The Sirius Chronicles (9 page)

He went on to assign different groups to take over specific parts of the ship. I could tell he had this all well planned out. Not only did we have the numbers now, but soon we’d be fully armed; in some ways even more so than the average militia.

While we headed towards the weapons room, I was surprisingly calm. Almost as if I knew I didn’t have time to be nervous for this, it was far too important. Or maybe it was all the horrible things I’d seen over the past three years, I don’t know. It didn’t matter because I was ready. I was ready to kill Cyrus and I wanted to see the native’s go free more than anything else I had ever wanted.

When we finally reached the weapons room, Kayin pulled out a small computer and hooked it up to the door panel. He looked at me and said “I’m a technician remember” then he smiled. When the door opened we had expected to see some militia but there wasn’t anyone in sight. I suppose they never thought a crew take over could be possible. The room was completely stocked with every weapon imaginable. We would have a serious edge.

When Kayin was done handing out weapons and relaying orders he walked over to Sara and I -“Sara go with Atlas, you were part of what went on in that lab too. I’m sure you’ll want to confront Cyrus.” He gave us both a firearm, put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes – “We can do this.” … Almost two years of hopelessness had suddenly turned into something spectacular.

As we ran down the hallways heading to the lab, my militia training kicked in. I split the rest of my team into two units and sent each one to secure two of the four holding rooms. Sara and I would deal with Cyrus together… I knew for a fact that he would be alone, waiting for the effects of his treatments to kick in on his new project. He’d probably be cutting open another one just to pass the time…

We approached the lab and I signaled for Sara to wait… Killing Cyrus was something I thought of almost every day, but now that it came down to it, things were different. If I killed him I’d be just like him; a murderer. I stood there in silence for a few moments. I thought about all the people he had killed. I thought about the sound of the drills, and watching him cut open their chests and skulls like it was fun. I realized that he had to die; we couldn’t have someone like that left alive to possibly jeopardize the plan. Someone like Cyrus didn’t deserve the gift of life… I had to do it.

I looked at Sara and said “I had to work with him all this time… I’m going to kill Cyrus and you’re going to watch the door.” Just before I went forward she stopped me and said “Tell him what we’re doing, I want him to know what’s happening and why.”

I slowly cracked the door and looked around; I didn’t see him so I walked in. As I approached his private room in the back I could hear him talking to himself. I almost felt sorry for him…

I opened the door abruptly so he would hear it. Cyrus whipped around frightened – “Oh man Atlas! You scared me!.. What are doing here?” I held up the firearm – “Atlas what are you doing?!” I looked him in the eyes for a few moments and said “Half of us have turned against the ACI; we’re taking over the Sirius and freeing the natives. We plan to stay as long as it takes to finish mining without using them at all… Your sick little project is coming to an end Cyrus”

I didn’t plan to let him speak, he didn’t deserve it. I just wanted to fulfill Sara’s request before he died. I’d rather never hear his voice again… I could see the hatred flare in his eyes and right when he went to respond, I shot him in the head… To my right, there was another cut open native, senselessly slaughtered for his amusement. As I looked down at his body it only reminded me that I had done the right thing.

The live native he was currently experimenting on was chained up in the corner. He’d be safe just where he is, so I went back out to Sara. As soon as I walked through the door she hugged me and said “Did you tell him?”

I let her go and replied “Yes… I told him exactly what’s going on… I saw the anger in his eyes and before he could speak I shot him.” She looked sad – “I know he deserved it but… I do wish we didn’t have to kill anyone, enough people have died.” I touched her arm – “Sara this may not even be close to over yet… Remember Neros has hundreds of men still loyal to him. There might be a lot more death before this is done… You have to be ready to defend yourself, they might not hesitate… and I don’t want to lose you.”

She smiled and said “Don’t worry Atlas I know… We’ll both be fine and have all the time in the world together once we get back to Aeris.” I wanted to raise the idea that we may no longer be welcome or safe at the Aurora Station after this but I’d save that for another time. I could tell she hadn’t considered it yet… I wondered if Kayin had and what his plan would be?

When we made to the flight deck Kayin, and the others had successfully taken control. It turned out that when they told the flight staff and technicians what was going on they put up no resistance at all. In fact they agreed with what we had done and gave their full support.

I walked over and congratulated Kayin. I could see Neros off to the side, lying in a pool of his own blood. I asked - “So what’s next?” Kayin led me over to the communications panel and said “I just gave the order to sabotage all the mining sites and spread out the militia. The rest is up to them… they all know exactly what to do and even if the native’s back down I think they can still win… All we can do now is wait to hear from them.”

As the hours went by we kept receiving word of more mining sites being freed. There was some initial resistance by the militia, but when the natives joined in it was quickly put to an end. Once Kayin’s men had a chance to explain what was going on to the militia, they all sided with us just like the fight crew.

Reports were coming in from all the different sections of the ship that our people were taking over with minimal casualties on both sides. The team I split up had successfully taken control of the native holding rooms and were getting them ready to be returned to X-451. Everything was unfolding perfectly… just as if it were meant to happen this way. I truly felt that the universe itself was on our side.

It seemed as though everyone just needed some inspiration to do the right thing. Kayin’s plan had worked flawlessly… This whole experience had ruined my view of humanity, but Kayin never let his become corrupted. He knew most of the people on this ship were good and willing to do the right thing when given the chance… He was right, and I’m glad he was here to make it all happen.

Everyone who refused to cooperate was detained in the holding rooms originally used to treat the natives. The next day they would be mining, whether they liked it or not. All the remaining natives on the Sirius were loaded onto transport ships and taken back down to X-451 to be reunited with the others.

