Anne Winchell - The Last War

Atheus would expect her to kill this intruder, she thought, but her hands were paralyzed by the memory of killing and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to kill, not without a weapon.

Kaela drew in a shuddering breath as the computer screen faded to black and sparks started to fly from the electronics. The man grabbed her shoulder and pushed her through the doorway into the hall, forcibly steering her towards the nearest emergency exit. She was shocked to see a small airship docked outside. How had that escaped the sensors? A crash from behind them and the lights went off. The building was black and the sun was starting to set.

The thought of everyone on the base freezing to death in a powerless, sunless trap snapped Kaela out of her stupor and she shoved the man’s arm away. She landed a solid punch in his gut and knocked the gun out of his hand. He twisted her arm behind her back as the gun slowly settled to the ground. Artificial gravity was off. Kaela flinched as something surrounded her head but it was a helmet, and she was too surprised about being alive to keep fighting as he opened the exit. He should have opened the exit first, then the lack of oxygen would have killed her. But he seemed to want to avoid having to kill her even now.

“The base will be fine,” his muffled voice said from behind her. “Life support is still functioning, only the nonvital systems were disabled.”

The small airship was two nearly weightless steps from the exit. The man shoved her into the passenger seat. He securely strapped her into the seat and pulled himself to the pilot seat, strapping himself in while starting the takeoff sequence. Less than a minute later the engine rumbled and her stomach turned. It felt like the pressure of takeoff flung her organs backwards and she shut her eyes and held her breath to stay conscious, but it had been too long since her body had been under this much stress. She blacked out.

Raven set the ship in a gentle descent and checked on the woman. Strong pulse, just knocked out. He probably shouldn’t have accelerated so quickly, but he hadn’t wanted to take any chances getting off the moon. Raven glanced out the window back towards the dark moon. Scott was there with the rest of the Eastern World press. Raven had gone to the moon to visit his friend, since they rarely saw each other outside of work. Scott’s wife, Lydia, worked on the moon and Raven hadn’t seen her in years. It was supposed to be a purely social visit, a chance to be with people who didn’t have ulterior motives for hanging out with him. Raven couldn’t remember the last time he had been able to relax with friends. Scott was the only real friend that he had; everyone else just wanted to use him for their own gain.

But when Raven had snuck onto the moon base, he couldn’t help taking a look at the classified quadrants. Scott regularly visited Lydia on the moon but Raven had never been there before. Raven technically had access to the base because of his connection with the government, but Medane had set down very strict rules limiting Raven’s authority. Within those limits Raven could do anything—steal, destroy, kill—but if he violated those rules, Raven was on his own.

Medane had specifically forbidden Raven from going to the moon. Even though both world governments controlled the base, the researchers stationed there were loyal to Atheus, and therefore off limits to Raven. He was taking a chance coming to the moon. If he were caught, Medane wouldn’t be able to protect him from the Western World’s retaliation. Luckily, though, Raven had not been caught. He was extremely pleased with how easily he had broken into the mainframe, and the woman’s appearance had given him the handprint he needed to completely destroy the moon’s scientific records. There would be copies and backup data that he hadn’t managed to delete, but hopefully Raven had been able to set illegal research back years.

The woman next to him stirred and opened almond-brown eyes. She wasn’t beautiful by most standards, but something about her was eerily familiar and he couldn’t stop looking at her triangular face, wide nose, and lowered brow. Almost like his, and perhaps that was why she seemed familiar. Taking her was a mistake, he knew. It was impulsive and exactly the type of thing that Scott always said led to all of Raven’s problems, but the benefits of getting rid of bad science and rescuing an apparent damsel in distress far outweighed the possible negative consequences. At least Raven hoped they did. The moon would only be disabled until the servers were physically destroyed through overheating. Raven had created a temporary inconvenience that would erase years of dangerous scientific advancements and possibly prevent another war.

“Who are you,” she asked weakly.

Raven unlocked his safety strap and turned to face her directly. “My name is Raven.”

She must have recognized the name because her eyes widened and she was silent. He wondered what rumors she had heard about him. There were a great many out there, and only a few of the rumors were true. Medane started some of the rumors to protect Raven, or so he said, but Raven couldn’t see how his reputation as a hired assassin for the United Eastern World could be protection. People knew that he killed and assumed he was a murderer, since Kaonism allowed no other options. No one could understand the calculations and moral questioning that went behind each hit, and no one aside from Medane and Scott realized that Raven’s ultimate motivation was to protect as many people as possible.

The woman didn’t say anything for a long time, then shrugged as if accepting the inevitable. She probably thinks that I’m going to kill her, Raven thought bitterly. Even though I’ve done nothing to harm her.

“I’m Kaela. Did Medane send you?”

“No,” Raven said, wondering how she knew Medane. He vaguely recognized her name. Kaela, one of Atheus’ people. Off limits, like everything belonging to Atheus. But he hadn’t known that at first.

“Then why did you destroy the moon records? Why didn’t you kill me? I could see Medane wanting the research destroyed and me off the moon, but why do you care?”

“It… needed to be done,” Raven said.

If she thought Medane had a motive, then Medane might get blamed for Raven’s actions. This was exactly why Medane had restricted his movement in the first place, Raven knew. To prevent misunderstandings and potential conflicts that were bound to occur if Raven acted on his own while on the government’s payroll. He tried to stay composed and calm. Once he talked to Medane and explained his actions, Medane could come up with some way out of the situation. It wouldn’t be the first time Medane had paid the consequences of Raven’s impulsiveness.

He looked at Kaela and wondered how she could be so calm. Unless she, like him, was pretending to remain collected while secretly panicking. If Atheus interpreted Raven’s actions as a direct attack on the Western World—and Raven was starting to consider this as a possibility—then Medane would have no choice but to get rid of Raven. Worst of all, Raven knew that the next time he saw Scott and had to explain why he hadn’t stayed for a visit on the moon, Scott would be perfectly justified in saying that Raven’s actions were hasty and irresponsible. Scott was always right, and just once Raven wanted to be able to show his friend that he could make good, sound decisions that ended up helping people, not hurting them. But so far, Raven’s life was one mistake after another, with Scott and Medane continually picking up the pieces.

Raven’s call came at the worst possible time for Medane. Atheus had just sent a message demanding to know why the moon colony wasn’t sending regular reports. Atheus had issued various threats and Medane had ignored them, safe in the knowledge that he had nothing to do with whatever was happening on the moon. Until Raven had appeared in his screen with Kaela at his side, contacting him from inner orbit. Medane had cleared them for immediate landing at the capitol building, normally not allowed for outer-atmosphere travel but it would get Raven here quickly.