“The Kolean fleet’s had five ships boarded and confiscated. The Drevi fleet has lost seven,” Trell reported. Vandoraa was silent as he ground his teeth together, eyes glued to his own screen as he maneuvered his way through the battlefield.
“Vandoraa, hooks coming in from two ships off the port side,” Ted called from where he stood next to Trell, carefully observing the scanner readings.
“I see them,” Vandoraa said. One missed entirely, the other grazed the left side of the ship but did not lodge.
“Our engines are running a little hot. I’ll do what I can from here, but if we’re going to form a real crew, we’re going to need an engineer,” Trell said, his fingers dancing over the keys.
“Three rockets have been fired at us,” Vandoraa reported. At his command, the ship swerved to the left, forcing Trell to grip the computer harder and Ted to grab onto one of the handrails.
The ship rocked violently to the right, and something in the wall to Ted’s right exploded. Fortunately he was far enough away, because the gusts of hot air touching his face told him that the gas now spewing onto the bridge would boil his skin if it made contact.
“What the hell?” Ted cried as emergency alarms went off across the bridge as safety sensors detected the danger.
“That’s a gurulium vein. It must have ruptured when the missile hit,” Alana said. She glanced around frantically, looking for something, before she dove for one of the several storage drawers embedded in the walls. She opened the drawer with a click, and pulled out a decently-sized metal case. She stepped as close to the ruptured vein as she dared before removing a foot-long rod from the case and pointing it into the air. Another kind of gas hissed from the rod, cooling and neutralizing the hot, dangerous gas. Once that was done, she opened a small jar that looked like it contained some kind of oily gray sealant. Putting enough onto her fingers, she stepped towards the vein with her hands outstretched.
“Ted, help me or we’ll all suffocate,” Alana cried, beginning to rub the sealant over the rupture. Ted could see the mild burns on her hands from the hot gas still seeping through the cracks.
Swallowing his instinctive fear of being hurt, Ted pressed forward, sticking his hands into the jar of sealant. It was sticky and smooth as liquid mercury, and began to dry quickly on his fingers. He reached out and followed Alana’s example, biting back a scream as he felt his hands burn. With the two of them working at it, the sealant soon covered the entire crack. The gas stopped leaking into the air.
“We work pretty well as a team,” Trell said, panting, as the lights came back on and the alarms stopped sounding.
Ted, wincing in pain, slid back into the captain’s chair. “Trell, run a diagnostic on the ship. Make sure there isn’t any other damage that needs immediate attention,” he ordered.
Trell nodded and went about his assigned task.
“We’re entering the upper atmosphere. What do you want me to do?” Vandoraa asked.
“I need to get down there,” Ted said, his voice thick with emotion. “I need to get off the ship.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Alana said. “There are Drevi ships on all sides. We can’t just land and open the hatch. We’ll be stormed in minutes.”
“Are we close enough to set up an instant call to the surface?”
“We should be close enough to get instant communication,” Trell said. “But there still might be some lag.”
“Then get me Kenneth,” Ted said.
Trell sighed, glancing away from the diagnostic progress report on one side of the screen to the other, where he worked on getting a message through to the resistance leader.
Ted glanced down at the small screen to the left of the captain’s chair, where his call to Kenneth would be displayed. He waited impatiently before the man’s face finally appeared on the screen.
“Ted? What are you doing here?” the image said. The reception was a bit laggy, but it would have to do. Ted was too angry to care anyway.
“Ken, I swear to God,” Ted said, lost in his rage. “If anything happens to my daughter...”
“Your daughter?” Kenneth looked genuinely confused.
“Rachel, you incompetent idiot!”
If anything, Kenneth looked even more confused. “Why do you think I know where she is?”
“Don’t lie to me,” Ted snarled. “I saw her on the feed, and I know you know what she looks like.”
“I don’t know what you thought you saw, but I promise your daughter isn’t down here!” Kenneth cried. “Look, Ted, can we talk about this later? We’re kind of in the middle of something down here.”
“How many resistance groups joined in the fight?” Ted asked, struggling to push his personal feelings aside and focus on the business at hand. His thoughts were reeling in confusion. He was so certain the young woman he’d seen had been Rachel, but what reason did Kenneth have to lie about it?
