“Ellis is alive,” Tyra said, feeling his carotid artery jumping steadily under her fingertips.
“So is Admiral Stavos,” the science officer said. “But he’s in a coma.” She ran her scanner over Graves and Ellis next. “They all are.”
Tyra grimaced. “We need a medical team down here.”
“They’ll never make it. The Marines need to open a clear path to the bridge first.” The science officer nodded to the entrance of the bridge to indicate the sounds of battle still drifting to their ears. The weapons fire sounded more distant now.
Tyra hurried back to the holo table to check on the situation. She saw four red dots—no longer six—racing away from the bridge at an impossible speed, followed by a swarm of slower green dots.
The science officer joined her by the table. “They’re outrunning bots,” she breathed.
Tyra glanced at her and took a moment to look up the woman’s name via her ARCs. It flashed up above her head in a green bar of text—Lt. Cmdr. Esalia Wheeler.
“They’re obviously not biological,” Tyra replied. “No biological being can shoot plasma from their bare hands.”
“Or perform mind probes,” Lieutenant Wheeler added.
Tyra acknowledged that with a nod. She tracked the enemy’s progress with her index finger. They’d just reached a stairwell and now they were flying down the stairs to even lower sub levels. “Where are they going?” Tyra wondered aloud.
“No way to know for sure,” Wheeler said, “But I have a guess.”
Tyra sought the other woman’s gaze, and Wheeler looked up from the holo table with a grim frown. “They came here, mind-probed our leaders, and now they’re fleeing with the intel they gathered.”
“Or they found a weakness they can exploit in our ship,” Tyra suggested.
“Either way, we have to stop them,” Wheeler replied.
“How?”
“We have superior numbers and access to the ship’s quantum junctions. We jump ahead of them and box them in.”
Tyra nodded. “Who’s going to coordinate that?”
“Graves, but since he’s out of action someone probably already picked up the slack for him in the operations room. Hang on, let me check.”
“Bridge to CIC, this is the acting CO. Is the acting CMO on deck? Over.” Wheeler paused and waited for a reply, but none came.
“Bridge to CIC, how copy? Over.”
...
“They’re not answering,” Tyra said, and pulled up a schematic view of the Operations Room. It looked fine to her.
“They’re all dead,” Wheeler whispered.
Tyra flinched. “What?”
The science officer pointed to the schematic of the operations room, but Tyra still didn’t see anything. Then she saw what she’d missed: there should have been at least a dozen green dots spread through the room—officers at their stations, but there wasn’t even one.
“We’re going to have to coordinate from here,” Wheeler said. Then a moment later, “Bridge to unit forty-nine. How copy? Over.”
“Sierra Four Niner, solid copy. Need to speak with Actual for sitrep, over.”
“Sierra Four Niner, this is Lima One. Actual is down. Sitrep is four bandits on sub five twenty, sector thirty-seven, section thirteen, sub-section F, heading down stairwell number four in alley beside the Pharma and Drug Store. How copy? Over.”
Tyra tuned out the ensuing conversation to rather watch the action play out on the table. Sierra four niner called in backup and hundreds of green dots began pouring out of quantum junctions above and below Sub Level 520. Dozens more streamed into the stairwell in question and cornered the fleeing aliens. Tyra watched simulated weapons fire flash across the schematic. Green dots winked away in droves, but more kept streaming in to replace them.
After about a minute the first red enemy signature winked off the grid, followed by two more, and then the last one vanished.
“Sierra Four Niner here—we’re all clear.”
“Good to hear Four Niner,” Wheeler replied. “I’ve got twelve more bandits on sub nine sixty, also heading down.”
“We’re on it, Lima One, moving out!”
A collective sigh rose from the bridge. The immediate danger was past.
Tyra glanced over her shoulder at the comatose leaders of Astralis.
Lieutenant Commander Wheeler followed her gaze and she snapped out a new order over the comms. “Bridge to Medical, we need immediate assistance, over.”
The reply crackled out from overhead speakers. “Medical here, what’s the nature of your emergency?”
