Interzeit: A Space Opera (25 page)

The emitter bla
de twirls around
him,
its serpentine hiss eviscerates the guards into tri-sections. They scream, falling apart in bloody jigsaw pieces.

He sees t
he other two
, interrupted from their lengthy interrogations
.

Nol
pulls the
trigger, blasting one’s neck open in a
gory
popping bubble. The last pulls his auto laser from his shoulder, firing wildly.

Nol
leaps forward slashing, he chops forward powerfully with each step he takes.

The first slash whips through the end of the autolaser, dispersing the beam into a frazzling light and spark show. The next cut his the tips of the guard’s fingers as he tries to back up. Nol keeps step with him, the next slash rips through his trigger arm completely, until finally.

A chunk of him
falls,
the head
is
still attached to the neck, cut diagonally from the shoulder. Nol clicks the emitter off, breathing with hot rage, covered in blood.

Iza and Lei look back at him, the
y
are disheveled, their hands cuffed in front of them. All of them shaking, he steadily cuts them free from the carbon bindings.
Lei seems
a thousand
miles away
,
piercing him like the universe’s thinnest dagger.
Iza shakes profoundly, breaking into a weak sob.

He feels it, he feels their eyes, not only the two pair
s
he came with, but the eyes of everyone around him, everyone in the Lunarium, maybe even the whole
Protectorate
.

“Where you just going to let that happen!?”
He yells back at his silent accusers.

“Over and over, just have them abuse you like that,” He points accusingly at Iza.

“There was no need to murder them Nol,” Lei says with a calculated stoicism.

“Murder?”
He yells, “I was defending myself from them.
Those assholes, those fucking tyrants.”

“If you won’t defend yourself!
Why should anyone trust you to defend them?” He yells around in all directions now, “Ask
yourselves
! Chea
p
vices,
and brutal authorities?
Is that all you are?
”

He sits on the floor despondent, leaning against the blood splashed fountain.

The Lunar Authorities did
not respond kindly, a hushed terror drops over the Lunarium. More security pours in, and more then. They sight him carefully from the other end of the synthetic galaxy, keeping their weapons trained intently on him, awaiting orders or a reason to forgo them.

After a long stand off, Nol and the others crashing down hard from the narcotics, things start to move forward again. A familiar face is escorted across the empty space on a hovering platform. They try obscuring her in the name of security, but once they reach them, she pushes past their protests, climbing down onto the moon.

“Nol!”
She is
exasperated
.

He looks at her, head pounding, “Thanks for coming Ophelia. I was certain they were going to execute me.”

“You may not be wrong Nol, this is inexcusable.”

His anger resurges, “They were abusing us,”

“This situation is bigger than any individual Nol, you know that. We didn’t train you to be this reckless.”

“Y
ou
trained me to kill, to fight, and I-
“ He
trails off, “I did it…because…I don’t know, I just
couldn’t be weak anymore.”

“Placing others ahead of yourself isn’t weak, what you did was weak,”

“Whatever.” He says, standing. The sound of two dozen fingers sliding onto triggers whispers through the chamber.

Nol throws the emitter into
Izanami,
she catches it nervously against her body.

“Get me out of here, before I get anyone else killed then.”

He turns himself over, the guards swarm over him, as they load him onto the platform he turns back to the ones being left behind.

“Thanks for the good time guys!” He grins with one last manic burst.

They cart him off
.

Izanami
tries to smuggle out the illegal weapon, but the guards are very thorough on their exit inspection. Feeling drained they return to their quarters on base. Basil is quite flustered for a machine, relieved to rejoin Lei. In the end neither of them
is
even detained, even allowing
Iza
to drive them unescorted.

The drive is silent and dry, stark and desolate feeling, like the world outside. They say nothing, except one comment by Iza as they are walking their separate ways.

“Well…I did not expect that.” She said it to
herself
, the fact that Lei was still within earshot
was irrelevant.

In the solar morning afterwards they are left to their own devices. Both spend it sleeping off the intense neurochemical depravation
,
trying to recoup
the intense hang over of chemicals
used in t
he night
.
T
he real and imagined events
swirled
and blurred together.

Izanami spends the afternoon hiding in her room. A mix of gu
ilt, and panic run throu
gh her, and her hands tremble from withdrawal
. She flies into distractionary entertainment.

Her room filled with holograms of many unrelated topics as the day grew longer. Layer and layer of escapist media piled up, forming a psychic shell against the betraying mind in her skull.

