by Daniel Gibbs
Again, Henry spoke. "What kind of deal?"
"I help you track him down and prevent whatever he's up to." Kepper grinned mischievously. "And when the time comes, you let me handle him my way."
The grin wasn't what unsettled Henry. It was the eyes. Those blue eyes glinted in a manner that told Henry the calm, rational voice and professional demeanor was a cover for something far, far nastier and vicious.
"I've heard of you," al-Lahim said. He glanced at Henry. "He's got a solid reputation in the underworld for tracking people down."
"I am familiar with his skill myself," Miri said, her eyes narrowed. Her appropriated steak knife glistened in the light as she held it up in a defensive stance.
Kepper stared at her briefly. "I admit I was pissed with how hard you fought, but I can't fault you for it. In the end, you were just a mark, and it was business. Now Li, he's made this personal. I'm going to kill him."
"Can't say I'll miss him," Henry said. "But the question of trust comes back. How do I know this is legit? That you're not working for Li?"
He held up a digital reader. It showed a blinking icon on a base model of the solar system. "Because I planted a tracker on his ship to see where he went." Kepper smiled. "And I've encoded the tracker to only respond to my device, and it's got protection as well. Do anything to me, and you'll never find the quantum signature for my micro-QET. You want to follow Li, you bring me along as a partner."
Henry's first instinct was to shoot him anyway. It was Caetano who looked to him and al-Lahim. "I'm aware of his reputation as well," she confessed. "It leads me to believe he can be trusted, on this issue at least."
"Given what Vitorino said, their plans are coming to a conclusion," Miri said. "Li is likely heading to join Admiral Hartford and the missing ships."
"So this is our chance to find where they are and deal with them," al-Lahim said.
Tia shot Henry a worried look. Henry nodded at her and mouthed, "Later." Right now, he had more on his mind than discussing the “fight the League” plan.
"I'll be happy to help you shut down whatever Li's working on," Kepper said amiably. He was still grinning while holding up his tablet. "All you have to do is let me deal with him my way."
After several moments, al-Lahim lowered his pistol. "Very well," he said. "I agree."
"As do I," Caetano said.
Miri, who had more reason than anyone present to want Kepper gone, gave a knowing look to Henry. He could already see she was making the same calculation the others had. She was weighing the risk that this was a trap the same as he was. Because if it wasn't a trap, Kepper was giving them the one thing they needed to make fighting back a possibility.
All I have to do is invite him onto my ship.
Henry sighed. He lowered his weapon, as did the others on his crew. "Fine. You can come aboard."
"Thank you," he said, his voice still amiable, almost happy. "Now, shall we get going?"
"I think that would be best," Henry said. He motioned to Pieter. "Close the hold."
Pieter walked over to the appropriate lever and pulled it. The cargo ramp lifted from the ground and retracted into the hull while the airlock doors cycled close.
"Miss Caetano, please join me on the bridge," said Henry. "Everyone else, launch stations. Let's get out of here."
7
Everyone took their stations. This included a bleary-eyed Samina, who’d been awakened from what had been much-needed rest, and a rather grumpy Oskar, who took charge of Caetano the moment he saw her remnant injuries.
Now Henry sat on his ship's bridge with Cera, Tia, and Piper at their places, and Caetano standing with Oskar in the back. He was still fitting a brace on her injured arm. "As soon as we're clear, you are going back to the infirmary," he told her. "You need full medical attention."
"So you've said, Doctor," Caetano said.
"Opening hangar doors," Tia said. With a stroke of the key at her station, she sent the remote command to open the roof of the hangar.
"Engines are warmed up, we have thrusters at your command," Cera added.
"Traffic Control is signaling, demanding we transmit authorization or shut down," Piper said.
Henry glanced back and motioned to Caetano.
Caetano stepped up beside him and reached down with her good hand to punch in a series of letters. Piper hit the transmit key to send it through the channel to traffic control.
