DusktoDust_Final3 Read online

  Letsego continued to work. “Almost there. I set the launch point just outside the Belt.”

  David nodded. “We’re almost out. Guide me in.”

  They broke into open space a few minutes later. Their pursuers had fallen off the sensors long ago. David eased back on the throttle and let Letsego walk him onto the launch point. Once he was at the right coordinates he slowed the ship to a stop. They were going to do the launch right this time.

  “You ready?” Letsego checked his webbing and nodded. “Alright, here we go.” David punched the hyperspace controls and the interceptor launched forward towards the stars.

  22: Alone

  He lay on the soft sand, basking in the sunshine. The sky was royal blue, pristine, unpolluted. He glanced to his left and admired the woman lying next to him. She wore a bikini that left little to the imagination. Her body was damp with sea water, but unnaturally pale. He didn’t mind. The rest of her was perfect.

  She caught him looking. “Like what you see?”

  He snapped his eyes forward, slightly embarrassed. They were only friends. That’s all they could ever be.

  She saw his discomfort and laughed, standing up on the beach. “Alright, enough lounging around. Let’s go.” She ran toward the water and crashed through the surf.

  He hesitated, but then followed. She was always more wild than him, more rash, more spontaneous. He preferred to approach situations more cautiously, using reason.

  The water was cold. He was not prepared for it and his muscles immediately clenched up. The tide sucked him out and he started kicking and moving his arms, trying to get the blood flowing.

  She yelled at him. “Hey!” She was already thirty meters farther out. “It’s a race and you’re losing, D.”

  “Where are we going?”

  She simply pointed at an island across the channel and then took off swimming.

  He swam too, trying to keep up. He couldn’t. He had grown up not experiencing the ocean. He was not used to the currents and the waves. Before long he was near exhaustion.

  But he kept going. She was far ahead by now. He kept his arms and legs moving and slowly the island grew closer. Finally, he could feel land once again. He crawled up on the beach, breathing hard. He collapsed on the sand face down. He just lay there feeling the sun beat against his back, the wind blow through his hair, and the rhythmic beat of his heart vibrate through his body.

  He felt the soft touch of a hand upon his back. It was her hand.

  “Hey, wake up.” He didn’t move. “Wake up, Carpenter… Wake up, Carpenter…”

  “…Wake up, Carpenter!”

  David snapped awake, an alarm blaring and Letsego’s voice berating him. Suddenly, he was no longer on an island paradise, but back in the cockpit of the interceptor, the gray swirl of hyperspace passing by outside of the viewport.

  The alarm was the hyperspace timer. David hit the silencer. “One minute till drop,” he said groggily.

  Letsego glanced over at him. “You awake?”

  “Yep.”

  “Must have been a good dream. I was practically screaming at you.”

  David didn’t say anything. It wasn’t a dream. It was a memory. That had been a couple days before he and Alana had left Earth for Prospect. They had decided to splurge and take a couple of days’ vacation in New Zealand, one of the few non-urbanized regions left on the planet. On the Tasman Bay, they had relaxed and unwound, enjoying the sunshine, wilderness, and solitude.

  He remembered how beautiful Alana had looked. When she had pulled him out of the water that day he remembered the thoughts of wanting to be with her. She had been a sister to him, but in the back of his mind he had always wanted more. He had never truly admitted it to himself. Until now.

  She would never know how he felt. It was too late. She was dead. Up to this point he had been able to contain the pain, keeping it superficial, using the adrenalin to suppress it. But the long, quiet flight from the Belt had let the pain emerge. It crept through his mind like a poison, distracting his thoughts, ruining his concentration. He wanted to see her one more time, if for nothing else than to say he was sorry.

  But he couldn’t go back. He would never be able to apologize. And the best he could do to ease his pain was to focus on the task at hand.

  David watched the timer count down. The flight had been quick, the interceptor being much faster than Catalyst had been. They had made it back to Prospect in less than twenty hours.

