Lost Heritage (Exodus Ark Book 3)

by J. N. Chaney

  The line went dead as she signed off, leaving the room quiet again. That only lasted a few seconds.

  “Well,” said Director Wright, “talk about coincidence. I was going to send you and your team down there anyway. The last part of the transmission from Earth said to make nice with the locals. Recruit them for help if we could. Sounds like you meeting with these Elders and helping to take care of Makin are good second steps since you worked with them Previously. Get your team together, Kent. Take St. John with you. In the meantime, your backup has been activated and is in recovery.”

  “The secondary Mission Ward?” I frowned at that. “Aren’t they supposed to stay under unless I’m killed, according to protocol?”

  He tapped his fingers on the desk in staccato rhythm. “Usually yes, but I think we’d all agree protocol doesn’t mean squat right now. At least not in this matter. I don’t know how long you’ll be gone, and I need someone here to take over your duties. That doesn’t take anything away from your position.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  I didn’t like the idea of leaving my responsibilities to someone else, but orders were orders and I got to my feet.

  “Chief.” Director Wright stood too and indicated the pad still on the table. “Take that with you. I’ve upped your security clearance to match mine. Seems to me that now is not the time for politics or withholding information. Good luck, Kent.”

  4

  “The team rides again.”

  Tara grinned up at me, eyes shining with pre-mission excitement. I’d briefed the team an hour before on Riva’s message, and my second in command was the first to arrive for our next expedition to Kainos.

  “Getting cabin fever on the ship?” I asked.

  “A little,” she admitted, sobering. “Training newbies is fun and all, but I know the real fight is down there. The immediate fight, anyway.”

  I had a pretty strong feeling that things weren’t going to be simple, no matter how much I wished them to be. “I agree so long as it’s not going to waste our time.”

  Tara slanted a concerned look my way. “What do you mean? You think Riva’s not being straight with us?”

  “No, I don’t think that. But this talk of Elders feels a bit…” At a loss for the right word, I wiggled my fingers. “War doesn’t depend on oracles. Facts and firepower are what I like to deal in.”

  She snorted. “Succinct, as always, Chief. Based on the transmission you shared, I don’t think we’re dealing with some magic woowoo. Elder implies history. You know, keepers of knowledge? Maybe they know something legitimate.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. The Volcuri’s customs were still largely a mystery, and Tara might be right. She was the one who knew about this stuff, so I deferred to her.

  The rest of the team started to show up then, preventing further discussion on the subject. I’d opted not to replace either Avery or Miguel. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe there were capable enough crew members. My concern lay with introducing new people to our dynamic. It was hard enough training unedited humans for the upcoming threat. I didn’t want to entrust my life or the lives of my team to people who didn’t know the dangers that awaited us below.

  Both Tara and Mitch had been with me since the first day I woke up on the Ark, and we worked well together. Dr. St. John couldn’t be described as a fighter in any sense of the word, but the man was intelligent and knew far more about the First than anyone else. Noah, the newest addition, had proven himself many times over during our last visit to Kainos.

  In short, these were my people and I had no desire to add to the mix.

  “Looks like the Doc learned his lesson.” Tara chuckled, eyeing the scientist’s effects.

  I saw with satisfaction that she was right. Instead of trying to lug a bunch of equipment, he was carrying a reasonably sized pack. And this time he’d dressed appropriately. Maybe there was hope for him after all. “So it would seem.”

  Mitch and Noah, experienced at prepping for excursions, dealt with loading their gear. Three Planetary Excursion Vehicles were already waiting inside, but since we were meeting Riva and her people, I didn’t plan on using them.

  “I’m not saying it’s wrong,” said Mitch, walking over. “But I sure would feel a lot better if we had more people.” He winced as if realizing what he’d just said.

  “Don’t stress about it, Mitch,” Tara assured him. “We knew what you meant. Makin has an army down there, and we’re down two people. Not ideal.”

  “No, it’s not,” I agreed. “But I don’t want to bring a whole platoon down and risk Makin thinking we’re attacking.”

  Noah looked back at the dropship, considering. “Fair point. But, and just to play devil’s advocate here, what if Makin sees it as an opportunity to wipe out one of our ships?”

  “It’s a possibility,” I admitted. “But a chance we’ll have to take. You know we’re not ready for outright war yet. If more than one ship goes down, they’ll consider it an attack.”

  Tara’s facial features tightened for a second, then she turned pensive like she didn’t want to voice what was on her mind.

  “What is it?” I prompted.

  “I’m just wondering… do we even know if they have a way to, you know, fly?”

  That was an angle I hadn’t thought of yet. I should have. There hadn’t been an aerial attack on our first landing, but that could be for practical reasons. Not knowing anything about us for one. For two, Makin might not have realized what we were until the ship was already too low to engage.

  “Interesting thought, Perez,” I said. “It’s something to consider. For now, we have to go.”

  Everyone took that as the cue to get moving. When the last person strapped in and the door closed, autopilot AMI spoke over the ship’s communication system and told us to stay buckled in until the all clear was given.