Tense moments passed. By preparing to launch, Henry brought them over the point of no return if the code didn't work; even if they backed down, security forces would come out to investigate, and Vitorino would quickly be informed. Launching anyway meant that every military battery would be aiming for them as they rushed for orbit.
They could try a jump, of course, but jumping before they hit the Lawrence limit was a risk, especially with their non-military model drive, which lacked the robustness that would allow it to function within the confines of overlapping stellar and planetary gravity wells.
Tia gave Henry a look that was more than worried. It practically screamed, "You and I are going to have words."
The reply came back, and this time, Piper put it over the speaker. "Shadow Wolf, this is Traffic Control. Code acknowledged. You are clear to launch."
"Thank you, Traffic Control. We confirm," Piper answered for Henry, who sat back in his chair and sighed with relief.
Cera triggered the engines a moment later. The Shadow Wolf rose from the hangar. Its maneuvering thrusters changed its orientation and direction to line up with the departure vector given by Traffic Control. Once she had the ship on the right heading, Cera kicked in the plasma drive and sent the Shadow Wolf flying rapidly towards orbit.
The minutes it took to get to orbit left subtle tension on the bridge. Caetano's assurances aside, the possibility of an attack was still something nobody could get off their mind. While in the atmosphere, they would have a significant disadvantage, especially with fire coming from both below and above.
Henry took a breath to calm himself while the monitor showed the twilight sky and stars vanishing into the deep black void of space. He glanced at his display holotank to see if any pursuers were after them. There was none yet. He was still worried by the number of Lusitanian military ships in orbital space and along the best departure vectors toward the Lawrence limit.
"Plasma drives t' full. We're on our departure vector," Cera said.
"Good. Keep us on it." Henry stood from his chair and touched the intercom on the arm of it. "Alright, everyone, we're in space. I'm not sure how long we have until Vitorino finds out we've flown the coop, but hopefully, we'll be far out enough he can't easily intercept us. Felix and Cera will man the bridge while I meet the rest of you in the galley." He looked toward Tia. "We have a lot to talk about."
Everyone—guests and crew—found space in the galley. Al-Lahim remained close to Kepper, who seemed indifferent. Miri was massaging her leg, still trying to get feeling back into it. Jules was at the pantry, preparing what looked like a stew from the food supplies they had aboard. The pot he was using was big enough that he obviously intended for the stew to go to everyone who wanted some.
Caetano sat near Henry, her expression withdrawn.
Henry noticed Tia seemed ready to explode, so he nodded to her first. "Go ahead."
"What the hell happened down there, Jim? What's Cristina Caetano doing here? And what's this about fighting the League?"
The others stared. They too wanted to know just what he was getting them into.
Henry let out a sigh. "In short order, Vitorino's behind the bombing, or rather, he hijacked Miss Caetano's plan to set the PdDN up to look like they were planning a coup. He's also working with the League on some plot to attack or undermine the Coalition. He tried to turn Miri over to them, and a League External Security officer named Li tried to kill me. The same officer hired Kepper over here," he indicated the man, who smiled in recognition, "to kidnap Miri back in Sektatsh. When we stopped it, he tried to have Kepper
killed, so Kepper's on our side now."
"And our side is… what, exactly?" Tia asked. She was frowning. "Because last time I checked, our side was us. It wasn't Lusitania or the damned Coalition!"
Henry drew in a breath. This was why he'd assigned Felix to the bridge. He didn't need him here, causing an even worse argument with Tia. "Yeah, well, the League isn't giving us a choice," he said. "Commander Li wants us all dead. He'll stop at nothing to do the deed."
"I believe it." Brigitte had her armed crossed. She shook her head at the situation. "The League hates people who stand up to them. Even if we don't pose a real threat." There was a sour note to her voice, one Henry knew was earned.
"Then we need to run," said Tia. "We make for Omega or somewhere else far from here. We can't fight the entire damn League by ourselves!"
"You won't need to," Caetano said. "We can gather allies in the rest of the Trifid Region. I know who to call."
"As do I," al-Lahim added.