“Just mine,” Kenneth said. “But there are three others watching. If we succeed, they’ll be convinced to join forces with us. And you want these guys, Ted. They’re almost as well-equipped and connected as my unit is.”
Ted had to wonder why they hadn’t combined their resources earlier. Some sort of stupid pride thing, he supposed.
“Ted, we have to land,” Trell said. “One of the other rockets hit our engines, and there’s no way we’re going to have enough power to clear the atmosphere the way we’re leaking fuel.”
Kenneth pursed his lips. “I’m sending you the coordinates for our makeshift landing site. It should be big enough for the December. We’ll talk more when you get here.”
“I can’t land there,” Vandoraa said. “We have to avoid that Drevi ship coming at us. I recommend another site, about seven hundred meters north.”
Ted nodded. “That’s fine.”
The December broke through the cloud cover, sailing over an endless green sea of rainforest. Within seconds, the ship set down in the abandoned landing site Vandoraa had noticed on the scanners. The jungle was beginning to grow back at the edges of the site, but not so much as to make a landing impossible.
“Well, shall we?” Alana said, almost sarcastically, as the four of them made their way towards the exit ramp.
The moist humidity of the jungle struck Ted before he even stepped off the ship, and he gasped, struggling to breathe. It was like trying to inhale water. The odd party stepped off the ramp and onto the wet jungle soil. He hadn’t looked too closely at the coordinates on the screen, but he guessed they were somewhere in South America. Monkeys screeched in the trees and birds called as they flew overhead, drowning out any distant sounds of the battle. It was like they were suddenly in a whole different world.
“Ted,” Trell said as his sharp eyes noted they were not alone.
Standing on the other edge of the landing site was a woman, short and almost blending into the trees around her. She had mousy brown hair that hung past her shoulders, and was wearing a somewhat dirty beige tank top with a gun at her hip and a knife strapped to her leg. Her baggy pants were a dull green. Alana reached for her weapon, but Ted frantically held up a hand to stop her. It was the same woman he’d seen on the feed.
“R—Rachel?” But the moment he was able to get a better look at her he knew it wasn’t his daughter. He’d hoped she had just dyed her hair, but she was much shorter and the face was all wrong. His heart sank. He’d so desperately wished he’d found his daughter that he’d started seeing things that weren’t there.
“I have no idea who Rachel is, but I’d appreciate it if you’d state your business,” the young woman said, not unpleasantly.
“Rachel... is my daughter. We were separated during the invasion, and I’ve been looking for her ever since,” Ted explained half-heartily. “I thought you were her.”
“Oh. Sorry to disappoint you, but my name’s Bea. Bea Hamilton.”
“I guess I’ll just have to keep looking,” Ted said, trying to sound upbeat even though he was screaming inside. “I’m sorry about the misu
nderstanding. I’m Ted Anderson.” He shook her hand.
“Can’t say it’s happened to me before, but it’s no big deal,” she said. “You guys with Kenneth’s group?”
“Not exactly,” Ted said, “but we’re trying to reach him.”
The girl regarded Alana, Trell, and Vandoraa curiously, who hadn’t said a thing. “I heard about the new aliens, but I haven’t seen one up close before.” She looked at Alana in particular. “Your feathers are pretty.”
Alana was taken aback by the compliment. “Thank you,” she said.
Ted started fishing for information. “So what are you doing all the way out here?”
“Well, I guess you could say I’m in the resistance,” she said, sounding angry. “I didn’t have much choice after the July left me here. I saw the December come down while I was patrolling and thought it might be the July coming back, but alas.” She appeared to be much more disappointed than she let on.
“You’re from the July?” Ted was shocked. He hadn’t expected that.
She nodded proudly. “I was the engineer. I was hand-chosen by Archie Barrer, the son of the President of Inotech.”
“Who did the December belong to, then?” Ted asked, both wanting to know and fearing the answer.
“His name was Gerard Myerscough. Why?”
“Well, I’ve sort of... inherited the December,” Ted explained, motioning to the ship behind him. “I was wondering... if there was anyone who might have a more legitimate claim to it?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. He’s long dead. A stray Drevi rocket leveled his house and the ship was confiscated.”
“So you did know him?”
“Yep. He was in the President of Inotech’s good graces, just like the Phantomwises. You got lucky. I guess by salvage rights, the ship is yours.”
