by T. Y. Carew
"Get the civilians ready to evacuate. Have them gathered nearby in shuttle-sized groups and prepared to move on my order," he commanded, sticking by Matt's side. If she'd mentioned she was struggling, that meant she was really struggling, but he knew she'd keep pushing while she was conscious. That meant someone needed to be prepared to catch her if necessary.
Letting out a small grunt of pain, Matt finally lifted the last C4 chunk into the air and started moving it into position. Xander would need to hold it in reserve now and detonate it to buy the civilians the wiggle room to get away.
"Anyone without any shots left, prepare to clear some dead Beltine scum out of the way for our scientists. Everyone else will need to fan out on either side of the shuttles as they arrive."
He heard a chorus of yes sirs and acknowledging replies despite the general being the superior officer and the one who should have been giving commands. Instead, General Tallow focused on the civilians, taking the task of grouping them and preparing them for the mad dash through danger as only a leader used to being in command could.
It gave Xander a sort of grim satisfaction to see the man taking some responsibility again and allowed him to focus back on Matt and the rest of the soldiers who still had the ability to fight.
With all the impure rocks either in place, ready to explode, or whizzing about the air, slamming into Beltine that came too close, Matt had moved on to a set of zappers, but they were motionless in her hand and had been for some time. As the shuttles finally came close enough to hear, he spotted the first drop of blood come from her nose.
She couldn't keep this up much longer, and it was all the nudge Xander needed to pull out the detonator for the C4.
The three shuttles came closer and closer, flown well, but not quite with the expertise Tyra had displayed earlier. Less than ten seconds before they were due to land, the pilots aiming for as close as possible to their group, Xander hit the button. The explosions brought the far side of the hangar down, tearing some of the side of the roof hatch and making the ground tremble for just a moment.
It had the desired effect, slowing the Beltine and making others yelp and stop, dazed by the noise and motion.
"Get those civilians out there now. Clear them a path," Xander yelled, motioning for the soldiers to move forward. This time Matt lingered by his side, still concentrating on her Adamanta. The zappers added to the three rocks in the air, giving her a final effective weapon in her arsenal as more soldiers came out of the shuttles' hatches, fresh laser rifles in their hands.
The two sets of soldiers soon met in the middle, fanning out on either side to form a corridor. The general then ushered the first group along to their waiting shuttle, just over half of all the civilians on site and the most vulnerable of the group. Most looked dazed and compliant, but a few had a small amount of alertness in their eyes, their tags marking them as permanent personnel on the planet.
By the time the first shuttle was loaded and in the air the Beltine had recovered and resumed their charge. Thankfully, the rubble wall the C4 had created kept too many more from flooding in, but there was still more than enough to overwhelm the group as more and more soldiers fired their final shot. Those closest to the fresh soldiers were quickly thrown fresh energy packs, but Xander saw more than one fall prey to the Beltine, the line growing more stretched as the final civilians and the wounded Tyra and Trey couldn't help were loaded onto the second shuttle.
Xander felt some of the relief as the second hatch was closed and the shuttle started to rise, but it meant it was time for his own team to run the gauntlet and face the Beltine in closer quarters.
Tucking an arm around Matt, he encouraged her to lean on him as he waved everyone else forward. On his way past Trey he chucked his rifle at the Lentarin, knowing the lizard-like crack shot would put it to better use.
With the soldiers all hurrying in front of him and the twins bringing up the rear, they closed the gap to the final shuttle, their training keeping them dignified as they came within inches of the grasping Dairos arms. Two more soldiers were unfortunate casualties before the door was shut and the small craft was thrust forward, barreling into several more Beltine as it took to the air.
"Here, boss," Trey said, handing the rifle back as soon as he'd finished helping Matt strap into one of the harnessed seats on the side of the shuttle. Xander let out a loud laugh as he noticed how many charges it had left. One. Trey had saved just the one shot.
Chapter 9
Once they were in the air, Matt let herself drop the Adamanta she’d been controlling. The rocks clattered onto the shuttle’s hull, inert. She adjusted her weight in her chair, trying to find a comfortable position as the military bird turned and rose into the sky. The feeling of acceleration was sickening, more so than being in the smaller hover vehicle Tyra had been riding earlier. The pilot wasted no time in breaching Icarus’ atmosphere and getting the survivors of the calamity to the Indomitable.
“Looks like the other cruisers patrolling the planet have just about regained control of their systems,” Dr Cardew spoke in a monotone, eyes looking out of a viewport at the lights shining out from one of the military cruisers. Matt had never been so disappointed to see someone come back alive from a mission.
“You will stand trial for this,” Xander said. “I would practice learning to put on a face that suggests regret and remorse if you hope to garner any sympathy from the tribunal.”
“Thank you for the suggestion, but I believe the military will be unable to make a conviction stick. Given the nature of the attack on Icarus, the lack of other alternatives available during the fight, I believe I will be acquitted. I grant you, it is unlikely the military will sanction further investment into the study of Anathema as a weapon. Still, there are others who will take note of what was accomplished here and view the matter through more objective eyes.”
