Savage World E-Book

Jennifer Slusher

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The Earth is no more. Escaping the premature nova of Sol, humanity's last survivors flee their doomed home using an experimental drive that takes them to the far side of the galaxy.

With ten thousand survivors, dwindling resources and rapidly diminishing hope, the fleet is on the verge of breaking point. Gaia, their new home, offers one last chance of survival for the human race.

But when Major Tom Merrick and Captain Juliana Curran lead the expedition to explore this new frontier, they learn that Gaia is a world fraught with peril and deadly secrets.

Leseprobe

Savage World

Babel Series Book 1

Jennifer Slusher and Linda Thackeray

Copyright (C) 2018 Jennifer Slusher and Linda Thackeray

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2022 by Next Chapter

Published 2022 by Next Chapter

Cover art by Cover Mint

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author's permission.

I Sharks

“Tommy please! Open the door!”

Lisa's scream was muted by the seal of the airlock door and while he couldn't hear her, it was easy to tell what she was saying. Tom stared helplessly at her, feeling each dull thud of her fists against the small window as if they were stabs to his own heart.

An explosion thumped behind Lisa and belched a ball of plasma fire. Under any other circumstances, the electric blue columns of flame rushing towards her might have been considered beautiful, but at this moment, it gripped him with horror. Death reached the others behind her first, devouring their flesh with such ferocity, they barely had time to scream before disintegrating into the wall of fire.

At that moment, Tom saw the realization dawn on his lover's face. In the seconds before the plasma engulfed her, heat so intense any sweat was sucked dry, Lisa nodded. She understood. She knew. Jesus fucking Christ, she knew…

… and then she was gone, swallowed up in swirling tongues of sapphire heat. Tom thought he saw her start to scream but the sound never penetrated the roar of the fire or the thick safety hatch. Her gold hair, which he so relished between his fingertips during their lovemaking, ignited, giving her the halo, she used to swear she'd never earn. For a second, the mottled greenish blue hue of the fire gave his Lisa wings before enveloping her completely. From an angel to a living candle, fair skin now translucent and burning out too damn soon.

Later, he would curse himself for not acting faster and spare her the pain, but it didn't matter; he would pay for his sin every night in his dreams. Not for failing to save her, but because he let her burn.

And she'd known, she'd forgiven him in her last moment for his ultimate betrayal.

* * *

“TOMMYYYYYYYYYY!!”

Major Thomas Ian Merrick sat up in a cold sweat, shaking like a dog shitting razor blades, head pounding, trying to remember where the fuck he was. For a few seconds, he was still on that blazing ship, trying to save it as the plasma fire consumed the engineering deck. As the nightmare diminished, the scattered neurons in his brain regrouped to remind him where he was.

In a supply closet. Or, rather, his supply closet. In a whole other nightmare.

The closet had become 'his' because he'd commandeered the space to get a little privacy from the rest of the ship. The tiny room reeked of disinfectant and dust, with barely enough space to sit down or stretch one's legs. His back was pressed against a shelf, the edges digging into his shoulder, but it locked from the inside and, as far as Tom was concerned, it was fucking heaven. Beyond that door was hell.

He needed solitude and, on this ship, packed to the rafters with the remains of human civilisation, privacy was a luxury no one had in abundance. When he stepped past the door, he would return to the overcrowded, transformed cargo space he shared with the rest of his company. Once upon a time, a company commander could be assured of his own private quarters, but those days were over. Space on any ship in the fleet was at a premium and his comfort was not a priority.

In here, surrounded by the shelves of cleaning fluid, rags, and other janitorial necessities, Tom could hear the ever-constant hum of the ship's engines through the walls. Until this voyage, he never realised how much he loathed that bloody sound, now it added to the unquiet chaos on the decks of the ship.

At least in here, he was given a temporary reprieve from the noise, where he could drink himself into a stupor and not think about Lisa, the woman he was forced to sacrifice to save the ship.

* * *

A short time later, he got to his feet, legs tingling uncomfortably until the circulation resumed normal programming. Clusters of pain pulsed in his temples and the rotgut he'd been drinking had left a dead cat in his mouth. Steadying himself against the steel bulkhead, he searched the floor and found his grey, sweat stained t-shirt and pulled it on. Running his fingers over his close-cropped dark hair, he tried to fake some semblance of grooming, even if there wasn't much there to put right in the first place. After a similar inspection of his face made him realized he was in desperate need of a shave, he frowned. Water, like everything else on board was rationed to the point where two-minute showers were considered a luxury and no one would dare suggest using any of it for a shave.

Probably why all the women on board were wearing long pants and granny knickers.

The thought made him snigger until he stepped into the chaos outside.

* * *

In its day, the HMS Rutherford was a strictly military transport ship. She spent her time ferrying soldiers from one end of the system to the other, chasing down those mad Earth First bastards who were determined to halt mankind's colonisation of Sol by any means necessary. This usually meant disrupting mining operations on Calisto or the Ananke Cluster by using bombs and other acts of terror.

The Rutherford, or Ruthie, as she was more commonly known, was four hundred meters across and comprised of ten decks with a state of the art EM-Drive, capable of travelling at half the speed of light. Aside from transporting soldiers, she took passengers and equipment from Earth to the colonies and had a crew capacity of one hundred and fifty.

At present, she was carrying seven hundred.

When Tom stepped out of his supply closet, he walked straight into those seven hundred people who were mostly civilian refugees from Europa Colony. While seven hundred might seem high in the confines of the Ruthie, it was eclipsed by the number of how many were left behind. Being on the front line of the boarding process ensured the faces of everyone left behind were burnt into his memory.