The December was his, fully and truly. Now with a crew and a ship, it was like the entire universe had just opened its gates to him. For the first time in a long time, Ted experienced the feeling of unbridled joy, even in spite of not finding his daughter. At least he had something.
“We’re actually looking for Kenneth,” Ted said. “We’ll help him if we can.” If Rachel isn’t here we can at least help in some way.
Bea looked at Vandoraa skeptically, but said, “I know where they are. Follow me.”
The group began their trek through the jungle, which ordinarily wouldn’t have been a pleasant one, but Ted had stopped caring about discomfort. He had too many questions to ask. “So this Barrer fellow was your captain?”
“Yeah. Like the rest of the Twelve, he owned the ship privately and picked his own crew.”
Which was essentially what Ted was doing now. “And you mentioned the Phantomwises? Who are they?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them. They’re a powerful family from around here—Cusco, I think. Their daughters were captains of the April and the May, respectively.”
“And where are they?” Allies sounded good.
“The April was destroyed when the Drevi invaded. The May was off world at the time.”
Ted stopped dead in his tracks. “The May was off world? How come I didn’t know that?”
“Because it wasn’t exactly advertised. As for the rest of the Twelve, we’re not sure what happened to them,” she said. “My turn to ask the questions. Who are these Koleans? How on Earth did you convince them to help us?”
“It wasn’t that difficult,” Ted said. “They sought me out, because they wanted to help.”
“Well, to be more specific, we sort of ended up with you,” Alana said in good humor. “Someone had to testify before the Parliament, after all.”
Bea looked interested, but realized this was a story that would have to be told another time. “And then there’s the elephant in the room.”
“Elephant in the room?” Trell and Vandoraa asked in quizzical unison.
“An expression,” she said dismissively before directing her question at Ted. “What’s with the Drevi?”
“Vandoraa has become a close friend and he’s now my pilot,” Ted said, keeping his voice calm, but he was prepared to defend Vandoraa if he needed to.
“Is he trustworthy?”
“I’m right here, you know,” Vandoraa said crossly.
She glanced at him. “Sorry. I’m just... not used to talking to Drevi.”
He inclined his head, implying that no offense was taken, but that he was still uncomfortable with the whole situation. “I swore an oath. Drevi do not break their oaths easily.”
“He’s trustworthy,” Ted said, leaving no room for further debate on the matter.
She started down another track. “So you’ve formed your own little crew, huh?”
“We’ve only been ‘official’ for about two hours,” Ted said, “but yeah.”
“I assume you don’t need an engineer,” she said.
“As a matter of fact, we do,” Ted said, unsure what to make of her statement. Was finding one really going to be that easy?
She suddenly looked desperate. “You have to let me come with you. Please.”
“Wait, you mean, as the engineer of the December?”
“It’s the only way I’m going to get back to the July,” she said softly, as if not wanting to give further details. “The July is identical to the December, so I know her systems inside and out, and no one’s ever complained about my performance on the job.” She spoke as if she were at a job interview, trying to sell Ted on her skills.
“Tell us what happened, Bea. It’s all right,” Ted encouraged.
She looked from him to the two Koleans and Vandoraa, who was looking somewhat hesitant. Finally, she said, “The July was off world, too. Archie was just itching to get out there and explore. When we figured out what had happened we came back, but it was too late. I came down in a shuttle with a guy from our security team, but we were attacked by the Drevi. My crewmate died, and I lost contact with the ship. I found Kenneth’s resistance group and they confirmed there was no sign of the July in orbit. They left me, Ted. They left me.”
“I’m sure they didn’t want to leave you,” Ted said, trying to be comforting. “They probably had to run to save themselves.”
“Or,” Alana said, in a slightly darker tone, “the Drevi could have overwhelmed them.”
“No, not the July,” Bea said, shaking her head stubbornly. “Not the July or the December. They’re the only two ships we have that are just as good, if not better than theirs.”
“I think we’d be glad to have you on board,” Ted finally said after silently conversing with his crew on the subject. Their expressions indicated that they thought welcoming Bea was a smart move.
“Oh thank you, thank you!” she said enthusiastically. “I won’t let you down.”
