A New Divide (Science Fiction) (24 page)

              "What are you saying? That someone set my sister up?" Silas asked.

              "I don't know but we have to get moving. She is our only option if we want this plan to work. If you all are still worried about her betraying us again, then keep an eye on her, and keep her restraints on."

              "Why would she want to help us?" I asked.

              "She may seem selfish but trust me, if my sister knew what Mark was about to attempt she would do anything, even give her own life to save him. You see she is in love with him."

              "Oh god," my father remarked in disgust.

              "This plan will work," Silas said with a smile.

              Virgil stood up and opened the door of the maintenance closet and the bright light of the hallway spilled in on us. "Well, y'all, we ain't getting nothing done standing here. Let's go!"

              Silas and Virgil peaked out into the hallway. My father stopped Helena, before he left the large closet. "I'm sorry I disrespected you, Helena. You got a damn good head on your shoulders, sweetheart."

              "It's quite all right, John."

              "You picked a good girl, son."

              "Uh, thanks, dad. We have to keep moving though." He nodded and left the room.

              Helena whispered in my ear behind me as she perched up on my shoulder, "For what it's worth, I am really glad we met, Collin."

              "Weren't you the one who said that everything happens for a reason?"

              "Yeah, but I didn't fully believe it until now."

              "Let's go, Helena, we got a commander to save."

***

             
Victoria sat against
the wall directly next to the bars of her cell. She ran her hands across the bars, and ached for freedom. She became startled when she heard a noise: it was the moaning of two guards who were about to transport her to an escape pod. She tilted her head, the furthest she could towards the bars of her cell to get a better view, when another unconscious guard flew across the floor in front of her cell.

              She could hear a group of footsteps echo through the cold hallway, and she was intrigued, until she saw that it was us.

              "Oh great, the righteous idiot brigade. Feel like beating up some guards to blow off some steam, huh? Not that I give a shit," she said as she slumped back against the jail cell wall. Silas kneeled down to her cell door and jingled the key against the bars. "Hello, sister."

              Victoria diverted her eyes to the wall of the cell straight ahead of her, avoiding eye contact with her brother. She scoffed at his remark. "You accuse me of being a traitor and you need my help? Why the hell else would you be here?"

              "We need your help to get into the bridge."

              "Now why the hell would I do that?"

              "We are going to overload the Alexandria's reactors and crash it directly into the Hammer, destroying Arcoh and his fleet."

              "So wait. Not only do you imprison me, the captain of my own ship, now you need my help to destroy it? You are ridiculous, brother. I mean, what good am I to Arcoh and his crusade, if I kill him in a fiery inferno? Sure, I’d be thrilled to lend a hand to you brother."

              "I see the sarcasm runs in the family," I said.

              "I'm not helping. Especially this kid you have put all of your faith, and time into. What a bunch of bullshit. Get the hell out of here, and leave me to rot. This army is dead to me. I'm surprised Mark isn't here to share in the ridicule." Silas looked at her, a shade of grief quickly swept over his face. Some of us looked away, and Helena had tears in her eyes. Our silence, and our facial expressions, immediately revoked a response from her. "Where is Mark?"

              Silas said softly, "Victoria."

              Victoria jolted up to the bars and screamed at her brother, "WHERE IS MARK!"

              "He is going to sacrifice himself in an attempt to kill Arcoh."

              She stepped back from the bars. The thought shattered her, and she began to pace, and pout, all around her cell. "No, no, no! Why Mark! That stubborn bastard!" She dropped to her knees, and Silas crouched down and looked upon his emotionally disturbed sister, and again pleaded for her help. "Will you help us?"

              She took a moment to angrily wipe the tears from her eyes, and stood proudly to her feet. "Of course, you fools. We are going through a secret passage that leads to the bridge; it's a straight shot." We all smiled at each other. We felt for a moment our hope had been restored. "Well, what the hell are you all staring at me for! Let me the hell out of here!"

***

[--]

-Quadrant 9, Raydenite Airspace-

              Mark had already departed the Alexandria, well before we even arrived to snatch Victoria from her cell. Ahead of him was the prime Crusader dropship, lingering, in front of the mighty Crusader fleet. The dropship was engraved with the markings of the golden lion, signifying that this was—indeed—King Arcoh's personal transport. He set the dropship to autopilot, staring at the bomb underneath his jacket. He felt strange knowing he was about to sacrifice his own life, but he knew he could not have been more right. It was truly everything Mark ever wanted: to provide for and be remembered by the Remorans.

              The crew of Arcoh's personal transport detected Mark's ship, and docked with it, building a bridge between the airlocks. Mark stood up in an anxious manner, released the air lock, and stood in front of the blast door, as it slowly began to open. He armed the bomb under his jacket and waited for the moment of truth. Sure enough, Arcoh walked through the misty door with Ivan. Arcoh had that same evil smile on his face, until he looked around, and saw that Mark was alone.

