Chapter 19: Take a look at me now
"You two can't be serious." Lana, Arcturus' wife, was the one poo-pooing our plan. Well, not really a "plan." More like a grand idea. Still, I thought it could work.
"I don't see you coming up with anything," I pointed out.
"I'm sure I could come up with a suicide mission of my own," she taunted. "This is ridiculous. We didn't fight to free the Darrex just so we could lead them to slaughter!"
"Mom has a point," Byron inserted as she walked in. I lost my train of thought once my eyes caught her. I expected more of a greasemonkey look for an alleged ship's engineer. Instead, she wore a clean, slick jumpsuit. Ginger hair framed her face. And that face--I saw a steely resolve behind the softness of it. If Jeremiah was young and impressionable, Byron had wisdom beyond her age.
But that was all speculation, and I definitely didn't like her adding weight to Lana's case. We needed to work out a plan together, and not sit around playing pirates. I was willing to overlook their criminality, considering they'd saved my life, but they were still pirate scum, as far as I was concerned.
"Is everybody here now?" I asked, annoyed. "Good. Let's be clear about what's going on. The Koraxians are bent on no less than the conquest--possibly extinction--of the human race. Thanks to me, they now have an Oolian Cruiser at their disposal. Now, you can all have fun trying to preserve what little niche you have here and hope the Koraxians don't come for you, or you can be fucking proactive and do something."
"He has a point, too," Jeremiah said, looking at Byron.
"Hell, Theo's people are the ones most likely to suffer if we don't do anything, so why don't you ask him how he feels about it?" I suggested.
Arc nodded and looked to his friend. Now, I'm no expert on Darrex psychology, but I'm convinced Theo was gravely concerned for the future of his people. Arc must have seen it, too, because he sighed and turned back to me. "We have to do something."
"I'm glad we're all on the same page now."
Some indicator on Jeremiah's console went red, though, and seized his attention. "Hold on, there's something coming in from Darrex."
"What?" Arc snapped, impatient.
"Hold on. Getting it now... they've got Koraxian ships incoming. Captain Maxwell was right."
"That settles it," Arc said. "We have to defend them. Are you with us, Mr. Maxwell?"
"Too late to back out now," I said.
A few minutes later, we were all back aboard Absolution, refueled, rearmed, and ready to rock. Lana went down the preflight checks. I took the opportunity to chat with Jeremiah, who didn't seem terribly busy.
"If I wanted to get a message to someone on Earth, could you help me with that?"
He shrugged. "Sure, we have contacts who can relay it and insert it into Stelnet."
"What's the average turnaround on a response?"
"'bout three days. Assuming your contact replies quickly, I mean."
"Good. Can you transcribe a message for me?"
"The computer can do it." He tapped a few keys. "Go ahead, speak."
"Jack, I hope you get this as soon as possible. Things with the Koraxian rebels were going well until they convinced us to capture an Oolian Cruiser. It's a long story, but the rebels had my parents and handed them over as a gesture of goodwill. They helped us capture the Cruiser. Then, Admiral Sellis showed up, took the charm from around my neck, and my parents shoved me out an airlock. They destroyed the Protector. Rydia, Jenna, Sam, and Corina were aboard the Cruiser last time I saw them, but I don't know if they're still alive. Anyway, I realize this may be asking a lot, but I need to know what Admiral Sellis is up to. And you need to be aware that he has an Oolian Cruiser and may be assisted by the Koraxian rebels--assuming they even are rebels. Right now, I have my doubts. Please respond if you have any information that could help me. I'll make it back to Earth when I can."
I looked at Jeremiah to let him know I was finished. He pushed another key to stop the transcription. "Ready to send?"
"Can we encrypt it or anything?"
"Yeah, you can put a cipher on it. Here," he keyed in another sequence. "Just put in whatever, but he'll have to know it, too."
I punched in "jiveturkey". One of those things other people wouldn't be likely to guess, but would probably be the first thing to occur to Jack. It was the name of the operation I undertook to get him back from the Cranions, during the war.
"Send this to Jack Robertson, Terran Intelligence Headquarters, on Earth," I said.
Jeremiah nodded and sent it off. "I'll let you know if and when we get a response. Assuming we're still alive by then, I mean."
I slapped my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, kid. I've seen worse. Much worse. We'll send those Koraxians limping home to lick their wounds."
Darrex was two FVs away, I found out, so it took a few hours to get there. Lana had to get us out of the asteroid field first, then it was through two fold vectors I knew nothing about.
After all that, we came upon an arid, rocky planet that I assumed to be Darrex. As we approached, I noticed a fleet of unfamiliar vessel designs descending upon the planet. "What are those?"
Arc peered at them, couldn't quite make them out, and instead magnified them on one of the console displays. "Oh, no," he whispered. "They didn't come here to wipe out the Darrex."
"What? Then what are they doing?"
"Those are troop ships," he said. "If they intend to subdue the human race, they'll need foot soldiers. And they just found a planet full of them."
"So, they're going to swoop down and snap up as many Darrex as they can?"
"Yes, that's the idea."
"We're going to stop them, right?"
"If we can."
"I wouldn't call that a 'winning attitude,' Arc. I didn't beat the Cranions thinking, 'Gee, I might be able to win this. It's possible. Might not happen, but it could.'"
"Fine, then. If you have so much faith in our chances, you take the controls," he invited.
I accepted, and sat down at the fore of the bridge, watching as we approached the invading troop ships.
I had no fucking clue how I was going to beat them. But I didn't tell Arcturus that.
Chapter 19
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