This was the kind of thing he understood.
Eyes cold and jaw set in grim determination, he stalked past one door after another without opening any to conduct a search. Thanks to sensor scans relayed from the bridge, he knew exactly where to find the Vox and was already envisioning a plan of attack.
The Vox fugitive was holed up in the one place Martin considered sacred on the entire ship. Though he had ordered a lockdown on F Deck as soon as Doctor Plog had reported an intruder alert, the Vox had still managed to get into the room before all the doors were sealed.
It was as if the creature was trying to rub Martin's nose in his failure by taking refuge in the heart of his world.
When he got there, Martin disengaged the security seal on the door. He took a moment to check his weapon's readiness, and then he keyed in the entry code on the wall panel.
The door to the armory smoothly slid open before him.
As soon as he stepped inside and the door had closed behind him, he heard the telltale whine of an emanator pistol. He ducked down behind a work table just as the first blast from the pistol lanced across the room.
Raising his head just enough to peer over the table, Martin quickly surveyed the area. To his relief, the weapons lockers were all still sealed; ironically, the creature was surrounded by weapons and munitions but had only managed to arm itself with a single emanator pistol.
The Vox must have obtained the gun from Ensign Grushecki, the security officer who was serving as its hostage. Martin guessed that Grushecki had been ambushed on his way into or out of the armory, which was how the Vox must have gained access to the secure area.
The creature was now hunkered behind the far torpedo launch bay. A torpedo rested in the rack, providing cover, and the Vox had propped up the unconscious hostage to use as a human shield.
It might have seemed like a defensible position…but Martin knew better. This room was his turf, more of a home to him than his own quarters.
The Vox didn't stand a chance.
Alerted by the emanator pistol's whine, Martin ducked down just as a shot flashed over his head. Instead of immediately returning fire, he waited a moment and prepared to make his move.
Adjusting his pistol to its lowest setting, he turned and took aim at a console on the other side of the room, behind the Vox. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the firing stud and launched a beam of energy at the console.
The console exploded in a shower of crackling sparks. Peeping over the work table, Martin saw the Vox turn its head in reaction to the blast.
While the creature was still distracted, Martin ran to a nearby console. Staying low, he punched a button on the board…then dropped to the floor and rolled behind the other launch rack.
He peered over the torpedo in the rack alongside him just in time to see the torpedo in the other rack slide away from the Vox and into the firing tube.
Without the torpedo in front of it, the creature was momentarily exposed. Only the rack and the hostage still provided it with cover…and the Vox was startled enough by the explosion and torpedo launch that it let the human shield drift to one side.
Martin had a clean shot at the Vox's head and upper body, and he took it. Swinging up his emanator pistol, he fired a single blast, striking the Vox's chest and shoulder.
The creature screamed and let Grushecki slide away, exposing itself further. Martin fired again.
As the Vox dropped backward, howling in pain, it fired a wild shot with its weapon, blowing out an overhead light fixture. As sparks rained down from above, Martin leaped up and vaulted over the torpedo in the nearest rack, then propelled himself headfirst over the second rack.
The Vox hit the floor hard, slammed down by the full weight of the Exogenesis's armory officer. With swift precision, Martin disarmed the creature, then swept his own emanator pistol across the Vox's head.
It might have been an unnecessary blow, for the Vox already seemed to have gone limp…but Martin wasn't worried about it. Though it wasn't his style to use undue force, it also wasn't his style to go easy on intruders who murdered his shipmates.
With the Vox rendered unconscious, Martin scrambled to check on Grushecki…and was relieved to find a pulse. At least another life had not been cut short because of his carelessness.
How tragic that that was the best he could say about his accomplishments that day.
Jumping to his feet, Martin hurried to the comm panel on the wall and called medlab. For an instant, he was surprised when someone other than Plog answered…until he remembered what had happened to the doctor.
"Medical team to the armory," he said to the nurse. "Ensign Grushecki has been injured."
When the nurse acknowledged the order, Martin switched off the comm and marched over to the unmoving intruder. For a moment, he stared down at the fur-covered alien, wondering how it had managed to cause so much chaos given the severity of the burns on its body.
Then, he bent down and grabbed one of the Vox's ankles. He dragged the creature across the floor and out of the room, right past the medical team…hauling the Vox by its ankle the same way the creatures on the planet had dragged off Mariko and the others in the news feed.
"No pets allowed in the armory," he muttered, heading for the univator. "Let's put you in a nice cage where you belong."
*****
Chapter Twenty-Five
As the crowd of Vox beat him in his cell, Swift reached a point where he gave up hope.
It happened after Altis and Uvo had taken their turns with him, each subjecting him to multiple blows and gouges. Stumbling into the clutches of another set of tormentors, he wiped the blood from his eyes with the back of his arm.
When he looked up, he saw Lyra standing before him with a club in her hands.
The expression on her face was a furious, merciless glare. Her eyes were wild, conveying the impression that she was lost in bloodlust.
Stepping forward, she raised the edge of the club alongside his face, then turned his head with it. She tipped her own head forward…and he felt her teeth press against his throat.
