Vallar

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Vallar Page 4

by Cindy Borgne


  “Sorry, sir,” said the humbled voice. “Sorry for the delay. You may proceed.”

  “No problem, keep up the good work.” I accelerated away from the patrol craft to avoid any further conversation.

  Nate chuckled. “That was too smooth.” He put his feet up on the console. “So how do you plan to warn the fleet?”

  “Before they get within range of the mine, I’m going to radio them to evacuate the transports. I’ll give them my elite ID number, so they should listen to me.”

  Nate shuddered with a smirk. “Beacon’s going to raise hell when he finds out we came out here.”

  “What can he do? He needs us, and you know our psychic abilities don’t work too well if we’re not happy. Beacon will just have to deal with it.”

  Chapter 5

  Endless miles of flat, rock-strewn land stretched out before us. My hovercraft responded instantly to any adjustment I made on the control stick, yet every squeak from the hull or odd vibration from the engine made me uneasy. The gauges indicated plenty of fuel and oxygen.

  My upgraded radar system had the same range as the military models. This made it possible for us to stay out of scanning range of the fleet. I pulled at the stiff collar of the envirosuit, wishing I could take it off. At least Nate agreed we didn’t need the helmets on yet.

  Nate leaned back. “This is kind of fun.”

  “Remember when we used to go dune buggy riding?” I asked.

  Nate laughed. “I’ll have to fix the buggy so we can go again.”

  His comment surprised me. “That would be great.”

  It was nice to have a conversation with Nate without his com buzzing every two seconds. But how I would find Kayla during a battle, I didn’t know. I just knew I had to be there.

  Nate stirred uneasily in his chair. He sat up straight and peered out the front port. “I sense tension up ahead.”

  I slowed the craft down and let the vessel drift. One by one, friendly blue blips popped up on the radar, all with Marscorp signatures. “We’ve caught up to the fleet.” I pulled back on the control stick and hovered low to the ground.

  Nate leaned over the radar. “They must’ve stopped.”

  A couple of red dots representing foreign vessels appeared on the radar.

  “Uh oh,” I mumbled.

  “Enemy vessels out here?” Nate squirmed and straightened himself.

  We snatched our helmets off the floor and latched them into place. Marc blips greatly outnumbered the enemy-red dots as they swarmed all over the radar screen. One red dot disappeared. Outside, the sun glared off the rusty surface. Far ahead, a cloud of dust rose up.

  Static blasted over the radio, but gradually I managed to tune into the voices.

  My wing is hit.

  Aerojet remotes are trying to delay us.

  Take’em out.

  Another red dot vanished from the radar. Nate shivered and rubbed his hands together.

  They’re damn good for remotes.

  Roger that.

  Look out! There’s two more.

  They’ve got them hiding underground somewhere. Find the location.

  Nate and I glanced at each other. In the distance, the plume of dust expanded and rose higher into the atmosphere.

  Nate pushed his visor up. “Underground?” He scanned out the front port. “I hope none of those remotes come after us.”

  The blips bounced all over the radar screen. I didn’t want the fleet to mistake us for a remote. I spun the craft around and accelerated to make sure we were out of scanning range. Dust flowed up around my vessel. Static blasted over the radio again.

  Nate turned the volume down and spoke through his teeth. “A stray remote could come after us. We better go back home.”

  “Oh c’mon. This is nothing. We came out here to save lives. We can’t turn back already.” I adjusted a knob on my long-range monitor, trying to bring in a visual of the fleet far to the north.

  “It could get worse, and we don’t have the training to deal with it,” Nate said as his damp blond bangs stuck to his forehead.

  “We’re not going to get close enough to have to deal with anything.” I took a long drink from my water bottle. “Besides, if we don’t warn them hundreds of soldiers will die. The Genners will be too busy with all the Marscorp vessels to come after one lone hovercraft.” At last I got an image on the long-range monitor of the Marc vessels engaging the Genner remotes, but at this distance it looked like insects flying around.