  “How do you think your friends are going to welcome us?” David asked.

  Letsego hesitated. “Like I said, I didn’t exactly have orders for this mission. We should be ready for anything.”

  Great, David thought. And us without weapons to fight back. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

  The timer reached zero and David’s hands flew over the controls. The familiar sensation of rapid deceleration crushed his body against the restraint webbing. The gray swirl of hyperspace flared. Ten seconds later it was replaced by the stars of real space.

  David brought the ship about until Prospect filled the viewport. “Home sweet home,” he said. “How do the sensors look?”

  Letsego inspected his console. “I’m tracking the Skylift and a few cruisers out there. They haven’t spotted us yet.”

  “Not for long.” He pushed the engines to full throttle. For the first time in his life he was actually trying to get caught by the Peacekeepers.

  The interceptor rocketed toward Prospect. “Shit. Okay, good, they’ve seen us,” Letsego said. “We’ve got two gunships inbound.”

  The comm system crackled to life. “Unidentified vessel. You are entering United Nations space. Identify yourself or be fired upon.”

  “Looks like I got their attention.”

  Letsego picked up the handset. “This is Staff Sergeant Letsego, Peacekeeper Intelligence. I have credible information regarding a direct threat to UNEC interests on Prospect. Requesting permission to dock at the Skylift.”

  “Letsego?” The voice paused. “I have an open warrant for the arrest of a Staff Sergeant Nic Lesego. Are you him, and if so are you surrendering to the Peacekeepers?”

  David grinned at Letsego. He enjoyed seeing the Peacekeeper squirm. The man must have left Prospect on worse circumstances than he had implied. “Yes, this is him,” Letsego responded. “I am surrendering peacefully. Please take us aboard immediately.”

  “Acknowledge,” the speaker blared. “I am transmitting an approach vector to you. Follow it in. If you deviate from it at all you will be fired upon.”

  The approach vector didn’t direct them to the Skylift. It directed them to a cruiser. Letsego recognized it. It was the Defiance, the flagship of the Tango Fleet. It was painted in the blue and gray markings of the Peacekeepers. Letsego had been on it once before, a couple of months ago when he and Captain Burleigh had had to brief the command. If they were being taken on board this ship the warrant for his arrest must be pretty important.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Carpenter said, uncomfortably.

  The smuggler was worried about his own future. “Rest easy,” Letsego said. “I’ll let them know how you helped me, and that you didn’t know what was really going on. They’ll give you amnesty.”

  “I appreciate the sentiment, but I get the feeling you aren’t on the best terms with your Peak friends.”

  He was probably right. Captain Burleigh would be irate when he saw Letsego. On a good day it was difficult to reason with the man. Now it would be nearly impossible. But Letsego didn’t need to reason with the man. He just needed to show him the recording on the helmet. It would tell the entire story for him.

  The gunships escorted the interceptor in. Defiance loomed ominously in the viewport. Ahead of them the docking bay doors opened. As the interceptor entered the gunships broke off. There was only one open landing pad. Carpenter set the ship down on it expertly.

  As the smuggler shut the interceptor
down, Letsego looked outside. There was already a sizable crowd gathering, both Peacekeeper soldiers and uniformed officers. Anyone who had a weapon had it at the ready.

  “Open the hatch,” Letsego directed to Carpenter.

  Carpenter glanced up, but continued his power down process. “What? You in a hurry to get put in cuffs?”

  There was banging on the hatch. “Open up now!” a muffled voice said. Letsego reached across Carpenter and pressed the release. The hatch swung open.

  They were greeted by rifles. “Hands up!”

  They both complied. “Easy, guys,” Carpenter said. “He’s the one you want.”

  The Peacekeepers yanked them both out of the cockpit. Letsego slid down the hull and landed on the pavement. As he stood up he felt the muzzle of a rifle on his back. Carpenter was now standing next to him.

  “Is this the welcome you were expecting?” the smuggler quipped.

