Planet Leviathan

^{Chapter 17} Then They All Died, The End

“Good day or good evening, wherever you might be. I’m Lawrence Zawayon. Our top story today, the fallout from the recent revelations surrounding the planet Leviathan continues. The rumors have been confirmed that Stanton Borealis, notable activist and son of a prominent general in the Galactic Marines, was indeed aboard the ship that recently tried to leave the planet. QLN News Node has acquired the video that he managed to broadcast before his attempt to leave…”

“I doubt that I’m going to survive this, which is why I’m making sure this message is released prior to our taking off. I just hope that it reaches someone outside the military. I have not been allowed to leave, despite the continued assertions we have all heard from Galactic Marine command that Leviathan is not a prison planet. I can also confirm that all the rumors are true. There are, in fact, people living here, people born here, that were not convicted of any crimes. There are rampant and unbelievable sentient rights abuses, including…”

“The rest of the video goes into graphic details. For those who wish to see it all, the rest is available at our sister news node, AQV. While no official statement has yet been released by the Galactic Marines, one source we found that wishes to remain anonymous insists that the video, along with the woman who appears in it later claiming to be one of the native-born of Leviathan, are elaborate hoaxes. While Borealis’s mother, the General Lita Borealis, is still in recovery from wounds she received in an unrelated attack, she did release this statement: ‘I continue to support the mission of the Galactic Marines and always will. But someone within command must be held accountable for the senseless murder of my son, and teams must be sent to Leviathan to judge the legitimacy of his claims.’ Public outcry is growing, with a vocal contingent calling for the Planetary Congress to begin an official investigation. In other news, rogue forces on the planet Behemoth continue their coup, with their leader…”

Stacia turned off the holofeed. Kendara gave a feeble protest that she had been watching that, then nodded off and proceeded to snore as the pain medications coursing through her system took effect. All four of them were sharing the same room together, an anti-septically white medical room with harsh lighting that made it hard for any of them to sleep without the benefit of medications. Less than perfect as it was, though, it was still better than being ripped-apart atoms floating in orbit around Leviathan.

Their escape had been closer than Stacia had wanted, and Kendara had even come close to not making it. Stanton’s maneuver had blown out the last of the inertial dampeners, resulting in all of them receiving some variety of broken bones and damaged organs from their final jump out of the system, which in itself had already been more dangerous thanks to their close proximity to Leviathan’s gravity well. Stacia’s blowing of the cargo doors had also exposed a flaw in the integrity of the hold itself, meaning that when they had vented the pieces of Daddy’s Adult Toy’s exact duplicate into space, several areas of the ship had suffered dangerous levels of decompression. Multiple pieces of shrapnel from the exploding decoy parts as they hit the missiles had damaged their engines on the way out. This, along with the fact that their reactors had already been failing, meant that the ship had stopped before its planned rendezvous point and floated in the void, slowly venting their precious air, for over an hour before their rescuers had finally traced their route and found them. Life support systems would have held out for another hour or two at most, and they all would have died if there hadn’t already been a small group of people expecting them.

But instead of dying, they’d “died.”

Stanton had suffered the fewest injuries when they’d faked their death, which was good because they’d needed him to film the video they had leaked to the press soon after. No one watching it from the comforts of their own home would be any wiser that half the cuts and bruises on his face hadn’t been obtained on the planet at all. Skin’s part in the video had been a little shakier, since she’d never had to act in front of a camera before, and she was still recovering from the shock to her system that was her first space flight. It hadn’t been so much of a shock, though, that she hadn’t later snuck into Stanton’s bed several times when she thought Kendara and Stacia were asleep.

So that was it. To the rest of the galaxy, they were all dead, and their final moments had been used to expose just how bad things were on Leviathan. The mission was done. Stacia had rescued her charge, along with two extras just for good measure. If it had been any other mission, Stacia would have been satisfied and ready for a rest before getting back to battle.

Except there wouldn’t be any more battles, no more missions. She wasn’t a Galactic Marine anymore, and never could be again. The entire point of her life, even the debt she had sworn to repay when she was a child, was now over and done with.

All she had now was her beat-up, secondhand armor and a hospital bed. She would be lying if she said that she hadn’t considered several times just going to the nearest airlock and spacing herself.

The light over their door turned from red to green, indicating that they were about to get a visitor. Security was understandably tight, considering they were all supposed to be dead. If the wrong people found out they were still alive (and they still weren’t even positive who these wrong people might be), there would be hell to pay. Once the unsavory elements were rooted out of the Galactic Marine High Command, then maybe they could come forth and tell everyone they were still alive. Until then, though, the number of people allowed into this room were two doctors, two nurses, and anyone else General Borealis still trusted.

Figuring their visitor had to be a doctor or nurse, Stacia sat up in her bed, wincing at the pain from the wound mending under her armor. She didn’t want any of the medical staff to see her looking weak, as futile as that might sound to anyone else.

It wasn’t a doctor or nurse, though. When the door opened, Mama Gertrude and Mama Linny walked in.

Stacia scrambled out of her bed, ignoring the pain, and found herself torn between standing at attention to salute them and running to hug them. Her mothers made the decision for her when they both opened their arms wide, so Stacia ran to embrace them.

