by J. N. Chaney
Mild weather brought our success probability score down by a few points. An overcast day would have given us a little extra cover, but it couldn’t be helped. The stealth option on the quads would have to be enough.
We’d decided to land the ship in the shadow of a large boulder five kilometers from where the convoy would pass through. It was also the point with the best natural cover.
Once past that, it was nothing but flat, open land. Low tech, but effective. No one would ever accuse Sarkonians of advanced technological feats, but they had guerrilla warfare down to a science. It was one of the things that kept them in the game at all.
Once they claimed a planet in the name of the Sarkon Empire, they were pretty good at keeping it. The Union only fought back in cases where the territory had extreme significance to them. Or to the Empire, as White Cross had been.
White Cross was a system rich in a variety of resources, but none so important to the Empire as N02-99. They used the metal to reinforce their hulls and armor, among other things. When the Union wrested White Cross from the Empire, it had almost ended the conflict between them.
Unwilling to give up, the Sarkonians became adept at copying tech. They’d experienced a minor comeback, though the Union had only recently ceded control of White Cross back to them.
With Tulkin, they appeared to be quite confident in themselves because a deep scan didn’t reveal any extra security.
“Maybe it’s not the right lead after all,” Calliope suggested in my ear.
Her hiding spot was on the other side of the only road to the facility. The same thought had crossed my mind as well when we laid our traps with no trouble. If the ingot was as powerful as we’d been led to believe, it should rate more security. Still, I knew of instances where that wasn’t the case.
“It’s possible that they’re trying to keep attention off themselves,” I pointed out.
Our quads were disguised using a sandy color to match the surrounding terrain and both sat on Calliope’s side of the road as it was in the direction of the ship.
“Huh. Didn’t think about that,” she conceded.
“The convoy is en route,” Vega informed us. “Ten kilometers away and closing.”
Adrenaline spiked through me the way it always did just before an op went down, and I forced myself to settle.
It didn’t take long for the three vehicles to cover the distance and I was soon watching their approach without the field glasses.
The short range EMPs did their job and the transport ground to a halt.
Calliope and I dropped the first three soldiers that exited with sedatives like I’d used on Boltin until the subsequent ones started firing back with standard issue rounds. Unable to justify using the slower darts any longer, we switched to the same, though I had one more non-lethal up my sleeve.
Our locations didn’t stay under the radar for long and we advanced from both sides. The occupants from the tail vehicle spilled out to protect the heavier one in the middle. Though I only counted four on my side, the way they were acting told me the ingot was likely inside.
“Down to three on my side,” Calliope said over the comms.
“Same here,” I returned. “The ingot has to be in the middle vehicle, so watch yourself.”
“Copy that. Ready to deploy stun mesh on your go.”
The stun mesh was designed to deliver twenty thousand volts to anything that came in contact with it.
“Hit ‘em,” I ordered.
I fired mine at the same time that the soldiers on the other side started screaming. The mesh-packed grenade exploded out of the rifle-mounted launcher and arrowed toward the trio of soldiers on my side of the truck.
By the time one of them yelled “grenade!” it was open and engulfing them. The grenade worked beautifully, and they fell to the ground as one, their bodies jerking from the shock of volts currently screaming through their systems.
“Go!” I yelled, running for the back of the truck.
Calliope met me on the other side, panting, with a charge in her hand.
So far, things had gone to plan. Even better than we really could have hoped for. We couldn’t relax just yet though, and I gave her the go ahead. “Do it.”
She stuck the explosive to the back of the truck. We both took cover on our respective sides waiting for it to go off. When I came back around, she had a hand on the door, ready to pull it open and cover me.
I nodded and brought my rifle up.
The door swung open and Calliope backed up while I waited for a volley of fire to come out. Nothing did, so I inched closer and nosed the muzzle of the rifle into the opening, using it as a hook.
“Oh fuck,” I said when I got a glimpse of what was inside.
Or rather, who.
That was all I got a chance to say before one of the two Void operatives within fired. I tried to twist out of the way but wasn’t fast enough, and the round clipped my arm.
My suit didn’t stand a chance against the armor piercing round and white-hot pain lanced through me.
The door slammed open with enough force to have Calliope flying to her back in the dirt.
“Void?” she asked with a groan.
“Two,” I said, fighting through the pain. “We need to move, now.”
Calliope didn’t argue, scrambling to her feet as the truck wobbled from movement inside. We took off at a dead run for the quads and I sent up a silent prayer to whoever might be listening.
“Two combatants have exited the truck,” Vega advised us.
I sent a spray of bullets behind me in response.
“The stunned soldiers are stirring,” the AI warned next.
Calliope reached the quads first and ripped the camo covers off.
“Projectile fired. Captain, dive right!”
“Godsdammit, V! Some good news would be nice!” I shouted as I leapt to the right and rolled.
My stomach went queasy when the ground came into contact with my wound, but the bolo they’d fired missed me, so I couldn’t complain too much.