In the evening she receives a summons, she
suits up in her
grey
Protectorate uniform
, and travels there unkempt, expecting a small check in, or some exercises. She runs into Lei on the way,
and
they know they are in
tended for the same destination
.

Plaskin
and
Xang
await them in the observation chamber.
Plaskin
is standing in the center of the room, arms folded behind her. Xang is off to the side, a certain rare glint in his eyes, sitting in a chair, overlooking some information of relavence.

“Thanks for showing up,” Plaskin says, “I’m sorry to disturb you, but I assure you this is a matter of the gravest importance.”

“Four hours ago,” Xang begain, “Cabinet intelligence and TST probes confirmed an invasion force closing in on Earth.”

Iza and Lei’s eyes both widen.

“From whom?”
Lei asks directly,

“Mars,” Xang continues, “The battle on the surface has already started, dissidents and
rebels are engaged with the Earth Defense Force as we speak.”

Lei boils, “I knew there was something off about
that operation…It was obvious…I
“

“That’s not important not Miss Liang,” Plaskin says, “We need to move quickly, every minute we waste, lives are lost.”

Both pilots nod.

“Good. Miss Liang you will lead a forward squadron of fighter
s to the high atmosphere, where
you will intercept this Martian force by any means necessary.”

“
Yes sir,” Lei confirms.

Xang
stands, electrified by the moment, beckoning her, they sprint off to prep for launch. Iza remains, sitting in the room with Plaskin.

“I know you were responsible for last night Miss Sato.” She says finally,

“Now isn’t the time,”
Iza
says weakly.

“You sicken me to be honest, but my feelings are now irrelevant to the situation.” She goes over to drawer.

After some rummaging she reveals a hypoinjector.

“You’re a junkie, but now is not the time
for an intervention
.” She tosses her the injector, “Be the person your people expect you to be.
Who we need you to be!”

Iza rolls up her sleeve, injecting
herself
, “What do I need to do?” she asks,

“You’re
infilling to Carpentaria.
As reinforcement to
the Cabinet forces there.”

“Any targets?”
Iza
asks

“Soft infantry, a rebellion lead by Septis Calatian
.”

“The prince?”

“I
ndeed.
Unfortunately
he has a war mech in his possession,” She gets closer to Iza, the rush of the injection already sparking through her body, “Lei
’s loyalties are too suspect for this operation, otherwise we would be sending her.”

“What about
Nol
?
”
Iza
asks, “They are his people, are they not
?
”

“Personally I would rather him die for a cause than be executed, however
it
is out of my hands. The Protectorate has ordered
his detainment.”

Izanami
walks away, a violation of the standard code, punishable even, but given the situation Plaskin let’s her disrespect slid.

She’s at the hangar bay for Skyking when she has a sudden rebellion against herself. It was her fault, in a certain way. She couldn’t just…and Lei…

Ambling along with new frenetic energy,
she doubles back into the base.
Moving slowly she
tries sneaking into the prison block on the base.
She’s mi
norly successful until she
slinks into the block itself.

The only way through is a small solid metal door.
It’s
watched by no less than two guards, with extras watching cameras, and working a small desk area in front.

They all see her inst
antly, and recognize who she is
. Feeling defeated she approaches the main desk.

“How can I help you Miss Sato?” The desk worker asks.

“I need to see Tomson Nol, please i
t’
s urgent.”

“He has been barred from seeing visitors for another week unfortunately. Please come again in that time Miss.” They say in a measured careful tone.

“There’s a war kicking off out there!” She bursts with her manic voice, “I might be dead in a week,
we
all might be! He may have
committed
heinous crimes, but he’s still a pilot like me! He deserves to know what’s happening,
and
what’s happening to his fellow pilots!”

They look down at their computer in annoyance, glancing over to some of the camera workers. They mutter back and forth, and the camera operators mess with their control panels reluctantly.

“Five minutes,” they say finally, “
And…good luck Izanami.”

She nods sternly, and is escorted through the cell block. Mostly empty, they walk her to the far end.

Nol has been kept in isolation since the incident. That is a relative term for it anyhow, the longer he finds himself alone, the stronger the intelligence in his mind becomes, the tighter it seems to fuse into his own thinking and judgment.

When the metal visit slot whishes to the
side,
and Izanami’s face appears in it, it shakes him,
rousing
him from a deep hallucination.

“Iza?”
He asks suspiciously, “Are you real?”

“Nol!” she shouts, “I don’t have much time.”

“What’s happening?”

“There’s an attack on Earth. We’ve been
deployed,
it looks like the Martians are attempting a full scale invasion.”

