“What is that?” Bren asked. Her voice quivered in fear but held firm.
“I don’t know,” Riya said. She was at a complete loss, she didn’t know what to do, but she had a pretty good idea where she was: aboard the Devex ship.
“There were people in the light,” Bren said, sniffing and wiping away her tears.
Another light blinked on. Both girls looked, instinctively drawn to look. This time, the light that struck down from the darkness was much closer. Riya and Bren gripped each other tightly as they saw for certain that people were being pulled up into the light.
“What is it?” Bren said again, anger edging her voice and banishing fear.
Riya could not answer. She grabbed her sister’s forearms and looked her in the eye. “We stick together, no matter what. Okay?”
Bren nodded. Her lip quivered.
“You stay with me. Okay?” Riya said again, laying her hand gently on Bren’s cheek.
“I think we should get out of here,” Bren said with a surprisingly steady voice.
At that moment, a wailing man came running toward them out of the dark. He crashed into the girls sitting on the floor and went tumbling forward. He hit the ground hard.
Riya and Bren reached out to help the man, to comfort and support him, but he clambered back to his feet and ran off again, still wailing in terror, hardly noticing the girls he had tripped over. He soon fell again, tripping over a sleeping person.
“What’s his problem?” Bren said. She stood up.
“He’s lost it,” Riya said.
Another light came on. Riya looked and saw that more people were being pulled upwards.
“Maybe that’s the way out,” Bren said.
The light blinked off.
“I think we’ll find our own way out,” Riya said. She took a step, looking around her. “There must be a door. An exit. We should find the edge.”
She turned around to call Bren to her and reached out.
A beam of light fell over her. Bren was standing in the dark beyond. She screamed as her sister was caught in the light. She rushed forward and jumped up after her.
Riya reached down to grab Bren, but the edge of the light was solid, impenetrable. Bren bounced off the wall, and Riya felt herself rise faster, up toward the bright point above. She felt fear well up inside. She didn’t know what was going to become of her, but she didn’t think it would be good.
The raider came within visual range of the warship, which was still clamped onto the civilian transport. The puncture arms were thrust through the outer hull along the bow of the ship, the arms giving access for the Devex warriors to storm aboard the transport and capture civilians, to take them into the factory where they would all be transformed into Devex warriors.
Jack had nearly become one himself. He had seen thousands of civilians encased in the dull grey exo-armor of the Devex and then march mechanically to some huge matter transport device. Where the warriors went was still unknown to Jack, but the Devex clearly needed a huge and constant supply of fresh soldiers. They were creating an army greater than any Jack had ever known.
The forward view screen showed a launch tunnel in the side of the Devex warship. Jack climbed out of his seat and walked to the exit.
“Take us inside, Sam,” he said. His hand went to his pulse pistol on his hip, but he realized his mission would be over pretty quickly if he went in shooting. They had escaped a Devex warship before by sneaking and hiding. He had no reason to think it wouldn’t work again. He hoped it would work again.
“Moving inside now,” Sam said.
Jack stood ready.
The raider touched down in a Devex flight hangar with a light thump. Jack held back in the shadows as the boarding ramp was lowered. Outside the raider, he saw ranks of hundreds of Devex warriors all standing in formation.
Jack crept forward to get a better look.
The huge space was identical to the one Jack had escaped from. It seemed the Devex had constructed all their ships to the same design. He had no doubt that the process here would be the same as he had witnessed before.
The civilians aboard the transport would be taken to a warrior creation apparatus where they would be transformed into Devex warriors. These ranks in the assembly area ahead of him were the civilians from the transport below.
Somewhere among these civilians were the admiral’s daughters.
The ranks of Devex took a step forward. At the far end of the space was the matter transport device. The warriors stepped on to the platform and were whisked away.
Sam came up behind Jack.
“They’re probably already gone,” Sam said. “This is a fool’s errand, Jack. We should go.”
Jack held up his hand and tapped the wrist-mounted holodisplay. A rough map of the Devex ship’s interior was displayed as a series of green lines. He called up a data feed from the Henson girls’ idents.
Two small dots appeared.
“They’re here,” Jack said.
One of the dots was on the same level as Jack and Sam, behind the tall bulkhead at the back of the huge assembly area—the place where Devex warriors were created. The other signal was several meters below, presumably in the dark holding area that Jack remembered being held in.
Then the one dot behind the bulkhead moved.
“She’s coming toward us,” Sam said. “All we have to do is wait and we can let them come to us.”
Jack looked to the direction where the girl’s signal was coming from. One of the dark ovals at the end of the assembly area opened and out stepped a Devex warrior, newly created and armed for war.
Jack zoomed in on his holodisplay. The figure walking out of the hatch and joining the Devex ranks was Riya Henson. Or at least, she used to be Riya Henson—now she was Devex.
“That’s her,” Jack said. He dropped his hand and looked at the freshly-armored warrior as she stepped into formation with the thousands of others.
Then the formation took another step forward. The front rank stepped up onto the matter transport device and vanished. Deployed.
