Ep.#9 - "Resistance" (14 page)

“Okay, I get your point,” the lieutenant commander said. “But if it isn’t completed, why move us in here?”

“I can pump the air in the other compartments on your deck into the holding tanks for the bridge.”

“You want to depressurize the rest of the command deck?”

“Yes, sir. The bridge has an airlock. It has two of them, actually: one leading topside via a rescue tunnel and another leading into the main corridor. You pass through it whenever you come and go.”

“I didn’t even realize that was an airlock,” the lieutenant commander admitted, looking toward the port exit. “I still don’t see what moving us to the bridge accomplishes. You said the leak was in a transfer line, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then why depressurize the rest of the command deck?”

“Because if I keep the main transfer line pressurized, it will eventually deplete the aft resources as well. We don’t have the production capacity to continually feed both sections, not if we continue bleeding oxygen into the outer hull spaces.”

“So moving us to the bridge isn’t really fixing the problem as much as it is isolating it.”

“Yes, sir… in the hopes of preventing it from becoming worse while we find a solution.”

“Very well, Ensign,” the lieutenant commander said with a sigh. “Keep on it. We’ll start moving immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

The lieutenant commander looked at the others. “Well, you heard the lady. Go round up everything we have and bring it here: food, water, blankets, pillows, medical kits… anything and everything.”

“Where are we going to put it all?” Luis said.

Lieutenant Commander Kovacic scratched at his cheek through his beard. “Well, we can haul some mattresses into the ready room and turn it into a dorm. It’s small, so it will be easier to keep warm.”

“There’s not enough room in there for all eight of us,” Ensign Souza said.

“We’ll hot rack,” the lieutenant commander said. “Four and four on twelve-hour rotations. We can use the bridge break room as our galley. And we have a functioning head.”

“What about the supplies?” Ensign Schenker asked. “Where do we store all that stuff?”

“Anywhere and everywhere,” the lieutenant commander said. “We’re only using two consoles now. There’s plenty of room in here for everything. So let’s get to it. The sooner we get moved in, the less oxygen we waste.”

* * *

The old cargo elevator came to a stop on the third floor. Jessica waited as the leader of the resistance team, the one they called Mack, raised the heavy, wire cage door. On the other side was a long corridor with an odd collection of furniture, scenery flats, and folding platforms piled along one wall. There were cobwebs strewn from the high windows along the corridor, and everything was covered with dust.

“What is this place?” Jessica asked as they continued down the hallway.

“It’s the old theater complex,” Synda said. “The university built a new one a few years ago. They were planning to tear this one down before the invasion. I guess their plans got delayed a bit.”

“A little risky bringing us to your hideout, isn’t it?” Jessica taunted.

“This isn’t our main base. It’s just a rally point we use on occasion. We’ve got lots of places like this,” Mack bragged. “Once we’re done with you, we’ll never come back here again.”

“Clever,” she said, rolling her eyes.

They turned the corner at the end of the hall and entered a large, black room with high ceilings, catwalks near the ceiling on three sides, and a glass window up high along the fourth.

“Why do I feel like I’m in a video studio?” Jessica said.

“They called this the Studio Theater,” Synda told her. “I went to a one-act play in here once. It was terrible.”

“Artie, take watch,” Mack ordered. Artie disappeared through a door in the far corner. “Now, about you two,” Mack said as he stood and faced them in the middle of the empty, black room.

“What about us?” Jessica asked. She was getting tired of dealing with Mack and was beginning to think she had made a mistake coming to his aid.

“Who are you, and more importantly, how do
you
know
him
?” Mack asked pointing first to Synda and then to Tony.

“I’m telling you, Mack, I don’t know either of them,” Tony insisted.

“Tony, it’s me, Synda.”

Tony looked at her oddly. “What?” He leaned forward to get a better look at Synda as she removed her cap letting her hair hang freely.

“Easy!” Mack warned, raising his weapon in response to Synda’s sudden movements.

“Holy shit. I thought you were dead,” Tony exclaimed.

“I could say the same about you,” Synda said.

Tony looked down at her jacket. “What happened to…”

“Duct tape. Her idea,” she said, pointing at Jessica, “to keep the pervs away.”

Tony nodded.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Jessica said.

“So you do know them,” Mack said, even more suspicious than before.

