“After we get back to the ship, where are we heading?” Josh murmured, staring out into space as the satellite moon they had landed on moved around the planet, away from the Legion forces searching for them. “We still haven’t found any more clues to where Ash could have gone.”
“We will find him,” Hutu said confidently. “Devona has her team searching the area. She stated a short range freighter pilot took off shortly before we arrived. One of the service bots noted an additional crew member that was not on the ship’s register. She is obtaining video and will send it to us as soon as possible. If it is your friend, we will know where to start.”
“What are we going to do in the meantime?” Pack asked.
“We will head to a secret rebel base on one of the outer moons of Tesla Terra,” Hutu replied. “It is a desolate place and unlikely to be discovered by the Legion forces. Your father and I started it nearly thirty years ago when we realized what Andronikos was doing.”
Josh turned when Cassa came to stand behind him. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. She stared out the front window down at the planet.
“KGO, come in,” Devona’s voice echoed over the communication console a moment before she appeared on the screen in front of them.
“This is KGO, over,” Hutu replied.
“I’m sending the video I’ve retrieved. Hutu…,” Devona paused before she continued. “You should know that the Director ordered the destruction of all cities on Jeslean that support the Gallant Order. He wanted to send a message to any that dare oppose his rule.”
“No!” Cassa whispered, her eyes wide with horror.
“My parents are there!” Bantu exclaimed, pushing forward. “We’ve got to warn them.”
Devona’s grief stricken face reflected Bantu’s and Cassa’s distress. She turned when someone spoke behind her. Her lips tightened in anger.
“We gave as much warning as we could. The Legion forces are attacking any vessel fleeing the cities. Legion soldiers are coming. I must leave. Long live the Gallant Order,” Devona stated before the screen went blank.
Josh turned Cassa into his arms and held her tightly against him. Everyone was silent as the impact of what the Legion had done sunk in. The murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives weighed on their conscience.
Bantu turned and quietly walked back to the bench and sank down. Josh saw the haunted look in the other man’s eyes. For a moment, Josh was pulled back to the day he saw his father die. The pain and desolation had been suffocating. The difference was his father had died in a tragic accident. This was genocide.
“The Legion has to be stopped,” Josh growled with icy resolve.
“Yes… It does,” Hutu replied, reaching for the controls. “It is time to get the Tracer. I will try to contact the rebel leaders there. The destruction of the Gallant Order headquarters will be a devastating blow to our cause. If we are lucky, the bases outside of the cities will still be intact.”
*.*.*
Josh sat in the small galley aboard the Tracer several days later. His fingers absently stroked the rim of the cup in front of him. He jerked back to the present when Cassa walked in. Her cheeks were flushed and she was drawing in deep, calming breaths. An amused smile tugged at Josh’s lips.
“How is the training going?” He asked, sliding to the side so she could sit down next to him.
“Better,” she replied. “Bantu is rusty, but he is picking it up. He is motivated. He is working on a program to work against the Legion forces.”
“His inside knowledge will be an advantage,” Josh replied, playing with a strand of her hair that had come loose. “You’ll have him in shape before he knows it. I know I should regret ordering the gateway fixed, but I don’t. I’m glad I’m here. I just regret that I couldn’t have done more to prevent the deaths of your father and brother.”
Cassa turned and raised her hand. She tenderly placed her fingers against his lips. She had that familiar, fierce expression on her face again. Josh pressed a kiss against her fingers.
“What has happened is not your fault,” Cassa replied in a firm voice. “The Legion’s actions belong solely on the shoulders of the Director.”
Josh reached up and caught her fingers. He tugged her closer, wrapping his other hand around her neck and leaned forward. He paused a second to stare deeply into her eyes before he pressed a kiss to her slightly parted lips.
Josh started to deepen the kiss when the sound of someone clearing their throat broke through the haze of desire. He slowly ended the kiss and pulled back to glare at Bantu, who was standing in the doorway with his arms folded. Josh took his time releasing Cassa. The message in his touch and in his gaze was clear – she belonged to him.
“What do you want?” Josh asked in a blunt tone.
“Food,” Bantu responded with a crooked grin.
Josh didn’t miss the look of disappointment when the other man glanced at Cassa. Sitting back in his seat, he cupped Cassa’s hand in his and waited as Bantu stepped into the narrow area.