  Just about, Letsego thought. He scanned the crowd for a familiar face. He found one and it was coming towards him.

  “So this is why you escaped custody.” Captain Burleigh marched up to him. “These men are criminals. Why are they not in cuffs?” On cue, a Peacekeeper grabbed Letsego’s wrists and secured them behind his back.

  “Sir, I know you’re pissed, but I have vital intel about Wind-”

  “Shut up!” Burleigh spat. “You will only speak when spoken to. I wondered how the smugglers evaded your team so easily. To think that you let one of your own men die to help this scum.”

  The words cut deeper than any knife could. Letsego exploded. “Are you kidding me?! You have no idea what is really going on!”

  Burleigh laughed. “Oh, I think I do.”

  “Captain, you need to listen to him,” Carpenter cut in. “The Federation is about to attack Prospect.”

  “Attack Prospect!” the captain mused. “Why in the stars would they attack Prospect?”

  “It’s all on the-“

  “That was rhetorical,” Burleigh interrupted. He looked up to the cockpit. “Is there anyone else in there?”

  “No one, sir,” a Peacekeeper responded. “Just this.” Letsego craned his head. The soldier was holding up Carpenter’s pack and the Windcorp helmet.

  “That’s it, sir,” he said. “It’s all on there. You need to watch the recording on that helmet.”

  “I don’t need to do anything, Staff Sergeant. However, you need to be locked up… for treason. Take them away.”

  Letsego resisted. “Wait! Captain! I don’t care what you do to us. But watch the recording. The entire galaxy is in danger!” It was no use. The soldiers dragged him and Carpenter out of the docking bay.

  David and Letsego were a spectacle as they were ushered through the Defiance, still in their raider attire. Once in the detention area they were allowed to change into grey jumpsuits, those meant for prisoners. Then they were placed in a cell that had as much character and cheer as a mortuary. The walls, floor, and ceiling were smooth, gray metal and the only furniture in the room was a pair of metal bunks.

  David let the soldiers remove his cuffs and then flinched as the cell door slammed shut behind him. He decided to make himself at home and walked over and sat down on one of the bunks. Letsego had already made himself comfortable on the other one.

  David laid back and stretched out. This was what he feared, being alone with his thoughts. He had slept the entire flight from the Belt and could not force himself to do so any more. The events of the past few days had happened so quickly that he hadn’t had a chance to really think about them. But now there was no other choice. Still, he resisted.

  “Well, he’s a real piece of work,” he said flatly, referring to Captain Burleigh.

  Letsego didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, but he responded. “He’s a prick.”

  “You’d think he’d at least listen to you for a second.”

  “You’d think.”

  The tension grew in the room. There was clearly something that was bothering Letsego, other than the fact that his own boss now thought he was a criminal. David wasn’t very good at beating around the bush. “If you’ve got something to say, then say it. But remember I just saved your ass. If it hadn’t been for me you’d still be sitting on that rock, probably dead.”

  Letsego’s voice was strained. “I know you are the reason we are still alive.” He paused. “It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.” He stood up and paced to the cell door. “If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be a criminal in my own military. If it weren’t for you all of my men would still be alive.”

  “So that’s what this is about?” David said, sitting up. “You think it’s my fault that your man died?”

  “He had a name!” Letsego said icily. His fury was building. “Kalil Jankowski. And it is your fault he’s dead. You killed him!”

  David stood up. “Now wait a damn second. I know I’ve killed people in my day, but your man is not one of them.”

  “The flashbang, you asshole!” Letsego charged David, pinning him against the wall. He placed his forearm against his neck. “It blew up right in his face. You should have seen it. Blood everywhere. He died a slow, painful death.”

  David stopped struggling against the Peacekeeper. A lump formed in his throat. He hadn’t known. “You’re saying the flashbang killed him?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He pinned David harder against the wall. “And do you know what the punishment is for murdering a Peacekeeper?” David didn’t respond. “Death.” The word rolled off of Letsego’s tongue, and then he dropped the smuggler to the deck. “You’re lucky I don’t believe in jailhouse justice.”

