Chains of Redemption (42 page)

RJ was laughing, and he knew she was laughing at him. "You going to be all right, sport?"

Alan had finished throwing up, he hoped. He pushed the bag, which now disgusted him, away from him and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "I'm going to kill you," he hissed.

RJ laughed even louder. "Yeah, he's gonna be fine." She left the bridge.

Alan looked at Poley. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. Come on, let's go get you cleaned up." Poley helped him get up and took him to the showers.

The water felt good running over his body, and he started to feel like he just might live. He knew Poley had gone to dispose of his bag-o-vomit. He let the water run into and out of his mouth for a good five minutes, and still couldn't get the horrid taste out. He finally gave up and turned off the water. Poley handed him a towel.

"She knew I would get sick, didn't she?" Alan asked.

"Yes."

"Why . . ."

"Did she take off anyway?"

Alan nodded.

"Because she's on a mission. She won't stop till she accomplishes what she's got it in her mind to do."

"And what does she want to do?"

"Kill our sister."

Two weeks later they popped out of hyperspace and the moon base started talking to her, telling her where, when, and how to tether her ship.

She just smiled and hurled her ship towards the surface of the planet.

"RJ . . . what are you doing now?" Poley asked calmly.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" RJ asked.

"Fixing to ram Earth with the Avonlea," Poley said with all the excitement he could muster.

"Oh . . . maybe I should slow down then. Thrusters?"

"That would be recommended," Poley answered.

"I'm just so excited. You know, about being home, seeing the old stomping grounds, ripping the metal heart out of the chest of a close family member."

She saw Alan look at Poley in panic, and heard Poley answer, "She doesn't mean me."

"Chill, Alan," RJ laughed. "You're just along for the ride. You guys can go do a little sight-seeing while I take care of business."

"RJ . . . J-6 has only done what you started. She has brought the New Alliance to power, gotten rid of the Reliance. Maybe she has changed, and . . ."

"I'm still going to kill her. Don't try to reason with me, Poley. Remember that she's the one that had that thing built. You remember, the thing that killed Whitey and Sandra, ripped my heart out of my chest and left me for dead, and cut your head off? She's the one who had Alsterase hit with cluster bombs." RJ's voice shook as she continued. "I don't care what she has done. I only care what she did. Kirk is all about power, having it, keeping it, using it. She changed sides only because she couldn't stay in the Reliance after she'd killed Jago. Don't you see? She's all about being Queen of everything, and she has used my life to do it. She's in charge of it all now. Don't you get it? She's taken over everything by pretending to be me."

"But the people seem happy. They're free, isn't that what you wanted?" Poley asked.

"How long before she starts demanding things? Before we find out that those GSH's she's put in power are programmed to carry out her bidding, and only her bidding? Don't you see, if I don't kill her, where the hell am I going to go?"

Poley was silent, and she knew this was because—knowing her—he now knew that there was no sense in arguing with her, that her mind had been made up.

And it was.

The ship had landed on the surface of the planet with a lurch that made Alan feel like his ass should be about where his shoulders were. In spite of that, he smiled. They were finally on solid ground. He unbuckled himself when he saw both Poley and RJ do it.

"She knows you're here, and where you landed. She has Marge," Poley informed his sister.

"So . . . What's your point?" RJ asked.

"RJ," his voice dragged, then sounded almost mechanical. "She will have the upper hand."

RJ slung a dismissive hand in the air and left the room. Poley followed her, so Alan did, too.

"You may not kill her, RJ. She may kill you," Poley said.

"I had thought of that," RJ said, never stopping her forward movement.

"I don't want you to die. I need you," Poley explained.

RJ stopped then, turned around and hugged her brother, and kissed him on the cheek. She looked at Alan. "You'll take care of him, won't you?" She let go of Poley, hugged Alan, and then started walking again. They followed.

Alan suddenly found a huge lump in his throat. "Why do this, RJ? We could go somewhere, anywhere else, together," Alan begged. He didn't really understand why she found it necessary to be here, or to kill her sister. He really thought they'd all land on some new world and live happily ever after. "We can just go somewhere else. Poley says there are lots of nice worlds . . ."

She didn't stop or turn to face them, she just screamed, "I can't go anywhere or do anything until I take care of my past!" She threw her hands up in a dramatic fashion. "Don't you get it? She took my life. I have to get it back."

"You don't even know for certain that she's there," Poley said.

"Oh, yes. Yes I do. Because if I was her, that's where I'd be. And, yes, I know that this is a very small advantage, because she will also know what I'm doing right now," RJ said. She walked into the loading bay, walked around the metal Ocupod suit and smiled. "However, I think I've got at least one really good surprise for her."

"The ship has landed twenty miles from here," Marge said.

"Yes," Jessica said simply.

"RJ . . . I mean, Jessica, why not send a squadron of planes and some ground troops to take her out?" Dax asked.

"Because she'd only kill them, and they wouldn't be able to stop her. At least Poley is with her. Her ship will be prepared to lay down covering fire if she needs it," Jessica answered. "Too many people have already died in our struggle. I think maybe we should keep our fight between the two of us and keep the body count down."

She looked at the monitor in front of her and saw it reflected on the GPS even as Marge chimed, "A mechanical device has left her ship, I detect weapons and a force field."

