Wing Commander in Real Time - Day 4 - 1900 Mylon Time
The Terran Knowledge Bank
Novelization
EPILOGUE
PLANET MYLON III DOWNING QUADRANT
VEGA SECTORNORTH HILLS COUNTY SANTYANA FARM MARCH 18, 2654
1900 HOURS
LOCAL TIME
- At thirty-three, few things delighted William Santyana more
- than spending a Sunday afternoon with his wife and
- three-year-old daughter. He stood on the back patio of his
- farmhouse, breathing in the wonderful aroma from the hot dogs
- and burgers cooking on his grill. He wondered just how many
- fathers out there were doing the same thing on a thousand
- other worlds, in a billion other backyards. Santyana let his gaze
- wander past the patio to a green carpet of corn that unfurled to
- the twilit horizon. Tiny flashes of light appeared in the violet
- haze that banded the sky, and he stared curiously at them a
- moment, then lifted the cover on his grill.
- "Will!" his wife cried from inside the house. "Just another
- minute, Pris. We don't want to eat 'em raw."
- "Get in here. Now!" Her horrified tone sent him racing
- toward the open patio door.
- Inside, he found her seated on the sofa, balancing little Lacey
- on her knee. The holoplayer was tuned to the news channel, and
- a life-sized holographic anchorman stood on their rug, pointing
- back to a computer-animated globe that showed dozens of red
- dots encircling it.
- "We're under attack," Pris said, visibly trembling. "Listen."
- "… And the planetary defense net has been shut down. MyGov
- officials have yet to respond. We do know that the ship is a
- Confederation-class carrier, now in low orbit, but any other
- insignia have been removed from her hull. She's already
- dispatched hundreds of fighters, bombers, and troopships. We
- go now to George Okoee, who's standing by at Blue Mountain
- Spaceport. Can you hear me, George?"
- The holovid switched to a wavering image of the young,
- teary-eyed reporter, hunkered down near a row of seats in a
- vast terminal. "Got you, Rick. Ladies and gentlemen, just
- outside this terminal, a wing of Confederation Broadswords is
- descending upon this, Mylon's largest spaceport. The people
- here are in a state of shock. We'd expect this from the Kilrathi.
- But from our own forces? Still, there's no confirmation yet on
- who's piloting those ships. A major evacuation is in progress,
- but estimates put the bombers at just a few minutes away.
- We've received word that two dozen more Broadswords are
- headed toward the Confed Strike Base in North Hills County.
- Wait. I think I can hear them…"
- "George, get out of there!" The anchorman's image returned.
- He placed a hand to the tiny receiver in his ear. "George?
- George!" He looked off-camera. "What's that?"
- Distant booming piped in through the farmhouse's open
- windows. Santyana looked beyond the patio door and saw a
- dozen pillars of black smoke fencing off the western sky. A
- humming noise came from the south, and he frowned even as it
- grew into a sudden, excruciating roar. Gale-force winds keened
- through the house. Pris and Lacey screamed as with burning
- eyes he fought his way to the door.
- A long shadow bled across the patio. He looked up as the
- menacing-looking troopship passed just three meters above his
- house. Shaped like an arrowhead, the craft pivoted and ignited
- retros, blasting up clumps of grass as it set down.
- He bolted back into house, already picturing himself and his
- family climbing into their beat-up hover and fleeing. "Pris!
- C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! We gotta go!"
- "Ohmygod," she said as he sprinted past her. "What's
- happening?"
- "Daddy?" Lacey called. "Daddy?"
- In the kitchen, he scooped up his driving card and turned to
- go when an amplified voice struck him motionless. "Mr.
- William Santyana. Please come out."
- "Will?" Pris cried. "They know you."
- He returned to the living room, and out of the corner of his
- eye he saw dark-clad figures lurking outside the windows. He
- stroked his wife's cheek, kissed his daughter, and muttered,
- "Stay here." With buckling knees, he moved toward the patio.
- Outside, two people dressed in fancy Confederation Space
- Force uniforms came forward, flanked by a half-dozen
- rifle-toting soldiers. Santyana figured the duo for officers. One
- of them, a trim woman about his age with moss-green eyes and a
- confident gait, raised a thick eyebrow and evaluated him with
- her glance. "Mr. Santyana?" she asked.
- "What the hell is this?"
- Her shoulder-length black hair whipped like smoke in the
- lingering thruster wash. "Are your wife and daughter still
- inside?"
- "What do you want?"
- The woman nodded to her troops, who jogged toward the
- house.
- "Pris! Run! Run!"
- "No, William," the woman said. "We're here to save you."
- "Are you people from the strike base? Wait a minute, even if
- you were, you wouldn't know my name."
- "Will!"
- He glanced back. Pris carried Lacey as two soldiers led them
- outside.
- "You're from that carrier, aren't you," Santyana said. "Why
- are you attacking us?"
- "Not you, William. Or your family. We're only killing the
- humans who live here."
- "Humans? Than what are you?"
- She reached under her uniform and withdrew a Pilgrim
- cross. "Do you know what this is?"
- He did. His parents had carried them, and they had died
- because of what those crosses represented. "You people…
- you're fanatics. What have you done?"
- "It's what we're going to do, William. We're taking back the
- stars. And you're going to help."
- "You mean I don't have a choice."
- "You couldn't choose your blood, no. And you'll never change
- who you are."
- The other officer, an old man whose hazel eyes seemed
- forever distant, spoke in the alluring lilt of some Border Worlds
- tribesman. "William. You're a fine man, a wonderful father.
- Amity here asked me to come out because I fought with your
- parents. We're bringing everybody home now. You need to
- come."
- "Home?" he asked incredulously. "This is my home."
- "Just leave us alone," Pris shouted. "We don't want any part
- of you Pilgrims."
- Amity tightened her lips and nodded. "I understand. But in a
- few hours, every living thing on this planet will be dead. Maybe
- you'd like to be a part of us—at least for now."
- Santyana looked to his wife, searching for an answer, but she
- seemed lost in a blur of fear. He faced Amity and sighed. "We'll
- come. But you'll never take the stars."
- She lifted a condescending grin. "We've been waiting nearly
- twenty years for this moment, William. We lost that war. We
- won't lose this one."