by Taylor Smith
“Maybe I should invest in some sunglasses,” Andy grumbled as they all shielded their eyes from the intense brightness all around them.
“Waste of money. You never need them onboard a –“. Cade paused, suddenly feeling very light headed.
The atmosphere seemed to thin suddenly, then contract back on itself with a powerful boom. It happened so fast and was so disorienting, Cade wasn’t sure what had happened, nor did he remember the bright flash before he and his friends were all hurled into unconsciousness.
Chapter 10
Haley worked as fast as she could inside the pirate’s shuttle. The intelligence had been spot-on, and Mallian Neese had indeed died. Jonas had sent her straight to Bonnell, where she sat in ultimate boredom orbiting the planet for three straight days until she finally detected a ship on the edge of her sensor’s range. At first she didn’t believe it. Jonas had been adamant that the pirates would bury Mallian at or near the old colony site, but she was skeptical. She was skeptical right up until she detected the Reaper, that is. It was dark, slinking along with the belief that no one could see it, but she’d positioned Strix-9 in the perfect position to spot incoming traffic.
She didn’t know where Clew was, but she had the general direction, and placed her ship in a high-polar orbit to use the sun’s glare to her advantage. From behind her at certain angles, Bonnell’s primary would light up any incoming vessel no matter how sneaky they thought they were being. And it had worked. She spotted the Reaper with enough time to get down to the planet, hide her ship and take cover in the ruins of the old Bonnell Colony.
They had a good hunch that they would bury Mallian here, but they didn’t know the location of the tomb. It was either not directly in town, or so heavily shielded that no one could detect it. Probably both.
Once she was on the planet, she’d tracked the Reaper and the pirate’s shuttle from her ship remotely, then high-tailed it to where the shuttle had landed. It was a refreshing two-kilometer run, and her combat suit, now a shifty yellow with red highlights, had kept her cool in the heat of the planet’s surface. The Reaper had stayed close to the planet’s moon, obviously hiding, which gave her a good deal of comfort since they couldn’t monitor the surface well enough to see her moving about.
Inside the small craft, she activated the data pad connected directly to the shuttle’s main computer, and it flashed green. It seemed that Jerry’s old, sophisticated equipment had been Jerry’s alone, and not widely used by the pirates as she had feared. Instead, her intrusion tools had made quick work of the shuttle’s systems.
Several minutes later, she had the confirmation that the Trojan-horse virus was in place. It was beautiful simplicity. The virus mimicked an atmospheric-flight reading; a turbulence reading, actually. Once the shuttle docks, all that data would be uploaded to the Reaper’s main computer, which would then parse through the information and forward significant events to the pirate’s engineers, or whoever cared for the shuttles. They would then take that data, and run maintenance checks on the craft’s hull to ensure no damage was done.
Once in the Reaper’s system, though, the virus would be freed and immediately attach itself to the ship’s guidance computer and comms system. All she had to do was receive the data, link her system to the Reaper’s and enjoy the ride all the way to Clew Station… if that was where they were headed next. She couldn’t imagine that they would resume normal operations since Andy was with them. Andy was now the commander of Clew Station, and he would be needed there.
She paused at that thought, and wondered if Cade would become the Captain of the Reaper. Good for him. Glad things are going so well for Cade, she thought hatefully.
A loud thump caught her attention, and her HUD alerted her that the atmospheric destabilization mine she’d set up earlier had detonated. Time to go.
The ADM was one of the cooler weapons in her arsenal. Once activated, it used the natural gasses in the air to create a growing field of resistance against the atmosphere itself. Over the course of ten minutes, it would eliminate about ten percent of the atmospheric pressure inside the field. If someone enters that field, it collapses. In charges the pressure of the planet’s normal atmosphere and bang! Haley wasn’t a doctor, but she knew that the human body can withstand tremendous changes in weather and pressure, but such a sudden influx of pressure quickly renders even the strongest people unconscious. She wasn’t looking to kill anyone, as a matter of fact, she hoped no one was dead since that would go against the most stupid order she’d ever been given.
