Beyond Light

Renegades.

“Commander? Are you alright? Can you stand up?” Com. Officer Jeffrey Emmerson extended his hand. He, Mike, and Xi had left the cockpit to witness the revealing reality warp their commander had just come out. Everyone still was in the vehicle deposit, except Supervisor Ivanovich, who had disappeared for some reason.

“...Yeah, thanks,” John sobbed his head. The headache didn’t disappear. He took Jeffrey’s hand and got up.

“Anyone feeling like s**t too?" asked Doctor Winslow, hitting his own chest. "Come with me after this to the Medbay. Can give you something for the pain."

Yui and Derek got up too, wearing the same worn faces as John and Heinrich. Valva and Manak didn’t look affected, their straight stances of calming dominance remaining unaffected.

“You get used once you use warps enough, humans,” said Valva. “It’s a matter of time.”

“The device,” inquired Doctor Weiber. “does it work anymore?”

He got closer to the table and put his hands on the console, but the lilac light on the disk had disappeared. Nothing happened when he touched it.

“The AI shut himself down, Doctor,” Yui said, with a slightly sad tone. “He’s dead.”

“Dead?” joined LIBRA. AIs were one of his favorite conversation subjects. “Some might disagree, although you aren’t entirely wrong. What differentiates a self-aware being from an organic one when they are terminated?”

“LIBRA, we can talk later about philosophical matters,” said John. “Got a more important matter right now. I think everyone saw and listened to what we did. It’s not necessary to tell you about it.”

Everyone looked hesitating yet understanding of their situation. There was something to be done. John knew that even if they had the option to go back to the Solar System, none of them would have preferred to leave. They were combatants, even if some weren’t soldiers or didn’t have military training. He felt glad to know his crew.

But there were always exceptions. The one aboard the Beyond Light didn’t wait to let know her disagreement. “So, what happens now?” asked Bella Diaz. “Commander Star, what are you going to do now?”

“Is not it obvious? We are staying. We’ll go back to Vita Nova, find those generators, and shut down Goliath to oblivion like the delusional machine it is.”

“Commander,” interrupted Doctor Weiber. “The device. It turned on again! Look.”

The light on the center of the device shined in lilac again. A holographic projection got shot up. It was the highly detailed image of Hawking-616e, spinning slowly on its own axis and rings, its three moons moving in accordance. Hawking-616e I, the lava world, orbited in a retrograde orbit.

Each moon was signaled with one floating line on specific spots, where a waving circle stood. The ringed planet was signaled by three of them, one in a green spot, another one in a desertic one, and the last one near the north pole.

“The locations of the six generators,” said Yui. “John, the AI didn’t lie. This device will guide us to them!”

“Very nice,” John slowly nodded. “Well, we have our next objective—”

“Star?” Bella Diaz growled again. “We can’t do something as stupid as staying. The mission protocol is over. We’ve discovered what happened to the Eternity of Return and who attacked him. We must return to the Solar System and report. Now.”

John swirled his eyes and looked up for a moment. Everyone did the same annoyed mannerism and traded looks and negations with the head.

“Returning? Bella, I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but we are not doing that. You saw what that AI showed us. Goliath is gonna track us if we return, and then everyone is doomed. Everyone. It’s all gonna over. Only we can do something. We stay. That’s my final word.”

He turned around and looked at Valva. He still needed to ask them what happened between them now, were they going to help or—

“Star!” yelled Bella. “We must report back! The mission is over! We have no opportunity against that monster. An INSU fleet will come and take care of it.”

John sighed with annoyance. He was about to yell too. “Bella, are you stupid? The INSU can’t send a fleet here, and much less they can defeat Goliath. They’ll never listen to us anyway. They are too busy playing their political games with the PFSR. Only we got a chance. Everyone depends on us.”

“You should listen to your leader, human,” said Valva. “the fall of our homeworld started just like that. Anuk tracked ships to our system, and then it was too late to do anything. Few survived, and—”

“Don’t tell me what to do, you goddamn aliens!” Bella lost it. “It’s all a mistake to have you here in the first place. What if you are with that monster? Respond now!”

Manak took a step ahead and growled. So did the rest of Soku behind, but Valva launched them a short growl of staying calm.

“The Solar System is safe,” the angered supervisor continued, talking as if she was descending into her own madness. “we’ll be safe there. We return, and the INSU takes care of the rest. Commander Star. Let’s return. Now!”

“No,” John sharply responded. He turned his attention to Valva once again. “About our—”

“Star!” shrieked again Diaz. Everyone opened their jaws and took a step back as the unmistakable click of an AM1 pistol sounded.

John turned around, and the dark-toned woman had not yielded a bit. She pointed at him with her personal weapon, her finger on the trigger, and her white teeth showing like the ones of a fighting dog. The barrel pointed directly to his armored chest.

“What are you doing?!” asked John loudly. “Put that down!”