The sound of voices reached Ted’s ears at that moment, and they began growing louder with each step. Finally, he reached out to push a leafy tree branch out of the way, revealing a large camp. There were nylon tents set up all across the area in a makeshift base, and while there were a few guards at the ready, Ted could see most people, both men and women, glued to screens, their attention firmly on the battle that was taking place far above them. Evidently Kenneth’s resistance group didn’t have enough combat-capable ships for everyone, so the rest were forced to wait around and do what they could to help, and start fighting if the battle ever moved to the ground.
“Hey!” A guard said, pointing his assault rifle at Ted. “Who are you?”
“I’m here to see Kenneth Wood,” Ted said, projecting as much authority and power in his voice as he could.
The guard looked skeptical, and kept his gun raised, but said something quietly to a colleague, who dashed off into the camp and soon fell out of sight. Within a minute, Kenneth came up to them.
“So you made it down safely,” Kenneth commented. He turned to the guard. “It’s all right, Brutus. I do know him. Though he can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes.”
Brutus lo
wered his gun as Ted resisted the urge to let out an irritated sigh. He was the pain in the ass? Kenneth obviously hadn’t looked in a mirror recently.
Kenneth began to ask Ted what they were doing down there when angered shouts and cries started coming from the other side of the camp. Brutus gripped his rifle tighter and ran towards the commotion. Kenneth pulled a handgun from the holster at his belt and followed. Ted bolted after them while Alana and Trell drew their weapons and followed, not wanting to rely on the humans for defense if it became necessary.
A Drevi was standing there with his hands up, surrounded by a bunch of armed resistance members. At first Ted didn’t recognize him, but as he approached his jaw almost dropped.
“Dr. Hio?” Ted said in shock. The Drevi doctor was one of the last people he expected to see.
“Ted,” Hio said, as if relieved to see him.
“Don’t shoot,” Kenneth told his people. “I want him alive.” He turned to the Drevi doctor. “Dr. Hio,” Kenneth growled. “The most infamous Drevi doctor in the entire invasion force.”
“We call it scientific research,” Dr. Hio said, unable to leave the insult to rest. “Listen, I’m here to see Ted.”
The puzzlement showed on Ted’s face. “What about?” And how on Earth did you know I would be here?
As if reading his mind, Dr. Hio said, “I was able to sneak away in the confusion of the battle. I knew if I found the resistance cell led by Kenneth Wood you’d show up eventually. I did my research and I know there’s quite a history between you two.” A pause. “I want to help you.”
“Shut up!” snapped Brutus, pointing his gun at Dr. Hio’s head.
“Let him speak,” Vandoraa said, not expecting anyone to listen to him but feeling he needed to try anyway. “You can always use more allies.”
Kenneth glared at his unwanted Drevi guests but finally said, “Fine. Say what you came here to say.”
“Queen Sostewa has gone too far. Even the military is starting to think so, but as far as they know she’s done nothing illegal, and thus opposing her would be treason. But I was able to uncover the truth. If we can expose some of the things she’s done, we can get a decent amount of the Drevi army to turn against her. She’ll never be able to hold onto her power after that.”
“Bullshit,” Brutus said. But he made no move to shoot without Kenneth’s command.
“No, he’s right,” Ted said. “That’s actually a really good idea, because change always comes from the inside. The thing is, it relies on the assumption that there is something horribly illegal she’s done, and you can prove it.”
“I know she has done such things. The proof is right here,” he said, holding up a small hard drive.
“And how do you know this?”
“Because no one would bother to put this much encryption on such a mundane file unless it was hiding something so dirty that the government doesn’t want anyone to see it. If I don’t have clearance, that means only the Queen and the Prince themselves do, since I hold the same rank as Gavton, Tavron, and the other top commanders and diplomats.”
“It doesn’t matter what’s on that hard drive, Hio, you’re my prisoner now,” Kenneth said. “Cuff him, Brutus.”
Ted was not adverse to Kenneth taking Dr. Hio prisoner, but something Vandoraa had said earlier was nagging him. This dissatisfaction among the ranks very well could be the card they needed to turn the tide completely in their favor, both militarily and diplomatically.
“Ted, come over here. I need to talk with you.” Kenneth stepped aside and into a private tent, and Ted followed.
“What is it?” Ted asked as soon as they were alone.
