Defying The Alliance: INFERNO (Novokin Alliance Invasion 2) (11 page)

"Turn it off." I could hear the blood pounding in my head.

"Captain?” Jaxx asked. I gave him a quick slicing motion under my chin. His green eyebrows curved upwards, not grasping the situation. I gestured with my chin toward Ensign Chandles.

Jaxx closed the vid reel, but the ship to ship communication channels were still open and active. What we saw was barbaric. What the Novokins did to all those people on the steps of the old Senate building was beyond heinous. Julie was sobbing, and both lieutenants were muttering curses under their breath. Ensign Chandles had gone so rigid that a light breeze would have snapped him in two.

I moved to stand behind the youngest member of my original Protectorate crew. I rested my hand on his shoulder. His face was wet with tears and the muscles of his jaw twitched. My brain slowly pieced together the puzzle in front of me.
Oh skeck!

Without looking back at me, he spoke in a shaky voice, “They’re dead. I had no idea they’re still alive. Were alive." The blood drained from his face. His eyes fixed on the screen. Unshed tears simmered in his blue eyes. “They were so proud of me. I remember their eyes shine with pride when I got accepted into the Academy. I was the first in our family you know. Farming was all they’d ever known and they wanted me to follow in their footsteps. But my eyes were always in the sky. On my graduation day my mother couldn't stop fussing about. She was so proud, excited but nervous too. I had already gotten my first posting and I was leaving our planet later that week."

"On the Razor," I offered, my voice soft.

"Yeah, my first week in the United Worlds Protectorate Space Force, and I was headed to Flotura. It was going to be my first time off our planet. They were so excited for me.”

His face lightened for a moment at the memory. Then folded back in on itself. "Having tended the land their whole lives, never having traveled beyond their village, cities overwhelmed them. Especially my dad. He was a good, simple man. Regardless, they stayed in the capital city for the rest of the week to see me off. My first official voyage to the stars. To see their only child off to serve the ideals of the Protectorate. The same ideals I first learned from them. I am...was their only child.” 

Damn praking Novokins! “I remember how excited you said they were about the sweet orange potatoes. Isn’t that right?” I asked trying to bring some more good memories back to him. I couldn’t stand seeing him in pain. It threatened to bring back vivid memories of my own pain and loss.

“Yes Captain. I’m surprised you remember. I sent them a communication, two days after we arrived at Flotura, describing in detail the wondrous sites all along the Capital city of Centaurea Cyanus. They were most intrigued when I told them about the sweet orange potatoes they grew only on Flotura, if you can believe that. Colored potatoes was an exciting finding to them. I told them how much they would love it there. I wanted to share the universe with them. Two days later the praking Alliance invaded,” his brow furrowed while his eyes darkened and lips pursed. His face flushed, his hands balled into fists and I waited patiently for the outburst. I decided discretion was the better part of valor in this case.

Instead he took a couple of deep breaths and resumed talking. “I guess they made it through okay because they were so far from the major cities. I wasn’t able to speak to them. Or even make any sort of contact for the last three years. Last I tried was when we docked at the Lastian mid-station two years ago, but nothing. I thought they were dead, until today. Until I saw them on the steps of the Senate, before.. before –."

At first no one made a sound. Only the occasional beep of a sensor reading cut the palpable silence on the bridge. Raising my head to the viewer I saw that we were still linked in with the bridges of all the other ships through an open communication line.

"Worse off, they didn't even know I was alive, until the Novokin sheeteks arrested them." His shoulders shook as he quietly sobbed. I squeezed his shoulders for comfort. His chair swirled around and he wrapped his arms around my waist. His tears soaked the front of my uniform. No words of comfort or solace formed in my lips. Rage flared anew in my soul for his loss, for his pain for all our losses and our pain. These horrible crimes perpetrated on innocents would not go unpunished. I stood there stroking his dark hair. Letting his soul unload while mine blazed and festered.

"They must’ve been good people," Julie offered, wiping her own tears away with her sleeve. She stepped up with her other hand held out to the ensign. He grabbed it with a shaking hand of his own and held on for dear life.

"The best," he stammered. "I loved them so much, and they worked so hard all the time. They were fair and honest people… They didn't deserve to die like that."

An image flickered to life on the viewer. A freighter Captain by the name of Constal appeared on the screen. He'd only recently joined this ragtag band of fighters after the mining incident. His eyes were red rimmed and hollow. "No," his voice was low but determined, "they didn't deserve that at all. And neither did my sister."

"Which one was she?" Ensign Chandles sniffled, letting both Julie and I go and turning around to face the captain on the view screen. 

The freighter Captain's voice cracked, "The fourth one to be shot with the long black hair and the sky blue eyes. She had our mother’s eyes.”

A sad smile broke through the ensign's tears. "She was beautiful. I'm glad that she didn't suffer."

