Ep.#4 - "Freedom's Dawn" (The Frontiers Saga) (2 page)

He watched as the Corinairans scrambled below him like pigs sniffing for garbage to eat. He wished he could simply start picking them off one by one as they flew overhead, just to get in a little target practice.
Perhaps another time
, he thought.

* * *

The chanting continued to grow as more and more of the crowd joined in the repeated chants of
Na-Tan, Na-Tan, Na-Tan
. Nathan waved to the crowd wearily, unsure of what to do next.

“I believe they are expecting you to speak,” Jalea told him, barely audible above the rising din.

Nathan felt a cold chill go down his spine at the thought of addressing the cheering masses. At that moment, the memories of all of his father’s political speeches came flooding back to him. He found himself amazed that his father had been able to speak to such crowds as if talking to a neighbor. Surprisingly, Nathan found himself wishing he had paid more attention to those speeches.

Nathan turned to Jessica. “What the hell do I say to them?”

“You… at a loss for words?” she retorted. “That’s a first.”

“Seriously, Jess. These people think I’m a hero or something. What do I say to thousands of people who think I’m some kind of legend?”

“Say whatever you want. Recite the lyrics to your favorite song. What the hell does it matter? They can’t understand you anyway.”

“Thanks, you’re loads of help, you are.”

“Jesus, Nathan. Just wing it. You’re good at that. Just remember that what you say here could change the course of this planet’s history.” Jessica smiled mischievously at him. “So, no pressure.”

Nathan flashed a mock smile of gratitude at her as he turned back to face the cheering crowd. He was about to open his mouth, still unsure of what to say, when he noticed a disturbance toward the back of the crowd. Two men were swinging blows at another man, pummeling their victim about the face. As the recipient of the blows fell, two others came to his aid, the first one catching the victim as he fell while the second one fought back against the attackers. Moments later, more people joined the fight, and the cheers began to transform into shouts of anger.

The local dignitaries on the platform next to Nathan also noticed the commotion at the back of the crowd, as looks of concern spread across their faces. Several armed security officers charged into the fray from the back of the crowd and tried to separate the combatants, but they too found themselves exchanging blows.

Nathan could hear the comm-units of the security guards on the podium near him blaring reports of the. “What’s happening?” he asked Jalea.

“I am not sure,” she admitted. It was apparent by the look on her face that she was just as confused about the cause of the fight as he was.

“I don’t like this,” Jessica announced as she turned toward Enrique, her former spec-ops partner and now her deputy as the Aurora’s chief of security. “Keep a close eye on the prisoners,” she ordered. Enrique responded instantly, relaying her sentiments to the two marines guarding the prisoners with no more than a look in their direction and a subtle hand gesture that meant
stay sharp
.

A shot rang out. It was nothing more than a zing and a flash of bright light somewhere in the middle of the scuffle, but it was enough. Jessica recognized the sound of an energy weapon firing. She had heard enough of them over the past week. “GUN!”

At the sound of the gun, the crowd panicked and began to scatter in all directions, their shouts of anger turning into screams of fear. Those that remained had already been drawn into the melee. At least a half dozen people lay injured on the ground, the result of either the assaults or the panicked crowd as they tried to escape danger.

An instant later, Enrique, the two marines, and Jessica all had their automatic close-quarters weapons unslung from their shoulders, in their hands, and ready to fire. Everyone on the platform began to scatter, most being ushered off toward the safety of two waiting transport airships that were already spinning up their engines in preparation for a quick departure.

Jessica was in a semi-crouch, tense and ready for combat. She looked around, seeing that Enrique and the two marines had taken similar stances. The prisoners had crouched even lower, some even down on the ground, feeling far more vulnerable while still in restraints. All of them, she noticed, except for Captain de Winter. He appeared to be trying to see what was happening, as if searching for a moment of opportunity.

Enrique noticed him as well, and before Jessica had a chance to say anything, he pushed the nobleman down to the tarmac with his free hand. “Stay down, asshole!”

