Junker's Remorse

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BARRIER GATE STATION, CORONADO SYSTEM
LIBERTY SPACE, 03.14.817 A.S.

The man sat on the floor with his back against the rough metal wall of the shipping container. It had been days since he had seen, let alone spoken with another human being. An untouched tray of food sat nearby, begging to be hurled against the wall of his makeshift prison as he had done with previous trays. But the fight had left him. Now, all he wanted was for things to end, even if that meant death.

His head lolled back against the side of the container with a dull thump as a crumpled picture slipped from his hand and drifted to the floor without a sound. For several long minutes he did not move, only occasionally hearing the muffled noise of ships docking or departing. Then his eyes found the rumpled picture.

It was a hastily taken photo. It was partially focused and the scene was hardly planned, and yet it was the most valuable piece of property he had. His hand began to tremble as he picked it back up. His daughter, no more than 7 years old, stared back at him as her mother worked to get her shoes tied properly. She had bright, mischievous eyes and wild hair. It had been her first day of school. She was so excited, so ready to go out and meet the world...

And both of them had been violently taken from him in the inferno of a dying planet.

He had looked at this picture many times before, each time fueling his rage as he attempted to break free of his prison. But now, he was beaten and broken. And this time, as he gazed upon the photograph, something inside of him shattered like glass. The tears came, and he could not stop them until he finally lay on the floor and fell into an exhausted sleep.

_________________________________

Loud banging from the door startled him awake. Somewhere, a lock was released and a searing ray of light entered his eyes. The silhouette of a woman holding a powerful rifle blocked the entrance.

"Good, you're awake. The Colonel wants to speak with you." She gestured to the door with the rifle, "Come on, get on your feet. And don't try anything funny. I have clearance to shoot you if I deem you are a risk."

He was lead down several brightly lit hallways at gunpoint while the occasional passerby stared at his bedraggled appearance. His once smart and clean uniform was stained and rent, and he could smell the stench emanating from his clothes. At last they reached an unmarked steel door and the guard ushered him inside.

The Colonel sat at a starkly utilitarian desk, surrounded by stacks of reports and equipment. His heavy gaze lifted from the report he was reading and met the disheveled man's eyes. His aide quickly stepped back to his own desk, presumably to annotate the proceedings of a court marshal.

"Ah, Agent 1854. Come in, come in." His voice carried a deep resonance that gave an even more authoritative air to his graying handle-bar mustache, "Guard, you are dismissed, I don't think we will be needing any displays of lethal force. Fifty-four and I are going to have a nice little chat." All six feet of the Colonel stood from behind the desk and pulled out a chair as he gestured for the Agent to sit. The aide didn't even look up from his work.

"Now then, Fifty-four, allow me to first apologize for not being able to allow you some fresh clothes before we met. I recognize it isn't easy being locked inside a storage container for several days while awaiting a trial. But considering that you are one of the more... experienced individuals when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, well... I'm sure you understand why we could not justify the risk of allowing you more creature comforts."

The disgraced Agent simply glared at the Colonel, mentally ripping into his throat.

"Now then, I suppose you would prefer if we didn't delay and handed down a sentence as quickly as possible. However, under the circumstances, I am prepared to clear the charges and allow you to walk out of this room a free man."

A look of surprise crossed the Agent's face as the Colonel clapped a hand onto his shoulder and continued, "We need you now more than ever Fifty-four. We lost four ships at Manhattan, four! I don't need to tell you just how badly that hurts. Blackwood has been struggling to keep up with the alien threat despite all the best technology the Unification Pact can muster. We are outmatched..."

His hand slid off of the Agent's shoulder and dropped to his side. For a moment the imposing officer's figure seemed to diminish, to wilt. Then his eyes blazed with determination, "We found something. Something to help even the odds, if we can figure out how it works. And that is where I need you. You're a Junker. You instinctively know how things are put together. I need someone like that."

