward the surface of Montag and Katy couldn’t pull out of the sharp angle.

  Jolo had flown the Argossy before, Marco told him, but he didn’t remember a thing. But at that moment, something came to him. A calmness. This is okay, he thought. I don’t know why. “It’s normal,” he said to Katy. “Give it a moment.”

  “We ain’t got a moment,” yelled Katy.

  And sure enough, just when Jolo was about to second guess himself, Katy was able to flatten out the angle and slow the heavy old ship down.

  “Okay, this is better,” she said. “Kind of like flying a large rock.”

  Jolo stared at the main vid screen. The BG defenses were light. They didn’t expect any ship to make it this far. None had ever made it this far. He spotted the building and a tiny green speck next to it: the pool in his dream. Suddenly the ship was rocked by a surface mounted plasma beam cannon.

  “Koba, find the source and hit ‘em,” said Jolo. Soon there was a black spot where the cannon had been.

  “Captain, do you want me to put her down near the pool?” said Katy.

  “Hold for just a moment. Let’s wait on the Leviathan,” said Jolo.

  They didn’t have to wait very long. The Leviathan’s grand entrance was accented by flaming alacyte hull pieces from shattered BG boats peppering the ground as she made her descent. It was a risk bringing her down to the surface because she didn’t actually maneuver as much as hover in the air. But Jolo and the commander agreed her guns would be needed. And as soon as she made it down her railgun put a large black hole into the closest Grana building. With it came the flurry of Cruisers trying to weaken her yet somehow not get torn in half by the big guns.

  “Now go down to the pool,” said Jolo. He was breathing fast and could feel the sweat on his back even though the air in Montag was cool and dry. George, as always, was by his side. He put his arm on Jolo’s shoulder.

  “And now we discover the truth,” he said.

  As soon as they got close to the pool and the large building, a Cruiser broke off and followed them down, ion blasts shaking the ship.

  “Koba, get a gun on that
ship,” said Jolo.

  “Can’t. The railguns have a 15 degree blind spot in the rear,” said Koba as another blast shook the ship, the pool and the building now bigger and in focus. Jolo could see ripples on the surface of the pool and the white building had rounded, organic corners, unlike the stark, sharp-edged, black BG buildings.

  “Katy, can you do something?”

  “Everybody strap in,” she yelled, and put the ship in a slow flat spin, still in descent, the BG boat behind them coming into range of the railguns. Koba fired on the BG Cruiser with both guns, putting a black hole in the nose near the bridge. By then the Argossy had spun around and was heading straight for the pool rear first. Katy slowed the descent but couldn’t get the nose around in time and ended up crashing into the side of the white building. The Argossy took out a large chunk of the north-east corner. Blue water flowed out of the hole in the building and with it several odd-looking bots flew out, hovering over the mess.

  The Argossy came to a rest on her side and Jolo was first out of the lower hatch, which was pointing right at the building. He took out the little bots with the Colt, then looked up as the Cruiser was hurtling towards the ground. He dove behind the Argossy for cover as the BG boat crashed into the pool and exploded, hot alacyte metal flying out in all directions.

  One BG warrior stumbled away from the wreckage with no weapon and one arm missing. Jolo put two bullets in his chest and he fell into the pool and quickly sunk to the bottom.

  “Katy, you Koba and Hurley get this ship ready to jump out of here,” yelled Jolo. “George, stay here. Greeley, come with me.”

  Jolo and Greeley jumped through the hole in the wall, ankle deep blue water still flowing out. Inside were thousands of tanks, each about chest high, empty except for the blue water, round tops with tubes and wires snaking into all of them. Way off in the distance there were bots hovering over, dipping small tubes into each one. A never ending BOOM, BOOM sounded overhead as the Leviathan continued to tear into the Grana buildings with the giant railguns. Occasionally the ground shook as BG boats fell from the sky. Jolo wondered how much longer the Leviathan could hold.

  Computer, Jolo thought. Do you have a map of the Vellosian facility on Montag?

  An older image popped into his mind. This one did not have the newer BG structures, but did have one large square building next to a diamond-shaped pool.

  Jolo pulled up the schematic of the building. It had four levels. Ground level was called the Birthing Room, above that was called Quarters and underneath them was marked Water Lab. “This is some kind of synth production facility,” said Jolo.

  “You want me to light this room up?” said Greeley, tapping the blast packs he was carrying.

  “Save it,” said Jolo, making for the far end of the room. They turned down a hallway that led to the lower level and ran into a dozen BG warriors. Jolo darted to his left and Greeley stopped and tossed a bomb into the center of the tall, mechanical creatures. The blast knocked Jolo and Greeley off their feet. Broken bits of hot metal, black alacyte warrior parts, shattered several nearby tanks. Pale-skinned humanoids, the size of small children slid out in a flood of blue water. Bots from every corner of the room converged and started flying them back into new tanks further back. Two warriors not destroyed in the blast got between Jolo and Greeley.

  “Go find her, Jolo!” yelled Greeley as he shouldered Betsy, then took out the closest one. “Come to me, you bastards!” A few more jumped into the room, their energy staffs lit on both ends, their armor smoking from the blast, blocking off the entrance to the lower level. There were too many so Jolo broke into a run and turned down a tight hallway at the end of the southwest corner.

