Christopher Nuttall: The Trafalgar Gambit

“Dad,” she said, finally. Tears were streaming down her face. “I… I thought you would never come.”

“I’m sorry,” Kurt whispered, cursing himself. He should have refused the call to return to duty, or simply deserted after it had become clear that Molly was neglecting the children. It might have been possible to transfer to one of the squadrons defending Earth, if he couldn’t leave the military altogether. “I’m so sorry.”

He should have been with his children, he told himself. He should have been with them as they struggled to escape the tidal waves and find safety elsewhere. He should have escorted them deeper inland, perhaps to their grandparents home in the Scottish Highlands, well away from the floods. Or perhaps they should have moved to one of the asteroid settlements that were heading out of the system at STL speeds.

Penny shuddered against him, then started to cry, a sound that tore at his heartstrings. She hadn’t cried like that since the day she’d managed to get lost in the countryside, when she’d been a little girl. Beside her, Gayle flopped down and sat on the muddy floor, her torn shirt showing far too much of her breasts. Rose knelt down next to her, then started to chat to her gently. Kurt ignored them as best as he could. Penny was trying to speak.

“The ground shook,” she said. “The water came so quickly we didn’t have time to run. All we could do was get upstairs and pray. The house is ruined.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kurt said. He smirked, suddenly. The emergency legislation rushed through Parliament would make sure they wouldn’t have to continue paying the mortgage now the house was effectively destroyed. “All that matters is that you’re safe.”

“We ran as soon as the waters fell away,” Penny said. “We didn’t know where to go, so we tried to head uphill. The rain came soon afterwards, catching us in the open. There were men all around us and…”

She shuddered again. Kurt stared, wondering just what had happened — and wondering if he dared ask. The news from Britain alone was a non-stop liturgy of horror. Law and order had broken down completely in vast swathes of the country, despite martial law and the deployment of armed soldiers. Refugees had been beaten, raped, shot or simply driven away by locals who considered them nothing more than plagues of locusts. Had his daughter been threatened… or raped? He didn’t want to know.

He shuddered, too. Normally, there would be therapists to help children overcome the horrors of their past. He’d never thought too highly of them even before he’d joined the military, where there was often no time to reflect on previous battles. But now, he would have happily taken Penny to see a psychologist, except there weren’t any. The millions of refugees would have to come to terms with their experiences on their own.

“We ended up here, eventually,” she concluded. “The army took Percy at once, told him that he had to help build dykes. I haven’t seen him since. Gayle… stayed here with me, but we were told she might have to go to another camp when they move us away from here.”

“I’ll do something about that,” Kurt promised, although he wasn’t sure what he could do. The emergency services were utterly overwhelmed dealing with the crisis. “What happened to your mother?”

“I don’t know,” Penny said. “She wasn’t in the house when we had to flee.”

Kurt cursed Molly under his breath. Where the hell had she been? Why hadn’t she been with her children? There should have been enough warning for her to get back home before the missiles started to strike the planet itself. But then, the road, rail and air transport networks would have been shut down as soon as the aliens entered the system. It was possible that she’d tried to make it home and failed.

And she’d left her children in the hands of a babysitter not much older than themselves.

“I wish I’d been there,” he said, truthfully. But what could he have done? Beaten his wife to force her to do as he wanted? “What do you do here?”

“Nothing,” Penny said. She waved a hand listlessly in the air. “There’s nothing to do here, apart from sit in the mud. No games, no toys… I saw a mother slap her daughter when she kept complaining about not having her VR headset. Others kept offering to go build dykes themselves, just to get out of the camp, but the soldiers refused. They said we have to stay here.”

Kurt understood. The population of Britain had been sharply reduced by the aliens. Young women who could bear children had to be protected at all costs, while men — inherently less vital — could be sent out to labour on the front lines. But it was still unpleasant to think of his daughter being kept in the camp, earmarked to serve as a brood mare if the population didn’t recover naturally. He couldn’t help wondering if female naval personnel would also be required to serve as mothers, even if they wanted to put their careers first…

You’re exaggerating , he told himself. It isn’t that bad .

But it could be, he knew. The population of Britain before the attack had been seventy million, thanks to a steady rate of emigration to Britannia and the other British possessions outside the Solar System. Now… the most optimistic estimate suggested that ten million civilians had died in the attack, with millions more likely to die in the coming months as sanitation broke down and disease spread widely. Or food supplies ran out, or were murdered by their neighbours, or shot under martial law… his imagination provided too many possibilities, none of them good. It was his duty to protect his children and he’d failed, miserably.

There was a sharp knock on the door. “Visiting hours are over,” a harsh voice snapped. “Get your arse in gear and get out of here.”

“I wish I could take you with me,” Kurt said. A mad scheme crossed his mind — take his daughter back to the spaceport, then ship her to Ark Royal — but he knew it would never work. And it would probably get himself put in front of a court martial board and shot. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

“I understand,” Penny said. She was trying to be brave, but he could see just how scared she was underneath. “And please give Percy my love.”

“I will,” Kurt said. He’d sent Percy a message, but there was no way to know if he’d read it, not now. “But if you see him first, give him my love.”

He winced at the thought. The planetary datanet had been sharply reduced ever since the attack, something he had thought to be impossible. Once upon a time, there had been nowhere on the planet where someone couldn’t log into the datanet and do everything from send v-mails to download VR simulations for their headsets. Now… Penny’s world had been sharply reduced, until all she knew was inside the wire. She couldn’t send a message to her brother, let alone her friends… if any of them were still alive. He didn’t want to know.

Penny held him for a long moment, then started to cry again. Kurt kissed her forehead, then gently disengaged her from his body and half-carried her towards the door. Outside, the rain was falling harder. The predictions he’d seen, he recalled as he put Penny down, had suggested that it would be weeks before all the vaporised water in the upper atmosphere finally washed its way to the ground. He watched the two girls as they hurried back towards one of the shelters, then turned and walked back through the gates to the ATV. The soldiers saluted as they climbed into the vehicle and left.

“She offered herself to some thugs,” Rose said. There was a sombre tone in her voice, very unlike her normal demeanour. “They would have raped them both otherwise.”