Work Text:
John woke to the sound of pots and pans in the kitchens below. Looking to the clock near his bed he saw the time was 4:14. The alarm was due to go off in 30 minutes, but he had to get out to the east fields early. He pulled himself from his bed, and started to look for his work clothes. His younger brother Ben (who John shared the room with) had been doing planting the fields the day before. John was sure Ben had made a mess of it, again. The tractor also needed the software updated, he was of only a handful of people in the colony that could do it. Him being only 16 meant he was the only one of those few people not needed elsewhere, so the job fell to him. All the same he was happy to do it. The tractor for the most part drove itself, so he could relax and work on his studies while he keep an eye on it. Today would be an easy day.
Yesterday had been a pain because it’s kidding season. John hated pulling stuck kids, and working with the livestock in general. They where unpredictable at best, dangerous at worse. Ben was better at it and enjoyed it greatly but he had been at it all week his back and shoulders needed a break. That meant John got stuck with it while Ben ran the tractor.
John quickly dressed and manged to get to the bathroom before anyone else. Quickly he washed his face, shaved what little beard he had, and brushed his teeth. On his way down he stopped in Hannah’s and Josepha’s room. Josepha slept like a log and need help getting up. Both girls where still sound asleep. He poked Josepha’s shoulder, nothing, gave it a shake, nothing, finely he pull her blanket off and put it on her dresser out of reach. She groaned and pulled her pillow on her head. “Hey Joey, time to get your butt up.” he told her.
“No, go away!” she groaned. But one foot did fall out of bed.
“Come on you need to get up, remember you and Ash are updating the fire suppressant system in the poultry barn.” He gently reminded her.
At this point Hannah was up and looking for her clothes. “Joe you are a lazy pain, just get up.” she said and left the room in a huff.
Josepha’s other foot hit the ground the rest of her still in bed laying down, “Ok I’m up.” she mumbled from within her pillow.
John shook his head. “Sure you are, don’t come crying to me if you fall back asleep and Ma or Da have to get you up.”
He turned and headed down the stairs, there was a line forming for the bathroom on this end of the house already. When he got to the kitchens he found his mother (who was 8 months pregnant), his older sister Jane, his younger sisters Mary and Hannah, and the Wilson kids Emily, Ashley and Nathan where there. His mother and Hannah were cutting biscuits while Mary was busy making the dough. Emily and Jane where working the grill. Nathan was running gofor.
John got himself one of the fresh biscuits, bit of bacon and a cup of tea out of one of the huge tea pots on the side board. Then found a chair in the corner out of the way. His family cooked for the 25 field workers plus families who helped with the farming part of the colony. This morning they would also be cooking for the Wilson kids and the 6 colony support staff members plus families the Wilsons normally fed, since their parents were off world with a handful of other folks working out a new trade deal. At that point Michael Wilson, the oldest of the Wilson bunch and engaged to Johns sister Jane, walk in from outside.
Michael had several large food storage bins in his arms. John hurried over to help. “Thanks John, Mrs. Shepard I got the flour and lard you need out of storage.” he said as they piled the food bins near the prep tables.
John’s mother looked up from the biscuits she had rolled out. “Thanks Michael, that was kind of you.” Then turning to John, “Morning son, I packed your dinner and supper for you, it’s over on the side table with everyone else's.”
John gave her a smile, “Thanks Ma.” She looked so tired and care worn that he worried this pregnancy was too much at her age. He would put money on her having been sick this morning, which he knew was not normal at 8 months. But John knew his mother she was going to do what she was going to do. If she needed help she would ask but nothing more.
“John do me a favor and take some tea up to your father, he had a hard night.” John just nodded and went to poor a mug of hot tea and headed up stairs. She must not be well if she was asking this, she normally got Da up if he had a hard night.
John knew his father still had nightmares from the war. He had been a POW during the first contact war, and it stayed with him. His father still lay asleep in his parents bed. As quietly as he could John said, “Da.” His father jumped awake with a start, not as bad as when John was little and his father had just came home. But is was still disturbing that something could make someone as strong and brave as his father that jumpy.
