We each took up guard around him. This was a critical moment. If hordes attacked, if Abaddon should show up suddenly, we couldn’t all pop out of danger.
N7 hurried to a T-missile. The android could do this faster than any of us could. Still, it was noble of him to have just done it. I had been about to ask when he’d started shedding his T-suit.
N7 detached the warhead from the missile. His fingers blurred over the manual controls as he reset it.
Ella clanked away from our protective circle to a panel. She brought up the Santa Maria on a screen, giving the exact coordinates to N7.
“I have it,” he said.
“Then suit up,” I said.
As N7 headed for the ancient suit standing empty on the deck, several side hatches opened. Saurian shock troopers in space marine armor charged in. They fired from the hip.
Instinctively, Dmitri and I maneuvered between N7 and the enemy. Each of us began using the Ronin 9 beam. It cut through Saurian armor, killing the lizards. Their slugs bounced off us.
Rollo roared a battle cry, disappearing. He reappeared among one group and used his hands and elbows, knocking and hurling Saurians everywhere.
“Get out of the way, Rollo,” Dmitri said.
Rollo complied, appearing beside the Cossack.
Dmitri finished that group.
“I’m hit,” N7 said.
My heart sank. I turned. A sluggish fluid dripped out of N7’s shoulder.
“Can you still suit up?” I asked.
“I think so,” N7 answered.
Those were a few tense seconds, but no more enemy lizards showed up.
“I’m in,” N7 said.
“Let’s the roll the missile,” I said.
Ella had already opened an emergency hatch. The four of us carried the big missile down the corridor and into a hangar bay using the added strength of the exo-powered suits. Ella popped by the controls to open the main hatch to space.
The rush of escaping atmosphere lifted the missile and us, propelling everything outside. If this had been the first time we’d done something like this, we might have tumbled like debris. We were the veteran assault troopers now, however.
In short order, we found ourselves outside the battlejumper. There was plenty of space between each vessel. Still, I could see seven big enemy ships from here.
“I am activating the missile,” N7 said.
“Grab hold, people,” I said.
As we waited, battlejumper thrusters roared with energy. One by one, each big ship began to accelerate. I wondered where they were going in such a hurry.
The T-missile built up power, and we teleported away from the Super Fleet to near the Santa Maria in orbit around the blue gas giant.
Immediately, I opened channels with our ship. “This is Commander Creed. Can you hear me, Trask?”
“Loud and clear, Commander,” said Trask, the acting captain.
“Lock onto our signal.”
“There’s a T-missile near you, sir. I’m locking on to destroy—”
“That’s us, that’s us,” I said.
“Roger, sir, I’m leaving it alone. On no, sir, flocks of T-missiles are appearing.”
“Get ready to transfer,” I said.
“Transfer, sir?”
“Out of this star system,” I said, linking my T-suit to Rollo’s.
“Yes, sir,” Trask said. “We’re ready.” They’d had standings orders to be ready to leave immediately.
“Rollo?” I asked.
“Now, Creed,” he said.
Rollo vanished. I followed suit, sure that the others would follow me.
I appeared on the bridge to great excitement.
“There’re thousands of them, Captain Trask!” a woman shouted. “They’re heading for the ship surface.
“Transfer, transfer,” I said. “We’re all here.”
The engines had already been building up. Two men pulled the main levers. The power spiked, and the old moon-ship transferred out of danger to a nearby star system.
My knees gave out as the ship reappeared in the empty star system. I sat down in the T-suit, smiling hugely. Yes, it seemed like Abaddon had known what we were going to do. What he’d failed to do was reckon with our deadliness and ingenuity. We had two dematerialized Jelk, two pieces of ammo for the Abaddon-killing weapon. That was less than I would have liked, but it was a great start.
“Let’s put the suits away,” I said.
“Commander,” N7 said.
“Shoot,” I said. “I forgot about your wound. How are you?”
“I am fine.”
“I want you in the infirmary right away,” I said.
