The Agathon: Reign of Arturo (24 page)

“Can I get you something to drink?” Arturo asked.

Aron looked at the large container full of water on the desk. It was a heavy based glass jug. A luxury that most colonists could not afford. He thought about whether or not to accept and then thought that poison was not really the chancellor’s style. He nodded.

“Please,” Aron replied.

Arturo smiled and poured Aron a metal cup of water.

“What did they say?” Arturo asked as he poured the liquid slowly, looking at Aron.

The blunt question caught Aron off guard and he felt his face begin to sweat.

“Who, Chancellor?” he replied as confidently as he could.

Arturo stopped pouring the water and handed the container to Aron. He picked it up and took a gulp. He had not realised how thirsty he was until now. Poisoned or not, it felt good. Arturo sat back in his chair slowly.

“What did they say?” the chancellor asked again.

His tone was flat. Almost playful.

“I am sorry, Chancellor, I do not understand,” Aron said.

“Where is Hector Stanley?” Arturo asked.

Aron cleared his throat and placed the empty container on the table slowly.

“Chancellor, I apologise for what happened on board. I can assure you it was an accident. We did all that we could for Mr Stanley, but his injuries were too severe,” Aron said.

There was a deathly silence in the room as Aron looked straight into the chancellor’s unmoving eyes. Arturo’s expression remained the same. Calm and calculated. Aron was sure that he did not believe him, but his lack of reaction began to worry him. He could feel little beads of sweat beginning to run down the small of his back.

“How unfortunate,” Arturo said.

“I apologise, Chancellor, but my ship is old and most of the support beams are in need of an overhaul. We jettisoned the body, or rather what was left of it, four days ago, as we do not have the proper storage facilities on board,” Aron said shifting slightly in his chair. He hoped Arturo did not see the slight movement.

“Accidents happen, Aron, don’t they? Fate is a strange thing wouldn’t you say? The path a man takes in this life all lead to an undeniable and unavoidable conclusion. We cannot escape our fate, Aron.

It is written in the stars themselves. Every little choice, every little decision, weave a web that the universe unequivocally keeps track of and then, one day, all those little choices all meet at the fulcrum of eternity,” Arturo said.

Aron felt his pulse increase.

“What did they say, Aron?” Arturo said calmly.

Aron’s lips began to get dry.

“Who, Chancellor?” he replied.

“What did they fucking say!” Arturo screamed suddenly.

The fury in his voice made Aron suddenly lose his breath. It came out of nowhere. It was feral. He saw one of the guards take a slight step backwards at the unexpected outburst. There was total silence in the room as Arturo calmly changed his demeanour back to one of calm and serenity. It was like another person had taken control of the chancellor momentarily. A furious psychopath filled with rage and bile. Aron did not know how to respond, but the sense of immediate danger in the room was hard to escape. He remained silent. Letting the rage that had filled the room linger.

“Chancellor, I …” Aron began to say.

“Aron. I know you made contact with The Agathon. I know this. You know I know this. We are on the same side, you and I. We are kindred spirits. I have felt this for a long time which is why I gave you your own ship. To serve us both. Which you have done with distinction. We are both warriors, you and I. We both want an end to the life that those who left us all those years ago condemned us to. You need to help me, Aron. You could be my right hand. You should have been my right hand. You have the respect and loyalty of the colonists. I see that. I admire that. I admire you,” Arturo said.

Aron looked at the table and began to feel the little beads of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead run down his cheek. He felt his senses tighten as he thought about what he had to do next. He took a breath.

“Aron, we are family. I know you lost yours. I know that you are lost. We are all lost. But I can help you,” Arturo said.

Aron looked at the chancellor and frowned, now confused by what he was saying.

“I want to show you something,” Arturo said rising from his chair.

