If she wasn’t worried enough about the breach, maybe he shouldn’t be either. He did have a lot of work he could be doing to help their project along. He spun in the chair and started to get up, before stopping in his tracks. No. This was too important.
Benson had done something, and Charles was going to learn what it was.
He started by scanning the real-time feeds in the ship’s system, looking for Benson’s current location.
Flint
“I’ll be damned; we made it,” Flint said as his foot left the forest and touched down on the wide rocky surface near the lake. The sun was up, and he was already starting to sweat in the warm morning heat. They’d arrived at dusk the night before, and it had been much cooler, but he could instantly tell the days were going to be nothing like that.
He undid the top three buttons on his uniform and shook the shirt, finding a little reprieve from the warmth. He found the canteen and stole a small sip, conserving what little water he’d brought. Water was heavy, and they had technology to filter pretty much anything if they needed to. With a whole lake at their disposal, he was confident he wouldn’t go thirsty.
Flint glanced at Bree, who’d remained in the shade of the forest. “If you think you’ll catch me undoing my shirt, you have another think coming, buddy,” Bree said, and Flint caught a hint of a smile under her glare. She was warming up to him. They always did. Ever since he’d been a young man, women had either loved or hated him right off the bat. Oddly enough, it was the ones who loved him first that ended up hating him, and vice versa.
The universe was a tricky bastard sometimes.
“I wouldn’t ever ask you to betray your innocence, Bree. Your kind are too few and far between, and you must conserve your virtue for a fine lad of equal gentleness. Perhaps you shall find such a character in this very swamp.” Flint let his pack hit the rock, and he grabbed a small pebble, flicking his wrist and throwing it toward the lake. He smiled as it skipped four times before submerging in the dark water.
“Where do you come up with this crap, Lancaster? Was there a course you had to enroll in to become a boorish smuggler?” Bree asked. She’d dropped her pack too and was walking toward the edge of the rocky outcropping, which rose a meter above the water’s edge. He joined her, looking down toward the sound of gentle waves lapping against the barrier.
“When was the last time you saw a lake?” he asked her, ignoring the insult. He appreciated her effort, but he was tired, and throwing jokes at each other for another hour wasn’t a great use of time.
Bree knelt down, peeled off a glove, and dipped her fingers into the lake. “I don’t know. I can’t remember. I’ve been a guard for a few years, and before that, I was serving tables on Mars. I guess when I was a little girl.”
“Are you sure you should be doing that?” Flint asked, nodding toward her submerged hand.
She pulled it out, inspected her fingers, and shrugged. “It seemed like the right thing to do. No sign of Fairbanks or the boy. If they made it this far, they’d be walking around the lake.”
“But which way?” Flint asked, finally scanning the horizon. He’d been so drawn to the lake in front of them, he hadn’t looked south, where a column of smoke drifted toward the sky.
“If I had to guess, I’d say they’re walking toward that fire,” Bree said smugly.
“How astute of you. Come on, let’s get moving.” Flint shouldered the pack again, hoping they found their destination sooner rather than later. The thing was starting to wear on his back.
“Wasn’t the beacon coming from this lake?” Bree asked.
Flint nodded. “As far as they could tell. It was hard to pinpoint, as the readouts were coming back a little garbled. It could have been at the edge of the lake… wait. What if they were traveling this way, and the damned bugs took them down? The colony ship might be underwater as we speak.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Some of them would have been able to escape if that were the case, right?” Bree was already walking, heading south, where they’d follow the lake’s edge as it curved toward the west. It would lead them directly to the fire.
“Maybe they’re making breakfast on the open fire right now. I could use some eggs.” Flint followed her, wondering if they’d find the other humans there safe and sound, or if it was going to be a disaster story. For Fairbanks’ sake, as well as the two thousand colonists, he hoped they were all right. Sixty years. A lot could happen in sixty years, but they hadn’t seen a single sign of civilization except the tuft of smoke wafting nearby.