Handing the tea to his now wide awake father he headed back down stairs. Best not embarrass his father further by making a deal of it.
Back in the kitchen the younger children had taken seats out of the way and let the staff who had just arrived step in to finish prepping the meal. His Ma was still busy with the biscuits, but was looking worse for wear. She suddenly stop what she was doing and quickly walked from the room. Everyone looked between each other knowing she was sick, but not daring to voice it. No one dared follow after her, not wanting the tongue lashing for slacking off work or not eating while they could. John just stood up wash his hands and grabbed an apron off the hook, then took over his mothers spot cutting biscuits. Again no one commented but all knew his Ma wasn’t doing well. Better to just step up and help then make a fuss.
Josepha decided to make her appearance just then. She was dressed in clean clothes and her hair was brushed and braided yet she still looked disheveled. Grabbing herself some tea and biscuits she came over to bother John. “So you made the biscuits this morning, are we all going to die of food poising?”
Mary spoke up, “No you’re safe, I made the dough. So they just maybe overworked enough to use as a weapon.”
Josepha eyed Mary, “Don’t know how much safer that is.”
John spoke up a bit put out. “I make biscuits just fine. I was helpin’ Ma before you were born. Besides you got some of the ones Ma did.”
Josepha takes a bite and fakes choking, then quickly takes another since she is quite hungry.
“Oh can it you brat, don’t forget who woke your hind end up. I could of let you sleep and you would of really been in trouble.” John told her.
As John finished the last tray his father came down the stairs, now clean shaven and freshly dressed. You would never know he had spent the most of the night plagued by nightmares from something that had happened 13 years ago. He looked around for John’s mother and when he couldn’t find her looked to John who was washing the flour from his hands. “Were is your mother?”
John nodded to the bathroom, and continued to help the others get breakfast going.
“Did she remember to change her med patch?” his father asked.
Jane replied, “Yes, I reminded her as soon as we got up.” She walked over to the tea pot and pour a cup of the ginger mint tea, grabbed a few shortbread cookies from the cabinet above, and handed them to their father. He left to go fuss over mother.
John moved over close to Jane and asked, “How bad is she?”
Jane gave a tired sigh, “Not good, she hasn’t gained enough weight due to being sick all the time. I just wish she had listened to the doctor and stopped with the twins.” She sighs again, “What is done is done.”
John nodded and left to help the younger children get themselves together. Samuel was up and dressing himself. The twins who where nearly three were wide awake when he and Josepha got up stairs. Isaac had wet the bed again and had to be cleaned up and dressed. Jeremiah thankfully had not wet the bed but was trying to dress himself not letting his sister help. John quickly helped him finish while Josepha stripped down the bed sheets and dropped them in the hall for who ever did laundry that day. None of the boys clothes matched, but when they got them down stairs they where clean and ready for the day.
At that point the food was being hauled into the dinning hall next-door used by the colony workers and their families. Mary came over and took charge of the twins along with their nearly five year old brother Samuel. James, Johns 10 year brother, followed along also. At this point John’s parents reappeared, both looking care worn. John went to gather his food for the day and his tool kit. He had to leave before breakfast to have enough time to fix, upgrade the tractor, and plant two of the large fields.
Josepha was waiting on him near the door with the neighbor girl Ashley. “John, can you give us a ride over to the poultry barns. Ash said we should get over early. Miss Smith is doing a field trip there today we need to have it back together and join her before then.” She gave him her best doe eyed looked, Ashley looked slightly embarrassed.
He grinned, “Fine, just don’t tell Ma or Da. They’d have a fit if they knew I took the both of you out on a two person transport.” Ashley gave him a grin back he couldn’t quite read, but made his gut do a little flutter. He was defiantly going to have to ask her to dance at the Spring Gala, this time he wasn’t going to wimp out like he did at Winter one.