“Apologies,” she said, sounding confused. “Would you prefer I not update you?”
“Don’t stop,” I muttered.
“Another projectile has been fired. I believe it is targeting the quads.”
Calliope was already on hers and jerked it out of the way even as mine exploded. “Get on!” she yelled.
On my feet again, I jumped on the back. I couldn’t provide any cover since my one good arm was hanging onto Calliope. Shots hit the dirt around us as she sped off.
“V, are they following?”
“Negative. I believe their orders are to not leave the ingot,” she answered.
“Thank the gods for—argh!” One of the soldiers’ bullets ripped into my side and a fresh wave of pain rocketed through me.
“Alyss!” Calliope started to slow the quad.
“Don’t stop,” I wheezed, my vision going gray around the edges.
“Don’t let go,” she countered. “We’re nearly there.”
The scenery flashed by in a blur of browns.
“Captain Cortez is losing blood at an alarming rate,” Vega said.
Her voice sounded slow and far away. In some part of my mind I knew it was due to the blood loss she spoke of, but I struggled to process the information.
I closed my eyes once and felt like I was floating. When they opened again, nothing but the clear blue sky above me, then I collided with something hard. The ground, I realized.
“Fuck!” Had I said that?
Suddenly, the ground was moving. No, I was moving over the ground as someone dragged me. For a brief moment I thought my leg had gotten hung up on the quad, but it was Calliope, despite her small size.
“You gotta help me, Cortez.” Her voice stayed calm, as if she’d ordered me to do nothing more than stand at attention.
Grunting, I focused and got to wobbly feet. It must have been enough for her because the next thing I knew Calliope had me over her shoulder, carr
ying me the few meters to the quad.
“Vega, status?” Calliope barked, using a strap to lash me to the second seat behind her.
“The hostiles are not advancing,” confirmed the AI as we took off again.
The distant popping of discharging weapons met my ears but none of them reached us. I floated in and out of consciousness until we drove into the familiar surroundings of the Genesis’ cargo bay.
“Get us out of here,” Calliope ordered.
“Hey, I’m not dead yet,” I said thickly. “Still my ship.”
I didn’t catch if they responded because everything went black.
A light burned brightly above me, and I raised an arm to shield my eyes. Tried to, anyway.
The resultant agony reminded me that I’d been shot. Twice.
“You’re not in any shape to be moving,” a voice said from the medbay door.
For a single exultant second, I thought it was Farah. That she had somehow returned, even though it was impossible. My hope was dashed when Calliope pushed the light out of the way and peered down at me.
“What’s going on?” I asked woozily.
“We made it off Tulkin,” she said dryly. “Barely. You almost didn’t.”
She must have dragged me to the medbay.
Bits and pieces of our escape flashed through my memory and I grimaced. “I remember that. Where are we now?”
“Headed to Neblinar. It’s the closest friendly planet. We’re down a fair amount of supplies from your valiant attempt to die on me.” She tried for a sardonic smile, but it didn’t quite mask the worry in her eyes.
Shit, I thought, struggling to focus. “How bad is it?”
“The arm was through and through. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, the hit you took to the side wasn’t as clean. The bullet fractured a rib and shattered on impact. I tried my best to remove the shards, but I’m no medic,” she said apologetically.
“It’s okay, you did good,” I assured her. “I assume there’s more from the look on your face?”
The girl nodded. “You needed a transfusion. Vega talked me through it… It’s just, we used all of it. When you started bleeding again, I didn’t have anything to replace it with.”
Speaking of the AI, she chimed in next. “Captain, with your current injuries, the chances of your making it to Neblinar still breathing are low.”
“How low?” I mumbled.
“In the single digits.”
“That sucks a big one,” I joked weakly.
Neither of them laughed.
Tired now, I closed my eyes.
“There is an option that would raise those chances exponentially,” Vega offered.
“Yeah?” I asked, wanting nothing more than to fall back into sleep. “And what would that be?”
“Safe Haven. There is an emergency supply of your blood there, among other things. It is a good deal closer,” she replied.
“How did my blood get there?” I asked incredulously, my eyes popping open at the news.
“Miss Shahi insisted on it as a precaution for events such as this.”
I didn’t have to ask why we weren’t going there already. Mack had ensured that no one could order Vega to go there except me or Farah, for obvious reasons. The programming included a kind of failsafe that would prevent the AI from following that directive if it came from one of us under duress.
This didn’t qualify since no one was forcing me to do it.
The only question that remained was if I trusted Calliope enough to reveal the location.
Opening my eyes, I stared at the girl. Her face was drawn, the set of her eyes serious. Worry etched itself into the lines above her brows, and I nodded. “Do it. Follow emergency protocols,” I ordered.
“Acknowledged. Adjusting course.”
“What are emergency protocols?”
I smiled. “In case something happens on the way there—navigation is coded so no one can get our destination coordinates.”
“That’s pretty smart,” Calliope said. “Especially if you have an ex-Union soldier aboard.”
