Welcome back for the final episode of the serial sci-fi mystery “Ithaka”. We ended chapter 6 with a narrow escape and the help of friends near and light years away just as a battle has begun.
7.
The cave shook with tremors from below and blasts from rocket fire above. Laurence and Kane handed out weapons and led others deep into caverns to hide. Uncertain yet determined, they reassured those in their care and got into position.
Earth skyhawks rose from behind Myer Hill in time to meet Solarian warships approaching against the backdrop of gray black smokestacks of a burning Ithaka. Captain Lorey sat at the head of the formation.
“Team, we don’t know this enemy, but we know who we are. High alert. Weapons ready.”
They floated farther apart and drifted upward to form a shield. A skyhawk at an upper corner dove down to give chase, running down a Solarian ship with heavy fire as it maneuvered through deserted hills and valleys. The skyhawk was right on the warship’s tail and on a straight away, continued firing. The warship quickly banked left to avoid a blast, then righted itself and made a sharp turn right, firing on the ships behind the leading skyhawk. The warship hit a trailing skyhawk wing which caught ablaze.
The fight took to higher altitudes where a cat and mouse chase through the clouds left a Solarian warship tumbling to the ground. The sound of the crash thundered through the hills, followed up by intensifying fire exchanges. A warship knocked against one of the skyhawks, sending it careening into the side of a hill and shattering like glass. Before long, two more warships appeared, one of them inflicting critical damage onto a skyhawk. Then a new player arrived.
Vox fireflies approached with increasing speed and locked their weapons on the warships. They charged forward and split off, firing onto the Solarian fleet mercilessly and nimbly dodging their rain of fire. Suddenly a force pulled a warship into the clouds and bright lightening bolts struck a firefly. Skyhawks quickly retreated while Solarian ships were torn apart by the sudden atmosphere changes.
Firefly wings bent but glided through powerful gusts and fired on the last vulnerable warships before landing.
Soldiers snuck up to the mouth of the cave, scanning its lip with pointed weapons before the lead signaled for two to enter. They stepped noiselessly and carefully into a wide vestibule, which narrowed into a corridor. More of the team inched into the vestibule, then slowly forward into the corridor.
A blast from above blew sparks of blue and yellow, raining large rocks onto the soldiers in the vestibule. Amidst screamed commands and regrouping, they shifted around the obstacles and pressed forward.
Trembling citizens clutched makeshift weapons from their hiding places. The stronger among them stood behind while the bravest readied for the first strike. The soldiers moved deftly through the corridor to a clearing and the breaths of all who were waiting fanned in and out in the dank cave. The tension tightened like rope as they waited longer still.
The first of the Minoans leapt suddenly from their hiding places, clubbing one soldier and stabbing another. Shots whizzed around the cave hitting citizens and chipping at the cave walls. Clouds of shattered rock obscured the battlefield and more people emerged to fight off the soldiers. They retreated further into the darkened caves, fanning out around a patch of ground littered with pressured explosives. The first few slid into the trap and echos of panicked screams followed the carnage.
The few soldiers left inched back and were met with force behind them. More causalities on both sides followed and soon the clank of dropping metal against the floor signaled the battle’s end with weary Minoans the unlikely victors.
Groups huddled together awaiting more gunfire after the penetrating silence. Nothing came. Captain Lorey stepped into the mouth of the cave looking battered and delivered the news that seven Solarian warships had been destroyed with no others detected on the horizon.
“I can’t say it’s over. They may have more ships, more weapons. This may be just the first battle of many. I’m going to radio back to Earth and they’ll send more ships to guard Minos. Vox has already agreed to cooperate with us to expose Icon.”
Anaella let out a long sigh and leaned against Kane. “What do we do now?”
“There’s lots to do. We’ll show you where to start.”