“Commander,” N7 said. “We have a problem. Ella is missing.”
“What?” I said, spinning around. I was sure I’d seen four other T-suits on the bridge with me. “Where is she? Maybe she wasn’t linked to Rollo’s suit and appeared elsewhere on the ship.”
An emergency process began as we started searching for Ella. It soon became clear that she wasn’t on the moon-ship or anywhere within a billion kilometer range of our suits. Otherwise, we would have been able to talk to her.
Somehow, we’d left Ella behind when the moon-ship had transferred out of danger. We had to go back and get her before it was too late.
-34-
“If we go back,” N7 said, “we risk having the Kargs and Saurians storm our ship. And do we know for a fact she didn’t teleport with us? The Santa Maria is large. Ella could be hidden and hurt somewhere on the transfer vessel and we don’t know it.”
I hated N7’s words as they caused hesitation in me. What if I was wrong about Ella being back by the sixth planet? Should I throw away our only real opportunity for saving humanity in order to possibly save Ella Timoshenko?
“We can look for her using the moon-ship’s T-scanner,” Rollo said.
I stared at my over-muscled friend. “Let’s go,” I said, teleporting to the room.
I shed my T-suit and began manipulating the viewing plate.
We’d transferred to a nearby star system not on the route to Earth. We learned right away that scanning from such a short distance used less energy than making a long-range scan. That could be important, but it didn’t seem to matter right now. It also seemed to confirm the idea that Abaddon could use his mind powers more strongly the closer he was to the subject.
Soon, I saw the sixth planet of the star system. I zeroed in on the floating space marines, both Kargs and Saurians. It took twenty minutes before I found Ella. It wasn’t her shape or the suit that made her distinctive, but the red glow around her.
Several suited adversaries had situated heavy portables around her. Each of those bathed her in the red beam, perhaps to keep her from teleporting away.
N7 suggested the same thing.
I glanced at him. Dark fluid still dripped from the wound in the android’s shoulder.
“Go to the infirmary,” I said.
“Negative, Commander. One of us is in danger. I must stay on hand for when we attack.”
I licked my lips, studying the scene. My heart sank then. I realized Ella had the Jelk Catcher. If we didn’t get her back, we had no way of turning more Jelk into ammo for killing Abaddon.
“We have to go back,” I said.
“There must be over twenty thousand enemy space marines out there,” Rollo said. He stood by a panel. Thus, I assumed he’d used the computer to do the counting.
“We have to go back anyway,” I said.
“Da,” Dmitri said. “We must die for each other if we have to.”
I smiled grimly.
Then I saw something frightening. As we watched, another creature popped into existence on the viewing plate. This one was big, maybe five times my size. It wore a black suit. Dread seemed to radiate from the being as I stared at him.
“Abaddon,” Rollo whispered.
I glanced at the First Admiral. I didn’t see rage on his face, but fear.
I looked at the viewi
ng plate again. The big creature used a backpack thruster with consummate skill, maneuvering toward Ella.
In an instant, the portables stopped spewing their beams. The glow lessened around Ella, but didn’t quit altogether. The big creature—it had to be Abaddon right?—took Ella in a one-armed grip.
She squirmed, hitting his suited chest with her fists.
He put a big hand on her helmet. In a moment, her struggles ceased. What had he done to her?
Then, the big creature looked straight at me. That should have been impossible. We viewed this from a different star system many light years away. Still, he looked at me. I couldn’t see his features. They were hidden behind a silvered visor, but I could feel his stare. It was eerie.
Commander Creed, a voice said inside my head.
I grunted painfully. The voice hurt as if listening to a thousand teachers scratching their fingernails along a thousand wet blackboards.
“What?” I said, hoarsely.
I have another one of your women, Commander.
“You’re dead, Abaddon,” I said.
You are a fool. You had a chance to serve me once. Now, I will collect your friends one by one and torture them for a thousand years.
