Heart Of The Sun (3 page)

Vash seems to pale considerably. “You need to run,” he says. “You need to get as far away from here as you can. We cannot hold off Karalian commandos.”

“We? Vash, these are your people! Haven’t they come to take you home?” Vash’s face only seems to pale more at Alan’s question, the red birthmarks standing out against his white skin.

“They’ve come for me,” Vash explains, “but not to take me home. They’ve come to execute me.”

“What?” Alan’s eyes widen. “You’re on the run from your own people? Why?”

“Why?” Vash laughs dryly and shakes his head. “I thought you would have figured that out, human. I am
kast’ka
. He looks down at the floor as he says it. “On Karalia that is nothing less than a crime punishable by death. Our birthrate is so low that we lose ten people for every one that is born. There’s a high percentage of
kast’ka
on Karalia, almost thirty percent. We make an effective scapegoat for those looking to blame the death of Karalia on someone.”

“The commandos are near,” Alan says, pulling Vash from his reverie. “We need to act now.”

Vash shakes his head. “There are no actions we can take,” he says. “The game is up. I have run as far as I could go, and gotten much further than I ever expected. It was foolishness to dream that I could ever reach a place of safety.”

“You were going to defect?”

“It is of no concern now. You must run. If they find you here, they will execute us both.”

“I’m not going.” Alan draws his gun and reloads it. “You saved my life. I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for your kindness. Besides, I owe you an apology. For yesterday.”

“None is required,” Vash says. “I’m not used to the way Humans see sexuality. That is all.”

You were ashamed of your actions. That’s why you despised being caught. That’s why you were so angry, why you wanted me to feel ashamed, isn’t it?

“I don’t want you to die with me,” Vash says. “This is not your war. Karalian internal politics do not concern you.”

“They do when they threaten a friend of mine,” Alan says. “Back on Earth, we hear a lot of stuff about the Karalians. I always thought it was just propaganda. Karalia’s so far away from Earth that most people will never see it, so I thought all the stories of oppression were just fabricated to increase war spirit.”

“Shh.” Vash hushed Alan and grabbed his arm, leading him into his room where he shuts the door. He leans in so close to Alan that Alan can feel Vash’s hot breath tickling his ear. “We’ll take them by surprise when they come through this door. Maybe we can take a couple of them out before they get us.” He closes his eyes. “Alan, if they take me, please shoot me. The Karalian execution method for
kast’ka
is not pleasant.”

Alan’s hand trembles and he swallows, his mouth suddenly dry. “I don’t want to shoot you.”

“It would be a mercy. Please do this for me.” Vash summons green light, readying himself for the commandos’ assault. Alan steadies his gun hand and moves to the other side of the door.

“Okay,” Alan whispers. “If it comes to that.”

They can hear the commandos’ footsteps outside the door before long, can imagine them getting into position on either side and then imagination turns to reality as the door is kicked in with a loud crash. The first one moves in and is taken out by Vash, burning in some kind of light that Vash set forth from his hands. The soldier claws at his face as another sprays the room with automatic weapons fire. A bullet ricochets and hits Alan in the side. He falls to his knees, clutching the bleeding wound and shooting the Karalian. The commando crumples and falls like a sack of potatoes to be instantly replaced by the third one. 

There’s footsteps and yelling in the corridor as the other commandos hear the noise and come running. Vash sends a commando flying into a wall, where the sickening crack of his bones can be heard. He slumps as Vash takes out another one.

A commando bends Alan’s gun into a mess of metal and shoots a fireball at Alan’s head. He drops the remains of the gun and dodges the flames just in time, landing on the floor and rolling. He sees a grenade roll in.

“Vash, get down!” Alan hears himself scream before the world turns white and blue, the stun grenade exploding in his face and dazing him. He sees commandos pull Vash to his feet. One tears the clothes off of his dazed body while another pulls down his pants. He reaches for a needle and injects his own balls with some kind of substance as Vash is bent over before him.

The Karalian execution method for kast’ka is not pleasant.
Alan feels desperation fill him as he struggles to regain his focus.
Alan, if they take me, please shoot me.

