Dominion (11 page)

Seventeen

When Hawke hadn’t
shown up at the newly formed “Hidden Earth Committee” meeting as planned, an undergrad named Harvest Reaper had sought him out.  Harvest Reaper reported back to committee at dinner that Hawke had for all intents and purposes just wed his fiancée and had other things on his mind.  While it was a major inconvenience for the committee and had transpired at the worst time possible, such events were still held in high regard and respected by all.  Sky Listener simply sent notice to the newlyweds requesting (demanding) their presence at the canopy entrance the next morning so they could be brought up to speed and things could continue to proceed as planned.

Morning had dawned much earlier than
either expected.  Hawke and Kashuba had skipped lunch and dinner the previous day and were now being greeted by the morning sun famished and dehydrated.  To the credit of Night Rain, such a morning had apparently been expected, so they awoke to a congratulatory basket of fresh rolls, butter, water, fruit, and dried meats.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for a day in
side a dreary cold starship,” Kashuba whined, seated on the fur carpet in front of the decorative basket, “I’m tired, sore, hungry, and ready for another day uninterrupted.”

Hawke
groaned his agreement and seated himself on the carpet beside her, kissing her on the cheek.  He took the carafe of iced water and poured it into both of the gift mugs.

“I’
m not going to ask how this basket got here,” he said, “But I’m glad it did.  I’m starved and I blame it all on you.”

“Me?” she laughed, grabbing
what resembled a purple apple from the basket, “I believe I was the one who said we should go to the diner at sunset.  As I recall, you replied with a kiss in a very sensitive spot.”

“So, you think I shouldn’t have kissed you?” he asked, taking a long drink from his mug.

“I’m saying it was very hazardous to my health,” she replied, “A woman could starve to death from kisses like those.”

She took a bite of her fruit, eying him with her usual flirtations.  He suddenly wished for another day free from responsibility.  She was making that particular fruit look appealing, so he grabbed a similar one from the basket.

“Unfortunately, I think the little card requesting our presence at the tunnel wasn’t actually a request,” he said, “I propose that we get this day over with as quickly as possible and return to our honeymoon.”

“Honeymoon?” she asked.

“Where I come from, it’s what we call the private time that follows the ‘consummation’ and it usually lasts more than a single day.”

“Ah, yes, a time we call ‘the familiarity.’  I do wish that you weren’t so important to them, but I also understand,” she said.

. . . .

Hawke and Kashuba arrived at the canopy to discover that more than half the committee had already descended.  Sky Listener was also already on his way down toward the ship, leaving Night Rain
and a small group of mechanics, engineers, and medical personnel waiting topside.  Night Rain hurriedly introduced them, making no effort to hide his impatience.  He then led the way into the tunnel. 

Even though the descent should have been easier now
, Hawke quickly discovered that his legs still ached from the previous day.  He did his best to ignore the pain, but after nearly a half-mile, his calves were knotting up.  He found himself moving with a prominent limp by the time the earthquake hit.

The whole tunnel trembled
, causing Hawke to stumble and inadvertently tow Kashuba down to the floor with him.  All eyes were on the ceiling, somehow expecting the icy roof to come crashing down.  The world shook again, this time causing chunks of ice to fall from above.

“Get out of here!” someone called from below.

All at once, people were making a mad rush for the surface.  Hawke grabbed hold of Kashuba’s hand and nearly dragged her behind him as he joined in the rush to the surface.  Night Rain was already a dozen paces ahead of them, shouting in fright as the tunnel shuddered again.

Suddenly, the world around them reversed
and the rush to flee upward became instead, a rush to the steel shelter down below.  People were suddenly plowing violently through them, running downward toward the ship beneath them.  Screams were coming from above as people shouted of Shomani attacks.

“What’s going on?” Hawke hollered to a man who nearly knocked him down.

“They’ve sunken all our vessels!  There’s a whole Shomani armada out there and they’re destroying everything!  Everything!”

