Epiphytes 3: Fighting for Home

By Barry Pomeroy

They’d never anticipated a battle, and still less that someone would attack them from within, but the colonists of Marée had learned to be resilient. They counted their losses and began to rebuild. The widespread field that remained from the long-ago exploded planet was rich in resources and they were far enough from the inner planets that they felt they could afford to experiment with engineering and biology.
The success of the habitats began to be duplicated and even the enclosure—the most massive engineering project in the solar system—was drawing onlookers from all over the system. Despite the attacks, the petty rivalries, and corporate espionage, they were starting to feel invulnerable, and that was a mistake.
The Corps was becoming a genocidal force in the solar system, and they had yet to plumb the depths of their secrets and depravity. It was the battle of their era, that with the Corps, but they were concerned that if the rest of the system turned against them, they’d be on their own again.
This time they would be more careful, they would be more selective, and with a secret weapon on their side, they would strike against the Corps before it struck them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barry Pomeroy
• Release date: Jan 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781990314261

Barry Pomeroy

Barry Pomeroy is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, academic, essayist, travel writer, and editor. He is primarily interested in science fiction, speculative science fiction, dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction, although he has also written travelogues, poetry, book-length academic treatments, and more literary novels. His other interests range from astrophysics to materials science, from child-rearing to construction, from cognitive therapy to paleoanthropology.

Book preview

Chapter One

Dara was long minutes getting through to Torv. His face was all angles. You’re alive, he sighed. He glanced to one side and then his attention was back on her.

What’s going on, Torv? She felt like she was back to following him in school. What about Jurri, and Yarbon? She was drifting inside a vast hole.

We’re managing it. Tonwe set off explosions in the chamber which combusted the methane and oxygen he’d introduced, his voice was metallic and his words fell like slabs of iron. Landing became a rocket engine briefly. Jurri was close enough to the blast to be struck by debris, and her shuttle is disabled but has air.

Dara sighed, and absently wiped her wet face, Is she OK?

She waited, and Torv nodded, We have confirmation.

Why are you talking like that? she wanted to yell at him, but she didn’t know that she was handling it any better than him. What about the habitat?

Torv smiled grimly, Apparently Yarbon didn’t trust the habitat, so he made the domes airtight.

Figures. But how did they know to hide in there? There was too much she didn’t know.

It’s a big space. It takes a long time to empty, and the penetration wasn’t deliberate. It was micrometeorite-sized. It’s being fixed. Less than two percent of air lost.

What is all this? Dara waved her hand helplessly. Just got away from the zombies Morem has made of his crew, and now Rorno is nearly dead. And Landing, she stuttered to a stop.

One problem at a time. Landing has four days.

And my mother?

She’s been in touch with Tourlene. She’s alive, although mad as hell. Torv smiled, I’m on my way to Landing. You should go to Tourlene.

Dara remembered, I can’t. Morem’s ship was infected. Nanos. And according to Aral, we’re carrying them. And Rorno’s acting like the others when the main power was cut.

OK, Torv thought quickly while his hands moved over the controls of his shuttle. I’ll send word to Tourlene. You’ll have a headache for a while, but we’ll clear the shuttle of nanos.

Dara knew what he meant. An EMP like the one they’d used on the probe. She glanced at her father. He was blinking, but that might have been his autonomic system. Otherwise, he was inert. Let me know when you hear from my mother, and Jurri.

Torv assured her that he would, and she turned the shuttle toward the dock. It was already crowded with ships, for Tourlene’s call had been heard. As she hovered, Pardos’ ship came alongside. Her radio crackled, and then Pardos gave her instructions. She was to back against one of the smaller fragments, on the side which faced the outside of the field, and wait. You’ll know, Pardos said grimly.

While she waited, Dara called Rijurn. Her answer was a blast of noise, as static fought with the signal and then the screen cleared and she could see Emirin and Rijurn. I’m fine, she tried to assure them, but her face gave her away.

Are you afraid? Emirin asked, and Rijurn grimaced at her.

We’re going to be fine, she assured the child. I was on Morem’s ship, but I escaped. She didn’t want to say she’d rescued Rorno in case he died. His breathing was shallow and his eyes had closed.

