The Crucible- The Complete Series

by Odette C. Bell

  J’axal grabbed the railing and grabbed my arm with his free hand, letting his sword drop to his feet. “What the hell?” he yelled.

  I waited. Waited for the secondary explosion. The one that would take out the ship and this hangar bay.

  It didn’t come.

  My command PIP crackled. “Jenks? Jenks?” the Chief Engineer growled. “You need to blow out the secondary buffer. Now. Do it now. Destroy the secondary buffer.”

  I heard her.

  I acted.

  Without thinking.

  Our scaffolding was now a good two meters from the wall.

  I didn’t hesitate.

  I still held the spinning electro blade in one hand.

  “Now,” the Chief Engineer screeched, voice echoing out from my com PIP.

  I threw myself right over the edge of the scaffolding, feet sailing through the air.

  I jammed my thumb into the hilt of the electro dagger, setting it to full spin.

  By all rights I shouldn’t have made the jump.

  I did.

  I slammed the blade into the secondary panel, sparks of metal spewing everywhere.

  The blade dug its way right into the center of the panel just as a small explosion punched out from it, threatening to rip my hand from its position.

  I held on. Clutching my hand tighter and tighter around the hilt, driving the blade as far into the wall as I could.

  From somewhere, I could hear a distinct whir down of engines.

  The cloud of doom that had descended upon me lifted.

  It seemed we wouldn’t die today.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  I heard the Chief Engineer’s desperate call and watched Jenks throw herself off the scaffolding at the secondary buffer controls.

  My heart was in my mouth, dread a cold press against my chest, feeling like it would explode and tear right through me.

  For those few fractions of a second where she leapt through the air and sprang towards the controls, time stretched. Fear swelled in its place.

  But she made it. Christ, she made it. That spinning electro dagger sliced into the control panel, and a cascade of sparks erupted out.

  “You’ve done it. Jenks, you’ve done it. We’re safe,” the Chief’s victorious cry came over the com line, echoing around the hangar bay.

  Some crew further back in the hangar bay started to cheer.

  I didn’t.

  Jenks was still halfway up the wall, a good 15 meters out of my reach, teetering there with nothing but the electro dagger to hold her a loft.

  In a heart-splitting second, I saw the dagger tilt.

  I ran forward.

  J’axal got there first.

  With lightning fast speed only possible with the use of his armor, he slammed two hands on the railing of the scaffolding, and jumped off.

  Jenks fell.

  She didn’t say a word. She didn’t even make a sound. The dagger pulled itself from the wall, and she dropped.

  The fall would kill her.

  J’axal fell faster. Then, with the kind of speed you can only associate with Harax warriors, hit the floor, rolled, and sprang to his feet just in time.

  He reached up and caught her.

  The electro dagger fell towards her, but J’axal rounded his shoulder and shunted it into the blade, shoving it away, despite the fact the spinning end sliced across his armor.

  I reached them, eyes wide with terror until Jenks made a movement.

  Then my fear turned to something else. It happened quickly, in only a fraction of a second.

  I wanted to pretend I didn’t know what I was feeling, but there was no point in lying inside the privacy of my own head.

  Jealousy. Just the smallest fragment of jealousy.

  J’axal had got there first, saved Jenks’ life, and was now leaning down to her. And while I could tell his smile was as arrogant as hell, you could forgive someone else for thinking it was dashing.

  Just as my gut clenched, Jenks sighed.

  “You can put me down now,” Jenks said to J’axal without as much as a thank you.

  J’axal’s smile faltered. “I’m the guy who just saved your life.”

  “Put me down,” she said simply.

  “Now, now, I think a thank you is in order,” he countered in a thoroughly conceited way.

  “I could punch you in the chin,” she commented.

  This elicited a stuttering laugh from J’axal, and finally he put her down.

  She immediately took a step back from him and shot him a steely glare. “I could have managed on my own.”

  J’axal gave a soft snort. “Sure. I mean, your head would have impacted with the floor. But if you call that managing.”

