by Cindy Borgne
“He’s on board.” She pulled her legs into the suit.
Getting into a dirty envirosuit recently used by someone else made me queasy. I wasn’t about to complain, however, I struggled to pull my swollen calf into the boot.
“Hurry up and get over here,” Beacon snapped from behind.
The Admiral stood near the airlock wearing a dust-smeared blue military envirosuit and a helmet with the visor up. Two security officers stayed at his sides. His black eyes locked onto me like a targeting system.
“Sir,” Clare said. “Keep in mind he’s wounded.”
“That’s enough, Doctor.” His eyes didn’t budge from me.
Clare checked over the oxygen and batteries. I latched on the helmet, pushed the visor down and pressurized the suit, expecting to find a leak, but fortunately it held.
“Get over here,” Beacon said with a face like stone and unmovable eyes.
I pushed the visor up, glanced between him and the floor and wished he would stop staring. Apologizing was stupid at this point, but I had to say something. “I – I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“No talking! Follow me.” He led the way into the midrange, down a hall and into a private room.
Nate was in bed motionless on a respirator with a heart monitor and oxygen tanks surrounding him. His blond hair hung limp over his pale forehead. Even his lips barely had any color.
“Nate?” I asked several times, hoping he would open his eyes or move just a little, but he remained unconscious. I still couldn’t sense him and took a few steps toward him.
Beacon yanked me back by the shoulder until I stood about three feet from the bed.
“This is the result of your disobedience!” he shouted. “Stay right there.”
My throat tightened and I struggled to hold back tears.
“You will stand in that spot the entire trip and see what you’ve caused. Maybe this will help you not do anything stupid again.”
Tears spilled over and down my cheeks. “But I warned you about the transports.”
“If you would’ve told me about the Deltas, perhaps I could’ve done something, but you didn’t give me enough information to cancel the attack.”
I glanced back at him. “It’s difficult to know everything through a vision.”
“Don’t look at me, boy! I don’t have time for your excuses.” Beacon paced behind me. “We have a bad situation. Deltoton betrayed us and when you’re done here you will get any information you can. Find any weaknesses or a way to break up the alliance between Deltoton and Gentech.”
I took a breath and held it. Beacon would be expecting results in a hurry. My heart jumped at that thought, and I clenched my fists.
The door opened with a squeak. Out of the far corner of my eye, a chief petty officer stepped into the room.
“This is the one I told you about,” Beacon said. “Make sure he stays standing and staring at his friend the entire trip. No turning away.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Connors, this isn’t the last of your punishment,” he said low with a menacing tone. At last, he left the room and shut the door.
If only Beacon was in the bed unconscious, instead of Nate. I hoped he’d be gone for a long time. How often does he blame others for his mistakes? I assumed frequently to reach the position of admiral.
The floor rumbled with the start of the engines, followed by a bounce as the midrange left the dock. The officer behind me shuffled around and it sounded like he sat down on the chair along the wall. I wanted to talk to Nate and tell him about everything, but it was impossible.
As I stood shifting my weight from leg to leg, the last hours replayed in my mind as if to torment me - Nate screaming as he was ripped out of the ship – Layne covered in blood and dying – myself struggling to breathe as oxygen ran out. I tried to count backwards from one-hundred to distract myself, but my overactive mind refused to stop. A new batch of tears rolled down, making the inside of the helmet damp and itchy.
Beacon would make some dreadful comments if he saw me crying, so I forced myself to stop and became determined to stand by Nate until he woke up.
“So you must be that special op everyone’s talking about,” said the petty officer. “The one that went into the battle?”
“I guess.” I took a quick glance at the gray-haired officer.
The door rattled and we stopped talking. Dr. Stevens entered, adjusted one of the machines by Nate. She glanced at me with a hint of sympathy in her brown eyes and left. No doubt, they wouldn’t allow Clare in the room.
“Rumor has it you tried to warn everyone about the transport explosion,” he said.
My mouth dropped open.
The petty officer continued, “It’s not too hard to tell that you must’ve warned Beacon first and that tyrant sent his troops in anyway.”
“How did you know?”
“All my years of experience, of course.” He sighed, shakily. “If it’s any consolation, I appreciate what you tried to do.”
I took a quick glance at him. He was muscular for an older man.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Name’s Mitch Harris.”
“Thanks, Mitch,” I almost whispered.
“I’d let you sit down, but he’d probably shove me out the airlock.”
“It’s okay. I owe it to Nate to stand here until he wakes up.”
As the trip went on, the numbness wore off and I shifted my weight to my good leg. Whenever the vessel bounced or dipped, I imagined enemy vessels coming from a hill or valley and firing on us. I took a deep breath and tried to stop noticing every movement. A round viewport to the left of Nate displayed darkness, except for an occasional flicker of light that made me anticipate a laser blast.
Both legs begged me to sit down. My eyes rolled back and forth. Nate blurred before me. I’d sink down and continue to catch myself before dropping to the floor. I held back a sarcastic chuckle for thinking that my purpose was to convince Kayla to join Marscorp.