“I know her, yeah,” Tony said, “from the gym. We used to spar together.”

“With her,” Mack laughed. “Did she slap you around much?”

“You’d be surprised,” Tony told him. “I
don’t
know her, though,” he added, pointing at Jessica.

“Therein lies the problem, doesn’t it?” Mack said. “None of us know who
you
are,” he said to Jessica. He turned to face Synda. “How do
you
know her?”

“I caught her trying to sleep in my place outside of town. She hired me to take her into the city, act as her guide. She said she was trying to find someone.”

“Really?” Mack said, turning back to look at Jessica. “Now that
is
interesting. And who exactly is it you’re trying to find?”

“No one you’d know,” Jessica answered.

“Don’t be so sure. I know a lot of people in this city. Try me.”

“No thanks.”

“I said, ‘try me,’” Mack repeated, raising his weapon.

Jessica sighed. “If you must know, I was trying to make contact with the resistance. I thought it was you. Now I know I’m mistaken. My apologies.”

“What makes you think we aren’t the resistance?” Mack said.

Jessica looked him squarely in the eyes. “Because
you’re
too stupid.” She smiled at him, taunting him further.

“Wow,” Mack said, taking a step back. “
You’re
insulting the guy with the gun, and
I’m
the one who’s stupid.”

“Now you’re catching on,” she added.

Synda looked at Jessica like she was crazy.

“Well, it looks like you’re the one who’s stupid, lady, because we
are
the resistance,” he announced, his hands held out at his sides.

Jessica snickered. “I don’t think so.”

“He used to be spec-ops,” Tony said.

Jessica laughed again. “Doubtful.”

Mack was becoming more agitated with every word that came out of Jessica’s mouth. “And why would you doubt that?”

“You don’t have the moves,” Jessica told him. “And of course, there’s that stupid thing I mentioned earlier.”

“I’m getting really tired of your smart mouth, bitch,” Mack said as he pointed his automatic weapon at her face.

“Mack, come on!” Tony pleaded. “Let’s just ditch her and…”

Mack swung his head toward Tony. “Shut up!”

That was all she needed.

Jessica’s right hand shot out and up, her palm turning outward as she grabbed his gun hand and pulled it down. At the same time, her left hand shot up, her left palm flat as she jammed it into his elbow. The opposing forces popped his elbow joint from its socket, dislocating his forearm and causing him to release his grip on his weapon.

Mack screamed out in pain as Jessica ripped the gun from his hand. Without missing a step, she balled up her left hand, drew it back toward her, and fired a quick jab at his nose, knocking him backward.

Jessica spun around with her newly acquired weapon to take aim at the other two men, but when she saw they were already taking aim at her and Synda, she stopped, turned her weapon toward the ceiling, and held her free hand open. “Don’t shoot! I’m done!”

“Drop it!” Tony demanded, his weapon held high and ready.

“Not this time,” Jessica told him as she slung the weapon over her shoulder.

“YOU BITCH!” Mack screamed. “YOU BROKE MY FUCKING ARM!”

“Stop whining, you crybaby,” Jessica said. “It’s only dislocated. Be a man and pop it back into place.” She turned back toward the other two men who were still nervously pointing their weapons at her. “Look, I came looking to make contact with the resistance. You four obviously aren’t who I’m looking for, so we’ll be on our merry way.”

“How the fuck were you able to do that?” Tony asked, looking at their leader lying in the fetal position on the floor as he cried in pain.

“Because unlike your fearless leader there, I
am
spec-ops,” she finally admitted. She turned toward the door to leave, then stopped and turned back. “I’ve got to warn you. If you continue following this moron, not only will you be stupid, but you’ll also be dead.” Jessica turned to Synda. “Are you still on the clock?”

Synda moved to follow Jessica toward the exit.

“Wait!” Tony called out after her, lowering his weapon.

Jessica turned back around to face them.

“He said he was spec-ops,” Tony said. “He knew all kinds of shit, had all kinds of guns. He said if we formed a cell and harassed the Jung, sooner or later, the resistance would contact us.”

“And how long have you been doing this?” Jessica asked.

“A few weeks,” Tony told her, “ever since word got out that the Aurora had returned.” Tony looked at her. “We were just trying to do the right thing, to fight them.”

“By blowing up civilians?” Jessica wondered.