Did you have to fight? Emirin had been watching vids, apparently.

A little bit, but it was mostly other people who rescued me.

Rijurn tried to convince Emirin to leave, but she insisted on hearing what Dara had to say. Finally, Dara said it was fine. Are you really OK? Rijurn asked, her voice cracking. I heard Tourlene’s broadcast.

I’m fine, Dara was playing for two audiences, just like when she used to talk to Jurri while her mother listened. The habitat is being repaired. She carefully didn’t mention Landing and her mother. Emirin had grown attached to the distant woman, and the thought that she was in danger might cause the child to stowaway on another ship, going to help yet another adult who couldn’t manage their own affairs. Tonwe has apparently taken the science ship, but Torv doesn’t seem worried about that. He must have hidden his own bomb on board. Hopefully we don’t lose that too.

What about Jurri? And Eldurn? And Mac? Rijurn felt like she was listing their friends at a funeral.

Jurri is being picked up. Her ship was struck. Eldurn was working on the enclosure. She hesitated, remembering Tourlene’s cryptic message. You any idea why she called him that?

Rijurn pointed with her eyes at Emirin and Dara nodded. Mac chased after Jurri. Tourlene sent him.

Dara thought about the implications. She didn’t fancy Tonwe’s chances if Mac caught him. I’ll have to ask Torv—

When she woke she was floating off the flight seat and her father’s body was drifting nearby. Her head pounding, she pushed at the ceiling and that got her close enough to the seat to strap in. She flicked the instrument board, but it was dead. The EMP. She reached up, but had to unstrap and then hold with her foot while she pulled her father into the seat next to hers. He looked better already, and when she strapped him in, he moaned involuntarily. She tried talking to him, but with no result. If his head was pounding like her own, she doubted he would want to be conscious anyway.

The shuttle was dead quiet. She’d become accustomed to background fans and motors whirring, but now that everything electronic was fried, she was drifting in a dead hulk. She glanced at her father again. His face was pale, but he looked more relaxed, as though his muscles had been fighting against themselves when he was on Morem’s ship. She listened for the clanking which would indicate that she’d been grappled, but the sudden clang still made her start. It was loud in the silence.

She had time to think while Pardos towed her to the dock. She needed to find out from Tourlene what could be done about Landing. Torv didn’t seem worried, but even her own weak understanding of orbital mechanics indicated that if Landing left the field then the loose association of the field was threatened. She wished she knew more. Rorno began to twitch and she took his hand. We’re going to be fine, she assured him, although she wasn’t sure she believed it.

By the time they were at the dock, Rorno had stopped seizing and was hauling in deep ragged breaths. Ellice had been sent over to take care of him, and she glanced at Dara, and then took him to another room. Dara still had a whanging headache, as though someone had hit her with a hammer, but she staggered to Tourlene’s part of the dome. Update? she asked.

You look bleak, Tourlene said. But you’re alive. And that’s more than those on Morem’s ship.

Pardos got in?

You left the airlock on manual.

Dara couldn’t remember her escape around the pounding in her head. Old habit. We never locked on Garonic.

What do you mean they were dead? She tried to imagine what Pardos had found and all she remembered was cutting the tracery of wires which seemed to control Motun. Some of them should be alive.

Tourlene shrugged. She had enough to think about.

Habitat? Her headache made it easier to imitate Tourlene’s brevity.

It has been resealed. It wasn’t a significant wound.

Funny word, like a living thing. Landing?

Jurri has been located. She’s on Stiv’s ship. It had stopped being Pardos’ ship when she handed it over to Stiv, but it still sounded strange to say aloud. She shook her head. Her mind was drifting.

What can we do about Landing? she closed her eyes.

It is being done, Tourlene’s voice lowered.

What do you mean? Dara’s eyes fluttered open.

I have heard from your mother. She warns everyone to stay away from Landing.

She’s fine then, Dara grinned. Wants to get back to her research. She saw Tourlene’s face clench. What?

Your mother is going to blow one of the other chambers. She is gathering Tonwe’s equipment as we speak.