“I’ll go and grab her,” Sam said.
Jack gripped Sam’s shoulder, stopping him. He pointed to the three-meter tall Devex warriors that walked between the rows and columns of new Devex, guarding the new warriors.
“Too dangerous, Sam. If those Devex see us, we’ll be finished. We need to find a way to snatch her without drawing any attention to ourselves.”
Jack and Sam looked toward the assembly area. It had towering sides over a hundred meters tall. At intervals, there were small recesses, some were lit.
“There must be a central command somewhere on this ship,” Jack said, looking up at the high wall across the assembly area. “These new Devex are all operating like robots. They must be controlled from somewhere. Do you think we could send the Henson girls to the raider?”
Sam shrugged. “I can try. Do you think you can get me to the central command?”
Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Stick with me. Ready?”
Sam got ready to move. “Just one thing,” Sam said. “Didn’t the admiral say he wanted his daughter back? What is he going to think about us handing over a Devex warrior to him?”
“We’ll deal with that later, if we get out of this alive. Ready to move?”
Sam nodded.
Jack moved down the boarding ramp and onto the assembly area deck. He saw the Devex-clad Henson girl step forward with the massed formation. There were so many others here too. He had been ordered to rescue two people but felt his duty to all those who had been captured.
Jack moved to the nearest wall just behind the Devex raider. The wall was vertical. Jack reset his suit’s local gravity field and let himself rise slowly up the side of the wall to a light high above.
The sight of so many Devex below was impressive. Thousands of warriors stepping forward at intervals in perfect synchronization. More Devex joined through the oval hatches at the rear of the assembly area, the front rank of warri
ors stepping on to the matter transport to be sent away as freshly-created warriors joined at the rear.
Jack reached the lower edge of the opening and slowed his ascent. Sending a micro drone ahead, he projected the drone’s field of view onto his helmet’s enhanced data view.
Through the opening and behind the assembly area side wall, there was a long corridor that appeared to run the length of the massive warship. The forward end was nearby, just above the matter transport device below. The other end was hidden in the far distance, but it appeared perfectly straight and unbroken.
There were no Devex in the corridor, so Jack pulled himself up and inside. He crouched at one side of the corridor and sent the micro drone ahead of him.
Jack’s micro drone raced away in one direction. Sam, at his side, sent one of his own to travel the other direction, toward the near end. The micro drones sent back their data and soon the structure of the ship at this level was revealed. The corridor led to a wide space above the matter transport filled with equipment, part of the matter transport device. The rear led to another space on one side of the corridor where a small group of Devex stood before control consoles.
Sam sent a silent message to Jack.
“The command center?”
Jack shrugged. He returned the silent message.
“If you can tap into one of those consoles, we might find out. Move.”
He looked over his shoulder as he advanced along the corridor, staying low and moving fast.
“I’d love to get a look at that matter transport device,” Jack said. But knowing where his duty lay, he moved off in the opposite direction toward what he hoped was the small command center.
Reaching the open entrance, Jack slowed and finally stopped. Sam fell in behind him. The drone went in low and slow, relaying the positions of the Devex in the room back to Jack and Sam.
The room was a few meters square with six of the three-meter-tall Devex, one at each console. They appeared focused on their tasks.
Jack turned to Sam.
“We need to do this fast.”
Sam nodded.
“Try not to hit the consoles. Ready?”
Sam nodded.
Jack pulled up his pulse pistol and activated the electron blade.
Sam swung up his rifle. The fizzing blade leapt up from the muzzle.
Jack nodded. It was the signal to move.
Entering side by side, Jack and Sam engaged the nearest pair of Devex. They both fell to swift thrusts from the electron blades.
Jack leapt toward the next, his suit’s thrusters throwing him fast. He barreled into the Devex who was just alerted to the sudden appearance of the two attackers. Jack led with his blade and thrust it through the Devex warrior’s exo-armor. They both fell to the deck.
Sam was standing over his second victim when Jack looked up to see the last two Devex fully alert to the attack. One was reaching for a weapon, the massive Devex rapid-fire blaster, powerful but difficult to use in a tight space. The last Devex was rushing to a console embedded in the far wall.
Jack sensed the danger. He could not let the Devex raise the alarm. He leapt forward and headed toward the Devex about to sound the alarm. He flew past the other who was raising his blaster.
A stream of white energy bullets fizzed through the air around Jack as he closed in on his target. The bullets stopped abruptly as Sam thrust his pulse rifle’s electron blade through the Devex, the white blade erupting from the warrior’s huge chest.
Jack closed in a moment before the Devex could reach the wall-mounted console. The Devex, with its hand outstretched, was marginally too slow. Jack brought his blade around in a wide slicing arc across its back. The blade cut from the right shoulder to the left hip.
The Devex flinched, twisting against the cut. It crumpled to the deck, still reaching toward the console in the wall. Jack gripped the Devex around the helmet and forced the warrior to the deck. The Devex struggled weakly until he stopped all movement with a final thrust from Jack’s electron blade.