“The CO, CMO, and Chief Councilor are all comatose after direct contact with the enemy.”
“Acknowledged. A team is on their way. Advise you arrange a Marine escort.”
“Roger. Escort will be waiting. Bridge out,” Wheeler said. She turned to Tyra and nodded. “Until the CO and Chief Councilor wake up and are cleared for duty, the chain of command falls to me and you respectively.”
Tyra nodded. She hadn’t thought about that.
“You might want to check in with the other councilors and come up with a plan of action for after we neutralize the remaining invaders.”
“Good idea.” It was hard to think long-term when the short-term was still so uncertain. She remembered the empty operations room. The CIC was buried deep inside Hubble Mountain—not too far from the shelters in the base of the mountain. If the Faros had made it that far, then Lucien would have run into them, and if that were the case... then it might explain why he hadn’t answered her comms call earlier. Her worries about Lucien and her daughters surged to the surface, and Tyra placed a call to Lucien once more.
This time he answered, and relief washed over her. “Tyra—I was just about to call you. I’m on my way down to the hospital with Atara.”
Tyra’s relief evaporated in an instant, and her heart leapt into her throat. “What? What happened?”
“The Faros took over the shelter. Their leader had some kind of personal vendetta with me or... something. He claimed we share the same name, and he wanted me to choose between saving our girls and all of the other people in the shelter.”
Tyra’s whole body went cold. The air felt thick. It was suddenly impossible to breathe. “What did you choose?” she whispered.
“I didn’t. Brak took him by surprise and rescued the girls. The alien went after them, and so did I. I managed to kill the Faro, but not before he got his hands on Atara. He did something to her, and now she’s in a coma.”
Tyra glanced back to Chief Ellis and the ship’s commanding officers. Whatever the aliens had done to them, they’d done to Atara as well.
“Which hospital are you going to?” Tyra asked.
“Winterside General.”
“I’m on my way,” Tyra replied. “See you soon.” She ended the comms there and turned to Commander Wheeler. “It’s my daughter, she’s...”
Wheeler nodded curtly. “Go. There’s not much you can do here, anyway. I’ll get you on the comms if I need you.”
“Thank you,” Tyra breathed. She ran off the bridge in an awkward loping gait thanks to her mag boots, but before long she had the hang of running in them, and she was pounding down the corridors faster than she’d ever run in her life.
Chapter 15
Astralis
Lucien watched as the door swished open and Tyra burst into the room. Her eyes met Lucien’s first, then found Theola in his arms.
She reached with chubby baby arms for her mother. “Mama!”
“I’m here, sweetheart!” Tyra ran to them and folded them both in a big hug. She kissed each of them and then took Theola from Lucien.
Lucien smiled tightly and returned his attention to their other daughter, lying in the bed in front of him. Her eyes were shut, and her expression peaceful, but carved in stone. She hadn’t so much as twitched since arriving at the hospital half an hour ago. Wires and an IV line trailed from her bed. Monitors beeped rhythmically around her, indicati
ng that her life signs were strong. There’d been no signs of injury, and her brain scans had come back clean, but if all of that was true, then why hadn’t she woken up? So far none of the doctors could answer that.
Tyra walked quietly around the bed and placed a hand on Atara’s forehead. “Oh, Atty...” she whispered as tears fell from her cheeks and landed on Atara’s pillow.
Theola reached down, as if to place a hand on her sister’s forehead, too. Theola was back to her usual self, having somehow forgotten all about the gruesome events she’d witnessed. Lucien hoped it would stay that way.
“Do they know what’s wrong with her?” Tyra asked.
He shook his head. “We’re still waiting on the results from the latest tests. The doctors say she should wake up soon, but...” Lucien trailed off, not wanting to give voice to more negative possibilities.
“Well, whatever it is, there are a lot of people working on the problem by now. The Faros did the same thing to the command staff on the bridge.”
Lucien blinked. “What? Why didn’t you mention that when I called?”