Once it was confirmed the Sirius and all the mining sites had been taken over by our group I felt such a relief. Everyone seemed so happy… I suppose we all were. Even though I couldn’t forgive myself at the moment, it was a good start… I felt someone take my hand, it was Sara.

Kayin and I stayed on the flight deck for hours discussing what to do next. We had both agreed that mining operations would resume first thing in the morning and everyone available would participate; no matter what division they were in.

In just under two years the mining division produced close to 3,000 tons of chrysos while using the natives. If we add every free man and woman onto the mining teams it should be somewhat close to the number of natives that were used. Though the natives were substantially stronger and more energetic than we were, so things would slow down considerably.

We could still have years of work ahead of us but this is the only way. Anything was better than what Cyrus and Neros were doing… I think everyone was ready to work as hard as they could to get this mission accomplished and return home to Aeris with a clean conscience.

Sara and I were off to the side talking when a communication came in. The two surviving leaders of the natives that Kayin’s men had further advanced in secret, wanted to meet with us… I was excited and ashamed at the same time…

As we headed down to the loading bay Kayin turned to me and said “You did it right?” I nodded – “Yes, and I told him exactly what was going on… that we were going to free the natives and take our time mining the rest of the chrysos… I could tell that killed him before I did.” Kayin laughed.

On the way down in the transport ship Sara and I sat next to each other; she kept her hand on mine. Even after everything I’d just been through, all of a sudden I was nervous. Just like my first day on the Aurora station… I was trying to come up with something to say. I was wondering if they would even understand an apology.

Hopefully they would be able to tell by the looks on all of our faces. From what I’ve seen they had to be intelligent enough to recognize remorse. I had to come up with something simple. From what Kayin said their language had close to 60 words now. He and some of the others could communicate, but just barely… By the time we landed I still hadn’t come up with anything to say. Hopefully Kayin would handle that…

As we approached them I could see how frail and weak they looked. They had injuries on their hands and their lips were blistered from thirst. I yelled “Someone get them water now!” As I said that, they both dropped to their knees and started chanting “Anu – Nnaki , Anu – Nnaki!”

They still viewed us as something to worship. Kayin and I tried to get them up but they wouldn’t for some time. It was even hard for us to get them to drink water. They knew we had saved them yet they were still completely frightened of us.

Before Kayin could try to communicate, they started directing the other native’s to get back to work. We tried to get them to stop but they wouldn’t. The whole mining site was ringing out with the chant “Anu – Nnaki!” … I guess it was their way of thanking us.

I turned to Kayin and said “We have to do something about this… the whole point was to set them free. Now it looks like they’re working even harder just to please us.” Kayin put his hand over his face and sighed – “Me and the others have been trying to explain it to them for months… we just can’t make them understand Atlas… Come on, we have to get them to stop working.”

Kayin and I spent the next hour trying to communicate with the leaders. Eventually we convinced them to stop and rest. Both of us were upset… All this and they were doing the exact opposite of what we wanted. The whole point was to let them get back to their lives and find their own way.

Kayin said “Hey if they fear us as their creators why won’t they listen to us?!” I laughed and said “We’ll figure it out… if we have to, we’ll make them get on the transporters and move them far away.”

Kayin had food from the ship brought down to feed them because we could tell they were malnourished. Up until now they were only living off the surrounding land. Neros hadn’t even been supplying them with food… They all appeared to really enjoy it and it only made them worship us even more. It seemed the more time we spent with them the more it worked against our cause.

Something had to be done, we couldn’t just allow them to worship us and slave away. Kayin and I spent a good part of the night trying to make them understand what had happened and who we were. After hours we made little progress and decided to head back to the Sirius.

As we boarded the transport ship they all began to kneel and start chanting again. I looked over at Kayin – “What are we gonna do?.. We’re about to take off into the sky, it’s not exactly going to help the situation…” He shook his head and put his hand to his chin – “I really don’t know what to do at the moment… We’re going to be here for a long time Atlas. That will give us plenty of time to figure out a way to explain this to them.” I was upset but I couldn’t blame Kayin, neither one of us expected this to happen.

I turned to Sara – “Any ideas?” She thought for a moment and said “Well actually I took ancient linguistic courses at the academy; it should give me an advantage. Maybe I can even teach them some things… I think Kayin is right. Once we can better communicate and they spend some time with us they’ll realize they’re wrong.” I nodded in recognition.

“Well let’s make a rule… We have to hide as much technology from them as possible. We should even dress in plain clothes so we don’t seem so… special…”

Kayin agreed and said “Ok once we get back to the flight deck I’ll send out the message to everyone… that could be a big help Atlas... We have to make ourselves appear normal to them. I’ll even order everyone to leave their handhelds on the ship when they go down to mine.”

By the time we got back to the Sirius we had all been awake for almost 24 hours. We decided it was best to get some rest, think things over, and reassemble later. Everyone on the ship was in full cooperation… Commander Neros and Cyrus were both dead, there was no one who would want to try and reverse what we had done.

I don’t think anyone who saw what happened today or heard the news over the communicators would ever turn back… It was an emotional time for all of us. We had gone against all odds to do the right thing and succeeded… Some people laughed, some people cried, and others were silent… it affected us all equally, just in different ways.

My only worry is that now we’re in even more danger than ever. I can’t help but have a bad feeling about the way the ACI will react… Especially since I’ve decided to destroy Cyrus’ research. Advancement isn’t worth doing what he did…