Phoenix Rising: The Covenant (Phoenix Rising Infinitology Book 1)

by Angela Timms

  He scooped Kyla up and ran full pelt to the Infirmary. The doors hardly swished open as he dashed through them and put her down carefully on a spare bed. Jack Samson was already crossing the room and he moved like lightning. He began CPR while his assistant doctor applied a drip and offered him a pre-prepared injection of adrenaline.

  Kyla screamed as she came back to consciousness. Kel took a step forwards but Samson’s assistant stopped him.

  Jack stepped in front of him. “Kel, I’ve got to carry on, she’s not out of the woods and there’s still a way to go. What happened?”

  Kel stepped aside. “Eloise is dead, Mac’s dead, Shannon’s dead and she wrecked the control panel before we took her down.”

  Jack Samson looked at his assistant. “So we’re held back from imminent death by a table and there are no controls to drive this boat or a pilot to fly it. Pass me that syringe. Kel, why don’t you go to the cockpit and see if you can come up with a small miracle.”

  Kel ran to the cockpit. Shannon lay dead on the floor and wires hung out of control panels, screens were smashed and buttons were pulled from the panel. Kel looked out of the window at the blackness of space, the tiny pinpoints of light twinkling in the blackness. The Argo hung lifeless in the darkness unable to move, unable to control where it went, floating motionless.

  13

  The Argo floated helplessly in space. The tiny pinhead lights of its windows the only sign that it was not a piece of space debris.

  Inside was a flurry of action.

  Kel looked at the blank consoles in the cockpit hopelessly. The wires were a mess. Some were cut, others ripped out and some hung down with the piece they had been attached to still suspended at their end. He had tried the intercom, the comms for long distance space contact and other systems were all dead. Shannon had done a good job of rendering them useless.

  Kel picked up the manual he had been trying to use off of the floor and put it on the pilot’s chair. He stormed out. The door swung shut behind him as he strode off down the corridor to the infirmary.

  Jack Samson ran over straight away as soon as Kel burst through the doors. He put a hand on Kel’s shoulder. “Look Kel, don’t disturb her. She’s in a bad way. She’s crashed a few times but she’s stable now.”

  Kel gave Jack a look that made him back off as he strode over to the gurney where the doctor had been working on her. She was sleeping, a breathing tube out of her mouth and wires attached to her. He then bent down and kissed the sleeping woman on the forehead. “Sleep and be well. I’ll not leave you.

  Jack glared. “I don’t want you here cluttering up my Infirmary. Move her to a side room, you can sit with her there. If there is anything out of the ordinary, call me.”

  Kel nodded and he and one of the assistants pushed Kyla’s bed into a side room and closed the door. He sat down beside her on a chair and watched her for a while. After about half an hour she opened her eyes a bit and moaned and the alarm to notify Samson went off. He reached forwards and took her hand. “Do you want me to get painkillers from the Doc?”

  She focused on him and smiled. “No, I’ll be fine, just catch the truck that ran over me would you?”

  Kel laughed. “We did, don’t worry, Shannon is dead as well. We wiped out a complete family today. Eloise and Shannon were both Follower converts. Rennon is still with us. Samson’s working on him. He’ll be fine though, thanks to your speedy actions.”

  Kyla smiled. “All in a day’s work. I overheard something about controls being damaged?”

  Kel’s smile faded. “A bit of an understatement. The controls have been ripped apart by Shannon. She did a real number on the control panel and communication system so we need to wait until Rennon is up on his feet to get it fixed.

  I had a look at the manual but there’s no hope of me understanding it. Are you any good with that sort of thing?”

  Kyla shook her head.

  Kel smiled. “Good job you recovered that disc. We do at least have Rennon’s laptop contents and on there is the information we got from that last planet. So close to losing it eh?”

  Kyla smiled, and then winced. “We’re getting careless Kel, I didn’t see that coming. Rennon will sort it out. For now we’ll have to hang in space and hope that we aren’t found by a Follower vessel. Look on the bright side they left us floating.”