I cried out in pain, grabbing my head, staggering backward.
“Get us out of here,” Rollo shouted. “Abaddon is attacking Creed.”
Know pain, vain creature.
I fell onto the deck, thrashing about, clutching a head that felt as if it was about to explode.
After that, I’m not sure what happened. The pain came in waves. As it did, I noticed something else, something more than just agony. I could read thoughts running through Abaddon’s mind, faint and distant things that tried to duck out of sight as I observed them.
There is still danger. I must lure him near. Then I will—
Abruptly, the pain, the voices in my head and the hidden thoughts disappeared. I simply lay on the deck, panting, enjoying the respite.
Finally, I opened my eyes. Rollo stared at me. I turned my head, but couldn’t see anyone else.
I tried to speak, but found that my mouth was bone dry. I licked the inside of my mouth, but that didn’t seem to help.
Finally, I could feel my tongue again. There were splotches in my vision.
“Can you hear me yet?” Rollo asked.
I wanted to nod, but that would have hurt too much. I managed a, “Yeah.”
“You look like shit, Creed. What happened? Did Abaddon mind-talk to you?”
“Yeah,” I said again.
“N7 was right then.”
“Yeah,” I said for a third time.
“This is bad,” Rollo said. “It’s over.”
“No,” I whispered.
“I don’t know how you can say that. We lost Ella. We lost the Jelk Catcher, and Abaddon knows everything we can do. I mean, that’s a given, right?”
This time, I nodded. I had been right. The motion sent shooting pains through my skull.
“So what do we do?” Rollo asked.
I closed my eyes. I had to think, but we didn’t have any time to think. Abaddon would tear down Ella’s personality, ripping every thought from her. I realized I knew that because I’d seen the thought in Abaddon’s mind.
Maybe that was one of the costs of using mind talk like that. The other being saw into your thoughts as well. I could see why someone like Abaddon would be reluctant to do that.
“Are you asleep?” Rollo asked quietly.
Without opening my eyes, I said, “I’m awake, and I’m thinking. You know, Abaddon may have given us our answer.”
“What answer?”
“How to track him down,” I said. “I think I’m linked to him. We have to go after him, Rollo. We have to do it right away or we’ll miss our only chance.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, we didn’t do too well today.”
“He’s afraid of me just a little,” I said. “I have two disintegrator shots. Maybe that’s all I’ll need to blow Abaddon away.”
“You want to just charge in and try to kill him?” Rollo asked, sounding dubious.
“Yes,” I said. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
-35-
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” as the old saying went. Here, necessity meant we had to roll the dice and hope everything went our way.
That’s what I told the others. We met in N7’s infirmary room. He lay on a cot with his arm in a sling. It wouldn’t have to stay that way long, a few more hours at most.
Dmitri had turned his chair with his arms hanging over the backrest. Rollo leaned back so his was propped against a wall. I paced because of nervous energy.
It wasn’t every day Abaddon invaded my mind. I was edgy and angry. I was also as close to depressed as I ever got. Abaddon had Jennifer, and now he had Ella. He knew our plan. He had our Jelk Catcher.
“He has deliberately goaded you,” N7 declared. “It is Abaddon’s plan that you act rashly.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “He worked to defend himself from our super tech. I bet that’s what he does best: taking care of his butt. We have two disintegrator shots at most. The—” I almost talked about the Curator. “The being who gave me the weapon suggested it might take several shots to kill Abaddon.”
“Better make them pointblank shots to the head then,” Rollo said with a scowl.
I nodded. “We’re out of options. We have to move now while we know something about the enemy.”
“Why move into a losing assault?” N7 said. “Why not go to Plan B.”
“Which would be what exactly?” I asked.
“We must use the Santa Maria to slow down the Super Fleet,” N7 said. “We must buy time for the Grand Armada to maneuver into a blocking position. In that way, we bring about a great fleet action. That will decide humanity’s fate instead of these assassination attempts.”