Aron gripped the side of his seat getting ready for the attack that would surely come soon. The chancellor walked over to a large screen on the far side of the room. He typed in some commands into the computer and turned the screen towards Aron. An image of a young girl inside an oval glass container filled the screen. Aron looked at the strange image. He had not seen any container that resembled the image anywhere on the space stations. It looked like some sort of stasis chamber. The naked girl inside was young. Maybe eleven or twelve. She looked asleep and very thin. Her long brown hair curled over her shoulders. He looked at Arturo confused. Arturo smiled.

“Help me and you can help her,” Arturo said.

“I do not understand, Chancellor,” Aron said, suddenly feeling a sense of panic at what the chancellor was about to tell him.

Arturo smiled at Aron.

“What did they say, Aron?” he repeated.

There was silence in the room. Aron looked at the two guards, both of whom had their helmets facing the door. They still had their hands neatly placed behind their backs. He thought about The Unity and about the colonists back at the stations praying for a time when they would be free.

“I have not made contact with The Agathon, Chancellor. Stanley inputted an encryption code into the system. We were not granted access,” Aron said.

The chancellor’s smile suddenly dropped into a deathly cold stare. He sat back in his chair and looked at the image on the screen.

“How a man goes on knowing that he has lost his only child is a true testament to your character, Aron. I am not sure I could have taken that sort of a loss had I decided to take a mate. Did you know, Aron, that this little colony of ours very nearly became extinct? Did you know that?” Arturo said.

Aron looked at him blankly

“It nearly wiped us out. If it were not for the efforts of Doctor Vishal, we would all be dead now. He devised an incredible machine to draw energy from the human body itself. I have a gift for you, Aron. The greatest gift a man can give to another man. The life of your daughter,” Arturo said pausing.

Aron suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

“She was the first you know. The first to be successfully integrated into the machine. Along with hundreds of others that sacrificed their lives, so that others could live. I could not begin to tell you how the damn thing works, but the energy created by your daughter has quite literally saved your life. And now you have this glorious opportunity to save hers,” Arturo said.

Aron felt his knees go weak. He looked at the image in disbelief. He looked at her soft complexion and saw familiarity in its quiet expression.

It couldn’t be
, he thought to himself holding back the floodgates of anger and grief that were bubbling in his chest.

“It’s Maya, Aron. She is alive and well. Sleeping and keeping all our lights on in the darkness,” Arturo said.

Aron started shaking. He kept his eyes firmly on the image of the girl in the tank.

Arturo raised his hands in a gleeful stretch, as if he had given Aron a surprise birthday present.

“Well?” Arturo said smiling, “Are you not thankful? Are you not overjoyed? You should be happy. I have given you the gift of a lifetime. The gift of Maya.”

Arturo had his mouth open and his eyes were wide in anticipation. He looked like a child who had just surprised his parents with a drawing he had completed in school. It was a demented look. The look of someone who’s mind was broken. Aron could not believe what he was seeing. His mind began to spin. He had stolen his baby. Stolen her and implanted her into a sick machine. He fought back the urge to vomit. He thought about how scared she must have been. How terrified of being hooked into cables and locked away in a coffin of
deprivation. No mother or father, just the horror of imprisonment and pain.

“What did they say, Aron, and you can have her back. Just tell me what they said,” Arturo said suddenly reducing the sound of his voice to a whisper.

Aron leaned forward onto his knees.

“Where is she?” he quietly asked, trying to hold back the lump in his throat.

Arturo leaned over the desk and looked at Aron.

“Where else? Come on, Aron, you know where she is. She is yours. You can have her. Just tell me what you talked about,” Arturo said.