“What do you mean?” Matt asked the question guardedly, wishing she was not strapped into her seat by a magnetic harness.
“The formula needs tinkering, but we were able to show pleasing signs of our ability to keep human populations in check with the Anathema agent. More than this, the weapon does show promise for use on the Beltine. Making them go into a death frenzy and attack each other is not as pleasing a result as total incapacitation, but it is an encouraging step in the right direction.
“No, I think there will be some organizations who would be more than happy to see this project taken further. If the military wants to prevent my organization from taking its business and this project to other clients, they will have no choice but to overlook the offenses my outfit may have committed here.”
“Don’t listen to her, Matt, she’s just trying to goad you,” Drew said. “The military can’t let something like this fly, and our good doctor here is deluded if she thinks she’ll get out of this with only a slap on the wrist.”
Matt nodded and folded her arms. She closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair, trying to achieve some kind of sleep. The shuttle ride to the Indomitable would be at least an hour.
Her body, exhausted from the fighting and struggles of the last fretful hours, was ready to close down to sleep, but her mind wouldn’t allow it. Try as she might, Matt remained awake.
In the back of her head, she felt the truth in Doctor Cardew’s words. The woman wasn’t acting cocksure and cool in her situation to save face. She genuinely believed what she was saying.
There would be businesses and private firms who might entertain the use of the doctor’s altered Anathema compound. The ability to create an obedient and wholly loyal workforce would always have an appeal to the more corrupt corporations. Beyond this, there would always be planets and populations fighting the Beltine who would take the same view as the doctor.
The fight against the Beltine hive was a desperate one. It was a war that saw the fates of entire galactic species hanging in the balance. How many of those races would take a devil’s bargain for the chance of survival? As much as Matt would have li
ked to believe it otherwise, there were probably millions of others in the galaxy who shared Dr Cardew’s harsh view on their fight and who would sell morals, ethics and their very souls if it meant survival.
***
After the rendezvous with the Indomitable, the cruisers in orbit around Icarus beat a retreat. But they were hardly giving the planet up to the Beltine. The chemical weapon Dr Cardew had unleashed on the world had turned the Beltine invaders into mindless killers who would wipe themselves out if given enough time.
The human military would return to the world after the enemy had finished killing each other or had starved to death. In time, Icarus would be reclaimed and the dead given proper burials and honors, as far as could be achieved.
The survivors of the Icarus incident were brought to the nearest military space station and ordered to remain there. Each survivor, from the lowliest private to the highest-ranking general, was given extensive counseling and support. More than a few would be deemed unfit for return to duty and given an honorable discharge. Matt couldn’t blame any who wished to leave the military after what had happened. It had been a particularly nasty fight with the Beltine.
Sat in a mess hall, Matt browsed through an array of public news reports as well as all the military files her rank and station provided access to. She was not surprised to find no mention of the loss of Icarus in any of the public news broadcasts, nor to see any mention of it in open military reports.
Only one open record existed: a series of brief notes of a hive ship attack that gave nothing more than a date log for the attack, ships and units involved and a casualties figure. The record was made purely to satisfy bureaucratic archivists who demanded these little details be filed somewhere, and Matt knew that the attack would quickly become buried under a mountain of similar reports from others systems and planets.
New fronts opened in the war against the Beltine every day. Possession of worlds and colonies changes hands on a near-weekly basis. No one was going to pay particular notice to one military checkpoint being taken by a rogue hive ship.
“Coffee for your thoughts?”
Matt looked up from her reading, and her eyes grew wide. She cast her gaze back to the open screens displayed to her on the table, and shut them all down. It was hardly subtle, and she knew the man holding out a cup of strong-smelling hot coffee would take note of her blatant attempt at a cover-up.
“You’re looking to see if the brass has made any public denouncement of the always enigmatic Dr Cardew.” Xander sat down and placed a cup in front of Matt. He then leaned back in the hardback chair and took a sip of his own beverage. “I’ve been talking to Kelton for days, trying to get him to give me something on the case. I don’t know if I wore him down, or he has some reason to provide us with the information, but he finally spilled the beans for me earlier this morning.”
Matt looked at the colonel, able to read his dissatisfaction from the way he stared down at his coffee cup without drinking it, the way his fingers seemed to trace the rim in a slow and pathetic circle.
“She got off without any disciplinary action at all, didn’t she?”
“Kelton tried to put a spin on it, tried to dress up and oversell the repercussions, even mentioned how you used what little Adamanta was there to save lives… But yeah, things worked out almost exactly as she predicted.”
Matt dragged her bottom teeth over her top lip as she sucked in a breath. Her agitation was bubbling close to the surface, and she felt a strong desire to hurl the cup of coffee across the deck just for the satisfaction of hearing it smash.
Somehow Matt resisted. Xander had brought it to her, and she knew he was as disappointed in the outcome as she was. Heck, he might even be more annoyed. He was the military man after all.