  Dr Samson put his head around the door. “Rennon is conscious. He is in a foul mood but his injuries are fairly minor in the grand scale of things. He has gone with some help to try to put the controls back together. If you are feeling like learning some new swear words you could always go and give him a hand and let me get on with what I’m doing here. Morning Kyla, good to see you awake. I’ll be with you in a while.”

  Kel smiled. “How bad can it be?”

  Kyla smiled enigmatically, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep as Kel left the room.

  As Kel got to the cockpit he was met by Rennon swearing and throwing things around. Wires hung everywhere, the soldering iron was hot and balanced precariously on the command console and Rennon was under the control panel. He realised Kel was there and got up too quickly, bashed his head and swore some more. “This is impossible, hopeless, how can I be expected to cope with this sort of damage.”

  Kel caught his arm and pulled him into the pilot’s seat and sat beside him in the co-pilot’s chair. “What’s up?”

  Rennon smiled ironically. “Plenty, I can’t believe she did what she did. I really thought I’d found a soul mate there, someone I could work with. Then the bitch uploads a drone program into my laptop, steals a copy of our hard drive and rigs the only samples we have. Just a few things. I can’t believe it.”

  Kel looked at the wrecked console. “Like mother like daughter I guess. We didn’t lose everything. Kyla got a disc off of her that she was uploading to the Followers. Seems she downloaded the contents of your laptop before she put the drone in. It’s in the security locker, safe.”

  Rennon visibly relaxed. “That is at least some good news. But I do have a backup, I hid one. It was part of the new protocol but at least I have a completely up to date copy from that. Yep, you said it, what a pair, but they didn’t have to take our pilot with them. He was a good man and an excellent pilot.”

  Kel put the box he had been carrying on the console. “Brought you some spare wiring, thought it might be useful.”

  Rennon smiled. “I could use it, she has wrecked miles of the stuff.” Kel smiled back. “Women eh.”

  Rennon looked down. “They aren’t all like that, how’s it going with Kyla?” Kel looked out of the window at the stars which hung motionless in the velvet backdrop of space. Some flickered, some were static. “CPR for over an hour, three injections and she crashed twice.”

  Rennon looked at him. “Look here mate. If you want that woman you’d better make a serious move soon while she’s still with us. If you don’t I will.”

  Kel looked shocked. He opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again. He thought for a while. “There’s more to her than she’s telling us. She won’t tell me. Do you have any idea?”

  Rennon smiled. “I’m not kidding, a woman like that doesn’t come along every day. You know me, I’m oblivious to most things when it comes to relationships. There could be a hundred and one reasons. We’ve all lived, loved and been hurt. Perhaps it’s something like that? Andralon asked for her on her home planet, perhaps she wanted to be with him? We don’t know, you could try asking her.”

  Kel sat down in the copilot’s chair. “She said she’d tell me one day.” Rennon looked up and took the screwdriver he was holding in his mouth. “Then she will. Now, let’s get on with fixing this wiring.” He grabbed the box off the table and crouched down under the console moaning slightly and grasping his ribs. He pulled out wire after wire, cut out the old wire and spliced and soldered in the new. Kel helped him, handing him the coloured wires as he called for them. They worked in silence, both lost in their own thoughts.

  It took man
y hours but finally Rennon stood up, holding his injured ribs and rubbing them. “Now that hurt. But the job’s done in part and we should at least be back in control now. Thankfully she didn’t really know what she was doing and pulled out wires in clumps. I’ve managed to reattach them. Let’s see what sort of a job I’ve done shall we?” He flicked on the console and lights flashed and the screen connected to the command module sprang into life. “You beauty, spot on, just what we need. Oh hell, look at that?” He was pointing at the proximity scanner. “We have company coming our way, lots of it and I bet it’s not for a party.”

  He grabbed the intercom and switched it on. “We have company, we have ships on their way. I’m receiving a hail.”

  Dr Samson responded. “You’ll have to handle it, Kyla crashed again and I’ve got her sedated.”