“I did it, Mamas,” Stacia whispered.

“We know you did, honey,” Mama Gertrude said. “We never doubted for a moment that you would.”

Stacia backed away, falling back on her military training and standing at attention. Mama Linny appeared amused by this, while Mama Gertrude looked sad. For a moment, Stacia couldn’t figure out why. Then she remembered.

She wasn’t a Galactic Marine anymore. They were no longer her superior officers.

“What are you two doing here?” Stacia asked. “This place is supposed to be on a need-to-know basis only.”

“That’s why we don’t actually even know where here is,” Mama Linny said. “A friend brought us along, but we had to be kept in isolation the entire time so we wouldn’t have a clue as to the coordinates.”

“A friend?” Stacia asked.

The two of them stepped to either side, allowing General Borealis to come in from behind them.

This time, Stacia didn’t care whether she was still a Galactic Marine or not. She saluted anyway.

“General! I wasn’t expecting you just yet.”

“At ease, marine,” Borealis said. Her voice was shaky, and despite the brand new Scorpio-class armor she was wearing, the woman still had to walk with a cane. Borealis saw Stacia staring at it and chuckled.

“Next time I give you an order to shoot me, marine, maybe you could not be so thorough, huh?”

“Sorry, General.”

“Don’t be too sorry. It convinced all the right people, didn’t it? No one ever suspected a thing.”

“Is the damage permanent?”

“Once upon a time, it might have been. You hit a few key nerves. But with the right therapy, I should be back to normal within six months.”

“To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence?”

“Well, for one thing, I came to see my son.” General Borealis came further into the room and stood next to Stanton’s bed. “I don’t want to disturb him, though. Any idea when he might be waking up?”

“In complete honesty, general, given his recent activities with Skin this morning, I expect he’s really going to need a lot more rest.”

“Ha! I suppose.” Careful not to wake him, General Borealis brushed a stray strand of hair off his forehead and, after a moment’s hesitation, bent down to gently kiss her son’s cheek. When she stood back up, she went over to Skin’s bedside. “Skin, huh? That’s the best name you could give her?”

“It’s the name she wanted.”

“And everything she said in the video is true? Do the convicts really use people like her for…” The general, veteran of more bloody conflicts than most marines saw in their entire lifetimes, couldn’t even bring herself to continue that sentence.

“I saw more than enough evidence to corroborate her tale.”

“This will start to change now, you know,” General Borealis said. “Her claims will be investigated. The Skins will be freed from that living hell.”

“Eventually,” Stacia said.

“Yes,” the general said with a sigh. “Eventually. It does seem that none of the important stuff can ever be done quickly, can it? There are always rules. Red tape. People trying to obstruct the truth.” She turned to Stacia with a distinct gleam in her eye. “How would you like to do something about that?”

“General? I don’t understand.”

“She was telling us her plan on the way here,” Mama Gertrude said.

Mama Linny nodded. “And we both agreed that if there was anyone who would want to be involved, it was you.”

“I don’t understand,” Stacia said.

“Leviathan is only one planet, Stacia. The vast majority of the planets we have found and colonized, or at least established relationships with, are stable and just in their own way. On a few, when something goes wrong, the Galactic Marines can go in. But on fewer still, the brute force of the Galactic Marines isn’t the answer. In fact, as I’m sure you saw down on Leviathan, the marines are actually the problem. There needs to be some sort of last line, a group of people who can go in without anyone suspecting, to do what’s right.”

“And who determines what’s right and what’s not?” Stacia asked.

“Who indeed? Maybe there needs to be certain people involved. Like a person with a strong sense of duty and justice.” She put a hand on Stacia’s shoulder, then looked at Stanton. “And someone with pure intentions and a strong belief in what’s right and wrong.” She nodded to Skin. “Someone who has lived through the worst of what sentient beings can do to each other, and will have empathy for the oppressed.” And then she shrugged at Kendara. “And perhaps even a wildcard. Someone who isn’t so pure. Just in case there’s something unsavory that must be done that the pure cannot.”

“Us?” Stacia asked. “You want us to be this team of yours.”

“You would be top secret. You would answer only to me and a small number of others that I deem trustworthy.”

“That would be us,” Mama Linny said.

“There’s still plenty that’s fishy going on in the Galactic Marine command. Stanton’s ship didn’t go down all by itself, and there are other things I’ve witnessed. I don’t have much to go on yet, but I get the feeling that someone will need to stand up to whatever corruption is growing inside the Galactic Marines. You may not technically be a marine anymore, but you can still serve. You can still do what’s right. Hell, you even already have a ship to use, once it’s fixed. Although I suggest maybe changing the name.”

Stacia smiled. “I don’t know. No would expect the secret team of a Galactic Marines general to tool around the galaxy in a ship called Daddy’s Adult Toy. It might be the perfect camouflage.”

Borealis smiled back. “Maybe it might be. So what do you say? Is this a call you think you might want to answer?”

Stacia considered it for all of three seconds. Then the smile disappeared from her face, she stood at attention again, and she gave her best Galactic Marine salute.

“Stacia X-79, reporting for duty, General.”