  Since we’d already done the drop once, we knew what to expect when entering Kainos’ atmosphere. It would be rough, but we’d all been through worse and most had the scars to prove it. Except for St. John. The scientist might not be a fighter, but he always somehow managed to come through. There was something to be said for that.

  The dropship disengaged from its bay with a series of clunks and bangs, then it slid smoothly through the outer hanger until it reached the launch dock. AMI’s calm voice counted down from ten, though it felt like it took double that.

  The clamps opened. With a final mechanical push, we were out of the last bay and into the black. The straps kept us all in place, but I still felt the weightlessness. I’d never really paid attention before, but the countdown made me restless enough that my focus wandered.

  I decided I liked the way it felt. Inside a functioning ship, at any rate. Not all of my zero-G moments had been fun. DICK had used it against me once in an effort to turn me against AMI. The other time, Tara and I were walking on the Ark’s exterior with only magboots keeping us from being taken out into the void for good.

  The little craft’s thrusters kicked on and slowly maneuvered us onto the correct trajectory with which to enter Kainos. A holo screen inside showed us what was happening on the outside, both from the Ark’s feeds and an exterior cam on our dropship.

  “So far so good,” said St. John, his eyes fixed on the screen.

  Up to that point he’d been quiet. I figured he had a lot on his mind, but as long as he didn’t get careless when it mattered, it wasn’t a big deal. Noah, who was closest to the scientist, gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Nothing to worry about, Rhys. These ships are made for orbital entry. It’s what’s on the ground that we have to be concerned with.”

  St. John shook his head. “Honestly, it’s not really the trip I’m thinking of. The nerves are more about the cure… I’m afraid I won’t be able to succeed. Skan has worked on it for most of his life, with direct access to the Turned, and come up with nothing. And not just him. Every scientific mind available on the planet has tried for multiple generations. They all failed. W
hat makes me think I can succeed where they didn’t?”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” Tara told him as the dropship began to descend. “You came up with the weapon that saved the Exodus Ark. Without that we wouldn’t have had a prayer.”

  “That’s kind of you to say.”

  He paused as the metal box shook violently. A glance at the camera feed showed us hurtling through lower orbit and breaking through a cloud bank. The stabilizers kicked in, and the craft began to slow for final descent.

  The great expanse of dark blue water rose up to meet us, and I spotted the landing site off in the distance. Choppy water created small waves near the bluff, sending white spray into the air.

  The doctor opened his mouth to speak again, but an alarm went off in the cabin.

  “Warning! Warning!” The computerized version of AMI’s voice blared through the small space making my ears ring. “Inbound threat detected.”

  My eyes automatically went to the feed in search of the supposed danger. Had I made a serious misstep in not bringing more ships with me?

  Beside me, Mitch gripped his safety harness with white knuckles and let out a stream of inventive curses through a clenched jaw. “Son of a bitch. You jinxed us, Noah.”

  “AMI, report,” I called out over the noise.

  This time she used the ear comm. “Kent, my scanners have registered an unknown entity in the vicinity.”

  “Show me.” The screen changed to a single feed, one using AMI’s bird’s eye view from the Ark’s scanners. At first it just looked like a high res image of the lake. The waves were growing in places, and I thought I noticed a waterspout had formed, but that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. “AMI, I’m not seeing anything. Is it another aircraft?”

  “No. One moment. I am taking over the ship’s controls now.”

  The feed swapped again, and the ship banked hard. The inertia threw us against the harnesses, but they were made to withstand far greater trauma than that. The real concern was blackout from g-loc. The condition could be nasty and affect things in the body that were impolite to bring up in mixed company.

  My body could handle it, thanks to the edited genes and years of hard training. It was my team that I was worried about. Tara had the harness in a death grip, and every muscle tensed against the onslaught. Her eyes remained open though. Noah and Mitch held themselves similarly, but Dr. St. John didn’t have the same calm exterior.

  His eyes were shut tightly, and I thought I heard the sound of prayers. I didn’t recognize half of the deities he called out to, but maybe one of them heard because the pressure eased up in the next instant.

  Our relief didn’t last long.

  I finally got a look at the screen. What I saw made no sense. The waterspout had moved, and it was no longer a twister. It resembled a snake in that it was long and thin and curved at the top, though I couldn’t find any eyes or mouth.

  And then it moved.

  “What the fuck is that?” yelled Mitch.

  Tara’s eyes were locked on the screen and wide with horror. “It looks like a damn sea monster!”

  I didn’t have an answer, but St. John did. “I think it’s water shaping technology.” When I gave him a blank look, he spoke hurriedly. “Just think of it as a way to weaponize water by giving it a shape.”

  He’d scarcely finished speaking when we were slammed again. “AMI, get us out of here!” I ordered.

  “Working on it, Kent. This craft is limited by many factors. It isn’t meant for open conflict. I can, however, say with certainty that Dr. St. John is correct. I thought this might be a form of ferrofluid, but that is not the case.”

  “Water shaping tech isn’t much better,” commented St. John. He’d regained most of his calm, which I figured came from the fact that he was in his element when talking about things the rest of us didn’t understand.

  “Care to share with the rest of the room?” I snapped.

  “I could, but it’s faster for you to check the feed.” He let go of the harness with one hand and pointed.