Tia shook her head. "This is ridiculous. Jim, they're leading us to our deaths. Don't do this!"
"I'm not leading anyone to anything unless they're willing to go," Henry began with a set jaw. "Our next stop when we leave here is Trinidad Station. I figure we've got a good rep there, and the Trinis have been suffering from these raids just as much as anyone. We can get some of their ships to sign up and send out the signal to see if anyone else will. As for you guys…” He shook his head. "Well, you're not saying anything I didn't say when they first asked me. I'm still not sure. But the one thing I'm sure of is, if the League wins, there'll be nowhere safe for us in the long run. Trifid, Omega, the Coreward Reaches, even the Jewel Box. The League'll be everywhere, either with their ships or their agents. Especially since we're on External Security's kill list now. That's why I figure it's our fight now. Or my fight anyway."
He drew in a breath while seeing some of their reactions. Samina, tired as she was, was paling at the thought of yet more danger, and a haunted look came over Tia's eyes.
After seeing the doubt and uncertainty showing in some of the others, he continued, "Listen, this… before, when we went to Harron, I told you I'd let you go if you didn't want to stick the job out. Well, the offer's up again. Anyone who doesn't want to be a part of this can leave once we get to Trinidad. And I won't even say no to you coming back, not over this. This isn't a passenger run, after all, it's the real thing, and most of you didn't sign up for war. You don't want in on it, you stay on Trinidad, I'll give you two month’s pay in advance. If we survive this mess, I'll let you rejoin the crew, no hard feelings."
"And if ya don't survive?" asked Vidia in a quiet, calm tone.
Henry shrugged. "Well, if we stop the League, have a good life. If we don't…" He sighed. "I dunno. It depends on if they know you're on the crew or not." He rubbed at his forehead. His doubts roared back into focus. They weren’t military, and this was now a war. "I didn't want this. I never asked for it. But we're in this together whether we like it or not. Our best bet for getting out of it is to help stop whatever the League's up to. It'll give them something else to worry about, at the very least, so they might leave us alone. Otherwise… we have to run and stay lucky. They will chase us, and they only need to get lucky once."
Silence greeted him. He could see each of them was thinking about what he'd said. About what he was asking of them. His sincerity in saying they could walk away.
Henry felt guilty. The damned truth was that they couldn't walk away with no hard feelings. Oh, he'd bring them back, and he'd personally try his best not to let it get to him, but the crew who went with him would feel let down by anyone who refused. It would undermine, even break, their chemistry as a team, and the thought hurt. After all, with the exception of Samina, they'd been together for over two years.
So this wouldn't be entirely a free choice. If enough said yes, the others would go along to avoid being the odd one out, the "coward."
Or almost all of them would say no, and he'd have no crew, but that was a different problem to consider.
Henry was ready for Felix to chime in from the bridge, saying he was sticking with it. But the first voice heard was in the galley.
"I'm in, Captain." Brigitte stood up. "Let's get them."
The others looked at her, varying degrees of surprise or bewilderment on their faces. Henry had some surprise himself.
Piper reached for her hand. "Brig—"
Brigitte glanced at her. "I know, Piper, I know. You don't want to fight, and I'd rather not either. But I'm tired of running from them. I'm tired of being afraid of being dragged back to their camps!" Her face twisted into an angry snarl. "If they win, running's all I'll ever be able to do. They won't stop, they can't, unless someone makes them. And if that's got to be us, well—" She turned to face Henry again, determination glinting in her eyes. "I've got your back, Captain!"
Henry noted al-Lahim's curious stare at the first of Henry's crew to sign up for what might be a suicide mission. Brigitte didn't exactly fit the image of a soldier, with her mohawk hairstyle dyed bright purple, and the rest of her hair shaved save for her braided cornrows. He thought back to Li's diatribe about individualism and figured Brigitte proved a brilliant contrast with her fierce devotion to being her own person.
Oskar nodded from his seat. "She is right," he said. "If we're the best hope for stopping the League, we must."
"You know I'm in for it," Felix said from the bridge.