They made their way out to the carport. His small four wheel all terrain vehicle or 4W-ATV was parked in the far corner. The seating was much like a motorcycle but it had 4 wheels. He tucked his lunch and tool kit in the saddle bags, and backed it out. Then helped Joey sit in front of him. Ashley tightened the straps on her bag and climbed up behind him. Once she settled into her spot behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist he took off. It took all his will power to stay focused on the road and stay alert for any obstructions in the dark, not the beautiful girl with her arms around his waist. Lucky the barns where not too far out, little over a mile, the girls could have walked it no problem. This would save them 20mins walking time and take him maybe an extra 5. He was just being helpful, least that is what he told himself. It had nothing to do with the how close Ashley was.
When the arrived at the barns the false dawn was just starting to give first light over the six large barns. They had beat the workers by a half hour, so the whole setup was eerily quiet. He waved the girls off hoping the darkness hid his blush, when he caught Josepha eye. She had a proud grin on her face. He shook his head and left for the fields. The brat had planned the whole thing. He did not need her help to get Ashley to dance with him.
The rest of the drive was uneventful and he quickly arrived at the barns that held the equipment for the East fields. John entered in and begin investigating the damage his little brother had wroth upon the poor machine. A quick once over showed that one of the leaf springs had sheared and he had done something nasty to the control arm assembly. He got the upgrades started once the tractor’s VI had booted and greeted him. Then got a canister of omni gel to begin work on the havoc that was the underside of the tractor. The spring leaf was a quick enough fix, part of the reason they where still used. He just fused the sheared ends together with the omni gel. The control arm assembly on the other hand was a mess, he made a note to remind himself to have a talk with his father about keeping Benjamin as far as possible from anything mechanical.
Once he got the tractor up and going he drove it to the next field needing to be planted. This one laid in the valley and would take until lunch if all went well. Once he had the program up and running he started his lessons for the day. Today he was studying the 2nd American Civil war starting with the bombing of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Boring, dry, and to him of little use. But his mother was firm on him learning this sort of thing, so he did.
The morning went by without event, John ate his dinner just before the tractor finished the field in the valley. He drove it up the hill path to the next field on top of the hill to east. As he got to the top he could smell smoke, and not the normal wood smoke you get with a farm. This was thick and black, the smell of burning tech and something else. He turn around to look at the colony. Dark pillars of smoke rose above it. John parked the tractor, jumped out of the cab, and ran back to the tool barn.
By the time he got back he was out of breath but he kept pushing. He grabbed one of the emergency packs his father felt needed to be hidden around the colony just in-case, then hopped on his 4W-ATV and drove to the house since it was closest.
John had no idea what was going on, did a barn catch fire, something blow up, or maybe an attack. All he knew was he had to get back and help. When he got back to the house he could see that many of the outbuildings and prefabs had burned down. The houses the colonist and his family had built still stood, the VI control FSS having done their job, but they still had a lot of damage. He ran up the front steps of his home, to find the front room in shambles. Someone had tried to set a fire in the main room but the VI controlling FSS had put it out. John turned to his left to the workrooms and kitchens. He knew his mother and sisters would be working on Jane’s wedding dress today. Something about it being too short. The dress had been in the family in some form or another since the 1890’s. This was a big deal to the women folk and all the men had been run out of the house so they could work on it.
John’s heart sank when the smell of blood and other things hit him. It smelled like the fall butchering, but wrong and out of place. He steeled himself for what was to come. The long work dinning table was up ended and the walls and table full of bullet holes. Blood soaked the hand woven rug. The broken bodies of his Mother, Jane, Mary, Isaac, and Jeremiah lay in a heap behind the table.
