Rebellion?

Alec stood on the bridge of the fleet command ship trying to look defiant, but suspected that he looked just as nervous as he felt. He couldn’t help his wandering thoughts; he wasn’t a military commander after all, he was a colony administrator who had read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War for a class in college. But he was all they had, and he refused to let them down.

“Dek, get me a fleet check,” Alec ordered. He had to stop himself from laughing out loud at the thought that their small, ragtag group of refitted cargo vessels could be considered a fleet.

After a few moments, Dek spoke. “All ships in position, and weapons prepped. Well, prepared as possible, I guess.”

“It’s a fair point, Dek.” Alec turned to see Clint, his engineer, on a view screen. “The repurposed mining lasers are powerful, but these old fusion reactors are going to have a hard time powering them and the engines at the same time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. We’ll try to sit still while we shoot.”

“Provided a plasma conduit doesn’t blow first. These cargo haulers weren’t haulers weren’t built for speed,” Clint chuckled.

“You’re a regular ray of sunshine, Clint.” Alec pressed a key, and the view screen winked off.

Dek’s instruments flashed. “We’re approaching Earth’s outer defense grid. Contact with attack drones estimated in eight minutes.”

“Alright everybody, stay calm,” Alec ordered, silently praying he’d be able to stay calm himself. “This is what we’ve practiced for. Weapons stations, power up the lasers. All scanners set for maximum gain.” Alec sighed. “Dek, open a commlink to the fleet.”

Dek pressed some keys. “You’re on, High Commander. We’re all ears.”

Alec took a deep breath. “Alright, this is it. As soon as we fire on those defensive drones, there’s no going back. Make no mistake, we’re in for a hard fight. Our ships are old cargo haulers with crude armor plates bolted to the outer hull. Our weapons are repurposed laser drills. Our enemies have us outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and outgunned. And we will not back down. The tyrants of Earth gone too far. They’ve demanded too much from us, and ignored our rights. They’ve increased our quotas while sending fewer supplies, and treated us like second class citizens. And they think that just because we were born in the asteroid mining colonies, that we won’t fight back. Today is the day we prove them wrong. And though the odds are stacked against us, we have our resolve. We stand today as one, and in righteous fury we will fight. And we will fight until we win or die. And we will do so together!”

For a moment, Alec thought that the speakers on the bridge were malfunctioning, until he realized that the static he was hearing came from hundreds of people cheering aboard the other ships. He couldn’t stop himself from grinning as Dek closed the communique; he’d practiced that speech a hundred times.

“Sir, we’ve breached the outer defensive perimeter.”

“How many drones on the scanner?” Alec asked.

There was a pregnant pause. “None.”

Alec whirled around. “None? Really?” He strode to Dek’s console and looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, there were no ships displayed on the scanner. “Wait, what’s that?”

“Some sort of debris field, I think,” Dek replied. He adjusted the controls. “It’s debris, all right. Metallurgy confirms that the components are consistent with unmanned drones.”

“Drones?” Alec asked. “More than one?”

“At least five. I’ve confirmed with the other ships. No contact yet, but more debris fields are scatter throughout the area.”

“Alright, signal the fleet. Let’s push forward, cautiously.” An uneasy feeling grew in the pit of Alec’s stomach. He could sense the same trepidation from his crew.

Twenty minutes later, the big blue orb that was Earth loomed on the main view screen. “Still no contact?”

“No,” Dek said. “No ships, no communications.”

“What about the satellite network? There should be several communication and defensive satellites in orbit, where are they?”

“Gone. But I’m picking up more debris fields.” A beep sounded from the console. “Wait, there’s something coming up from the planet.”

Alec turned toward the screen, and watched as an enormous ship lifted itself from Earth. “What type of ship is that? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Scanners can’t penetrate the hull, sir. There’s some sort of energy field blocking them.” The strange ship paused for a few seconds, as if considering them, before Dek continued: “Sir, my instruments have gone haywire! Gravitational readings have flown through the roof!” The ship on the screen seemed to stretch before vanishing in a flash of light. Silence enveloped the bridge for a split second before a beeping shook them back to reality.

“Dek, what’s happening?”

“Several ships have powered up their lasers. Comm traffic is a little hectic.”

“Signal all ships to stand down,” Alec said. “Have everyone calm down before someone does something we’ll all regret.” Dek tapped some commands, then nodded. The beeping stopped. “Good. Now let’s figure out what’s going on. I want a full scan of Earth. I want a population estimate, and try to find some sort of signal.”

“On it.” There was a tense moment as Dek worked. What the hell is going on down there? Alec wondered. “Sir, scans indicate about eight billion life forms.”

“Eight billion? It should be closer to eleven.”

“It doesn’t stop there. At least a quarter of the life forms aren’t human.”

A gasp worked its way through the bridge as everyone suddenly realized what had happened. Alec sat heavily in his chair. In a rush of horrible realization, he knew what had happened. “It all makes sense. The demand for more resources. The withholding of provisions. Earth wasn’t oppressing us. They were fighting a war.”

“It looks like they lost,” Dek said quietly.

Alec had hated the people of Earth all his life. But, suddenly, it didn’t matter. They were human, like him. And they need help. He stood. “Dek. Signal the other ships to form a defensive perimeter. I also want maximum scan of the surface, I need to know everything that’s going on down there. Engineering, power up the weapons. I expect we’ll have hostiles coming at us any second.”

The bridge exploded into action. Determination mixed with fear, and Alec was glad that determination was winning out. Because his rebellion had just become a rescue mission.