"See what I mean?" Jessica said to Dax. He just stared at her in stunned silence. "Marge, can you get me a visual?"

In seconds Jessica was looking at a blurry picture of the little toy her sister had brought with her.

"What the hell is that?" Dax asked.

"A big, ugly killing machine." Jessica took in a deep breath and let it out. "A can I'm going to have to open. What sorts of weapons does she have?" Jessica asked the computer.

"Plasma cannons, two forward and two aft lasers. That's all that I can detect at this time."

"Marge, does the machine have a communications unit? Can you make contact?"

"A connection has been opened."

"RJ, do we really have to play this out?" Jessica asked.

There was a laugh, and she saw Dax cringe, no doubt because it sounded just like her.

"Now that's a fucking riot coming from you," RJ's voice came back. "You, the woman who epitomizes 'playing it out'."

"Well, you've got me there," Jessica said with a calm she didn't really feel. "I don't suppose it will help to explain to you that I know I was wrong. That I'm sorry and I've changed."

"Let's see," RJ's voice came back, there was a pause and then, "No! You see I've changed too, but not for the better, and all because of you. I couldn't stay here. I had to leave because I couldn't stand looking at what you had destroyed anymore."

"I'm not going to let you just march in and kill me."

"I wouldn't want you to, that wouldn't be any fun."

The transmission ended. Jessica could hear the click as the connection was severed.

"Marge, reconnect with her craft."

"I am working at connecting . . . She's gone."

Marge didn't have to explain what she meant. The image had left the screen as the machine went into the water. "Damn! It's a submersible," Jessica breathed. "Find it, find the damn thing!"

A blinking light appeared on the screen, but that was the best visual they could get. A few seconds later even that was gone.

"She's scrambling our signal," Marge informed.

"I can see that. Keep trying to make an audio connection to her craft."

"I have no information on the location of the craft . . ."

"I know that, Marge, but she has to come up sometime. Be looking for her, and try to make an audio connection as soon as she surfaces."

"Understood."

Jessica moved to the weapons console. She wondered how dexterous the machine was. She guessed that it could climb over and around or go through almost anything.
All right, if that's the case, where is she most likely to surface?

It was a good question. RJ knew the area and the fort, but she would also know that in the decades that she'd been gone much would have changed. She wouldn't expect everything to be in exactly the same place that it was when she had left.
So I'm not one damn bit closer to knowing where she might surface. I have no idea how fast that contraption moves, especially under water, or how much oxygen she actually has. Is it capable of making its own oxygen, or does she have a limited amount on board with her? If that's the case she'll surface quickly. If not, she might stay under days, even weeks . . . No, she's ready for this to come to an end, and she doesn't care how it ends as long as it does.

This being the case, she wasn't too surprised when the strange vehicle surfaced only a few minutes later, not far from the docks. A little more surprising was that it immediately fired on the fort and did damage.

"Damage to sector seven, second floor," Marge droned.

"That's a really strong plasma cannon," Jessica said almost to herself. She took careful aim and fired on the metal spider. It lurched but didn't fall or even seem to take any real damage, and it seemed to simply dance around the lasers firing from the perimeter defense grid.

"I've made contact," Marge announced.

RJ circled the island at a distance before deciding to take the path of least resistance and surface right next to the dock. She immediately fired her plasma cannon at the second story, mostly to test what Kirk would do next.

Not too surprisingly she found herself fired on, and while she had easily stepped around and over the laser security grid, she couldn't continue to do that and successfully dodge incoming fire. It rocked the vehicle, but didn't break through her force field.

Poor Ocupod bastard, if he'd had forcefield technology she might not be wearing his skin right now.

RJ fired on the fort again.

Then Jessica was talking over her comlink. "RJ, you are going to damage the computer with your attack. The entire system depends on Marge . . ."

"And you figured I wouldn't risk damaging the computer and shutting down the New Alliance, so you decided to hole up here, but there's one thing you didn't consider. I don't give a good damn about
this
New Alliance. I don't know any of these people, and I don't care about them. Why should I? None of them give a good damn about me." She fired her plasma cannon again, and this time she knocked out the laser defense grid. It seemed that some things had stayed the same. She moved quickly and then stuck a metal tentacle through the front doors and ripped them off. Then, just for good measure, she stuck another one through a section of concrete wall. "I'll tear this thing down a brick at a time if I have to."

Jessica fired a full blast of plasma bolts into the vehicle and it stumbled backwards and fell, only to get right up again. Jessica took her hands off the console and jumped to her feet.

"All right, RJ."

"What the hell are you doing?" Dax asked, jumping into the seat of the weapons console. He started to fire.

"No." Jessica grabbed his hand. "All right, RJ, let's keep this between you and me."

"I thought we were," RJ's voice chimed back.

"I've got people here with me, and the computer. Eventually we will break through the force field on your machine, but in the meantime the fort will take much damage, and what's the point? Surely you and I could put our toys aside. We could meet and settle this the way it should be settled."

"Where would we meet?"

"I think you know where," Jessica answered.

"How do I know that you or your people won't fire on me as soon as I leave my vehicle?"

"Where's the trust?" Jessica asked with a crooked grin. "See you in ten."