His father’s paranoia had bought them time. The table had been bullet proofed and guns and ammo hidden in lock boxes around the house. They had put up and valiant fight, but in the end they had be overpowered. Each one killed with a clean shot to the head and his mother shot an extra time in the gut. The overwhelming grief tried to take him but he fought it down. He had clear instructions on what to do if something like this happened, his father had drilled it in them all since he was a small child. Check for survivors and make for a safe house. As he turned to leave a heap of white caught his eye. It was the dress so carefully passed down through the Shepard line. Carelessly thrown aside and splattered in blood. The red on white burn into his mind. He shook his head and left before the person who did this showed back up. He only just remembered to leave a sign he had been there. He changed the time on the old coukoo clock in the hall to 12:45 the current time. It no longer ran so would stay that time. Nothing an outsider would know to look for but his family would.
Packing the supplies along with a rifle and pistol he had grabbed on his way out of the house onto the 4W-ATV he said a silent prayer of thanks that his father was so paranoid. John had a fighting chance because of it. His plan of action now was to stop by the poultry barns to check for survivors then make for the south woods. There was a safe house set up there, hopefully the killers had not found it.
When he made it to the barns he was greeted with a blood bath. Most of the colony’s children had been there, with only one small women and a few farm hands to protect them. The farm hands looked have gone down quickly. Miss Smith was a former N7 and had been a ships captain during the first contact wars, but she was 104 at this point. She hadn’t fought on the ground in nearly 40 years. Even so she had fought hard to protect the kids, but had been outnumbered. This was supposed to have been a peaceful retirement for her. Instead she had stood head to toe with the enemy to protect her charges. John had always held her in great respect, even more so now, seeing her fallen on the ground behind cover with the kids close beside her.
John fought back the tears as his looked for Ashley, Nathan, Samuel, James, Hannah and Josepha among the bodies. He found Nathan, Samuel, James and Hannah quickly but Ashley and Josepha where nowhere to be found. Maybe they had been still working on the FFS, he thought. John made his way to the barn that contained the control hub for all the barns. Here he could see signs of fighting. Nerves gripping his gut he peered into the building. There were bullet holes and smears of blood everywhere. He could just make out a crumpled form in the corner. It was Ashley, she had taken a chest wound and then was cleanly executed with a pistol shot to the head. Just like everyone else. John fought back panic as he looked her, all the things that never happened. He was going to ask her to dance at the Gala, and the Gala after that, then hopefully once their schooling was done they would marry as was expected. That was gone, one bullet had taken that all from him. A few more bullets had taken his mother and many of his siblings.
John fought hard not to panic as it all started to hit home. NO, he had to find Josepha, He had to focus. Time for this later. She had not been among the dead, so could have made it to a bolt hole. Looking around he saw one of them had been found and checked. That looked to be where Ash had been hiding. There was 3 more bolt holes in this building and around 20 on this site alone. Hopefully he found her quick he didn’t have time to check them all, his training kept screaming in the back of his head to get to a safe house but he couldn’t leave without knowing where she was. His luck was in, she was hidden in the 2nd compartment he checked.
Breathing and crying silent tears, she was alive. “JOHN”, she quietly gasped reaching out to hug him. “You came,” she whispered with panicked tears running down her face as she hiccuped.
It was then he saw her leg, a small caliber bullet had ripped through her calf. Probably breaking bones as it passed through. She had done a decent job of patching it up, but hadn’t had medi gel on hand to do it proper. John used his Omi-tool to dispense the gel on the wound and then bundled her up to take with him. He quickly cleared the room of anything useful. As he turned to collect Josepha he heard a noise outside. Poking his head out he saw a batarian mercenary.
“All clear, here” The mercenary said into his com-unit. “Ka'hairal must have been hearing things.” John said a silent prayer of thanks that he had the forethought to park his 4W-ATV with the other vehicles. The mercenary had missed it.
Once the coast was clear he calmed Josepha and loaded her best he could on his 4W-ATV. Then they made their way carefully and quietly to the safe house. It was nothing more then a natural cave with a well hidden entrance that had been converted to a crude dwelling and stocked. The colony was dotted with them, both natural and man made ones. The younger folks often used them for camping among other things. Here they would bunker down and pray help arrives soon. A sudden spring rain storm rolled in, hopefully washing his tracks away.