Then it hit me – I had the vision about the mine because Kayla was there. Not because Beacon wanted me to find a victim. My desire to see her led the Marcs right to her organization. Tears welled up in my eyes. My visions had a mind of their own.
The swaying of the midrange picked up and slowed, followed by a sudden jolt. I lost my balance and ended up down on the cold metal floor.
“What’s going on out there?” I rubbed my swollen leg, trying to get some circulation going.
Mitch looked out the port. “Nothing, we just made a sharp turn around some hills.”
I struggled to get my legs back under me and supported myself with my hands on the floor.
“Just stay down, I’ll watch at the door.” He peeked through a small window on the metal door.
“No, I promised Nate I’d stand.” I pushed myself up and my headed pounded. Not only would I stand, but I’d help Kayla by never using my visions for military purposes again. She would be safe since they had help from other organizations, especially Delta.
I stumbled again, and Mitch grabbed my arm before I fell. “That’s a nice way to honor your friend.” He looked at Nate. “I lost some friends in the transport explosions too.” He paused. “We’re almost back. Nothing wrong with you leaning on me for another twenty minutes.”
“What about Beacon?”
“I’ll move if the bastard comes.”
****
Back at Central in the medical facility, Clare let me stay in a room which had a connecting door to Nate’s room. As I waited to find out more about Nate’s condition, I collapsed on the bed exhausted and continued to see swirling dust, explosions and people dying. The memories dissolved into a moment of peaceful darkness, but it didn’t last long.
While sleeping, my mind wandered through long tunnels as people shouted out orders to each other - their voices echoing. The winding of the tunnel moved too fast like I was on a roller coaster. I tried to open my eyes, but an unknown force propelled me
down a tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel, my mind slowed. Kayla stood near a metal door. Stringy, flat hair surrounded her pale face. She reached out to open the door. Within a few inches of the knob, her hand trembled and stopped.
She forced it forward onto the knob, but didn’t turn it. Her fingers didn’t have any strength. With bleary eyes she weaved, put her other hand on the wall and stopped herself from collapsing in front of the door.
Kayla, I would trade my life to bring Layne back. He deserved to be with her, not me. I opened my eyes and paused at the clock in the middle of the room up by the ceiling. About eighteen hours had passed.
I grumbled at having slept so long and slowly stood up. Every muscle ached, but at least the swelling in my leg had gone down. I walked over to Nate’s room, thankful the pain from the wound was reduced to a dull ache.
Only light from the bio-monitor built into the wall lit up my friend’s room.
“Nate?” I asked several times, hoping he would open his eyes or move just a little, but he remained still. “I shouldn’t care about her, but I do. What is wrong with me? Her name is Kayla, and I think I’m going insane when it comes to her.” I sat in the chair next to him and squeezed his hand, trying to get a response. “I don’t have the wisdom to use my visions. Even if I have them, I will pretend that I don’t.”
I slumped and pushed the chair closer. “There’s no way to change what I caused.” I thought Nate’s eyelid flickered, but after a few moments I figured it was my imagination. I rested my head on the edge of Nate’s bed, but lifted it at hearing voices in the hall.
The voices grew louder as both persons argued near the door. One had a higher voice, but the other was deep and filled with irritation. Recognizing Beacon and Clare, I hurried back into my room and shut the door.
As they went into Nate’s room, I listened at the connecting door. Clare rattled off the usual medical terminology I didn’t understand.
“Do everything you can to get him well,” Beacon said. “I need him as soon as possible. Don’t hesitate to ask me for anything you need.”
“Yes sir, but this is a very difficult case.”
“If anyone can save him you can, despite your tendency to feel sympathy for the guilty.”
The voices grew louder, coming toward the door. I hurried into bed, turned toward the wall and shut my eyes. The handle on the doorknob turned and both came into my room.
“Ian could be a powerful seer, but his foolishness has cost me, and he’s had it easy too long.” Beacon took a step toward me.
His presence made my heart race, but I remained still even though I wanted to run.
“Don’t wake him up, sir,” Clare said. “He’s exhausted.”
“Very well, you can tell him I will cancel the rest of his punishment if he gets me some useful intelligence against the Gentech/Delta alliance in the next few days.”
“But sir,” Clare said. “Considering everything he went through it’s going to be impossible. He needs more time.”
“I don’t have time, Doctor,” Beacon shifted toward the door. “Tomorrow is an elite level meeting. I want you to bring Ian.” He opened the door and left the room.
Clare stood silently and let out of huff of frustration.
She walked into Nate’s room and shut the door.
I flipped onto my back and stared at the ceiling. Beacon wanted something I could no longer give.
Chapter 10
Using a crutch, I followed Clare to the meeting wearing an itchy formal, black dress uniform with a red tie and white belt. Before we entered, Clare turned around, fussed with my hair and pushed my brown bangs under the black beret. She also wore an elite uniform, except with a black skirt.
“Do you think he’ll tell everyone what I did?” I asked.
“I already told you, I have no idea.” She led the way inside.
We spotted a couple of empty chairs among the crowd of overseers, scientists, engineers and other elites who sat in rows of chairs in the conference room. Several wore bandages, slings and a few came in wheelchairs.