“Things are getting interesting inside here for once,” mocked Doctor Winslow.

“Shut up!” cried Bella. “I tried to reason with you, but you have broken the mission protocol. As per the conduct directive of article 43, section 4, you must mutiny from your commanding position, and should be executed shall you no—”

‘BAM’. Three growling whistles echoed through the ample deposit, making most people in there hop on their position and step back. Bella flinched on herself, turned her eyes up, and plummeted to the diamond metal floor, her weapon falling at John’s feet.

Three holes transversed the white uniform and flash of her back, spreading blood away. Katiya Ivanovich appeared behind, looking at the agonizing woman with her AM1 up, saving it in her belt. Her face never changed its cold, stoic expression.

“Oh my frigging god,” hopped Mike. “What the hell did just happen?”

“Katiya? What the hell did you just do?!” asked John.

“She was not going to resign, Commander. She was putting not only her own life at risk, but everyone else’s too. Especially the captain’s life. There was no other way.”

Heinrich moved to the laying Bella, kneeling and turning her up. Blood came out from her nose and mouth. Her eyes twitched. She tried to say something but only mumbles came out as she drowned in her own blood. Her eyes eventually numbed and stared nowhere. Her body stopped trembling, adopting the relaxed pose of a ragdoll.

“She’s gone,” Heinrich squeezed his lips.

“Insubordinates,” said Valva with a sigh. “they never end up good.”

“Damn, man,” Mike looked at John. “we’re going to be in trouble. If we ever return to the Solar System and they realize we murdered her, everything’s going to s**t. They’ll accuse us of treason. Hopkins will have his reason to go to war.”

“And we killed his puppet,” said Jeffrey. “We’ll end up in a military jail if they don’t execute us first!”

“Goddamnit,” John grabbed his head and looked up, grabbing the most oxygen he could. “Katiya, you didn’t have to do that! It was all under control.”

“Under control?” the blonde woman raised one eyebrow. “Commander, she refused to listen, despite having proofs in her face. She pointed her weapon at you. Threatening a commanding officer with a weapon is a highly-punishable offense in the PFSR.”

“'Haps we can fake up a story,” said Heinrich. “Those robots or insectoids got her down.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said John. “If Hopkins ever learns of this we are screwed.”

“Why?” asked Xi Liang. “The cameras are witnesses. They don’t lie. She threatened to harm her commander, and as such, was put down. Safety measures. Besides, there's something much more important now, even if it's not in our mission.”

“If only Hopkins thought like that…” whispered John.

“Politicians,” Doctor Weiber rolled his eyes. “All the goddamn same. This kid saw it coming.”

“Well, more reasons to not return yet,” said Heinrich in a careless tone. “No one has a clue of what’s happened here back on the solar system, but if we can’t cover up this mess, we can consider ourselves renegades already. Back to my old life of crime…”

“What happens now?” asked Yuri.

John took a moment to respond, cursing inside his mind. Damn. Diaz was dead. Admiral Hopkins would have excuses in supply to accuse them of treason and make the INSU go to war with the PFSR. And she was right; they broke the mission protocol and were ought to return. Nothing good expected them once they went back home.

He took a deep breath, gaining his senses and reason again. There would not be home to return if they came back with the menace of the Absorber still around. They had to continue. Goliath didn’t care who killed each other.

“Alright. Take out the body. Throw it through the edge of the station. She committed treason the moment she threatened her crewmates and captain.”

Derek put his finger on his earcom and ordered his soldiers to do so. They shortly arrived, put Bella inside a bag, and left the Beyond Light. A maintenance drone came to clean the blood and disinfect the floor. And before everyone dispersed and returned to their working places, John spoke to the Soku. He needed to be sure what role they were going to play or not.

“Valva? What are you going to do now? This is not your battle. Goliath is coming for us, not—”

“Not our battle?” interrupted the towering Soku. “Commander John Star, this became our fight ever since that monster attacked our system, destroyed our brothers, colonies, and took over our homeworld. You don’t need to ask. We are willing to help you. Anuk won’t fall without knowing that the Soku didn’t give up. Let’s take him down together.”

His wide mouth stretched, forming a gorillian smile on his face. His Soku behind growled in enthusiasm. John smiled too, looking at the small, hazel eyes of Valva. He nodded and extended his hand. The alien engulfed it with his gauntlet and shook it harder than he would have expected or liked.

He felt glad to have met them; they were going to need the Soku’s help even if they didn’t admit it, or how things between humanity and them were with the Eternity of Return.

The aliens had much more experience with Aleos, had three ships more powerful than the Beyond Light, and could help them with the repairs. More ships also meant moving faster and being able to be at different locations at the same time. If that AI was true, it was time to activate those generators and doom Goliath once and for all.

They could not only let down everyone back in the Solar System but the Masdians too; that extinct alien race called Masdians gave their lives so they could have a chance.