Darkworld: Earth

2.42.

“In other news, the widow of Kirk Desmond, Lisa Desmond, has asked to join the delegation that is scheduled to head to the Rosantean senate to demand answers and transparency regarding the death of her husband. For those of you who haven’t been following the story, Kirk convinced the Yonohoans to give him a Winnebago class starship in exchange for his life story. While he intended to trade the ship for financial reasons, he first eloped with Lisa and took her on a tour of first the solar system, then Beta Centauri. It was, unfortunately, there where they encountered the Rosantean ship.

“Some have criticized the couple for returning to the solar system while the Rosanteans were in pursuit. However, the official stance of the ESF is that Captain Kirk, as many have taken to calling the man, followed all lawful instructions given to him by the ESF, including to return to sol-space. The AI of his Winnebago proves conclusively that he forwarded the lexicon of the english language to the pursuing vessel as well as declarations that they were entering the sovereign territory of Earth. The claims of the Rosanteans that they had no idea they were entering the territory of an emerging Darkworld, as Earth is referred to in the larger universe, are invalidated by the evidence recovered from the Enterprise.

“The ESF claims that the Rosanteans were looking to fabricate casus belli, and that the Desmonds were victims if interstellar politics. When the battle broke out, the Enterprise AI reports that Kirk first saw to his wife’s safety, ensuring that she would survive the battle by placing her in stasis and ejecting her in a lifepod, and then interlocked with the ESF in order to add the meager weapons to the firefight.

“His funeral, like so many others, was held yesterday with an empty casket. He has been posthumously awarded the Star of Valor. His widow is set to accept the medal during a public ceremony later in the week.”

Gabriel shuttered, glad that he had left his spacefaring days behind him. They had truly lucked out in encountering the Yonohoans and not the Rosanteans. While the reports assured everyone that the planet itself would be safe from bombardment, they were advising that all citizens who, like Kirk Desmond, had somehow gotten hold of spacecraft to return to their surface homes.

He shut off the vehicle and got out, only for an overweight man in his late forties to run up to him with a camera.

“Mr. Nguyen, Mr. Nguyen, what do you have to say to the claims that the flagship that the Yonohoans could have turned back the attack without any loss of life?” the blogger asked.

He knew it was a blogger from the cheap camera.

“No comment,” Gabriel said, walking away.

“Do you regret finding the radio signal now that it has led to war with an interstellar empire?”

“No comment,”

“Do you--”

“No comment. No comment. No comment you fat piece of shit get out of my face goddammit I hate you people! All I fucking care about anymore is the goddamn science behind what we did and you sons of whores won’t let me do it in peace so get your fat ugly ass out of my face before I take your cheap ass camera from you and shove it up your fat ass!”

He knew the words were a mistake before he said them.

He said them anyway.

~~~~~~

Eodar’s shot landed perfectly, bouncing off the backboard and into the hoop just as he’d seen on television. He’d been watching a lot of television lately, and the night before he’d witnessed a basketball game. He recognized the hoop in the exercise yard as being made for the sport, so he had requested a ball to go with it.

He hadn’t been expecting to get one, but it had been waiting for him at the beginning of his exercise period. So he had taught himself to dribble and he was shooting from various places in the court, effectively playing horse by himself.

The news kept talking about the war.

He wanted to help.

His captors wouldn’t let him. Not just because he’d been decommissioned, but because they thought the idea of child soldiers to be reprehensible. That what High-Command had done to him was reprehensible.

What did they know? They lived in the world that had been built on the corpses of him and troopers like him. Who were they to judge what their ancestors were forced to do in order to live?

He sighed, running along the court while trying to dribble in order to distract himself from the anger.

He had gotten a second exercise period. One in the morning, and one in the evening. That was good. His body was starting to ache slightly as his strength faded and moving around helped flush his muscles of the excess proteins and the remaining nanites that were leaving his body.

He wondered if his Yonohoan doctor had told them that or if it had been their own idea.

He continued to play basketball with himself until the door opened and a guard wearing body armor appeared. The guard had weapons on his belt, nonlethal weapons, but the casual way he stood showed that he was relaxed and not expecting to use them.

“Sorry to interrupt your fun, John, but time’s up,” he said. “Leave the ball where it is. It will be waiting for you tomorrow.”

“Yes sir,” Eodar said, setting the ball aside. He submitted himself to being wanded by a metal detector before being shown back into the day room.

“You know, we’re not going to shoot you if you act like a kid more often,” the man said.

Eodar didn’t respond, just going over to where the papers were. He had loose sheets of paper on which to do the problems that his tutor assigned him, but it wasn’t time for class now. He had been thinking about the dead when he’d heard the radio talking about ‘Captain Kirk.’

He understood that this man was considered one of the honored dead. His actions were admirable not only to his own people, but to Eodar.

Thinking about the honored dead made Eodar think about his honored dead. His sworn brothers and sisters who had died before graduation. The instructors had said that they were weak, too weak to fight for humanity and not worth shedding tears over.

Eodar agreed. You do not shed tears for the honored dead.

They did not die so that you could mourn them. They died so that others might live.

That was the first time that he had come into conflict with High-Command. When they had woken in the morning after one of their procedures and found that Yulotha had died in the night, he had tried to hold a ceremony with his brothers and sisters honoring the young soldier. When the instructors had informed them that this was but the first of the casualties they would face, and that mourning was a weakness, Eodar had simply continued to say the words of honor.

Right up until they had used the punishment prod on him.

The memory of that did not stop him from doing the same thing the next time one of his classmates, sworn brothers and sisters all, had fallen.

He recalled those days, and he began to write. He knew that Olivia would read his thoughts, and he wanted her to. She was helping him to put his thoughts into order. To understand things in a new way. His view of the world was changing.

He did not think that his old view was wrong. Perhaps it had been brutal, but it had come from a brutal time. If he was to continue to serve mankind, then he must adapt to the times.

He would continue to serve. Somehow.

Even if all he did was tell his story so that others might know the sacrifices that had been made for them.

Eodar did not know who he was anymore, but he was a fighter. He would fight until the world made sense once more.

~~~~~

“Why haven’t you gone to see him?” Diego asked.

“I am uncertain whether or not I would be welcome,” Eolai admitted.

“You’re all the family he has left, aren’t you?”

“He had numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and that is including only my own line,” Eolai contradicted.

“You’re the only family that he has for lightyears, right?” Diego amended.

“Yes,” Eolai admitted reluctantly.

“So go see him. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“He could rip off my other arm,” Eolai said flatly.

Diego laughed. “No, I don’t think he can anymore.”

“I know.” Eolai sighed. “The Rosanteans are not happy that their ploy has failed. The entire universe has seen through their efforts. While my own scanning systems showed the exact same data as the Toormondas, they would assume that I am a biased party.”

“And the Toormonda is not.”

“Exactly. They have multiple levels of protection on the data that they obtain to prevent clever children from trying to falsify their scientific findings. They are not military grade, but they are universally accepted and considered impossible to alter,” Eolai explained.

“So what happens now?” Diego asked.

“I cannot give your people the weapons that they would need to hold off the empire. They will come again. Your Toormondas will bear witness to the sacrifice of the fine men and women of the ESF. Earth will be beaten back into its own atmosphere. Then the Arbiter will arrive from Andromeda. I will share all of the data that I have witnessed since arriving in this star system, and the Arbiter will find for the people of Earth. The Empire will be humiliated and forced to make numerous concessions, including assistance with rebuilding your space force.”

Eolai shrugged. “Or at least that’s the way that I see things going. Human nature dictates that no war ever goes according to plan.”

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