After tending Josepha the best he could he worked on getting food together. He worried that Josepha had an infection she had started to run a fever and red lines were coming from the wound. One of the packs he grabbed had antibiotics in it. He didn’t know if they were the right kind but he would have to hope they were. She also hadn’t spoken since he found her, must be shock. Not much he could do for her there but keep her warm and fed. After a cold supper,, he did his best to sleep but the images kept burning through his mind. White dress spattered with blood, children’s bodies crumpled in heaps, soft voices of the lost echoing in a gray forest, and the smell of burning, everything is burning.
He woke sometime the next morning to the sounds of movement outside in the brush. Grabbing his rifle he carefully crept outside. The cave was set back in a ledge giving him a good view of the ATV path below. He was fairly sure the rain had washed away his tracks but he couldn’t be sure. He checked through his scope to see who was there. The looked to be Alliance, but he wasn’t sure. Then the tall man in charge looked right up at him, pointed, and shouted orders. The sun was in John’s eyes, the glint off the scope must have gave him away. Stupid.
John ducked back into the entrance of the cave, and prepared to make a stand if they where not Alliance after all.
“This is Lieutenant Zabaleta with the Alliance Navy. I need you to drop your weapon and come out with your hands up.” The tall man said firmly.
John took a deep breath and laid his rifle on the ground and walked out with his hands up. He was too tired to fight, too worried about his sister. He just had to hope they were who they said they were.
The Lieutenant seemed to breath a sigh of relief. “It is OK son, we are here to help. Do you have anyone else with you?”
John nodded “Just my little sister, but she is in a bad way. She needs a medic.”
The Lieutenant gave some hand signals John recognized as instructions to check the area for hostiles. John followed in behind with the medic once the all clear was given. He blindly transferred the information about his sister’s treatment from his omi-tool to the medic. (Ma had drilled in the importance of clear notes as a care giver and to pass them on to the next person.) Then sat down on the floor and let the shock hit him, now the weight was on someone else’s shoulders. For a moment he could rest.
He trudged back to the camp with the troops, then fell asleep on the nearest cot when they got there. He woke some time later that morning feeling less drained, but a dead empty spot has replaced the drive to survive. He found the medical tent and his sister’s cot. She was flush, sweating and her tiny body shivering. John does the only thing he can, bow his head and pray. He prayed harder then any time before, pleaded with god not to take his sister too. Some time later he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see his father’s sister Aunt Hannah. At first he is confused, she wasn’t due to visit until Jane’s wedding in a few weeks. Then it clicked she was serving on the SSV Einstein that patrols the area.
She handed him a plate of warm rations for a moment he stared dumbly at it. Then dug in with hunger. While it was nothing like his mother’s home made cooking at that moment it was the best meal he ever had. Once he was done, his Aunt took moment to look him over.
“John I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I will answer them, but for right now I need you to go with Commander McHenry and tell him what happened.”
He nodded and followed McHenry. The Commander calmly listened to John’s story only interrupting for details. Then thanked him, shook his hand, and told him how brave he had been. He told John he had done better then anyone could expected of him. John didn’t feel brave, most if not nearly all of his family and friends where gone. How did that make him brave? John’s Aunt Hannah entered after the commander left.
She smiled weakly, “Alright I know you have a lot of questions but let me tell you what we know first then I can fill in.”
John nodded just barely able to keep from crying, he thought of himself as a strong person, but the hole left in his chest was too much.
“First here is the list of the dead and the list of missing.” A tear rolls down her check but she keeps her voice clear. “Your father, mother, and all your siblings but Josepha are all on the list of the dead.” She took a deep breath to still herself. “Of the Wilson’s everyone but Owen and Evelyn are on the list of dead. The Adams family are all also on the list of the dead, except some of the grandchildren. We think they were taken by the slavers.” There is a small hitch in her voice as she says the last part. “Of the 129 people who lived in the colony 92 are dead, 11 missing, 16 survived the attack, and 10 were off world.”