Nol silently burns with anger, “So it was them after all?”

“I don’t know, I-I don’t have time to think about it. I wanted to try break you out, or or something, but…I can’t
.
I see that now.”
She says with guilt.

“Where will you be?” Nol asks,

Iza informs them of their deployment orders, the splitting between the two of them, the prince’s rebellion. He takes it all in attentively, seeming to grow calmer by the syllable.

“Iza…” He says once she is finished, “You need to go, I will join you when I can.”

“Nol…you know what they’re going to do to you…”
she trails off

He brings himself nearer.

“Get out of here. I’m already
dead,
you can’t change that…Go save someone who can still be saved.”

Iza nods in compliance, tears well gently in her eyes, “I’m sorry for this
Nol. That’s all I came to say
.”

“Go,
” he says simply, turning his back on her.

Staring at the wall, he hears her run off, her feet echoing away back to where she was going.

“So this is it, huh…” he mumbles to himself.

“We need to help those people,” Clara whispers, “I know you know what she would want.”

Nol sighs deeply, “I know I know, but it’s not that simple. I’m stuck here on lockdown with no tools
, and you’re just a hallucination
in my head.”

“Be ready,” Clara says, and then seems to disappear entirely.

Relieved he lies in his bunk, staring at the ceiling. Counting the tiles over and over again, he tries finding small things, anything to distract him from the world outside.

He thinks about his friends from the smart install business he worked for. Were they safe? Were they fighting for their lives? Had they already…

Some people at the cabinet hospital told him that they had held a service for her, for his sister.

He had been in intensive care the entire time however, and supposedly missed it.
Something about that, about everything had put his grieving on hold. The constant overstimulation, the crowds, the tests, pushed him deeper away from that.

Maybe then before they killed him, he could at least accept the fact that she was gone. It was easier now that he was fated for the same thing. Relief from the chaos
and disturbances of the whole outside
would be payment enough for everything.

Sitting here now on the moon was more than he had ever hoped for.

He tried sleeping,
thoughtlessly,
he lay with his eyes shut. His body shook with small
tremors, more drug withdrawals
.
But t
hey kept on, growing stronger and stronger.

“I’m sorry Nol,” He hears Clara’s voice again.

He rises, and notices the whole room, every thing is shaking.
S
everal guards burst into the room, guns drawn.

“We’re evacuating now! Come with u-“

Suddenly the top of the prison is
sheered open. All of the
contents within spill out, rushing into the void together.

The vacuum immediately goes to work equalizing the pressure within him.
Squeezed,
and breathless he tumbles in uncontrolled fatality. He smashes against something roughly, knocking any lingering air form his chest.

He changes course, moving quickly, and then vanishes. The doors seal before him. Scrambling, he breathes harshly near the pressu
rization vents, shivering
.

“What’s happening?”

“We have to fight,” Clara appears in his mind
’
s eye.

“How did…” but is unable to finish the thought.

Nol climbs into the pilot chair. Clara starts the synchronization process, the electrodes spark through his body, his vision blurring, splitting,
and reforming. He syncs into the machines neural network. P
rojecting
,
he lifts into
EDF
-01
, the moonscape slowly coming into view.

“We have to find Lei,” He mutters.

They cruise away from the surface, pulling free of the moon’s gravity easily
.
T
he seven eyed machine speeds towards the
Earth
, jumping into its swirling dominion.

“They’re over Australasia
now,” Clara hums,

His view telescopes further and further inwards
, revealing
in miniature the battle happening just over the planet’s curvature. They rocket towards the fray, as the
y
draw
nearer, he
focus
es
in tighter. Several Lunar orbital frigates are engaging a diverse fleet of ships and grey automechs.

The explosions rock both sides, the Martian forces pushing the Protectorate’s ships, breaking through the line, casting drop ships, assault crafts, and mech into the hungry maw of the upper atmosphere.

The flashing stardust cannon
rips
through the blockade runners. Strafing through the larger ships quickly, Lei’s
mech
,
Bai
Hu
,
stems the tide of the invaders. Electricity crackles around her, the new deflector’s forming a magnetic barrier. The crackling bubble encases the white tiger, repelling the countervai
ling blasts of the M
artian interceptors
.

They shift more and more priority on her, soon a rough dozen ships barrel around her, firing and dashing in all directions, threatening to encircle her. The exterior deflectors fizz off, and she activates the sharp energy shield in the mech’s left hand. Releasing the sharp disc on its chain, it whips around, swatting the buzzing ships.