Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two (6 page)

CHAPTER TEN

You
can help them.

The
final words of the civilian’s speech still lingered in the air when Rege spoke.

“All of you from Engineering should sit tight except the
cadet. The Engineering cadet, along with the other two cadets, stand up. You
get up as well, Mr. Flight Boss. And your little Marine too. I hate to break up
our nice party here, but things will be more manageable if we get a few people
separated.”

Rege nodded in the direction of the burly civilian, and
the man jabbed his blaster into Aleron’s back to get him moving. Kalare fell
into line behind Aleron and Zax followed immediately behind her. They exited
the compartment and after a few secs of walking down the passageway, Zax turned
to check behind him. He received a whack between the eyes from the butt of a
blaster for his trouble.

“Eyes front!”

Zax followed the instruction and swiveled his head back.
His eyes watered from pain, but he had seen what he wanted to. The giant
civilian at the head of their column was joined by three others. One walked
directly behind Zax, one was behind the Boss with his rifle pointed at the
man’s back, and the third trailed Bailee. The civilians appeared well-trained
as they not only kept a tight formation but also left enough of a gap between
the prisoners so they could react to sudden movements. Any action on the part
of the Crew, especially while their hands remained bound, would most likely end
with all of them shot dead.

After a couple of turns down the passageway, the
civilian at the front stopped and gestured towards a hatch.

“Let’s keep the Boss and whitey in here. I want the
three of you to stand guard outside the compartment once you get them locked
in. I can handle the kids on my own. Keep an eye on that Marine. He looks like
a tricky one. If he gives you any grief, come get me and I’ll happily take care
of him for you.”

The sergeant’s suppressed rage turned his face an even
deeper shade of crimson once he was called “whitey” and shoved towards the
hatch by a blaster to the back.

Zax turned to follow Kalare and Aleron while the burly civilian
took up the rear to herd the three cadets by himself. They walked for a few
mins and made a left turn and then a right and then one more left. Along the
way, they passed at least twelve more armed civilians who walked in twos and
threes. All of them looked disciplined and purposeful to Zax. Eventually, their
captor called for a halt in front of a compartment. He opened the hatch, pushed
Aleron in, and then stood aside and gestured for Kalare and Zax to follow.

“You three get comfortable. You’re gonna be here for
quite a while as I don’t see any reason we’ll require you. We have more than
enough Engineering Crew to get what we need.”

The tone of the last sentence left sinking a feeling in
the pit of Zax’s stomach. During the walk he had obsessed about how effective
their collars would be as torture devices and feared for the fate of the Crew
who remained in the Engineering command center. The civilian began to leave and
Kalare spoke up.

“Hey—I need to visit the head something fierce! Hey!
Come on, don’t go. Please!”

The civilian didn’t stop walking but looked back over
his shoulder and replied, “Hold on. I’ll be right back.”

He returned a moment later holding a bucket which he
ceremoniously placed in the corner of the room and then gestured at with a sarcastic
flourish. “Your throne awaits, ma’am. Turn around.”

Kalare turned her back to the civilian who pulled a
blade out of his boot and went to work on the bindings that held her hands.

“That’s my blaster you feel in your back. I’ve got a
real itchy trigger finger so don’t think about trying anything cute.” Once he
had her hands freed, the civilian quickly backed out of reach towards the
compartment hatch. “I’m going to leave now.”

Kalare spoke out again. “Wait! You said we’re going to
be in here for a while. What happens if one of them needs to go?”

“You can help them.”

“Ewww, no way! Come on. You’re just going to lock us in
here anyways. Cut their bindings too in case one of them needs to take a leak.
No way I’m touching their junk! You’re easily twice as big as any of us, plus
you’ve got the blaster. Are you really that afraid of three kids you need to
leave us tied up?”

The civilian appeared on the verge of ignoring Kalare’s
pleas but then decided otherwise. He raised his blaster to the ready position and
made exaggerated motions to show he was aimed at Kalare and prepared to pull
the trigger. He slid the blade across the floor towards her.

“OK, you’ve charmed me. Cut their bindings as well, but
if you so much as twitch an eye while doing so, all three of you are dead. I’m
not supposed to kill anyone, but self-defense is self-defense.”

Zax turned his back to Kalare and a moment later was
relieved to feel his bindings removed and circulation returning in his hands.
He was stepping away from Kalare so Aleron could approach when he noticed the
hair on the back of his neck stand up and his body slide into weightlessness.
Zax was about to identify the familiar cause of the sensations when the room
faded to black and he was unconscious…

…until he awoke what felt like an instant later and
completed his thought. The Captain had engaged an FTL jump without warning. The
three bells had woken Zax, which meant that gravity would return in less than
one min. Zax quickly looked around. The cadets as well as the massive civilian
were each floating in the zero-g which accompanied every FTL jump. Zax was the
most alert of the Crew, but Kalare was almost fully conscious and Aleron wasn’t
too far behind. The civilian remained out cold. This disparity was to be
expected given how much conditioning the Crew received to help them react to
the three bells and return quickly from the depths of the unconsciousness that
remained an unsolved side effect of the FTL engine.

