“Real normal,” I said. “Up until today. Or yesterday. Or whenever.” I gestured again to the uniform. “Why couldn’t you raise me as your daughter?”
“Growing up as the daughter of a security worker is different than growing up as the daughter of the supreme commander of the Federation military. You would have been in the spotlight every moment. Paparazzi, and less-than-savory elements, would target you. You would have been guarded every moment of the day, your every movement watched for your own protection.” He sighed and looked at the floor. “I planned to tell you when you turned eighteen.”
“So what, you were just going to sit me down and tell me all you just told me? ‘Hey, Rachel, I’m an eternal and the highest-ranking military person in the galaxy. You’re my daughter.’ Like that?”
“Much like I just did, yes,” he replied, meeting my gaze again. “I always meant for you to know - eventually. Are you angry?”
I was angry, as much as I hated to admit it. Angry and awed and confused and feeling side-swiped. I nodded, unable to speak.
“I am sorry. I will go if you wish.”
“No,” I said. “Don’t go.” A memory rose up in my mind. The memory of Isabelle fighting the undead invaders in the cafeteria. Isabelle. “Isabelle. You said she could take care of herself. And you weren’t surprised about her shifting.” The pieces clicked in my head, but I had to vocalize them to make them feel real. “She’s Isabelle Thorpe, isn’t she?” Images of family trees flashed in my mind. Dawyn, my father, was brother to Bridgette Thorpe, who was the mother of Isabelle Thorpe. “She’s my cousin.” It wasn’t a question.
My father smiled. “Clever girl. Yes, she is your cousin. She was on assignment on Galatia IV and assumed the role of a high school student as part of it.”
“Was I her assignment?”
“No. Another girl in your school was her target. In fact, it was quite random that she ended up at the same school as you. Do you remember the first time she came to our house?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. Your eyes bugged out. I thought it was because she was a new friend, or because of the color of her hair at the time. I was wrong, wasn’t I?”
“Yes. I detected who she was the instant she entered our home. I connected to her implant and communicated with her. She was as much surprised by my presence on the planet as I was at hers.”
“So much for communication among the Federation,” I quipped. “You guys didn’t even know the other was there? Hadn’t gone to a family reunion in a few years, eh?”
“I kept your identity a secret from everyone, including my family and friends. The fewer who knew of your identity, and mine, the better.”
“You said another girl at my school was her target.” I thought back to two years earlier. She’d first met Isabelle through another friend, Kimberly. “It was Kimberly, wasn’t it? She was absent today from school. Was she infected?”
My father nodded.
I swallowed hard. I had to ask, had to know. “Did Isabelle...kill her?”
This time he shook his head. “Kimberly was indeed her target, but not for that reason. Access to her allowed Isabelle ready access to her father’s home. He was the true target of the investigation.”
“He’s some kind of scientist, or researcher, right?”
Dr. Sinclair, who I’d almost forgotten was in the room, snorted. “A monster is more like it. After what he did.”
My father ignored the man and spoke. “He was the lead researcher at a lab on Galatia IV. The FIA had learned of top-secret experiments being performed there. Black ops, illegal experiments. She was dispatched to learn what those experiments were.”
“She learned too late,” Dr. Sinclair put in.
I held up a hand. “Wait. So, the virus that wiped out who knows how many people down on the planet was designed by Kimberly’s father?
“We believe so. Or by someone on his team. Once all hell broke loose, and Isabelle had ensured your safety, she made her way to his lab. What they found there confirmed their suspicions.”
“Is Isabelle still alive?” My heart leapt into my throat. The girl was still one of my two best friends in the universe, despite the new information. They weren’t just best friends - they were cousins.
“She was wounded, but she will survive. She heals quickly.”
“And Kimberly?”
“Her father had told her to run - he clearly had some foreknowledge of what would occur. She was hiding in the woods when Isabelle rescued her.”
“So...they’re both on the Nightblade?”
“Correct. Both are resting. They’ve had quite an ordeal.”
“When can I see them? Am I infectious?”
“You can see them soon. And the doctor can answer your second question.” He gestured to Dr. Sinclair.
The doctor cleared his throat, an action I knew all too well from my teachers at school. “While you are technically infectious, if your bodily fluids make contact with another person’s bodily fluid through scratches, bites or sexual contact...”
“Gross,” I said.
“The nanites in your blood are working to cleanse you of the infectious portions.”
“You call it blood. But didn’t you say earlier the virus turned my blood into something else?”
“For ease, we continue to refer to it as blood. But you are correct - the virus converted your blood into a sort of fluid that, while it acts like blood is far more complex. It is clearly engineered and designed to be infectious upon physical assault.”
“Why not just make it airborne?” I asked, recalling all the references to zombie apocalypses I’d consumed over the years.
“They did, which is how it originally spread,” the doctor explained. “But the airborne life of the virus was limited to twenty-four hours and only spread by living lungs. Once the host dies the virus moves into phase two and is no longer expelled when the host breathes, as breathing is no longer a necessary function.”
