Without any argument Jerad picked up the M12 and hooked the sling around Trinity’s neck. Then he picked her up in his arms and began running down the next stairs.
“I said help me, not carry me,” Trinity protested. She had a fleeting thought that she was glad no other wizard scouts were around to see her being carried.
“Shut up, Trinity,” said Jerad. “For once in your life, just shut up and let me help you. Everyone needs a little help now and then, even you.”
Trinity bit her tongue. It was tough holding back her rising temper, but somehow she succeeded in keeping her retort from hitting air. In spite of her pain and embarrassment, she had to admit they were making better time than they would if she tried to walk. She sensed her self-heal working overtime trying to replace her missing hand, but the loss of blood was taking its toll. She knew she was still very weak. Even so, she stewed at the idea of being carried. She didn’t like owing anything to anyone.
“Hmm,” said Jennifer. “To the best of my memory, which is very good since I’m a computer, that’s the first time you’ve ever let anyone get away with telling you to shut up.”
“Oh…, just shut up,” Trinity said more irritated with herself for letting the security-bot catch her by surprise than she was with either Jerad or her battle computer.
By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, Trinity’s arm, back, and legs were healed enough to allow her to walk. Her side still hurt where her ribs had been broken, but at least she could breathe without it feeling like someone was stabbing her with a knife at each breath.
“One of your lungs is still punctured, but your ribs are healing nicely,” said Jennifer. “The bleeding in your arm has stopped, but it will be another two minutes before your self-heal completely replaces your hand. You’re down to five percent Power. If you don’t stop wasting your Power, you won’t be able to self-heal.”
Trinity didn’t think using Power to save her life was wasting it, but she didn’t tell her battle computer that. Instead, she forced her way out of Jerad’s arms.
“Let go,” Trinity said. “I can walk now. You’re going to need your hands free to fire your weapon. This battle’s far from over.”
In spite of her protests to the contrary, Trinity was forced to lean against the shoulder of Jerad’s armor for support as they continued making their way down the final stairs and corridor leading to the engine room. Even though she leaned on Jerad, she hated being dependent on the man. At the same time, she knew she’d lost a lot of blood and needed at least a little help.
“What’s taking so long for my self-heal?” Trinity asked her battle computer. “I’ve had worse wounds, and they’ve healed a whole lot quicker.”
“Not with only three percent Power in your reserve they didn’t, wizard scout,” replied Jennifer. “I calculate you’ll be at less than two percent before your hand and lungs are returned to ninety percent efficiency. Assuming you’re still alive, it will take another eight hours for your hand to completely reform.”
As they drew closer to the engine room, Trinity began sensing an alien form of energy.
“Something’s strange in the air,” Jerad said cocking his head to the side. “What is it?”
“You can sense it?” Trinity asked. She’d known the major had a Power reserve, but she was surprised he could sense the strange energy without having diviner training.
“I sense something up ahead there,” Jerad said pointing ahead. “What is it?”
Trinity shrugged her shoulders. “I’m picking up the same energy frequency I sensed from the gem sliver. I’ve got a feeling the monsignors’ Hallowed Gem is in the engine room. We’ll know for sure soon enough.”
Jerad started to say something, but he shoved Trinity to the side before he uttered a single first word. Raising his M63, he fired off a nearly solid stream of plasma rounds in the direction of the engine room.
Even as she was being tossed to the side, Trinity sensed a score of life forms charging down the hall. Plasma rounds seemed to fill the air in both directions. Several rounds from the charging Carsoloians hit Jerad in his chest armor knocking him back and down onto the deck.
Trinity grabbed at the modified M12 hanging from her neck with her right hand. Her hand was only partially reformed, but enough of her trigger finger was there to fire the grenade launcher. The 20mm round exited the tube and struck one of the lead soldiers. The explosion knocked the front rank of Carsoloians into the charging companions behind them. Several of the following soldiers fell to the deck in a tangle of orange, fur-covered limbs.
