Sanctuary's Soldier: The Darkspace Saga Book 1

by B. C. Kellogg

  Flagship. Conrad’s heart skipped a beat. Did he mean the Florian Sun or the Verdant?

  He kept his face stony.

  Heik seemed to sense his determination to stay silent and continued speaking. “Not before you sent that hopeless mining ship to its doom, of course. When I saw that ship, I knew you’d come back for him,” Heik said coldly. “You’d do the heroic thing—the foolish thing—and try and save a man who was already dead. Federation rebels are eminently predictable.”

  Conrad gritted his teeth.

  “Ah, there it is,” Heik said, watching his jaw flex. “The defiant rebel. I’ve broken more than my share of rebels in my time in the navy, I assure you. You will not be the first—and neither will you be the last.”

  Heik studied Argus for a long moment. “He looks as if he may survive the removal of his teeth and eyes,” he said thoughtfully. “Well. No matter. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at vivisection. And then there’s the deserter. His anatomy is even better aligned with yours than this beast’s is. Should your pet die, have no fear—we have other ways of motivating you. Now, where do you come from?”

  Conrad closed his eyes. He wasn’t going to say anything more. Heik wasn’t going to let Argus leave the Secace alive—so there was no reason for Conrad to say anything more.

  As if sensing his decision, Heik gestured to his attendant, who stepped out of the shadows. He wore the gray uniform of an officer, and held a small remote in his hands. “Lieutenant,” Heik said. “Proceed.”

  This time Conrad screamed at the same moment Argus howled. The pain cut into his innards and lasted twice as long as before.

  There was nothing but fire lighting up every nerve in his body, scorching his insides. Conrad could feel the desperation growing in the base of his skull, like a poison eroding his will.

  When the pain faded he could taste blood in his mouth. He’d bitten deep into his tongue.

  “Tell me,” Heik ordered him. “Tell me where you come from. And who your masters are.”

  Conrad panted for a moment. He made eye contact with Argus, who was shaking against his restraints.

  Sorry, Argus. I should’ve done better by you.

  Then he closed his eyes again.

  “No,” he said simply. “To hell with you.”

  Conrad was deep in the throes of agony. His throat was raw from screaming but he couldn’t stop—it was the only thing he could do. He felt nothing but pain upon endless pain.

  He knew he should have passed into unconsciousness a long time ago, but even that was made impossible. There was nothing but waves of pure sensation.

  There was a point, Conrad realized, where the pain became its own reality. Where it wasn’t so much suffering as it was something that was simply there, like air.

  He gasped as the pain disappeared, leaving his body aching and bewildered. He spat out the blood in his mouth and stared up at Heik, still silent and defiant.

  The captain turned to the lieutenant. “Increase levels,” he ordered. “Leave it on for the next cycle. If the animal lapses into unconsciousness, revive him by whatever means necessary—”

  At that moment the clang of an alarm sounded throughout the ship. Heik paused, then turned to the lieutenant. “Continue,” Heik intoned as he turned away. “Lieutenant, I leave this interrogation in your hands. I will be on the bridge for the jump and will return within the hour.”

  A jump—a portal!

  Adrenaline spiked through Conrad’s system.

  This is my chance. The one chance I’m going to get. Good god, Redeker, for once in your life, try not to mess this up. His thoughts were in turmoil. Conrad struggled to gain control.

  His own life—and the lives of Argus, Jira, and Baltasar—hung in the balance. Beyond that, Sanctuary itself was at risk.

  But first things first. Before the portal would come the pain. He watched as Heik left the room, the door sliding shut behind him.

  The lieutenant triggered the remote.

  Conrad took one deep breath.

  Argus screamed. It was a sound Conrad had never heard any living being make. It stabbed into his eardrums, and a second later his body electrified with pain.

  He lost track of his own voice. He didn’t know if he was screaming or calling out, whether his skin was still on his body or if his flesh was being peeled from his skeleton one layer at a time.

