The Legion and the Lioness Read online

  “Or fencing? You could teach, maybe that’d be something to do again? I’m sure people will need things to prevent them from going stir crazy,” I said. In his younger years, Luther was a state champion fencer. Granted, he won because his opponent was disqualified for some technicality, but he still made it to the highest level, even made the Olympic team as a backup.

  “Not sure I have that drive anymore. I used anger to drive the competitive side of me. It was a release. I don’t want to go down that road again,” he explained.

  “No, we don’t. My thing is, living on Titan might not be for us. I’m sure they’ll have some type of shuttle system going back and forth. Like you said, it’s something most people would never get to experience normally,” I suggested.

  “That’s my vote. I want to consider this at least, if everything checks out,” Luther said excitedly. I wondered for a moment why he was so receptive. I thought about when we left his hometown of Nashville, TN and moved to Norfolk, VA for my duty station. His general mood had seemed to improve, like a reboot for him. A chance to start over with new surroundings.

  I stared up at the hologram. Underneath the graphic of the ship read: Welcome aboard. You’ve been chosen for a landmark voyage to Titan, humanity’s new home.”

  Chapter 3

  “IS SHE AWAKE?” A DEEP male voice erupted.

  “Groggy,” a female replied. I opened my eyes, blinking several times. My vision was blurred, but I could see two hazy figures on each side of my bed, a man on my right, a woman on my left.

  I inhaled through my nose. I could smell detergent, perhaps from the bedsheets. It reminded me of a fresh scent after a hard rain. The room was cool, and was very small. Its walls, ceiling, and floors were silver in color. To my right was a large window. The blinds were closed. The sunlight was entering through the edges of the blinds, illuminating the outer edges of the dark room.

  As I looked around, my vision began to clear. I glanced back and forth at the two people.

  “Ah, where am I?” I asked. The man looked about fifty with a medium build. He had very dark skin with short hair. He was wearing a maroon uniform. The shirt portion reminded me of a military pilot’s jumpsuit, the chest pockets were at an angle. Some sort of insignia was on his shoulder patch that I couldn’t make out.

  A big white smile appeared on the man’s face. “I’m Corvin,” he said.

  The woman touched my hand softly. Her skin felt warm unlike the room. “You’re safe,” she said with a comforting tone.

  “What’s going on? My head is pounding,” I muttered. It felt like a migraine was coming on.

  “That’s expected,” the woman said.

  She glanced over at Corvin and back down at me. She wore the exact same uniform as him. She appeared about thirty with milky pale skin and jet-black hair pulled back in a bun. She was tall and thin. Her face was long with elegant, soft features.

  I felt a sense of warmth from them both, but for different reasons. He appeared strong and confident, like a protective father, while her voice was comforting and nurturing, like a loving mother. I noticed her other hand was placed on my bed railing, tapping the metal rod with her fingernail.

  “And I’m Arania. Nice to meet you, finally,” she said. Her accent was very posh, educated Brit if I had to guess. She didn’t smile with her mouth, but with her dark blue eyes. She pulled the comforter up past my waist to my chest, tucking it beside my arms.

  I began to panic. I hadn’t yet tried to move. What if I was paralyzed? What if I was brought here to die? Where’s Luther? I noticed my chest thumping up and down in front of me. I moved my foot then my arm. “Ah. Thank God.” I sighed in relief.

  “Where am I? Tell me,” I demanded.

  “For now, you’re safe, as I said. We’ll explain everything a bit later,” Corvin said.

  “Do you remember your name?” Arania asked, tilting her head slightly.

  “What? Yes. My name is...Victoria Ann Belic,” I replied. Arania seemed surprised, glancing at Corvin.

  “Birth date?” Corvin asked. He grinned at me as if there was no penalty for the wrong answer.

  “I was born the fourth of January, in twenty forty. I’m thirty-eight years old,” I said. Admittedly, the year was difficult to recall.

  “Good,” Corvin said, lifting his eyebrows.

  “Okay, Victoria, what’s the last thing you remember?” he asked slowly.