Like they had when the sun went nova.

The noise level rose the instant he stepped into the hallway, into an assault on his senses. A group of children running past him, somehow managing to play in all this shit, made him pause and he watched them disappear down the corridor. The noise dulled into a roar just as the smell assaulted him. Even with the ventilation system working at capacity to keep things fresh, nothing could prevent the stink of so many bodies. Throw in water rationing and well…

It smells like a bloody barn, he thought, not for the first time.

Walking along the passageway, Tom no longer noticed the objects tacked against the walls and along the deck, turning the bulkheads into memorials for those left behind. There were photographs, toys, keepsakes, scrawled names against the grey steel and notes, left by mourners still shell shocked by the new world order. Tom no longer saw their faces, only their shapes disappearing into the walls, like living wraiths.

They in turn gave him a wide berth as he walked by, because everything about Tom Merrick said, 'go away'.

He was six feet of compact muscle, maintained by years of hard military discipline. Forever wearing a day's growth on his face (even when there was water), he wore a scowl made worse by his intense hazel eyes. If that wasn't enough of a deterrent, the uniform he wore certainly was. Tom was a lifer and lifers were hard bastards.

While it was easy to pigeonhole him because of his appearance, his sympathy for their situation would have surprised them if they'd known about it. Tom found it obscene he considered himself lucky to have lost his parents before Earth was destroyed. His mother passed years before his enlistment and his father followed her a decade later. Throughout this fucked up situation, he counted himself fortunate he was spared losing them the way most of the population had lost family, by the lack of space.

Although, truth be told, if Johnno Merrick had met his end in the nova, Tom would have lost no sleep over it. That bastard deserved to burn.

* * *

At six feet four, Gunnery Sergeant (aka Gunny) Derick Rickman looked like folded origami as he sat in a quiet corner of the cargo hold retrofitted for his unit, reading one of Tom Merrick's books. Trying to get lost in its pages, he raised his blue eyes at the rumble of voices intruding on his concentration. With no such thing as privacy anymore, Derick made do with the knowledge at present, this was as good as it was going to get.

Luckier than most because he came out of Earth's destruction with a brother who still lived, Derick knew most people had lost everyone they ever knew. Luke, who was currently on the Olympus, had made it onto one of the ships, unlike their parents and baby sister Lily. Thinking about them made his heart ache and he consoled himself with the thought they were with his older brother Chris now, and eventually he'd see Luke again.

BANG!

Derick jumped, startled by the noise. It had come from the centre of the room where one of the occupied chairs around the square table normally used for poker was lying flat on its back. He looked up just in time to see Corporal 'soon to be Private' Ozymandias Washington, flip the table out of his way and lunge for Private Linus Voight.

Cards, glasses, and poker chips cascaded to the deck as Ozzy landed on Linus, forcing the others to back away to get clear of the fighting. Only Private Alain Dupree made any effort to intervene, trying to drag Ozzy off the former Heir infantryman before the fists started flying. The other players opted to watch the show and those who were disinterested in the game earlier were now coming to egg on the two combatants.

Cursing under his breath, Derick jumped to his feet and stomped over to the impromptu arena. Under any other circumstances, Sergeant Joshua Jackson, whom everyone called Jazz, would have dealt with this situation, but Derick had spied Jazz leaving the room to go for a jog around the ship, so this was now his lot to deal with.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!”

Derick's bellow was so loud and uncharacteristic, the two men froze, fists cocked as if they were about to duke it out to Queensbury rules. The rest of the platoon was equally shocked, accustomed to this from their sergeant and the Major, but not from their even-tempered gunny. They gaped at him like fish panting for air. If he wasn't so damn pissed, Derick might have found the scene funny.

He was the antithesis of a typical lifer Marine and definitely not the average Gunnery Sergeant. He didn't bark for no good reason. In fact, in Tiger Platoon, Derick was the reasonable one. The Major could strip paint with a glare, or flash you a T-Rex's sneer right before he ripped you a new one. Nope, Gunny Derick Rickman was who you came to with your troubles, who'd talk you down when you wanted to blow yourself out of an airlock.

An outburst from him was nothing to take lightly. Even if he wasn't standing almost six feet four, with a solid build, a chiselled jaw, intense hazel eyes and a flop of hair that defied Marine regulations no matter how many times he cut it, Derick towered over most of the Sharks. While he looked just as hot, sweaty and smelly in his fatigues and canoe-sized boots, the authority he commanded was something they were all conditioned to obey.

Of course, it would be these two, Derick thought as he grabbed both Ozzy and Linus by the shoulders and yanked, as if he were pulling apart two brawling kids in the playground.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He shoved them apart in opposite directions.

Linus stumbled backwards before he was halted by the body of Private Ren Richards, a stunning redhead with wild, wild hair. She shoved Linus back towards Derick, her face twisted in annoyance as if she couldn't believe this shit either. Derick met her gaze fleetingly and saw her shaking her head. Meanwhile, Ozzy did a little better. He didn't lose his footing and straightened up, almost matching Derick in height.

“Humanity is on the brink of extinction. We've got food riots and kids sleeping in the trash collection chutes because we don't have the room for them. At any moment, a dozen things could fuck us sideways and with all that, you're going to add acting like assholes to the list? I don't give a flying fuck about what started this! It ends now.”

Derick glared at them, silencing both men before his gaze shifted to the crowd. The onlookers fell silent, found their boots interesting to look at, stunned at their normally quiet Gunny going full hulk on them.