  It’s over, he realized, with the last remnants of his conscious mind. This is the end…

  As he fell toward unconsciousness he felt a familiar lurch.

  The portal.

  Chapter 32

  For Argus. For Jira. For Baltasar. For Rose…

  The names were a mantra Conrad repeated to himself, over and over, as he pushed past the pain stabbing into his flesh.

  Stay awake. Awake!

  Time slowed down as it always did within the portal. The sensation was familiar, but his tortured flesh was making it nearly impossible for him to focus.

  I’m here. I’m… ready.

  Suddenly the answer came to him.

  Conrad stopped resisting. The pain poured over him and through him as he accepted it as his reality. It was strange how he could see through the suffering once he embraced it.

  He felt his body, every nerve throbbing with sensation. He could feel his legs tingling, his torso and head pulsating… and he could feel his fingers twitch.

  I can move my fingers…

  The realization sent a jolt of energy through him. Time seemed to speed up slightly before he caught it with his consciousness and slowed it back down until it seemed to stop entirely.

  Conrad closed his hands into fists, his fingernails digging into his palms. Whatever the Imperials were using to paralyze him didn’t work inside the portal. He lifted his head. He grabbed at his throat, his hands sliding up over his face to touch the needles piercing his temples with trembling fingers.

  He groaned as he pulled them out of his head. The needles were coated with hot, slick blood. The pain peaked.

  Then it disappeared.

  Conrad swung his feet over the platform and set them down on the floor. He tested his weight, feeling the unsteadiness in his body. He stumbled across the room to Argus, ripping off the sensors and drawing out the needle from his head. Argus’s eyes were wide open; they did not blink as Conrad freed him. Conrad prayed the Kazhad didn’t feel what he was doing.

  With Argus set free Conrad surveyed the room, moving slowly as if he were swimming in syrup.

  The lieutenant stood next to Argus’s platform. One of his hands held the remote that controlled the torture devices. His other hand hovered above a console—a console that would accept a bloodprint!

  Conrad seized the lieutenant’s wrist and lowered it down to the console.

  Nothing happened. Conrad feverishly wondered why.

  Time. Time is the key.

  He released it in his mind, letting time slip away faster. Computers worked faster than human perception, and Conrad hoped the few microseconds he had allotted would be enough time.

  The console began to light up, accepting the lieutenant’s bloodprint. A faint glimmer of hope rose in Conrad’s chest.

  He began to enter a command into the console. Time was accelerating, despite his attempts to hold it back. It pressed into his consciousness, speeding up time even as he pushed back. There would be time for only one command before they dropped out of the portal and time returned to normal.

  His mind raced through the possibilities as real time trickled away.

  Weapons… access… what’s it going to be?

  He wrapped a hand around the lieutenant’s throat and typed in the command.

  Release all prisoners.

  He sensed that time had run out.

  Deep within the Secace, Conrad was caught in the final microseconds within the portal. For the first time, he wasn’t gazing out a cockpit window into the strange universe within the portal; he was trapped.

  But he realized that it meant nothing. He w
asn’t bound by the ship. No. The ship was bound by him.

  This time, Conrad knew. He decided.

  He was beginning to understand the portal, and his gift.

  The space within the portal shifted into the shape of a maze. Conrad reached through it, searching for a place he’d been before.

  There it is…

  He seized it.

  Conrad felt it the minute the ship dropped out of the portal.

  Now.

  He tightened his hand around the lieutenant’s throat, and forced the man against a platform with what was left of his strength. The officer’s eyes bulged in shock as he found himself being held down.

  Conrad wasted no time. He found the manual restraints and bound and gagged him before turning to Argus.

  “Thanks,” he said to the man as he yanked the lieutenant’s gun from his waist and tucked it into his own belt.

  “Wake up,” he hissed through gritted teeth as he tore the sensors off the Kazhad’s flesh. He worked the controls, his heart hammering. “C’mon, Argus, c’mon. Wake up.”