Despite being exhausted, Flint increased his pace.
Ace
The smoke hadn’t looked too far away, but it wasn’t close either. Ace could tell Jarden’s mood was changing the longer they were on the surface. He’d been so gung-ho to get down here, it was as if he had no doubt his family was here waiting for him. Ace had been skeptical, until the smoke.
“It’s just around this small copse of trees.” Jarden was now limping, and Ace wasn’t far behind him. If it hadn’t been for the month of hardcore training he’d undergone recently, Ace would have been a puddle on the ground.
The lake remained to their left, and Ace was keeping an eye on it. A few times, he swore something moved under the surface. When he’d told Jarden, they’d stopped and stared at it for five minutes, seeing nothing. After that, they’d ignored it and kept walking.
There it was again. “Jarden, I saw it! Look!” Ace pointed to the water, where a dark shadow clung close to the surface of the lake before lowering and disappearing from sight.
Jarden paused and took another scan. “I don’t see anything, son. You’re just tired. Look, we’re almost there.” The old man might have been excited to see someone, but that didn’t stop him from pulling out his stunner as they entered the trees. The fire had been put out by this point, but the gentle puff of smoke gave them enough to work with.
When they were close enough to smell something burning, Jarden raised a hand to slow them down. He indicated that they should advance forward with caution, and Ace walked as silently as he could behind the councilman, trying not to step on any fallen branches.
They stopped short of the destruction. It wasn’t a campfire like Jarden had hoped, and Ace once again felt for the man. Pieces of a ship were spread out among the trees, and now they could see the source of the smoke was a tall tree, burning from what appeared to be a ship’s engine consumed with fire.
“No. They sent another ship down, and it crashed.” Jarden was walking toward it, and Ace joined him, searching for signs of a survivor.
“There’s no chute,” Ace whispered, but Jarden didn’t speak. He pointed over to a large section of the lander and found the cockpit partly intact. The hull was black from smoke damage, and Ace popped his head inside.
The corpse was black and smoldering, still strapped into his pilot’s seat. The smell of burning flesh overwhelmed Ace, and he fought the urge to throw up but failed. He spun around, losing the meager food he’d managed over the last few hours. He heard Jarden saying something, but couldn’t make out the words over the thrumming in his eardrums.
“He’s dead,” Ace croaked out, and wiped his mouth with a sleeved arm. He stumbled away from the wreckage and found his canteen. With a deep swallow, he tried to wash his throat clean of debris.
Jarden was staring impassively at the crashed lander when Ace sought him out.
Voices carried to them from the west, caught on a gust of wind. Ace’s finger rose to his lips as Jarden looked ready to speak. The old man noticed and held back, following Ace’s gaze beyond the lander.
Someone was coming. There was a tall rock near the edge of the water, and it would provide enough cover to hide from whoever was arriving. Jarden seemed to read his mind as he moved for the spot. When they arrived, Ace pressed his back against the rock and whispered as quietly as he could, “It might be Flint.”
Jarden shook his head.
“How do you know?” Ace asked.
Ace peered around the rock, hoping to get a glimpse, when three forms burst into the crash site. He could hear voices from their hiding spot.
“We have to alert the others. This could be them,” a woman’s voice said.
“This looks like ours,” a man said in reply.
“Ours? How? It’s only been two years.” The third voice was deep; it spoke with authority.
“What else can it be?” This from the woman.
Ace spotted them now. They were clearly human. He was about to tell Jarden, when the old man ran out from behind the shadows of the rock.
He made it twenty meters before he was spotted. Jarden started to say something, when he fell to the ground. The gunshot echoed around the lake.
Wren
“Do you think this is going to work?” Tsang asked Wren.
“It’s a good test. I’m sure you’d rather test this on a drone than another pilot. Are we good, Kat? I mean… Junior Lieutenant Bron.” Wren threw a grin at the younger woman.