  David landed on his hands and knees, coughing after having his throat crushed. Letsego had returned to his bunk and lay down, staring at the ceiling. Once he recovered, David climbed back up on his own bunk. “You want to know something?”

  “I don’t want to talk to you, Carpenter.”

  “That’s fine. You just have to listen.” He was still breathing heavily. “I’m not so different from you. I was a soldier once, a Marine. I used to have the same ideals that you have. That there is absolute good and absolute evil in the galaxy. I used to believe that there was a right and wrong answer to everything. But trust me, I’ve seen war. I’ve seen death, and you know what I’ve learned from it? Nothing is absolute. There is always a gray area.

  “You think that I am evil, that I am just a smuggler on the other side of the law, that I am a murderer. Well, maybe I am, but this murderer saved your ass back there. Do you think if I were truly a manipulative, selfish person I would have let you bring me on this ship?

  “And you think you are the only person who has lost someone? That your loss for some reason is far greater than anyone else’s. Well it’s not. I may be a criminal, a smuggler, and a low life, but my partner died on that asteroid fighting the same enemy that you are fighting.

  “You think I’m a monster, and maybe in some ways I am. But what does that make Windcorp? What does that make the Federation? I’m willing to fight them. I’m willing to put my life on the line and stand up against them like you are. I haven’t fought for a noble cause in a long time, but what you showed me on that recording is true evil. If there was ever a black and white in the universe, this is it.”

  David let out a long breath. “There, I’m done. I’ll get off my soapbox. Hate me if you want, but this fight isn’t over.”

  He lay down. The words had come to him fluidly. He didn’t know why he cared so much about what this Peacekeeper thought of him. He had hardly known the man two days. But his words had been true. At one point in his life, Staff Sergeant David Carpenter had fought for peace and justice in the galaxy. Maybe it was time that he embraced a worthy cause again. And from what he had lived through in the past days, this was definitely
a cause to fight for.

  The minutes ticked by and the silence in the room continued. David’s mind wandered. He tried to avoid any thoughts of Alana. They were too painful. He thought of Prospect, the place that he considered a second home, and the place that the Federation wanted to conquer. Could he really stop them? Was it really worth it? He honestly didn’t know.

  “What was her name?”

  David turned, startled. “What?”

  “What was her name?” Letsego repeated. “Your partner’s.”

  David stared at the ceiling. “Alana, Alana Ramirez.”

  Letsego nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  Images of Alana crept into David’s mind and the pain returned. “Thanks,” he managed to say. He really didn’t want to talk about her.

  He wasn’t so fortunate. “I can tell you two were close,” Letsego continued.

  David sighed, giving in. “We were. We’ve been through a lot together.” He thought of all the tight spots they had gotten into.

  Letsego got uncomfortable. “I’m sorry,” he eventually said. “I’m sorry I didn’t save her, too.”

  A variety of emotions flowed through David’s mind. He wanted to be angry, but how could he blame Letsego for Alana’s death. Especially, after he had killed one of the Peacekeeper’s men. “It’s not your fault,” he said. “It was mine. She told me we shouldn’t have taken the job, and she was right.”

  The room fell silent, and for David with the silence came the pain. He had finally admitted it. He had killed Alana, not Castle, not Windcorp. His decisions had killed her. And he had to live with that.

  Letsego sensed his pain. “Did you really mean what you said?”

  “About what?”

  “About fighting the Federation.”

  David thought about it. The past two years of his life had been spent fighting for himself. Since the Marine Corps had abruptly left him adrift, he had convinced himself that there was no grand ideal worth fighting for, worth risking your life for. But now he wasn’t so sure. “If what you showed me on that recording is true, then the Federation is an imminent threat to Prospect and anyone on it. Possibly everyone in the galaxy.”