Lunar One

Chapter 17: Mutiny On The Station

     Gordon was in his office when the shot rang out. Moments later he was given the news that one of his own was dead. The name he heard was a complete surprise; Lt. Jordan. He walked out of his office and to the medical bay to see the body for himself, and once in the large make shift hospital, there were several people in there, including Doctor Hoffman.

     "Doctor," Gordon said as he walked in.

     "Don't patronize me," Hoffman said, already prepared to accuse of him for being responsible for it all.

     "Excuse me," Gordon interrupted, "Can someone tell me what the hell happened here?"

     One of the officers stepped forward, "We don't know but the person who apparently shot Lt. Jordan was knocked unconscious by the Russian. They took him away and we're still looking for him and Doctor Taylor."

     It was at this point where several more gunshots rang out, echoing through the hallways. This time it was much different, as there were two distinct sounds this time, which meant it was an exchange of fire.

     "I want two teams of medics to look for wherever that came from." Gordon ordered, "Chances are someone was hit in that exchange too."

     As the people broke to leave the medical bay and follow orders, Hoffman grabbed Gordon's arm and stopped him from leaving the room.

     "I told you not to do this," Hoffman said, with a very cold tone. "For every action there is an equal reaction, now you have a revolt on your hands. You just tried to take someone out. They're not going to stand by and let you try again."

     "Are you finished?" Gordon asked, "Because we need to quell this uprising before it gets any worse."

     "We wouldn't have to deal with an uprising if you hadn't taken matters into your own hands!" Hoffman spat at the commander, with little or no regard for rank at the moment.

     "You're out of line," Gordon said to the Doctor.

     "That's my line," Hoffman chided back, "Do you really want to start fighting amongst one another when there are so few of us left? What the hell were you thinking? We could kill each other into extinction!"

     Gordon disregarded the comment, and responded by walking out the door. Hoffman stood there in medical, stunned by his commander's actions. Now there was violence on the station. He stood there wondering if there was anything he could do to end the conflict or was more bloodshed unavoidable? Unwilling to stand by and watch humanity extinguish itself, Hoffman ran after Gordon in the hopes he could talk some sense into both him and the people who meant to fight back against him. When he found Commander Gordon, he was in the main hanger bay, the largest part of the station. He was standing at a table on one side of the bay, speaking with some of his men. As Hoffman walked up, he noticed someone walked up as well.

     "Sir," the other man started, "We found the source of the gunfire. One of our men was hit, but just clipped in the arm. There was no intent to kill."

     "Thank goodness," Hoffman said, stepping into the conversation. "They don't want to cull our own species either, at least I hope you're on the same page with me on preserving humanity."

     "I am," Gordon reluctantly replied, "But I am not going to tolerate people fighting one another on my base."

     "This was never your base!" a voice called out loudly.

     Everyone in the room turned to see that it was Morgan. Behind him was Rogers, Demetri and a few of the international astronauts from the space station. The one thing that they quickly noticed was that all of them were armed with various guns. Rogers was dragging with him the soldier that had tried to kill Morgan earlier that day, the man responsible for murdering Lt. Jordan. This was when a handful of Gordon's men reached for their side arms, and as they did so, everyone on Morgan's side raised all their guns and pointed them at Gordon and all his men.

     "Whoa!" Hoffman said as he jumped between the two groups. "Just hold on right there!"

     "Get out of the way, Doctor." Morgan said, looking as serious as he had ever seen the younger doctor. He was holding a assault rifle that looked loaded and ready to rock and roll. "This is between me and Gordon."

     "That's Commander Gordon to you," Gordon said as he stepped forward, "You agreed to respect my command when you agreed to come to Lunar One, Doctor Taylor. You don't seem to be a man of your word."

     "And you're supposed to respect your own chain of command," Morgan retorted, "And if the President, your commander in chief is dead, the constitution dictates we elect a new one. I don't remember someone nominating the dictator of this base, which I might add was paid for by my taxes!"

     "This is exactly why I should be in charge." Gordon retorted, "Because without order, this is what happens. Don't you remember what a shit sandwich the United States was before that asteroid put it out of its misery? We had mass murders every few months, people starving while fat cats gouged us all for bare necessities, so forgive me if I really don't want to give capitalism another chance going forward."

     "So your answer to that was to send someone to kill me?" Morgan said as he gestured to the man Rogers was holding, "It didn't take long for him to talk, and he confirmed you sent him to take me out. What the hell do you have to say for yourself?"

     "I did what was necessary to keep order of this base." Gordon replied.

     "Is that so?" Hoffman said, turning to face his old friend, "You guys are about to have a Mexican standoff on the moon. Does this look anything like order to you?"

     "No," Gordon said, looking at Morgan and his people, "But I doubt any of you have any actual combat experience compared to..."

     At that moment, Demetri raised the barrel of an even bigger automatic assault rifle he had taken from the armory and fired it above the heads of Gordon and his men. They thought it was a warning shot, but on the other end of the bay, a man stationed on the second level with a rifle was hit and he fell over the rail and onto the ground. Gordon looked back at Demetri and winced at him with intense revulsion.

     "Perhaps I was wrong," he sneered.

     "Did I forget to tell you that?" Morgan asked, smiling at him. "Demetri was Spetsnaz before he joined the space program. I'm thinking he's got a lot of your men beat when it comes to combat experience."

     "Give me reason, comrade," Demetri said, lifting the barrel to aim at Gordon, "Let's take out the human race in... as you say... a blaze of glory?"

     "No!" Hoffman roared, "This is not the way! We all need to put down our guns and settle this like mature adults!"

     "The only settlement I will accept is Gordon in the brig," Morgan replied, "to stand court martial for the murder of Lt. Jordan."

     "That's not happening," Gordon sneered, "I am especially not going to be judged by a whiny, inconsiderate, ungrateful civilian like yourself."

     "Then we're at an impasse," Morgan said, "We can't come to a consensus and neither of us wants to cut our numbers, which could cause our extinction.

     "Speak for yourself," Gordon corrected him, "I'm more than willing to sacrifice a few good men and women if it means ridding this station of you and that red bastard!"

     Before anyone could say anything else, one of Gordon's men took a shot at Demetri but missed him, the bullet ricocheting off the wall behind him. Demetri responded to that buy returning fire, putting a well placed shot right between the eye of the man that just fired at him, killing him instantly. As the man's body fell to the floor with a rather loud thud, the room was still for just a few seconds.

     "Kill them all!" Gordon screamed to the top of his lungs.

     Hoffman couldn't believe what was happening as he held up his hands, trying to stop the chaos that was breaking loose.

     "NO!!!!" he called out as the bullets started to fly.

     Both side took cover and started to fire at one another, determined to fight for control of Lunar One.Neither leaders were willing to give up that control without a fight, which was just getting started as bullets were firing all over the place and cutting down people with extreme prejudice.