Alan scrambles for a laser rifle dropped by one of the dead commandos. He pulls it towards him slowly as the commandos laugh, the one with the needle playing with himself now to gain an erection as the others watch, thrilled by their sexual punishment. Vash’s eyes are closed, his expression one of pure fear.
Only the first shot will count.
His hands tremble as the crosshair lingers over Vash.
He’s just like me, only cursed in a world where he can’t be himself. This isn’t right. I can’t let it end this way. Even if they kill me for it. I have to try.
He moves the gun, hovering it over the commando leader and firing. The commando’s brains splatter the wall and Alan fires off two more shots, downing two more commandos before the others react. Vash opens his eyes in surprise and stands up, gathering energy and firing it at the remaining commandos. They go down in a wave, knocked over like so many bowling pins. Alan shoots them as they go down and it becomes a wave of red, splattering the wall. Alan rushes to Vash’s side as he falls to his knees, shaking.

“Don’t worry... about me,” Vash says. “Finish them off. Make sure there are no others.” He lies down on the floor and Alan is reluctant to leave his side.
He’s right, I must do this. I can take care of Vash later on.

He checks each of the corpses in turn and finishes off the remaining commandos. He spends the rest of the day dragging the corpses out to the forest, burying them in shallow graves and destroying radios and other equipment that could be used to track them.
They will send others. It’s only a matter of time. We’re not safe here.
His job finished, he heads back to the facility and finds Vash in the same spot where he left him. He kneels down and checks the Karalian’s pulse, and feels a typical Karalian fluttering heartbeat under his fingers.
Thank the Gods.

He gently picks up Vash’s naked form and carries him down the hallway to his room. The Karalian feels feverish as Alan lays him down on his bed, covering him with his own blankets and lighting candles, sitting at his side. He looks at his own blood-stained hands and longs for a shower to wash away his day’s sins, just like during his days as a pilot.
No blood back then. Space war is a clinical affair. This is different. I killed them with my own hands, and I don’t regret it. They were going to rape Vash. What kind of civilized society rapes and murders its citizens just for being themselves?
He shakes his head.
I guess we humans have had our moments too. Every race’s history is filled with blood and persecution.

He looks down at Vash.
I was so busy seeing the Karalians as an enemy that I never saw them as more than a single unit. It never occurred to me that they would have politics as complex as ours, or that individuals would end up fighting against their own kind. It’s so easy to think of war as simple, two sides against each other, but there are so many different voices. When I see Karalians like those commandos, it’s impossible to reconcile that with a person like Vash, who saved my life even though I could have killed him. Yet nothing about me has changed. The Karalian government is still my enemy, perhaps even more so now that I know they’re oppressing their own people. But the Karalians... there are others like Vash out there, I know it. Other people who want to build a better world. People who have common ground with humans and could build a peace with us, perhaps.

Vash stirs on the bed and Alan grasps his hand. “Vash, are you okay?”

“Overused... my power...” Vash mumbles. “Must rest... Alan... Keep guard. They won’t... stop hunting... for me.”

“What are we going to do?” Alan asks, but Vash is already sleeping again. He gets up, restless, and paces the halls.
We have to get out of here. Vash is right, they’ll be back, and soon. He’s not fit enough to travel right now, though.
His hand is on the gun he looted from the dead commando.
I’m exhausted, but there’s no way I can sleep. Vash needs me to keep him safe.
He returns to Vash’s room and sits down by the wall, covering himself with a blanket. He leaves the gun at the floor by his side and sleeps with one eye on the door.
I must keep Vash safe. I must... I must...

Chapter Four 
Biological Warfare

Three Months Previously.

The Heart Of The Sun, Crew Deck

“Hi, Alan. I mean, sir.” It’s Martin, standing outside the mess hall on the Heart Of The Sun, his usual smile plastered all over his face.

That man would be happy even in Hell,
Alan thinks, but he high-fives the man. Somehow, his happiness is contagious even in these dark times and they walk together down the hallway, making small talk as they go.