A Corinairan security officer of upper rank started barking at Nathan and his group in his native tongue. Nathan looked around, unsure of what the officer was trying to tell them. He could see about five armed guards as they ran in behind the prisoners to help ensure they remained in custody.

“What’s he saying?” Nathan asked no one in particular.

“He wants us to clear the platform and get into one of the transports,” Tug explained.

“To go where?” Jessica asked at the top of her lungs over the shouts of the crowd now fully embroiled in an all-out riot. She looked behind her and saw five armed guards moving in behind the prisoners as if to take them away. “Whoa!” she hollered as she spun her weapon around. “What are they doing with the prisoners?”

Two nearby security guards quickly trained their weapons on Jessica in response to her aggressive motion. Tug reached out and put his hand on the barrel of her rifle and pushing it downward to ensure the guards did not perceive her as a direct threat. “I’m sure they are simply taking them to a secure holding facility,” he told her. “They are no longer our concern.”

Jessica didn’t like that one bit. Nothing made her more nervous than to have something out of her control, and right now she felt as if
everything
was out of her control. All around her there was chaos. There were at least a hundred people rioting not more than ten meters away from them, and the only thing between them and the rioters was a flimsy barricade rail. To make matters worse, at least one person in that conflict was armed and had already fired in anger.

The officer in charge continued barking at them in an unintelligible fashion and pointing toward transport airships a dozen meters away.

“He wants us to board the transport on the left,” Tug translated for them. “He says it’s for our own safety.”

“Where are they taking us?” Nathan asked, still struggling to understand the situation.

“Anywhere is better than here at the moment!” Jessica insisted as she rose slightly and started to lead them quickly toward the transport.

Jessica knew that the sooner they at least got down off the platform, the better. She motioned to everyone else to follow her down. The armed guards had reinforced the barricade by forming a wall of officers between the riotous crowd and the dignitaries, and were staying in place long enough for Jessica and the others to get clear as well. A minute later they were at the boarding ramp of the first of two transport airships. Jessica grabbed the officer in charge of the security detail by the shoulder and pulled it back to get him to look at her. “No one is getting on that transport until we know where the hell we’re going!” she told him. She didn’t care that he did not understand a word she was saying. She was quite sure that her body language communicated her intent.

Jalea stepped in and translated for her, and in a far more respectful tone than Jessica would have chosen. The officer responded back to her without hiding his irritation at Jessica’s demeanor. “They wish to take everyone to the local command center,” Jalea explained. “Apparently this is not the only location where such hostilities are occurring.”

Jessica turned to Nathan. “Maybe we’d better cut this trip short for now and head back to the ship,” she strongly suggested. The last thing she wanted to do was to put themselves into the hands of a bunch of people they just met, especially a bunch of armed people.

“We can’t leave yet,” Nathan insisted. “We just got here!”

“We’re not safe here!”

“We haven’t been safe since the first jump, Jess! Why should now be any different?! Besides, we at least have to get some medical help for Cameron.”

Jessica knew he was right, even though she didn’t like it. Besides, the XO was her friend as well. “Well we should at least have Tug take the shuttle back to the ship. It’s the only one we’ve got and we can’t afford to lose it down here in all the chaos.”

“Agreed,” Nathan said.

“I think it would be better if I stayed with you,” Tug objected. “I can help you better understand this world and its people.”

“Also agreed,” Nathan added.

“Well, somebody’s gotta fly the shuttle out of here,” Jessica insisted.

“Marcus can fly the shuttle,” Jalea suggested.

Jessica looked at her with disbelief. “Really? Marcus?” While she had no idea if Marcus really could pilot the shuttle, she suspected that Jalea had only suggested it in order to ensure her continued presence on the surface. Jessica suspected that Jalea, as usual, had her own agenda.

“It’s mostly automated,” Tug explained. “Even my daughter could fly it.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got more confidence in your daughter than I do in Marcus,” Jessica said. “What about Jalea? She’s a pilot, right?” Jessica made the suggestion more so to test Jalea’s reaction. It was obvious by the expression on her face that she did not like the idea.