“In one hour, we've got to get our asses out there and maintain some kind of order during food distribution in the middle of a fucking famine. There will be enough people pissed at us, blaming us for enforcing the rules and here you two are, fighting like kids instead of watching each other's back!”

That sunk in. Whatever grievance had led to the fight melted in the face of that stark reality. They were Sharks and Sharks watched each other's back. Especially now.

“Sorry Gunny.”

Ozzy's use of the nickname meant the message was received loud and clear and by the man's expression, it was one received with a side of shame.

“Pardon,” Linus stepped forward and extended a hand towards Ozzy who met it with a fist bump instead.

“Peace, Kraut.” Ozzy smirked, and Dupree smacked him on the back in approval at the gesture.

“Fuck you, American,” Linus returned, but he was smiling.

“What's this, a fucking wedding?”

“Major ON DECK!” Someone belted out belatedly. Derick reacted immediately, recognising that voice anywhere.

* * *

Tom stepped into the billets his Sharks affectionately called the Cave, on the tail of a fight. He couldn't blame them. Not really. Their present situation and the close quarters didn't do much to help tempers. Being jammed into makeshift bunks in the cargo hold made them look and feel like penned sheep. Back in the day, soldiers serving on the Rutherford would have proper quarters but since the Exodus every space short of hazardous voids had become living quarters.

Now the Rutherford was one more lifeboat in a patchwork fleet comprised of military, cargo and cruise liners under the banner of what was being called the Earth Alliance.

Once in competition with each other, the various military organisations of Sol were forced to amalgamate to protect the remains of the human race. While the transition was easy enough with the flight corps becoming the Space Corps, the consolidation of Earth's infantry forces was far more complicated.

The American forces joined ranks with the remnants of other units, such as the British SAS, the Chinese Marines, French Colonial Troops, Israeli Givatis and other nationalities. Now consolidated, the reorganized force became the Security Heavy Artillery & Recon Corps. Its acronym, SHARC, gave rise to the nickname that quickly went viral.

Sharks.

Tom was given command of Tiger Platoon, composed of forty warm bodies, with ten to a squad and he had to admit it fit well. He liked the term Sharks better and it was a hell of a lot better than Marines, which he knew would rankle the non-American troops, himself included.

“At ease,” Tom ordered with a dismissive wave of his hand when he saw everyone stepping to at his arrival. His head was split open now, thanks to the enthusiastic announcer but he kept his cool. Morale was already in the shitter without Tom tearing about like some drunken bastard.

He saw the dissipating hostility between Linus and Ozzy and guessed the earlier friction was forgotten once Derick reminded them Sharks watched each other's back. The big bloke knew how to handle short tempers. Christ knows they'd been friends long enough for Derick to handle his.

The kid was good value and their friendship went all the way back to a bar in Miramar when he was still a non-com. Tom was supremely grateful to learn Derick survived the exodus from Earth and wasted no time asking for the gunnery sergeant to be assigned to his new platoon.

Serving together was one of the few positives coming out of human civilization going to shit. Besides, Derick Rickman was the only Yank he'd ever met he didn't feel the urge to throttle.

“Good morning ladies,” he greeted them with a nod and then met Derick's hazel eyes. “What's all this then?”

“Just a few assholes letting off steam,” Derick saw no reason to go into details. Besides, chances were Tom already knew what's what. “It's handled.”

Ozzy shot the Gunny a look of surprise but held back the confession on the tip of his tongue. If Gunny thought it was best to keep his mouth shut, then Ozzy wasn't going to argue with him. Besides, he had no desire to get his ass chewed out by the Major, who could yell even louder than Gunny. Meeting Linus's gaze, the two men agreed in silent solidarity for their benefit.

With Tom's arrival and the situation now under control, Derick's attention turned to his best friend and commanding officer. Tom was doing his best to hide it, but Derick saw the signs of yet another drink-til-he-passed-out respite.

He wouldn't say anything in front of the others. In private, maybe. Tom's trip down the bottle seemed to be getting worse. He was clearly nursing a hangover, judging by the bloodshot eyes, clammy skin, and the slight reek of stale liquor. Six months ago, Derick wouldn't have given a shit about how much Tom drank because he was right there next to the man, getting plastered.

Back then, Tom was a casual drinker who knew how to put the bottle away. Something changed after the Ruthie left Sol but for the moment, Derick was more concerned about the quality of the booze Tom managed to find. Derick swore if he found out who was making the rotgut Tom was poisoning himself with, he'd flush the son of a bitch out of an airlock himself.

“Good,” Tom nodded, deciding to leave it if Derick considered the matter closed. Besides, he caught the critical way Derick was looking at him. It didn't require any clairvoyance on Tom's part to know why. The look was all too familiar. Derick was worried about him and as much as Tom might hate admitting it, the kid had cause. A conversation for another day, he decided.

“Right then, listen up!” Tom addressed everyone once they were a bit more relaxed, knowing there would be no repercussions for the earlier fight. “I just got word the Obelisk will be carrying half the rations it was going to. Seems the spoilage and the spread of supplies across the fleet is even worse than we thought.”

An audible groan moved through the group. There would be hungry people on the Ruthie tonight. They would be angry, and the Sharks would be standing between them and what little food they were getting.

Derick cursed inwardly, a slight exchange of eye contact told him the Major was just as angered by this as he.

Glancing at his watch, Derick decided to shift their focus before they got too twisted up by a situation they could not change.