“Mack said it was necessary, that we needed to make it look like it was the Jung’s fault innocent people were dying in order to get more people to join the fight.”

Jessica shook her head, barely able to contain her anger. She looked at Tony. “Mind if I hit him a couple more times?” she asked, her fists clenched.

“Synda,” Tony pleaded.

“I believe him,” Synda told Jessica. “I know him. He’s okay.” Synda looked at Tony. “Stupid, but okay.”

“Lady, we don’t know what we’re doing here. That much is obvious. We just lost two thirds of our group out there.”

“Well, that would be because of Mister Spec-Ops’s totally random, nine-day attack schedule, wouldn’t it?” Jessica said in disgust.

“Just tell us what we should do?”

“I think I’ve wasted enough of my time on you amateurs today,” she said, turning toward the door again. “You’re on your own.”

“Wait!” Tony called after her. “You said you wanted to contact the resistance, didn’t you?”

“So what.”

“Maybe we can help you.”

Jessica stopped and turned back around. “How?” she asked, her expression doubtful.

“I know the right message boards,” Tony explained, “where to post, what threads to watch. That’s how we’ve been trying to make contact with the resistance.”

“You think it’s as easy as posting in a net forum?” Jessica asked in amazement. “You need code words, code phrases, encryption algorithms…”

“That’s what we figured,” Tony said. “Maybe you have them?”

“I don’t, actually,” Jessica admitted.

“But, if you’re spec-ops…”

“I’ve been off-world for a while,” Jessica mumbled. She looked at the three of them, Tony, his friend, and their leader lying on the floor. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just know I’m going to regret this,” she said as she moved back toward Mack lying on the floor. “You go find some ice somewhere,” Jessica instructed Tony’s friend, “or some chemical cold packs. Tony, you hold tough-guy down while I pop his elbow back into place.”

* * *

Loki gazed out at the valley below from his perch at the edge of the cave opening high on the canyon wall. They had been waiting in the cave for several hours now in the hope that Garrett, or friends of Garrett, would show up wanting to use the cave as a surveillance point.

“I miss the sunlight at times,” Loki said as he checked to see if his pants were still wet.

“Yes.” Major Waddell looked up at the sky. “The sun is not as intense on my world. Nor is the sky so bright.”

“On Haven, it was more amber than blue. Most of the light was reflected off the main planet.”

“I have read about it,” the major said. “Are your pants dry?”

“Almost.”

“How long did it take for the local resistance to make their appearance the last time you were here?”

“Not sure,” Loki admitted. “An hour or two maybe. They said they frequently used this cave as a vantage point to observe the valley below.”

“Of course, at the time, there was something of interest for them to observe.”

Loki looked at the major, confused.

“The diversionary crash site that your friend created.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right. Now that I think about it, they didn’t say if they came here routinely.”

“It is of no matter,” the major told him. “We can wait as long as is necessary. We have plenty of meal bars and an abundance of fresh water,” he added, pointing to the massive falls in the distance to their right.

“I thought we only had seventy-two hours.”

“We have seventy-two hours in which to make contact with the Aurora. The time available for us to complete our mission is unlimited as far as we know—as long as we continue to update the Aurora. If they wish to pull us out, they will say as much.”

“Can you make contact from here?” Loki wondered.

“We have a clear line of sight to the comm-coordinates from this position,” Major Waddell assured him. “We have already missed the first scheduled contact window. We were still on the move at the time. I intend to use the next one.” He looked at his watch. “In two hours.”

Loki continued staring at the valley below. He could see clusters of buildings here and there, usually in naturally occurring open spaces in the forest or at points where the rivers widened or turned sharply. Some of them appeared rustic, while others appeared far more advanced. In the distance, there was a larger town where two rivers merged. He could also see the site where Josh had fired their drones and missiles in order to create a diversion. He wondered if Josh had even considered the fact that he had been firing weapons into a populated area, although he doubted that Josh was aware of the population in the valley at the time.

“Seems like a really nice place to live down there,” Loki said.

“Yes, it does,” the major agreed. “Very peaceful. I just wonder what their lives are like under Jung rule.”

“All I ever knew was life under Ta’Akar rule,” Loki said. “When the Ta’Akar withdrew from our system, things became worse: more crime, more corruption, less work. Our family was doing well when I went into flight school. By the time I graduated, we were dirt poor and unable to pay my loans.”