“I was worried about you and the kids at the time.”
“That might change the prognosis,” Lucien said.
“How?” Tyra asked, wiping her cheeks on the back of the hand that wasn’t holding Theola.
Lucien grimaced, wondering how much he should say. “Before that alien ran after the girls, he threatened me, saying because I couldn’t make my choice, he was going to make it for me.”
Tyra scowled. “What choice? Our girls’ lives for the lives of the other hostages?”
Lucien nodded. “The implication is—”
“That he killed my little girl?” Tyra’s cheeks flushed and her eyes flashed. She turned and pointed to Atara’s brain monitor. “She’s not brain dead, Lucien! And I don’t see any mortal wounds, so she’s fine.”
“No, you’re right.” Lucien nodded quickly. “But if they did the same thing to the command staff, then what do you think it was?”
Tyra hesitated.
“Mom...? Dad?” It was Atara’s voice.
Lucien’s heart jumped in his chest, and he ran to Atara’s side to hold her hand. She raised her head, blinking bleary eyes as she looked around the room.
“It’s okay, Atty,” Lucien said. “We’re here.”
Tyra’s tears fell anew as she stroked her daughter’s head. “You’re awake,” she said, smiling broadly.
“Agaga!” Theola blurted.
“What happened?” Atara asked.
“You don’t remember?” Lucien asked.
“I remember Brak carrying us, then the medics talking to me...” Atara’s eyes flew wide and her whole body tensed. She grabbed fistfuls of the sheets. “You were in my head!” she said, gazing accusingly up at her father.
“Who was?” Tyra asked.
“Dad!”
“It wasn’t me, honey. That... thing, claimed we share the same name, but it wasn’t me. I killed him and rescued you.”
Atara frowned uncertainly, but she nodded slowly, and her body relaxed.
“I’m going to go get your doctor,” Lucien said. “He needs to know you’re awake.”
“No need for that.” A new voice joined theirs, and Lucien turned to see the man in question come striding into the room. He had dark straight hair, slanted orange eyes, a moderate build, and golden skin. “Her monitors were set to alert me as soon as she woke up,” the doctor explained as he stopped in front of Tyra and held out a hand. “I’m Doctor Fushiwa.”
Tyra shook his hand in a reversed, left-handed grip, since her right arm was still holding Theola. “Tyra Ortane,” she replied. “My husband tells me you were waiting on some more test results. I assume they came back fine?”
“Yes, all normal. Whatever those Faros did to your daughter, it doesn’t appear to have harmed her. But...”
“But?” Tyra demanded.
Lucien’s guts clenched in anticipation of the bad news.
“We’d like to submit her to a mind probe just to be sure. We need your consent for that.”
“Absolutely not!” Tyra replied.
“It won’t hurt her,” Doctor Fushiwa insisted.
“You just said she was fine, so what’s the point of a probe?”
The doctor glanced at Lucien, then Atara, and back to Tyra. A nurse strode by them, her mag-boots clomping noisily, on her way to check Atara’s IV.
“Perhaps we should discuss this out in the hall while the nurse attends to your daughter?” Doctor Fushiwa said.
Tyra scowled, and Lucien frowned. “We’ll be right back, Atara,” he said.
She nodded weakly. “Okay...”
Lucien felt a knot of tension forming between his eyes as he and Tyra followed the doctor out. As soon as they were in the hallway, Lucien jerked his chin to the doctor and crossed his arms over his chest. “So?”
“We can’t tell what that alien was trying to do to Atara. As far as we can detect, it didn’t do anything besides put her into a coma.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” Lucien asked.
“No, but it is odd. According to the report you gave, the alien held her in some kind of trance, with his hand wrapped around her face, and neither your daughter nor the alien were responsive to external stimuli.”
“What’s your point?”
“There has to have been a reason that alien would risk its life and ultimately lose it just to reach your daughter.”
“I don’t think he knew he was risking his life,” Lucien said. “He couldn’t have known I would steal one of their swords and use it to chop off his head.”
