Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two (17 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Will you actually shoot this time?

Sergeant
Bailee drove a punishing pace once they entered the maintenance tunnels and no
longer had to fear encountering any civilians. The Marine’s preferred method of
pushing Zax ever faster was jamming the blaster muzzle into his back with a few
sharp barks of “Move your ass!” sprinkled in for good measure. Zax was amazed
how quickly the man moved up and down ladders with his arm as damaged as it
was. He had to imagine the Marine was in excruciating pain, but the man’s
ChamWare allowed him to keep any outward expressions of it hidden. He drew
inspiration from the Marine’s fortitude and endeavored to match him stride for
invisible stride.

Zax used the time throughout their journey to focus on
getting ready for the challenge ahead. One task he knew would be critical was
keeping the blaster hidden from the civilians in Engineering Control once he
was back in their grasp. It seemed ironic to worry about hiding an invisible
weapon, but it wasn’t quite as simple as it might sound. Zax would certainly be
thoroughly frisked and, invisible or not, the weapon would be easily felt if it
was hidden anywhere on his person.

The best approach seemed to be keeping the weapon in his
grip at all times. If his hands appeared to be empty, then the civilians would
most likely believe they were. Zax had never known the Ship carried such small
weapons with the power of invisibility and believed the civilians wouldn’t
possess that knowledge either. He practiced holding the weapon while keeping
his hand in a relaxed, neutral position that would not give away what it was
actually doing.

The fidgeting with his blaster also served a completely
different purpose. It gave Zax an outlet for the nervous energy which built up
as they got closer and closer to their destination. His failure to shoot at the
two civilians when he should have done so weighed heavily on him. It was a
solid foundation of nerves upon which ever greater levels of fear were being
layered.

Zax fully understood now how his earlier worries about
career enhancement were ludicrous. He was marching to a certain death. If
either he or Bailee somehow managed to get a shot off and kill the Boss, their
success would certainly be met with immediate execution at the hands of enraged
civilians. If they failed, then they would suffer the same fate for having made
the attempt in the first place.

What kept Zax going was the knowledge that if they
succeeded it would give Kalare and the rest of the Crew a chance for a fresh
start. Once the Captain vented the Ship, it would be easy enough for the
Marines to mop up the remaining resistance. They would quickly thaw out some
previously Culled Crew and enough civilians to repopulate the vessel, and they
could proceed as if the whole nightmare had never happened.

If they failed, Zax was convinced things would end
poorly for the Crew under civilian control. Their leader had announced not much
would change as a result of their mutiny, but Zax had zero faith in those
words. His dealings with civilians during the day’s events had shown how
ruthless and cruel they were at their core. From the pile of corpses in
Engineering Control to the way Imair killed Nolly to cover her escape, it was
clear the insurgents would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Yes, lots of
Crew would die when the Ship was vented, but Zax felt they were better off than
they would be if the civilians were allowed to take command. Who knew how the
rebels might choose to pay back generations of perceived grudges once they had
the power to mercilessly do so. At least the Crew who perished as a result of
the venting were guaranteed a reasonably quick and relatively painless death.

They approached the Engineering section and Sergeant
Bailee called a halt.

“I still believe dropping into the main compartment is
our best bet, but I want to take a few mins to scout out the nearby area. Let’s
make sure the civilians haven’t done anything too tricky and are holding the
Boss elsewhere.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

At the first compartment they encountered they stopped
to listen at the access hatch and heard a maelstrom of voices. There must have
been a couple dozen civilians yammering away down below. It was impossible to
tell If the Boss was in there among them all without giving themselves away by
opening the hatch and taking a peek.

They moved to the second compartment and discovered the
same. And the third as well. At each successive hatch, they eavesdropped with
the final conclusion being that Engineering had been positively overrun with
insurgents in the hours since they had been there earlier. Sergeant Bailee had
predicted the civilians would do everything they could to maintain their grip
on the critical compartment, and it appeared he had been correct. Hundreds if
not thousands of civilians were amassed in an attempt to prevent the Crew from
regaining control.

Zax’s legs wobbled more and more the higher and higher
his silent tally of insurgents climbed. He knew it should make no difference
given that he and Sergeant Bailee would bypass them all by dropping directly
into Engineering Control, but there was still something about discovering all
of the hostiles nearby that made him woozy. An armed, angry mob of civilians
was prepared to wreak havoc on the Ship. Thank goodness the Captain would soon
dispatch many of them with the push of a few buttons.

They finally reached the hatch for Engineering Control,
and the Marine lifted his visor. His face was as red as it had been when Zax
last saw it, but now it was from the pain and exertion of their journey rather
than rage.

“I need a min, cadet.”

Any additional time to think about the fate which lay on
the other side of that hatch was the absolute last thing Zax needed, but he
nodded at the sergeant nonetheless. He placed his ear upon the hatch and, for
the first time since they had returned to Engineering, did not hear a cacophony
of voices down below. There was plenty of discussion, but the volume level
suggested the compartment held a similar number of occupants as when they last
visited.

Zax closed his eyes and focused on deep breathing. He
visualized dropping into compartment, spotting the Boss, and lifting his
blaster to fire all in one smooth motion. He would not only take the shot, but
he would also make the shot. Take the shot—make the shot—take the shot—make the
shot. The silent mantra combined with the breathing exercises dropped Zax’s
pulse just low enough that he no longer felt as if his heart would burst from
his chest. He never would have imagined spending the last moments of his life
crouched in a maintenance tunnel with a mostly invisible Marine, but he found
solace in the realization his impending sacrifice would have meaning.