Aron looked up at the evil staring at him across the desk. He looked at the two guards and flicked his eyes quickly to their pulse guns. He looked at the image of Maya quietly resting in the glass tube. He suddenly saw what she was attached to. Cables ran the length of her body and seemed to be attached to her back. His vision began to blur with rage. He looked up at the smiling Arturo and felt a surge of adrenalin in his veins. His own life suddenly had one function. He saw it so clearly and the split second decision that followed was triggered by nothing but instinct. Aron suddenly let out a feral scream and leapt from his chair, across the desk and towards the chancellor. Arturo had no time to react to the violence that had taken hold of Aron. In one swift motion, Aron took the large glass container half filled with water and smashed it squarely across the side of Arturo’s head, sending the chancellor careening to the floor into the guard standing next to him. The guard was clearly stunned by how quickly it happened as they both fell to the floor. Aron lunged at the second guard planting his shoulder squarely in his mid-section sending the two of them into the back wall. Within a few seconds, Aron had grabbed the guard’s pulse gun out of his holster and had fired two shots into his chest. The sound of squelching blood filled Aron’s ears. He felt nothing but rage. Pure rage. The other guard got to his knees and pointed his pulse gun at Aron’s head and fired. Aron had just a second to reposition the dead guard as a human shield as the two
bursts hit the corpse squarely on his helmet, piercing the faceplate. Aron heard a pop as the guard’s head exploded inside his helmet. He reached his arm around the guard’s body and fired repeatedly and waited. There was no response. He looked carefully around the bloodied corpse at the now dead guard next to the unconscious chancellor.

He felt as though his heart would explode from his chest. The room went quiet. He pointed the gun at Arturo and was about to fire when he heard the door mechanism activate. Looking over at the entrance, he suddenly realised that he was in trouble. In a few seconds, Escat would open the door and kill him. He thought about firing anyway. Then he thought of Maya. He had to get to her. Somehow. He jumped to his feet and ran quickly to the door standing beside it with his back to the wall. It suddenly slid open and Escat entered. He was alone. The door slid shut behind him. Escat moved towards the desk and Aron stepped quietly behind him. He pointed the pulse gun to the base of his skull.

“Don’t fucking move,” said Aron.

16

The Unity

I
ndia looked down the barrel of the pulse cannon pointed straight at The Unity. Her hands had begun to sweat after two hours of holding the flight controls. The two ships drifted silently watching each other. One predator and one prey. Aron had not activated his homing beacon yet and that worried India. She figured that they must have found it and were getting ready to blow her out of the stars. She wondered if they had just killed him the moment he walked off the shuttle. She knew it was a stupid idea. They should have just taken their chances and made a run for it. She hated herself and her anger. If she had not attacked Stanley, they would all at least have had a fighting chance. A light began to flicker on her control panel. She flicked her eyes over to it and activated the comm system.

“Aron?” she said.

“India, fire up the sub light,” he said whispering.

“Aron, are you alright?” she replied.

“Just do it, India,” he replied, “move The Unity up to the docking ring, but do it slowly, we won’t have much time.”

The comm system clicked off. He sounded out of breath and his voice was muffled. There was an urgency in his voice that told India he was in trouble. She immediately switched the channel and connected with the engine room.

“Ollie, fire her up, we’re leaving,” she said.

“What about Aron?” replied Oliver.

“He’s on his way, get on it,” she replied.

“Got it,” Oliver replied.

The comm system clicked off as India checked her flight controls. She looked out at the large cannons pointed in her direction. One shot could easily breach the hull and it was game over. They remained still. She fired up the rear thrusters to twenty percent and began slowly bringing The Unity closer to the docking ring, trying to make it look like a simple course correction. The guns followed her. She moved her eyes between the barrels of the cannons to the docking ring and suddenly saw the shuttle that Aron had travelled over on emerge from The Kandinsky’s main shuttle bay.

“What the hell?” she said to herself.

The shuttle was moving quickly. India increased the power to the rear thrusters to thirty percent and set a course to intercept it. She kept one eye firmly on the cannons as she did so.

Less than a minute later, she powered down the engines and came to a complete stop letting the shuttle dock with the main airlock. She waited, watching The Kandinsky as it drifted silently beside The Unity. She had no idea what the hell was going on. The lights for the main airlock blinked green to indicate a solid seal and she released the doors. A few seconds later the comm system clicked on.

“India, release the main docking clamp now! Get us the hell out of here!” said Aron sounding frantic.

She did as she was asked and released the main docking clamp, letting the shuttle craft drift away from the side of the ship. She activated the comm system and linked with the engine room.

“Ollie, we gotta go!” she said sternly.