The unexpected remark broke the freighter captain’s stone façade. "Me too, me too," he choked, wiping at his own face.

Silence overtook the room once again and a dark dread passed over me. I'm not sure we could get past this. This blatant disregard for life, this atrocious crime rattled the foundation of our existence.

I had to do something.

There could be no more.

Our collective emotional repository had been battered and abused all the way to the bottom of the deepest, darkest, coldest pit. We all seemed to have hit that mind numbing moment. The point when all fear of pain is completely wiped out, and rage is a great anesthetic for impending death.

Then the screen flickered alive with images of captains, first officers, ex-Protectorate officers and freighter jockeys alike. They all identified family members within the victims of the atrocious crimes we had just witnessed. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was glad my father and my sister were already dead.

In the chaos, Trex had come to stand beside me. His warm hand supported the small of my back lending me his strength, charging my resolve. He’d said he’d always be there for me. He was. In truth he had been doing just that since the day we’d laid eyes on each other. My heart expanded with the feeling of a cool breeze on a summer’s day, lying by the ocean on the sparkly white, sandy beaches of New Astoria.

For a moment a glimmer of hope pierced through the black cloud shrouding my soul. He was there and all would be alright. My body screamed for more of his comforting touch. I needed his arms wrapped around me. To be able to feel the calming beat of his heart. His light stubble brazed my skin while his rough voice whispered in my ear, "This was meant to scare you my amka."

Amka? What happened to ‘my little captain?’
I wondered. I'd have to ask about that one later. For now I simply nodded in agreement looking straight forward, unable to face him. I was afraid the love and tenderness blaring through the sparkling, green pools of his eyes since our joining would taper the hate and the festering rage. Right then, I thought I needed the rage to do what I had to. "Well it worked,” I whisper shouted back to him. “I'm scared Trex. I'm so praking scared that I won't be able to hold back. I'm scared that when I have a Novokin on my sights, any Novokin, no matter the place or time – I'll pull the trigger."

He gently slid his warm hand up and down my spine as I quaked with rage. These purple sheeteks were going to die, and they've just elected me as judge, jury and executioner.

"Captain," Jaxx called out over his shoulder, before taking into consideration the open comm lines. I moved up to the station to save him the waddle. "Captain, there's another broadcast coming through.”

Skeck, what was the Alliance up to this time.
"Put it on screen."

A list of names began to scroll down the main viewer. Two of my crew recognized members of their families. I heard similar reactions over the open channels. Then at the bottom, there was the Alliance's declaration -they were all scheduled to die at the end of the week, in lieu of a family member deemed traitor.

Strangled gasps and howls of fury echoed between the ships. Apparently today’s atrocities were far from over. Clipped voices argued over the open communication system.

"Captains," I said. My voice lost over the multitude of little heads arguing back and forth over the view screen. I steeled myself. "CAPTAINS!” The yammering ceased and all eyes were on me. “All of you have done what you know in your hearts to be right. Some of you have avenged comrades, others family or countrymen. Still others have decided that living under Novokin rule is not living at all. But this is not a dictatorship, and none of you owe me anything. You've all done right by me, but I can't ask you to sacrifice your families."

Slightly taken aback, the response I was greeted with wasn't quite what I'd expected. Laughter. One by one all the little heads on the screen quieted and stilled. Only one grizzled old man, an ex-Protectorate Captain Rizol of the aptly named bucket of bolts, the Bent Claw, was laughing. Not just laughing, but giving us a full belly guffaw.

He carried on for another full thirty seconds before wiping his eyes and composing himself. I quirked an eye and he finally spoke. "Captain Jones, no disrespect but do you really think the Novokins would let them go even if we surrendered ourselves? My nephew's name is on that list. I love him more than life itself. After his parents died, I raised him as my own. I taught him right from wrong and if I gave in to the Novokins now, he would be ashamed of me. My sister and my brother-in-law would be ashamed of me too. No Captain, the list of people they just sent us… well, we should mourn them now because they're already dead."

I afforded a terse nod to the captain of the Bent Claw, then directed my next comment to the rest of the ships and their crews, "Captain Rizol has a point, albeit a dark one. However I cannot choose for you, and I'm not in the same predicament as you. My family was killed in the initial attack. None of their names were on the broadcast we read. I want you to know there will be no hard feelings if anyone decides that they cannot continue. I just ask that you let me know by cutting your communications channels, now."

We waited. I saw a few heads fidget, but all heads remained on screen. Then one channel clicked off. The communications array beeped in the same place it had gone dark a moment ago. A flustered Captain appeared on the screen. A sheepish look in his face. "Sorry, I hit the wrong button. I'm in too."

I saluted the man with a slight bow of my head and got right down to it. "Alright then, considering the intel Ramirez's people have provided us, the distance from our original target, and the deadline the Novokin Alliance has just provided for us, we've got less than three days to plan our attack."