He opened his eyes and saw the sergeant’s color had
returned to normal. A moment later the Marine turned to Zax and whispered.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Will you actually shoot this time?”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Damn straight you will. Here’s the plan. Open the
hatch. I’m guessing they might start firing wildly, so be sure to stay back for
a few secs. If they do shoot, eventually they’ll stop. As soon as you have the
chance, you should call out that you want to surrender. Jump down and be sure
to get out of the way immediately because I will need to follow right behind
before they have a chance to shut the hatch. If the Boss is in the compartment,
cough twice and then give me a count of ten to prepare before you take your
shot. I’ll be ready to shoot at the same time as you. If he’s not there, but
eventually arrives, then use the same signal and countdown. Is all that clear?”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Repeat it back to me.”

“Hold back to avoid any fire when I open the hatch. When
I get down, I need to move aside so you can follow behind me. When I see the
Boss, cough twice and then count to ten before shooting.”

“OK. Let’s do this.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Show
your hands!

A
cacophony
of blaster fire echoed below the instant the hatch was
cracked. Zax flung it open and held his body away from the opening to be sure
that no stray fire reached him. There were short gaps in the shooting, but
every time he went to open his mouth and speak someone would fire again and be
joined by a number of others. Finally, someone below screamed for the shooting
to halt and Zax hollered into the resulting silence.

“Please stop shooting. I want to surrender!”

“How many of you are up there?”

“Only me!”

“Show your hands! Slowly!”

Zax took one last deep breath of freedom and then slid
his hands into view. The mini blaster ensconced in his right hand was hidden in
plain sight thanks to its chameleon technology. There was no turning back.

“OK—drop down. You’ve got a half-dozen blasters pointed
at you, so don’t do anything stupid.”

Zax maneuvered his body so his legs dangled through the
hatch opening and then sprang down to the deck. He nailed the landing but made
a show of sprawling forwards in a tangle of arms and legs while cursing
theatrically. This not only allowed him to clear the space directly below the
hatch for Bailee to land but also provided a distraction to ensure no one
noticed the Marine’s arrival. An invisible hand squeezed his calf for a moment,
and Zax breathed a little easier with the knowledge he was not alone among the
civilians.

He slowly stood and raised his hands into the air while
glancing around the compartment. There were ten civilians present, but none of
the Crew from Engineering. The Flight Boss was not in sight and neither was the
small guy with the greasy black hair who had been in charge when the civilians
commandeered the compartment. Zax recognized the civilian who appeared to be in
charge now, but all of the others were new faces. A woman raced forwards with a
chair which she used to reach and close the overhead hatch. Zax heard it
automatically lock shut and knew his fate was sealed. He was going to die in
the compartment with the only uncertainty being whether he managed to save the
Ship in the process.

“Keep your hands up! Frisk him!”

The civilian who closed the hatch jumped down from the
chair and searched Zax’s body. He held his breath as she started at the cuffs
of his sleeves and tightly squeezed every centimeter of both arms. Next, she
tousled his hair as if there could be meaningful items hidden in his regulation
short cut. The civilian’s thorough search of his torso and lower body included
a groping of his testicles that made him blush. When she reached his boots, she
extracted the blade he had carried since taking it off the dead civilian
earlier in the day. She tossed it to the civilian in charge who looked closely
at the knife before he tucked it into his waistband.

Once the civilian completed her search, she backed away.
The only parts of his body she had left untouched were his “empty” hands. Zax
lowered them tentatively and no one stopped him. He breathed deeply to
celebrate accomplishing the first critical step of his mission—he had smuggled
both his own weapon and a fully-armed Marine into a heavily guarded stronghold
of the civilian rebellion. The civilian in charge approached and spoke.

“What were you doing up there?”

Zax calibrated his tone for what he hoped was the right
mix of emotions. He wanted to come across as being a young, scared kid without
overdoing it too much. The civilian likely recognized him from earlier and
probably was aware he had been on the loose for hours. If Zax tried to portray
himself as being too helpless and afraid, the civilian might smell a rat.

“I got separated from the group I was with and couldn’t
find them. I was trying to get somewhere safe but kept running into groups of
armed civilians. I finally decided to give up and hand myself over, but I
didn’t want to do it to some random group and risk them shooting me on sight.”

The civilian grinned. “What makes you think we won’t
just shoot you?”

Zax gulped—primarily for show, but with more than a
trace of concern. “Well...I was banking on the fact you didn’t do it earlier
when you first took over the compartment.”

“Who were you running around with before you lost them?”

A story very close to truth struck Zax as being the best
option. Any tales he might fabricate could easily bite him on the ass if Imair
showed up and contradicted them. “The Marine sergeant and two other cadets who
were here earlier. The sergeant is extremely injured, and we were trying to
find some pain meds when a huge group of civilians showed up and we got
separated. I tried to find them for a while but decided it was hopeless.”

The civilian pondered Zax’s story then spoke. “Let’s see
what Rege thinks. Get him in here.”

One of the civilians near the hatch opened it and walked
out. His steps echoed down the passageway until they were replaced with the babble
of voices emanating from another compartment. Zax looked around as he waited. A
giant pool of blood remained where the Crew bodies had been stacked earlier,
but the corpses themselves were gone. The boxes Zax assumed contained
explosives were still arrayed around the room, though they had been joined by a
pile of similar ones which were stacked next to a closed hatch.

Two sets of footsteps eventually approached the open
hatch and Zax looked back in that direction. He fought to maintain a neutral
expression as Rege walked in—the man with the greasy hair who had done all of
the speaking when the civilians took over the compartment. He carried a device
in one hand which he lifted up as he smirked at Zax.

“I’m pleased to see you again, cadet. I’m dying to chat
about what transpired after you left us earlier. First, though, I need to make
sure you’re really alone. Blasters ready everyone.”