Darren Wearmouth - Critical Path

He gasped as Gregor’s knee slipped up to his chin. “I’ve never seen you before.”

Gregor reached down and grabbed Ben’s mouth, clamping it shut. “This might encourage you to talk.”

He pulled up Ben’s wrist and held the candle below it. Ben tried to thrash free, but Gregor’s grip held him in place. Nobody would hear his muffled screams. “I’m going to let go of you now. If you shout, I will do this to you for hours. Do you understand?”

Ben mumbled something, nodded, and took a few rapid breaths.

“Start talking.”

“I don’t know who you are. Honestly.”

Remembering Ben’s former history as Charlie’s spy, Gregor felt a sudden surge of anger. “You’re going to continue denying it?”

“Seriously. I don’t know you—”

Gregor clamped his hands around Ben’s throat and squeezed with as much force as he could muster.

Spittle sprayed into Ben’s reddening face through the gaps in Gregor’s clenched rotten teeth. He dropped the candle to the dirt floor and pulled out the dagger.

This would have to be quick.

He didn’t want to get caught down here and needed to get back to the ludus with the new information—but he’d have enough time for a little fun.

Gregor thumped his fist against the ludus gate. A small hatch swung open, and Augustus’ spy appeared in the gap and led him through.

Augustus turned a black prism around in his hands and appeared deep in thought. “Did you do the deed? The guard said you have information for me?”

“No, the Jacksons were there. Talking with Hagellan. The freak was sitting on a damned throne.”

Augustus snorted. “That’s about right. Delusions of grandeur. Thought he’d rule the galaxy, you know? How little he truly knows.”

Gregor shrugged and started to tell him about what he had heard during the conversation, and what little information he could get out of that Ben lookalike.

“They talked about a jump gate?” Augustus said as he listened, all the while running his fingers over his little prism stone, presumably some good luck charm from Roman times.

“Something about a mission to blow up a jump gate in a repaired ship. The rest was just some bullshit about peace and cooperation.”

Augustus sat back in his chair. “You know what this is, Gregor? All this talk of other worlds and jump gates?”

“Why don’t you enlighten me?”

“It’s a trap. They’ll take the Jacksons up and drop them out of the sky. Revenge for their antics. They want every capable person out of the way so they can take me and my supporters out.”

“What do you want me to do now?”

“Hagellan still needs to die, but I need to decide on the right time. But it’ll be soon, Gregor, soon.”

Denver reclined into the chair and sipped at the steaming mug of tea as Charlie paced back and forth across the living room of the cabin.

“What’s up?” Denver asked.

Charlie stopped and turned to face his son. His face taut with tension. “I just don’t trust Hagellan. Who the hell is he going to put in as his third choice? If it’s Augustus…”

“I don’t know, I just can’t see Hagellan taking him along. The guy’s a liability, from what you’ve been telling me. And it’s not like he’s going down well with the locals if what Ryan is saying is true.”

Charlie scratched at the straggly stubble on his chin. “That’s a fair point. But I hate having to have faith in these alien bastards. It’s such a risk to believe them like this.”

Denver stood and faced his father. “What’s the alternative? Disbelieve them, stay here, and then what? What if there is a chance that they’re telling the truth about this destroyer ship? Could you, or I, for that matter, live with ourselves knowing we had a chance to do something and didn’t take it?”

Smiling, Charlie shook his head. “You’re a good kid. You’ve grown a lot, you know, since I left. I think it did you good to be without me for a while.”

“I don’t know about that. I’d rather you hadn’t had to go.”

“Still, the time brought you closer to Layla and the others. Much better to have other people to talk to than your crazy old man.”

Denver laughed and sipped his tea. “You ain’t crazy. It’s this whole world that is.”

“Well, if Hagellan can be trusted, it seems we’ll be having the opportunity to try out a new world. And you know, I have to be honest, that does appeal to me. I’m intrigued to see what this other place is like, see exactly how the alien bastards live.”

“Will we even be able to breathe there?”

“They’ve got us breathing apparatus. The atmosphere isn’t too different to Earth,” Charlie said. “The croatoans aren’t dissimilar to us in regards to what kind of planets they can survive on. Apparently, all their planets are Earthlike to some degree or another.”

“That makes sense, I suppose. Want a brew?”

“Sure, thanks.”

Denver thought about the challenges they would face as he headed into the kitchen. Even if they could destroy this jump gate or whatever it was and stop the destroyer—and other ships—from coming to Earth, what of the gate world itself? They’d be trapped there with a destroyer, presumably full of croatoans, not to mention the aliens on the planet already. They’d likely be fugitives—even if Hagellan didn’t conspire to kill them after the deed was done.

Unless he killed Hagellan first.

And Baliska.

He’d talk with Mike about taking some other concealed weapons along for the ride. If he had the opportunity, he’d have to take it.

When Denver returned to the living room with a fresh mug of tea, Charlie approached the window and placed his palm over his eyes to block out the glare from the afternoon sun.

“What is it?” Denver asked.

Charlie turned and grinned before opening the door. “It’s them; Mike and the others are here.”

Denver placed the tea on the table and rushed to the door. Down the three tiers and in the courtyard area he watched as an adapted harvester and three hover-bikes landed. Mike and Mai got out of the harvester and whirled around, taking in the sight of Unity with their usual curious expressions of wonder and awe.

Ryan, their guard, had made his way down the steps toward them. When he got to them, he turned and pointed up at the cabin. Denver and Charlie waved down at the others. Layla, Maria, Mike and Mai set off, escorted by Ryan, and joined the others in the cabin.

As they all made their greetings, Charlie and Mike and Mai were especially pleased to see each other. They arranged the furniture around the small table so that everyone could sit down as they discussed the plans and what was needed.

“So this is what they need, eh?” Mike said, scanning the datapad of parts and blueprints Hagellan had given to them. He read the details, humming and nodding his head as he took in the information. “As alien as they are, their power sources still work with our known physics, and it’s quite self-explanatory why this ship of theirs won’t work.”

“It might need calibration, assuming we can recover the parts from the wreckage,” Charlie added.

“They’re providing some of their junior engineers to help,” Denver said.

“Good, good,” Mike responded as he tapped a finger against his lips, thinking over what was required.

As he and Charlie got further into the discussions of how the repairs to the Unity ship would happen, Denver caught Maria staring at him. He got up and joined her and Layla on a beaten-up old sofa. “You okay?” Denver asked.

“Yeah, just nervous about all of this,” Maria said. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”