Renegades, page 38
The general mumbling quieted, but one loud voice cut through. “You’re going to get us all killed!” The crowd erupted then, and Jerrick raised both of his hands and waited for their silence.
Once quiet, Becca addressed them calmly. “If not Telraed, which system? Can anyone answer that question? Anyone? Any system? Come on, shout it out! Which system?”
The crowd was silent. People shifted back and forth on their feet, but none made a sound.
“Telraed, then,” she said. “We leave tonight for its system. It will take less than one day. We’ll be there by midday tomorrow.
“Tomorrow morning at 9:00, the food committee will meet in the rec center. We broke ground on the south field in tract 4A yesterday; we are planting wheat there, and tomorrow we will plant corn in all the fields of track 4B. We need more help there, so anyone with agricultural experience or anyone who wants to learn, please come to the meeting in the morning.
“This meeting is adjourned. We will communicate over the PA system until further notice.”
“What about the Ambassador?” a white-haired, elderly woman in the front row yelled. “We should vote!”
“He is locked up now, and I haven’t decided…”
“He should hang!” the old woman said. “Did you see all those poor girls?” She poked the man standing next to her as the crowd murmured agreement. “Did you see them?”
“Ander’s fate will be determined by a few things. I want to hear from all of you, but I want to clarify that it is ultimately my decision. He will remain locked up for now, until a more complete picture of our situation becomes clear to me. That is all, for now.” Becca stepped back from the podium, but Jerrick did not. He raised his arms again to get the attention of the masses.
“I want everyone to understand something very important,” he said. “No harm will come to Ander while our Commander decides his fate. None. Anyone who injures him will pay dearly. We will treat it like a mutiny, and the severe consequences of treason will apply. No one goes near the Ambassador.”
16
Ander could hear the bustling of the crowd as their meeting let out. Hundreds of murmuring voices blended together to make an undulating hum. What did they talk about? What is their plan? He believed there was a possibility the doors of the sheriff’s office could crash open, that they would drag him from his cell into the streets and beat him to death, or worse.
The murmuring voices continued for several minutes, but the ominous sound of approaching footsteps never came. His heart rate slowed as the voices quieted. Once the air was silent again, he sighed.
This is not the end of me. It cannot be the end of me. She thinks she’s clever; she thinks that meathead will protect her. I just have to be patient. I have to make a connection, maybe two. I need to seed this population, which hates me now, with fear. With doubt. Insecurity. A volatility that will birth a division. Once divided, I can make my move. I can spin the threads, and those two traitors will swing next to each other.
17
Jerrick sat at the control panel the following morning, waiting for Becca to return from her meeting with the food committee. He stared at the timer, counting the minutes before the envelope would drop as the Lance closed in on the coordinates Garrett had provided. Six minutes left.
He heard light footsteps ascending the staircase leading up to the bridge and smiled. Becca would be there when the fate of Telraed was revealed. She came through the door a moment later.
“How long?”
“Five minutes,” he said, and pointed at the timer.
Becca sat in the copilot’s seat and stared at the dark glass. “So, I guess we’re looking for a normal star, right?”
“A normal star is ideal,” he said. “A bloated star or a dwarf is a strong indicator that the planet is gone.”
She reached out and grasped Jerrick’s hand as the last few seconds clicked off the timer, and the envelope dropped.
The cabin filled with natural sunlight, but it shifted between white and pink light. The star was huge.
“Oh my God,” Becca said in English, a common expression in her childhood home, but Jerrick had no idea what the words meant.
“It’s dying,” Jerrick said.
“What about Telraed? Is it still there? It’s the… fifth planet,” she asked nervously.
Jerrick activated the scanning utility in the control center and scrolled through the results.
“The first two planets have been consumed. Both are still there, but beneath the corona. Telraed seems safe for the moment. I don’t know what condition it’s in, but it’s still there.”
Becca sighed deeply. “Okay, okay. The Lance will have to stay in a solar orbit. We’re going to have to take a shuttle to Telraed. I think it should just be the two of us first, just to see what we’re dealing with.”
Jerrick nodded. “I agree. Who are we going to leave in charge while we’re gone?”
Becca did not answer, and Jerrick discovered why when he heard a male voice behind him call her name.
“Becca?”
Jerrick turned to find Reggie standing in the doorway.
“What is it?” Becca asked.
“Is it there? Is Telraed still there?”
“It is,” she said.
Reggie sighed and nodded. “Good. Very good. I know you understand the predicament we’re in, Becca, but I still want to stress the importance of this fuel source. If we come up empty with Telraed, our chances of surviving get thin. Exponentially worse. Get it? Both of you get it?”
“Yes,” Becca said.
Jerrick nodded. “Yes, sir.”