“Wait, what?” I asked. I touched my chest, waiting for the inhale or exhale. It didn’t rise or fall. I hadn’t noticed. “I don’t breathe?”
“No. The virus feeds off carbon dioxide - there is no need to breathe. Your heart still beats - it pumps the virus-laden blood through your body, but breathing is no longer necessary.”
“Wow,” I remarked. “That’s awesome!”
The doctor smiled. “I am glad you think so, my dear. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more patients to visit. I will be back to check on you later.”
“Thank you for saving me, Doctor.”
Dr. Sinclair offered a half-bow. “It was my pleasure.” He nodded to my father and exited the room.
“So...” I began, “me being like royalty and all, do you think I can get a special dessert here? I’m starving.”
“I think you’ve earned far more than that, sweetheart. But I’ll have someone come in and take your order. You can have anything you want on the menu.”
My stomach growled in appreciation.
Chapter 4
I was munching contentedly on a sandwich when alarms blared in the hallway outside. I looked through the transparent door to where red lights flashed. “I wonder what’s happening out there,” I mumbled with my mouth full. Yes, my father had taught me not to talk with my mouth full but sometimes I neglected his words of wisdom. I looked to the guards, who looked more agitated than usual.
The guards had continued to remain behind concealment screens, though I could see all four of them. They weren’t a chatty bunch, as I found out when I tried to get them to talk. They would answer simple questions well enough but wouldn’t tell me anything about what was going on down below or anything. Perhaps they didn’t know. Or they didn’t want to upset me.
My father had excused himself before my food arrived, claiming he was needed on the bridge. I let him go, accepting that the Federation did indeed need his expertise and leadership at a time like this. I envisioned armies of Federation Marines facing off against a legion of zomb
ies on a huge field of battle, lasers burning into flesh and bullets piercing their rotting flesh. But wait, I am a zombie, an undead. How would I feel being shot at? That was a sobering thought.
A squad of troops ran by my door outside, heavy weapons at the ready. Then another squad ran by. Okay, something big was clearly going on now. I swung my legs over the side of the medical bed and got to my feet.
The guards in the corners stirred and took steps forward.
I focused on one of them, the first guard who had spoken to me when I’d awoken. “Listen, something is going on out there.” I pointed to the door. “I just want to go outside and check it out. Are you going to try to stop me?” I don’t know why I made it sound like a challenge. Clearly, they could stop me if they wanted.
“Our orders are to protect you,” the guard said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.” He walked to the door and it opened. He looked to the left and then to the right before looking back to me. “Two in front, two behind - and you run if we tell you to run. Deal?”
I was so surprised at their willingness to let me into the hallway that I could only nod. At last I found my voice. “Yes, that’s fine.”
The guard nodded and a second guard joined him. They stepped into the hallway, one facing one way, the other facing the other way, before waving me forward. The other two guards closed in to take up the rear.
I walked into the hallway and looked around at my surroundings. It was much wider than I had originally thought - at least a dozen people could walk shoulder-to-shoulder down it. To my right sat what looked like an empty nurses station. Across from it, black smoke billowed out of a room. “Where did everyone go?” I asked.
“Stay behind me,” the first guard said. He led the way toward the nurse’s station.
“Don’t you guys have comms so you know what’s going on?” I asked.
“We do, but there’s a lot of chatter and some interference from the medical wing,” he admitted.
“Not very inspiring,” I said.
“Miss, don’t worry. You’re safe with us,” he replied.
They reached the nurses station and the two front guards checked it. “We got bodies,” the second guard said.
I stepped forward, intending to see them, but one of the rear guards put a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What, you think I’m going to puke? I’m dead.” I shook off her hand. “Let me see.”
The first guard stepped aside and waved toward the scene. “Be my guest. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
I approached the desk. Blood on the walls portended what I would find. I screeched and started dry retching as I saw the bodies littering the floor. Medical personnel - doctors, nurses, a pair of security guards by the look of them, lay in various states of dismemberment on the floor. I wanted to look away -a part of my brain told me to look away - but another part, a primal part, looked at it with savage interest. In that moment I knew I was not the same person I had been yesterday. The old Rachel would never have been interested in such a scene - never. “What did this?”
“Whatever was in there,” one of the guards said - a female by the sound. I turned and followed their finger with my eye to view the empty exam room still billowing smoke. Bodies were in there, too - these wore armor. Weapons lay on the floor at their side.
“Are we still in danger?” I asked, fear creeping in. I pictured some mutated monster tearing me limb from limb. Would I feel pain? Would I die? I presumed I would, since the other undead “died” from decapitation or blunt head trauma. I wasn’t invincible.
“One moment,” the lead guard said. He fell silent, likely consulting his communication array. “I’m told the threat has been contained. Clean-up crews will be up shortly.”
“Did this happen elsewhere? That the clean-up crews are so busy?”
The guard stared at me but said nothing, which confirmed my fears.
“What did this? What kind of monster did this?”