              "Where is Collin?"

              "Put 'er there, you son of a bitch!" Mark smiled and closed his eyes, for he knew his valiant efforts had paid off. He knew he could rely on Arcoh's pride to be his downfall. So he snatched up Arcoh's hand and pressed the detonation button against his palm.

              But nothing happened and Arcoh smiled his evil smile.

              Mark took his hand and continued clicking the button but the bomb would not trigger. He looked shocked, as he stared directly into Arcoh's eyes.

              "How? How did?"

              "I am smarter than you, Mark. I know you better than you know yourself."

              Mark's face began to tremble furiously with anger as he needed to hear the truth. "Who? Who is it, you bastard?"

              "Ah, the enemy that gets you, is the one you never see coming. So cruel and yet, so true. My agent saw to it that the bomb strapped to your chest would not blow both of us into tiny little pieces. And soon he will kill everyone on that bridge. Everyone that is trying to save you."

              Mark realized the irony of his situation. He fell for it all along, right into a trap, again. He closed his eyes tightly, severely disappointed with the depth of his failure. Arcoh punched Mark in his face and sent him to the floor with the blow. Arcoh giggled as he rubbed his hand and stared down at Mark.

              "Mark. The Good Commander. I knew I could count on your selflessness to be your greatest weakness, just as you took my pride to be mine." Arcoh grabbed Mark by his collar and raised him up to his eye level, and Mark gazed into the eyes of Arcoh the Eminent, eyes that boiled with intensity.

              It was glorious for him, the feeling of satisfaction that he had beaten the greatest military commander Eden had to offer. He felt the need to voice the thoughts to his defeated enemy. Those thoughts that he contained, in that sick and twisted mind of his.

              "Oh, Mark, you have made me truly great. I used you, Mark, played you like an instrument, and I must say you played your part perfectly; in fact, you should win an award for your outstanding performance. But then, I am forgetting that there is one other that deserves it even more than yourself."

              "Tell me who it is! Who betrayed us, Arcoh!"

***

Victoria had gained
access to the terminal outside of the bridge, and once the lockdown was lifted, we poured into the bridge. We looked around, and saw that Mark was nowhere to be found. Virgil, my father, and I rushed to the balcony, above the command sphere. All while Helena and Silas, along with a subdued Victoria, searched the back wall of the bridge.

              "Mark?"

              "Commander!"

              "Mark, where are you!" Virgil then tapped into the computer's interface. "ALI?"

              "Yes, Captain?"

              "Where is Commander Wyman?"

              "Look! Up ahead!" Silas shouted. I pointed ahead of us, and sure enough we saw him. His shuttle had docked with Arcoh's, several kilometers ahead of us. Then ALI answered Virgil's question.

              "Commander Wyman left to meet with King Arcoh a few minutes ago, Captain."

              "No! That stubborn bastard!"

              "Mark!"

              We all felt the same level of failure, much like Mark, and we expressed our emotions in different ways. Virgil threw an angry tantrum and began destroying things around the bridge, while my father and I stared into space in disbelief of our current circumstances.

              I looked back and saw that Silas had bowed his head, and Victoria dropped to her knees crying while Helena ran over to comfort her. It was such a horrible day, and the worst part about it was: it was so far from over. I then said the only thing I could possibly think, bowing my head, knowing that all hope was lost. When people do not have hope, they begin to wither from their own sorrow.

              "We are . . . too late."

CHAPTER 15 - TRUTH BE TOLD

             
We just barely missed him
. How strange it was that I started finally believing in fate in that moment. Mark was gone, and he was almost certainly about to be tortured by Arcoh. So we had only one option now: we had to kill Mark. Mark was right, but then again he had been right all along. It was foolish to think that an act of defiance could have changed his fate.

              Virgil had finally stopped his rampage and walked back over to the command module, and contacted the interface.

              "Computer! ALI?"

              "Yes, Captain?"

              "Can you access the half-light reactors, and their overclocking modules?"

              "I regret to inform you, Captain Virgil, that access to this sector is highly restricted. Two keys are required, one from Admiral Andrews, and one from Commander Wyman."

              "Victoria, where is Mark's key?"

              Victoria began one last attempt to break free of the handcuffs that kept her arms restrained behind her back, as she responded to Virgil: "It's the skeleton key to all access points of Remora and this fleet. He wears it around his neck. He never takes it off. And now, Arcoh has it."

              "Great, that is just great." Virgil slammed his fists down on the control panel. I could see that his hope was fading from him. My father moved beside him, and rested his arm on his shoulder.

              "Well, Virg, what do we do now?"

              "We have to go back to plan A."