She can’t, Dara tried to rise but a spike went through her forehead. She’ll die.

As she faded, she vaguely remembered Tourlene calling for Ellice and lowering her to the floor.

Chapter Two

When she came to, her first thought was of her mother. Her head pounded, but the pain wasn’t debilitating. She reached out and then pulled herself upright. Rorno was lying on a nearby bed, his eyes open and uncomprehending. Are you OK? her voice was a croak.

His eyes shifted to her, and she saw his expression change.

He’ll be a few days recovering, Ellice announced.

Dara turned her head and winced.

You will too.

But what’s happening, Ellice? She sounded like a petulant child.

You can walk around. But nothing too physically strenuous.

Dara looked at Rorno. She’d often imagined the scene where she embraced him for what he’d done for them all, but it would be no different than hugging the Morem golem. She reached out to squeeze his hand and his eyes followed the gesture.

What happened on Morem’s ship?

Ellice shrugged. Tourlene, she pointed.

Has the brevity affected everyone?

Tourlene was in contact with Pardos, apparently, so Dara took a seat and watched the woman. She’d aged since she’d seen her last. Her hair was always pulled back tightly into a clip, but now strands of it waved in the wind from the ventilation system. Her back was stooped as well, as though under a heavy load. Dara listened to her. Apparently Morem’s ship was functional, and they’d taken it outside the field in case it carried a bomb. She imagined the type of dirty bomb that the Corps would prepare and finally settled on a gamma ray burst. Sterilize or kill everyone on Marée. That would suit them.

Feeling better? Tourlene sat down and her chair creaked.

Have you heard from Mum?

Your mother had little time for niceties, Dara heard the past tense before she parsed the sentence. That’s it. My mother’s dead.

How did she go? She pictured a confrontation with Tonwe, her mother pilfering supplies and Tonwe finally carrying his threats to their natural conclusion.

There was no time for remote detonation. Your mother wired the gear herself, and powered it with her suit battery. Tourlene’s voice lowered and she looked like she was going to reach out.

Dara kept her hands to herself. Her mother was gone. And Landing? Was her death even worth anything?

She has greatly slowed the fragment. We now have fifty days before it exits the field.

Dara sighed, her breath guttering with grief.

Torv says that we can use engines to slow it even more, or maybe that we have enough time to blow the same chamber. It wouldn’t have to be a big explosion. We would just have to flood it with oxygen like Tonwe did, Tourlene spit his name like a curse.

He escaped? Dara watched the woman’s expression change to grim satisfaction.

Torv had set up remote control on the science ship. Good lad. He shut down the ship as soon as it was far enough away to be safe. And when it showed where it was going.

Morem? Dara guessed.

Tourlene’s eyes went to the hatch and Dara heard Emirin running before she turned to see her. You were sick, Emirin leapt into her arms.

I know girl. I had a terrible headache.

But you saved your father.

I think so, she wondered if Emirin had seen him yet.

Rijurn saw the question on her face. We came to visit you and Ellice let us in for a few minutes. You were asleep. You both were.

Dara kept Emirin on her lap and turned back to Tourlene to ask about Tonwe. And? She had no idea what they were going to do with a criminal.

He tried to escape in a pod. They are not rated for long distance travel. And respond poorly to attack, Tourlene’s mouth closed with a snap.

That took care of that worry then. People have gone to Landing?

Mac was blown into a debris field, and when he recovered consciousness, he signaled us by shorting his battery.

His radio didn’t work? That was a safer topic for Emirin and she turned to hear the answer.

He touched wires. Sent out a rescue call through interfering with local radio waves. Pitta caught it. Dara could hear the respect in Tourlene’s voice.

I’m not surprised. Resourceful guy. Then he went to Landing?

Torv sent him as ground crew. Tonwe’s device is inert. And the chamber is empty.

Dara knew what she was saying. The crew that had been working on converting the chamber into living space had been torn apart or dispersed by the explosion. They weren’t likely to locate bodies. Dara had only met Loreena, and she’d spent more time asking about her mother than getting to know the woman. The rest of the crew were waving hands in the distance, a concentration on their work that her visit hadn’t interfered with. They would have left people behind them as well, and Dara couldn’t help but wonder about their families.