  She turned from him.

  That tension that had seized my gut when he’d caught her – it was all gone.

  I found myself grinning. “You’ve certainly earned your stripes today, Ensign,” I began, then promptly stopped. She wasn’t an ensign anymore, and as far as I could tell, the resistance only had a loose chain of command.

  She gave a low nod nonetheless and didn’t pull me up on my mistake. “Thank you, Lieutenant Commander. But anyone else would have done the same.”

  “There’s not too many people who would throw themselves off the end of scaffolding and stab a wall,” I chuckled, “so there’s no need to be humble. I’ll be sure to let the Captain know. You’ll receive a commendation,” I began then frowned sharply as I realized I’d done it again. Goddammit, why couldn’t my mind catch up to the situation? There would be no commendations, and the Captain wasn’t even a captain anymore.

  J’axal gave a thoroughly irritating snort. “We don’t really hand out commendations around here,” he pointed out through a snarl. Then he turned his attention to Jenks, and his demeanor changed entirely. “You’re a bit of a hellcat, Jenks. What’s your first name?”

  She just looked at him. She didn’t answer. Then she shifted her attention. “I should go and see how the Chief Engineer is doing.”

  I couldn’t hide my smile. And to be fair, I barely tried.

  J’axal might have been turning on the charm, but Jenks was clearly immune. She walked straight past him.

  “Hold on,” I jogged to catch up to her, “I’ll come too.”

  I caught sight of J’axal’s expression as I passed a shiny reflective panel.

  I smiled again.

  Then I fixed my attention on Jenks without moving my head as we walked side-by-side.

  That determination in her gaze – the one that felt like you were staring into the center of a star – it hadn’t changed. She could have just lost her life, but Jenks looked just the same as always.

  I let my gaze drift over her face until I noted the small cut down her cheek. Realizing what she’d just been through, I quickly jerked my eyes down until I caught sight of her right hand – the same one she’d use to hold the electro dagger into the wall.

  I expected it to be badly burnt. I’d watched that cascade of sparks spew out from the panel after she’d stabbed it. At least a few of them should have scattered over her flesh and burnt it.

  But, by and large, her hand looked fine.

  I frowned. “You must be injured,” I pointed out, nodding at her hand.

  She looked disoriented, and then jerked her head down to stare at her hand. She shifted the fingers in and out. The movement wasn’t as smooth as it should be.

  “Maybe I should take you to the med bay,” I realized, speeding up my stride.

  “I’m fine, sir. I got lucky. That panel really didn’t do much damage.” She brought up her hand, but rather than show it to me, quickly tucked it behind her back.

  I watched her open a fist and close it. It appeared to be weak.

  I frowned at her. I even slowed down, making the move pronounced as I looked directly into her eyes. “Jenks, we don’t expect you to single-handedly defeat the Alliance. Your actions were brave and commendable today, but
if we want you to live another day and keep doing what you’re doing, we need to look after you.”

  She twitched a little on the term look after you.

  “I’m not that injured, honestly,” she managed after a sustained pause.

  “You might not be that badly burnt, but it looks as if you’ve strained the muscles up your arms. Your fingers appear weak,” I commented.

  She stiffened. It was such an obvious move as it travelled from her neck all the way down to her legs.

  I frowned. I could have let it go, but there was no reason to do that anymore. I might have lost everything upon leaving the Star Forces, but I’d gained freedom too. I nodded at her. “You don’t trust many people, do you, Jenks?”

  If it were possible, she stiffened further, to the point where it looked as if her muscles would snap.

  She didn’t answer.

  “I don’t know what happened to you, I don’t know why you think you can’t trust anyone, and why you keep yourself to yourself all the time, but it doesn’t have to be that way.”

  She wouldn’t answer me. In fact, she appeared to be ignoring me so completely, I doubted she even heard what I’d said.

  “Jenks?” I raised my voice.