18
Becca walked with Jerrick at her side down Washington Avenue, past the facade of the Sheriff’s office. They were walking toward the shuttle launch bay opposite the loading dock. Becca scanned the lawn around the building to make sure there was no one hanging around, getting ideas about interfering with her plans for Ander. There was not a soul.
They continued down the road and entered the shuttle bay only a few minutes later. Jerrick walked right up to the Phelan Ri, which Volo forgot to have reassigned when he was hastily named commander of Lance 10. He opened the door and lifted the yellow box into the back.
“Why this one? These others look newer,” Becca said.
“I’m already familiar with this one. It was Volo’s.”
Becca nodded, not wanting to pick at that wound. She knew he was close to Volo, and everything they knew about the fate of Lance 10 pointed to Volo already being dead.
“We have to wear flight suits. We don’t know what the conditions are going to be like on the surface,” Jerrick said, and led her over to a bank of lockers. “You’re comfortable leaving? With both of us leaving the Lance without placing someone in temporary control?”
“Yeah, I think putting someone else in charge might create more problems than it solves. Any issues that come up will still be here when we get back, and everyone is busy now with the tasks they were assigned. I’m not worried.”
Jerrick nodded and pulled on his gloves. When they were both dressed in the light gray suits, Becca began climbing up into the copilot’s seat, but Jerrick lifted her up the rest of the way. She blushed when his hands gripped her waist and lifted her whole weight easily, as though she weighed nothing at all. He locked her harness in place and then stepped over her into the pilot’s seat. She watched as he expertly and smoothly flipped switches and keyed information into the flight computer. The door of the Phelan Ri closed, and she felt the cabin pressurize. Adrenaline rushed through her that she did not expect, and a smile grew on her face that she did not think she could control. Jerrick noticed.
“Are you okay over there?”
“Yes, sorry. I just realized I’m about to be in open space. I’ve never been. I’m not sure if it’s exhilarating or really scary.” It was not exactly a lie. She failed to mention her growing attraction to him, but the things she said were true.
“It’s both,” Jerrick said, smiling. “But for me, it’s routine. I’ve been out thousands of times. You can relax. You are in good hands.”
Becca sighed and chose to take his words both at face value and in a more romantic way, whether he intended it or not.
The white lights in the bay blinked out and were replaced by flashing red ones and a loud alarm as the air was pumped out of the large room. After several minutes, the bay doors opened with the red lights still blinking, but the alarm had ceased. Jerrick eased the Phelan Ri out of the Lance.
Once en route to Telraed, Becca pulled the yellow box from the rear and held it on her lap. Jerrick glanced at her and nodded. It took some time for Garrett to answer, but he finally did, with his signature question.
“Becca?”
“Hi, Garrett. I just wanted to tell you we’re on our way to Telraed. Me and Jerrick. Its… its star is dying.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s an old system,” Garrett said, and sighed. “Hopefully, you can get the material you need, though.”
Jerrick had been reading through the reports generated by the shuttle’s instruments and leaned back in his seat. “Garrett? It’s Jerrick Yunis. It’s locked, it’s tidally locked. I’m just getting the report now. It’s not rotating,” he said, and continued to read through the most recent report he had on the planet. “Sorry, it is rotating, but slowly. A day on the surface would last 1,200 years.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Garrett said. “What does it look like? Does it still have its oceans? They were massive oceans.”
“I don’t think so. Its atmosphere is thin. We’re too far to see it visually yet.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Good luck, you two. I hope you can get what you need from it.”
“Okay, Garrett,” Becca said. “I just wanted to let you know that we were going down to the surface. I’ll call you again later to tell you what we found.”
“Thank you. Becca?”
“Yes?”
“Lauren is awake. I meant to tell you yesterday.”
“Oh my God! Are you kidding me?” She slipped into English again.
“No, and I want to thank you. I don’t think I would have tried without you. She doesn’t know who she is, and she doesn’t know who I am, but she recognizes me. She told me that she knows me. She just can’t put the details together. It’s going to be a long road.”
“I’m so happy, Garrett! I’m so happy for the both of you!”
“Godspeed, Becca. Godspeed, Jerrick. I look forward to hearing from you later,” Garrett said, and disconnected the call.
19
Fifteen minutes later, they could see Telraed for the first time through the glass. It was a light gray crescent, nothing like the bright blue pearl Garrett had described. Odd flashes of light blinked for an instant on the dark side, blindingly bright pink lights that pierced the darkness for a split second and were gone again.
“What are those lights?” Becca asked.
Jerrick shook his head.
The surface temperature read 497 degrees on the day side and 12 degrees below zero on the night side. As they approached and flew over the planet, Jerrick dropped their altitude and achieved a low, fast orbit.