The sloped face of a grassy knoll was dotted with purple wildflowers and licked with sunlight. Anaella and Lorey stood over the headstone of Cyrus and a plaque honoring Tory, who had disappeared after the Helios expedition. Anaella crumpled dried flowers from her family altar over the site.
“He’ll always face the sunrise. And Tory, wherever they are, can join him.”
“It’s a fitting remembrance,” Lorey said.
“Did you know them? Personally?”
“I knew Cyrus and learned a lot about Tory. They were Louis Allen Marshall and Jessa Willow. Good people. I trained Lou myself. His ancestor piloted—“
“The Hermes.”
He glanced over in a measure of surprise mixed with interest. “That’s right. He was determined to come out here and signed up for 10 years of deep cover after intense training. Jessa was born on Helios and recruited by Lou. The two of them did what no one else has been able to do.”
“We’re grateful to them.”
“You did good here. I admire how well you handled the whole thing. Couldn’t have been easy.”
“I-I just do what needs doing, that’s all.”
“This is usually the part where I’d recruit you, but somehow I don’t think you’d trade Ithaka for Earth.”
“Not a chance,” she smiled. “This was a lot, but there’s plenty to do to build back what we lost, better still. Our folks need to heal and I want to be here for it. Remember it, record it, learn from it.”
The Captain lowered his head and nodded.
“Listen, we’re trading com equipment and some other technology with Laurence and Kane to help you in the future. If you need us, call, otherwise, we’ll be quiet neighbors.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
He made his way up over the hill and out of sight.
Anaella lingered and let a rising and warming sun wash over her. The moons had begun their divergent paths and the worst was behind the planet. She stared out onto the tall, beating grass where her adventure first began and headed over to see what was still sprouting.
The once muddy clearing was almost entirely filled with a low bush of bright green, delicate leaves. She plucked a leaf and laid it in her palm, wondering what secrets were left to discover in the veins of this precocious plant and on the barren planet it came from.
The advisory committee weighed the implications of celestial body colonization considering the current space-faring international law.
“What do you think, Dana?”
Senator Crowley bristled. “I don’t think we should have private companies holding the keys to our survival.”
“Look around, Dana,” Senator Leland growled between his teeth. “We’ve failed them all. Our space program is practically a one room schoolhouse. The economy is tanked with a 25% unemployment rate! I’d hate to admit it, but I agree with Headley. We have to do something.”
“This is not it, Jim. We can’t do this. If we give up our power now, we’ll never get it back. They’ll be holding this over us for generations.”
“Think, Dana! They have ships ready to go right now. If we back them, in maybe 30 years, who knows? Maybe we’ll have new technology. What do you think? Green house effect reversal?”
“It’s not about that. I’m sure they will find something. But I’d almost rather die here than have a boot on my neck.”
“You don’t have a right to make that decision for the country. Shit, for the world. If this works, you’ll be the one who’ll go down in history as a decisive leader, not the coward who stood by—“
“Watch it. I know you’re not a stranger to taking money for positive outcomes—“
“Fuck off. This is not a goddamn campaign. We’re talking American lives. Do better.”
Crowley hung his head low and rubbed his forehead. The days stretched out endlessly with deliberations as outcry reached a fever pitch. The push and pull of dissent and agreement wore them all down, but so did the prospect of failure and ruin.
“Are we really going to ask them to save us?” Crowley asked.
“Do we have a choice?”
Thank you so much for joining me for this series! It was a leap to publish an unfinished serial of my longest composition ever (over 14,000 words) and record accompanying audio. The worlds you’ve seen from me thus far have been in a single room or on a street corner. “Ithaka” has been a playground that spans miles, planets, and time. I’m very proud of it and I hope you enjoyed the story. I’ll certainly be expanding it someday.
The FLARE will be back in two weeks with a Q&A, holiday subscription offer, and some reflections on this year. You can email theflare@substack.com to get your questions answered on this story, other topics, or about me. You can also come to the thread and drop a line.
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Ithaka: Chapter Seven