ACT THREE
This was insanity! No way would he comply, his cover be damned!
Nakrava watched intently as Arden desperately weighed the situation in his mind. The helmsman had to make a call, and he had to make it quickly. It was difficult to think with the children seated before him, swaying in their brainwashed stupors, robbed of their childhood innocence, and sentenced to ridiculously premature deaths in a struggle that they never chose to join. Simply standing beside Nakrava made him feel physically sick. The bastard! How could he do this to children?!
He was abhorrent. His very existence offended Vuro.
Unfortunately, his very existence was the biggest problem.
“What’s the matter?,” the insurgent grunted at him.
“He’s weak,” one of the Keveshian guards spat out,” like the others.”
“Is this true, Vuro? Don’t you want those ten thousand credits?”
Blood money… That’s all that it was. Disgustingly corrupt, unfeeling blood money… The very thought of touching the credits made him recoil. He took a step back from the dropship, and a step back from Nakrava and the two guards. This entire mission was one bad idea. With these child soldiers, the Federation Council knew everything that it needed to know about the possible membership status of Keveshi VI. Any race that entertained such barbarism, and any government that allowed it to occur unchecked… No, this was wrong.
Arden found himself shaking his bald head in horror.
Nakrava pulled a disruptor pistol from his belt and leveled it at the Bolian. “You’re either flying this dropship out of here or you’ll be carried out in a body bag and left to rot in the streets as an example to our enemies. So many choices. What’s it going to be, my friend?”
“Friend,” he choked on the word. “How dare you?!”
“Wrong choice.”
It was at that moment that Fate decided to intervene. The easterly fortification of the bunker exploded.
* * * *
“I’m not interrupting, Captain?”
Ewan Llewellyn looked up to see Katherine Pulaski walk the length of the Observation Lounge towards him. With a shake of his head, allowing her to sit down beside him at the head of the table, he returned to the PADD that he had been studying. Out of curiosity, the doctor couldn’t help herself. Interrupting or not, she wanted to know what had the Captain shut away in here, cooped up for hours, separate from his crew. Gently, she leaned over just enough to catch the title of the article on display.
“Ancient Human history?”
“Oh, yes, sorry, Doctor. It’s just something that I was thinking about,” Ewan quickly apologized to her, turning on Pulaski and placing the PADD face down on the table. “Is there anything that I can do for you or…?”
It was too late. Kate scooped up the article and began to read aloud. “Sources from the period are quoted as saying, ‘In over twenty countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts’ … Human Rights Watch, July 2007…”
“It’s not exactly a glowing record of our people, is it?,” Ewan asked with a sigh.
“What did you expect to find?,” she asked him, bluntly.
“I don’t know… To travel the stars, Doctor, and still find examples of such moral corruption and brutality… I guess it comes as a shock to the system, especially given the world in which both of us grew up in.”
“It’s that world, Captain, which taught us to help those in need. We travel the stars because we have no more disease, no more famine, and no more excuses for such disgusting things as armies of innocent children. We forge alliances that work to eradicate those things from other worlds too so that they can benefit as we do. Look at this ship as an example. You’ve got a Suliban in Main Engineering who can perform all kinds of wonders because of a mistake in his people’s past!”
“I don’t see your point, Doctor,” Llewellyn admitted to her.
“You can’t run from history. Learn from it instead. Why your actions prove that you have. You wouldn’t have sent Arden down to Keveshi IV otherwise. You’re trying to stop several war crimes on a planet that we shouldn’t care about… but we do.”
In the moments of silent reflection that followed, the Welshman knew that his colleague made a strong and valid case. Perhaps it was just delving into the archives and finding evidence of Human hands sending Human children into battle that was responsible for his doubts. When Chancellor Ravka first came to him, two days ago, with the suspected reports of the insurgent tactics, his immediate reaction was to think of himself as never capable of such awful things. Now he felt guilty as though bearing the responsibility of Earth’s past on his shoulders. It made him want to join Arden on the surface.
Thinking of which, Ewan was about to ask Pulaski on his helmsman’s biosign status when the lights in the Observation Lounge dimmed and a shrieking klaxon pierced the otherwise calm peace of Fortitude.
They were on the Bridge in seconds.
“Report!”
“Captain, sensors show a massive ground offense on Keveshi VI,” Jason Armstrong called out from the operations console. “Chancellor Ravka’s forces have launched air assaults and deployed troops towards the insurgent towns. One of them is reading at Lieutenant Vuro’s location!”
What the hell was Ravka doing? He knew that Arden was down there!
“Get me the Chancellor!,” Llewellyn demanded.
“He’s not answering our hails,” Valerie Archer called out from one of the side stations along the starboard side of the Bridge. “All attempts to raise his office are being reflected back with an automated reply. It says that radio silence is to be maintained if the new beginning of action against the insurgency is to succeed!”
“New beginning… Curse him, he just couldn’t wait, could he?”
“What about Lieutenant Vuro?,” Jason asked him, wrought with concern.
“I’m still reading his biosign,” Pulaski answered quickly, her reactions sending her over to one of the science stations adjacent to Valerie’s communications panel. “Whatever he’s up to down there, he’s still alive and… Wait… Damn brainless technology! These sensors keep phasing in and out of definition! I’m losing him!”