“I want to go all the way around once before we land. I want to check it all out,” Jerrick said, and Becca nodded. They intended to land on the dark side, the survivable side, but had to get through the red hot, roasted light side first, twice. Both of the explorers glued their faces to the side windows so they could view the white, pink, and red landscape below. Thousands, or tens of thousands of gas jets blasted hot ash and liquid rock from the surface, appearing as silvery pins stuck in the ground and creating a haze that encased the entire planet. Razor-thin lines of black and red snaked their way across the surface, likely lava channels. Huge gray masses contrasted the reddish ground and seemed still from high above, but Jerrick pointed out that they were likely pyroclastic flows moving across the sloped landscape.
The intensity of the light diminished over the course of forty minutes, then rapidly transitioned from day to night. Jerrick moved away from the window, favoring the readouts from the Phelan Ri’s scanners. Becca continued to stare down into the darkness.
“I’ve never been on a planet before. Never stepped on solid ground,” she said.
“Neither have I.” Jerrick read the reports and data feeds with scrutiny, glancing occasionally out the window in failed attempts to view the dark ground.
Another forty minutes brought the perceived sunrise, and Jerrick relaxed in the pilot’s seat, abandoning his study of the planet’s terrain.
“It will be another hour before we can land. Do you want to have our uncomfortable talk?”
Becca rocked her head away from the window and fixed her eyes on Jerrick. “Yes. Whatever is bothering you needs to be seen through. I don’t care how uncomfortable it is.”
Jerrick nodded and breathed, staring out at nothing in front of him while he formulated his question. “What… what the hell is wrong with you?”
Becca let out a short laugh and shook her head. “What?”
“Ander is twice your age. He’s a rotten person, a horrible person, even; but you ran to him like he was a god. Like he was…”
“Interesting? He was interesting, and I had never met anyone like him before. He was a shiny new trinket I wanted to learn more about, and it was clear to me from the moment he saw me that he felt the same way. So, I pursued a highly volatile, highly interesting relationship with the madman.”
“So, you knew going into it?”
“I knew something was wrong with him, but I didn’t know what. I also didn’t know anyone yet; I had just arrived on Orris. He was a puzzle, and I like to solve puzzles. I would never say I had him wrapped around my finger, but I believed I had a pretty good grip on his collar until… until…”
“You found out what he had been up to behind your back.”
“Yes. I can’t say I had any romantic feelings for him; not real ones, anyway. It was more of an intrigue. But regardless of what it was, it all vanished when I found out what he did.”
“And what about me? Am I a puzzle?”
Becca knotted her hands on her lap and stared down at them. She breathed for a moment before answering. “I suppose I should be very careful with how I answer that question.”
“I suppose you should,” Jerrick said, never taking his eyes off of her.
“You are… unique, in a way that I can recognize but not understand. Not yet, anyway,” she said, meeting his gaze. “If you want to call that a puzzle, then you can. But make no mistake, I believe there are few, if any, similarities between you and Ander. You are a great man. He is loathsome. He didn’t deserve me, and I don’t des…”
“Don’t say it. Don’t say that. It’s not true. Don’t close doors, don’t limit anything.” Jerrick sighed. “We have too many years in front of us to be saddled with that kind of nonsense. There is no one and there is nothing you don’t deserve. Most of the people you meet are empty shells, but you are full of life, energy, optimism, ambition, and cunning. That’s why I wanted you to lead the people of Lance 5. I don’t know that there is anyone else who could.”
“I feel like we haven’t known each other long enough for you to categorize me that way.”
“I knew the day I met you. It was obvious after speaking to you.”
Becca chuckled. “You couldn’t have possibly known all that so quickly. We were only together for a few minutes.”
“Each word had meaning. Every inflection, every facial expression, your body language, your breathing, both while you spoke and when you listened, told a story. Does this sound familiar to you? It’s what you do when you want to figure people out, isn’t it? You’re not the only one who can read people, Bec. I don’t pay close attention to everyone I meet, but the moment I laid eyes on you, I was fully engaged. I saw there was much more to you than met the eye. A deepness, a greatness, maybe, or maybe… a danger. I had that thought many times after we separated. She’s dangerous.”
A subtle smile had formed on Becca’s lips. “Do you still think I’m dangerous?”
“I think all great men and women are dangerous. If they were not, there wouldn’t be much to them at all. So, yes.”
“I think you’re a great man, but I don’t think you’re dangerous.”
“Others would disagree, Becca. It’s relative to perspective. I don’t feel threatened by you now, and you don’t feel threatened by me, but others may. When I first met you, I wasn’t sure what to think.”
Becca nodded slowly and returned her gaze to her hands, still resting on her lap. “We have a long road in front of us, Jer. A lot of years. A lot of work,” she sighed deeply. “Hopefully.”