“The drone’s being remotely controlled by my console. Tsang, do you have the lens focused on the correct coordinates?” Kat asked Harry.
The viewscreen flashed from a wide-angle image of the planet below to a specific shot just over the lake, where the beacon from the colony ship was sending a signal. “Coordinates set. We’re go, crew.”
Wren peeked back to the captain, who was sitting in her chair, observing the scene with interest. “Do the honors, Dr. Sando. This is your experiment,” Captain Barkley said, a wry smile on her face.
“Very well. Kat, launch the drone from Hangar Four, please,” Wren said from the seat beside Kat, and they watched as the left half of the viewscreen showed the jettisoning drone escape the side of Eureka. Blue thrusters burned hot as they raced the ten-meter-long drone toward the planet below.
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” Wren whispered as the drone entered atmosphere, glowing as it did so. Kat tapped the console controls, adjusting the small vessel’s trajectory.
The drone’s visual feed blacked out shortly after, but they could spot it on the viewscreen of their zoomed-in feed from the Eureka. From this angle, it was a small dot against the lake below.
“It seems to be doing okay,” Kat said.
“What’s that?” Harry Tsang asked, standing behind their seats, pointing to the right edge of the image on the viewscreen. “It’s some sort of cloud.”
The “cloud” moved like a swarm. It reminded Wren of birds flying in murmuration. “This isn’t a cloud. It’s a group of animals or insects flying in unison.”
“Are you sure?” Captain Barkley asked.
The mass was closing in on the drone. Wren’s heart was racing. This might be it. “Kat, give it something more. Can you light it up? Power a searchlight or something? Quickly?”
A light shot out of the drone, and they could see the powerful illumination on the lake below. The cloud moved faster now, racing for the drone. They reached it seconds later, enveloping it. The light cut out, and as fast as it had arrived, the mist moved on. The drone had gone dark.
Kat sat back, wide-eyed. “I’ve lost all control. It’s gone.”
“I think we know what happened to our landers and probes,” Captain Barkley said.
“The question becomes, how do we get someone on- or off-planet without being taken down by that destructive force of nature?” Tsang asked.
No one had an answer.
8
Flint
The gunshot rang out, and it was so surprising, it took Flint a second to register what it was.
Bree didn’t hesitate; she had her rifle ready and aimed, scanning for trouble in less time than it took Flint to breathe in and out. Impressive.
She was running for the trees again, and he joined her. They found a large trunk and crouched behind it.
“Bullet came from the west. How convenient. It was close. A kilometer or less… likely less, maybe half. What are you waiting for? Get your gun,” she urged him on, and he grabbed the rifle, leaving the stunner in its holster.
Bree started forward, and Flint raced after her, keeping behind the wide tree trunks where he could. He didn’t want to run into a gunfight, but if the other two were there, they might be in danger. Any guns here had to either be the colonists or Jarden and Ace. He didn’t think the Watchers were hanging out shooting beer cans with gunpowder muskets.
By the time they arrived at the source of the smoke, Flint spotted four people standing around a fifth on the ground.
“It’s Fairbanks!” Flint stepped out from behind the tree, his rifle raised, ready to fire. “Get away from the old man!” Bree was beside him, and he was glad for the backup.
“Flint, they’re not going to hurt anyone.” Ace’s voice hit him as he walked around a burly man. “Well… any more than they already have.”
Flint scanned the group, seeing worried faces on the newcomers. “Holy hell. They’re alive,” he whispered to himself, and lowered his gun. They were wearing uniforms with Earth Fleet logos, though they were a little worn. One of the men had foregone the regulations and cut the sleeves off his button-up dress uniform, exposing thick arms.
“What happened?” Bree asked, and Flint noticed she hadn’t lowered her weapon. She was charged with protecting Fairbanks, and here he was lying on the ground, unmoving.
“Someone shot him,” Ace said.