It was at that moment, when he fully expected the fangs of his betrayer to sink into his neck with murderous finality, that Joshua Swift gave up hope.
He realized that he had been wrong to trust Lyra. She had engineered his death instead of his rescue…effectively dooming the rest of the away team and the entire planet in the process.
Swift squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath, waiting for the first pinch as the fangs pierced his flesh.
Instead, he felt the long, slow stroke of her tongue.
As she licked him, his eyes snapped open. At first, he wasn't sure if she was demonstrating friendly intentions or having a first taste of dinner.
Then, she whispered in his ear.
"Lyra help Swift," she said, grabbing his hand.
Following her gaze, he looked toward the open window-wall…and realized that he was less than a meter from it. Handed off from one group of Vox to another, he had moved across his cell through the crowd, each beating propelling him closer to the way out.
Placing a hand on his back, Lyra pushed him toward the exit, but he resisted. "Where's Zeke?" he said, looking back to search the cell for his best friend.
"Zeke is good," said Lyra, pushing harder. "Lyra help Swift."
Zeke was still nowhere in sight, but Lyra was insistent. She made him duck down and shoved him between the last few Vox at the edge of the gap.
At the brink, Swift held back for an instant before letting her push him through. He hated to leave without seeing Zeke's evacuation with his own eyes…but he knew time was terribly short. It wouldn't take long for the guards to realize they were gone and come after them.
Ultimately, despite lingering doubts, he decided to follow his original instinct and trust her. It was either that or rot in the cell.
When the two of them had crossed the threshold, Lyra turned and emitted a shrill whistle that cut through the racket. Then, she bolted d
own the street, pulling Swift along at a dead run.
At her signal, the crowd of Vox ceased their mayhem and charged out of the cell, pouring through the open gallery into the street. One of the guards caught on and triggered the closing mechanism, but no one in Lyra's group was left inside when the window-wall slid shut.
The whole crew barreled down the street, hot on the heels of Lyra and Swift. In contrast to the noise they had generated earlier, the only peep out of anyone was the sound of panting and running feet smacking the polymer pavement.
Behind them, Swift heard the cries of guards in pursuit, distant enough that they were not an immediate threat. He envisioned other teams heading off the escapees once word got out, though; he would have liked to ask Lyra if her plan addressed his long-term survival or just covered the Zeke from the cell to the street.
Since he didn't speak her language, and she spoke no more than a few words of his, there was no easy way to ask the question. Trusting her was the only thing he had time for right now.
Still gripping his hand, she led him around one corner after another, winding through a maze of streets and alleys. Each time they turned a corner, part of the group behind them sheared away, giving the pack of guards multiple targets that they had to split up to pursue.
As the number of running footsteps behind him diminished, Swift finally turned and had a good look at the remaining group. Of the thirty or forty Vox who had fled the cell block, ten still followed Lyra…few enough that Swift finally caught sight of Zeke among them. Altis and Uvo carried the engineer while they ran, one at his head and one at his feet.
Lyra led the group through several more twists and turns…then whistled again. Peeking over his shoulder, Swift saw most of the group change direction at the signal, heading back the way they'd come…straight toward their pursuers. He guessed it was a sacrificial diversion to allow the rest of them to get to safety, wherever that might be.
Lyra raced around a few more corners, then dragged him toward a cubical building at the terminus of a dead-end street. As they approached the structure, Swift could see Vox milling in rooms on each of four floors; some looked back at him while others didn't seem to notice his group at all.
Finally releasing his hand, Lyra hurtled ahead to the front door and opened it. She shouted a few words inside, then helped Altis and Uvo carry Zeke through the doorway.
Once Swift had hurried through behind them, she closed the door and squeezed past him, chattering to Altis and Uvo. The two toted Zeke down a short hallway, turned right…and did something that should have been impossible in the transparent building.
They disappeared around the corner.
Swift blinked. All around him, the walls were constructed of the same transparent polymer as those of his cell. He could look in any direction and see into the next room…and as he stared at the corner Altis and Uvo had turned, it seemed that he could look through it, as well. He saw the angle where the two walls joined and the room on the far side, complete with Vox occupants.
But no Altis, Uvo, or Zeke.
Frowning, he stepped to the corner and peered around it. The view from there was much different than what he had seen through the wall a few steps back.
Around the corner, he saw Altis, Uvo, and Zeke in a small room with a few pieces of furniture…a different room than the one he had glimpsed through the transparent wall.
Puzzled, Swift stepped back to his original vantage point and had another look through the walls. As before, he saw a room with a few Vox inside…but when he moved forward and looked in the space where they should have been, he saw only Altis, Uvo, and Zeke.
Fascinated, he leaned close to the wall and squinted at the polymer surface, trying to figure out how the trick had been accomplished. Somehow, the designers must have incorporated mirrors, lenses, or prisms into the walls…though he could see no sign of them in the uniform smoothness of the polymer.
Shaking his head, he walked back around the corner for another look…only to have Lyra grab him by the elbow and haul him into the room. She darted out herself and closed the door, shooting him a quick smile on the way.