Dara took a deep breath. It’s just as well we attacked, Rijurn looked at her quizzically. Morem was preparing for this. He knew that bringing Rorno would get him close, and that he could make a claim as soon as Landing was outside the limit. That’s what his ship was doing, waiting to assist in the theft. Good thing my mother took care of it. Dara tried to imagine her mother, who’d always been so wrapped in her own work, but now she’d be celebrated, on Marée at least, as a hero. Especially if they recovered Landing. What can I do?

Rijurn started to protest but Tourlene spoke first, Ellice says that Rorno should be in Shell. That he needs gravity, good air, and the sounds of people around him.

My shuttle is dead.

We’ll take him, Rijurn assured her. And stay there a bit ourselves.

Once she’d helped move Rorno, they situated him in one of the passenger seats and Emirin sat near him. Can he hear me? she asked solemnly.

I think so, Rijurn told her. He’s just lost his memory. Ellice says it’ll come back.

Dara started the shuttle, but as soon as Rijurn came forward she turned the piloting over to her. I’m just going to sit here. Long day.

What happened on the ship? Rijurn whispered.

Dara shook her head. She remembered killing the Motun golem, and how the others had faltered when the ship lost power. Torv must have programmed nanos to eat through the conduits, or else they got into the system electrically. The power went, and then the rest of the crew fell apart.

I’m sorry about Parata.

Dara looked at her face and then closed her eyes again. She was a pain in the ass, but she was a good mother for all that. Dara heard her voice as though someone else was speaking on the other side of a bulkhead. We’ll have to go after Morem. We’ll send Pardos. She’ll enjoy that, she mumbled as she dreamily slumped into her seat.

Rorno was able to walk somewhat once they delivered him to Yarbon’s dome. Dara’s weight pulled down on her after so long in weak gravity. Her feet stumbled and she flexed her neck as if that would make the background headache go away. The habitat didn’t look like it had changed, and the lower air pressure was undetectable. Dara could hear the compressors working to replace what they’d lost, but the main difference was the nerves of the people. They’d lost family on Landing, and now that blood had been spilled, an undercurrent of fear and anger ran through the habitat.

Irin greeted Emirin and gave Dara a look of both sympathy and blame. Dara nodded woodenly and waved when Emirin went to join her friends. Some of the plants had suffered in the gales which greeted the holes in the habitat, and on their way in Dara had seen frozen remnants that had been blown into space. The kids were covering roots with dirt and replanting those which had come loose from the regolith.

I hate to say it, Yarbon, but are you holding air?

He smiled weakly at the joke, I guess we know where that notion comes from now. How’s Rorno? Dara saw his expression change as he saw her furrowed forehead. Are you OK? Still recovering?

Dara glanced to where Irin was sitting with Rorno. He’s still far wide. But Ellice is optimistic. She changed the topic, Shell looks good.

Yarbon looked up and his face was bleak, We lost a few people here too. They rushed to seal the holes and didn’t have time to grab equipment. He saw her face, None of the kids. But they were people I’ve worked alongside for longer than you’ve been alive. And they were reduced to bio-patches in a few minutes. Not a single one of them hesitated.

Dara closed her eyes. She couldn’t imagine; the people from Below had found the courage to throw themselves onto a wailing hole in the habitat. The pain would have been unbearable, although it would have at least been quick.

And those on Landing, Dara looked at Emirin in the distance. Morem has cost us.

We have confirmation that it was him behind the Landing sabotage? Rijurn asked.

The radio signals, Dara waved vaguely toward where the dock was floating near the centre of the field. Pitta found the location.

It’s an act of war, Yarbon said, although it will be downgraded to corporate espionage if the Corps even ends up going to in-system court over it. Yarbon looked into the distance where people pulled equipment out of the dome, That might never happen.

How’s your leg? Dara asked. The cast looked cloudy, as though skin was developing under the surface.

Yarbon shrugged, I had to move around a bit. Uta told me not to. We’ll have to see.

What’s next, Yarbon? Dara was on the edge of collapse, It’s like everything has blown up.

Yarbon