“It’s interference from all of the plasma being thrown around,” Gabriel Brodie noted urgently from Tactical. “The whole area has become a sensor blindspot!”
“Can we beam him out?”
“No, Captain,” came the black man’s grave reply. “He’s on his own.”
EPILOGUE
Narrowly avoiding the returning fire, Arden Vuro slammed himself back down into the dust and the broken remains of the town’s clock tower. The broken face of the timepiece provided temporary cover from the battle. He gratefully used the seconds to gulp a few more mouthfuls of air and found himself pondering just what he had gotten into here.
How had he landed himself in this mess?
Why was he fighting this fight?
That was it. Because it was the right thing to do.
In the confusion that had descended over the insurgent bunker’s launch bay, Arden had overcome one of the Keveshian guards and stolen his bulky, ugly plasma rifle. It wasn’t the best choice of a weapon, of course, since it entirely lacked a stun setting… but it would have to do for now. Whoever was attacking the insurgents, he concluded that it was probably the government, showed no mercy.
Good for them.
The images of the child soldiers all lined up and ready for combat still haunted the Bolian’s mind.
Turning the plasma rifle around, Arden joined the battle against Nakrava’s men. Once more he picked himself up from behind cover and sprinted across the ruined town’s toppled buildings and dead structures. Along the way, he aimed and fired at any of the evil insurgents that he could see. Heavy artillery fire whistled overhead, blazing trails of fire through the evening sky. Screaming punctuated the warzone’s soundtrack of blasts, thuds, and splintering crashes.
Vuro just continued to run and shoot. Coming around a corner in a backstreet, his trigger finger suddenly froze.
A child who could be no older than ten faced him. He was shaking from the trauma of the battle, his young instincts telling him to run and hide but the twisted brainwashing of Nakrava and the insurgency forcing him to hold his ground… and keep the plasma rifle that he was holding aimed at Vuro’s chest.
Acting on adrenaline and instinct, the helmsman raised his own rifle.
What was he doing? It was a boy! Lower it!
For some gut-wrenching reason, his survival instinct wouldn’t let him.
“Listen to me,” he tried to beg the child,” you don’t have to do this. Come on, put down the rifle and I’ll get you out of here… Trust me, you’ll be safe. I’ll get you out of here… Please put it down… Don’t be afraid… please!”
Tears started to cloud his blue eyes. They were tears of a tragic realization.
Arden knew the child wasn’t going to comply.
One of them was going to shoot.
To be Continued…
This was insanity! No way would he comply, his cover be damned!
Nakrava watched intently as Arden desperately weighed the situation in his mind. The helmsman had to make a call, and he had to make it quickly. It was difficult to think with the children seated before him, swaying in their brainwashed stupors, robbed of their childhood innocence, and sentenced to ridiculously premature deaths in a struggle that they never chose to join. Simply standing beside Nakrava made him feel physically sick. The bastard! How could he do this to children?!
He was abhorrent. His very existence offended Vuro.
Unfortunately, his very existence was the biggest problem.
“What’s the matter?,” the insurgent grunted at him.
“He’s weak,” one of the Keveshian guards spat out,” like the others.”
“Is this true, Vuro? Don’t you want those ten thousand credits?”
Blood money… That’s all that it was. Disgustingly corrupt, unfeeling blood money… The very thought of touching the credits made him recoil. He took a step back from the dropship, and a step back from Nakrava and the two guards. This entire mission was one bad idea. With these child soldiers, the Federation Council knew everything that it needed to know about the possible membership status of Keveshi VI. Any race that entertained such barbarism, and any government that allowed it to occur unchecked… No, this was wrong.
Arden found himself shaking his bald head in horror.
Nakrava pulled a disruptor pistol from his belt and leveled it at the Bolian. “You’re either flying this dropship out of here or you’ll be carried out in a body bag and left to rot in the streets as an example to our enemies. So many choices. What’s it going to be, my friend?”
“Friend,” he choked on the word. “How dare you?!”
“Wrong choice.”
It was at that moment that Fate decided to intervene. The easterly fortification of the bunker exploded.
* * * *
“I’m not interrupting, Captain?”
Ewan Llewellyn looked up to see Katherine Pulaski walk the length of the Observation Lounge towards him. With a shake of his head, allowing her to sit down beside him at the head of the table, he returned to the PADD that he had been studying. Out of curiosity, the doctor couldn’t help herself. Interrupting or not, she wanted to know what had the Captain shut away in here, cooped up for hours, separate from his crew. Gently, she leaned over just enough to catch the title of the article on display.
“Ancient Human history?”
“Oh, yes, sorry, Doctor. It’s just something that I was thinking about,” Ewan quickly apologized to her, turning on Pulaski and placing the PADD face down on the table. “Is there anything that I can do for you or…?”
It was too late. Kate scooped up the article and began to read aloud. “Sources from the period are quoted as saying, ‘In over twenty countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts’ … Human Rights Watch, July 2007…”
“It’s not exactly a glowing record of our people, is it?,” Ewan asked with a sigh.