With the door shut, he realized, he had some privacy for the first time in many hours. Thanks to the clever design of the chamber, he could look through the walls at the Vox going about their business in surrounding rooms, but they could not look in at him.
The same was true for the Vox guards who appeared in the street below. As he watched, three of them ran down the dead end, looking up at the surrounding buildings; they stopped in front of the very building in which he was hidden and lingered there, searching its contents through the see-through walls.
At one point, Swift could have sworn that one of them looked right at him. The creature cocked its head, hesitating long enough to make the hair stand up on the back of Swift's neck.
And then it looked away. The three chattered among themselves for a moment, then marched out of the dead end and onto another street.
Swift released the breath he'd been holding and turned to the others. Altis and Uvo were both standing behind him, and he realized they'd been watching through the window, too.
Drawing the back of his hand across his forehead, he pretended to wipe away sweat. "Wow," he said, smiling. "Too close for comfort."
Altis copied the gesture. "Wow," he said.
The Vox looked comically awkward, and Swift's smile widened. "Thank you," said Swift, clapping Altis' shoulder. "Thank you for helping Zeke."
"Thank you," said Uvo, clapping Swift's shoulder in turn.
Then, the door opened and Lyra hurried in with another Vox in tow. Without pausing to exchange greetings, the newcomer headed straight for the cot where Zeke lay.
Depositing his case on a nearby table, the white-furred Vox bent over Turner and began to examine him.
"Tesla help Zeke," said Lyra.
Swift nodded. "Thank you," he said. Though he secretly worried that the Vox doctor might do more harm than good, he decided to let him work a while with Zeke. If the Vox's treatment veered into radical procedures, he would intervene…but until then, he would take the chance that the doctor's care could benefit his friend.
Taking Swift's hand, Lyra led him to a chair. At first, he felt compelled to stay on his feet, to remain in crisis mode…but he finally relented and lowered himself to the seat.
Lyra, Altis, and Uvo sat on the floor around him, gazing up at him attentively. He looked at each of them in turn, feeling grateful beyond words for their kindness on this terrible day…and feeling a little ashamed because he wanted so badly to be away from them and back onboard his ship.
He leaned forward, folding his hands between his knees, and smiled because he knew how much work lay ahead. He was sure he would have a lot of explaining and gesturing to do when he made his next request.
"Anyone got a radio?" he said.
The three young Vox stared at each other in puzzlement, then looked back at him all at once. Even the doctor shot him a glance.
Swift sighed. For the umpteenth time that day, he wished that Mariko were around.
*****
Part Two: Mazeesh
Chapter Twenty-Six
As J'Tull strode across the desert sands of Hephaestus, a most peculiar sound disturbed her contemplation.
As she was miles from civilization and carried no technology, the persistent beeping was utterly out of place. Equally puzzling was the fact that it followed her as she walked, always seemingly nearby though she continued to move.
Stopping, she looked around but could not determine its source. The red desert plain stretched out for miles in all directions, uninterrupted but for the distant peak of Mount Seleya. The copper sky above held nothing but the giant, blinding sun and a few flimsy wisps of cloud.
Cocking her head, she listened intently, attempting to further determine the nature of the signal. The longer she focused on it, the more familiar it seemed.
It continued as she scaled the rugged face of Mount Seleya.
The beeping sounded as if it were right behind her, but she saw nothing when she looked over her shoulder.
Hand over hand, she climbed the broiling mountain, her exertions hindered by the continuous distraction. She was annoyed but struggled onward, convinced that serene silence would return in the temple at the summit.
When she finally hauled herself up onto the summit, however, she found anything but silence…though she did find understanding.
The beeping was louder than ever there, almost deafening…but it was no longer out of place. Somehow, the bridge of the star cruiser Exogenesis was now located atop Seleya, and she stood at the center of it.
At that moment, she realized that she was dreaming.
Closing her eyes, she recited the dream-breaking mantra. When she awoke, the Hephaestan chant was still on her lips.
Opening her eyes, she did not at first recognize her surroundings…but awareness did not elude her for long. As she rolled onto her side and sat up, she remembered how she had come to be inside the podcraft, though she could not recall having fallen asleep on the floor.
Looking up at the communications control panel, she saw a light blinking in concert with the beeping signal that had drawn her from the dream.
Rising, she went to the panel and responded to the signal. Now that she was awake and knew what it was, she thought it was the most harmonious sound she had heard all day.
Exogenesis was calling.
Opening a channel, she spoke into the audio pickup. It took a little Hephaestan discipline to keep the relief from her voice and maintain a standard monotone.
"J'Tull here," she said evenly.
Lieutenant Simon made no effort whatsoever to disguise his own relief. "Subcommander!" he said. "Thank heavens you're all right!"
Though her left hand was shattered, her left foot had been bitten through, her body was a mass of cuts and bruises, and every muscle ached, she let the statement pass without remark.
"We picked you up on sensors when you boarded the shuttle," said Simon. "We've been calling for quite some time."
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