  “Uh. The last thing... I remember the parade, my ship, the Orion, fifty-six hundred and nine souls onboard. I remember the voyage...but, I don’t recall completing my mission,” I concentrated.

  “Your mission: you were Captain of the Orion, a transport vessel headed to Titan, a moon of Saturn. Two months into the voyage, there was a problem,” Arania said.

  “The assassin. Android. S-stowaway.” It all came back to me. I touched the left side of my head. A thick bandage had been wrapped around my skull.

  “Can you remember what happened?” she asked.

  “I recall the ambush, I-I remember the attack before I went up to the bridge tower,” I said. I remember Luther survived, but the screams in agony as the android beat my security team to death filled my mind. My eyes glossed over as I stared into oblivion. They gave their lives to protect me.

  “Oh, my God.” I buried my face in my hands.

  “Yes, the logs indicate it was an attempt on your life, a rather brutal encounter.” Corvin dipped his head.

  “Well, there is good news obviously. While you received a fair amount of trauma and swelling during the attack, they weren’t sure you would survive, but here you are.” She grinned.

  “Great, where’s Luther and my crew? I don’t remember either one of you,” I asked, meeting each of them at the eyes.

  Corvin crossed his arms. “Do you remember anything the doctors said while you were unconscious? Sometimes, people do.”

  “No,” I said.

  “The doctors decided to freeze you and operate later. The medical staff onboard wasn’t capable of such a procedure—”

  “Mrs. Belic, even if you were on Earth with adequate equipment, your chances of survival wouldn’t have been great,” Arania interrupted Corvin.

  Normally, I would have been panicked hearing this, but I began to feel some sort of calming medication relaxing my anxiety. Arania looked back behind her. She pulled up a chair, sitting next to me.

  Arania nodded her head slowly, putting her hand over mine again. I moved her hand away. “Look. I’m fine. So, why can’t Luther be in here? Is he outside? I just want to see him, please,” I requested. Arania shifted her eyes up at Corvin and paused. Her silence alarmed me.

  “Wait. Hey! This isn’t making a bit of sense. What the fuck is going on?” I attempted to lean up in my bed.

  “Victoria, my dear, what I’m going to tell you will be difficult. It’s not easy for me to say—”

  “Okay. Just say it then. Lay it on me. I’m a ship captain and a fighter pilot,” I said. Her eyes bounced around the room, then back down at me as I clenched my bedsheets in anticipation.

  “Very well. Ahem. Captain Belic, it’s been seventy-two years since you were frozen. Um, we began thawing you out three weeks ago. The year is twenty-one fifty-one,” she said softly.

  My mouth dropped as I shook my head. “Wait. What?”

  “We understand it must be extremely difficult to take in,” she said.

  “Hold on. You’re telling me that I’ve been frozen while the rest of the world went on for seventy-two years?” I demanded.

  “Precisely, yes,” she replied.

  “This is a fucking dream. This, isn’t real, is it?” I said. Corvin looked away as Arania dropped her head. I could feel a single tear roll down my right cheek, then another on my left. “I’m, sorry.” She stared into my eyes, unwavering. I gritted my teeth in anger.

  I remembered talking to Luther on the way up to the bridge before I was attacked. It was like yesterday. I felt like the weight of the building was crushing my chest.
I stared through the ceiling for several seconds. Despite the intensity of this revelation, the medication I was on was ushering me through it. I could feel it suppressing my emotions slightly.

  “Seventy-two years. Luther,” I whispered. I did the math. He would have been well over one hundred years old.

  “Why? Why so fucking long?” I asked.

  “Well—”

  “I went into surgery, and then what?” I demanded. I closed my eyes. The thought of Luther and my crew rushed vividly into my mind. Those memories only felt hours old.

  “It’s only been recently that we could treat an injury like yours with absolute confidence. Of course, freezing seems counterproductive, but the doctors made the decision last minute. It was your only chance. They hoped that advancements would be made at a later date, and they were,” she explained.

  “A later date? Yeah, they got that right, didn’t they? Seventy-two fucking years!” I shouted. Corvin took a half step back showing me his palms.