A woman running with a baby in her arms
cried that it was raining fire up above and that everyone was dead.  It made no sense to Hawke that these people were running downward into a dark metal coffin even if a war was suddenly taking place.  That was the moment he saw the landslide of ice headed their way.  He turned and wrapped Kashuba in his arms, aware of the fact that he was about to be hit with a painful blast of ice.

To his surprise, only his feet
were knocked out from beneath him as a powerful force landed him against an angled wall of shattered ice.  Kashuba remained in his arms, also knocked off balance by the destructive force.  The woman with the baby was far enough down that nothing significant had hit her.  She kept running with no regard for the two of them.

“What happened?” Kashuba
huffed, rising up and turning toward the missing tunnel.

Hawke rolled over
onto the mound of icy shards to discover the same thing Kashuba was looking at.  The tunnel was gone and nothing remained of those who had been ahead of them in their escape.  The last Hawke had seen of Night Rain, he had been several paces ahead of them, coaxing others to turn and head upward.

“No,” Hawke muttered, “No, this isn’t how it goes.”

He grabbed onto the edge of a healthy-size ice chunk and worked it free from the mound.  He tossed it behind him, then dug his hands into the hole he had created.  He started raking furiously at the wall of ice, achieving nothing in his moment of rage.

“We’re trapped,” Kashuba hollered at Hawke,
taking a hold of his shoulders, “Stop it, Hawke.  We’re trapped.”

“No, this isn’t the way it goes,” he pulled a chunk of ice free, “People were counting on me.  You were counting on me.  This isn’t how it ends!”

“Hawke!” she hollered again, shaking him, “It’s not a
‘were’
Hawke!  It’s not a ‘were’.”

He clawed at the wall again, this time cutting the tip of his thumb on a sharp piece of ice.  He stuck his thumb in his mouth, realizing suddenly how cold his hands were.  He closed his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s not a
what
?” he asked.

“It’s not a ‘were’.  You said that people
were
counting on you.  You said the same of me.  It’s not ‘were’.  People
are
counting on you.  I’m counting on you,” she said, pointing down toward the bottom of the tunnel, “Present tense.”

He followed her finger, unable to see the woman who had been fleeing earlier with her child.  He took the thumb from his mouth, no longer able to taste any blood.
  Then he looked at Kashuba.

The Shomani
weren’t a race of people who gave up.  He saw it when the Savior was initially attacked at sea.  Then he saw it when they attacked it again in the middle of the night and nearly destroyed the ship.  Why did he think they would give up even after the Savior won two battles and limped back into port?  They wanted vengeance for the theft of the Pioneer and the abduction of Hawke and Kashuba.  He was the sole reason that hundreds or even thousands of Cheronook have just been slaughtered.  He was the reason that the Frozen North had just been annihilated.  He was the reason that their world no longer existed.

But it did exist
, just not on the surface.  The best minds of the Frozen North were seeking shelter down below in the refuge of an ancient starship.  Hawke was still alive as were any others in the tunnel below.  They had a lot of potential and they also had a ship with a reactor that appeared to be operational.  Perhaps all hope wasn’t actually lost.

“We need to bring the ship online,” he said, “Will you help me, Kashuba?”

“Wherever you go, I’ll go,” she replied, offering her hand.

Eighteen

The lighting in the tunnel was still operational all the way down to the ship.  Intermittent tremors still threatened to collapse the rest of the tunnel, but it held up during the several minutes it took for Hawke and Kashuba to reach the ship’s entrance.

A man with a rifle met them at the end of the tunnel, apparently guarding against a Shomani invasion.

“We’re the last,” Hawke informed him, “Anyone who was further up
toward the surface was crushed.”

“The governor?”

“Yes,” he replied sadly, “He wasn’t very far ahead of us.”

“They’ve won.  The Shomani have destroyed the Frozen North,
” he spoke, lowering his weapon, “And they’ve killed our leadership.”

“No,
you see, there are survivors inside this ship and I don’t believe they’re going to be willing to give up just yet,” Hawke said, gesturing toward the concert of echoing shouts and cries coming from the ship.

“They’re in a tomb beneath a mile of ice,” he replied, “It
’s not going to take them long to realize this.”

