Eugenic Reprisal (Halcyon Gate Book 2)

by J. M. Preiss

  Turning down the corridor they had been travelling on to get to the mainframe, they headed deeper into the facility. They picked the pace up to a fast jog, and they were able to make it to the reactor without much delay. The storm was picking up outside, and they could hear the wind battering at the windows. A crack of thunder resounding through the empty complex.

  "Okay, now what do we do?" Mason asked as he stared at all of the controls.

  "Let us do it," Chelsea said. "We should be able to figure this thing out quickly and start it up."

  "Start it up, sure," Sara said. "I don't know about quickly though. That will take some time."

  "Get started," Jacob said as he reached down to the console.

  Mason followed suit, and they saw images of Chelsea and Sara show up on a nearby screen.

  "We're accessing the computer system now. The reactor is completely cold, so we're going to have to connect it to the charging loop," Sara said.

  There was a sharp peal of thunder outside.

  Lights came on all the way in the facility, and Jacob and Mason heard large actuators groaning to complete circuits to bring the reactor online.

  "The charging loop is dry. Bringing the secondary generator online," Chelsea in-toned.

  "Secondary generator?" Mason asked Jacob.

  "A smaller thermonuclear reactor," Jacob responded. "It doesn't need any startup power since it is fission-based as opposed to fusion like this one."

  "That's going to go up when we overload this thing, isn't it," Mason said with a sigh.

  "No," Jacob shook his head. "It's far enough away that it won't be affected by this. When it detects an overload, it'll quench the reactor and dump neutralizing material all around it. Any fallout should be minimal, but it'll probably be non-existent."

  "I hope," Mason muttered.

  "Charging loop engaged. Receiving power from secondary generator," Sara said.

  "You're going to destroy this entire facility?" Adam asked. He had a tone in his voice that Mason couldn't quite place. It sounded almost lower than normal. More bass was in it.

  "That's the only way to complete our mission," Jacob said. "We need to take out Halcyon so we can stop everything that is happening. That's the only way we know how."

  "It is logically sound," Adam said with a nod before looking at the fusion reactor.

  "Reactor at thirty-five percent charged," Chelsea said.

  "Jacob," Mason said over the personal channel, "something is bothering me about this plan. We don't even know if this is going to work."

  "It's our only option," Jacob said. "This is us making our own choice. We've got the upper hand now, so we need to capitalize on it. The Adam that we knew in the future isn't here to stop us, and whoever that person that sent us to the mountains and then killed all of those civilians was can't touch us."

  "Maybe," Mason said. "I just hope that this doesn't make matters worse."

  "It'll work," Jacob said reassuringly. "Everything started with Halcyon. Let's end it."

  Mason looked around at the reactor. He thought he saw movement in the shadows and outside the windows.

  "Reactor at seventy percent charged," Sara stated. "Bringing containment online."

  There was a snap and a hum as the powerful electromagnets were brought online. Power coursed through the cables, and status indicators on the panel in front of them switched from red to yellow to green.

  "We're almost ready," Jacob said in anticipation.

  "Oh, Lieutenant, I assure you, we are ready right now," Adam said from behind them with a decidedly deeper than normal voice.

  Mason and Jacob spun around and tried to bring their rifles to bear. Adam stepped inside Mason's reach, wrenched the rifle from his grip, and then threw Mason across the floor into the far wall as if he was some kind of ragdoll.

  Jacob fell back a few steps as he brought his rifle to his shoulder. He fired when it was resting.

  Adam dodged around the plasma blast as if it were moving in slow motion. He stepped forward, swiped Jacob's rifle out of the way, and planted Mason's rifle into Jacob's stomach.

  There was a bright flash from the plasma leaving the emitter and impacting Jacob's armor. The shield around his midsection flared and went dark. The bolt was barely impeded, and it continued on into the armor beneath. It splashed, and molten metal erupted from where it impacted. Jacob was thrown back, and he slumped down to the ground.

  "Now, Captain, I believe it is time I finish you off as well," Adam said with a voice that was higher than normal.

  Mason was dazed against the wall and unable to react quickly.

  "I'm going to enjoy this."

  Mason saw the flash of the emitter and managed to throw himself to the left. The plasma bolt impact on his right shoulder and spun him around. The shield there flashed into nonexistence, and the bolt ate into the armor. Mason let out a scream of pain before crumpling to the floor. His armor smoked where it had been hit.

  "I should've listened to Mason," a strained voice said from behind Adam.

  "What," Adam said as he spun around quickly.

  The last thing that he saw was Jacob holding himself up with his left hand, his right hand holding the plasma rifle. The rifle spewed forth a stream of plasma bolts that impacted Adam in the chest and kept on going through to the other side. Adam slumped to the ground, and the rifle he had been holding clattered away.

  "What's going on?" he asked in his normal voice as he raised his hands up to where his chest had been. Only red hot metal around a gaping hole remained.

  Landing on his back, his arms splayed out to the side.

  "None of this makes any sense," he said quietly before his head lolled to the side and the indicator lights across his body winked out.

  "Alpha team, secure those two," Jacob heard a voice shout as he leaned forward and rested his head on the floor. He started to think about Lisa. He wanted to hold her again. He wanted to tell her that he loved her. He wanted to feel emotions.

  "Bravo team, shut down that reactor startup procedure. Charlie, head over to Halcyon and set the detcharges," the voice shouted again.