  “Mrs. Belic, we weren’t even alive when that decision was made. We’re simply here to aid and inform you of the facts. Unfortunately, the transition from Earth to Titan set back the progression of the medical field. I’m sure the doctors on your ship wouldn’t have guessed this would take seventy-two years. Unfortunately, the motivation on Titan has been a bit more focused on making this installation habitable. Other advancements fell behind slightly,” he explained.

  “I don’t give a fuck about any of that. I-I’d like to be alone. Please... Please! Out,” I yelled, turning my head toward the window. I wanted to ask about Luther, but I couldn’t.

  “Are you sure? Studies show that human interaction is key immediately after a traumatic revelation. We’re here to help. I’m one of the chief counselors on Titan,” Arania said, lowering her voice.

  “Good for you. I’m positive. Out.” I lasered her with my eyes. I didn’t know these fucking people. They weren’t my support system. Arania stood up, scooting her chair away from my bed. Corvin nodded and turned as they both ushered toward the door.

  “Blinds,” I said. Arania hesitated, then touched a tab on the window’s panel, flipping the blinds open, lighting up the room. They walked out, shutting the door.

  All at once, I felt a tightness in the pit of my stomach. I panned around beside the bed, finding a small trash can. I picked it up and vomited clear fluid into the can. I instinctively pushed back my hair, but it was gone. My head had been shaved completely.

  My eyes widened as I looked toward the window. Before me was a sprawling industrial scene engulfed by a dull pink mist. There were silos with smoke plumes puffing into the skyline. “Oh, my Go—”

  Massive drill like structures and pipelines were dotted throughout the rocky plain. Igloo type buildings and heavy machinery were accompanied by each drill. I could make out a few workers in space suits sprinkled in the distance.

  Then I gasped. In the background, Saturn. It filled nearly half the horizon, stealing the show. Its rings were flipped vertically from here, the bottom side clipped underneath the horizon line. I could see huge, hurricane-like storms in its atmosphere, white swirling clouds mixed with a muted orange tint. It was fascinating and frightening. I felt my hand shaking, attempting to comprehend the scale of it. I remembered reading Saturn was ten times the size of Earth. I imagined some of the storms visible were probably larger than continents on Earth.

  I looked away, cupping my head in my hands as tears poured from my eyes. If I could have pushed a button and ended my life, I might have in that moment.

  I remembered Luther and I looking at satellite images of the barren rocky landscape before we arrived. Now, seventy-two years later, I was here, alone. Most of these people were probably grandchildren of the crew I came over with.

  I glanced toward the door, thinking maybe I should have taken Arania’s more human approach to this revelation. Perhaps the calming medication in my system made me think I was better off alone.

  “Luther,” I mumbled. I felt guilt, like I had abandoned him. I wondered if he had lived a long life. Maybe he had remarried? Maybe—

  “No-no-no! Don’t!” I yelled at myself. The possibilities were endless, there was no sense traveling down the road of speculation.

  A deep sense of solitude overcame me, like my soul was shackled away in some faraway, forgotten land. I was here, but everything I knew was gone. Passed on. I felt a world apart.

  I snapped, tossing my bedside lamp across the room. The glass shattered into hundreds of pieces as I began to pant. I closed my eyes, attempting to control my breathing. I concentrated on every breath, slow, in and out.

  I was built to conquer adversity, trained to deal with extreme danger and mental hardship. I was the best fighter pilot of my time, top ace among the elite. This would be a challenge far beyond any of that, Naval flight school, or any combat mission for that matter.

  If anyone was capable of such, I felt it was me. I needed to view this in the same vein, militaristic. A challenge. I had to find a way to bury my emotions the best I could, for the sake of sanity.

  I laid my head down, welcoming the relaxing effects of the medication now in full swing. I hadn’t been awake long, but I’d had enough for now. Before I drifted off, a realization came to me that no amount of medicine or compartmentalization techniques could deny.

  I had to know what happened to him.

  Chapter 4

  TWO DAYS LATER...

  I heard a knock at the door, “Victoria?” Arania said.