Bantu fixed himself a drink and a plate of food and came to sit down across from them. A moment later, Hutu stepped into the room. He quickly fixed himself something to eat and sat down next to Cassa.
“We will be at the base in a few hours,” Hutu replied. “The Legion ships have left Jeslean. We are hoping most of the residents in the cities were able to escape to underground shelters. It will be days before we find out how many survived. Rebel troops have not had a chance to search for other survivors. From the initial reports, eight cities were decimated by the attacks.”
“What about the rebel bases?” Josh asked with a frown.
Hutu glanced at Josh. “They remained undetected. A decision was made not to engage the Legion forces,” he responded.
“What makes the Gallant forces any different from the Legion if they left the people in those cities to die?” Bantu asked bitterly, pushing his plate away from him.
Josh glanced at Bantu. He could see the grief and guilt on the other man’s face. He understood Bantu’s anger.
“It would have been suicide to engage the fighters,” Josh replied in a calm voice.
Hutu nodded. “The loss of the secret bases there would have been devastating to the Gallant’s fight against the Legion. As it is, two of the underground bases will be out of commission for a while. These bases are our only hope of defeating the Director. We’ve spent years building them while trying to undermine the Legion’s defenses. You can help, Bantu,” he stated.
“How? I was a Service Bot programmer,” Bantu muttered, picking at the food on his plate. “I was never a soldier.”
Josh watched as Cassa reached out and gently touched Bantu’s hand. He could see the compassion on her face. Once again, a warmth spread through him at her understanding.
“Neither was I, Squeals,” she said, using the affectionate nickname she had for him. “Remember what we were able to do on General Landais’ Battle Cruiser? We can do this. We have to do this – for our parents, for… Jesup, for our people.”
“Why wasn’t he stopped before? Why didn’t the Knights of the Gallant Order stop Lord Andronikos when they had the chance?” Bantu whispered in a strained voice.
“Bad men have come to power using force, deceit, and treachery for thousands of years,” Josh replied in a blunt tone. “There will always be men like Andronikos, just as there will always be good men willing to stand up against them. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to stop him?”
Silence descended around the table as everyone thought about what he had said. He bowed his head as he thought about his question. The gauntlet was not just for Bantu, but for himself as well. What was he willing to risk to stand up to a man like Andronikos? This had not started out as his war, but it became personal when the Director attacked Cassa’s family searching for him and the rest of the crew of the Gliese. His jaw tightened and he looked up at Bantu with a steely gaze and waited.
“Yes,” Bantu replied in a quiet voice filled with resolve. “I resisted it when the Legion came and took me from my family nearly ten years ago. I learned very quickly what happened to those that didn’t follow their rules. Over the years, I’ve done what I can to help the resistance.” His gaze flickered to Cassa before he looked down at the table. “I know it wasn’t much, but I knew sharing things with Cassa would get back to her father. I’ve never been much of a soldier,” he continued, looking up at Josh. “Until now. If my family… if they are dead, I have nothing to lose anyway.”
Josh didn’t miss Bantu’s second glance at Cassa. Turning his attention to Hutu, Josh thought of what they knew so far. The video that Devona had sent had cemented the fact that Ash was alive. The image had been grainy, but Josh would know his friend’s easy gait anywhere.
“Once we’ve reach the base, we can coordinate with the teams we have around the galaxy to find the freighter your friend was on. Devona erased the video stored on the service bot, but that is no guarantee that there weren’t others. If we found information about your man, so can the Legion,” Hutu said, pushing back and rising to his feet. “I need to relieve Pack.”
Josh nodded and rose. “I’d like to go over the video again and see if there is anything else I can discover,” he said.
“I’ll help you,” Cassa murmured, standing.
Josh reached for her hand. “Thank you,” he murmured as they stepped out of the narrow galley.
“For what?” She asked in surprise.
Josh turned her so that her back was against the wall. “For being you,” he whispered. He covered her lips with his, giving her the long, deep kiss that he had started earlier. A soft sigh escaped him when he released her lips and pulled back. Turning his head, he returned Bantu’s sardonic stare with one of his own. “You have terrible timing,” he muttered to the other man where he was standing in the doorway.
“Not from my perspective,” Bantu retorted, turning on his heel. “You should get a room.”
“We have one!” Josh snapped before releasing a surprised chuckle when Bantu raised his hand and extended his middle finger. “I’ll be damned! You use that gesture, too?!”