Anachron

Revelations

I sat in the shuttle's control compartment with my accomplice, Communications Officer Leftenant Jack Martin.  Just behind us, in the body of the shuttle, sat Acting Captain Frederick Breiner.  While Leftenant Martin and I were comfortable with what we had done, Captain Breiner was furious.

I turned to Jack.  "Get ahold of them, would you?  Tell them that we're ready for pickup, but that we'll be leaving the shuttle behind for Breiner."

"I don't see why we took him with us."

"I suppose you would have left him aboard the ship."

"Of course.  We told him what staying behind would mean.  It was his decision."

"Do you think it would have helped our plan if he were left alone on the ship?  He would have had fifteen desperate minutes to figure out a way to disable the self-destruct."  We couldn't take that chance."

"We could have shot him."

When the leftenant said that, I immediately flashed back to Captain Lattimer.  It had only taken a split-second to end his life in a flash of light.  I could see the scorched stump where his head was meant to be.  The smell of burnt flesh filled my senses as if it had only just happened.  I remembered how his body seemed frozen in time as it fell to the ground.

My hands shook in front of me and I started gibbering.  "No.  I didn't want to.  He made me do it.  He came at me.  I didn't want to."

"Ok, ok.  We don't have to kill Breiner."

I took a few deep breaths, trying to bring myself back to the present.  Recent events were starting to take a toll on me.  Even knowing that it was almost over, I wasn't sure just then if I would make it.

"We're going to meet our contact for the pickup.  The only thing we're going to do different from the plan is we're going to dock and transfer instead of using the hangar."

"Right."

"Can you send them a message?  Let them know about the change, and ask them to make sure nobody is there to greet us.  We don't want Breiner to see who they are."

"Will do."

I sat there for a moment, resting my weary mind while Jack sent the message.  Soon, he turned back to me.

"Our contact acknowledges.  We'll be using the forward dorsal docking port.  They'll approach as soon as the explosion clears."

"Thank you."  I checked the time.  We had a few minutes before the explosion, so I unhooked myself from the seat and went back to get Breiner.

"We have a few more minutes.  Do you want to come up and see?"

"I don't want anything from you.  That's the greatest ship ever made, and you're just going to blow it up.  Don't you have any idea what you're doing?"

"The Anachron lives up to its name perfectly.  It's an anachronism.  It doesn't belong here.  It's too powerful."

"The Anachron is the culmination of decades of battlefield research, and now none of that research ever happened."

He paused, but I could tell that he had more to say, so I didn't comment.

"In every war, there's technological advances, but they're never enough to justify all the bloodshed.  Now, we have a chance to keep all the benefits of a war, but without the horror.  Why couldn't you let the CCP take the ship apart?"

"It's just too dangerous.  I couldn't risk letting it fall into the wrong hands."

"It's not your decision to make.  Who are you to play god?"

"There's enough firepower on that ship to leave an entire planet in ruins.  What happens when the wrong people get to be in control of it?  I don't mean 'if', I mean 'when'.  It's inevitable.  I just couldn't live with myself knowing I could have stopped it and didn't."

"What if a planet is destroyed by an asteroid collision that could have been prevented using deflectors derived from the ones we had on the Anachron.  Can you live with yourself then?"

Just then, the door to the control compartment opened.

"It's time to turn around."

"Thank you."  I turned back to Breiner.  "Are you sure you won't watch?"

"I'm sure."

I returned to the pilot's seat, then steadied my hands as best I could as I sat down to the controls.  First, I cut the engines and let the shuttle coast.  Then, I turned the craft around so that we could see the fireworks. 

A deep-space explosion isn't usually interesting to watch.  Ordinarily, we wouldn't have made such a fuss about it, but this was a special occasion.  I sat there next to my partner-in-crime, and watched without speaking.  It wasn't long, maybe half a minute, before we saw a flash of light in the distance.  At that point, we knew our mission was over.  The debris cloud was still be visible for a few minutes until it spread out too thin to see.  I stayed and stared as the last remains of my entire life simply faded out of existence.