Surviving The Theseus (5 page)

Regina’s father lost his job as a SPARS
officer trying to hunt the man down, never finding him. He made
money as a bounty hunter, making quick jobs of catching wanted
criminals before returning to his main search for his wife’s
killer.

Her father always made it home, every night,
and since her mother’s death, he taught her to defend herself first
and then how to fight back, including hand-to-hand combat, and then
weapons, mostly gun training.

He prepared her for the reality of the world
she had been brought into. “Don’t think, Regina,” her father told
her. “Just react and all your natural instincts will make the right
decision for you.” Since that time, her father reinforced this
ideal in her mind by surprising her when she least expected it. At
first, some of her dad’s surprises scared her so badly, they made
her cry, but it didn’t take long to curb her fear and react with
instinct, putting her emotions on hold. Many a time, her father
jumped out from behind a door or grabbed her leg from under a bed,
and after initial times of screaming, she eventually learned to
defend herself, even knocking her dad back or throwing him to the
floor when she got older and stronger.

Before her mother’s murder, she had a normal
life, playing with her friends and family, starting school, not a
care in the world. And then, her world changed. She continued
school and continued a pretend life that no longer existed for her,
and in secret, a secret only she and her father ever knew, she
began training that shaped the path for the rest of her life.
Regina didn’t know it at the time, but she knew it now.

SNAP!

Regina’s head, bowed down in thought, came up
as soon as she heard a branch, behind her, break. Footsteps. Maybe
two pair.

Five diamond-shaped ships came through the
dark, black opening, four surrounding the runner just like when
they entered the gate. As soon as they came through, stars became
visible inside the gate.

In the near distance, precinct ship, Lancer,
a square vessel with rounded corners, moved slowly towards the
SPARS ships. Each side of Lancer was 300 meters long and eight
stories high. It was a large, black mass of floating metal.

Four small panels slid up on the bottom
section of Lancer, on the section facing the SPARS ships. Four
landing platforms slid out and away from the vessel, each with a
SPARS ship on it. Once the platforms fully extended, each ship took
off from the platform and flew towards the others, the platform
retracting as soon as they took off.

The runner desperately tried to free itself
as Michael, George, Mary, and Paula kept it locked between them
with the magnetic tow, steering it towards the large vessel.

The other ships from Lancer surrounded the
five.

“They’re not going to take over, are they?”
Paula asked John.

“No, no. Just an escort, an extra precaution
in case the runner breaks free. Don’t worry. We’ll get to escort
the runner into Lancer.”

Paula smiled, a small twitch when she did.
She kept her head straight and tried, from the corner of her eyes,
to see if John looked at her. It relieved her that he didn’t, that
he never felt the need to watch over her shoulder. That would be
too nerve wracking and had caused her to mess up in the past with
other leaders and instructors. So much time in a simulator but she
still did not have the confidence she hoped she would have had by
now.

*****

In Mary and Brett’s ship, Mary stared forward
as she piloted the ship. Brett had nothing to do but wait and let
his anger fester. He turned and stared at Mary with searing eyes.
He couldn’t help but think hateful things. Things like what a wench
she was, and how if he had been partnered with anyone else, they
would not have taken control away from him. Only a controlling
bitch would do such a thing and that’s just what she was.

Mary, not turning to look at him, said, “Quit
sulking, Brett. You’ll never get anywhere in this outfit if you
can’t take orders. Deal with it or I’ll find a replacement for you
and knock you down to cleaning toilets with a toothbrush.”

Brett turned away, closed his eyes, and
gritted his teeth, wondering if he said any of that out loud, but
he was pretty sure he hadn’t. He tried to calm himself down, as he
had no doubt Mary could knock him down in rank and place him
wherever she felt.

He had heard stories about a young officer
telling her to “fuck off,” and Mary got his rank reduced from a 7
to a 10. The kid ended up bagging piss and shit on a frozen
wasteland of a planet, used for training, until he abandoned his
position after only a week of doing it. Authorities found him in a
bar on another planet and sent him to a military prison for three
years.

Brett took a deep breath and kept his eyes
forward.

*****

Travis smiled at George as he spoke with him.
George stared forward, concentrating on keeping the runner in
formation, not smiling, but that didn’t stop Travis from trying to
get one out of him.

“Come on. You’re like a hundred years old.
You must have been with two women at one point or another?” Nope,
no smile. Nada. Zip. Zero.

“Do you ever wonder why you’re still a rank
of 4?” George asked.

“Nah, that don’t bother me. Seriously man, I
know you’re married and all, but two women, come on?”

“It ain’t gonna happen. One, I love my wife
and would never even think of it, and two, I’m not the picture of
youth.”

“You don’t have to be young. I know a place
you can go, and it’s not even that expensive.” Travis beamed.

George turned and gave him a weak smile,
which Travis gladly accepted as victory.

“The day I pay for sex,” George said, “is the
day you don’t.”

“Oooh, good one. I’ll have you know I lived
with a chick for two years. But kudos, sir. Well played.”

George turned forward again, but Travis
didn’t miss the corners of George’s mouth lifting higher into one
of the biggest smiles he had seen the man ever make.

“Yeah,” George said, “but did you stop paying
for it with other women?”

He shoots, he scores. “Sure.”

“Yeah, right.”

*****

Michael and Cindy flew in silence. Cindy,
only twenty-two, thought of how she could work her way up the ranks
as quickly as possible, like Michael did. But she knew she could
not make his rank in only six years time. He started earlier than
she had. She admired him and knew that she could learn a lot just
watching him.

He showed no signs of stress, so relaxed as
he throttled up and down with ease, subtle movements on the yoke,
countering every effort the runner made to break free. Effortless.
He looked lost in thought to her.