A trace of hurt echoed in her words and I felt bad. She had just saved my life.
“It’s a precaution,” I told her wearily. “It’s not—”
“Personal,” she finished. “Understood. Do you need or want anything?”
My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in… I didn’t know how long. Despite that, food didn’t even sound good.
“Sleep. It’s about all I can handle right now.”
“Then rest. I’ll let you know when we’re getting close,” she said, turning to head for the door.
“Cal,” I said, stopping her. “Thanks for saving my life.”
Her expression softened and she gave me a curt nod.
Alone again, I let myself sink into blissful oblivion.
11
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Calliope asked, helping me strap into the captain’s chair on the bridge.
Second Genesis hovered above Z-28K’s lower orbit, which sported a ring of debris, slinging around the planet in a never-ending space rock race.
“Of course,” I said through clenched teeth.
I wasn’t. Not that we had much choice at the moment. Calliope wouldn’t be able to get through the security measures Mack had installed without me.
“Sorry,” she said when the harness pulled at my wound.
“It’s fine,” I gasped. “Just try not to hit any of that debris, if you don’t mind.”
“I told you, I got top marks in maneuverability,” the girl said, more than a little smug.
I grunted.
The slick Union ship had already proved itself fast and agile enough to navigate the mess on my previous trips with Farah, so I’d decided not to bother with a shuttle.
Calliope’s hands were steady on the controls as she entered the debris field. Vega made things easier by supplying a scan with the best path for us to take.
As a safety measure, the shields were up to prevent any unexpected impacts. Much to my relief, we didn’t need them. Over the next half hour, true to her word, Calliope directed the Genesis through the asteroid fragments without issue.
With an adjustment here, acceleration to avoid a rock the size of the ship there.
A ping from the display showed a shuttle sized piece on a collision course with us.
“Incoming,” I warned.
“Don’t distract me,” Calliope snapped.
I bit back the reply on my tongue and let her work.
She rolled us gently to one side, then brought the ship level again once the minor danger had passed. I was more than a little impressed at how deftly she handled incidents like that.
A few more came our way and I gripped the harness thinking we might join the rest of the ring as a piece of wreckage, but it never happened.
Without so much as a scratch, Calliope guided us through until we were out of it and set down on a landing pad outside one of the two mammoth domes.
“You’ll have to take us in,” I told her, pointing to the open cavern we’d converted into a hangar. “There used to be a whole colony here. Someone created a network to detect when a part of the field fell out of orbit, but they’re long gone. “
“Like a weather prediction?”
I nodded. “Exactly, but for falling rocks. It’s best not to leave the ship out in the open.”
That small movement took great effort and I struggled to keep my head upright.
“You look gray,” Calliope said, her eyes narrowing with concern when she got a look at my face.
“I’ll be fine. Give me a hand with this and we can get down there.” I motioned at the harness with my good hand, though it pained me to ask.
Vulnerability was not a usual state for me and I didn’t like it one bit. None of the injuries I’d sustained had ever put me out of commission quite like this. Deciding to bite the bullet, I put all thoughts of irritation out of my head and let her help me through th
e ship and into the makeshift hangar.
Originally a cavern, the mining colony had already installed landing pads before we arrived. Entrances to myriad tunnels led deep into the mountain, or to different parts of the dome.
We’d explored a few, ultimately realizing the network of passages wouldn’t suit our needs. For convenience sake, we stored everything on one side. The amount of empty containers far outnumbered the occupied ones. Farah and I had only just begun our foray into this life. Still, it was always good to be prepared.
“Over there,” I said, pointing to the small storage collection we’d built up. “Thank gods Farah is organized. V gave me the unit number she used.”
I recited it for Calliope, and she scanned each bio coded container as we passed, moving slow.
“Found it,” she announced, stopping in front of a shorter stack.
It was good she had because it had become a battle of epic proportions to get one foot in front of the other.
The lock lit green after scanning my thumb and the temp regulated unit popped open, revealing the packages of blood within. The intravenous port was still in my arm, ready for another influx of my blood, and I settled to the ground ungracefully while Calliope got things in order.
She pulled an air activated heat sleeve from her pack and slipped the cold blood inside.
I wasn’t exactly fading fast, headed for another blackout, but I had my doubts about whether my body would obey me for a return trip to the ship.
When Calliope crouched down in front of me, she didn’t ask if I was ready. She picked up my limp arm and inserted the needle into the port with one smooth movement.
“Vega, the captain is receiving the transfusion now. Are her vitals stabilizing?”
“Yes,” the AI answered.
Was that relief I detected? No, just the fog I was dealing with right now.
Even as she said it, I could feel it. Like a magic serum from long forgotten fairy tales, my strength grew with each passing minute.
“Your color’s returning,” Calliope said with a grin. “Not gonna lie, Cap, I was worried for a second there.”
“Me too,” I admitted. “Maybe not 100 percent, but leagues better than ten minutes ago.”