The Last Flight of the Argus (56 page)

For a few moments the two watched the approaching space station. She was a very old and battered piece of equipment, but she was a survivor. Until recently, the only known survivor of the Erebus explosion. That title was hers once more.

“
I hope we see each other in the future,” Inquisitor Cer said. “I also hope that the circumstances for such a meeting don't prove quite
this
interesting.”

“
Agreed,” B’taav said. “Have a good flight back.”

Inquisitor Cer gently laid her hand on B’taav’s cheek. Her stony brown eyes lost their harshness in the
Dakota’s
artificial lights.

“
You too,” Inquisitor Cer said. She retracted her hand, turned, and walked away. B’taav remained on the forward deck. An hour later, he spotted the
Xendos
fly out of the
Dakota
and begin her slow approach to the Erebus Displacer.

For a moment, the ancient ship was parked just outside the Displacer's hollow core. And then the Displacer gate came alive with energy. The
Xendos'
thrusters ignited and the tiny cargo ship entered that core.

There was a burst of light and the
Xendos
, and Inquisitor Cer, were gone.

EPILOGUE - ONIA

The
Epsillon light cruiser
Goodwin
exited through the Onia Displacer at exactly 1600 hours local time. The ship corrected its course and began a standard approach into the desert planet over which the Displacer orbited.

At one time, Onia was a fertile garden of a planet. When the Phaecian and Epsillon Empires assigned the Erebus system as their neutral border, the proximity of the Onia system made it a logical choice for an Epsillon Military Intelligence base. The planet’s lush flora was decimated as countless space ports, industry, and spy centers were created. Stripped of her vegetation, the planet heated up and eventually turned into a barren desert.

After the war, the Epsillon Empire abandoned the planet. All the military bases and industry were swallowed up by the shifting sands and forgotten by all but the few scavengers that remained planet side. Since then, she has housed no more than a few hundred thousand people.

“
Captain Torin wanted her to go here,” Nathaniel said as the ship kissed the planet's atmosphere. “That's what he was going to tell her. Afterwards...”

B’taav and Maddox eyed the planet's yellow surface. Nathaniel chewed on his lower lip but otherwise tried to keep his emotions in check.

The
Goodwin's
heat shield glowed a fiery red as she broke into the planet's atmosphere. After a few minutes of maneuvering, B’taav had the ship on a steady course toward the airbase in the city of Monier.

The light cruiser came in for a landing just past 1650 hours. Its passengers were off the ship and their cargo was loaded into a waiting vehicle at exactly 1714 hours.

The
driver of the vehicle, an ex-military man personally recommended by Lieutenant Daniels, drove the desert buggy out of the city and deep into the shifting sands that made up the planet’s surface. He kept quiet for most of the journey, though at times checked to make sure his passengers and their cargo were fine.

Nathaniel couldn’t bear to look through the buggy’s window. He had an especially hard time looking at the casket that lay in the pad behind him. His emotions grew even more pronounced when their vehicle approached the villa.

Once there, it was hard for Nathaniel to keep still. The place was withered with age, but the walls of the four main buildings still stood, even if each of their roofs collapsed in time.

B’taav asked the driver to stop in the middle of what was left of the villa's entry. He asked the driver to wait and, along with Maddox and Nathaniel, exited.

Maddox still had considerable trouble moving. While he had become proficient with the use of crutches, the soft sand proved tricky to maneuver. Nathaniel helped the
Titus
bartender step away from the buggy. Once done with that task, his eyes returned to the complex.

B’taav headed to the rear of the vehicle. He opened the trunk door and activated a compressed mechanized derrick. It hoisted the casket out of the buggy and onto the sand. The derrick remained locked to the casket and, after B’taav pressed a series of buttons on its control panel, the casket's antigravity function kicked in. The casket hovered a couple of feet off the sandy floor.

The derrick and casket followed B’taav as he walked back to Maddox’s side. Nathaniel stood several feet away. Tears formed in the boy’s eye as memories of his ancient home flooded his mind.

“
I never thought I’d see this place again,” he whispered. Though his voice was still that of a small child’s, B’taav and Maddox thought of him as the adult he was. “I didn’t think—”

Nathaniel stopped.

“
Where is it?” he asked.

“
It’s behind the buildings and over a hill,” Maddox replied.