  “I don’t know,” Nate grumbled and plopped back in his chair. “Why don’t we just warn them now and go home?”

  “Because . . . .” I paused, racing to find a logical reason.

  “Because what?”

  “Because they’ll have time to report us, and we’ll both be punished.”

  “They could report us anyway,” Nate said.

  “No, they won’t get a chance if we wait until they’re closer to the mine. They’ll be too busy with the Genners to report us.”

  “But the timing,” Nate said. “It seems so tricky.”

  “I know the location of the disaster, and I’ll warn them in plenty of time. Once they evacuate the transports, they will most likely still explode. Then, instead of reporting us, they will thank us.”

  “Ian . . . .” Nate sighed. “It’s not a matter of how Beacon will punish us, but when.”

  After a few minutes, I eased the vessel forward to see if the fleet had cleared the remotes. We hovered past the area where the remotes attacked the fleet. Several foreign aerojets were smashed on the ground along with two of our scouters and one smaller midrange. Burn marks marred the metal near the enemy’s jet engines. Some vessels had their wings cut clean off with carbon lasers.

  Nate leaped out of his chair and held up his hand. “Stop!”

  My heart jumped as I pulled up the control stick. “What now?”

  “I sense something heading our way.” Nate stared inwardly and shook his head. He sometimes looked that way while reaching out with his mind.

  I checked the radar. “There’s nothing there.”

  Nate’s hands trembled as he took a sip of water. “Hatred is coming from behind us.”

  His words made my mouth go dry. I adjusted the radar, but it remained clear. “You mean this feeling is coming from a person?”

  “Yes, it’s getting stronger, which means this person is coming closer to us in a vessel.” Nate glanced to the back. “Why doesn’t the computer identify the damn thing?”

  I took a breath to calm my racing heart and tried to convince myself this wasn’t scarier than I had imagined. Did I miss something with the radar upgrade? Nothing came to mind.

  Slowly, I moved the craft forward. “So what do we do now? We’re in between some sort of ghost and the fleet? Maybe we need to report it?”

  “Who would believe me?” Nate sat down, keeping one hand gripped on the chair handle. “We have no proof.”

  “Attention Marscorp fleet,” said a woman’s voice through the static over the radio. “This is Lieutenant Merceir. I’m an assistant diplomat for Gentech.”

  I twisted the dial to get a better signal.

  “The outpost you are about to attack is in unclaimed territory. Despite our differences, we have tried numerous times to discuss peace with your leaders, but they refuse. They want us to give up on what we believe in and join you, which is equal to surrendering. We feel we can help each other reach our goals if only we could set up negotiations.”

  She waited for an answer, but none came.

  “Be aware, Marcs,” Merceir continued, “we will defend this outpost and no longer tolerate the stealing of our resources. I’m saying this out of respect for the people who are about to sacrifice their lives. If you would like to discuss terms, please stand down and contact me.”

  Again the Marcs didn’t answer.

  “She sounds confident,” I said, wishing my vision would’ve revealed not only the explosion of the transport, but how they’d done it.
r />   “She must be bluffing,” Nate said, sounding as if he forced a confident tone. “How can they possibly defend . . . .”

  “Don’t forget what I saw.” I adjusted the oxygen level. “They’re going to try and take out the big transports.” It continued to frustrate me how Beacon ignored my warning. They didn’t even bother responding to the Genners. “Could you tell if she was lying?”

  “Yes, she was easy to read even over the radio. She wasn’t lying.” Nate eyed me like he was trying to read my mind.

  I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing he felt my irritation with Beacon and worry about our situation.

  Nate nudged me. “You seem different, as if something’s come over you.” He hinted that he wanted to have the kind of talks we used to, but those days seemed far away.

  After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, I checked the radar. The blue blips stayed at north edge of the radar. The long range monitor displayed a small enemy building.

  Nate adjusted the wrist thermostat of his suit. “I’ve never sensed this much tension in one place before.”

