Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two (18 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Look who we have here.

Rege
pressed a button on top of his device and there was bright flash accompanied by
a loud bang. The air was filled with a fine mist and the civilians started to
scan the room frantically. Zax was dumbfounded about what was happening until
he noticed how the mist clung to the blaster in his hand and made its outline
clearly visible. As nonchalantly as possible, he crossed his arms and hid the
mini blaster in his armpit.

The good news for Zax was the civilians had their
attention focused elsewhere and no one noticed his blaster before it was
hidden. The bad news was that Sergeant Bailee’s outline had become as clear as
the weapon in Zax’s hand. Two civilians grabbed the Marine’s arms while two
others sprinted forward with their blasters pointed at his head. Rege issued
his orders.

“Look who we have here. Rip that helmet off and get his
arms and legs tied up!”

A min later the mist which had outlined the Marine’s
ChamWare dissipated and his body once again faded away. His unhelmeted head
remained visible, though, along with the bindings the civilians used to secure
him. Zax looked down and pretended to itch his armpit and verified his blaster
was again invisible. He dropped his arms into a more natural pose.

Rege strode towards the bound Marine and without saying
a word punched him in the face. The sergeant swung his head back towards the
civilian and defiantly spat a mouthful of blood onto the deck at his feet. Rege
turned and walked towards Zax. He grabbed the chair the woman had used to close
the hatch, spun it around, and sat with his arms perched on the back as he
stared at Zax for a min. Finally, he spoke.

“Bring me the blade I heard this one was carrying.”

The civilian who was holding it ran over and handed Rege
the knife which had been taken from Zax. He unsheathed the blade and examined
it closely. He focused on wiping a spot near the hilt with his sleeve as he
spoke.

“You missed a little bit of blood here.” Rege looked up
and locked his gaze with Zax. “Tell me about how you came to be in possession
of this knife.”

Zax considered what to say. He was positive that he
hadn’t discussed their earlier escape within earshot of Imair, but he couldn’t
be absolutely certain that she hadn’t overheard anything said by Kalare or
Aleron. The potential for the civilian woman he once trusted to show up and
contradict any lies prompted him to choose the truth once again. He sucked in a
deep breath and launched into the story with as neutral a tone as he could
manage.

“That huge civilian was about to leave us in a
compartment when one of the other cadets said she needed to use the head. He
gave her a bucket, and removed the bindings on her hands, but then she asked
him to cut everyone else loose as well. She was worried one of us might need to
use the bucket and she’d be force to help if we were still bound. The FTL jump
occurred right then, and when I woke up I saw the his blaster had floated free
and he was still unconscious. I tried to grab it, but he woke up. We were still
wrestling over the weapon when gravity returned. He had almost strangled me to
death when one of the other cadets stabbed him in order to save me.”

“Which of the other two cadets actually killed him?”

Zax flashed back to Kalare holding the bloody knife over
the dead civilian’s body. His instinct to protect his friend at all costs
kicked in and overrode the previous decision to share the truth with Rege. He
held his eyes steady with the civilian’s and answered his question without a
moment’s hesitation.

“I had blacked out by the end, and the knife was just sitting
on the deck when I came to. I didn’t care who did it and didn’t bother to ask
since I was just grateful to be alive.”

Rege turned his gaze to the knife as he twirled it over
and over in his hand. His expression was oddly wistful until he finally sighed
and then spoke. “I’ve always loved this knife. I remember how jealous I was
when my father gave it to my brother. We were young and the old man had pitted
us against each other in another one of his crazy contests. That was the last
time I lost to him, but there was never another prize I wanted as much as I had
wanted this knife. I tried and tried to get my brother to swap it for something
else—even stuff that was way more valuable—but he never budged. Once he
realized how much I wanted it, I think he decided to keep it simply as payback
for losing to me so much. It positively killed him that I was so much smaller
than he was and yet managed to win all the time.”

Zax was dismayed to learn the civilian who Kalare had
stabbed was actually Rege’s brother. They barely seemed like they had come from
the same species much less the same parents. Zax became increasingly anxious
about how Rege might react to his role in the giant’s death and decided his
only option was to try to justify it to the civilian.

“I’m sorry to hear he was your brother, but what were
those other cadets supposed to do—let him kill me? We were only in that damn
situation because the two of you showed up here with the rest of your friends
and started murdering people for no reason.”

Rege stared at Zax for a few beats until a grin broke
out on his face.

“No reason? That’s funny, cadet, painfully funny. Let me
share a story and maybe you’ll decide to rethink that assessment.”

Rege stood up from the chair and paced back and forth
around Zax as he calmly spoke.