I was fairly certain that if I didn't fall into bed in the next sixty seconds, I was going to die.

The referendum with the other ships’ captains had gone far deeper into the night than even I had the reserves for. I would've sent them all to the eight infernos a long time ago if it wasn't for the constant, calming presence of Trex by my side, and the flashes of him on me and inside me to keep my spirits up. As it was, the plan was tricky. Dangerous would be an understatement. There was a good chance many of us wouldn't survive. Regardless, we all finally agreed on a plan of attack.

Dropping like a sack of outer province feed potatoes on my bed, I broke my own protocol and let my boots fall where they may. Then fought to peel myself out of my old protectorate uniform. I had it pulled out of mothballs two weeks ago, and found the formfitting white and blue as comforting as an old friend. My eyes already half closed, I almost missed the blinking orange light on the communication panel next to my bed.

A spike of adrenaline jarred me back to focus.
What the prak?
The orange light signaled a captain’s eyes-only message, from Protectorate Central Command. Considering that the majority of Central Command had been vaporized three years ago, it was fair to say I was a little suspicious. I struggled to zip my uniform back up, not wanting to give some space hackers an eyeful they would undoubtedly re-post on the innerworldweb. I punched in the appropriate password placing my other hand on the sensor plate. I waited for the computer's DNA scan to finish. When the screen came to life my blood curdled in my veins.
Asmot.

"That's quite an antiquated fashion statement you've got going there Ms. Jones." His smirk making me wish he was in the room with me, so I could wipe it off his face with my boot.

"What on the Goddess's blue earth do you want?" I hissed.

He laughed.
The sheetek laughed.

"Now Ms. Jones, no need to be so defensive. I'm calling you with an exciting proposition."

"Oh, you're surrendering? Excellent. I accept." I crossed my arms, my eyes shooting plasma charged daggers at him.

He sneered for the briefest of seconds, letting that oh-so-self-assured veneer crack just a little. "How trite. What I have for you Ms. Jones is a golden opportunity. No doubt you have seen the extended list of seditionists scheduled for execution in – what is it now – six days? Well, now you have the opportunity to save them."

It was like watching a snake circle a wounded mouse. The poisonous bite was inevitable.

He continued, "All you must do is surrender. Not your fleet, not your crew, just you. Surrender yourself and you can make all this nastiness go away." The solemn tone of his voice was meant to be reassuring but the uncanny glint in his otherwise earnest violet eyes made me think better. Did he really think I’d fall for this skeck?

Giggles bubbled up to my throat racing to spill out. Finally giving in to the stress piling up all day, I broke. I actually fell to the floor holding my belly. I mean, what kind of idiot would trust a narcissistic Guylorian jackal like him? When I told Jaxx about this later, given his advanced term, he’ll likely laugh till he pees.

Asmot did not look too pleased at having to wait for me to finish my belly laugh. "I can see that the great freedom fighter Caspia Jones isn't all she's cracked up to be. Has her heart hardened so much that she's not even moved to the prospect of freeing her own blood?”

My brain struggled to process what it had registered. My own blood? Before voicing my question he motioned to someone out of view of the vid line. Two guards hauled a manacled woman onto the screen and pushed her down onto the ground just behind Asmot. Her head was covered in a black hood. The two guards followed the prisoner and then proceeded to drag her up to her knees. Asmot turned back to me. "Maybe this will be more convincing," he asserted before removing the black hood off the poor woman’s head.

The air was sucked out of my lungs. Dirty greasy ringlets of brown, blood-matted hair framed a badly battered face. The swelling of a couple days-old bruises kept one eye shut. Dark blood stained her beautiful face and neck. New red streams trickled down from deep in her hairline, and what appeared to be recent lacerations on her high cheek bones, jaw and bottom lip. Tracks of old and new tears streaked through the patches of dried blood and grime on the familiar face. I dropped my hands to my sides, to keep him from seeing them shake.

I saw all of Asmot's teeth when his face split in his trademark sneer. Then I imagined how it would feel to knock every single one of them out of his head.

"If you surrender yourself, I will not only remove the sedition charges from the families we've already arrested but I will trade her freedom for yours," he attested. His prisoner whimpered in the background. "No need to say anything, Ms. Jones. I'm sending you coordinates. It's quite simple, be there in two days and we have a deal. Be there late and she dies. Not on New Astoria with the others, but here with me." He let that sink in while I pictured all the ways I could end him. The amusement in his voice told me what I already knew. All I needed now was a big blinking neon sign that flashed
“TRAP.”

"I'll be seeing you soon Ms. Jones," he purred, purposefully omitting my title one last time. The communication channel clicked off.

I kept staring at the empty screen. I could still see their faces. The face of a dead man. Captain Asmot of the Novokin Alliance, purveyor of genocide. And... the broken, bruised face of the only family I had left. My little sister.