  “I’m going to warn them now.” I turned to an open frequency, but stopped. A tiny black blip flashed at the bottom corner of the radar. “Hey, there was a blip on the screen with no signature. It blinked on and off a few times.”

  “Where?” Nate leaned over just as it vanished.

  I pounded the edge of the console. “You missed it.”

  We pushed the visors down on our helmets. I replayed the radar history for Nate.

  Nate swallowed hard. “It’s that thing following us.”

  I held my breath and flipped a switch on the radio. “Hello, anyone with the Marscorp fleet. Please respond.” I used the current military frequencies and repeated several times.

  “Uh oh.” Nate glanced behind him. “I can feel it coming toward us.”

  I sped toward the fleet, pushing the engine as fast as possible. The radar still wasn’t picking up the black blip.

  “Marc vessel 667 calling unidentified hovercraft,” said a raspy, deep voice, signaling us. “Please respond.”

  “This is Marc HCC525.” I tried to pilot and watch the radar at the same time. We’re from Marscorp, special-ops division.”

  On the rear monitor, a small black blur appeared right over us. A flash of light filled the screen followed by a jolt. All the lights on the instrument panel flickered. A warning buzzer blared. Lines ran across the rear monitor, and the screen turned to snow.

  “We’re hit!” Nate looked up like he expected the roof to collapse.

  Lights flickered. A monitor displayed an outline of my hovercraft with the upper right section of the hull blinking in red.

  “Sir? Are you there?” I asked, but only a clicking noise came from the radio.

  I searched for a place to hide, spotted one hill not too far away and accelerated for it. The engine reamed with a winding sound. I gripped the control stick so tightly my knuckles had to be white under my gloves.

  “Hurry!” Nate yelled. “It’s coming.”

  The radar screen re-focused. A black blip blinked a couple of times, moving at double our speed. Even with the upgrades to the engines, I had a bad feeling I hadn’t done near enough. Another blast rocked our ship. Needles on the power gauges plunged to zero.

  I pressed the accelerator, but the hum of the engine faded. “Oh no, no!”

  Nate reached over and tried the emergency restart, but it didn’t work. “Do something!”

  “I can’t. It’s dead!” I fought with the controls as the hovercraft descended and came to a bumpy halt on the ground.

  A wave of grit flowed over the vessel. We frantically worked the console controls. Rumbling from outside increased as the enemy neared. I anticipated another blast. Instead, the solid black vessel boldly soared over us and toward the fleet.

  “Phantom One!” I recognized it. “I saw that ship in a vision.”

  “Look at it move,” Nate said.

  The black sphere sped out of view. He could’ve easily dealt us a final blow.

  “Whoever he is, he has technology to deflect Marscorp radar.” Nate’s eyes darted around. “But now what? Didn’t I say to go back? Didn’t I?” Nate raved on, waving his hands.

  “Look, he’s probably the one who takes out the transport.” I fumbled with the radio, but it wasn’t getting any power. “I gotta warn them before it’s too late.”

  “Oh great, great,” Nate whined and fumbled with the controls. “The power’s out and look at the gauge on the oxygen converter. It’s dead. That means we only have about twenty-four hours of oxygen if we stay here. That is if the maniac doesn’t come and finish us off before then.”

  “Would you just help me check the damage outside?” I shouted and grabbed a toolkit.

  “Wouldn’t be any damage if you would’ve listened to me,” he muttered and followed me out the small airlock on the side of the craft.

  I glanced at my hovercraft with disgust. It was a pile of garbage compared to the black enemy vessel. A thin stream of smoke rose from the main engine at the rear of the vessel.

  Leaving on foot wouldn’t work, because our oxygen packs would last three hours maximum. Nothing was within a three hour walk, let alone through a war zone.

  The battle created soft booms and vibrations through the ground. Flashes of light flickered in the direction of the mine. All that remained of the small antenna at the top of the vessel was a melted lump of metal. Reaching Kayla was impossible.

  Nate huffed. “I knew this was insane.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have come,” I snapped back, “but no, you forced me to take you.”