"As am I, Captain," Cera added.
Piper stood as well. "It scares me," she admitted, "but if you think we can pull it off..."
Henry squeezed his lips together and stared at her. The truth was he wasn't sure they could, but depending on how things worked out, he thought they had the best chance of achieving it.
Yanik nodded his assent next, then Pieter and Vidia. That left a frightened-looking Samina and a very pensive Tia. "I've fought this kind of fight before," she said. "I lost good people. Friends. Comrades." She glanced around the assembled crew as if she could see them falling in battle, given the pain in her expression. "I won't turn my back on you," she said. "If you're all in this, I'm with you."
Brigitte nodded at her. "We stand together."
Henry felt pride in them. It wasn't their fight, but if the League wanted one anyway, they'd get it.
"Yeah. So now that you're all aboard for this, everyone to stations. We've got some repair work still to do, after all, before we reach Trinidad." Henry turned to Samina. "Miss Khan, please follow me."
While the group in the galley broke up, save Kepper and al-Lahim, who remained, Henry led Samina back toward the bridge and into his office. He made sure the door shut behind her before speaking. "You don't have to do this," he said.
Relief was plain on Samina's face. Relief, but also what Henry thought to be uncertainty. Maybe even shame. "I...I'm sorry," she said. "I'm scared."
"We all are," he said. "And what I said, I meant. You'll stay behind on Trinidad Station. We'll come back for you when this is over."
Samina swallowed. "Right. I…" She shook her head. "I'm such a coward."
"Being afraid doesn't make you a coward," Henry said.
"No, but I joined your crew! I signed up for this, and—"
"You signed up to be an Engineer's Mate on an independent transport, not a soldier," Henry corrected. "What we're doing…" He took his seat and leaned back for a moment, sighing aloud. "Spacers can face violence, yeah, but this isn't just violence. This is war. It's going to be long, grueling, and scary, and it's not what you signed on for."
Samina lowered her head. "I..." she sputtered, then was silent.
Henry felt some pride in the young lady. As relieved as she was, he thought he saw a sign Samina was trying to convince herself to fight. "I've made my decision," he began. "So don't worry about it. This is my choice, not yours. I promised your Uncle Ali I'd watch out for you."
Samina glanced up and met his eyes. "I understand." Even as she said it, Henry could see the conflict goin
g on inside of her. She looked too tired to even try to hide it.
"Go get some rest," Henry said. "You can help with repairs when you're fresh."
The fall of night over Gamavilla signaled the end to another tense day. From the window of his hotel suite in the Royal Lusitanian, Vitorino watched the lights of the city's buildings come alive with the coming of darkness, showing that the city still had life in it.
Not the life it usually did, of course. With martial law came the sundown curfew. The civilians were leaving the streets save for a handful of brave and stupid democracy protesters daring the police to do anything about it. Vitorino considered such behavior a sign of how ridiculous humanity could be.
The same held for all of the groups clamoring for a minute of his time. The surviving party leaders, the provincial governors and the mayors, the ambitious, greedy, and the principled all wanted his attention for one cause or another. As if only they mattered. Li would make a snide remark about individualism at work, and insist on how his beloved Society had made such problems immaterial, Vitorino mused.
"Prime Minister."
Vitorino turned to face Carvalho. "Have they arrested the curfew protestors yet?"
"The police are breaking them up now. Chief Ramos wishes to know what you want done with them."
"I suppose Caetano would have ordered them abused in the jails as enemies of the State," Vitorino began. When Carvalho nodded, he smiled and shook his head. "They’ll be kept for the night and charged with disturbing the peace. Let them go in the morning with fines and a warning."
Carvalho pursed his lips for a moment and typed a reply back to Chief Ramos.
Vitorino could tell he disapproved and didn't personally care about it. Ruling through fear held too much chance for repercussions, and it would undermine his influence with other worlds more mindful of such things. A brief scare could be more easily excused than constant repression, after all.
Carvalho's expression hardened and turned angry. "Sir, we have a problem.”