Flint was beside the group now, and he saw the blood pooling under Jarden’s leg. “Why’s he unconscious?”
The woman spoke, her voice light and airy: a dichotomy to the scene around them. “I suspended him so the bleeding would stop.”
This was a trick used in the infantry field. Someone was shot, you tranqed them, and they were suspended in stasis until you could get medical. It only lasted for an hour, tops, but often that was enough time to drag someone to safety. Other times, they came to and were worse off for it.
“Why did you attack them? Who are you?” Flint asked, scanning them for aggression. Their faces registered surprise and fear, but not hostility.
“Who are we? Who the hell are you?” the sleeveless man asked.
“This is Councilman Jarden Fairbanks,” Bree answered, as if that was enough of an answer.
The man stepped back as if he’d been slapped. “It can’t be.”
“It is,” Ace said.
“How did you get here?” the woman asked, her voice barely more than a whisper on the wind.
“Through the Rift,” Flint said. “Our ship, the Eureka, is in orbit. Where’s yours?”
The other man stroked his beard, as if considering where to place the next piece of a puzzle. “It’s in the lake. You saw the Suckers, I’m assuming?”
“The Suckers?” Flint asked.
“The damned bugs that eat anything with more than a few amps of current running through it,” the man finished.
“Yeah. We met them, all right. I take it that’s how you ended up underwater?” Flint asked the group.
The bearded man nodded. “The very same.”
“We’d better get back to camp with… Councilman Fairbanks.” The large man looked dubious.
“Do you guys have names?” Ace asked.
The woman answered. “I’m Jane, and this is Karl and Bull.”
“Because you’re as big as one?” Flint asked.
The big guy stared at him before grinning. “I grew up on a farm, what’s it to you?” Bull asked, and Flint laughed despite himself.
“This is Ace, I’m Flint, and this lovely woman is Bree. You know the councilman already,” Flint said.
“He’s on the Council? He was a commander before,” Karl said.
“Enough chit-chat,” Bree barked. “We need to get him help.”
Fairbanks was still out cold. Jane took the lead. “We have a cart just over here. W
e came as soon as we saw the smoke.” She pointed through the trees, and Flint helped Bull carry Jarden over to their makeshift vehicle. It looked like an ox cart from ancient agriculture, only it had no animal pulling it. A chain system was attached to the tires, with pedals along the front bench.
As if seeing Flint’s inquiring eyes, Karl answered the unasked question. “When you can’t use electricity without having it destroyed, you have to get creative. We came to this world expecting to have everything we could ever need to develop a new city. It’s easier said than done when you can’t use any of the tools or supplies we brought.”
Jane cut in. “We’ve had to get back to our roots.” She hopped up into the cart and sat down above one side’s pedals.
Ace smiled and jumped to the other side. “Mind if I give it a try?” he asked, and Jane motioned for him to take a seat.
There was a second bench behind the pedal row, and a flatbed to haul supplies. They laid Jarden back there, and Bree sat on the deck beside her charge. Flint was sandwiched on the middle bench between Karl and Bull. It was a cozy fit.
Jane began pedaling, and Ace evidently joined her, trying to keep time with her rotating legs. They were off, albeit at a clunky pace.
“Bet you never expected to be riding your vehicles like this when you signed up to join a colony, right?” Flint asked.
“We didn’t expect a lot of things,” Karl answered quietly beside him.
The ride was bumpy but didn’t take long. Ten minutes later, they approached a fortified village. A thick log fence was erected for as far as the eye could see, and Flint understood how much work that must have taken without the use of an android or drone team. He glanced at Bull and guessed the big guy had been a key player on the project.
“Welcome to Logtown,” Jane said with a flourish.
“Logtown?” Ace asked. “Not very original, is it?”
Karl laughed. “It started as a joke, but we never did come up with anything better, so it stuck.”
The Resistance- The Complete Series Page 30