“Alright! We're on deck in…. fifty-two minutes. Alpha squad, you're up! I want equipment check in thirty. Ozzy!” he yelled at the man he'd just reprimanded. “Act like a soldier and go find Jazz…”

“No need Gunny, I'm here,” Jazz announced himself as he stepped into the room. He'd been returning anyway from his run and caught Derick's orders. “You heard Gunny! Get ready!”

With Jazz barking orders at them, the crowd dispersed, scattering in various directions towards their billets. Derick spied the lithe body of Ren Richards following the crowd and spent a fraction of a second watching her crazy hair bounce off her shoulders. Glancing away quickly before he was caught, Derick frowned. He was her superior. He had to get over her. Dragging a hand through his hair, he turned back to Tom.

“Any orders, Major?”

His tone was formal but, in truth, they'd known each other for years and were best friends.

“Yeah,” Tom nodded, taking a step closer to Derick and speaking in a lower tone. “Take Beta squad with you too. I think we both know how nasty this is going to get.”

“That's a fucking understatement.”

* * *

Derick Rickman never intended to be a soldier.

For as long as he could remember, he wanted to be a photojournalist. His dreams involved traveling Sol, taking pictures of important events and places, immortalising his experiences, frame by frame. An avid photographer in his youth, his collection ranged from modern holo-recorders to old fashioned film cameras and even video recorders. By the time he was ten, Derick mastered the use of all of them. Hell, he even had a vintage Browning he bought at an old junk store.

Daniel Rickman, his father, was career military and so Derick could hone his craft with each new posting on a different moon or planet. It was a hobby his dad encouraged because, Derick suspected, Dad believed his middle son might be just a little too smart and sensitive for the military life.

Derick's older brother, Chris, was the one who would follow in their father's footsteps. Born a year after Dan and Susannah's wedding, the couple decided to wait a few years before having more children. As a result, Derick was born four years later, Luke came three years after, and it was five years before Susannah got the girl she wanted in Lily.

By the time Derick was two, Chris had hung the moon.

Despite Chris indulging in his God-given right as an older brother to torment his younger siblings, he was never excessive or cruel. Charged to be the man of the house in their father's absence, Chris took the responsibility seriously. He looked after the younger children and helped their mother with chores.

For Derick, Chris had been his best friend and his confidante. Even when Chris had friends of his own, he never failed to make room for Derick. If Chris's friends didn't like a kid trailing behind them, then Chris didn't have time for them.

Unsurprisingly, Chris followed their father into the military, joining the Planetary Marines when he was old enough to enlist. Derick found it fitting. Chris was most like their father and it made sense that he would continue the family tradition. Derick was still in grade school, on an advanced track for college prep with an eye on every journalism scholarship he could find, when Chris left for boot camp.

Six years later, a month after Derick's high school graduation, Chris was killed in an Earth First terrorist attack on Ganymede.

While the others mourned Chris, Derick felt as if someone had dropped a nuke on his life, obliterating everything in its path. The enormity of it was more than he could bear and deconstructed everything Derick considered important to him. He gave up plans for college for a year with a half-hearted promise to go back later but never did. Instead, he lingered at home, consoling his father, who aged a decade after hearing the news, while trying to be there for his mother and siblings just like Chris would have done.

Even after Dan decided to take a permanent post on Earth, Derick found it difficult to get his life back on track. Chris's loss was profound, and the void left behind seemed vast and permanent. As Derick approached his twentieth birthday, his cameras and photography equipment lay forgotten as he cut a swatch through the local girls and spent too much time in one bar or another. His goals were gone, and he had no idea what he intended to do with the rest of his life.

His relationship with his father grew steadily tenser. Dan Rickman was always a hard man, one who saw no difference between soldiering and parenting. It was up to their mom and Chris to provide the emotional bedrock of their family. Dan's natural reaction to Derick's spiral was to take a hard-line approach, resulting in numerous screaming matches and even physical fights that ended up with Derick moving out of the house for a time.

One night, while drinking at a bar somewhere on Claremont Boulevard outside Miramar, where Dad was posted, on his way to another post-Dan-Rickman-argument bender, he started talking to a stranger. The guy looked like a junkyard dog, tough and mean with an accent that was part Michael Caine and part Crocodile Dundee. A guy, who could hold his liquor a hell of a lot better than a twenty-year-old college dropout could.

The drunker Derick got, the more he poured out his troubles to the stranger, who listened without comment. When Derick got through telling him about Chris and how his life had been upended by the loss, the man finally spoke.

“So, you're going to piss your life away because your big brother died in the service? Fucking rotten way to remember him, isn't it?”

Derick stared at him.

“Well, no…” Derick stammered a response. He hadn't heard it put that bluntly before. The crux of every argument he had with Dan Rickman was not that he was throwing his life away but of how Derick wasn't Chris and would never measure up to him.

“Look. You can spend your whole life crying about how he's gone but you got to remember one thing: he kicked it doing exactly what he wanted to do. Dying the way he did, with your men about you, in a fight, that's the way soldiers want to go. Fuck, that's how I want to go. I didn't sign up to die in a comfy bed, mate. I signed up to kick arse for something greater than myself, and I'm betting your brother did the same.”

He was right.

Chris spent his whole life taking care of him, Luke and Lily. Joining the military was simply extending his protective nature to the planet. Yeah, he probably didn't count on dying so early, but Derick could believe it was exactly how Chris would want to go. Dying for something that mattered, protecting the people he cared about. It was a watershed moment, the jolt of clarity he so desperately needed, and he started weeping as it washed over him.

Instead of snorting in disgust at the appalling display, which was also a Dan Rickman special, the stranger patted him on the back and said quietly, “Get it out, mate. Get it out and let him go.”