  The map in his head showed an exit at the end of the hall, but it was blocked by several large storage pods. He turned and two warriors were running straight for him, red eye slits glowing. The hall shook when each of their metal feet hit the floor. Jolo shot the closest one twice, dead center of its chest plate, and it slowed and then fell to its knees. He shot the other one once but it was close enough to cut him in half or crush him, so he jumped to the left and there was a door he hadn’t seen earlier, a door not big enough for a warrior—a simple white door with a knob like a human-sized person might use. He dove into the room as the warrior, stunned from the bullet, crashed into the storage containers.

  Jolo crawled inside the room then kicked the door shut with his foot and scampered away on his knees, worried an energy staff might cut through the door at any moment. It was a small room not on his map. He was breathing hard and rolled over on his back and looked up.

  And there, staring down at him was a beautiful blond-haired girl, the one he’d been searching for ever since he could remember. The girl in his dreams was real. He jumped up, gun still in his hand.

  Jaylen smiled at him and he held her face in his hands and stared into her eyes. He stroked her hair. It was the same blond hair, the same large brown eyes, the same sharp chin. The same skinny-armed girl he knew. He kissed her and she smelled like he remembered, sweet and clean. He embraced her and just stood there for awhile, taking deep breaths, feeling her against him, feeling for the first time in as long as he could remember, that he had a place in the world. She knew him then and he was back. She knew he would come back. It felt good to be needed by someone.

  Just then the small door blew inward and a warrior’s long arm and half its body tried to squeeze in. The hot end of its staff carving burn marks into the ceiling as it tried to fight its way into the room. Jolo shot it and it stopped moving, but was immediately ripped out of the hole and replaced with another warrior, the wall around the doorway giving way so now one of the large black machines could almost get through.

  “I knew you would come,” she said.

  “Sorry I’m late, but no time to talk, we gotta go,” Jolo said, grabbing her hand and pulling her in the opposite direction toward a door on the other side of the room.

  She stared at him calmly, as if they were standing on Duval watching the night sky. Meanwhile metal sheared, dust flew, and alacyte claws scratched in the background as another BG worked his way inside.

  “Do you remember the book?” Jolo said, still pulling her away.

  “Hemingway?” she said, still smiling.

  “Yes! I gave it to you,” Jolo said, firing another two shots at the warrior’s chestplate.

  “Yes, you did.” She pulled back, amazingly strong. “Follow me,” she said.

  And then she jumped. The ceiling was at least 10 meters high with a small opening like a vent shaft in the center. She disappeared into the hole and yelled for him to follow. He jumped and found handholds that took him up a set of stairs inside the air shaft. They climbed onto the floor of the upper level. She held his hand and led him in the darkness to another room. In the background Jolo could hear the sound of a BG thruster whining like a ship fighting to stay in the air and the incessant BOOM, BOOM of the Leviathan’s guns.

  The room was dark but Jolo sensed that it was large. Their voices echoed slightly, but he knew this was Jaylen’s room. It smelled of her. Her smell was everywhere.

  He held her again in the darkness, just breathing her in. The building shook and Jolo guessed it was a big boat crashing down and he hoped it was not the Leviathan. The sound of her ion cannons a moment later reassured him, but this was only background noise, his mind turned back to Jaylen.

  His eyes adjusted and he could just make out her face. He kissed her and he felt whole and complete. The dream and his current reality came together at last. And he held on to that feeling as the world around them crumbled to pieces in ion cannon blasts.

  The noise and destruction around him had taken on a dreamlike quality. He didn’t care about that anymore. And for a few brief moments, the second iteration of Jolo Vargas, the half-human, half-something humanoid felt at peace.

  Unfortunately, the warm calm that enveloped him while holding the girl lasted only a few moments.

  “Why are you not in the Fed d
atabase? And why can you jump like me?” said Jolo. She continued to smile at him. She kissed him. “You were on my ship,” he said.

  “Your ship?” she said. “I think that was Captain Vargas’s ship. But you are not Jolo Vargas,” she said. “Vargas is dead. The only thing that remains of him are the tiny bits of memory rattling around in your little computer assisted brain.”

  “What about the time we had together? Me and you on the ship. We loved each other,” Jolo said.

  “Those two may have loved each other,” she said. “But we are not them. We are shadows of them, but yet wholly something else. I have been created by my father, The Grana Emperor.” She smiled at him. It was the same smile he remembered, the one on the gunboat.

  “No,” he said. “We were together.” He wanted to touch her. He pulled her closer.

  She laughed. “Your mind is weak. Your humanness will be the end of you.” Then she pushed away from him and said, “Lights!” One by one large banks of lights on the ceiling popped on.

  And Jolo could not believe what he saw: rows and rows of thin, blond-haired girls. Their eyes were closed like they were sleeping but were motionless, not breathing, yet somehow alive. Jolo stared at the closest one. Brown eyes and sharp, beautiful features. It was Jaylen. And another, perfect Jaylen, next to that one. They were stacked in rows above each other. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

  Jolo fell to his knees. “But you are not one of them, right? You are Jaylen. My Jaylen,” he said. His world crumbling around him like the burning Grana buildings outside.

  “We are all the same,” she said.

  Jolo bowed his head. “There is nothing left.”

  “No, my love,” she said. “You can join us. The Emperor will be pleased. Come, come to him,” she said, pulling on his hand. It was too much.