Again, she had been ordered not to kill or capture any member of the Neese family. She shook her head in disgust at that, but orders were orders, and she was a soldier, not a commander. Jonas must have something dreadfully special in the works for the Neese family to repeat that order over and over.
Satisfied, Haley disconnected her equipment from the shuttle and moved back to the open hatch. She stepped over the body of Criss Hulbert as two small holes in her forehead still streamed crimson onto the deck beneath her. She glanced once more at the woman who’d drawn her weapon on her as she entered the shuttle. It was unfortunate to have to put her down, but she wasn’t a Neese, so no harm done there.
She was about to disembark the shuttle when a grin formed on her face. What she was thinking went against protocol, and would link her to Yanna, but her hatred for the pirates was far too great to pass up the opportunity to stick her victory in their faces. From her pocket, she drew the red Jolly Roger patch that she’d torn from Cade’s coat at Yanna, and tossed it to land on Criss’ chest. Debts were being paid left and right and she wished that Criss was someone closer to Cade, like Andy, that she could sting him with. The Reaper’s comms operator would have to do for now, and if Cade were the Captain of the Reaper, it would be personal enough.
Leaving the shuttle, she carefully surveyed her surroundings to ensure no one had escaped the mine’s blast radius. The still forms of several pirates lay near the tomb’s entrance. She knew that Cade would be one of them and she had steadied herself against the possibility of meeting him face to face again, but she’d rather not. As she studied the scene, however, she counted three bodies lying unmoving on the ground. Family tombs were for families only. Andy, Cade by adoption, and who was the third?
She should go now, she knew, back to her ship, and get into orbit before anyone awoke but she was too curious. She bolted toward the tomb. She had precious little time as the effects of the ADM would wear off shortly and they would regain consciousness. The fifty yard sprint was effortless, and she slid to a halt next to Cade. She drew her weapon and pressed the barrel against his head. She leaned into it and for a moment, she thought she’d actually fire.
She eased off and holstered her sidearm, then looked to Andy, who lay in an awkward half-walking pose. “The sister,” Haley whispered to herself as she spotted a woman lying face-down nearby. She supposed this must be the woman who had radioed Andy to tell him their father was dead back at Yanna.
She shoved the woman over with her foot to get a look at her face, and leapt back in shock. “No…” she whispered. She crept slowly back to the woman and brushed aside the hair that covered her face. She twisted away with a massive exhale of breath. Saundi was dead. She’d died three years ago during the Deshi attack at Clew. Saundi was dead. This couldn’t be.
She turned back and gazed down at Saundi Adair, the woman who ruined her entire life with the code she’d attached to the brilliant tactical update; the same enhancement that would catapult her career, but instead, resulted in its downfall. Her hands went to her helmet as she tried to contemplate what this meant. She couldn’t think, and suddenly recognized the symptoms of mental shock.
Cade groaned.
In one fluid motion, Haley drew her weapon, ejected the clip, slammed home a tranquilizer loadout and shot Cade, Andy and then Saundi with it. She replaced the clip with armor piercing rounds and holstered her sidearm again. She needed time to think.
Several minutes later
, Haley sat cross legged with her fists holding her chin up as she stared at the unconscious Saundi. So many vile words ran through her head but she’d remained quiet in thought. Saundi Adair… Saundi Neese? There was no way they would send a Neese into Alliance territory to the Allied Fleet Academy. Would they truly risk a member of the Neese family like that?
After at least three agonizing minutes of coming to terms with seeing her best friend alive after three years of death, she made up her mind and stood. She leaned down to grab Saundi when she noticed something; the entrance to the tomb was cracked open. The mine must have damaged the door mechanism before it could close and lock.
Haley straightened at this sight. Her first instinct was to note that she hadn’t noticed it in her shock at seeing Cade and Saundi. She glanced around to ensure she hadn’t missed anything else, and chastised herself inwardly for her absent-mindedness. Being this close to Cade was a weakness; of this, now she was positive.