“Yes, there’s that, which is encouraging, but the fact remains, he was trying to do something to her. Since it’s apparent that the alien only interacted with Atara’s mind, we need to get in there and see if anything changed. We’ll compare her probe data to the last backup of her memories and personality.”
“Her last backup was a month ago, before we reached the cosmic horizon,” Tyra said. “A lot can change in a child’s brain over the course of a month.”
The doctor inclined his head to that. “Agreed. The analysis will likely take some time.”
“And what if you find that he did change something?” Tyra asked.
“Then we’ll see the changes and undo whatever it is that he did. If need be, we’ll simply restore those areas from backups,” the doctor replied.
Tyra looked as skeptical as Lucien felt.
“Wouldn’t you rather know if there’s something wrong with your daughter?” the doctor pressed.
“What about the others?” Tyra asked. “The command staff were subjected to the same trance that Atara was. Are you going to put them through mind probes and comparative analyses, too?”
“Actually, their doctor is the one who suggested the procedure. He contacted me a few minutes ago, following up on a request I’d put in asking for information about any other cases of alien contact that resulted in the victim losing consciousness. Apparently, your daughter was the last to wake up. Admiral Stavos, General Graves, and Chief Councilor Ellis all woke up en route to the hospital, and they’ve already signed off on the mind probe.”
Tyra chewed her bottom lip. Theola slipped down her hip, making a break for the floor, but Tyra adjusted her grip and pulled her back up, to which Theola screamed and struggled.
“What happens if we say no?” Tyra asked.
“I’m not sure I understand the question,” Doctor Fushiwa replied.
“If we refuse the probe, will Atara be detained or kept under some kind of surveillance?”
“I can’t comment on that, ma’am. For the time being there would be no consequences that I’m aware of.”
“We’ll sign the consent forms,” Lucien said.
Tyra turned to glare at him. “Just like that?”
“There will be consequences if we don’t do this. You know that. Atara will be under suspicion forever. Do you want her to have to live like that? With everyone treat
ing her like an outcast?”
“No one needs to know what happened to her.”
“They’ll find out. There were plenty of witnesses. It’ll be on the news if it isn’t already, and she will end up on a police watch list. If we have the probe report, all of that changes. We’ll have something to show nosy reporters and the police—even neighbors.”
Tyra hesitated. “Fine. I’ll sign.”
“You made the right decision, ma’am,” Doctor Fushiwa said. He held out a palm-sized holo projector and activated it. A blue-skinned alien strapped to a gleaming steel table sprang to life above his palm. Theola screamed and writhed in Tyra’s arms, trying to get away. Doctors walked up to the alien with gleaming scalpels and saws.
“Sorry, sorry!” Doctor Fushiwa said, and waved quickly past the image to the consent form. “I was watching one of the alien autopsies.”
Tyra glared at the doctor and cooed reassuringly in Theola’s ear, bouncing her to calm her down.
Lucien glanced at the form before signing at the bottom with his index finger; then Tyra passed Theola to him and added her signature beside his. Theola whimpered in Lucien’s arms, the sound muffled by the thumb in her mouth.
“I want something in exchange,” Tyra said.
The doctor regarded her with eyebrows raised. “Yes?”
“I want your best therapist to come see my daughters.”
“That’s a good idea,” Lucien said as he kissed Theola’s tears away. “I killed that alien right in front of Theola, and before that, he beheaded a corpsman in front of both our girls.”
The doctor grimaced. “They might require more than simple therapy. You may wish to have their memories of the events erased via another probe, but that’s a topic to discuss with a therapist. I’ll make sure that one gets in touch with you right away.”
“Thank you,” Tyra replied.
The doctor nodded and walked off. Lucien took Tyra’s hand and started back to Atara’s room, but after just a few steps in that direction, Tyra stopped to answer a comm call.
“Acting Chief Councilor Ortane speaking...” she said.
Dark Space Universe (Books 1-3): The Third Dark Space Trilogy (Dark Space Trilogies) Page 34