“They are waiting inside a ship that was intentionally shut down
a long time ago.  It’s not a broken ship, my friend.  It’s a ship that was merely turned off,” Hawke replied, “Let’s get inside and let the others know.  And please, try your best not to appear so afraid.”

The man looked up from the ground and locked eyes with Hawke.  He lifted his rifle and
nodded to him.  Then he turned and led the way across the newly reinforced bridge.  Hawke and Kashuba followed, dropping into the gymnasium. 

The scene before them was
filled with faces that were completely aware of just how disturbingly grim their situation was.  A father knelt near his two toddlers, consoling their cries with vague promises.  A cluster of three women nearby was inventorying a crate of food that was probably intended as merely a single picnic lunch for the entire group.  One of the women in that group glanced around the room with a grave expression on her face.  She knew the amount of food wouldn’t suffice.  Two men had taken to the bleachers, apparently settling in for their inevitable deaths.  The rest of the people were conversing quietly, their voices echoing off the walls.

Sky Listener caught sight of them and grabbed one of the people in his huddle and rushed over to them.

“Hawke, you made it,” he spoke with evident relief, “I heard the tunnel is collapsed.  Would a ship like this offer any digging utensils or machinery that we could use?”

“I have no idea.  This ship
came about long after my generation,” Hawke replied, putting an arm around Kashuba, “Since the ship appears to have been intentionally shut down and abandoned, I can only assume that it was intended to come here on a one-way trip to deliver a colony.  I would imagine that if this were the case, they would have taken every tool that they could get their hands on, especially if they were starting from scratch on a new world.”

“
Uh, I think Sky Listener was looking for more of an
‘I don’t know.  How about we go check the ship and see what we can find’
,” the man at Sky Listener’s side said with a smirk.

“No, I wanted the truth,” h
e replied, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder, “Hawke, this is our best engineer, Fire Dragon.  If anyone could be considered a scientist and engineer of the mystical elements, this would be the man.  Fire Dragon, this is Hawke – a pilot and engineer who knows all about how this ship flies.”

Fire Dragon reached out and shook Hawke’s
hand. 

“I look forward to… I mean, I
looked
forward to learning what you know about getting a ship this size into space,” he said, “I was hoping to be one of the first Cheronook to be called a star sailor.”

“No,” Hawke said, waving his hand in irritation
, “No, you guys all need to stop this if we’re going to survive.”

Hawke moved past Sky Listener and walked toward the center of the gymnasium, clapping his hands loudly.  Everyone’s attention was
instantly turned to him as he moved to a spot where he could face all of them.

“Can I have your attention plea
se?  Some of you may know me and some perhaps have heard of me.  My name is Meriwether Hawke and I hail from the same planet that made this ship you’re currently standing in.  If I were to guess, I’d say this ship was created only a century or two after I left my home world.  That’s to say, it doesn’t seem too far advanced from the technologies I knew.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that some of you appear to have given up.  You are acting like it’s over and we might as well settle in and die.

“I looked at the engineering systems yesterday and while I may be wrong, I believe those systems were shut down intentionally to keep them from damage and to keep them from wasting what remained of the fuel.  I may also be wrong in my belief that those
same systems can be brought back online.  I don’t know any of this for a fact, but I’m willing to give it a shot.  I’m willing to at least search for a way to turn on the power inside this ship and to get the life support system going again.

“I’m willing
to go all the way actually if we discover that we can get the engines operating.  Granted, we are beneath a lot of ice, but I also know what a gravitational-reflex field can do to its environment.  I am willing to try all of this because I’m not willing to die like the Shomani intended.  My efforts may prove useless, but at least I would die knowing I gave it my best shot.  I was wondering if I could get some help though.  I don’t believe I can do it alone.”

Kashuba approached him and put her arm around his waist.  Sky Listener clapped his hands, also joining him in the center of the gym.  Several others started clapping before eventually the whole room erupted in applause. 

Fire Dragon leaned in close to Hawke and said “I’d like to get started on it right away if you can show me the way to engineering.  I still intend to be a star sailor.”

Hawke smiled and nodded, putting an arm around him.