Zax’s breakfast had left his stomach while he was
unconscious and now danced in the air as well. He was more than a year removed
from being Plugged in, and the medics had still not managed the proper
calibration to prevent him from puking each time the Ship engaged the FTL
engine. Zax had suffered from this malady for most of his life and had been
long promised that getting his Plug would provide the cure, but he continued to
earn the nickname “Puke Boy” which Aleron had bestowed upon him. He typically
arranged his eating plans to avoid a full stomach before a jump, but of course
this one was unplanned and his stomach hadn’t yet fully digested breakfast.

While observing the remains of his breakfast, Zax
spotted something critical. The civilian had dropped his blaster and it hung in
the air between them—up for grabs. This must have been what the Captain
intended by engaging the jump. Zax pictured Crew and Marines all around the
Ship being presented with similar opportunities where their superior FTL
training would allow them to regain the upper hand if they acted quickly
enough.

The complication was that Zax floated so far from any
solid surface he was unable to push off and affect his movement. He stretched
his legs until his toes barely reached the bulkhead. It wasn’t much leverage,
but he established enough contact to impart the tiniest bit of momentum and
directed his body towards the blaster in a slow glide.

Zax kept an eye on the civilian as he floated for the
weapon and was dismayed to see him return to consciousness scant secs later.
The hulking man regained situational awareness almost immediately, and a wicked
smile spread across his face as he realized what Zax was attempting. The
civilian had a huge advantage over Zax because he was floating right up against
the bulkhead. He quickly reoriented himself, coiled his full body to leverage
his considerable strength, and pushed off towards the blaster.

Even with a significant head start, Zax realized
immediately the civilian’s acceleration advantage would be insurmountable in
their zero-g race for the weapon. Physics often picked the most inopportune
time to rear its head. Zax watched hopelessly as the civilian closed the
distance first and wrapped his fingertips around the blaster’s barrel.

The man was reorienting the blaster in his hands to grip
it properly when the gravity generator reengaged. Zax cartwheeled to the ground
and was winded as his weight returned and his full mass slammed into first his
shoulder and then his back. Even as he saw stars from the impact, Zax
maintained enough of his senses to hear the blaster clang out of the civilian’s
grasp and rattle across the deck. It came to rest a few meters away, and Zax
scuttled for it on his hands and knees.

Zax grabbed the butt of the blaster and rolled over to
face the civilian as he desperately fumbled to aim and pull the trigger. The
man recovered from his own rough fall and charged at full speed. He launched
himself at Zax in an effort to pin the blaster uselessly between them before he
could fire.

The force of the flying tackle would have knocked Zax
out cold were it not for the fact the civilian’s foot slipped at the last
instant (in a pile of half-digested eggs) and sent him slightly off target.
Even so, Zax was slammed against the bulkhead with much of the man’s weight on
top of him. He attempted to scramble out from under the civilian’s sprawl, but
the man was double his mass and quickly pulled Zax back under him.

The civilian’s enormous hands easily encircled Zax’s
throat and squeezed. Zax fought for his life, but it was no contest given the
size differential. Even with all of the panicked strength Zax could muster, his
desperate flailing against the man’s arms had no effect. The civilian’s
sadistic grin intensified and sweat beaded and dripped off his massive bald
head. His vision began to fade and Zax was on the verge of blacking out when
the man suddenly went wide-eyed. The tip of a blade appeared below his chin,
and he released Zax’s neck to clutch desperately at his own. The civilian gagged
on the blood which spurted out of his mouth until the blade turned 90 degrees
and the man’s eyes went vacant. He keeled over and hit the deck with a lifeless
thud.

The last thing Zax saw before passing out was Kalare
standing over the burly corpse with blood dripping off the knife in her hand.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I
agree with Aleron.

For
the second time that morning, Zax was brought back to consciousness by a slap
to his face. He opened his eyes and basked in Kalare’s warm smile for a moment
before he was overwhelmed with the urge to cough. The uncontrollable spasms
triggered by having his throat nearly crushed ended with Zax retching the final
remnants of his breakfast on to the deck next to the dead civilian.

“Th…than…thank you,” he managed to gasp. “Wh…what took
you so long?”

“Sorry, Zax. I’m really sorry. I know that was close,
and I can only imagine how scary it was for you. It looked like that guy just
about had you strangled? Am I right? Were you almost dead? Wow, that must have
been scary. That guy was huge!” Kalare looked at all the blood pooling around
the dead civilian and giggled for a couple of secs before continuing. “I
watched you floating for the blaster and wanted to help, but when the gravity
came back I landed on my head and was in a daze. Not all of us have the
well-practiced zero-g capabilities of Puke Boy! Hah! Well, anyways, my head
cleared and I could see he was on top of you, but I didn’t think I had a chance
against him without a weapon. I couldn’t get at the blaster because it was
sandwiched between the two of you. I looked around for the knife, but it had
slid under a workstation and I wasn’t able to reach it at first. Of course,
Captain Clueless over there just sat and whimpered the entire time.”

