Chapter 14

SS Peake, May 15, 2157
Inbound to Mars

“Thank you all for taking your time to join us in our last rest period,” said Alan Scarlett. He and Pandora had just returned from an observation around the Big Berserker and were still wearing their environment suits. “Our own personal moon has been decelerating nicely after rotating one hundred eighty degrees and we are ready to start the last phase of the operation.” An image of Mars was shown on the wall and started zooming in to show Jezero Crater to the men and women of the Berserkers. “Here is our target, and we are on course to hit it tomorrow. Master Chief? Can you...?”

Master Chief White stood from behind his computer screen and said, “The moonlet is on course, and we are ready to start final deceleration. Big Berserker will decelerate at maximum Gs, until it reaches point x-ray at one hundred miles above the Martian surface, at which point we will force the gimballing engines and the non-gimballing into an unbalanced configuration which will shatter the Big Berserker into basketball size pieces of ice.”

“You can do that?” asked a crewman from the SS Peake.

“Huh? Oh yeah. Super easy, barely an inconvenience. This moonlet is one solid block of ice, a crystal. We just need to hit it at its resonant frequency and snap!”

“Ray Clark, the president of Mars said that if we hit the bulls eye that he’s going to throw a party for everyone here,” said Pandora.

“What’s the bullseye?” asked newly minted fighter pilot Jim Dutton.

“Dead center on this crater,” said Alan.

Lt. Scott Anders squinted at the map. “That looks like a military base.”

“Military? Really?” scoffed Alan sarcastically. “Are you saying that whoever built that base has worked very hard to make that look and smell like a rogue pirate base?”

“My ass,” said Eileen Collins as she looked closer. “There’s no pirates that have SSM-127 facilities. These are launchers for the SSM-127. By global agreement, Mars is independent and non-military ... we are bound by agreement to take this out!”

Alan grinned and said, “now you’re thinking like a fighter jock, next we’ll have you chewing cigars and grabbing chick’s asses.”

“I’m way ahead of you boss,” she responded with a wink.

“There’s no pirates who fly F-733’s either but we found some,” said Pandora.

“Are you saying that the pirates are eastern bloc operatives?” asked Chief Cernan.

“Me? Heaven forbid!” said Alan, ensuring that everyone in the room knew he was being less than honest.

“There’s people down there!” said Lt. Commander Edmund Walker, the Executive Officer of the SS Peake. Edmund has been extremely quiet for this entire mission, concentrating on the SS Peake and staying away from the Berserkers. This outburst was very unusual for him.

“Since this boat left lunar orbit and headed for Saturn, they have been warned repeatedly,” said Alan. “We know they do not care about human life, but we did what we could. Last night a B-202 tactical bomber blanketed them with leaflets printed in every language spoken in the Eastern Bloc countries warning them that the Jezero Lake project is going to ‘start with a bang’ and be very dangerous to anyone in the area.”

“And you are counting on people to not believe what you told them? Are you hoping they all remain behind and die?”

Alan Scarlett went ice cold. He turned and stood nose to nose with Lt. Commander Walker. For the first time, the berserkers saw the glare of hatred in their commander’s eye. “Officially? Officially we care sooo goddamn much. We want to hug every one of them and dry their tears, kiss their little noses and pat their little bum-bums. Unofficially? I hope the stupid fuckers all die. In agony.” Scarlett turned back to the image of the future Lake Jezero.

“What about any captives they may have?”

Captain Scarlett didn’t turn around. “If there are captives down there, when the Big Berserker hits, we will provide them with mercy.”

“How can you say that?”

Scarlett stepped up to Lt. Commander Walker and pulled off his eye patch, displaying the empty eye socket. “My eye was the first thing they took. It was far from the last.”

“Alan, stop,” said Pandora softly. To be honest, she didn’t want Alan to stop. She once liked Lieutenant Commander Walker, but this attitude was sickening to her.

“When I was their captive they didn’t tie me up, they didn’t have to. They took a power drill to my knees and elbows. They took a sledgehammer to my ankles, hips, wrists, and shoulders. They forced me to watch my men get beaten, carved up and raped and spaced. Have you ever heard the screams of a woman being raped for two weeks straight...”

“Ok, I get it.”

“No, I don’t think you get it.” Quick as a flash, he whipped out the large knife that was used to stab the former Lieutenant Commander Risto Pärn. “This knife is standard Eastern Bloc issue. See these notches on the back of the blade? They used that to gauge how deep they would stick it into me. It was a game to them. You know, like how you tried to stick it in our backs, all of us. Your men and mine.”

“I don’t like your insinuation, sir.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you like. Am I accusing you of trying to send coded messages to the Eastern Bloc operatives at Tethys? Did I say anything about you sending coded messages directed at Earth and Mars and trying to wipe that information from the computer’s memory? I haven’t mentioned any of that.”

Realizing that he was discovered, Lt. Commander John Anthony Walker jumped at Alan, but he was grabbed by two marines who saved his life. Alan held the point of his blade at Walker’s throat. If he continued to jump, he would have died. “Thanks guys,” said Alan, as he turned back to his men.

“I wish you hadn’t done that in front of the men,” said Commander Elliot See, captain of the Peake. “We had security waiting for him at Perseverance Spaceport.”

“He pissed me off. One more word and I was going to space his ass. Those marines may have saved his life.” Alan looked up at the shocked looks he was getting from the men. “None of his messages got out. We let a few go, but they contained nothing that would endanger the project.”