  Jacob felt hands pick him up and roll him on to gurney.

  "We're going to need medivac for these two right away," a voice close to him shouted. "This one has critical injuries, but the armor seems to have done the job."

  "The one over here is in bad shape, sir," a voice in the distance shouted.

  Jacob's vision was blurred, and he was unable to make anything out.

  "It's going to be okay, Jacob," he heard Sara say as he lost consciousness.

  Chapter XXII

  There was an incessant beeping noise in the background. It drew Jacob out of his dreamless sleep. He was totally confused as to where he was. The last thing he remembered was getting shot by Adam. His mind searched, and he called for Sara. There was no response.

  "Sara," he said weakly.

  "It's okay, Lieutenant," a familiar voice said.

  It was the voice from when they had arrived in the current timeline, but it was also a familiar voice from his past. He was better able to make it out now. He slowly opened his eyes, the light of the room blinding him for a moment.

  "You took a pretty nasty hit, but we got to you in time," the voice continued. "The Captain will be okay as well, but, believe it or not, he took a harder hit than you. We're just lucky that he managed to get out of the way of most of it, or at least, have it hit somewhere non-vital."

  Jacob shook his head slowly and tried to blink away the blindness.

  "Take it easy, Lieutenant. You've been out for a few days now."

  Days. It had been days since they were at Einstein. Jacob was confused about what actually had happened. His vision finally cleared, and he rolled his head to his side to see a familiar and welcome face.

  "General," he managed. "How did you find us?"

  "That was the easy part, son," the man said.

  He sighed and shook his head.

  "I'm sorry that
you had to go through what you did, but we had to throw Adam off of your trail as much as we could," the general explained.

  "I don't understand," Jacob said.

  "When you arrived back from the future, you showed up at Halcyon. We managed to get to you before you regained consciousness and sedate you."

  "You captured us," Jacob whispered. "You sent us to that complex. You're the reason those civilians are dead. I don't understand."

  "Understanding isn't required, Lieutenant. You know that," the general said. "That facility was one of Adam's that we had to take out. He has them littering the timelines, and we're facing a hard time taking them all out. You've given us a leg up now though."

  "How?" Jacob asked.

  "You killed the Adam that was here. His consciousness is still in the future, but you gave him a major setback. That let us take out Halcyon. That's trapped his intelligences with him."

  "I'm confused by all of this," Jacob slowly said. "You'll have to tell me slowly."

  "We don't know all that much, I'm afraid," the general said. "He has us at a major disadvantage because he has had plenty of time to work on the problems. He is able to exploit the free travel of information across the timelines. That's the only thing that can actually traverse. The fact that you and the Captain did so successfully-"

  "Shouldn't have happened," Jacob finished for him.

  "Exactly," the general confirmed. "You were special. Jenkins thinks it is because you and the Captain were the first to do it. You are somehow special in all of this. Any further attempts that we did ended in disaster."

  "Mason?" Jacob asked.

  "He'll be okay," the general said sadly. "You know… I was the one that ordered him to New York. I was the reason he lost his family. Now, because of me, he has lost even more."

  "Explain."

  Jacob's head was swimming in confusion.

  "The hit he took, the armor wasn't able to absorb it all, and much to our dismay, we were unable to save the arm."

  Jacob closed his eyes tightly. Mason had lost his other arm because of him. He should've listened and killed Adam on the spot.

  "What's happening to him?"

  "He's going to be okay," the general said. "His body will recover quickly, and since this is something that he has been through before, he will be fine. He will come out of surgery in a few hours, but you don't need to worry about him."

  "What about Chelsea and Sara?" Jacob asked.

  "They were prototypes that we had been developing. They've been removed and are currently being examined."

  "But they said-"

  "Don't believe what they said," the general interrupted. "They were programmed to believe things that aren't true about their evolution, and they were also programmed to mislead you concerning certain things. It was all part of the mission."

  "Are they going to be okay?"

  "They will," he said with a nod. "We'll fix that programming, and then we will see about placing them into physical bodies."

  "Wait," Jacob said. "How did you know Adam was bad? How did you have enough time to figure all of that out? He hasn't been active that long."

  "That's where it gets very confusing. I'll explain it at the debriefing once you and the Captain are back up to speed physically," he said as he stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to. The Captain's family should be arriving shortly, and if my timing is correct, you have somebody waiting to talk to you."

  Jacob shook his head. Who would be waiting to talk to him?

  "Get better, Lieutenant. We need you," the general said as he rested his hand on his shoulder.

  The aging man walked out of the room.

  Jacob closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He let it out sharply when he felt pain shoot through his midsection. Fire raged in his nerves before the automated systems detected the pain and corrected it.

  Jacob heard the door latch open and small footsteps enter the room.

  "Oh my God, Jacob," Lisa's voice said. "Thank God, you're okay."

  He felt small hands, warm hands, grab his left hand. He opened his eyes to see the face of his wife. Tears were streaming down her face.

  "I thought I would never see you again."

  Jacob's mind searched. There was something that he wanted to say to her, but he couldn't place it.

  "I came here as soon as I could. Your parents are on the way."

  He remembered what he wanted to say.

  "Lisa, I love you."

  It was the first time he had said it first in longer than he could remember and actually feel it. He felt the emotion welling up inside of him, true emotion that wasn't clamped down by his conditioning. Jacob could feel a tear running down his face.

  Lisa smiled.