Authors: Scott McElhaney
“
Why do you think you were a coward?” he asked, following close behind.
I really didn’t want to relive that day, but I probably didn’t have a choice. It was the only way for Braxton to understand.
“
The Deck Commander was leading us through the corridors at such a quick pace that it was hard for me to keep up. He seemed almost mad at us for not being as anxious as he was. He kept sternly urging us on, telling us we needed to hide if we wanted to live. I think it was during one of these
‘hurry-ups’
that I heard the whistling rifle-shots echoing through the corridor ahead of us. Then I saw two of the people in front of me fall, one of them being the Deck Commander himself. Without thinking, I leapt into the open door of the ship’s kitchen. I didn’t have time to rationalize anything. I didn’t have time to think at all. I was only a heartbeat away from certain death,” I said, quickly swiping the tears from my eyes, “I opened the cold oven, crawled in, and closed the door. I huddled in that oven, listening to the screams and cries coming from the hallway – screams of people being shot while I shuddered in fear in that lousy oven.”
I coughed out a sob in that moment, then stopped by a crossroads in the corridor. Braxton tugged me into an embrace yet again, making me feel like a stupid frightened child. I was beginning to wonder if it might have been true. Maybe I was just a frightened child who only appeared to be much older that the man I was escorting.
“
You survived though. Isn’t that what the Deck Commander was trying to do? Wasn’t that the last thing he was trying to accomplish before he died?” Braxton asked, “You made that Deck Commander a success when it sounds like he was about to become a complete failure in his last duty. He died
succeeding
in his final goal.”
“
But I survived while I listened to my friends die. Why didn’t I run for a knife instead of the oven?” I asked him the question that I’d asked myself a dozen times, “It was a kitchen for goodness sake. Why didn’t I grab a knife? I could have killed at least one or two of them.”
“
You probably could have killed one of them with that knife, I’m sure of it. But if I have anything to say about it, your survival inside that oven will probably result in the deaths of a lot more than just one,” he said, “So what’s our first step?”
. . .
After roaming probably a dozen passageways and more than two flights of stairs, we came to a circular room surrounded by doors the whole way around. In the center of the floor lay something I knew as a computer terminal, but probably looked like a Legacy keywriter to Braxton. I had wired this one directly to a portable transmitter as well as to the ship’s mainframe – again, things Braxton wouldn’t understand.
“
This is the Emergency Escape Room. There are four of these rooms all loaded with many pods like those,” I said, gesturing toward all the doors surrounding us, “There’s a law on Earth that states all ships of all countries have to aid in the rescue of any escape pods. This is actually a law imbedded into the coding of all ships, so it’s something they cannot override even if the pod is coming from an enemy ship. Basically, if we launch one of these pods and there is a living being detected inside, the security locks on their shuttle bay doors will be overridden to allow entry of the pod.”
“
So we’re just going to pop into the Australian ship beside us and ask if we can just be friends?” he asked.
“
No,” I replied, sitting down on the floor in front of the terminal and loading up the two programs I’d worked on two lunas past, “Almost all the people from that ship are down on Legacy right now taking over our world. They return to the Constellation sometimes to gather more weapons or food, but then they go back down to fight some more. I’m led to believe that right now, there’s only a skeleton crew over there and that crew is going to be cut in half once I launch our first pod.”
The room shuddered suddenly as I pressed the ‘F6’ key. He knelt next to me and looked at the view screen. I had brought up the visual outside our ship so we both could watch.
“
What was that sound?” he asked.
“
I just launched a pod loaded with two unconscious, non-revived clones. They’re alive, but please don’t feel bad for them. They’ve never had a chance to even acknowledge their lives yet since they’ve never been officially revived,” I said, “And I’ve also loaded the bottom of the pods with a surprise for anyone who happens to fire a plasma rifle within five paces.”
“
What exactly are you-”
“
Watch,” I replied with a grin, pointing to the view panel.
The screen separated into two portions. One was showing the side view of a large Australian ship, while another showed a triangle tracing a dotted line toward a large rectangle. I kept my fingers on the directional arrows, moving the pod toward their ship.
“
The writing you are seeing on the bottom of the screen is the Constellation hailing the escape pod,” I explained, pointing to the screen, “They’re getting no response, but I’m firing the jets on the pod, aiming it toward their forward shuttle bay as though there’s a live crew aboard controlling our pod. With luck, they will figure the communications aren’t working on the pod.”
We watched the image of the Australian ship in front of us growing larger on the screen. When I was finally getting worried that we might crash, the shuttle bay opened, accepting our escape pod.
“
Like I said,” I grinned widely, tapping the ‘enter’ key to relinquish control of the pod, “They cannot override the rescue code. Now they have this pod on their ship. But once the bay doors close…”
I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence before the screen cut the image off. I tapped the keys necessary to bring our viewpoint of the Constellation back to full-screen. Braxton gasped, probably impressed with the sheer magnitude of the frightening behemoth once we had zoomed out. I had to admit that it truly was magnificent.
“
We’re counting on the fact that they plan on punishing their enemies for boarding under ‘emergency’ circumstances. The only way this will work is if they really are enemies and they shoot our-”
Again, I was cut off by the actions of the Constellation. A bright blast erupted from the lower portion of the left side of the ship. The fire blasted outward, then shrunk as quickly as it appeared, but it was enough to tell me what I needed to know. We were definitely their enemies and Braxton was right, I would kill much more than just one of them.