Agent 1854 cleared his parched throat, "Sir, with all due respect, I was actually looking forward to facing a firing squad."

To his surprise the tall officer threw back his head and laughed, startling the placid aide from his peaceful typing. "Oh! Oh my! You are a lost cause, aren't you? Ahhhhh. But that's just the point. You have nothing left to lose and everything to gain."

"Sir... I don't follow."

The Colonel's voice became hushed as he leaned in, "We have discovered an artifact from the previous civilization that we believe to be a prototype of some technology they were experimenting with before they... sterilized the sector. We aren't sure how it works, but from the glyphs on the casing our resident experts believe it might have been a weapon against the Seraphim. If we can figure out what it does and how to work it..."

"Sir, permission to speak freely."

"... Granted."

"Sir, why do you think I would care if the entirety of the Sirius sector burns? I have nothing left to live for. NOTHING! Not even revenge. And even if we succeed and "save" humanity, there is nothing to stop humankind from returning to our self-destructive ways.

"No, Colonel, there is nothing you can offer me besides the release of death that holds any meaning for me. So please, just put a bullet in my brain and be done with it."

The Colonel straightened up as his face darkened with anger. "And how are you any different than those 'self-destructive' individuals you so self-righteously condemn? I'm offering you a chance to redeem yourself; to give humanity another chance to right its wrongs. And the best you have to offer is some self-absorbed pity? Pathetic!"

Fifty-four's face reddened with shame. "I am no different. I wish I could say that I cared..."

The Colonel's hand came down hard on his desk and set the metal ringing. "Son, you don't get it! This device? It's our last chance! We are overrun! I haven't even mentioned the best part for fear of getting your hopes up, but if that's what it takes...

"The device has a rune etched on the surface that until now has defied our xeno and linguistic experts' best attempts to decipher. But just last week we had a breakthrough. One of our very own, Agent 1877, cross-referenced the rune as a combination of the word for dimension and endurance. She has assigned it the tentative translation of 'time'."

The Agent was nonplussed. "... What are you getting at? Time travel?"

"NO, confound it! This device might be an escape route! Something the old civilization was attempting to develop on a large scale to defeat or escape their rebelling creations! Think about it! If all of the aliens and old-ones were wiped out from the 'doomsday device' in Omicron Major, how are we now fighting those same aliens that were extinct?!"

"They... they came from another time?"

"Not just another time, Lad... think in broader terms."

"You're not suggesting... that these creatures are from... another dimension, are you?" The look on the Colonel's face was more than a confirmation. "No... no that's not... you can't be serious?"

"Yes, Fifty-four, I am. You don't think it strange that we confirmed the extinction of both races of xenos here in the Sirius sector and never once came across a live specimen, and then suddenly in the year 801 we suddenly have these purple demons crawling all over the place as if they had just... appeared out of thin air? And how about the odd coincidence that they knew exactly how and where to hit us, almost as if they had encountered, and fought, humans before? And yet, we know for a fact that both species of xeno-life went extinct long before humankind evolved to its present state..."

Agent 1854 stood rooted in place, mind racing. If this was all true and the Colonel wasn't going mad... there just might be hope. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, his voice and gaze distant.

"I need someone to oversee the study and testing of this artifact. Someone who can figure out how it works and how to adapt it to our technology. Think you're up for the challenge, Junker?"

Fifty-four gave a weak smile and nodded in resignation.

"Good! We'll get you all cleaned up and escorted to your new quarters." The Colonel clapped him on the back and began to turn away.

"Ah, Colonel, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Does this project have a name, by chance?"

The corners of the Colonel's mustache lifted in a grin. "Why yes, indeed it does. We're calling it the Kronos Device."

---

Characters:

Cory Walsh - Unknown
Ari Kova (Yaroslava Ivanov) - Active
Declan "Owen" Quinn - Active
Agent 1854 - M.I.A.

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