Chi-Young

#

Chi-Young sat in the briefing room and rubbed his eyes to try to stay alert. He had taken the grave yard shift again. He always struggled to sleep, but over the last few days it had been impossible. They had taken a risk by putting information in the dump. A calculated one, given there shouldn't be any reason anyone would search through the ledgers of the Mandrake, but it still made him nervous.

The Constitution was breathing down their necks--one slip up, and this whole endeavour would fall apart. He could almost sense the keen gaze of Martinez on him through the viewport, but so far they seemed to be in the clear. There had been no unusual activity by the Alliance flagship barring the offer to share some technical support crew to both assist with the repairs and replenish the Mandrake's numbers after the attack. Hamasa had been a bit too eager in trying to make things convincing.

He sighed and moved to stand in front of the viewport to get a good view of the stars. Allison told him that it helped him relax and gain perspective on things, but Chi-Young never found it helped. It just reinforced his sense of insignificance before the scale of the split Allison was trying to organise. Billions if not trillions of lives would be permanently altered by what they were planning. He couldn't get his head around the implications, so his subconscious left him with an ever increasing anxiety that it was all about to come crashing down instead.

They had come close before. Allison had told him how difficult it was to sound out prospective allies after the test in the Auldearn system. Under the guise of a last minute inspection of the mining operations on the Admiral's homeworld, Partheus, he had taken the Mandrake straight from Auldearn to meet with the leader of the planet. Allison had told them about the test and fanned the first flames of secession in the prime minister's mind. Between them, they gained support from several other nearby worlds, all on the far side of the Perseus Arm, and all with the means to be self sufficient should they be cut off from the Alliance. It was Allison's grand vision--an independent coalition of self governing systems away from the Alliance. It was that vision that Chi-Young had bought into.

Not everyone had, though. He remembered a woman that he and Allison had approached--a Commander Ledoux. Allison did extensive research before agreeing to transfers onto his ship to make sure as much as possible that his senior officers at least would be sympathetic to his cause.

Everything on Ledoux's file checked out. She was from the same planet as Allison and had parents who had been imprisoned for protesting against the Alliance regime on the planet. But when the pair of them had approached her, it transpired that Ledoux herself had been the one to turn her parents in. Faced with that situation, Allison arranged for her to suffer an 'accident' while on a routine hopper mission. They couldn't risk anyone blowing the whistle on their efforts, but he still had nightmares about the things he and Allison had done to keep the secret. It was yet another reason he didn't fathom the leeway Allison gave Garrick. The Admiral may believe that he had everything worked out--Garrick unwittingly sowing discord and confusion in the Alliance to distract their enemies from the true plot.

Eventually that would come back to bite them.

There was a knock on the door which gave him an excuse to turn away from the view and his troubled thoughts. Chi-Young saw Ensign Kassem outside the briefing room, so he waved her in. He liked Ensign Kassem, and she knew not to disturb him unless it was urgent.

"Sorry to bother you sir. We have an issue." She looked terrified. "Commander Karn is on the bridge. He's brought a unit with him, and they're demanding to see you."

Chi-Young's heart sank. So this is it, then. "Did he say what about?"

"This is it, sir." She looked pale.

Chi-Young was an experienced enough commander to know that he had to appear in control, no matter how frightened he himself was. "We've trained for this, don't worry. Have you informed the Admiral?"

"Yes Captain. Peters signalled him the moment Karn asked."

Chi-Young swelled with pride. "Then let us meet Commander Karn." He took a moment to compose himself and followed Kassem out the briefing room to see what fate awaited them all.

#

Garrick

#

Garrick watched Chi-Young walk onto the bridge. He had waited for this moment, anticipated it even, and could barely keep still for the energy coursing through him. To have caught Chi-Young in such a blatant crime had shocked him. Garrick had thought it would be more difficult to prove the Captain's guilt, but here he was, standing on the bridge without so much as a hint of remorse. That would soon change.

Chi-Young sat down, crossed his legs and stretched out his arms before acknowledging that Garrick was there. "Can I help you, Commander Karn?" He smiled placidly which only infuriated Garrick further.

"Captain Chi-Young." Garrick steeled himself. "I'm here to relieve you of command." The bridge crew all froze and stared at Garrick, but he paid them no heed. He fixed his stare on Chi-Young.

"On what grounds, Commander?" Chi-Young was unmoved.

"For abetting the insurgents through the leaking of classified information. You attached the location of the Forge in a ledger dump that the Mandrake transmitted 92 hours ago--I traced it myself. I've informed the Secretary General. A contingent of marines is aboard the Mandrake and already taking control of the ship's key systems." They hadn't noticed that the so-called support crews from the Constitution were not technicians.

Chi-Young adjusted his sleeve before responding. "May I ask, why were you looking through the dumps?"

"So you don't deny it?" Garrick spat.

"I asked a question, Commander."

Garrick bit down a retort and decided it didn't hurt to play along. "Very well, Captain. I'll explain why. I had my suspicions about you since Sorrel Bank. It was too convenient that insurgents attacked the station after PO Silas told you the location. I set a program to monitor outgoing transmissions--it flagged the ledger."

"I'm impressed. I warned the Admiral that you would be a hindrance rather than a help, but he insisted that we could trust you."

That gave Garrick pause. What did Allison have to do with this?

Chi-Young continued. "He'll be here soon so you can talk to him about it."