Chambering a fresh round into the grenade launcher, Trinity fired again. She continued firing until no more 20mm rounds remained in the grenade launcher. Switching tactics, she pulled the trigger on the M12’s plasma rifle. Holding the trigger down, she sprayed the corridor until the weapon’s isotopic battery was empty. By the time the last of the four hundred plasma rounds made their way down the corridor, nothing moved at the other end of the hall. Pulling her last antipersonnel grenade off the front of her utility belt, Trinity threw it down the hall for good measure.
Boom!
Even before the smoke cleared, Trinity was at Jerad’s side. His visor was cracked. A score of blackened spots from plasma-round hits dotted the front of his power-armor.
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” Jerad said sounding a little weak. “All of my hydraulics is offline. I can’t move this blasted suit. Can you help me get it off?”
Setting her phase rod to the side, Trinity used both hands to undo the latches on the chest armor as she ripped it off the major. It didn’t even register to her that her right hand was mostly functional again.
As soon as his front chest plate was off, Jerad squirmed out of the rest of his armor and tossed his helmet to the side. “Can’t see out of the blasted thing now anyway,” Jerad said. “One of those guys hit me square between the eyes with a plasma round. He must’ve had a low-energy handgun because the visor held. Thankfully, I’m still here and he’s not.”
Trinity looked at Jerad giving a half smile. “I guess you’re almost as lucky as a wizard scout. I must be rubbing off on you.”
Jerad grimaced as much as smiled back. “I could think of worse things.” He looked around for a second. When he spotted his plasma rifle on the deck, he stood before starting to bend back down to pick the M63 up. He groaned before completing the maneuver and straightened up looking embarrassed. “Do you mind handing me my rifle? I’m afraid my chest is a little too bruised to bend over right now.”
Trinity grabbed the rifle off the floor and tossed it to Jerad. He caught it readily enough. While he replaced the weapon’s isotopic battery, Trinity reloaded her M12. She only had three 20mm grenades left. She had a bad feeling they weren’t going to be enough. After fetching her phase rod, Trinity pointed at the doors to the engine room.
“Shall we?” she said. “If they make their hyper-jump before we can get the monsignors’ gem, we may find ourselves in the middle of the entire Carsoloian fleet. I think it’s now or never time, Major.”
Jerad nodded his head and smiled. This time his smile was more of a smile than a grimace. “I’ll say this for you, Trinity. Life’s never dull when I’m around you.”
Whether due to adrenaline or something else, Trinity laughed. “You’ve got no idea, Jerad. This is one of my slow days. You ought to see me when I’m really having an exciting time.”
Jerad moved toward the engine room stepping in front of Trinity. “I should lead.”
Grabbing the man’s shoulder Trinity spun him around to face her. “Why? Because I’m a woman, and you’re the big strong man?”
“Uh… no, uh… I mean…”
Trinity jabbed the major in the chest with the index finger of her left hand. Jerad winced and took a step back.
“Neither of us have armor,” Trinity said a little heatedly. “I can self-heal. You can’t. So stay out of my way, Major, or I swear I’ll shoot you myself.”
Jerad’s face turned
a little red, but to his credit, he didn’t try to retake the lead.
“Jennifer,” Trinity told her battle computer using command voice. “Open that door, and you’d better not give me any crap about how you can’t hack into it.”
Without waiting for a reply, Trinity took off at a dead run for the engine room’s door. When she was three steps away, the black door slid open. Trinity rushed through the entrance right into the arms of a three-meter tall security-bot.
This time Trinity was ready. Shoving upward with her phase rod, she caught the security-bot under its human-like chin. Flashes of phase energy spurted out of the bot’s eyes followed by a large amount of smoke.
Summersaulting over the falling bot’s shoulder, Trinity caught a charging Carsoloian wearing power-armor in the chest with her foot. When her kick failed to stop the soldier’s charge, she followed it up with a phase rod thrust to the soldier’s visor. The hardened glass of his helmet gave way to the rod’s phase energy as the rod’s tip penetrated through the visor and into the head beyond.