  “It’s fine, Lieutenant Commander. I will take myself to the med bay. The Captain is probably waiting for you.”

  We’d just reached the gangway that led to the Ra’xon.

  Despite the small explosion that had ruptured the hull on one side, the exit ramp was still in place.

  She sped up.

  I jerked out a hand, and before I knew what I was doing, grabbed her arm.

  She turned around, her momentum seeing her hair flick around in a small arc until it slammed successively into each cheek.

  For some reason I found myself slightly out of breath. “Look, I’m not gonna leave you alone,” I said through an exasperated laugh, “I’m going to take you to the med bay. You’re injured. Maybe you don’t want to tell me what’s going on with you, but you can’t ignore me. And you can’t ignore protocol.”

  One of her eyebrows shifted slowly up her brow. “What protocol? We’re not in the Star Forces anymore. And look around you,” she let her gaze slip from shoulder to shoulder, “these people have forgotten their training pretty fast.”

  My brow crumpled. She was pointing out something I was already starting to feel myself.

  “They want to defeat the Alliance,” incredulity twisted through her tone, “but they haven’t got the first idea how to do that. They think stealing the Ra’xon’s going to be all it takes to bring down the Alliance,” her tone started to shake more and more, whatever facade of control she’d once had cracking violently, “but they have no idea what it will take. They have no idea what the Alliance has at its fingertips. They’re idiots.” She spun a hand behind her, indicating the base. “Every last one of them.”

  I stiffened. At first, I’d felt sympathy well in my gut at her tirade. Now I felt my face lock in anger. “Don’t call them that,” I said, words biting. “They aren’t stupid. Misguided, maybe, being pulled along by their hope, definitely. But they aren’t idiots,” I said through clenched teeth, my hand still rested on her arm. “Don’t turn against your own, Jenks. And whatever happened to you,” I dropped the biting anger from my tone, “don’t let it take away your hope.”

  She took a step back, jerking her arm free from my grip. Her eyes were wide, two focused beams of emotion. “Hope?” her voice trembled. “What makes you think they’d ever let you keep that?”

  There was such a raw intensity behind her emotions, it floored me. I wanted to reprimand her again for calling her comrades idiots, and for lashing out at the very people she’d just helped to save. But that would be denying the real issue. I hadn’t risen through the ranks of the Star Forces by combat and piloting skills alone. You wanted to successfully command a ship, you had to understand people.

  Something was eating Jenks up. Every inch of her. When she wasn’t running, she was probably nursing whatever injury had done this to her, whatever trauma had turned what looked like a perfectly capable and smart young woman into a shadow.

  I was now more determined than ever to find out.

  Perhaps she could see that determination glinting in my gaze, because she took a jerked step backwards. I saw that tiger again – the one that was trapped.

  She turned from me quickly. “The Captain’s probably waiting for you,” she repeated. Then she hurried off.

  It would have been easy to catch up to her. She was clearly tired from her efforts to save the ship.

  I didn’t rush after her though. Instead I stood there and watched her.

  Would she even go to the med bay?

  Before I could find out, a voice filtered out from my com PIP. “Shepherd, we need your assistance,” the Captain said.

  “On my way,” I muttered as I took a determined step forward, one hand curling into a fist as I watched Jenks finally disappear into the Ra’xon.

  As soon as I was finished with the Captain, I was going to look Jenks up. The Ra’xon, though no longer connected to the Star Forces’ database, would still have a substantial amount of information saved on her hard drives. I was going to scour them for any information on the elusive Jenks.

  Maybe I should have been directing more mental power to the task of fitting in with the resistance and gaining their trust. Well the human brain doesn’t work like that.

  One mystery at a time.

  One mystery at a time.

  …

  Ensign Jenks

  As soon as I reached a secluded corridor, I balled up a fist and slammed it into a wall. I didn’t let out a scream, just bottled it up inside as I let my bare knuckles connect to the metal.

  I made no attempt whatsoever to shield my flesh with my implants. I just let my fist connect to the unyielding surface of the wall.