The darts she’d shot the three pirates with would keep them sedated for a minimum of four hours. She could stick a patch on Saundi once she was done in the tomb, so she moved to the entrance and slid through the doors.
Immediately, her visor compensated for the darkness of the tomb, and she noticed the abrupt slope downward. She cautiously walked forward, keeping an eye on her HUD which would try to detect any hidden dangers such as explosives or tripwires. It was nice to have, but she knew not to trust it completely. It did, however, detect the motion sensors and showed her a ninety percent probability that they were simply for lighting.
Her suit’s system was right, and as she moved deeper into the crypt the lights brightened to mark her passage.
Stone turned to metallic structure and she soon found herself at the mouth of a massive underground hangar of sorts. Her HUD continued to examine the area and items it held, and her attention was drawn to the rows of caskets that sat solemnly in the gloom.
She moved to the nearest and placed her hand atop the casket. “Julian Neese,” she whispered. “I’ll be damned.” She wondered how many people had ever seen what she was seeing now.
Her helmet retracted at her command and the musty dampness of the tomb invaded her senses, but she was too enthralled in the scene before her to care. She ran her fingers across the red skull and crossbones that adorned the casket, and looked up to find the same red symbol on each.
“That’s what the red Jolly Roger is about,” she whispered in realization. During her time aboard the Reaper with Cade, she’d questioned that. Andy’s answer had been vague, and hinted to a sort of rank or recognition, but seeing the icon tattooed abreast each casket solidified her idea. It wasn’t a medal; it signified a member of the controlling family of Clew Station.
“Dorian Neese?” she questioned aloud to herself. That didn’t make sense to her. She knew his last name was Cade, and had even seen his deceased parent’s restaurant aboard Clew Station.
“Adopted by Mallian, he was,” a withered voice from behind surprised her.
With a flash, she’d drawn her sidearm and aimed it in the direction the voice came.
A dark figure, tall but wiry, held its hands up and moved slowly from the shadowed corner. As it moved into the lighter section of the bay, she realized it was an older man dressed in a dark jumpsuit. The white skull and crossbones adorned his left breast with the ship name of “Leviathan” embroidered below it. “I be unarmed,” the old man said and slowly lowered his hands once Haley got a good look at him.
Haley allowed her weapon to drop slightly. The old-timer was obviously not a threat, but she knew he wouldn’t live much longer, especially after seeing her face. “Who are you?” she asked, deciding to get as much information from him as possible.
The old man smiled and released a wheezing chuckle as he motioned a boney hand toward the caskets. “Undertaker… of sorts,” he responded.
“You live here?” she asked. It seemed a dreary existence, to spend one’s life in a tomb on a deserted planet.
The Caretaker laughed at that, but didn’t answer. He eyed her for a moment then tilted his head. “How’d ya get down here? I heard a ruckus from topside. That be your handiwork, Miss?”
Haley didn’t answer, but she noted that he hadn’t answered her question either.
The old man’s face suddenly darkened. “Did you kill them?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head.
The Caretaker sighed visibly and nodded. “Good, good. You’d never forgive yourself that deed.”
Haley watched the man with narrowed eyes. “You know who I am,” She said unquestioning.
The Caretaker laughed again and his scratchy voice echoed around her. “Aye, I recognized ya from the moment ya stepped off that ramp.” He motioned around the room. “Fitting we should meet here, with you bein’ dead, and all.”
She found that by pure instinct, she’d retrained her sidearm on his forehead. They’d drilled her so brutally about how her most valuable asset was her anonymity, that her drive to kill this man was nearly overpowering and her finger depressed the trigger within a millimeter of firing.
The old man continued with a smile. “Everyone knows the stories of Haley Varsoe.”
That caught her off-guard. “That’s not my name.”
The Caretaker suddenly looked sad. “They never told ya? Shame…” his voice faded in thought.