Spinning to the side, Trinity swept the room with plasma rounds from her M12. Additional rounds of plasma energy from Jerad’s M63 passed within centimeters of her head. In less than six seconds, only two life forms were left alive in the room; Jerad and her.
Rushing over to the door leading into the hyper-drive’s control room, Jerad banged his fist against the clear security door. “It’s locked. How do we get in?”
“I don’t think we need to,” Trinity said pointing to a control console located at the far side of the room they were in. A glowing blue gem the size of her head was positioned in a slot at the top of the console. “I believe that’s what we came for.” Rushing to the console, Trinity grabbed for the gem with her right hand. A reddish barrier immediately sprouted up around the gem dissolving part of her right hand and fingers.
“Arrgh!” Trinity screamed.
“Force field,” said Jennifer matter-of-factly. “I highly recommend you don’t touch it. I calculate you should’ve discussed your plan with me first before you tried grabbing the gem.”
Clutching her right hand to her side, Trinity yelled, “Are you friggin’ kidding me? I just got the blasted thing healed.”
Moving beside her, Jerad said, “Give me your phase rod.” He used a tone that demanded obedience.
Handling him the phase rod with her left hand, Trinity watched him grip it in both hands and begin beating on the force field with all his might. Sparks of phase energy flew in all directions. Trinity smelled singed hair and saw tendrils of smoke coming off Jerad’s head, but he kept swinging.
Boom!
Jerad was flung backwards covered in a dissipating red glow. Trinity reached out with her left hand and snatched the blue gem from its resting spot. This time no force field sprouted up to stop her. However, as soon as she touched the gem, blue energy swept over her knocking her onto the floor near Jerad. The gem’s energy felt as if it permeated every part of her body.
“Hmm,” said Jennifer. “You didn’t talk it over with me again. There could’ve been a backup protective shield for all you knew. I calculate you got lucky this time. The gem’s energy doesn’t seem to have affected you, but I calculate there could be side effects in the future.”
Ignoring her battle computer, Trinity rolled over next to Jerad and rose to one knee. The man’s eyes were open, but they had a glazed look to them. A few tendrils of smoke continued to drift off parts of his singed hair.
“Are you okay?” Trinity asked trying not to sound too concerned.
Jerad’s eyes cleared a little giving off a little twinkle. He flashed a tight-lipped smile at her. “Do I look okay?”
“No,” Trinity answered honestly.
“There you go,” replied Jerad as he sat up. He seemed to look closer at her face. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
Trinity unconsciously raised her left hand to her face. “What do you meant? They’re fine.”
Jerad shook his head. “They’re blue now. I may not be all that observant sometimes, but they used to be brown, and even I’d have noticed if they’d glowed before.”
“Jennifer?” asked Trinity in their shared space. “What’s he talking about?”
“I told you there might be side effects,” said Jennifer. “However, based upon the battle helmet’s sensory readouts, I detect no obvious problems with your eyesight. I’d recommend forgetting about it for now and dealing with the problems at hand.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Trinity told Jerad. “I’m fine.”
Jerad didn’t look entirely convinced, but he seemed to take her at her word and nodded at the gem in her left hand. “Well, we’ve got it. The question now is what do we do with it? The Carsoloians are bound to be organizing a counterattack. If we’re caught in here, we’ll be killed, and they’ll get the gem back.”
“Do you have any suggestions, Jennifer?” Trinity asked out loud for the major’s benefit.
“The control panel for the stealth shield the gem was hooked to is still connected to the ship’s main energy generator,” replied Jennifer using the battle helmet’s external speakers. “If you could set off an explosive in the console, I calculate a forty-one percent probability it would cause a backflow of energy and overload the ship’s ion generator. If you’re lucky, which wizard scouts normally are, the hyper-drive will explode. There won’t be enough left of this ship to fill a pactar’s brain pan.”
Trinity looked at Jerad. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any explosives?”
Jerad shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t plan on doing any demo. I used the last of my grenades upstairs.”
Trinity glanced at the M12 hanging from her neck. “I’ve got three of my 20mm grenades left. Will they cause enough of an explosion to start a chain reaction?”