"The Admiral at this moment should be secured in his quarters by the marines, waiting for interrogation by the Secretary General's mediators. I'm here to escort you to the detention centre."

Chi-Young laughed. "Commander, I think you'll find that the Mandrake is more than prepared to deal with any attempt to take control. I'm sure the Admiral is safe, and I will not be joining you in the detention centre."

Garrick drew his side arm and aimed it at Chi-Young. "I won't ask you again." His heart pounded.

"Put the weapon down, Garrick." Chi-Young wasn't smiling anymore.

Garrick nodded at his backup. "Take the Captain into custody." To his horror, they didn't move. "That's an order!" Still nothing. He swung his gun around to point security officers behind him. "Do as I say!"

"That's enough, Commander." Chi-Young stood up. "Put the weapon down and we can talk."

Garrick jerked his aim between the Captain and the immovable officers who had betrayed him. "What is happening here?"

"I think you may have misread the situation." Chi-Young took a step towards him.

Nothing in Garrick's worst nightmares could prepare him for what was playing out before him. He felt like a cornered animal. Why was no one listening to him? They couldn't all be traitors--could they?

One of the security officers made a sudden move to grab Garrick's gun, but he was expecting it. As the officer lunged towards him, he shot her in the face without hesitation. She crumpled to the floor, broken, leaving behind the smell of burnt hair and the screams of her comrades. He knew he didn't have long, so he took advantage of the confusion to grab one of the other security officers and put his gun to the struggling man's head.

"I'll kill him Garrick was breathless. "You're all traitors." The man struggled so Garrick pushed the gun hard into the man's temple. The protests stopped, so Garrick steered the man towards the door. Two other officers stood to block his path. "Get out of my way."

"Garrick, listen to me." Chi-Young held his hands out like he was trying to calm a wild beast. "We don't want to hurt you. Let's talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about." The fear and rage threatening to overwhelm him seeped into his voice.

"You can't get off this ship alive--"

"Wait until the Admiral hears about this." It was Garrick's last desperate roll of the dice.

"Garrick, the Admiral is leading us in this." Chi-Young's voice was almost pitying. "He's the one that is pushing for independence."

His entire world crumbled before him. Allison, the man who had rescued him from near certain death, the man who had showed him of the vital role the Alliance played in keeping order. He had been his role model, his hero even. That man had betrayed him--Garrick hadn't wanted to believe it, but here it was, plain as day.

The pain of the betrayal was a knife through his heart. He wanted to kill as many of those stood before him before they gunned him down, but he knew he couldn't--he had a job to do. He had to stop whatever was going on here now before it spread. Unless it already has.

A chill went down his spine.

The two officers still blocked Garrick's path. "Get away from the lift. I won't ask you again."

"Commander." Chi-Young took a couple more steps forward. "Please, don't do this."

Garrick ignored him. Still the men barred his way, so he shot the nearest one. He too collapsed in a smoking pile of seared flesh. More shouts filled the bridge as he stepped inside the lift but stood on the edge to prevent the door from closing. He shot once at the ceiling to get everyone's attention. "If anyone disrupts this lift, this man here dies slowly and painfully." To emphasise the point, Garrick dialled down the power on the gun and shot the security officer in the foot. The man howled with pain. Chi-Young's face was pale, with all the confidence and joviality he was showing earlier having vanished.

Good. I hope he suffers.

Garrick stepped back into the lift and allowed the doors to close in front of him. According to the plan he had agreed with the marines, they would take over engineering so if worst came to the worst they would trigger a core overload and destroy the ship. He hadn't heard from them, but they were elite Alliance marines. Even if the engineering crews put up a fight, it shouldn't be too much problem for them, so his task needed to be to send a message to the Constitution. With communications most likely now on lockdown, his best bet was to take a ship out of the hanger and use that to transmit a message out.

When the lift reached the required floor, he pulled the still screaming security officer along towards the hanger. To his surprise, there wasn't anyone waiting for him. Garrick expected that Chi-Young would have had something waiting for him. Though once he reached the hanger and peered around the entrance he saw why there had been no attempt to prevent him. Admiral Allison stood about ten paces inside, flanked by seven armed security officers. The Admiral was in uniform despite being on his night cycle, and he stood with his arms loosely at his side. Garrick saw the side arm affixed to Allison's hip.

He ducked his head back away from the entrance to the hanger. He was stuck with no where to go and no idea what to do.

"Garrick," Allison called out to him. "Let Chernekov go and we can talk about this."

It took Garrick a moment to respond. "Was he telling the truth?"

"Who?"

"Chi-Young. When he said you were in on this."

"That's right." No hesitation from Allison. "There is more at stake here than you realise."

Garrick felt like someone had punched him in the gut. His hands shook, the gun pressed against Chernekov's head wobbled.

"The Alliance is failing, Garrick, it's plain as day for anyone to see. I won't let my world suffer any longer. You of all people should understand that. Put the gun down and I can explain."

"I can't do that." Garrick shook his head, not that Allison could see.

"And I can't allow you off my ship."

"I'll kill him," Garrick said. "I'll kill Chernekov."

"This is a cause that is more important than the life of any one man," Allison said. His tone suggested there wouldn't be any more conversation.

There was nothing for it. Garrick shot Chernekov, fired two shots around the corner at Allison and his officers, and ran. He didn't see what happened to Allison, but he had bigger problems now than trying to catch him. Garrick would make him suffer for what he had done, but that would have to wait. The fate of the Alliance was at stake.