  The thick body of water had transformed again, into a thick tendril, and was currently swinging right for us.

  “Please do not leave your seats at this time,” chimed AMI. “This trip is going to get a little rough. Disengaging thrusters.”

  Noah’s face went white. “Did she just say—”

  Our small dropship began to plummet, answering his question. The maneuver worked, and the tendril passed us by.

  “Reactivating thrusters,” AMI announced.

  I made a mental note that if we made it out alive, I’d tell AMI we didn’t need a play by play in combat situations.

  The dropship continued to descend, just not as fast. AMI accelerated, trying to put some distance between us and the tendril. Which worked… until it didn’t. I soon understood that we were completely ignorant as to what water shaping tech was capable of.

  One second the tendril was chasing us, then it was gone. I wasn’t dumb enough to think the threat was gone and scanned the screen for it to show itself again. I saw the landing bluff, but we were too low to reach it. AMI was heading for the nearest beach that looked to be maybe half a klick ahead.

  “Unable to locate threat,” AMI informed. “Scanning.”

  “It’s the water!” St. John exclaimed. “It can—”

  The water had formed a pillar directly in our path with no way to avoid it. I figured out what the scientist was trying to say, but by then it was too late. We weren’t dealing with a wave or some waterspout that depended on the weather. Whoever controlled the water tech could make it perform at will.

  WHAM!

  If it weren’t for the dropship being made of material intended to withstand the harshness of open space I thought we would have been ripped apart. It was still beholden to gravity though, which it demonstrated when the engines failed. We dropped again, and this time AMI couldn’t do anything to stop it.

  “Kent, I can try to slow us down, but I’m afraid you’re all going to get wet. I believe the impact will be quite unpleasant. I recommend exiting the craft now.

  I swore as I unbuckled myself. “Everyone get your asses in gear. AMI’s right, hitting the surface while inside a metal box isn’t going to be pleasant.”

  Dr. St. John was struggling, so I walked over to help him. The cargo door started to open, and the wind whipped inside. Outside the water was a little too close for my taste, and I lost my patience with the harness.

  “Don’t wait,” I told them. “As soon as you can jump, do it. Watch out for rocks if you can.”

  They obeyed, leaving me alone with St. John.

  His eyes were glazed over with fear. “Just leave me.”

  When I held up the combat knife, he gulped. “Sorry, Doc. That goes against a non-negotiable mission directive. If I leave you here, Wright will have my ass.”

  I cut the harness down the middle and hoped we didn’t shift suddenly and cause me to stab him.

  “Thank you,” he croaked.

  I grunted in answer then made for the open cargo doors. “Go,” I started to say, then realized St. John wasn’t with me. I found him trying to grab his pack.

  “Leave it!” I growled. “It won’t do you any good if you’re dead!”

  “Sorry!”

  Taking a cue from me, the scientist produced his own knife, though it was more of the swiss army variety. Still plenty sharp because the bag came free from its straps. I was already by his side and hauled him by the back of his collar to make sure he didn’t go back for anything else.

  “Kent, to avoid almost certain death, I suggest you both jump in the next fifteen seconds,” advised AMI.

  “Working on it,” I told her.

  The surface of the water was now close enough that I could see the individual laps/waves. I knew from experience that landing properly would be key. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to give my partner a lesson, and from the way he was looking down, he wasn’t going to go on his own.

  I di
dn’t give Dr. St. John any warning, but I did keep a grip on him when I jumped. His screams followed us all the way down, which thanks to how long it took us to get off the ship, wasn’t all that far.

  Still, we hit the water like lead weights. I didn’t let go of the scientist. Director Wright had indeed given me the order to protect him back when we landed on Kainos the first time. Besides that, the man was invaluable. I would forfeit my life for him because without St. John, our hopes for a cure went down considerably.

  I told myself, as he was flailing underwater and I was kicking to bring us both to the surface, that the mission mattered the most. Maybe that was the truth, but another part of me actually cared whether he lived or died simply because he was part of my team. My family.

  A Black Shield Operative has no family.

  With a final surge, we broke the surface.

  St. John spluttered and coughed. I was a little surprised to see he still clutched the bag, but I guessed when someone was swimming for you, you could afford to use both hands for other things.

  I held his head above water and looked around to get my bearings. The shore was a good thirty meters ahead, and I had most of my gear on. No biggie, as Tara said. I started swimming, hauling the good doctor right along with me. At twenty meters, I could touch down and started walking with my ward in tow.

  Now it was time to find the rest of my team.

  “AMI, do you read me?”

  “Of course, Chief. All communication devices are waterproof, to a point.”

  “Great,” I remarked. “Can you tell me where everyone else is?”

  Dr. St. John raised a hand and waved at me. “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but the beach isn’t safe. The water shaping tech,” he reminded me at my blank look.

  I decided that once the threat was gone, I needed to learn everything about it. For now, I had people to track down. And if any of them were dead, Makin would have a war on his hands.

  “Kent, I’ve located the three remaining members of your team. As Dr. St. John said, the threat is still active, and I advised them to get to cover. Sending the coordinates to your wrist unit now.”