  I felt the pain ripple and stab up my arm, bearing down on my shoulder like a shot from a gun.

  It was the only thing I could do not to fall to my knees and shriek in rage.

  Shepherd wanted to know where my hope was? It had been scoured from my body by the goddamn Star Forces. And I was serious – I would make them pay. Even if I had to carry the resistance every step of the way.

  With that determined thought, I pulled away from the wall, and continued down the corridor.

  I thought fleetingly about ignoring Shepherd and not going anywhere near the med bay. But I soon realized that would be a bad plan.

  Though I hated medical equipment by principal, and despised doctors as they reminded me of Professor Axis, I had to play a careful game here. Shepherd knew I was injured, and I had to see to those injuries lest he keep asking after me.

  I didn’t have to fear that my implants would be discovered if I went to the med bay. They were shielded. Axis had gone to a great deal of trouble to perfect the shielding technology, so only his equipment could detect it. One of his plans – one of his many brutal plans for me – had been as an espionage agent amongst the Star Forces. I wasn’t just a weapon who could wage whole wars – I could slip silently through the ranks of the Star Forces, gathering intel and disposing of targets that Axis saw fit.

  Still, when I reached the med bay doors, I hesitated. A vortex of twisted fear and rage settled deep within my gut. Even glancing at the painted sign over the slate grey doors made the bile rise in my throat. I remembered, in perfect detail, every time I’d been dragged to the med bay aboard the Miracle. Every time Axis had played with my implants, and they’d burnt my arms, searing the flesh. My skin had been grafted and regrown so often it no longer felt like my own.

  Realizing I couldn’t stand there forever, I took a short, sharp breath, and pushed into the med bay.

  It was empty. Clearly the Doc and her staff had been evacuated.

  Thankful that I’d dodged a bullet, I made my way over to one of the first aid stations. I grabbed a kit and opened it on a gurney, sought out the skin replacement tool, and started
to apply it over the damaged knuckles of my right hand.

  Apart from the deep muscle twinges in my wrist, the only damage I’d received was when I’d punched the wall. I’d managed to shield most of my skin from the blast of the secondary buffer controls.

  As for the muscle twinges… there was nothing anyone could do about that.

  I needed more compound 78. Sure, I had another week and a half until my fits would start, but did that mean I should live in agony for the next 10 days?

  When I’d been a plain old member of the Star Forces and not the resistance’s newest recruit, Omega weapons had been hard to come by. I’d been forced to ration myself. Here, in the belly of this ship, were enough Omega weapons to keep me going for the next 50 years.

  As soon as I’d finished applying the quick growth skin to my knuckles, I let my hand drop to my side and let my gaze swivel and lock onto the wall.

  There, in the center of this ship, was everything I needed.

  I could feel a headache start to prick through my temples. It wouldn’t stop, day or night, until I injected myself with more 78.

  … It wouldn’t be hard to get to the Omega weapons. I doubted they’d been removed from the Ra’xon yet, not considering our rather explosive first few hours on this planet. Nobody would have had time to remove such delicate weaponry.

  … So I could do it. Right now. When there was no one keeping track of me. I could navigate to the belly of the ship, steal a weapon… or maybe a crate, and synthesize enough 78 to keep me going for the next few years. I could hide it, find some way of explaining the missing crate, and then I’d be fine. For the first time ever, I wouldn’t be wondering where my next dose of 78 would come from.

  It was an intoxicating thought. One that saw me push away from the gurney and walk towards the door with a smile on my face.

  It’s too dangerous, my mind tried to tell me. But the rest of me started to pick out the sensations of fatigue and damage. The deep twitch in my wrist, the light tingling in my fingers, and that persistent drumming headache that was just starting to drill through my temples.

  I clenched my teeth together.

  Nathan Shepherd had asked where my hope was. Guarded, that’s where it was. Locked away.

  Hope was for fools. Hope was for people who had no idea what they were up against.