Haley found her heart rate had risen and she began to sweat. She was running out of time and she started to wonder if he was buying time for something, but her curiosity won out. “Tell me.”
He shook his head, and then gestured to her weapon. “Put the gun down, girl.”
“Tell me!” she shouted. She found a sudden desperation creeping into her mind, as if this scrawny old man that stood before her was a fountain of knowledge that had been kept just out of arms reach her entire life. For some reason the name he’d labeled her with, Varsoe, had lit a fire somewhere deep inside her consciousness. “Tell me,” she said in almost a whisper.
“I could,” he said slowly. “I could tell ya about your parents, yer’ true past… and even about,” he pointed upward again, “your friends up there. You’d be surprised to learn about that.”
“Not my friends,” she answered quickly.
“More so than ya think,” he replied just as quickly. “Just lower the gun.”
“I can’t,” she said and suddenly realized that she was in tears. She knew he was trying to use his knowledge, if he knew anything at all, against her as leverage. Once she dropped her sidearm, she would no longer control the situation. That would be a grievous dereliction of her training. She was merely a puppet of that training now. No matter what she wanted, even in desperation, she was a prisoner of Strix protocol.
The old man nodded with a sigh. To her surprise he said, “ya know you won’t leave here alive, don’t ya, girl? Not unless ya drop your weapon.”
At once, she was razor focused again and replayed his words in her head. He never answered any of her questions, but he’d laughed at her when questioned about living in the crypt. She realized that laugh was an answer of ‘no’. That meant he’d either been dropped off by the Reaper’s shuttle, or before. She realized that the probability of the man arriving before the Reaper to prepare the burial-site for the family was higher than any other scenario. His overconfidence also told her that he wasn’t alone.
She smiled at him and said, “I have something that you may know about, I believe it once belonged to Julian Neese.” She watched careful this time, without any emotions clouding her observations.
“Do ya now? And what’s that?” the man said with a mixture of curiosity and caution.
Then she saw it, a small twitch of his eyes as he worked his implant, probably conversing with someone else in the room. Whoever he was, whatever he knew, she couldn’t believe anything he said now. He was controlling at least one other person who undoubtedly had her in their sights, and has had her targeted the entire time she spoke to the Caretaker.
> She held her empty hand up and slowly reached down to her belt to retrieve a small half-sphere. “Data chip,” she said and held it out toward him.
The old man grinned at her and shook his head. “Throw it over, and I’ll take a look.”
She tossed the device to him, which he deftly caught and then held it up to examine it. “How does it–“.
“My mistake,” she said. “That’s a remote-detonate incendiary grenade. Be careful not to drop it.” She watched the man freeze in place, then look at her with a scowl. “I’ll blow us all, including everything in this crypt to hell unless you tell the others in this room to come out where I can see them.”
The Caretaker eyed her menacingly for a few tense moments before he said, “Come on, Carsen. Shoulder yer weapon and come out.”
“I can take her,” came a younger voice from the shadows.
“Can’t risk the crypt,” the old man replied, and then turned slightly to where his friend was hiding.
Haley never took her eyes or weapon off the Caretaker. “Over here, next to the old man, Carsen,” she said.
As soon as she had the two men together, she took a step back toward the door. “Anyone else here?” she asked.
“No,” the old man said.
Carsen glanced briefly to his right. It was a miniscule movement, but Haley had caught him.
“You shouldn’t have lied,” she said and fired once, killing the Caretaker and dove to her left behind Julian’s casket. Shots rang out all around her. Several rounds pinged off the hardened case of the coffin she used as cover. She activated her suit’s helmet and quickly tossed several more grenades in various directions. If the coffins can take rails and bullets, her suit should be able to withstand what was left.
Just as she heard several warnings of her explosives being shouted by at least two other people, she closed her eyes and detonated them all. The room erupted in fire, and shook violently as her incendiaries flooded the hangar with super-heated death. Screams were cut short and Haley’s suit protested the heat with multiple alarms before the majority of the flames died out as quickly as they were set loose.