  He put a hand on the Kazhad’s chest. Argus’s eyelids slowly opened, hazy with pain.

  “Argus,” he said, unable to stop himself from smiling. “You big oaf.”

  A low, broken roar climbed out of Argus’s throat.

  The smile faded. “I know it hurts, pal. Stay with me. We’ve got to get moving.”

  He helped Argus step off the platform, his arm bracing the Kazhad. Together, they moved toward the open door. Argus was gradually finding his feet, his strides growing longer and stronger.

  “Wish I could tell you to take it easy, Arg,” he muttered. “But we’ve gotta get out of here.”

  “Do you know where we’re going?” Argus grunted. He pulled himself free from Conrad, his back still hunched with pain.

  “Sure as hell not going back in there,” Conrad said. He yanked the gun out of his waistband and shot three crewmen running down the corridor. “I remember the way to the docking bay. C’mon.”

  Argus limped forward and grabbed his arm. “Jira,” he said. “Baltasar.”

  “I’m way ahead of you,” he said to Argus. “They’ve been released. All we have to do is find them.”

  Conrad’s hand tightened around the gun. “The console there,” he said. He raced toward it. He grabbed one of the crewmen and pulled his hand toward the console for the bloodprint.

  “Location of prisoners Jira Tai and Baltasar Zeph,” he said. The computer paused, tracking.

  Prisoners were housed on level thirty-seven. Current location unknown.

  “Damn,” Conrad muttered. He’d known they wouldn’t stay put in their cells—but how was he supposed to find them now?

  The answer came to him in a flash. He dug into his pocket, searching for a teardrop earring.

  “Jira,” he panted, dodging fire before ducking into a small alcove with Argus. “It’s me.” He waited for her response, his heart thumping.

  “I knew it,” he heard her crowing, her voice small and tinny through the tiny earring. “It was you!”

  He grinned at the sound of her voice. “Where are you?”

  “Never mind where I am,” she said. “What matters is where we are. I’ve tapped into the ship’s internal comm lines. We’re back at Pac Ishi!”

  Conrad’s head was swimming. It had worked. He’d manipulated the portal into spitting the Secace out where they never expected to be.

  “They’re panicking,” she said. “They don’t know what happened. But you, Conrad. I knew it was you!”

  “We have to get back to the Oro Yurei,” he said.

  “Yes,” she agreed, serious again.

  “Can you get me there, if you’re hacked into their system?”

  “I can tell you where to go, but how’re you going to get through the doors without a valid bloodprint?”

  Argus lifted his gun, stolen from one of the crewmen Conrad had shot. “We’ll manage,” Conrad promised.

  “You’ll need a bloodprint on par with the captain’s to get the docking bay to release the Oro Yurei,” she said.

  “They deactivated mine,” he said.

  “Then you’ll need to reset the ship computer. And the only way to reset the ship’s computer is to shut down the AI nucleus,” Jira said.

  A shot went past him. Argus lunged out and shot back. They didn’t have much time.

  “Can you do that?” Conrad asked.

  “I can, but it’s going to take time,” came the response. “Get down to the bay. When the artificial gravity goes, you’ll know that Baltasar and I have shut it down.”

  “Understood,” he said. He looked directly at Argus. “You ready?”

  Argus gave a single nod. Conrad gripped his gun tightly in both hands, and nodded back.

  Time for a fight.

  Two levels down, five more to go. Conrad aimed his lasgun at the panel next to the door and fired. It blew up with a flurry of sparks.

  There were Imperials coming up behind them, and they had to get to that door fast. Argus grunted as a shot went past them, almost scorching his fur.

  The Kazhad was exhausted and injured, but still holding out far longer than a human ever could.

  “Not much longer now,” Conrad promised, and fired back at their attackers. “Get through that door, Argus. C’mon. One—two—three.”