“I got word just before you showed up that the three other resistance groups think now is the time to strike. They’ve agreed to step in. While they do that, I’m thinking about leading a team against the compound where the Drevi had you and taking the November myself while they’re all preoccupied with the fight.”
Ted shrugged. “I don’t care about the ship, Ken. Go ahead and take it if you think you can beat the Koleans to it.”
“I think the Koleans have proven their good intentions, at least for the time being. They don’t need to get the ship for me. I’ll do it myself. I’m more concerned about how this is all going to play out once we win.”
Ted had to give Kenneth credit; he was always thinking ahead and planning thoroughly. “Set up a new government,” Ted stated. “Hold an election. Preferably one that encompasses the entire planet, not just a continent or two.”
Kenneth nodded. “Agreed. If we’re going to be dealing with other worlds, we need to be united.”
“It’s what needs to happen but it won’t be easy.” Ted stated the obvious.
“Oh, it’s going to be a bitch,” Kenneth said with a bark of laughter. “Though I’m hoping the invasion might have convinced people that we’re going to have to get serious about banding together to defend ourselves.”
Ted liked the sound of his words, but was still unsure about the functionality of this plan. After all, the resistance groups weren’t even united, though from what he could gather Kenneth’s was one of the larger and more powerful ones. How was the man standing before him going to unite a planet when he couldn’t unite a bunch of freedom fighters, all fighting for the same cause? “I wish you the best of luck with that.” You’re sure as hell gonna need it. A thought passed his mind. “Where’s Jodi, by the way?” In all the insanity, he’d almost entirely forgotten about her. He couldn’t recall seeing her around the camp.
“She’s in the European States,” Kenneth said.
“You sent her there?”
“Dear God, Ted,” he snapped. “I don’t force anyone to do anything. She volunteered.”
“What’s she supposed to be doing?”
“Forging alliances, of course. In case you haven’t noticed, we could use some of those.”
“She’d make a damn good ambassador,” Ted acknowledged. Jodi had majored in Political Science in college and she’d always been phenomenally good at mock debates. It was a natural gift.
“And then there’s the question of what to do with you. I don’t know why you decided to come shooting down here, but you can’t stay. We move frequently to avoid their scanners. Anyway, as soon as we’re ready we’ll launch our assault.”
“Don’t worry about us, Ken. We can take care of ourselves,” Ted said, bristling a bit. Though as to how they were going to do that, he wasn’t sure. It was his own stupid fault they were stuck down here. He’d been chasing an illusion. He knew that now. Perhaps he would never find his daughter, but since the thought almost brought him to tears, he shoved it aside. No. He had to keep looking. Keep hoping.
“And since you have so much on your mind, why don’t I take Dr. Hio?” Ted suggested.
Kenneth gave him a look. “I told you, he’s my prisoner.”
“And he was the one who held me hostage. You’re moving out anyway. Why not let me take him off your hands? Besides, I’d like to pursue his information about the Drevi Queen. It’d be a terrible shame if something went wrong and the Drevi were able to discover your location or plans because of him.”
Kenneth thought it over. He clearly wasn’t happy with this proposal but it did make logical sense. “Fine. Take him. Do your information gathering and espionage thing. In the meantime, I’m going to go get the November and then pound the Drevi into the ground so hard they’ll never even want to look at Earth again.”
Jesus, all this macho stuff, Ted thought to himself with disdain. Still, trying two different angles would double their chances for success. He agreed with a nod. “I’m sure I’ll see you soon,” he said with a wry smile.
Ted emerged from the tent a determined man. “Alana, go get Dr. Hio from the guards. Ken agreed to let us take him and follow up on his information. If they give you any trouble, just do your thing.”
Alana grinned. She liked the sound of that.
He turned to Bea as Alana left. “You might w
ant to give the December a thorough once-over when we get back. We’ve been using her pretty hard without knowing too much about what we’re doing,” Ted said with a sheepish smile.
Bea shook her head. “For the ship’s sake I’m glad you ran into me.”
Alana returned with Dr. Hio, and Vandoraa shot the doctor a sympathetic glance. Ted had thought about having Vandoraa escort their captive, but he had to admit he was still nervous that Vandoraa would find some way to let him go. After all, Dr. Hio was well-respected and not a terrible guy. Ted figured it would be much more difficult for Vandoraa to resist freeing him if the opportunity presented itself. Vandoraa, in turn, gave Ted a knowing look but said nothing. Perhaps complete trust would blossom between them eventually, but it would not be on that day.