  “Come in,” I replied. She entered the room. “I hate to wake you.”

  “A bit overdue, seventy years or so,” I mumbled, pulling the pillow away from my head.

  “I wanted to give you some time to think, I know it’s only been a couple of days, so if you want me to leave...” Arania asked.

  “No,” I said. She paused, staring at me, raising her eyebrows. I looked like shit. It was all over her face. I’d likely lost weight in tears alone. A nurse brought me food several times, but I could barely eat. Nothing seemed appetizing.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I stared a hole through her.

  “Nothing, I—”

  “I have questions, lots of them, so you might want to have a seat,” I interrupted. I sat up in my bed.

  “Of course, this is what I’m here for. Keep in mind, though, everything we discuss is classified. So, to be safe, I would suggest not mentioning any of it to the staff or any civilians you might encounter, even your personal information,” she explained, sitting down.

  “Um. Why can’t I talk about things that happened to me?” I asked.

  “For now, let me trade your complete transparency for silence. Our conversation could possibly brush against secret matters. But considering your rank and previous contribution to our people, we feel you deserve that, at the very least.” She grinned.

  “Uh, thanks,” I said. It was difficult to imagine anyone here valued my contribution from seven decades ago.

  “Before I came to see you, I went back over your file. Apparently, the doctors onboard Orion had a disagreement about your surgery. Supposedly, your chances were less than originally thought. A doctor suggested you be frozen until a more decisive strategy could be formulated on Titan. Luther went along with it. It was a tense situation I would assume,” she explained.

  “I’d like to read those logs,” I said.

  “Of course,” Arania replied.

  I closed my eyes, readying myself for the follow up question about Luther, but that wasn't what came out of my mouth. “Um, w-what about Earth?” I asked. Arania stood up, walking close to the window. She stared out into the horizon.

  “Titan is our home now, Victoria. I understand you were born on Earth, but it’s better if you think of this moon as home.” She glared over her shoulder at me.

  “Well fuck, that’s easy for you to say. You were born here, but that’s not what I asked you,” I said. Arania glanced back out in the landscape. She bounced her eyebrow
s.

  “Yes. I suppose you would learn the truth at some point anyway. Do you remember why you left Earth?” she questioned.

  “Yes.”

  “Can you give me a bit more specific answer?” she asked. I sighed loudly, exaggerating to convey my annoyance.

  “Initially, a man named Orel recruited me. He made it sound like a colonization mission. Exploratory. I didn’t find out the real reason until I started training as the captain. Apparently, a lot of people onboard were running from the threat of the androids, thought it might flare back up, so they sped up a preexisting mission to Titan,” I recalled.

  “And you found this out how?” she asked.

  “Luther and I overheard a few conversations from the crew. There was a civilian element of about five hundred people that paid a hefty ticket to leave Earth,” I said.

  “Money well spent.” Arania narrowed her eyes, staring at the wall.

  “Why? What happened?” I asked. I drew in a great breath, readying for worst.

  “Nuclear devastation. It wasn’t immediately after you were frozen, several years later actually. It was a worst-case scenario. Estimates show nearly two thousand warheads detonated across your home world,” she said in a respectful tone. I stared through her for a moment.

  “Ah, oh—my—God.” I planted my face into my hands. “No.” It felt like someone knocked the wind out of me. Everyone I knew likely lived through that horror. I began to enlist Luther’s slow breathing techniques as anxiety overwhelmed me. I could feel my heart pounding like never before.

  “Are you okay, Mrs. Belic?”

  “F-fine. H-how did this happen?” I asked.

  “We don’t know how or who fired first, but it was a domino effect. We suspect the androids infiltrated government infrastructures and pitted nations against one another using a series of cyberattacks. That was why the androids went dark for a time. They did a reboot strategically. Of course, after the crossfire was over, the radiation only affected the humans, slowly killing most of them off. The androids took control of everything, exterminating whoever remained. They called the following years after the war the Rat Race. This was a massive effort to exterminate the last humans in hiding. Consider yourself lucky to be on Titan,” she explained.