She wondered if he ever had any fun outside
work, knowing he had not taken a vacation day in the year she had
known him and was pretty sure he never did. So dedicated and
disciplined. She had so much work to do to catch up.

As they neared Lancer, a large door, three
stories high and wide, opened up just above where the SPARS ships
came off the platforms.

The runner attempted a hard stop again.
Nobody screwed up this time. At least not that Cindy could tell by
the three-dimensional radar image before her of all the ships in
the vicinity, including Lancer. The runner was going nowhere but
inside Lancer.

Inside Lancer’s docking bay, a large open
area revealed itself, with a glass ceiling, a glass floor, and four
glass walls. Below the glass floor, another level, with over twenty
SPARS ships parked on individual platforms.

Above the glass ceiling, over twenty people
stood and watched the spectacle below them.

The four escort ships did not follow the
others into the bay.

As soon as they entered the bay, the door
slowly closed. The four ships surrounding the runner hovered in
mid-air, keeping the runner in check as the large door closed.

With a loud THUD, the large bay door finally
sealed them in.

Cindy watched Michael hit a release button
for the magnetic tow, as she was sure all the others did.

Michael, George, Mary, and Paula separated
and each went to a corner of the massive bay.

The runner hovered for awhile, not knowing
what to do, Cindy figured. There was nowhere to go.

The other four started coming down, as if for
a landing, and then four panels slid open and they all came down to
the level below and landed on platforms.

Before the others could land, the runner sped
towards one of the openings, but it was too late. The panel closed,
and whoever flew the runner was screwed.

Frantic and out of options, the ship flew all
around the bay, colliding with the ceiling at one point, causing
some of the observers above to jump back. Cindy had never been
through one of these before, so it was entertaining to watch it all
take place. She tried watching from the cockpit, through the glass
in the roof of their ship, but couldn’t catch everything. Michael
nodded at her and she knew that was his okay for her to go outside
and get a better vantage point. He didn’t follow her, but that was
his way. He would probably square everything away, shut down
procedures, locking couplers, before he would leave. She wanted to
be like him, but sometimes you just need to cut loose and enjoy
what’s in front of you.

Before Cindy made it out of their ship,
George’s voice rumbled in her ears, but not from her glasses this
time. His voice boomed out in the ship bay. “We are on the ground,
and the doors are sealed. You are good to go.”

The runner ship continued its barrage on the
walls of its prison. Cindy made it outside just as water started to
pour into the glass bay from every side except the one with the bay
door. Water jetted in from fist-sized holes lined along the walls,
ten feet from the floor.

When the water level rose to eight feet in
under a minute, the runner settled down, hovering a foot above
water level.

Lancer was one of the first precinct ships,
and had not yet been retrofitted with an anti-gravity trapper bay,
but she did know it was on the short list. Filling a bay with water
was the old school way of doing things, and since she had never
witnessed it before, it was cool to see before it became a thing of
the past.

The water stopped and, a second later, the
runner dropped like a stone and splashed into the water, after
someone, somewhere on Lancer pressed a button that sent an
electromagnetic pulse throughout the glass bay. The runner ship
sank, plunking into the bottom of the bay, part of the ship
sticking out of the water. Its landing gear never protracted and
the front end fell a little further. Cindy could see movement
through the cockpit glass but could not make out how many or who
they might be.

As soon as it hit bottom, the water began to
drain out from holes along the bottom of the three walls.

Cindy smiled. She doubted she would ever get
the chance to see that again.

Regina didn’t run from the sound of footsteps
snapping branches behind her, but she did walk more quickly, her
head down watching every step before she took it, making sure she
didn’t make the same mistake of whoever was behind her. Either they
wanted her to know they were there or they were stupid. Her hunch
suggested the latter.

The footsteps quickened. She turned to look,
seeing nothing. It was possible somebody else could have been
hiding and ran when they heard Regina, and also happened to go the
same way she did. Her instincts said different. Regina kept her gun
at her side, at the ready. Any quick movement towards her and she
could bring the gun up faster than the blink of an eye. She
quickened her pace.

Regina looked to her right to see if anyone
followed outside the trees. Nobody.

The footsteps quickened again.

Regina ran, whipping around trees, not caring
anymore about stealth. They already knew where she was. As she ran,
branches snapped and cracked under her feet, and she could no
longer hear anyone, but had no doubt that they were there, close
behind.

As she ran, a light to her left caught
her eye. Regina turned and ran towards it on instinct. The source
of the light came from the front porch of a two-storey cottage. The
cottage looked rustic and quaint, limestone rock adorned the
façade, and a three-storey turret loomed on the left side of the
house. It featured several sash windows and a couple large
Palladian windows
,
and it had a high, steeped roof,
thatched with straw.

There were no lights on inside, just two
Victorian lamplights sitting atop eight-foot poles on either side
of the wooden stairwell to the front porch.

Regina ran for the stairs, without a glance
behind her, and through the unlocked, front door. After a quick
glance at her surroundings -- an open foyer with a wooden spiral
staircase leading up to the second level, an open dining area to
her left, and past that, the first level of the tower -- she looked
to her right and saw exactly what she needed. Going right offered
shadows and darkness, but she saw enough through the murkiness for
her purpose.

She walked into a large L-shaped living room;
a stone fireplace, with openings on all four sides, decorated the
middle of the first section. Couches and chairs faced the fireplace
on all sides.

She glanced around the corner, seeing three
black walls that she thought strange at first, because they didn’t
go with the mushroom brown color in the other section, and then she
realized why. Three grey sofas surrounded a ten-by-ten flat black
panel, which looked like it lay on the ground. It was the biggest
holographic viewer she had ever seen. Regina looked up and saw a
thin slit along the ceiling, where a wall would go to separate the
two sections, and then on the floor where a similar thin slit
aligned with the one above.