“What did you expect to find?,” she asked him, bluntly.
“I don’t know… To travel the stars, Doctor, and still find examples of such moral corruption and brutality… I guess it comes as a shock to the system, especially given the world in which both of us grew up in.”
“It’s that world, Captain, which taught us to help those in need. We travel the stars because we have no more disease, no more famine, and no more excuses for such disgusting things as armies of innocent children. We forge alliances that work to eradicate those things from other worlds too so that they can benefit as we do. Look at this ship as an example. You’ve got a Suliban in Main Engineering who can perform all kinds of wonders because of a mistake in his people’s past!”
“I don’t see your point, Doctor,” Llewellyn admitted to her.
“You can’t run from history. Learn from it instead. Why your actions prove that you have. You wouldn’t have sent Arden down to Keveshi IV otherwise. You’re trying to stop several war crimes on a planet that we shouldn’t care about… but we do.”
In the moments of silent reflection that followed, the Welshman knew that his colleague made a strong and valid case. Perhaps it was just delving into the archives and finding evidence of Human hands sending Human children into battle that was responsible for his doubts. When Chancellor Ravka first came to him, two days ago, with the suspected reports of the insurgent tactics, his immediate reaction was to think of himself as never capable of such awful things. Now he felt guilty as though bearing the responsibility of Earth’s past on his shoulders. It made him want to join Arden on the surface.
Thinking of which, Ewan was about to ask Pulaski on his helmsman’s biosign status when the lights in the Observation Lounge dimmed and a shrieking klaxon pierced the otherwise calm peace of Fortitude.
They were on the Bridge in seconds.
“Report!”
“Captain, sensors show a massive ground offense on Keveshi VI,” Jason Armstrong called out from the operations console. “Chancellor Ravka’s forces have launched air assaults and deployed troops towards the insurgent towns. One of them is reading at Lieutenant Vuro’s location!”
What the hell was Ravka doing? He knew that Arden was down there!
“Get me the Chancellor!,” Llewellyn demanded.
“He’s not answering our hails,” Valerie Archer called out from one of the side stations along the starboard side of the Bridge. “All attempts to raise his office are being reflected back with an automated reply. It says that radio silence is to be maintained if the new beginning of action against the insurgency is to succeed!”
“New beginning… Curse him, he just couldn’t wait, could he?”
“What about Lieutenant Vuro?,” Jason asked him, wrought with concern.
“I’m still reading his biosign,” Pulaski answered quickly, her reactions sending her over to one of the science stations adjacent to Valerie’s communications panel. “Whatever he’s up to down there, he’s still alive and… Wait… Damn brainless technology! These sensors keep phasing in and out of definition! I’m losing him!”
“It’s interference from all of the plasma being thrown around,” Gabriel Brodie noted urgently from Tactical. “The whole area has become a sensor blindspot!”
“Can we beam him out?”
“No, Captain,” came the black man’s grave reply. “He’s on his own.”
EPILOGUE
Narrowly avoiding the returning fire, Arden Vuro slammed himself back down into the dust and the broken remains of the town’s clock tower. The broken face of the timepiece provided temporary cover from the battle. He gratefully used the seconds to gulp a few more mouthfuls of air and found himself pondering just what he had gotten into here.
How had he landed himself in this mess?
Why was he fighting this fight?
That was it. Because it was the right thing to do.
In the confusion that had descended over the insurgent bunker’s launch bay, Arden had overcome one of the Keveshian guards and stolen his bulky, ugly plasma rifle. It wasn’t the best choice of a weapon, of course, since it entirely lacked a stun setting… but it would have to do for now. Whoever was attacking the insurgents, he concluded that it was probably the government, showed no mercy.
Good for them.
The images of the child soldiers all lined up and ready for combat still haunted the Bolian’s mind.
Turning the plasma rifle around, Arden joined the battle against Nakrava’s men. Once more he picked himself up from behind cover and sprinted across the ruined town’s toppled buildings and dead structures. Along the way, he aimed and fired at any of the evil insurgents that he could see. Heavy artillery fire whistled overhead, blazing trails of fire through the evening sky. Screaming punctuated the warzone’s soundtrack of blasts, thuds, and splintering crashes.
Vuro just continued to run and shoot. Coming around a corner in a backstreet, his trigger finger suddenly froze.
A child who could be no older than ten faced him. He was shaking from the trauma of the battle, his young instincts telling him to run and hide but the twisted brainwashing of Nakrava and the insurgency forcing him to hold his ground… and keep the plasma rifle that he was holding aimed at Vuro’s chest.
Acting on adrenaline and instinct, the helmsman raised his own rifle.
What was he doing? It was a boy! Lower it!
For some gut-wrenching reason, his survival instinct wouldn’t let him.
“Listen to me,” he tried to beg the child,” you don’t have to do this. Come on, put down the rifle and I’ll get you out of here… Trust me, you’ll be safe. I’ll get you out of here… Please put it down… Don’t be afraid… please!”
Tears started to cloud his blue eyes. They were tears of a tragic realization.
Arden knew the child wasn’t going to comply.
One of them was going to shoot.
To be Continued…