  “What is your problem?” Nate’s voice sounded sharper over the helmet. “You act like you’re possessed.”

  I opened a side panel and pulled down a ladder. “Go inside and get the spare antenna. I’ll remove the old one.” I climbed onto the roof while Nate went back inside.

  I got out a screwdriver, but working in gloves slowed me down. Laser blasts thudded far to the north along with the brief distant crash, which sounded like nothing more than dropping a rock on cement. Particles billowed up several meters, flowing up into a huge cloud above the battle.

  “Seeing as we may die now,” Nate said, over the helmet radio. “You could at least tell me what’s going on with you.”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” I said.

  Nate came out of the airlock and handed me the new antenna. “We always could talk before. Maybe I’ve been too hard on you.”

  “That’s a laugh. You’re not around enough to be hard on me.”

  Nate paused. “I know Cappy’s distracted me lately, but would you just tell me what’s going on?”

  I took the screwdriver, thinking he would explode if he knew I mainly came out here to rescue a Genner girl. “What would you do if Cappy happened to be out here? Wouldn’t you want to help her?”

  “Yes, of course, what are you saying?”

  “That girl from my vision. She’s a Genner.”

  “Oh my God!” Nate blurted out after a long pause. “But you don’t even know her.”

  “Yes, I do.” I waited for him to rip me down off the vessel.

  Behind the visor, his mouth dropped open. “These visions have taken you over.” He frowned, about to argue, but his face went blank. “It’s coming back!” he shouted and went back through the airlock.

  I slid down the roof and hurried inside with Nate, not knowing where else to go. My heart raced as I pictured the black Phantom finishing us off.

  “I didn’t realize how intense your visions have become.” Nate’s voice trembled. “You needed guidance and I wasn’t there.”

  “She’s out here, and I still have to save her.”

  “I know you think you love her, but how in the middle of this can we . . . .” He paused at the rumbling from the outside.

  I held my breath, trembling and waiting for the final blow, but instead a tan and brown camouflaged Marc midrange swooped over my vesse
l. It drifted in front of us and landed with a few small bumps.

  “I-I was wrong. It’s one of ours,” Nate said. “Everyone is so on edge it’s hard to sense who is who.”

  “It’s okay.” I touched his arm. “This is good. They can help us warn everyone.”

  As the dust settled, several soldiers emerged walking toward my hovercraft with their rifles up. One of them motioned for us to come out. We exited with our hands up. They grabbed our arms and brought us into the vessel. Our plain white civilian envirosuits stood out among everyone else in brown and tan military suits. The soldiers directed us in front of one man at the front of the ship.

  “I’m Captain Philips.” A fiftyish looking man stared at us with his visor up. He had a dry, wrinkled complexion.

  I raised my visor. “I’m Ian Connors and this is Nate Forshay. We . . . .” I tried to think of how to approach this without telling him too much. “We have elite status and work in intelligence. We came to warn you of a threat.”

  The soldiers sitting along the walls burst out laughing. Nate’s face turned red.

  I gave them a bewildered glance. “Our craft was shot down by a midrange that can block radar.”

  “Kid, maybe they can block your radar, but nobody can block ours.” The captain shook his head. “That must have been a stray Genner remote. You fools are lucky it didn’t destroy your craft.”

  “Trust me. One of your large transports is in danger.” I kept a straight face, wanting to look confident.

  “Why didn’t you have the information radioed to me from headquarters?”

  I thought of a way to phrase it. “We came out here on our own because Admiral Beacon didn’t think it that serious, but we do.”

  “On your own? I’m gonna need your ID numbers.”

  We gave them the numbers. One of the men ran it through the computer.

  “Hurry, please. Lives are in danger,” I warned, rocking on my legs.

  Our information came up on a nearby monitor. It included our names, pictures and our elite status.

  The captain spun around. “I would’ve never guessed, but they really are a couple of special-op elites, neither of which should be here.” He turned to the pilot. “Fly us over to the medical vessel so I can drop them off.”

 

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