Marcus

#

Marcus was woken up by a pounding on his door accompanied by muffled shouting. He stirred on his bunk, trying to recall where he was, straining his foggy memory to find answers. The last thing he remembered was working on Hamasa's project far too late at night. Sleep still fought a battle to claim him, but the pounding continued. He reached over to bring up the time on his tablet.

0300 hours. Why was anyone waking him up now?

"Go away," he groaned and pulled the covers over his head.

But the banging continued and if anything grew in frequency. Marcus swore into the pillow and sat himself up. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" He shouted over the banging as he fumbled around trying to find a shirt and trousers. He pressed the panel beside the door to open it up and stood bleary-eyed at the entrance. In front of him, Hamasa was almost hopping. "There better be an excellent reason for this Hamasa."

"We've got the Forge's location. It's just come through a diffusion message."

"That's... good? But why have you woken me up to tell me?" He rubbed his eyes.

"Because you need to know! It's in the Phayao system, near to here. We've set a course and signalled other ships in the fleet. This is it." She bounded off down the corridor leaving a stunned Marcus stunned behind in her wake.

He shook his head. Did Hamasa ever sleep?

With that thought going around in his sleep deprived mind, he shut the door and headed back to his bunk. Sleep had been elluding him recently to the point of exaustion. He had been having a recurring dream, or more accurately, a nightmare about Sophia.

She had been running from Garrick--twice his usual size--along the corridors of the Mandrake. Marcus wasn't armed, but being blinded by panic, he had still been trying to chase Garrick down. His legs were like lead, making it impossible for him to get near her. At last, he had fought his way to Garrick and pulled him to the ground. Despite Garrick's size, Marcus had strangled him, only to see how distraught Okoro and Ramsey were at the sight of it.

Always the same dream. It wasn't difficult to work out why he was having nightmares--he worried that by throwing his lot in with Allison's insurgency he wouldn't make it home.

Everything would have to go off without a hitch for them to succeed and for the insurgency to become an independent group of worlds, self sufficient and protected. But the chances of that happening were remote, and the other thing worrying him was that this mattered less and less.

The more time he spent with these people, and after all his time being held captive by the Alliance, he knew Allison was right; things were bigger than just him and Sophia. He wanted to keep them safe, to do whatever he could to protect them, but maybe that meant he needed to accept he wouldn't see them again.

He tried to push those thoughts aside and pulled the duvet closer around him, drifting off to an uneasy sleep.

#

Chi-Young

#

Admiral Allison stormed onto the bridge. "Where is the Constitution?"

Chi-Young thought he looked flustered, which was saying something for Allison. "They're coming about." He pointed at the image on the viewscreen and stood to allow Allison to sit in his customary chair. "Garrick?" He asked the Admiral once he sat down.

"He's still on the ship. He killed Chernekov, Matthews and two others before escaping." Allison rubbed his eyes. "Security are trying to trace him, but we should do what we can from up here."

Damn. Chi-Young thought he had done well to avoid any deaths on the bridge, but Allison meeting him like that had always been a terrible idea. I told him that it was a mistake to rile Garrick up.

"What's the status of the marines on the ship?" Allison said.

"Contained, for now. They aren't near any critical systems, but they're putting up one hell of a fight. If we hadn't worked it out--"

"But we did. They can't do any damage, and the Constitution has no idea that we returned the favour months ago."

Chi-Young watched with trepidation as the ship drew nearer the Mandrake. "What do we do Ben?"

Allison pursed his lips. "We don't know how much Garrick told Martinez, do we?"

"No, sir."

"So he could know everything?"

Chi-Young didn't respond. His heart sank even lower than it had already been.

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Allison sighed and ran his hands over his face. "God, we're not ready for this," he whispered so quietly that only Chi-Young could hear. The Admiral waited another couple of moments before speaking. "Ensign Kassem, target the Constitution with all weapons."

"Sir!" Peters ran forward. "What--I--that's treason." He fumbled with his side arm but one of the security officers on the bridge got their first and restrained him.

Please, there can't be anymore bloodshed.

"Take him in to custody." Allison didn't even look at him. There was another shout from further back, but this too was silenced. Security took any dissenting officers out of the bridge and down to the brig.

Chi-Young knew this day was bound to come eventually, but it didn't make it any easier. An enormous weight of guilt threatened to crush him, but he had to do his duty. "Ensign Kassem, the Admiral gave you an order."

"Aye sir," she sounded weak, but she did as ordered.

Red lights began flashing around the bridge, as they would throughout the ship with the onset of a battle. With those few words, they were past the point of no return. This was it.

"The Constitution is hailing us, sir," Kosky said. "They want to know why we're powering weapons."

"Ignore them," Allison told him.

"Sir, they're sending a diffusion message," Kassem sounded panicked.