Sage advice from the man who would someday become his commanding officer and best friend.

* * *

“T- Minus thirty seconds and counting…”

The large passageway just outside a smaller cargo bay was literally crammed full of people. Every square foot was taken up, with barely any shoulder room. Bodies, nerves, and sweat in a stuffy heat the air scrubbers weren't designed to handle. The effect would make anyone claustrophobic. On the other side of the thick doors, crew members were preparing to receive the rations via shuttle and prep them for distribution.

Derick found a small crate in some supply closet and stood on it now, to give himself an elevated view of the crush of people lined up for their rations. With distribution run on a lottery system, chaos was barely threaded out by the presence of the Sharks. People picked up their rations in shifts, by the head of each household and their ID number. Zero's first, then ones, twos, so on and so forth. Each family would get enough rations for a week.

They were lucky one of the agri-haulers survived the jump.

Mostly, folks stayed orderly after a fashion. Derick made sure of it, even it meant being called things like 'Gestapo' and 'Pig'.

“T-minus fifteen seconds…. ten….”

The automated female voice sounded throughout the passageway, briefly silencing the low roar of the crowd. At least, until a voice carried over them, catching Derick's attention. From his viewpoint, he found the source easily. A large man with a slight gut and the sour look of one under duress. “Chu,” Derick said quietly into the throat mike. “On your ri…”

“You're hurting me! Let go!!” Silence spread outward from the man as the crowd shifted and revealed a pretty, dark-haired, and exotic looking woman. The big man's hand was wrapped around her upper arm, nearly engulfing it. “You get your spic ass to the back of the line. You gotta wait your turn!” The man shoved the woman hard, making her stumble.

“HEY!” Derick shouted, jumping off his crate. He started through the crowd as a path appeared with everyone suddenly finding the space to get out of the big and pissed off Shark's way. “Let her go!”

“And what if I don't!?” Bubba or whatever his name was glowered at Derick sullenly. Easily Derick's height, no easy feat, and thirty pounds heavier, he seemed to be considering taking him on. “You gonna shoot me, you ass-RINE!?”

A red bead of light appeared on the man's chest and Derick looked up from it with a smirk. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards Ren and her sniper perch. “No. But she will.”

Bubba's chin hit his chest, eyes bulging at the bright red dot on his sternum.

“Fucking pork rind haolie!!” The woman jerked her arm free from the man's grasp. “I'm Hawaiian, not Hispanic!”

“You all look the same!”

Someone behind them shouted. The woman cursed and swung a fist, but Chu grabbed her in time, twisting her away as she protested. Derick grabbed Bubba, preventing him from retaliating and that was all the crowd needed to ignite. They pressed in on Derick and Chu, shouting and yelling, flash boiling to a riot.

“Stand down!!” Jazz yelled, freeing his nightstick when he lost sight of Gunny. “Beta! Crowd control right now!!” he ordered, yanking at the first body in his way to get to their gunnery sergeant.

“QUIIIIIIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The command rolled over the crowd, echoing off the bulkheads and stunning all of them into silence, even the Sharks.

The quiet left behind was like a vacuum, sucking every bit of fight out of the gathered refugees. Derick lunged to his feet, Bubba in hand as he sought the source of the noise. That had sounded like… yep. Derick grinned when he spotted Ren hanging up the intercom receiver near her position, looking at him smugly.

Now that was fucking effective. 'NICE' he mouthed with a wink before turning back to his charge.

“ID, name and billet,” he ordered as he yanked a chip reader from his harness.

“Name's Jim Dale.” The big guy glowered as he produced his bright green wrist band. “Billet 261.”

Derick scanned it and when the device chirped in positive affirmation, he glanced at the screen to verify the picture. “Mr Dale, once I authorize the delivery to continue, you will be given your rations and escorted off the deck.” Leaning in close, he grabbed the man's shoulder and dug his fingers into the flesh. “You have a problem with someone, you come to me. I catch you starting trouble again and your rations will be cut. Do you understand?” He growled.

Jim's eyes widened. The threat was an effective one. He glanced around, taking in the hostile stares directed at him. He swore under his breath, as if realizing he would have been responsible for things going sideways. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Jim nodded.

“Good.” The shame on the man's face was enough for Derick to decide that further action wasn't needed. “Anderson!” When the private appeared beside Chu, Derick let go of Dale. “Private Anderson here will make sure you get your fair share and will be your escort.”

Leaving Anderson to handle him, Derick turned to the woman and motioned for her hand. “ID.”

Shoving back lank, dark hair, she held up the bright green band on her wrist. “My name is Lani Kahananui. I'm a teacher…”

Fucking pork rind haolie was a teacher?? Where, a prison? Derick raised an eyebrow as he scanned her ID band.

The noise no one was supposed to be making oozed up again as she continued, raising her voice to be heard. “I'm in charge of the unclaimed kids.” The crowd went silent again, staring at her when they realized exactly who she was. The unclaimed children were the poor kids separated from their families during the chaos of the mass evacuation. Lani had taken charge of them, sorting them out and organizing searches for family members.

Derick scanned her ID band and was rewarded with another satisfactory chirp. “Richards!!” he called out and received a sharp 'Yes, Gunny!' by the red-headed sniper. “You and Mayday are Miss Kahananui's escorts today. Once she gets the rations, please escort her back to her assigned billet.”

Still humming with satisfaction from the smile she received from him earlier, Ren made her way through the sea of human bodies, gesturing at Junior Corporal Maya 'Mayday' Sanjay, a former medic with the British Army, to join her at his call.

“We're on it, Sir,” she quipped, always wearing the slightest hint of a smile for him.