“Possibly,” said Jennifer. “The only flaw in your plan is that someone will need to stay and fire them into the console. Who’s going to do that? I’d volunteer, but I don’t have any hands.”
“I’ll stay,” said Jerad. “I noticed an escape pod near the stairs. I’ll give you a minute to get away with the gem then I’ll fire the rounds. If you hurry, you should be clear of the ship by the time it explodes.”
“Oh, you’ll do that, will you?” Trinity said. “You know, I really am going to shoot you if you keep insisting on trying to be the overprotective male. Our relationship isn’t going anywhere if you don’t change your ways.”
Jerad remained silent for a second. He looked deep into Trinity’s eyes. “Do we have a relationship?”
“What do you think?” Trinity asked.
“I don’t kn—” began Jerad.
“Enough with the touchy-feely stuff already,” said Jennifer. “I still have enough of a hack in the ship’s computer to intercept their intercom communications. The Carsoloians’ counterattack is on its way, and they’re bringing a dozen security-bots with them this time.
Trinity shoved the monsignors’ gem into Jerad’s free hand. “Take it. Get to the pod. I’ll fire the M12. I can self-heal. I’ve got the best chance.”
“No,” said Jerad. “You’re right hand isn’t even healed yet. I’ve got the best chance.”
“Creator help me,” said Jennifer sounding frustrated. “Do I have to do all the thinking? You can use the phase rod’s isotopic battery to set the 20mm grenades off. Hell, the explosion of the battery will probably be enough by itself to overload the system.”
Trinity was a little shocked. “Jennifer; you cursed.”
“Well, what of it?” snapped Jennifer. “The two of you are enough to drive any battle computer to an emotional outburst every once in a while.”
“What’s that she’s saying about the isotopic battery?” asked Jerad. “Will it work?”
Trinity didn’t take time to explain. She deactivated her phase rod and upended it. When she reached for the butt of the handle to unscrew it, she winced with pain. She pulled her right hand back leaving a bloody mess on the phase rod’s hand
le. She shoved the phase rod at Jerad. “Unscrew the butt and remove the isotopic battery.”
Without waiting to see whether he followed her commands, Trinity ejected the three remaining 20mm grenades from the M12’s launcher catching them in what was left of her right hand. Hurrying over to the stealth shield’s control console, she placed them in a convenient spot next to where the Hallowed Gem had been stored.
“I calculate that should do it,” said Jennifer still speaking out loud.
Jerad ran over holding out the isotopic battery. “Now what?”
“Break the battery in half and set it next to the grenades,” Trinity ordered. “Then run like there’s no tomorrow, because if you don’t, there won’t be. When a phase rod’s isotopic battery is cracked, it starts to go into overload. When it reaches critical mass, the explosion will have the energy of a kilo stick of J22 plastic explosive.”
Jerad whistled as he broke the battery in half and placed it near the 20mm grenades. As soon as he did, Trinity took off running for the corridor and the stairs. She sensed Jerad hot on her heels.
“Open the door to the escape pod,” Trinity told her battle computer using command voice. “I don’t think we’ve got time to lose.”
“Compliance.”
Trinity dove into the opening. Spinning around, she saw Jerad diving in behind her. She noticed several streams of plasma rounds passing by the opening. They barely missed the major’s legs as he pulled them inside.
“Launch!” Trinity mentally shouted.
The door to the escape pod slammed shut. Both Jerad and Trinity were thrown back into the closed door as the pod launched. They immediately bounced back to the opposite wall before hitting the deck. The pod was small containing only four seats. Trinity pulled herself into one and buckled in while Jerad strapped himself into another.
“Their gunners are bound to start shooting at an unauthorized launch,” said Jerad. “It wouldn’t take an astral physicist to—”
The pod was suddenly thrown to one side. The inside lights flickered and went out. The artificial gravity cutoff as well, but since the major and she were already strapped into their chairs, Trinity didn’t care.
Trinity Unleashed (Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Book 1) Page 19