              Victoria looked to Silas as she stood on her knees, and finally gave up trying to break free of her chains, as she was greatly confused by what this "plan A" of ours had been.


              "What is he talking about, brother?"

              Silas slowly looked down towards his sister and responded with a depressed tone in his voice. "They are going to kill him."

              Victoria quickly turned away from her brother, and shouted across the room to us, "No, you can't do this! I love him!"

              "I am sorry, darlin', but there is no other way."

              "To hell with your way, Virgil! There is always another way!"

              "It's like Mark said: this is the only way we got now, darlin'." I looked to Virgil as this burden was now placed on him.

              "Virgil?"

              "Yeah, kid?"

              "Let's have a word before we do." He looked at me, surprised. Me, the boy who had always tried to do everything to get what he wanted, had finally come to a realization. I found that sometimes there is no choice. It was like Cyrus had told me in the void: it will come with the discipline of time. They say that there is always more than one way to do something right, but that person had obviously never been in a war, and certainly not one like this.

              "So you finally grew up, huh?"

              "It's fate, Virgil. You cannot run from fate. Cyrus told me this would happen. I just chose not to believe it for a while. I am choosing now." Virgil turned towards the rest of our group. The mood was so dark, so agonizing, so deathly quiet—it was almost indescribable. Mark had meant so much to all of us. He was one of Virgil's oldest friends, and my father knew him for his good deeds he bestowed upon our family before my birth. Silas and Victoria were rescued by him eleven years ago when a madman from Salaras had captured them, and threatened to crash his cruiser into the Arc of Arcadia. As for myself: I would have been in some sort of test tube in Salaras, under the control of Arcoh. He saved me from becoming broken, and hopeless. We were about to kill the man that had given life to my journey, a man I owed everything to.

              This event that was about to take place on that bridge I will remember forever; because of the sorrow we had all felt for the same man, the human connection we all shared. Lies of the faithful hold the fires of hatred, and despair, inside—but the truth will set them free. As I would soon learn, being free is not always a good thing; in fact, it can sometimes be far worse than anything you can imagine. For when people are free to do anything, they are bound by nothing. The world needs limitations, because without limits, without structure, everything would be chaos, and there is no future in chaos.

              "Would anybody like to say some words?" Virgil asked as we watched the Crusader dropship move its way back to the Hammer. Then Silas stepped forward, just ahead of his sister, and spoke across the room.

              "I would."

              "Well, go ahead."

              "Mark was the greatest man I have ever known. He was the kind of gentleman who would sacrifice anything for someone he barely knew. The single most selfless person I imagine that I will ever meet. And he will be missed."

              Silas turned to Victoria who turned away, and stared at the floor while tears rolled down her cheeks. She was ashamed of how she was currently feeling, and had nothing to say. Helena shook her head as she was expected to speak, but Helena wanted to ask Victoria something. She felt a strange disturbance by all of this. Helena asked her questions as somber farewells were heard in the background.

              "Victoria?"

              Victoria responded softly under her tearful and completely emotionally shattered composure, "What do you want?"

              "Don't you find all this to be a little strange?"

              "How do you mean?"

              "Well, I would think, and I have known Mark for five years, that he would only have someone kill him as a last resort, instead of doing the deed himself."             

              "You are right." Victoria looked up through the tears streaming down her face, as our group had finished their farewells.

              "Well, kid, here goes," Virgil said.

              "We'll do it together. On ten."

              I then placed my hand on his, over the trigger, and nodded to him to begin the countdown, while Victoria and Helena's conversation could be heard in the background.

              "Just one more question. Did you do it? Did you betray us?" Helena asked.

              "Of course not!"

              "Then who did?"

              "He told me once that it's not the enemy that you see that gets you."

              "Six, five, four, . . ."

              "It's the one that you don't."

              "Three, two, . . ."

              Just then I heard a whisper behind my ear.

              "I'm sorry, I can't let you do that."

              "COLLIN!" I felt the shock of the TNC, and I became paralyzed in an instant. As my limp body fell to the floor I saw Virgil. Collapsing to the floor, Virgil had an expression on his face that was horrifying. I never wanted to see it again as he looked to my father. It was him all along; the enemy we never saw coming.

              "Dad?" My father grabbed the sidearm out of Virgil's holster. He then picked me up, and held my limp body up to his chest. He kept a very cool composure in his unforgivable act he had committed against us.

              "Jonathan! You bastard! I've known you for thirty years!" Virgil shouted in anger. Just before Helena was about to lunge at my father, he pressed the handgun against the side of my head. I could feel the cool barrel of the weapon against my face; it felt like ice burning my skin. It was the only thing I could feel besides the anger that was building, ever higher within me.

              "Don't you move or I swear I will kill him."

              "You unbelievable bastard! You are no father of mine!"