“
Show me.”

They
walked past the rotted villa and closer to a desert hill that lay beyond. They noticed a fragrant smell drift over the barren sands. It was coming from their destination.

“
There it is,” Maddox said.

Nathaniel ran up the hill and stopped. Maddox and B’taav, followed by the derrick and casket, soon reached the boy's side. Before them was an incredible sight.

In the desert world of Onia, there existed one place that still contained a large amount of vegetation. A wild bush grew for several hundred meters into the distance. Bright red flowers protruded among vibrant green leaves. The flower’s scent overwhelmed the dusty nothingness that filled the Onia air.

Nathaniel walked to the edge of the bushes. He reached out to touch them, but stopped. The flowers were protected by thorns.

“
Where is it?” he asked Maddox.

“
Keep going along the edge of the bushes,” Maddox said. “You’ll find it there.”

The boy thanked Maddox and headed off. B’taav and Maddox allowed him his space, but followed nonetheless.

“
What is to become of him?” B’taav asked.

“
The boy will need help. Good thing for him I've suddenly got a lot of free time on my hands.”

“
Sounds like you won’t have that much free time after all.”

“
Let’s just say now that the purpose in my life is fulfilled and the
Argus
is gone, I’ve found something else to do,” Maddox replied.

“
His memory imprint is already decaying.”

“
I know. He gets...lost...sometimes. He'll be in the middle of a conversation and just stop talking. He'll...” Maddox paused. “I'll be by his side. I’ll make sure once the memories are gone, he grows up to be a fine, normal, and
healthy
man.”

Up ahead, Nathaniel stopped. He bent down and stared at a small, rectangular stone marker. He brushed the sand aside, revealing an inscription. B’taav and Maddox approached. They all read the writing on the marker.

Angela Torin, dedicated wife and mother

She belongs to the heavens now.

Nathaniel's breath grew labored and more tears rolled down his cheeks.

“
She was my life,” the boy said. “When Admiral Cambridge ordered me to take the
Argus
into Erebus, I knew our time together was at its end. She was to be the last to leave the ship, so that I could give her my legacy, the Geist...the Geist Cube—”

He stopped talking. His voice was choked off by the emotions swelling within him.

“
My very last memories from the
Argus
are of sitting in the Project Geist chair. It hadn't been used in a long time and it was...dusty. When all was ready I told my First Officer to turn the machine on. There was a bright light and...and I was thinking about my wife. I was going to see her immediately afterwards, to give her the cube and send her off. I was going to say goodbye. I...I must have done so, but my memories end right there.”

Nathaniel sobbed for several more minutes.

“
I don’t know what I said to her. I don’t have those memories. I wish to the Gods I knew what I told her when I saw her that last time.”

B’taav instructed the derrick to lower the casket and dig a hole next to Angela Torin’s grave. In a few minutes, the machine was done.

B’taav ordered the machine out of the pit and to the casket.

“
They were good people,” B’taav said. “I doubt any of us would have been able to make those sacrifices.”

“
To the sacrifices of true heroes,” Maddox said.

“
We commend your soul to the Gods,” Nathaniel said.

B’taav pressed a button on the derrick. It gripped and lowered Captain Nathaniel Torin’s casket into the freshly dug grave. When it reached bottom, young Nathaniel was composed. The derrick rose from the grave and buried the casket. Captain Nathaniel Torin would rest for eternity beside his beloved wife.

Nathaniel returned to the red flowers that surrounded them.

“
She spent many hours in the Hydroponics level of the
Argus
,” Nathaniel said. “I heard from others that gardening was her greatest joy. I was so jealous. You don’t know how often I wished she would spend more time with me. I had it all wrong. I should have spent more time down there with her.”

Nathaniel reached for one of the flowers and gently pulled it to his nose.

“
It smells so...beautiful.”

“
When she got to Onia, she proved quite a gardener,” Maddox said. “Everything you see around us she planted. When she died, they thought the plants would die, too. They were wrong.”

“
She created everything here?”

“
Yes,” Maddox said.

“
The plants,” Nathaniel said. “What are they?”

“
Roses,” B’taav replied. “They’re roses.”

As the words left his mouth, his gaze drifted. The first wave of starlight made its presence known through the dull orange sky.

THE END