“Right behind you, mate,” Maya echoed.

With the two civilians under trustworthy watch and the crowd under some semblance of control, Derick hopped back onto the crate and hailed Control to continue with the docking just as there was another shout.

Seeking the source out, Derick sighed. It was going to be a long day.

II Survey

It was never wise to make hasty calculations even in the face of impending disaster.

Just being off by a fraction may seem insignificant, but in astrophysics, it was the difference between life and death. Instead of emerging from the Ribbon a little over a light year away from their destination, they'd overshot their exit point by seven light years. A journey intended to take four weeks now stretched into its sixth month. Never in the history of the world, were there such grave consequences for not carrying a zero.

Dr. Albert Nakamura stared at the faces before him, wishing it was anyone else but he who made it.

No one blamed him, of course, not the inventor of the Ribbon Drive responsible for saving humanity. His original prototype was being installed in a test flight ship given to him by his project funders, The Tiger Alliance (the federation of Asian nations). Albert had just been about to sign off on the installation when astronomers all over Sol flew into a panic.

Something very large had hit the sun, something with enough reactive material to destabilise its solar fission. Every instrument they possessed showed the core of the sun collapsing on itself and when critical mass was reached, it would go nova taking the entire solar system with it. It would happen fast and no science they possessed could stop it.

Extinction would happen, not in seven billion years, but in a matter of weeks.

Suddenly Nakamura's drive went from being a prototype to humanity's last hope for survival. Frantically re-designing the device and increasing its output by a thousand, he worked around the clock to develop a working model while across the solar system, the evacuation lottery to choose several thousand people out of ten billion began.

As luck would have it, critical mass arrived a week early. One final act of Murphy's Law.

By that time, most of the people were already on board the ships and the military were on route to pick up final passengers. Nakamura made his calculations and rolled the dice, praying the Ribbon Drive would work as the solar system started to disintegrate and wipe out nearly ten billion people with it.

It did and humanity achieved the ability to fold space.

Twenty-five ships went through. For weeks before, smaller vessels not outfitted with a Ribbon drive had been leeched onto the larger ones with dry dock clamps and cables, like infant sharks pressed against their mother's belly. Of those twenty-five capital ships, twenty survived the gravimetric turbulence. Some of the older models, simply not made for such travel, broke up in transit. Nakamura tried not to think about the people on board who were lost. The drive's success was pyrrhic but at least they reached their destination on the far side of the spiral arm.

Ten years earlier, deep range probes transmitted data regarding the existence of a world with similar properties to Earth lying in a distant star system. The planet was sixty percent water and possessed a rich nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere capable of supporting life.

They called it Gaia.

It was a place to be visited someday, when they finally developed a real FTL drive capable of crossing the distance instead of the standard EM drives which allowed them to colonise Sol but nothing beyond. The destruction of Sol changed everything. Gaia became the only viable destination for the surviving human race. Once again, Nakamura had to make calculations based on theoretical science not yet conclusively proven or field tested.

Fortunately, the Ribbon Drive did exactly what they needed, with the exception of the tiny, tiny mistake in his calculations. They arrived seven light years short of the planet.

From where the Ribbon deposited them, the journey to Gaia would take months. They simply didn't have the ability to make another attempt to fold space. With no other alternative, the fleet was forced to make the crossing using the EM Drive, travelling half the speed of light.

The months since pushed them to the very limits of their resources. All supplies were reaching dangerously low levels despite hard-line rations of water, food, and energy. Bodies were crammed into ships, running air and waste recycling systems beyond maximum operating capacity. Medical personnel were already dealing with the inevitable outbreaks of disease due to poor hygiene and bad air.

The bulk of the planet's diplomatic contingent never made it off Earth. Under any other circumstances, it was a situation ripe for a joke, but no one dare make it. What was left was an uneasy alliance of soldiers and scientists forced to work together to give birth to a new human civilisation. It didn't take long before they realised they needed a third component to function, a civilian faction to complete the triumvirate.

It was a shotgun wedding if there was ever one.

Now they were in sight of Gaia and it was none too soon; the entire fleet was sitting on a powder keg and they needed to get off before it exploded.

* * *

On board the Alliance Ship AS Missouri, President Philana Zubuqu stared across the conference table at the three people who made up the newly formed Earth Assembly. The Assembly, representing three distinct groups, the armed forces, the scientific community and the civilian population, formed to replace the now extinct Earth Alliance governing body.

“How soon can we land?” Philana directed her question at Nakamura, the Head of the Science Council.

A man in his forties, Nakamura never struck Philana as a scientist, certainly not the giant of propulsion and astrophysics he now was. He wore his hair long but swept back over his forehead. His severe expression and dark, sharp eyes belied the warmer personality Philana had become acquainted with over the years. She liked and admired him even before his Ribbon Drive saved them all.

Yet, he changed over the last few months. Instead of warmth and sharp intellect, she saw a man blunted by grief for not saving enough lives.

Running his fingers along the slate device in front of him, Nakamura brought the display alive and projected a holographic image above the centre of the table for all to see.

An iridescent world appeared before them, not Earth but not entirely dissimilar either. It was a place of blue oceans, greenish tinged clouds, and large greenish brown land masses. There were two moons in orbit. The moons weren't lifeless husks like Lunar but just as teeming with life as the world below them. Even as a hologram, their first glimpse of Gaia was breathtaking.

Nakamura refused to forgo the details even though the urgency of the situation was not lost on him. He knew about the escalating tensions throughout the fleet, the strain on all their resources and the civilians on the verge of rioting. Their fabricators could produce important things like medicines and machine parts, but food and water for ten thousand people was beyond even the most inventive engineer's capability.