“Ella’s as good as finished if we do it that way,” I said.
“This is about humanity’s fate,” N7 said, “not just a woman we care for.”
I wondered if that was true for N7. Did he love Ella the way the rest of us did? Maybe the android just knew how to choose the right words.
“You must take the long view on this,” N7 added.
“I once did that on the portal planet when I left Jennifer behind. I’ve felt rotten about it ever since.”
“Yes. But you saved your people and our galaxy. In the matter with Abaddon, you cannot allow yourself to indulge your emotions.”
I glared at N7 but returned to my pacing. Each step hurt my head just a little. I wondered if Abaddon’s mind talk had given me permanent brain damage.
What was the right answer? N7 suggested I rid myself of emotion in this. Rollo just sat there. Dmitri looked worried.
“Maybe emotion is what we have to use,” I said.
“That is what an emotional man would say,” N7 told me.
“I’m talking about trusting your gut,” I said. “There are times you can make every calculation. Then, it comes down to running flat out for a Hail Mary pass.”
“This is a football analogy?” N7 asked.
“I think this is overtime,” I said. “We’re losing, but we have a tiny window of opportunity. At such a point, you don’t play it safe. You’ve already lost if you do that. Instead, you risk it all on a balls out attempt at victory. Nine times out of ten, you fail. It’s that one time you succeed that is miraculous. We need a miracle, N7. Miracles don’t come from careful calculations. They come from faith and going for it.”
“Nice speech,” Rollo said. “What does it mean in practical terms?”
I stared at my old friend. “We have to smash him down,” I said. “We have to surprise him.”
“I don’t think Abaddon is ever surprised,” Rollo said. “I think he’s messing with you. Maybe he meant for us to capture the moon-ship from the beginning.”
I didn’t like that idea.
“Why would he have
wanted us to capture the moon-ship?” I asked.
The First Admiral shrugged. “Beats the heck out of me, Creed. That’s just what my gut is telling me.”
I gave him a wintry grin.
“You said it right the first time,” I told Rollo. “I have to get close and blow out his brains. While Abaddon is getting his people back to their respective ships, we need to go back to the star system, find Ella and the Jelk Catcher or find Abaddon, and teleport to either free her or to kill him with our two shots.”
“There is problem we do that,” Dmitri said.
“I’m listening.”
“You mean to appear by the Super Fleet,” Dmitri said.
I nodded.
“In that case, Abaddon’s Kargs will storm the moon-ship as we did to the Saurians in the Solar System.”
“I’ve already thought of that,” I said.
“And?” Dmitri asked.
“We have to wreck the moon-ship’s elevators and other interior maneuver systems, at least those connecting the lunar-like surface with the deep control chambers down here in the center. That way, the Kargs or whoever does the attacking will have to hoof it all the way to us. That’s a long walk, which gives us time.”
“Time to kill Abaddon?” Dmitri asked.
“That’s first,” I said. “Afterward, if we’re still alive, we transfer to the Solar System. Earth Fleet and the Starkiens will storm the moon surface behind the Kargs. We’ll hit the enemy front and back, eventually defeating all those foolish enough to have stormed the moon-ship.”
Dmitri cocked his head as he studied me. “That is a good plan. I like it.”
“It is risky,” N7 said.
“I already said it was.”
“What if Abaddon joins their assault?” N7 said. “What if he teleports directly to the moon-ship’s bridge?”
“That’s great,” I said. “Then that’s where I’ll kill him as he’s all alone.”
“I do not necessarily mean that is what Abaddon will do,” N7 said. “I am suggesting that he will do something we don’t expect, as that is what he just did.”
I snorted sourly. “That’s the nature of war, my friend. We each try to pull a fast one. Someone wins and the other guy loses. That part isn’t any different today. The only difference is what we’re risking. But I still say this is the moment of decision. Our chances for success are worse than before, but I think they’re better than anything else anyone else can think of.”
Fortress Earth (Extinction Wars Book 4) Page 20