“
Did I ever tell you that you were awesome?” he asked.
“
No, but wait a moment before you say it formally. Watch this,” I said, hitting two more keys, bringing another shudder to our room, “Right now, the remaining crew is busy dealing with a dire emergency in their forward shuttle bay. Portions of the Constellation are being cut off by airtight emergency doors everywhere, limiting their movement in the forward portion of the ship”
“
Did we just launch another pod?” he asked, pointing to a small glimmer appearing on the bottom portion of the screen.
“
Yes, but this one doesn’t require any plasma rifles to detonate it,” I said.
Braxton sat down beside me, making himself more comfortable.
“
I hate to state the obvious, but if the shuttle bay doors will always open for escape pods, wouldn’t everyone attack each other in this manner?” he asked, “I mean, it sounds like a hideous flaw in the design of Earth ships.”
“
I asked the same thing a few harvests back. Apparently there aren’t really any wars in space, which explains the lack of exterior weaponry on their ships. They are aware of no alien races and they don’t spend millions of dollars just to go into space to fight their wars,” I said, relaying a lot of what Captain Reiss explained to me, “In hindsight though, I can tell you that this is why they boarded the Foothold and sought to kill everyone aboard. If there were any survivors, the Constellation would risk being attacked in ways they might not be able to defend against.”
He laughed.
“
What?” I asked, turning to him.
“
Half the words you speak are alien to me,” he said, “Surely you remember how you used to never know any of their words. I still find it hard to imagine you being an Earthling now, but that’s how you speak and act.”
I pulled back, examining Braxton more closely.
“
I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment,” I stated.
“
Definitely a compliment,” he said, gesturing toward the aft shuttle bay doors opening on the Constellation, “I mean, what have I done to attack our enemies so far? It’s been all Diana X.”
“
Wait a minute. This is the awesome part,” I said, tapping the ‘enter’ key to relinquish control of the pod.
The shuttle bay doors closed. I suddenly got scared to look at the screen in case this ultimate attack failed. I turned to Braxton who had his attention glued to the screen. I leaned in and set my mouth near his beautiful ear – an ear I used to nibble one during moments I refused to remember.
“
You get to be the attacker with the next pod we launch,” I whispered near his ear, “I’m ready to hear how awesome I am.”
I doubt I could have counted one heartbeat before he burst forth in exclamation. I was still a little afraid to look at the screen, but I knew I had to. The explosion in the aft shuttle bay had caused a chain reaction inside the ship, bringing secondary explosions throughout the whole aft portion of the ship. I had counted on this, knowing that the engineering section was close by, but I wasn’t certain it would work.
“
Say it, Braxton!” I laughed, looking at the destruction on the screen, “Go ahead, you can talk as loudly as you want now!”
“
You are absolutely awesome!” he shouted in laughter, “Look at that ship. The front portion was no big deal, but that back explosion… you destroyed a third of the ship!”
“
And that’s because?” I said, smiling widely at him.
“
Because you’re awesome,” he leaned in and kissed me like I’d secretly hoped he would.
He’d caught me off guard last time, but this time I needed that kiss and I demanded it from him. It was me who wrapped my arms around his neck this time, long before he lowered me to the floor. It was me who took the back of his hair and knotted it into my fist, tugging his lips impossibly closer. It was me who bit his tongue, bringing a subtle groan from him.
50th Luna – Harvest Season – 993
We’ve been missing out on Clempin. The USSC seemed to be most interested in claiming land here and more than that, claiming the natural resources for themselves, but no one could have ever imagined the Clempin.
This planet provides its proteins in a variety of nuts, the meat of several kinds of tasty birds and oddly enough only two land animals. Out of all the land animals, they have two sheep-like creatures that have a pleasant flavor. The rest of the land creatures leave a lot to be desired. Then there’s the fish of Legacy. There are the most popular varieties whitefin, uglibass, deep skimmers and tigerfish. But last week, or last six-lune as they call it here, the Legacians threw a World Party. This was something they only do every fifty harvests and as luck would have it, that was this year.
World Party was a worldwide harvest party lasting nearly half the season of harvest and hosted by different villages each time. People would trek from halfway around the world, sharing their foods, recipes, and even their inventions. Sure it was obviously an event that drew in the money or the trade, but it also introduced the world to what was going on in other villages.
It’s nothing short of amazing. Imagine the World’s Fair from centuries past. I only choose to waste the pages of this log on the World Party because it introduced the Green Earthlings to a fish called Clempin. It’s a fish caught mainly in the Gulf of Rishon, located in southern Blaze.
It’s not a matter of taste or a matter of personal preference. We are talking about a fish that all Green Earthlings, tasting it for the first time, have claimed a need to move to southern Blaze. It’s naturally salty in flavor, and you can even taste a hint of butter even if it’s not cooked in it. It’s the typical meaty white you would expect from an Earth fish, but there’s something about it that doesn’t require deep-frying to give it that deep fried taste.
I guess it comes down to this. The commodities that Legacy has to offer to the people of Earth are not simply located in the mountains or miles underground. I would choose a lifetime supply of Clempin over a lifetime supply of silver or gold. As a matter of fact, I’ve traded exactly that for Clempin yesterday and I’ll trade it again tomorrow. The World Party is something I hope stays in effect for centuries to come even as we start sending more and more people here from Earth.