"Are there any other ships in the system?" Allison remained as calm as ever.

"No--no sir," Kassem said.

"Then we're fine. Target the Constitution's weapons. Fire when ready." Allison folded his arms and frowned at the screen.

Chi-Young didn't feel the weapons through the hull, but he could see the beams lancing out through the inky blackness of space to strike the Constitution. Pule after pulse struck the opposing ship. It lit up a transparent sphere around the ship, a cocoon of protection from their weapons.

"Weapons ineffective captain," Kassem said. "Their shields are still intact."

"Very well. Signal our operatives on the Constitution. Tell them their mission is a go."

Silence fell, leaving an anxious wait that stretched for an eternity.

"Sir, the Constitution's shields are down," Kassem said. "That's all the operatives managed, their weapons are--"

The Mandrake rocked with impacts from beams from the opposing ship, but their shields held.

"Fire again," Allison shouted.

More beams stretched out across the void, this time striking the unprotected ship. Great scars were carved on the surface of the Constitution as the beams targeted its weapons placements. Chi-Young tried to wipe a tear from his eye without Allison noticing.

"How much damage did we do?" Allison said.

"Estimated 40% of their placements are disabled. The remaining placements are more on the far side of the ship," Kassem said.

"Helm, keep us facing this side of the Constitution," Chi-Young said. "Continue firing, disable the ship."

The Mandrake and the Constitution begun a slow dance around the system with the latter trying to get an angle on the former with its working guns. All the while, the Mandrake's beams continued to cut at the Constitution's exposed flanks, trying to break through their armour to a critical point within.

"How long?" Allison asked.

"They'll be disabled in moments, sir," Kosky said.

And then what? Would we destroy the Constitution? Chi-Young didn't think they had a choice.

"Any more diffusion messages?" Chi-Young asked Kassem.

"No sir, but the Constitution is hailing again."

Allison gave a weary sigh. "What do you think?" He asked Chi-Young.

"We need to at least look them in the eye. We have to be better than the Alliance," Chi-Young's voice caught in his throat.

Allison nodded. "Put them on."

The Secretary General himself appeared on the screen. Chi-Young could see beads of sweat coming down his forehead, his usually styled hair now plastered to his face. "Admiral Allison," he cried. "What is the meaning of this assault?"

"I'm sorry Martinez, but we can't permit you to leave this system." Allison clasped his hands behind his back. "I understand you've been in touch with one of my crew?"

"He told us that either you or Chi-Young was a traitor, that you have been leaking information to insurgents about the forge."

"You're half right. We provided the others in our cause the location of the Forge, but there are more of us than just myself and the good Captain here. We are everywhere. The Mandrake is not the only ship that will mutiny."

"Why are you telling me this?" Martinez looked frantically around the Mandrake's bridge.

"Because, your shields are down, and you are alone in this system. Nothing will leave this system, I'm just offering you the dignity of addressing you before you die." Allison's voice was cold and matter-of-fact.

"We still have marines on your shi--"

"They're contained, and you seem to have had far more problems dealing with our own forces on your own ship."

"One more hit will finish them, sir." Kosky said.

"Wait!" Martinez shouted. "You can't--"

"You're not in any position to be making demands." Allison paused for a moment. "I have to think about what's best for the interests of the Independent Systems Coalition. The death of the Secretary General, and the resulting chaos in the Alliance, meets that test." he turned to face Kassem. "Destroy them."

Martinez screamed. Allison made a cutting motion at his neck to get Kosky to drop the connection. The screen switched to a view of the Constitution. They watched in silence as it was hit with one of the Mandrake's beams on full power. For a moment it was as if the image was frozen in time, the beam fixed on a point of the Constitution's hull. Seconds later, the rear of the ship ballooned out before rupturing and shattering the hull. Chi-Young had to turn away from the blinding light. When he looked back the carcass of the massive vessel drifted off billowing atmosphere and debris.

Chi-Young swallowed hard. This was the price of our freedom. We can't let this go to waste.

"Continue our journey to the Forge," Allison said.

"Admiral." Kaseem cleared her throat. "I'm picking up another ship in the system."

"What?" Allison swung around.

All the air went out of Chi-Young's lungs.

"Confirmed sir," Kosky said. "They were behind a moon on the far side of the system."

"Shit." Allison punched the console. "Can we reach them?"

"Not before they get out of the system. I'm sorry, sir."

So that's it then.

If the news escaped that the Mandrake had destroyed the Constitution, everything would be out in the open. They would then be in a race to get to the Forge before the Alliance did. Chi-Young tried to do the maths in his head for how fast a message would reach the Alliance fleet compared to when they would make it to the Forge, but it was too difficult. At least Hamasa had a head start.

"Get us out of here." Allison sat back down. "We can't do anything about that ship, but we can still do our jobs.

Chi-Young hoped that would be enough.