“I was saying before how I always wanted this knife, but
it was just as well my brother held on to it. I don’t know what would have
happened otherwise the day my father snapped. You see—our little sister got
real sick. Dene was always my father’s favorite. Our mother died during her
birth and I guess that leaves a man with two choices. He can blame and shun the
baby or love on it like crazy as the last echo of the woman he lost. My father
chose the latter and doted on Dene. The two of us boys were forced to fight for
scraps while she always got the best of whatever meager rations he scraped
together. Sometimes I hated her for it, but usually understood it wasn’t her
fault. She was a good kid.

“So Dene gets sick and my father goes for meds. She
didn’t need anything exotic, just basic antivirals. There were shortages at the
time, so the medics wouldn’t give him anything. They told him they needed to
save it all for the Crew. He tried everything he could to score some from
unofficial sources, but everyone demanded far more in return than he had to
give. I watched him cradle Dene as she burned up from the fever. She had a
bunch of intense seizures at the end. Real gruesome stuff to watch.

“She finally stopped seizing and went still and my
father wailed. I put my hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him, and he
spun around looking crazy. Something must have broken inside him after watching
both his wife and then his little girl die in his arms. He was looking right at
me, but his eyes were empty.

“He threw me around the compartment and pounded me
nearly senseless. My brother heard the commotion and somehow got him off me.
The old man wasn’t done though and went after him too. He had beaten me so badly
I could barely lift my head off the deck, so all I could do was watch as they
grappled. Finally, my father backed away and I saw this knife sticking out of
his chest. The pain must have shocked him into realizing what he had done. He
looked over and told me he was sorry before he keeled over dead.”

Rege stopped pacing and instead moved towards Zax with
the knife extended. Zax tensed but didn’t flinch as the blade came within
milimeters of his left eye and the civilian spoke again.

“So that’s what pushed my brother and I to get involved
with the group who planned all of this. Some bureaucrat decided that keeping
meds available
just in case
a member of the Crew needed them was a
better use of resources than saving my sister who was sick
at that very
moment
and could have been easily saved. Does that bureaucrat’s decision
seem reasonable to you, cadet?”

Zax was at a loss for words. A million potential replies
came to mind, but none seemed more likely than the others to prevent the
furious civilian from driving the blade into his skull. He was about to voice
one when Sergeant Bailee spoke instead.

“It seems perfectly reasonable to me. Your sister died,
but what’s more important—saving one little girl or making sure the Ship has
whatever we need to treat the fighter pilots who protect us from aliens? And
what about the Marines who ensure safe planets for our colonists. Isn’t it
important to make sure the Ship has the drugs necessary to keep them healthy?
Do you consider either of those factors when you decide what’s reasonable, or
can you not see past your sister to look at the big picture? The universe is
trying to kill all of us as fast as it possibly can. Better we lose one girl
than have the Mission fail. Right?”

Rege spun around to face the Marine and the two locked
glares. Zax held his breath and feared for what would happen next—especially
the possibility of the civilian pulling out the collar controller for some
torture. Rege charged towards Bailee but halted when another civilian ran up
and called out.

“Rege—someone’s calling in about a Marine and a couple
of cadets they’ve captured. They want to know what to do with them.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

There’s nothing you can do, Zax!

It
took all of Zax’s self-control to remain impassive at the civilian’s words. He
held his breath as the man approached and handed over some sort of wireless
communicator.

“Report!” barked Rege into the device.

“We found a Marine and two cadets trying to reach the
garrison near us. The Marine got hurt in the firefight and the two cadets
surrendered. We weren’t sure what to do with the prisoners after we heard
things are going to be over soon.”

Rege turned and stared at Zax while he posed a question
to the person on the other end of the comm. “What are the names on their
uniforms?”

“The Marine is only wearing an undershirt which does not
have a name. The male cadet is wearing an Engineering uniform and the name on
it is Aleron. The female cadet is wearing a Flight uniform and the name reads
Kalare.”

As hard as he tried to prevent it, Zax’s body flinched
ever so slightly at the mention of Kalare’s name. Rege grinned when he observed
the involuntary movement.

“Hold for orders.” Rege lowered the communicator and
moved in closer to Zax. “Thank you for just confirming those are your friends
who we’ve captured. We’re about to take over the Ship for good, and we’ve been
given orders to take prisoners rather than kill any more Crew to build
goodwill. I’m very tight with our leader, though, and I’m confident she’ll be
OK with making an exception for the person who killed my brother. Since you’ve
already told me you don’t know who actually stabbed him, I guess I’ll be forced
to have our people execute both cadets.”

Zax’s emotions roiled at the outcome of his earlier lie.
In trying to protect Kalare, he had actually made it impossible to save her.
Zax didn’t know if he would have been capable of issuing Aleron a death
sentence by falsely identifying him as the killer of Rege’s brother, but in
hindsight he wished he had left that option open. Instead, the untruth had only
served to paint him into a corner.