Whenever the generals and top brass did something Matt didn’t like, Matt could always tell herself that she was not part of the institution. Xander was career military, and everything he did in life was in service to the army. And, just as his actions and deeds were a reflection on the military, so the military’s decisions and standing reflected on to him.
By bearing the rank of colonel, by saluting and taking orders from those who sanctioned and let the incident on Icarus slide, Xander was selling away his moral compass. Thinking like this, Matt had to wonder how much heavier the incident on Icarus weighed on her commander’s shoulders.
“Want to tell me what the final deal was between the top brass and Dr Cardew’s research group?” Matt gave a wan smile. Better to get everything out and vent then move on.
“The military covered up the chemical weapons test on Icarus. If anyone goes digging, they will say there was an atmospheric event, but it was an accident caused by the panic and confusion of the invasion. In return, Dr Cardew is being put on restrictive watch, and her scientific endeavors are now being met with more scrutiny. Where before she had General Doggett rubber stamping every little thing she wanted, the doctor will find herself meeting a lot more resistance in her research.”
“I see.” Matt wished she could think of something reassuring to say, something helpful, but nothing was coming to mind. At the end of the day, anything she said would be little more than empty platitudes.
“And of course, the military won’t countenance the idea that the entire thing was a setup.”
Matt grimaced. “You noticed, too? I wasn’t going to say.”
“Of course I noticed. The Beltine don’t make war by disabling ship systems and hacking defense relays. As smart as that might be, they go for the age-old might makes right. Dr Cardew and others might try and palm this off as evidence of new thinking and methods of war in the Beltine.”
“But you don’t buy it,” Matt replied, finishing his sentence. He nodded.
“The systems' sabotage had to be an inside job. How else would the doctor have been able to outpace Drew in finding the virus infecting our systems and quarantining it?”
Matt shuddered knowing she’d already thought it was far too convenient that Dr Cardew announced her new weapons to an audience of investors and then fate and blind chance gave her the perfect opportunity and excuse to deploy them.
“She likely knew full well the military would baulk at the idea of letting her conduct live trials in war zones. She needed something like this to happen to field-test the Anathemic Rain and record its results. No doubt she’ll get the project up and running again.”
“Do you think she’s trying to make the weapon perfect for killing Beltine or perfect for controlling human minds?” Matt asked, not sure she really wanted to know the answer.
“No idea, but either way, I hope the extra eyes on her will keep her from pushing that particular research too far for the foreseeable future. There is one more thing…”
“More bad news?” Matt asked when Xander failed to continue his thought.
“I know we saved most of the military investors and stakeholders, but quite a few that were killed in the evacuation were ‘legacy’ investors.”
“Legacy?” Matt shrugged her shoulders. “What’s that mean?”
“It means considerable sums of their estate on death go to the military. It is a fancy way for a man of money to make sure they earn a place in the history books. As a result of those deaths, military research and development have seen a massive cash injection.”
Matt shook her head and drained a quarter of her coffee in a single pull. “So, Dr Cardew gets an excuse to live-test weapons no military ethics committee would sign off on, and she gets to increase funding for her future research as a result. As much as I despise her, the woman’s got some serious moves.”
“Maybe, but she’s playing a dangerous game. She thinks her mind and research is irreplaceable and that we will bend indefinitely to her will. If she pushes just a little further, I promise Kelton and the other generals worth their rank will lose their ‘forgive and forget’ attitude to her and her organization.”
To her own surprise, Matt found herself laughing.
“What�
�s so funny?”
“It’s not actually funny at all, but I was just thinking… When did people in our own organization become our enemies? The very people we risk our lives for every day… Do you remember when it was just us versus the Beltine?”
“Simpler times,” Xander said, a dry chuckle escaping his throat.
“Guess that’s a toast,” Matt said, leaning forward to clink her coffee cup to Xander’s. She took a sip and then stared down at the black ooze inside. “You know what? After everything the doctor and the brass have put us through this week, I think we need to do this toast properly. What do you say we ditch the coffee and see if the others want to go for a drink? No military politics, no scheming and secret conspiracies. Just us against the universe.
“You mean just us against the bar's liquor supply.” Xander chewed the corner of his mouth for a moment. “Why the heck not? If I don’t get the satisfaction of seeing Dr Cardew go down for her crimes, I can at least get Trey drunk enough to see him miss shots on the firing range.”
“You mean the darts board, right?” Matt asked as she stood from her chair.
“Darts board, firing range, pretty much the same thing.”
“Want to open a betting pool on how many drinks we need to force down his throat to make him miss a throw?”
“Well, now, this is getting interesting.”
Matt smiled as she and Xander walked out of the mess in search of their friends. They weren’t beaten, not even close. Two times now, they had been exposed to the deadly toxins from the world of Anathema and both times they had made it through, this time without losing their minds along the way. It might only have been the consolation prize, but it was enough for her for now.
Episode 16 – Porteus by Ella Medler
Chapter 1