  Kel swore. “Oh well Rennon you had better take the hail.” Rennon was opening a channel and they waited.

  “This is Captain Hortios Abenath of the Command Ship Quesenth. You are within our territory and have not hailed us to announce your presence. Your ship is unfamiliar, announce yourself.”

  “This is Captain Rennon of the Argo. We are in need of repairs and our communications array has only just been repaired.”

  Abenath responded, his voice measured and calm. “Our scanners verify that. State your purpose.”

  Rennon took a deep breath. “We are exiles from our home, our ship has just been damaged by a saboteur and we seek to set down somewhere to carry out repairs.”

  Abernath responded immediately. “Our galaxy is a closed system. You may not set down here but we will escort you to our borders and you may be able to set down on Kealaros. It is our law, none may visit uninvited. These are troubled times. Go, with our blessing but know this we will be scanning you and at the first sign that you wish us ill intent we will blow you out of existence. We will assist you with our tractor beams. Will you accept our assistance?” The intercom clicked off.

  Rennon sat down in the pilot’s chair. He looked at Kel who nodded. He clicked the external intercom switch. “We would be grateful for your assistance.” He flicked the intercom off. “Well that was over quickly. We’ll limp there but we can get out of this galaxy. We don’t have the Eion drive but we have normal thrusters, I’ll fire them up.”

  Kel looked at the repaired command console. “It looks much better than it did. I wouldn’t worry about the thrusters at the moment, they have us in their tractor beam. This is where we find out if we have made a mistake letting them take control of us.”

  Rennon smiled. “All part of the service. It’s a fairly good repair, the communications are back on, we could use the Eion drive at a push but I want to run some tests first. She’s a good ship, she’ll hold together. It is only a small hole in the hull and the marines did a good job welding it. If we can set down without any trouble we should be fine. I’ll log in the co- ordinates and we can all settle down and get some rest.”

  Kel slipped into the co-pilot’s seat. “That would be good, we could all do with it. Rennon had you better get yourself back to the Infirmary? You aren’t looking so good.”

  Rennon rubbed his side. “Yes. It hurts like hell and the doc will catch up with me if I don’t go back. I’ll set up the autopilot, that seems to be running ok and I’ll get back to the Infirmary.” He choked slightly and a trickle of blood ran down from the side of his mouth.

  Kel leapt from his seat and caught him as Rennon momentarily passed out. Rennon put a hand on his arm. “I’ve got to get that autopilot sorted out. Give me a moment then I’d really appreciate some help getting back to the Infirmary.” He leant forwards, his face showing the agony he was feeling and began switching levers and keying in coordinates. “There done, now if you would be so kind.” He stood up and Kel stepped forwards and half carried him to the Infirmary.

  Kel returned to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s chair and looked out through the window at the stars. He rubbed both of his hands over his face, feeling the roughness of his palms and fingers and ran his fingers through his hair as he leant back in the chair. “Boy have I got to do something.” He got up and left the cockpit, closed the door and strode off down the corridor.

  Rennon lay back on the Infirmary bed and Jack ran his scanner over him. “Well done, you’ve undone most of my good work and now I’ve got to spend more of my valuable time fixing you. Relax, this may take a while.” Rennon moaned as the doctor felt around his injured ribs. His assistant, one of the engineers, was sitting with Kyla in the separate room watching her intently. Kel came in and the assistant looked relieved. “You can watch her now and I can get on with my duties for the day. She’s fine. Watch her breathing though. At the first sign of trouble call Dr Samson.”

  Dr Samson came into the room in about an hour. Kel looked exhausted but he kept his vigil. Jack smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s going to be fine. It was a tough one but as long as she stays put for a bit she’ll be fine. Look I’ve spoken to Rennon and its going to take us nearly a month to get through this galaxy.” He attached a pad to her chest. “Look, that alarm will go off if there’s a problem. If you want to go back to your room you can or I’ll ask one of the assistants to move a bed in here. Which?”

  Kel looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “In here.”

