A Happy Ending (Space War, Part 9/Final Part)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

While steering this spaceship to the only place I could think of, only one thing is absolutely clear to me. I do not trust Rick. Not after everything that happened. Not after he arrived here with the Splerions. It is just too convenient that he was able to trick them.

But what choice do I have? Realistically? If I just wait for everything to sort itself out, my people will be dead. There isn’t any hope left, not this time. The Splerion’s force is just too strong. They’re too many.

So I transport the poison to the biggest military station we have, hoping that it’s still active. That there are still people alive.

The buildings come in sight and to my immeasurable relief, they seem intact.

A red light starts blinking.

I forgot that I’m steering a Splerion spaceship. They’ve noticed me. There’s a missile coming.

Cursing, I open a communication channel, hoping they’ll receive it.

”Splerion ship to base, Splerion ship to base! There are no Splerions on board, this is a stolen vessel. I repeat this is a stolen vessel! Please don’t shoot at me.” The milliseconds of radio silence draw out endlessly.

”Base to Splerion ship, please identify yourself using the appropriate codeword.”

Fuck. I hadn’t really paid much attention to the codebook as I didn’t expect to need it one day. It’s always the things you think are boring and useless that you end up needing. This one display of laziness might now kill me.

”Splerion ship to base”, I start one last effort to secure my survival, ”I’m from a science crew and barely passed the code exam. If you decide to blow me up, please tell Professor Moryaj that he was right and his class is important for our survival.” _@suesa

I hear a chocked chuckle.

”Base to Splerion ship, you have permission to land. I doubt anybody really paid attention in that class.”

Saved by the shared dislike for higher education. That’s a story one should not tell one’s children.

I carefully land the ship and am greeted by three Mystacinidans with badges that label them as high-ranking defense officers. I salute as best as I can but they just nod.

”Tell us”, one of them says, ”how did you steal that ship? I can see that you’re not much of a fighter, so how did you do it? And what is in those barrels?”

I feel slightly offended by the remark that I’m visibly not a fighter, but I swallow my pride. This is not the right moment for it.

”I’m the scientist who just returned from earth”, I explained. ”The human that took me in his care chose to serve as a double agent and betrayed the Splerions. He made them transport a potent toxin all the way from earth to our planet. They think it’s to kill us. But it’s been designed to kill Splerions, fast and effective.”

The three officers look skeptical. I can’t blame them.

”And you’re sure he’s telling the truth?”

Now I must decide, once and for all. Do I trust Rick? Do I trust him with my life, after everything that happened?

Memories rise from the depths of my consciousness where I buried them because they made what happened just more painful. Memories of Rick carrying me into the safety of his greenhouse when he found me dying after the crash. Rick sitting next to me while I was recovering from my aspergillus infection. Rick saying farewell when I boarded the ship that should bring me home.

He always seemed so honest, so loving. Like a true friend. Did he want to betray me? Or was he forced to?

I decide to believe the second option.

”Yes”, I say. ”I think he’s telling the truth. We need to find a way to spread this toxin over the whole planet as fast as possible.”

”That’s actually not much of a problem. Let me show you the fertilization drones that were recently built for commercial use …”

The three officers show me around and I’m more than amazed. This military base isn’t just a military base, it never was. Why have a military base if you never have to fight? It’s more symbolic than anything. And that’s why it has a second use: It’s a storage unit for new agricultural machines before they’re distributed to the farmers.

The fertilization drones are one of these new machines. Loading them with the toxin is quick, the base suddenly seems to swarm with soldiers and farmers of all ranks. They take the barrels from the ship in which I arrived and split the toxin between the waiting drones.

When they finally lift off from the ground, my heart pounds so fast that it feels like my chest is going to explode. The anticipation is killing me.

A fine mist touches my face the moment the drones are being activated and start spreading the toxic through the atmosphere.

Absent-mindedly, I touch my face.

And then I scream.

My fingers feel like they’re on fire, my face feels like it’s melting. I can’t breathe. As I fall down to the ground, I can see everyone who had just worked hand in hand to load the drones fall down to the ground, gasping for air.

And dying.

I should not have trusted Rick.

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Rick flips a coin into the air, catches it and checks which side it landed on. Tails. Again. But it doesn’t matter, not when he’s playing against himself. If you’re the only possible winner in a game, it’s almost boring.

He touches the tiny droplets that have formed on his spacesuit. The toxic rain ended several minutes ago but he just doesn’t feel like leaving yet. Rick’s eyes wander across the dead bodies spread out all around him. Splerions. Mystacinidans. They’re all dead. In the end, the double agent had been a triple agent.

Rick had never planned to be the one to finally bring an end to this war humanity had been dragged into but in the end, he accepted that it had to be him. Who else would that weird purple alien have trusted? Who else could have convinced the Splerions to take him along?

The spacesuit makes a small cracking noise when he finally stands up and walks back into the ship. The Splerions hadn’t stood a chance. Just as the Mystacinidans, they knew they could breathe the air on this planet. None of them had worn a spacesuit, none of them had made any precautions it seems. How naïve.

The buttons in the cockpit are familiar to Rick, he made sure that he’d be able to steer the ship once his mission would be over. Now, the moment had come, he could finally go home.

Humming an old song from his childhood, Rick first closes the spaceship’s hatch and then takes off to leave this cursed alien planet. At home, people are waiting for him to bring them the good news that they are now free, that they don’t need to serve any of those war mongering aliens anymore.

And the alien technology would catapult humanity into a new era of prosperity.

After all, he got his happy ending.

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Picture taken from pixabay.com

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_{Monster GIF was made for me by @saywha and @atopy}