“She should also stay here,” Tug insisted. “She speaks several of the most common languages of this world.”

“You speak Corinairan, don’t you?” Nathan commented, remembering that Tug had already translated more than once since they arrived on the surface.

“Yes, but not as well as Jalea.”

Although uncomfortable with the idea of leaving Marcus at the flight controls of their only way back to the ship, it did make sense to keep Tug on the surface with them. Jessica didn’t trust that Jalea would be entirely accurate in her translations, and she didn’t want her left alone and unchecked on board the Aurora. She suspected that Jalea had another trick up her sleeve, and if so, she preferred to keep an eye on her.

Tug, on the other hand, was a different story. He had proven himself trustworthy on more than one occasion, most notably during their whirlwind escape from his molo farm on Haven. Marcus had proven himself just as trustworthy, as well as being somewhat resourceful under fire.

Nathan looked at Jessica. “Sound good?” he asked, hoping for her approval.

“Fine,” she acquiesced. “Enrique, take the marines back to the shuttle and tell Marcus to fly you back to the ship. You can come back and pick us up later after this all blows over.”

“Seriously?” he asked, not convinced that Marcus was the right choice for pilot. He didn’t wait for a response, as he already knew the answer. “Let’s move out, marines,” he ordered as he turned and headed for the shuttle.

The security officer in charge continued to urge them into the transport and appeared relieved when they finally began to move toward the waiting airship. Nathan looked the transport over as they approached. It was about ten meters long and four across at its widest point, and it had large doors that slid open on either side just behind the pilots. It was not terribly attractive to look at, appearing to be a somewhat flattened cylinder that tapered slightly at each end before rounding off. It sat on four squat pairs of heavy-duty wheels as it waited patiently, its four large overhead ducted fans spinning at what must have been an incredible velocity. Nathan assumed that the rotor blades must have been at zero pitch as he felt no rotor wash as they passed beneath them.

He watched curiously as the massive ducted fans sticking out on each corner of the transport airship wiggled back and forth on their gimbal mounts, the pilot undoubtedly checking their functionality before takeoff. The airships were painted flat black and had little in the way of identifying markings other than simple numbers and letters on their sides. There was, however, some sort of shield or crest painted on the hull just between the cockpit windows and the main door.

The lights on the underside of the airship began to flash as they climbed up the short boarding ramp. The ground crew moved away to avoid the rotor wash that would soon follow. If these pilots were anything like the ones in the fleet back on Earth, they would lift off as soon as possible, especially under the circumstances.

Despite the speed at which the ducted fan rotors were spinning, the airship had seemed unusually quiet to Nathan. As soon as the last passenger boarded and the crew chief stepped back inside, the passive whirring of the rotors intensified into a low roar as they changed their pitch accordingly in order to create the necessary lift.

The transport leapt up off the ground, causing Nathan and the others to be forced down hard against their seats. As a pilot himself, Nathan had experienced rapid ascents on more than one occasion, but the rate at which these airships were gaining altitude made them feel more like rockets than airships.

No more than a few seconds later, the transport had stopped ascending just as quickly and it turned sharply to port as it swung around on its new course. Nathan looked out the still open doorway as the crew chief activated the hatch controls, causing the small boarding ramp to retract into the underside of the airship and the large side door to slide closed. He could see the crowd below as security fought to subdue what now appeared to be at least a dozen different fights. Just below them a handful of smaller airships darted past and dropped down next to the riot, several more armed guards hopping out of the nimble aircraft as they touched down.

As they continued their departure from the spaceport, Nathan could see numerous pillars of smoke rising from the city. He could only begin to imagine the amount of destruction caused by the Yamaro’s bombardment of this world. For at the base of every one of those columns was a smoldering pile of rubble, a raging fire, or a smoking crater… and of course, bodies.

The noise subsided considerably as the door slid closed and locked into place. The crew chief checked the door before he settled back into his seat just behind the pilot, his back facing forward. Through the windows Nathan could see the other transport flying just off their starboard side and slightly behind them. Nathan noticed the others in the cabin donning headsets and followed suit.