The Patriot I: The Awoken

Chapter Twenty | Intruder

    I stared at the console of the pilot's station. It couldn't be true. I couldn't believe it. These bits of rock -- they couldn't be Earth. There weren't enough of them. Yet, as I looked at the evidence stacked against me, I felt dread curl my stomach. My fist clenched and I exhaled sharply. The pilot was still trying to figure out what he'd done wrong.

    "Stop, Haral. You did nothing wrong."

    His eyes were wide. "I had to've!"

    Officer Peterson shifted in his seat nervously. "Is something wrong, First Officer?" Officer Byrne looked at me sharply. I knew she was connecting the dots.

    "We've arrived at our destination." I straightened, rubbing my hand across my prickly scalp. "Welcome back, Officers."

    Officer Peterson stared. "That's Earth? We must have gone astray somewhere along the HyperZipline."

    The Intelligence Officer knew better. Her jaw clenched. "It's been five and a half centuries. How long has it been since Zoel received communication from Earth?"

    The pilot grimaced slightly. "As far as I know, about twenty years ago. Earth was still too far behind to have fast communication. A single message takes several years to make it to Zoel, and it was expensive to accomplish. I heard it isn't rare to go a while without communication. One time, Earth went silent for sixty years. Zoel sent a fleet to check on the planet, but it was fine. They had just had no need to communicate." "I still can't believe that I'm looking at it..."

    Officer Peterson gawked. "That's Earth."

    I nodded curtly. "Yes."

    "What happened?"

    "Your guess is as good as mine, Officer," I replied shortly. My hands clasped behind my back as my mind raced. Earth was gone. It was in pieces, floating around space. I had no clue as to what happened. It could have been natural. It could have been caused by mankind. How does a whole planet explode? Perhaps the core had become unstable. I had a feeling we wouldn't know.

    With Earth gone, our plan had failed. No Earth, no electron batteries. It had been my last option. Zoel didn't have the technology to create them. The only other choice was to wait the three years until the Patriot had charged itself fully through the solar panels on the hull. I didn't want to wait, but it seemed that I was going to have to.

    I forced myself to not look at Earth's remains and turned around. "Get us back to Zoel. We have no business being here anymore."

    "First Officer!" Officer Byrne shot to her feet, angry for the first time I'd ever seen her. I paused to turn and face her. "Are we just going to leave? Without investigating?"

    "What is there to investigate?" I answered, displeased at how she was questioning me yet again. "Earth is destroyed. There is nothing we can do."

    "There has to be evidence around here somewhere. We could take a sample back for analysis."

    "And what good what it do? It wouldn't change the outcome." I turned back around to go, but Officer Byrne shouted at my back.

    "Isn't it our duty to protect our people? We were hired and put together to guard them, Earth or Zoel or not. Isn't it our duty to find out what happened to our home planet? Hell, it's your obligation to—"

    My temper flared and I turned sharply. "Don't you tell me what my job is, Byrne." My voice was so sharp that she closed her mouth, smarting. "Earth is gone. Nothing we can do will change that. Had we been able to prevent it, we would have. Clearly, we didn't. Right now my priority is my crew. Without them, we can't protect shit. I've got nearly thirty lives depending on me right now. Besides that, I'm your commanding officer. Question me or my orders one more time and I'll have you demoted to the lower decks. Do I make myself clear?"

    Her cheeks flushed angrily. "Yes, First Officer."

    Before I could leave at last, something in Officer Peterson's pocket screamed shrilly. Byrne jumped and spun around. I looked his way lazily. "Officer Peterson, what—"

    He fumbled with the small device as he pulled it out of his pocket. His eyes widened and he yelped, undoing his straps and racing for the pilot's console. Haral got out of the way. "The hell is with this guy? It's like he's seen a ghost or something." Even more dread filled my gut. "Peterson..."

    "There's an intruder," he rushed out. He plugged the device into the console and pulled up a few screens. My eyes widened and I stepped forward, Byrne on my heels. The blurry and crackly security tape of a hallway pulled up. I recognized the hall as the main one out of the loading bay of the Patriot. A figure was walking down it.

    "This is live?" I asked sharply.

    "Yes -- I just got the alarm signal. I don't know how they got in, but they're inside the ship." Peterson was pale. "They're headed straight for the chamber."

    I swore aloud. And straight to my defenseless crew. "Haral, get us moving. Is there any way you can speed up our flight?" Haral slid past Peterson obediently, fumbling to get us moving. "Not without someone working the HyperZipline on the other end."

   "Get someone there and hurry us up!" I ordered. "How quick can we be there?"

    "In about a day. But the ship—"

    "I don't give a damn. Do what you have to do." I looked back at the security film of the Patriot. "Peterson, you've obviously got a connection. Can you lock them up in a hall using the doors?"

    "I've barely got this connection as it is," answered Peterson frantically. "The ship isn't built to broadcast this far. There's nothing we can do but watch."

   Byrne scrutinized the figure as they turned down a new hall. "They've either been on the ship before or seen the blueprints long enough to memorize them. This person knows exactly where they're going."

   I thought fast, forming a vague idea. Haral had left to call someone in the hopes of speeding our trip up. "Byrne, find if it's possible to find our blueprints anywhere in Zoel's database. If not, then we know this person had access to the Pioneer and downloaded the file from it directly. Peterson, keep an eye on them. Update me on everything. I'm going to see about getting the Patriot surrounded before they can disembark."

   "On it, First Officer."