He cleared his throat. “Miss, I don’t want to upset you, but...” Was that fear in his voice?
“But what?” I asked, suddenly irritated. They needed to stop pussy-footing around and spit it out already.
“It was an infected individual - like you.”
The revelation hit me like a battering ram to the chest. I took a step back. Well that explained the caution in his tone, didn’t it? “What?” I said lamely, unable to come up with a snarkier remark.
“One of the patients undergoing treatment awoke and broke free of his restraints. He broke containment and went on a rampage until security forces could take him down.”
I swallowed hard. “One man could do all this?” My eyes drifted back to the bloodstains on the walls.
“So we’re told. He possessed enhanced speed and strength beyond even that of Marines in power armor.
“What stopped him?”
“Your father decapitated the patient.”
“The assailant,” another guard corrected. “He stopped being a patient when he chose to go on a murderous streak.” Left unsaid was the suggestion that I should choose not to go on a murderous streak.
“I guess the treatment didn’t work with him,” I said, trying to make it clear it was a fluke. “Trust me, that’s not going to happen with me.”
“We know, miss. Your father has requested your presence on the bridge for the time being. It's the safest place you can be now.”
I nodded in agreement. “Lead the way.”
We made it to the transport tube, passing bodies scattered here and there, and made our way to the bridge. The door opened and I gaped at around two dozen Marines in heavy armor pointing weapons at us. “Uh, we’re friendly,” I called.
My words didn’t immediately disarm the Marines, of course. But a few seconds later they put up their weapons and made a hole for my escort and I to pass through.
“Is it always this high of security?” Somehow, I doubted it.
“No. Special circumstances.”
The blast door to the bridge cycled open and for the second time in as many minutes I gaped again at the immensity of the room before me. A pair of stairs led to a raised dais where a planet-shaped orb hung above a projector well. Around the dais computer terminals lined the walls and service men and women filled the seats. Chatter filled the air, but it was all technical mumbo jumbo and I felt the urge to tune it out. I fixated instead on the man standing atop the platform studying the map.
My father looked impressive with his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed upon the map of our world. Icons in red and green and blue and more colors swirled around the world and blinked in or out of existence on the surface. He turned and smiled at me. “Ah, Rachel. I’m glad you’re safe. Come join me.”
I ascended the stairs, gawking as I went. A glance behind me showed my guards setting up position next to the blast doors, augmenting the already-high security. My gaze finally settled on the rotating orb and the images and sounds rising from it. “That’s cool,” I said. Cool was an understatement, of course, but I didn’t want to start fangirling over what I saw there. Not too much, anyway.
My father must have known I was hedging my enthusiasm, for he smiled knowingly and gestured to it. “This is a state-of-the-art situation map. It allows us a full view of the entire planet of Galatia IV in real-time. It displays population sizes, troop movements, enemy movements, everything.”
“’Enemy movements,’” I repeated, eyes narrowing. “Are the infected our enemies now?”
My father’s expression softened, and he sobered. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have phrased it like that.”
“With respect, Supreme Commander,” a deep male voice came from behind me. “I would most definitely call the infected our enemies.”
“Ah, General Hargreaves,” my father said, looking over my shoulder at the newcomer.
I turned to get a look at the man. He was a thin, grey-haired man wearing a highly decorated forest green Marine u
niform. He did not smile as his eyes settled on me. Instead, his gaze flicked to the holo-display behind me. “My boys are fighting, and dying, down there. If they’re not enemies then I don’t know who is.”
My father sighed, suggesting this was a conversation they’d had before I arrived already. “General, we talked about this yesterday. The infected are enemy combatants not by choice but by circumstance. They did not choose to become infected. Your Marines are well within their rights to defend themselves - no one is disputing that. We are deploying them in positions to best minimize casualties. But we are also working to cure as many of the infected as possible.”
The general sneered. “Bah, waste of time if you ask me. I say pull my boys up and nuke the shit hole. It’s not worth anything.”
My eyes widened and I clenched my fists and my jaw. I felt my teeth straining under the force. That was my home he was talking about. All my friends, teachers and fellow citizens. Fortunately, my mother’s family was on another world - my father had brought me there when I was a baby - but there were plenty of families which had been torn apart or been wholesale destroyed by the virus and this idiot. I took a step forward, rational thought taking a back seat to my rage.
A hand on my chest - my father’s hand - stopped me. I blinked, then shook my head. The general was watching me with a cool, disinterested expression. After a pause he quirked an eyebrow, as if wondering if I was going to insist on hitting him.
I took a step back.
“There are many good citizens of the Federation down there, General. As I said, they are victims and we will offer all available assistance to them.”
“The next batch of ‘victims’ you bring up better be in reinforced shackles. I lost a dozen Marines to the one who got free aboard this ship.” His gaze settled on me. “Until you put it down like the animal it was.”
It was my turn to fear that my father would hit the general or run him through with his swords. I prepared to grab my father’s arm and restrain him if necessary.
Ghost Ranger Page 3