“We can land any time,” Nakamura answered, “but whether it is safe to do so is another matter entirely,” he said, meeting Philana's brown eyes. “Since arriving in orbit, we have been conducting scans of the surface and what is clear to us, that wasn't before, is that there is an abundance of life on Gaia.”

The announcement did nothing to allay anyone's concerns.

“Intelligent life?” Field Marshal Grigori Anisimov asked suspiciously. He was very much a Russian bear, towering, with a deep, booming voice and large hands that could break you apart if he felt like it. Grey eyes stared at the scientist, showing his concern at how the natives might react to ten thousand humans landing on their doorstep. As well as humans would, he suspected, if the shoe were on the other foot.

“No,” Nakamura quickly dismissed the notion, seeing the fear it generated.

“There is an abundance of animal life, but we've detected no signs of intelligence. Of course, it is a big planet and we can't assume anything for certain. Until we are sure of what we are dealing with, I do not recommend landing. I propose we send a survey party first.”

“And how long will this take?” Jyoti Sengputa asked impatiently. She was a petite thing who wore her dark hair in a tight bun, accentuating a strong jaw and eyes that looked older than her thirty-five years. “Life support is barely holding on as it is, not to mention people are becoming violent and desperate. They need to get off the ships. They need to feel the sun on their faces and breathe fresh air. They need to know there is an end in sight to all this.”

Until a few months ago, Jyoti was the deputy secretary of the Solar Health Organisation. She had been off world investigating an outbreak of Miner's Disease on Ganymede when news of the disaster was made public. In transit when Earth was destroyed, Jyoti now found herself as the voice of the civilian population.

“It's difficult to determine. We are entering an entirely unknown ecosystem. We simply cannot assume the place is safe….” Nakamura tried to reason with her. He understood her concerns, they all did, but this could not be rushed.

“I agree with Albert,” Grigori spoke and made Nakamura smile a little because the big Russian was the first one of the Assembly to address him as if they were more than colleagues, but rather soldiers in the same foxhole. “We cannot simply descend onto this planet. For all we know the dominant animal life down there could be dinosaurs.”

Although that would simply be magnificent, Grigori thought silently.

“People are at breaking point,” Jyoti insisted, her small fist thumping the table to emphasize each word. “We need to do something…”

“We will,” Philana said firmly and with enough force in her voice to remind everyone they were in this together. Like the Zulu people from which she was descended, Philana's high cheekbones, full lips, and almost feline eyes exuded regal authority and confidence.

“Albert, put a survey team together. The sooner we send them down there the better. Have you selected a possible landing site yet?”

“Yes,” Nakamura nodded and swiped the slate's screen to show another image. This one displayed a map, specifically a large continent shaped a little like Greenland but was the size of Africa. “This is the continent we have decided to call Laurasia. The name is an amalgam of Laurentia and Asia.”

He widened the image further and showed a stretch of land on the south-east side of the continent. “We thought this might be a good landing site. There's a waterway of significant size travelling at least a thousand kilometres inland and gives us access to the sea. The land between the waterway and the mountain range is comprised of fertile plains and there are flatlands suitable for cultivation. The mountains will also give us protection from any harsh weather. The science team is calling it Babel.”

“Babel,” Philana smiled faintly. “I like it.”

“I think the survey team should be accompanied by some ground troops,” Grigori added. “With all due respect, Albert, we don't know what your team will be walking into.”

“Fair enough, but I request that, in all scientific matters, my team leader has authority.”

“And in all military matters, my officer should have the same,” the Russian countered.

“Well then, gentlemen,” Philana swept her gaze across the two men, “let's make this happen.”

* * *

After Derick took out Alpha and Beta squad to manage crowd control during food distribution, Tom returned to the quarters he shared with a dozen other officers on board the Ruthie. Not only was he the only Shark officer present, he was also the only one with the rank of Major. The SHARC ranking structure, like most of the armed forces, was still a work in progress. Only the bird in charge of the Ruthie outranked him and she was a Yank promoted for being in the right place at the right time.

Before the Exodus, the room was a storage area of some kind and Tom swore he could detect a whiff of brain cell-killing chemicals through the wafting odour of sweat and stale air. Frankly, he didn't know which was worse.

The beds provided were no more than makeshift bunks and cots, while the grey, windowless walls and metal deck plates added to the ambience. At the foot of each 'bed' was a foot locker to store a lifetime of belongings. Most military men lived out of a duffel bag anyway, but Tom missed his books; not the sizeable library he stored on his personal slate, but the soft paper books he'd collected over the years. He'd taken what he could; the Count of Monte Cristo, the Puppet Masters, Dune and a few others, but the rest were sacrificed because the space was needed for the essentials.

This time of day, the room was empty and fortunately accessible by security code to keep civilians from coming in here and stealing. Desperation drove people to extremes and theft was just one of the things people were forced to take up to survive. With barter the only form of currency at present, thieves were always on the lookout for something they could steal to trade for something better.

Tossing in the bottle of rotgut he'd traded for a copy of Moby Dick, Tom grabbed a change of clothing from the chest and locked it shut. Leaving the room, he crossed the corridor to enter the communal shower used by most of the military personnel stationed on this deck. There were a few people in there already, some he recognised, and others he didn't.

Adhering to the etiquette of co-ed showers, Tom kept his eyes fixed on the porcelain tiles. It was extremely bad manners to steal stray glances at anyone's junk, male, or female. Self-consciousness at being naked in front of other people simply didn't come into it anymore, even with the nude bodies of the opposite sex beside you.