              "That's right, I'm not! I never have been, Collin!" I looked up at him, and ignored his comment. Out of sheer anger, and rage, I spoke to him, as he held my useless body firmly against his own.

              "You planned this whole thing from my birth, to what, cash in on my abilities? You knew all along, didn't you! Ever since the beginning! Working with Arcoh? I SWEAR ONCE THIS WEARS OFF I WILL—"

              "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP, COLLIN! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!"

              He pulled a laser syringe out of his pocket and brought it up to my arm. Virgil spoke as he started to become furiously overwhelmed with rage. His face became blood red as he trembled ferociously. "We know what's going on! You betrayed us, partner!"

              "Dad, or whoever you are! I hate you! I HATE YOU!"

              Just then the most unexpected thing happened; he began to cry. The mood throughout the entire room shifted. He stuck the syringe into my arm and started to extract the DNA from my bone marrow. I screamed in agony as he did this, and I saw my own blood-red fluid fly into the main canister of the syringe. I was just glad it was over so quickly.

              "I made a deal with the devil, little buddy," my father said as he lightly sobbed, and his feet began to tremble. He pulled the syringe out of my arm and removed the canister from it. He released me gently, and placed my back up against the control module. I slid down to the floor as I gazed into his eyes, those eyes that were full of fear and regret. "Wha? What do you mean?"

              He wiped away the tears that continued to stream down his face as he looked towards Victoria.

              "I knew this was going to happen, Collin. This was the only way. I couldn't bear it, if you were to be captured by Arcoh again. So I had to make a deal to save your life, with Admiral Andrews."

              Jonathan threw the flask through the air, and Silas caught the flask.

              He gripped it tightly, and began to laugh slightly as our entire group stared horrified at him.

              "Ha, ha, ha. Truth. Be. Told," Silas said as he diverted his eyes from us to the canister of my DNA that he held in hand.

              "No, it can't be. I trusted you."

              "I know you did, my friend, and I thank you, because you have made my job so much easier."               My lip began to quiver and shake. How could this have happened? I thought. He was under my nose the entire time, and I never suspected it. I had been too worried about myself once again. All of my selfish endeavors had blinded me from the truth. I was so furious with the fact that my selfishness had brought me down this same damn road once again.

              "You were my friend, Silas. YOU WERE MY FRIEND!"

              Silas began dancing around manically and we observed his true nature. A nature that we would learn, was born of hatred.

              "I would like to thank the academy, and most of all my family. I could never have done it without their . . . undying support." Victoria looked over to him as he pranced around, holding the flask close to him, he was coveting it. "Brother. What have you done?"

              "Dear sister, I could not have done it without your help. I had been using your station to contact Arcoh. You were always so willing to share your personal information with me. It was far too tempting not to take advantage of it. You took the fall so honorably, but you have always been honorable. So full of valor, through your fiery personality. You really are the perfect soldier." Silas leaned down to her as she backed up. For the first time in her life Victoria feared her brother.

              "I . . . I don't even know who you are anymore."

              He laughed at her remark and began pacing around more than willing to share his story. "You have always been a soldier, always wanting to outplay your dear brother, especially when dad died. Aren't you all curious as to why she hates the Kingdom of Salaras so?"

              My father held me in his arms, he grasped the gun in his hands, and he was waiting for his chance to take a shot at Silas. I noticed that my paralysis was ceasing. I began to feel my legs, all while we listened to Silas tell his story.

              "Brother, do not do this."

              "SHUT UP!" Silas said as he slapped Victoria in her face with the handgun he drew from his side. She spit up blood on the floor, and Silas continued to speak.

              "YOU SHUT UP! You don't tell me what to do anymore! No, you hated him for what he was! For where your origins lie! Mark killed our father, sister! Our Salaran-born father! He destroyed our ship, and killed the man who I admired, and loved more than anything in the whole world, and you watched him as he did this."

              "THAT BASTARD MURDERED OUR MOTHER, SILAS!"

              "AND SHE DESERVED IT! She had to die just like all of those who defy the kingdom! It is the only way we can save humanity."

              "Brother! Dad was psychotic!"

              "HE WAS A PATRIOT, VICTORIA!"

              "HE WAS GOING TO KILL US! Mark saved us and he is the only reason we are alive today!"

              "Heh, Mark. He had the audacity to think it was righteous to take us in, to be raised by those Remorans. Do you have any idea how sickening it was to me, sister? To serve under a man I hated so? Then the purge happened, ridding the solar system of the awful despicable race of filth. I could not have been more satisfied with the outcome of Arcoh's Crusade against Eden. I admired him for what he had accomplished. Then your commander, your do-right knight of hope, decided that Arcoh had gone too far, and wanted to destroy Salaras once and for all. I was furious, and feared for the safety of the greatest leader Salaras has ever seen. So I contacted Arcoh, and warned him of the impending attack on Minerva."