“So, you doing anything tonight?” Martin asks, trying to sound casual but seeming oddly shy and out-of-character. His blonde bangs are falling into his eyes and he lets them, as if to hide.

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Alan breaks into a confident smile. “You are, aren’t you?” They pass some young ensigns and Martin seems to redden a little.

“Keep it down, I’ll get a reputation.” He’s smiling, but there’s a certain sadness in his eyes too, telling of all the men he’s dated who never made it home. 

He’s not easy, he’s just unlucky. Maybe I can fill the void in his life. I’m not planning on dying any time soon.
Alan doesn’t skip a beat. “Okay, you’re on. Observation deck, tonight?”

“You got it.” Martin walks away, a certain spring in his step and he goes to attend to his duties and get a little rack time.

Night time comes and Alan waits for his date to arrive. Martin is late as always and so Alan looks out at the stars.
They always make me feel so small. Like the universe stretches on forever and I’m just a drop in the ocean. Hell, this whole war is just a skirmish in a tiny stretch of space. Perhaps galactic history won’t even remember our fateful first contact with another species or our two-hundred-year war.
He puts his hand on the glass just as the door swishes open and Martin walks in.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Martin says. He looks a little ruffled, more than a little sad. His shields are down and Alan realizes for the first time that his usual happiness is just a front, a mask to hide a deep internal pain.

“What’s the matter?” Alan asks, real concern building inside him.

“I didn’t... I didn’t really ask you here... for a date,” Martin says.

“Whoops. Well that was a blunder on my part.” Alan awkwardly scratches his neck.

“I needed you to show up. I need somebody to talk to. Before I shove a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger.” That gets Alan’s attention. He guides Martin to a chair as though he might break and bids him to sit before sitting down beside him.

“What happened?” Alan asks.
I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve never had a life placed in my hands before. I mean, I have, out on the field, just never like this. I can make decisions, but this...

“I know... you don’t have clearance,” Martin says, “but I can trust you. Earth has no more loyal pilot than you.” He shakes his head. “Down on Rinax One. There’s a base in the Purple Sands Desert. A Human base. It’s well hidden in a cliff. I used to be stationed there. Before here, I mean.” His nervous words come out in short stops and starts. “It’s a listening station. We listen to Karalian transmissions and decode them.”

Alan nods. “Go on.”

“About a year ago, a young Karalian wandered into the base. He was arrested, but he put up no struggle. He was in a terrible state. He said he was a fighter pilot who had crashed, but something didn’t add up. He seemed constantly terrified, as if he had been traumatized by something. He constantly cried out for a doctor, saying he was in pain. We had all our best doctors examine him, but apart from scratches and scrapes, he seemed perfectly well as far as we could tell. Then the next day, he started screaming, like he was in the most profuse agony. The doctors sedated him...” He broke off, suddenly looking pale. “Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you.”

“Please, tell me, you’ll feel better,” Alan says. “Whatever it is, I can take it.”

“I was guarding the medbay at the time, when they sedated him. When it happened. He just... split open, like he was being torn apart from inside. Inside there were all these worms, but the Karalian was still alive, begging to die. The doctors even threw up, and the commander signed a euthanasia order right then and there. It was a mercy, Alan. Those things... they were eating him inside. As he fell to sleep, he whispered that he was sorry. I don’t even know what for.” Tears were welling in his eyes. 

“That’s awful,” Alan says, fighting nausea. “What a terrible sickness. Did it come from Rinax’s desert?”

“That’s the thing,” Martin says, a haunted expression on his face. “The doctors examined him after he died. They say the parasites don’t normally feed on mammals; that they were introduced somehow into the system. Intentionally. The way they targeted his vital organs in the most painful way possible made the doctors think that it was some kind of chemical weapon.” He reached for Alan, squeezing his shoulders. “I can’t believe we would do something like this, Alan! The government is always talking about how moral Humans are now, that we’ve left our bloody past behind us, that the only reason for this war is self-defense. That it’s the Karalians that are cruel and merciless. Then what the hell was that?”