John could tell at this point she was doing all she could to keep from crying. This was her family also, but she had to be the adult. John did something out of character. He gave her the hug she clearly needed. A hug that when he done it he knew he needed also. He was not a huggy person by nature but in this moment he needed to hang on to some of the only family he had left. She cried, he cried, the pain of loosing so much at once being to much for them both. Once his aunt calmed down, she took a deep breath and met his eye. “John, there is more.”
Even with his youth he could see the unsaid words weight heavy on her. “What?” In his heart he half knew the answer.
“They don’t think Josey is going to make it.” She sighed deeply. “By the time you were able to get to her it was too late the infection had set in and the correct antibiotics were not available anywhere on planet. Even with you doing everything right.” she stopped herself before her anger got the better “There was nothing more you could have done.” She fought back the tears.
He wanted to rage to lash out, to make someone hurt for the injustice of it all. His family, his colony had done nothing to no one. They where just farmers scratching a living from the soil. Someone had to pay, but not now. The only person here was his Aunt, who was hurting just as much as he was. It was then a small kernel of justice took root. He would make sure nothing like this happen again. He didn’t know how but he would.
John hugged his aunt again and left for the medical tent, he would make the most of what time he had left with Josepha. He let the cool spring air dry his tears.
When he opened the flap on the tent he heard a cool female voice. “I’m guessing Hannah told about your sister.” the voice was coming from an older gray haired doctor.
“Yes” John simply said.
“Don’t blame yourself, I don’t think I could have done more for her with the resources on hand.” She told him sympathetically.
“I don’t” He answered, taking the seat next to his sister.
She seemed to be looking through him, “Good, but whom may I ask do you blame?”
He locked eyes with the older women “The bastards that did this to her.”
She simply sighed and nodded. “I don’t expect her to make it to the end of the day. The first transport to get her to a hospital won’t available until tomorrow morning. No amount of yelling on my part could change that.” Her voice soften, “I’ve made her as comfortable as I can. By the way you can call me Doc Willis.”
It was just then John noticed the small stuffed bear tucked under her arm. He almost lost it at that small act of compassion, and reminder of just how young she was. He had always found it easy to forget when they would talk that she was not quite seven. She had been brilliant, pulling stuff apart to figuring out how it worked and how to make it better. Part of the reason she had been with Ashley was to learn more about different sorts of tech. But all that had been snuffed out. He heard the doctor get up and leave the room as he begin to cry again.
She came back some time later with some food, at that point he had himself more or less together. Not too much later and Josepha flat lined for the first time. The doc brought her back that time and two more times before the strain of the infection was too much for her heart. Just like that John’s world fell out from under him, and the raw hole in his chest burst open anew. But this time he was just to tired and numb to cry. He fell into a cot in the medical tent and slept the sleep of the dead.
In the morning the Doc Willis brought him more food that he ate without tasting. Then informed him that the colonialist that had been off world had returned, and an Evelyn and Owen Wilson wanted to see him.
He thanked her and went to find them. They where nearly family, would have been if Jane had married Micheal, and him Ashley. They of course made a big fuss over him, with lots of hugs and tears. Made him miss his family even more, they had never made a big deal of anything. They just quietly endured. As his father had said tighten your belt and pull yourself up by your boot straps.
Later that day they buried the dead.
A preacher said a prayer over the dead, and for those still living to find peace in there hearts and the strength to find forgiveness.
John prayed for the strength to stop this from happening again. He could not forgive.
The preacher spoke of how they had returned to god’s fold.
John only felt the empty space they left behind. God had plenty of people, why did he need John’s family?
The preacher spoke of god’s will.
If this was the will of god he wanted nothing to do with it.
He wanted the strength to protect other children like his siblings.
John turned and walked away. He knew the path to reach his goal, and it wasn’t on some back water planet. He need to join the Alliance work his way up the ranks so he could stand between children like his siblings and the horrors of the galaxy. He would sign up under early enrollment training like his Aunt Hannah’s daughter, his cousin Jane. He would stop the evil people in the galaxy No Matter What It Took.