An Imposter Among Us

23: The Day I Learn the Truth

Genesis (1st-person POV)

And so it all led up to this. Me, alone against the Conclave, unarmed and a bit afraid for my life.

Zaniah twirled her knife in her hand. "Maybe you can surrender to me, and I'll give you the honor of a quick and mostly painless death after you watch your precious Skeld get turned around."

"I ain't going down without a fight," I told her. "This is my journey, and my ship. We're getting to Polus, one way or another."

"Looks like you're going down with your ship, then." Zaniah lunged at me, her knife held high. I caught her wrist, but she quickly tossed the knife to her other hand and swiped across my abdomen, I tried to jump back but got a shallow slice all the way across, a stripe of crimson appearing on my stomach. Almost immediately the wound started to sting, badly.

"Astrid's smart, I'll give her that," Zaniah said with a flickering smile. "H-C-L does make for a good weapon."

"Speaking of which—" I grab her other arm, the one I remember getting doused by the chemical, and squeeze. She lets out a choked gasp and drops the knife. Seeing the pain twisting her features, I immediately regretted it. But I refused to let go.

"Zaniah, why?" I asked. "Why did you protect me, and stand up for me, and comfort me, when it was all a lie?"

"To gain your trust, obviously," she replied, straining. She kicked my gut, and the breath flew out of me as I stumbled back. I made a move for the knife, but she grabbed it first. The blade whistled through the air as she swiped at me again, hitting nothing but air as I staggered back.

"What about the Conclave? Why do you all hate the Polus Initiative so much? Why are you just murdering the passengers of the Skeld when they did nothing to you?"

Zaniah came at me, and I caught both of her forearms. Both of our arms shook as we struggled, fatigue quickly settling in to my muscles. My fingers trembled as they tried to resist Zaniah's relentless push.

"What do you think Polus is, huh?" she asked. "Do you have any idea?"

"It's a space station, obviously. I ain't telling you no details about what we do once we get there."

"You don't need to," Zaniah said. "Because I already know the first thing they'll ask you to do." She swings out our arms and kicks my knee in. I seize and collapse instantly, pain freezing my muscles like I've just been electrocuted.

"When you get there, they'll tell you to push a button. You won't know what it does, but since it's your superiors you do it anyway. What you don't know is that Polus isn't just a station. It's a weapon."

"I..." I have to force the words out through the unbearable pain. "Don't. Believe. You."

But even as I said it, I remembered looking through her records, seeing her justification for rebelling against her bosses all that time ago when she was in the Space Force. She saved innocent lives that day. And if I was any good at reading the room she believed she was doing the same right now.

"That weapon is already primed to fire at another station, orbiting a neighboring Jupiter moon. There's been fifty-five attempted voyages to Polus through the Skeld, fifty-five times that the Polus and the other station have come within firing range of each other." She stepped forward, towering over me, the knife held tight in her hand. "How many are on that other station? Take a guess."

I felt stupid as I shrugged. "I don't know, a hundred?"

Zaniah hardened. She hauled me up and rolled me to the center of the room before I could try and stand. "Ten thousand and thirty-two. All of them Conclave space operatives selected to reside there for years doing research on their moon to determine if terraforming it is possible."