Kalare’s monologue provided Zax with sufficient time to
recover. Her last comment reminded him that Aleron was with them, and he looked
over to find the boy in the corner quietly sobbing. The cadet’s hands were
still bound so Zax stood, grabbed the blade off the deck where Kalare had
dropped it, and used the civilian’s pants to wipe off the worst of the blood.
After he freed Aleron’s hands, Zax helped the boy to his feet. Being rescued by
the frequent target of his abuse was clearly unpalatable for Aleron. He brushed
aside Zax’s assistance and turned away to use his freed hands to wipe the
remains of tears from his face.

Kalare had the presence of mind to not only pick up the
blaster but also secure the compartment hatch shut while he worked to free
Aleron. They were lucky none of the roving groups of civilians had passed the
open hatch in the middle of their struggles. Zax looked at Kalare, then back
towards Aleron, and finally back to Kalare before speaking.

“Now what?”

No one spoke for a min as they each considered the
question. Aleron broke the silence.

“We wait here, of course! We’ve got the hatch locked and
there’s a possibility no one even knows we’re in here. You saw all those
civilians roaming around out there. There’s no chance of us making it far if we
try to get anywhere else. Besides, we just managed to take care of this
monster, so you’ve got to think other Crew, especially the Marines, have taken
care of this mess. It won’t be much longer, I bet, before the Captain is on the
vidscreen letting us know this whole damn thing is over.”

Zax was forming a snide comment about the “we” in
Aleron’s description of the dead civilian when Kalare jumped in first.

“No. They know we’re in here. He didn’t bring us to this
compartment randomly. He knew exactly where he was going. We don’t know what he
was supposed to do after securing us in here. He clearly didn’t think we posed
any threat since he wasn’t going to stick around and guard the compartment.
They might have already missed him and sent more goons here looking for him.”

Aleron and Kalare looked to Zax as the tiebreaker. He
took a few deep breaths and then spoke.

“I agree with Aleron.” Zax felt a pang of deep regret
when Kalare deflated in response to his statement, but pushed onwards. “I can’t
believe I’m saying this, but I think he’s right. That FTL jump was brilliant in
allowing
you and me
,
Kalare
, to take care of this idiot. I’ve got
to think the Marines and Crew throughout the Ship have cut up the rest of these
jokers and they just haven’t had a moment to tell us it’s over yet. Wait—the
vidscreens are coming back online. I bet this is the Captain now.”

They all expectantly faced the compartment’s screen as
the image of the human fighter pixelated and scrambled. It was replaced not
with the Captain’s face but instead cycled through images showing various
compartments which appeared to have been torn apart by bomb blasts. Bloodied
and dismembered bodies, civilian and Crew alike, dominated the pictures. Zax
and Kalare both gasped when Flight Ops, with its unique dual panoramas,
appeared on the screen. Zax recognized a few of the dead Crew as people he had
worked with previously and imagined that Kalare must know all of them. Each
image featured large numbers of dead Marines with their heavy battle armor
mangled and shattered. The same voice from the earlier announcement started to
speak as the bloody images continued to cycle.

“I regret to inform everyone that your Captain made a
very poor choice. She clearly didn’t believe me when I said she had lost
control of the Ship and decided to put my assertion to the test with her
ill-advised FTL jump. I can only assume her intent was to allow Marines to
retake certain compartments. The images you are watching were taken from Flight
Ops, Primary Grav Control, and Primary Life Support among others. My teams who
earlier took command of critical compartments such as these came prepared with
explosives. Members of each team have detonators biologically implanted which
will trigger their bombs if that team member dies or is no longer within close
proximity of their assigned device. Of course, team members can also choose to
detonate manually if they feel they are under threat and want to neutralize the
compartment rather than allow the Crew to regain control.”

Zax thought back to the unidentified cases he had seen
arranged around Engineering Control after the civilians arrived. He imagined
they were close enough to hear the blast if those were indeed bombs and
Engineering had suffered the same fate as Flight Ops, but it was impossible to
know for certain. He focused back on the screen as the woman continued.

“Captain—I implore you to understand you are no
longer in charge. We are. Do not attempt anything like this again. Acknowledge
my attempts to communicate with you directly. We can resolve this situation
without further loss of life or the Ship’s operational capacity, but only if you
respond to my attempts to hail you and discuss the terms of your surrender.”

The voice paused for a moment and then returned.

“I’m pleased to announce we’ve finally established
communication with the Bridge. I’m not yet speaking with the Captain, but I
hope to do so as soon as she’s ready to work together to resolve this matter.
In the meantime, I reiterate my call for all Crew to drop your arms and return
to your quarters. There’s no need for any more of you to die today than already
have.”