  The bed arrived and Dr Samson pulled the shutters closed leaving Kel to roll onto the bed and close his eyes.

  Kel sat in the chair, the bed was not in the room. Kyla smiled at him in a reassuring sort of a way. “Just say it, you know you can say anything to me.” She was sitting on the edge of her bed holding his hand.

  Kel took a deep breath. “I know, but this is different. You know, put a blaster or a sword in my hand and I don’t have a problem, at the moment I’m terrified as hell. It’s not like I’m some teenager asking his first date out. It’s not as if I can take you anywhere but, how do I put it. Anything that I think I should say just sounds lame. Will you go out with me is so teenager Earth. On our world we wouldn’t have this problem. The Aunts were always a good idea. They do the asking and the arranging. I don’t have one of those so I’ll just have to ask. If I was to take you somewhere romantic with a view to us being more than friends, what should I do?”

  Kyla smiled. “I never thought you’d ask. Well, we could start with a walk together after dinner, a bottle of wine and some time watching the stars. It’s about the best we can do for now.”

  Kel smiled, he looked relieved. “And after?”

  Kyla blushed. “That is a question you just can’t ask. We’ll see how the evening goes. For now I really need a shower too.” She saw his enquiring expression. “Alone.” She smiled as he blushed too. “I’ll see you later.” She got up and climbed up the stairs of his room.

  Kel woke up. The machine was bleeping slightly and Dr Samson had rushed into the room. He pulled back the covers and grabbed a pre drawn syringe which was on the metal tray beside the bed. He injected her and began administering CPR.

  Kel grabbed his arm but he ignored him. Blood was running out of the side of Kyla’s mouth and soaking the sheets. It ran down onto the floor and pooled at his feet as the machine began to scream. Dr Samson put the paddles down. “Declared. 11.22pm Eion Standard Time. I’m sorry Kel. She’s dead.”

  The machine was screaming and Kel awoke to find Dr Samson in the room turning a dial to turn the volume down. “Welcome back little one. You had us worried there for a while. Kel, what’s the matter you look white as a sheet.”

  Kel sat up and relaxed as he saw that Kyla was alright. “Just a nightmare.” Kyla turned her head to look at him. “Again, are you sure there’s nothing on you?”

  Kel looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

  Dr Samson raised an eyebrow and picked up a scanner. He ran it over Kel and then ran it over him again. “Hold on a minute, there is something. I’m detecting something in your blood. It could be an after effect of that drug they gave you.”

  Kel swore. “
Great, so now I’m going to get nightmares as well. All part of the devoted Follower after service I suppose.”

  Samson looked at the scanner. “We’ll get Rennon onto it as soon as we can. I’m going to sedate you both so that you can recover and so that you Kel can get some good non-nightmare disturbed sleep.”

  When he was sure that Kel was asleep the doc left him to work on Rennon who lay there moaning. “Will you shut up, I can’t give you any more painkillers and I’ve got to move those ribs back where you’ve moved them out of line again. Well did you manage to talk to Kel?”

  Rennon gave him a knowing smile. “I was going to try what we said, you know making out I was after her but I think they’ve spoken. It’s more complicated than we first thought. She’s hiding something, or at least not talking about something. Then again we all have a past don’t we?”

  The doc looked concerned. “Kel’s going to take something like that hard. He’s very black and white about things. We’ve got another problem there. There are after effects of that drug. I’m going to need you to work on one of the bio-scanners using the new information we have. He’s having nightmares, no doubt he’ll be getting paranoid and her being evasive on top of that is going to play on his mind.”

  Rennon moaned and held his side. “Get me out of here and I’ll get on it. We can’t make her tell but you could talk to her. Kel not only sees things in black and white, he’s a potential loose cannon if he’s upset. We don’t need that.”

  The doc smiled. “Now relax, that’s it done. The ribs are straight again and you are strapped up. The pain should ease off in a minute or two. Relaxing will make it easier. Look I’m going to put you out for an hour or two, it will help the bones set, these first few hours are essential.”