  He pushed Argus in front of him and ran, daring only to fire a few blasts behind them. The Kazhad yanked the damaged door open and closed it behind them. For a few minutes, they were safe in the small node between corridors, doors closed on either side of them. Conrad spoke into the earring.

  “Jira,” he said. “We’re running out of options here—they’re coming too fast. And they know where we’re going.”

  “Sending you another path,” she said briskly. “Balt and I are coming around the other way. We’ll meet you there.”

  “Focus on rebooting that AI,” he ordered.

  “Acknowledged. Follow the path I’m sending. It’ll take longer than the direct route, but it will be harder for them to follow you.” She recited a string of directions into his ear. Conrad grimaced. One misstep and they could be walking through an airlock.

  “Say that again,” he said to her. “Not all of us have an eidetic memory.”

  As she repeated the directions he eyed the panel above them and pulled down the grate, climbing into the tunnel above. It seemed to run parallel to the corridors beneath.

  Conrad grunted as he pulled Argus up and into the crawlway. With any luck, once the Imperials got the door open they would assume he and Argus had gone the other direction. The grate clicked as he put it back in place. He turned and calculated the best route.

  Three nodes down, a right at the central juncture on this level…

  “This way,” he said to Argus.

  They climbed down from the crawlway and hit the ground running. Conrad shot a single Imperial manning a comms station before the man could react.

  Almost there, Conrad repeated to himself, over and over. Almost there…

  But Argus was still slowing down.

  “We’re almost there,” he panted. Argus only gave a single guttural growl in response.

  One of the doors to the docking bay was in sight. Conrad wanted to believe this was the end of their journey.

  This is too easy, his instincts warned him. They’ve got to know we’re headed for the Oro…

  He saw a weapons cache, similar to the one Argus had found their first time on the Secace.

  “C’mon,” he said, grabbing his arm. “In here.”

  Crushed into the cache, Conrad peered out through a thin slit in the door. A squad of Imperials rushed past them and into the docking bay. He could only see for five seconds, but it was enough: The Oro Yurei sat on the far end, and inside the bay there were multiple armed guards waiting.

  Figures.

  Conrad fumbled for the earring. “Jira,” he said. “We’re outside the bay, but it’s crawling with guards.”
<
br />   “I know,” she said. “I’m one of them. And so is Balt.”

  “How do we get in?”

  “You can’t,” she said. “Not yet. Give me time. And arm yourself with whatever you’ve got.”

  Chapter 33

  They waited, crouched in the dark, their stolen weapons discarded in favor of the deadly, full-charged lasguns in the weapons cache.

  Conrad could hear Argus’s labored breathing. “You all right, Arg?” he asked.

  “Fine,” was the response, but Conrad could almost feel his pain and exhaustion.

  “This isn’t so different from first year boot camp,” he said. “Not as many girls, of course…”

  Argus closed his eyes.

  “Hold on,” he said urgently. “Just a little longer—”

  C’mon, Jira.

  He felt the earring vibrate between his fingertips. He lifted it up and placed it inside his ear. “Conrad,” she whispered, her voice low. “The Secace—they’re taking her back through the portal.”

  Ah, hell.

  The Pac Ishi portal would take them to Escaton, and from there they would go forward into the major Imperial systems.

  Jira apparently thought the same. “We can’t go there,” she said. “Who knows where they have reinforcements?”

  His mind raced. For all he knew, the fight was still raging at Baro II, and Albion Prime was out of the question. Except for Pac Ishi, all the portals he had traveled through were under Imperial control.

  “Take us somewhere unexpected,” Jira said, as if reading his mind.

  An idea occurred to Conrad. It was a risk, but if it worked, the Secace would be utterly lost and disoriented.

  “Entry in three. Two. One,” she chanted.

  Conrad closed his eyes.

  He opened his eyes again as the universe steadied. It took only a minute before he heard the insistent blaring of an alarm.

  He allowed himself one crooked little smile. The gamble was working—so far.

  “Where in all the universe are we?” Jira hissed softly.

  “Just reboot that AI,” he said.