I rubbed my cold hands together to get some warmth back, crossed my legs and tried to keep my right knee from bouncing.
The crowd went silent. Beacon led the way as twenty chief executives - eight women and twelve men, all dressed in suits, came in the conference room. His fake blond hair shined in the artificial lights.
I shuddered at his sarcastic face, which looked somewhat bloated today just like his ego. If only he could’ve been shot in the ass or something.
A string of security officers in their dress uniforms followed them. The officers wore their gold and silver medals that reflected their status as elite security officers entrusted with the safety of the executives. They stood with mindless expressions at attention behind the chairs.
The executives took their seats at the conference table. Beacon sat down last. Vice-Admiral Julius Kodet, the second in command, sat to the right of Beacon. He looked about thirty with a black streak through his brown hair.
“Despite my efforts,” Kodet began. “Deltoton has refused to drop their alliance with Gentech and has also refused to turn over the mine. Oddly, they are standing by the Genners.”
The crowd talked among themselves.
“During the battle we had some unexpected events,” Beacon said, loudly and everyone stopped to listen. “The Genners have apparently developed a radar-deflecting device. It was only used in one of their vessels, however, we have recovered some of the data recorded, which we need analyzed and a solution found to disable this device. I’m assigning that as a top priority to our technology department.”
“Also,” Kodet added, shifting in his chair. “We still don’t know why two of our large transports exploded. Not enough of either vessel was recovered to find a cause and, of course, Deltoton won’t let us back into that area. The only thing we have is one video recovered.”
A large screen at the end of the room came on about to play the incident. At first it displayed Marc vessels dominating the sky, chasing the Genner aerojets and shooting them down as if it was a game.
I spotted what I thought to be the vessel Nate and I had been in before the explosion. Beacon slowed down the video. My hands sweated so much I wiped them on my pants. Did he have to torture me by playing the damn thing in slow motion?
The dark blur of the Phantom became visible in the left upper corner of the screen. A laser beam sparkling like a rainbow blasted out of its bow and struck the transport in the rear engine just before it burst into flames. The black vessel fired the same beam at the second transport. I hadn’t noticed those beams before. Did the black vessel really cause the explosions?
The transports slowly collided into one another creating the shockwave. A domino effect of carnage began. I remembered the pilot of the midrange desperately trying to pull away.
Am I any different than the pilot of the Phantom? We both killed people, but I was worse than him. He did it out of desperation, but I obeyed Beacon for no other reason than a need to please him and Clare. I breathed heavily, loosened my tie and held back from running out into the hall to escape reality for a few minutes.
“Are you okay?” Clare asked.
“Yes,” I tried to steady my voice, “just didn’t like seeing that.”
“It looks like some sort of specialized laser technology,” said one of the engineers. “Although it must have some limitations or they would’ve used it against more of our vessels.”
Most agreed with that idea and talked rapidly. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve and turned back, glad to see a blank screen.
“And you know Deltoton and the Genners will equip all their vessels with this technology,” said an engineer.
Kodet tapped his pen on the desk. “We might want to postpone any attacks.”
A silence came over the crowd for several seconds.
Beacon’s face reddened as he slowly nodded. “Good point, we’ll hold off until we have methods to
counter their technology.”
Another round of chatter went through the crowd. Marscorp hadn’t backed off on an opponent in years. As the meeting continued, one by one scientists, engineers and other leaders took the stand to discuss the battle or their projects.
“Are there any questions?” Beacon asked as he was about to wrap things up.
Nobody answered. A few of the injured people were nodding off. Kodet whispered in Beacon’s ear.
“Oh yes, there is the matter of Ian Connors.” His eyes shifted toward me. “For those of you who don’t know already, Ian disobeyed orders by going into the battle and now Nate Forshay is in a coma. Stand up, boy.”
I stood, half wanting to cry and the other half wanting to strangle him.
“Disobedience by my young gifted elites will not be tolerated. You will spend the next two weeks cleaning all the bathrooms of the medical facility and the rest of the time you will be isolated in your room. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, wanting to get away from him, but I also wanted to help Kayla. Now that he punished me I didn’t see why I couldn’t speak my mind. “But I have a question.”
Beacon’s mouth twisted into a fake smile. “Yes, Ian?” He asked through his teeth.
“Gentech is more than a rogue organization. They have advanced technology and according to their diplomat they have wanted to work with us. Instead of going against them why don’t we try to be allies?”
“That’s impossible under the circumstances,” Kodet said.
“I haven’t come out and said this because it’s so disturbing,” Beacon said. “But I believe Deltoton used Gentech and the mine as bait to lure us into a trap.”
“Bait?” I asked. “Gentech was hiding. If it wasn’t for me we wouldn’t have known about the mine at all.”
“Deltoton doesn’t do business with small groups. We can only conclude that Deltoton planned to betray us all along.”
“We don’t know that,” I said.
Clare tugged on my pant leg. I glanced down, and she glared at me, wanting to tell me to sit down.
Kodet chuckled. “Everyone knows Deltoton has never allied themselves with a rogue group.”