Rege brandished the knife once more as he leaned in
closer to Zax. “Or maybe I should have them brought here. I can take their two
lives with the same blade that took two lives from my family. Seems like that
would be nice symmetry, don’t you think? You say you blacked out and didn’t get
to see my brother die, so we can make sure you’re conscious for these two
deaths. You really should get to witness what happens when a knife is jammed in
to the back of someone’s neck. See how the spark of a life gets extinguished
with a simple twist of the blade. Watch how the blood pools on the deck while
the body cools and stiffens. What do you think, cadet, does that sound like a
good plan?”

Every muscle in Zax’s body tensed. None more so than
those in the hand which grasped the invisible mini blaster. He exulted in the
thought of how easy it would be to save Kalare by simply killing the civilian
before he could exact his revenge upon her. Zax was on the verge of lifting his
arm to take the shot when Sergeant Bailee called out.

“There’s nothing you can do, Zax!”

Anger clouded Rege’s face as he turned and closed the
remaining distance between him and the Marine with the blade in his
outstretched arm. The sergeant held the civilian’s furious gaze without
flinching in the face of impending death. At the last second, Rege flipped the
blade so that he held it by the upper portion of the hilt. He smashed the butt
of the handle into Bailee’s temple with punishing force. The Marine crashed to
the deck unconscious.

Zax was now entirely on his own with the civilians, but
the sergeant’s words echoed in his mind. The Marine knew there was something
Zax
could
do in the situation. He
could
use his hidden weapon to
kill Rege before the civilian issued any further orders and hopefully save
Kalare in the process. What the Marine must have been trying to tell Zax was
that there was nothing he
should
do. The irony was not lost on Zax as he
unpacked Bailee’s directive. He was supposed to not shoot an insurgent and
spare two Crew because he actually needed to save it for killing a different
Crew member.

Rege strutted back towards Zax. “Where were we? Oh yes,
I was asking you whether you wanted to have your friends brought here so you
can see what it looks like when someone dies by the blade. How does that
sound?”

The pull weight of the blaster’s trigger pushed back
against the muscles of Zax’s finger. His outward appearance remained neutral
while his inner dialog was as riled as the most storm swept planet. He
attempted to calm himself by envisioning how the one motion of raising his arm
and firing the blaster would kill Rege and end the threat on Kalare’s life. The
civilians had been told to spare their Crew prisoners, and Zax fought to
convince himself that would remain the default action of the people on the
other end of the communicator who held her.

Some part of Zax knew there was something wrong with
that logic, however, and kept his arm plastered to his side. Yes, he could
dream that removing Rege from the equation would prevent the civilians from
killing Kalare, but he had no way of guaranteeing that outcome. Perhaps, he
worried, they would still kill her simply out of spite.

A more likely scenario surfaced from the maelstrom of
his thoughts. He believed that killing Rege would most likely protect Kalare
from the immediate threat, but concluded her salvation would be short-lived.
She, along with almost everyone else on board, was slated to die within mins
once the Captain vented the Ship and ended the revolution. The only thing that
could stop that outcome was if the civilians tortured the Boss so effectively
he cracked quickly and provided them access to the FTL engine. They would then
hold its possible destruction as the ultimate chip in the negotiations and
force a halt to the Captain’s plans. Kalare wouldn’t get vented into space, but
she would be stuck on a Ship controlled by civilians. If Rege exemplified the
grudges and hatreds that underpinned the civilians’ actions, there was a
torturous existence awaiting the Crew under their command.

Zax released his finger from the trigger in resignation.
There was no good outcome available for Kalare. The only thing which made sense
was keeping the existence of his weapon secret and holding out hope it would be
used to accomplish his original mission. It was impossible to guarantee his
friend’s safety, but at least he could offer his own life alongside hers in an
effort to save the Ship and its Mission from the civilians. In a final act of
defiance, he turned away from Rege so he would not be tempted to change his
mind by the man’s self-satisfied facial expression.

“Don’t you turn your back on me, boy!”

Zax heard the knife clatter to the deck and the
civilian’s pounding footfalls approach as he roared his disapproval. A fist
crashed into Zax’s right kidney and he fell forward to the deck on his hands
and knees. He gasped, not from the searing pain, but from the realization he
nearly lost his grip on the precious blaster. He curled into a ball and cradled
the invisible weapon close to his body. He glared up at the civilian as he
fantasized about taking two shots in quick succession—one to kill the Boss and
save the Ship from civilian control and a second which would extinguish Rege’s
miserable life. He sought solace in the desperate hope the Boss might appear
before Kalare could be delivered to Rege. That dream was quickly dashed as the
civilian looked down at the screen of his communicator and spoke.

“Look at how late it’s gotten. You and your Marine
friend have made me waste a lot of time, cadet, right when things are about to
get really interesting around here. Now I’m not going to be able to take care
of those other two myself.” He keyed the communicator. “Kill the two cadets. Make
sure it’s painful. Rege out.”