“Which way did we come from, Trell?” Ted asked, getting back to business. He’d noticed throughout their “adventures” that Trell seemed to have the best sense of direction out of all of them, and he knew that was going to be a major asset to them in the future. It was part of his responsibilities as captain to know his crew’s strengths and weaknesses, after all.
Trell narrowed his intense eyes and inspected their seemingly-identical surroundings. Ted found himself vaguely wondering if Koleans could see more of the color spectrum than humans, because Earth birds surely could. Trell and Alana’s eyesight was probably much better than his, too. “This way,” Trell finally said.
They trudged through the jungle for almost half an hour, the light fading as the group finally neared the landing site.
After spending nearly the whole walk avoiding the conversation, Ted finally worked up the courage to ask Dr. Hio the question he’d always wanted to know the answer to. “So, why did you do it?”
Dr. Hio sighed, as if he’d been expecting it. “You know, I’m not even sure anymore. I had a genuine scientific interest in alien life, that much is certain. But it’s pretty clear I let my curiosity get the better of my morals.”
Ted glanced away. “I just wanted you to know, that I forgive you.”
Dr. Hio said nothing, but his eyes were closed and he wore a content smile on his face. Even if it couldn’t undo the things he’d done, it seemed Ted’s acceptance had put his soul at ease.
“Wait, stop, everyone,” Ted suddenly said. Something was amiss—Ted could sense it even before his eyes informed his brain what they were seeing.
Standing around the December were three Drevi. Ted was confused. Why would they only send three people after him? He supposed they could be scouts... no, they were too heavily armed for that. Something was really wrong here. The hard drive in his pocket seemed heavier than ever.
“We have Dr. Hio in sight, my Queen,” the lead Drevi soldier said to an invisible bystander. “The human Theodore Anderson is with him.”
“Kill Dr. Hio and Anderson,” commanded a garbled female voice over the communicator the Drevi soldier was holding.
The shock on the Drevi soldier’s face was nothing short of astonishing. His two companions looked extremely uneasy too, and with good reason. Ted couldn’t see his crew behind him, but they were all just as stunned as the Drevi were. The Queen of the Drevi had just ordered her soldiers to kill one of her own subjects. And not just any subject, a world-renowned scientist who was practically adored. “But my Queen...” the soldier began to protest.
“If you’re questioning my orders, you’ll wish the humans killed you.”
“They can’t do that,” whispered Vandoraa. “Even if Dr. Hio is a traitor, it’s illegal to execute him without going through a trial.”
It was clear the lead Drevi knew this too. But it seemed he wasn’t prepared to disobey a direct order from his Queen.
A massive force hit Ted straight in the chest before he could even register what was happening, throwing him to the wet ground. Someone screamed, Ted thought it was Trell. Then, with only a moment’s hesitation, the Drevi pointed his weapon at Dr. Hio, and fired.
“Dr. Hio!” Vandoraa cried as the scientist crumpled to the forest floor.
Ted was shocked; at first he thought he was hallucinating, or maybe wasn’t seeing things correctly because of the angle at which he was lying. The second shot echoed throughout the jungle and Dr. Hio was down before Ted’s mind could even process what had happened. Pain exploded in Ted’s chest as his brain caught up with the bullet and he saw the massive amounts of blood for the first time. He couldn’t even scream.
“Get them onto the ship! Now!” Bea was screaming as a firefight erupted. Alana and Vandoraa together downed the three Drevi without much difficulty, but the damage had been done.
Ted felt his eyes water as he stared at the body of his fallen... boss? Owner? Friend? “Thank you, for everything.” But he would never know if his weak voice had been heard. Dr. Hio let out one last pathetic gasp and then fell silent forever.
Ted felt Alana and Vandoraa’s hands gripping him and hoisting him upwards. He gagged and coughed up blood. He was bleeding internally now. Wonderful. Trell and Bea had picked up Dr. Hio’s body and began dragging it onto the ship.
Poor Vandoraa almost fell apart. “I’m so sorry, Ted. Please don’t die,” he begged.
Ted opened his mouth to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but with another wave of sharp pain he slipped into oblivion.
XVI
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