Still, it was harder (no pun intended) said than done when one came across the tantalising slick of glistening skin or the curve of a breast. At least, in those situations, everyone had the good manners to say nothing, even if it was affecting.

Tom stepped under the shower head and turned the knob. The spray rushing over him was lukewarm. Wasting no time, he pressed a dollop of gel onto his palm from the dispenser and began soaping up. He had two minutes to wash before the water switched off automatically. Biometric sensors on the tap knob identified him and ensured he was allocated his two minutes. After that, he'd have to wait for the next twenty-four-hour cycle to come along.

Once he was done, Tom got dressed and headed back to the Cave, still longing for a shave when he ran his hand across his chin and felt the stubble. At least, now, he looked somewhat respectable and not like a pile of dirty washing.

“Message for Major Tom Merrick at Com Station 14.” Tom heard his name over the speakers as he was in the middle of the hallway. “Repeat, message for Major Tom Merrick…”

Tom hurried to the far end of the corridor, where a small secured room awaited. Punching in his identification code, the door slid open and he stepped into the cubicle sized space formerly used to let ship personnel make private calls home. Now it was used for ship to ship communication across their ragtag fleet. Shutting the door behind him, he sat at the station and took his call.

On the screen in front of him, the face of General Rhys Connor, the commander of the Sharks appeared, waiting to talk to him.

When the Sharks were first formed six months ago, Rhys, a Brigadier General of the British Army, introduced himself to his senior officers. Ironically, despite being a Major, Tom was one of the longest serving combat soldiers in the fleet. He'd started out as a non-com and come into his officer's bars late. Despite Rhys being a good fifteen years older, he was a career infantry officer who'd been in the trenches. Their shared combat experiences gave both men common ground as battle-scarred veterans of a changing armed forces.

He was a decent bloke. For a Pom.

“General,” Tom greeted respectfully, feeling like he knew the man enough to recognize this wasn't a personal call. “It's good to see you.”

“Likewise, Tom,” the General replied from his office on the Nelson, green eyes resting on Tom with a similar affection. “I have some news for you and I wanted to talk to you face to face.”

That didn't sound good. Tom wondered what fresh calamity was going to be visited on them now. “What is it?” He was almost afraid of the answer.

“Relax, Digger,” Rhys grinned, seeing the man stiffen through the screen. “It's nothing bad.”

“Digger,” Tom grumbled, bloody Pom. Nowadays, it was a term of endearment and evidence of their growing friendship. “What can I do for you, Sir?”

“I need you to get two squads together. You'll be accompanying the science team planet side.”

Tom did a double take, thinking Rhys was fucking with him but the man's expression revealed otherwise. “Planet side? As in 'off the ship'?”

“That's right,” Rhys smiled smugly.

“Are we there? Did we get to the planet? When?” He fired questions like artillery shells, trying not to show just how excited he was at the prospect of escaping the Ruthie. After six months, it felt as if they would never reach Gaia, the Promise Land at the end of this nightmare journey through space.

Rhys didn't go into details, giving Tom just enough to proceed. “We slipped into orbit last night. They've done the initial scans and selected a landing site, but we need to go down there to confirm the data. So, you and your team will provide support to the squint team surveying the area to make sure that it's safe for the rest of the population to come down.”

Tom didn't care if this was a babysitting detail. Not one bloody bit. The chance to see sky again, even if it was on an alien world, was the shot in the arm he needed after months of hell. Not just for him, but for his squad, who needed this excursion almost as much.

“We'll get it done, Sir.”

“Good to hear. Just be aware that in all matters scientific, the head squint is in charge, but…”

Tom bristled at that but before he could voice his protest, Rhys raised his hand to stop him. “Unless of course, the situation becomes dangerous in any way and then you can assume command. Let them do what they need to do and take over if anything nasty jumps out of the bushes.”

“Right.” Tom could live with those terms. Besides, while they were scanning, he and his team would be out in the fresh air with the sky above their heads. He could tolerate a bunch of squints with that kind of perk. “I'll get the team together as soon as possible. When are we leaving?”

“At 1100 hours. Report to Captain Curran. She'll give you further details.”

“Will do, Sir, and thanks for giving us the chance to get off this tin can.” He was almost beaming.

“Yeah, I do recall how much you said you love space travel,” Rhys replied dryly. “Good luck to you, Major. Connor out.”

The screen went dark and Tom eased into his chair, letting out a sigh of relief. Finally, some good news.

It was about fucking time.

III Jules

For a few seconds, she could do nothing but stare.

The ship was ablaze, from bow to stern, wearing the fire like a second skin. Dark space lit up like a newborn sun. The vacuum would extinguish the radiance soon enough, but for the few seconds while exploding bulkheads and ruptured hull plating allowed oxygen to escape, the flames lived. There wasn't an inch of the hull across the capital ship not on fire.

Elemental demons danced across the cracking plexiglass windows, invaded the vast turbines of the main engines and battered down airlock doors. They ran like wayward children through the hallways and slipped into the air vents, igniting fluids, greedily consumed furnishings, and sucked away flesh before the final damning explosion.

To those screaming, the fire's cackle sounded like laughter.

* * *

“We've got to find another ship!”

The hopper she was piloting carried fifty people, crammed in so tightly they could barely breathe. She promised them she wasn't leaving them behind and would get them to safety. The Asquith was an American battlecruiser, one of the largest ever built. It would be more than capable of handling a rough docking and providing refuge to her passengers for the trip through the Ribbon.