Standing up and checking the room, Jack counted six dead Devex and an empty room with six tower consoles standing in two lines of three.
Sam was already at one of the consoles. He unclipped his right-hand gauntlet and pulled it away from the tactical suit. Sam’s Mech hand moved over one of the consoles. He looked over at Jack.
“Environmental controls,” Sam said. He moved to another. Sam’s hand unraveled and threaded inside. “This one is waste management.” Sam went to the next. “Energy transfer.” Sam covered all the consoles. He stopped and looked at Jack. “They are all secondary systems. Nothing here to do with the Devex manufacture system. No way to access the movement of the new warriors.”
Jack thought for a moment. “Can you find out where the central command is?”
Sam went to the energy transfer system again, threading his Mech hand through the console.
“There is a power hub, I think it’s the main drive. Maybe we could power that down.”
Jack shook his head. “They will know something is wrong if we do that. What about communications? That must be how they get the new Devex to move onto the matter transfer device. Maybe we can hack that?”
Sam threaded through the Devex systems. He sensed so much through his Mech hand without even knowing how he was doing it. He found something of interest.
“Here. Communication sub-command.” Sam looked at Jack. “I’m transferring a map to my holostage.”
Jack watched Sam for a few moments. Sam finally pulled away from the console. He held up his wrist and activated the holostage.
A detailed map of the Devex ship appeared in a projection in front of Sam, several meters across and a meter deep. It was the most detailed view of a Devex warship ever captured. Jack knew that this intelligence alone was worth the mission. Now if only he could get it back to the fleet, it could help fight off future Devex attacks.
Realizing he had been momentarily distracted by this new information, Jack snapped back to focus.
“Show me the Henson idents.”
The two idents appeared as red dots on the detailed 3-D map. One was still far below Jack and Sam’s current location, while the other was still in the massed formation of Devex warriors. She had moved forward, closer to the matter transport device. She was getting closer all the time.
“We need to move fast,” Jack said. “Show us a route to the communications sub-command.”
The route lit up. The long corridors alongside the warship went past one massive assembly area after another. The Devex were sending hundreds of warriors to some unknown location.
A kilometer back along the high corridor lay the communication sub-command. It would take Jack and Sam past several other sub-command rooms.
The location of all Devex on board were on the map. Apart from the small groups in the sub-command rooms, the only significant number of Devex were in the lower decks, nearest the puncture arms that cut into the civilian transport below. The Devex at those locations were busy moving back and forth, bringing the captive civilians to be converted into soldiers.
Up here, at the very upper deck of the massive ship, there were relatively few Devex and all seemed occupied with the upright consoles in the sub-command rooms.
“We need to be careful,” Jack said.
Sam nodded. He slung his pulse rifle over his shoulder.
Jack slapped the pulse pistol onto his hip holster then moved back into the corridor at the side of the secondary systems sub-command room. He looked along the seemingly unending corridor and set off at pace, his suit’s local gravity field and thrusters propelling him along.
Pretorius reached down from the command chair as Commander Chou handed him a small data file.
“Is that everything you could find?”
Chou nodded and then continued with his duty.
Pretorius loaded the chip into a private device. The files were all marked with the Fleet Intelligence Agency seal. Pretorius flicked through them, r
unning through the service history of Special Agent Mallet.
And then he found it.
Her parents.
Although all agents were surrendered to the agency before adolescence, a record of the parents was available for the agents to see after their retirement. Agents were not permitted familial or personal relationships during their time of service. Many never even contacted their parents following retirement. But Mallet had met with her father on several occasions, in breach of the law.
Mallet’s father was Harry Stone, a fleet chief, last seen aboard Frigate M-9.
One conclusion was clear. Mallet was interested in Jack simply for revenge for her father’s death.
Pretorius slipped the chip back out of the device and into his jacket pocket.
This information would be useful the next time Mallet tried pursuing Jack Forge.
Moving along the corridor, Jack passed several sub-command rooms, streaking past the open doorways in the blink of an eye. Every time he approached one, he had the sure feeling a Devex would spot him or step out for some reason and collide with him. But he moved at such speed, he was gone before the doubt could grow. His suit slowed him down just before he reached the target: the communications sub-command room.
Jack crouched in cover, Sam at his side.
“Go,” Jack said and threw himself into the attack.
Jack took down a Devex with a swipe of his blade. He fired a volley of pulse rounds, knocking his second target over before he landed on top of the Devex and drove the electron blade deep into the chest armor.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Sam dispatch one Devex and then another. As Jack was moving toward his final target, he saw the remaining Devex reach a wall-mounted console. The Devex hit the panel with a flat palm and turned to face Sam.
Jack slashed with his blade as he moved in on his last target. The Devex was ready for him and braced for the impact, standing in an unarmed combat stance.
The Devex fended off Jack’s initial attack. The huge warrior swept Jack’s electron blade aside with a swing of his arm.
New Enemy (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 4) Page 7