But he didn’t carry the burden alone.
The Syn-En followed him, believed in him, watched his back.
And now three of them had been rescued from the Founders’ convoy they’d destroyed. God knows what they had endured at the hands of the enemy.
Once in the elevator, Richmond and Brooklyn bracketed Doc, guarding Nell’s portside. London, Ecuador, and Shang’hai mustered on her starboard side. The featherheaded Skaperians joined them last, taking point. The bell chimed before the doors eased closed, blocking out the view of the Syn-Ens in the corridor to the assembly room.
Bei limited access to the WA. Once he determined which of his men had been rescued, he’d notify their cohort. His men would rely on each other, heal each other.
Nell leaned against his shoulder. Her breath warmed his skin and her thoughts transmitted through their secure channel in the WA. After everything those refugees went through, how could anyone think to betray us?
There are always those who seek to better themselves in times of war. His sensors detected the rapid flutter of his baby’s heart. A child. He’d never expected to have a baby. Then again, he never expected to meet someone like Nell. He rolled the tension from his shoulders. He would win this war.
He had no choice. Glancing up, he caught the Skaperian leader’s reflection in the polished steel.
Ugu smoothed her white feathers off her forehead. “Now that we are in a secure location, perhaps you could speak aloud instead of just here.” She tapped the temple of her moonpie face.
Bei’s circuits prickled.
“Don’t look so surprised, Beijing York.” Ugu’s aquamarine eyes twinkled. “The Amarooks have pack meetings to deal with all the voices they encounter when they bond with a Syn-En. Most find it fascinating. Others unbearably messy.”
Nell rested her forehead against his back.
Doc, check my wife. Shifting to the side, Bei wrapped his arm around her. What if she disappeared again? And just where the hell had she gone that his sensors couldn’t detect her? He’d already probed her memory files. Nothing about the attack near sick bay. And absolutely no indication that she was anywhere before she woke up in their bed nearly two hours later. His skin itched from the anomaly. Sequestering the files, he sent them to his chief of communications to examine.
I can feel you inside my head, Beijing. What are you up to? Nell rested her hand on Doc’s arm, to save him from the shock of touching her without her guardian fermites’ permission.
Just checking on you. He caressed her cheek and she sighed into him.
“Thanks.” Static electricity teased the black hair on Doc’s arms. “I think the build up of fermites is causing the excessive charge.”
Nell’s heart thumped. “Do you think it will hurt the baby?”
Accessing her cerebral interface, Bei ordered a low dose of Serotonin to be released in her system then added a dollop to his. His wife was unlike anything his men had encountered. Even the universe viewed her as an oddity. Of course, he’d rip off his protheses and beat to death anyone who said that to her.
Doc shook his head then shrugged. Using a sterile needle, he pricked her finger then ran a capillary tube across the red bead, collecting a sample. “I don’t know. I’ll have to ask Davena. She has more experience with the fermites.”
“The babe will be fine. Healthy.” Ugu thumped her staff. “The Amarooks have tasted Nell and declared it so. Iggy and Elvis are no doubt deciding which of their pups will bond with it.”
Bei hoped the Amarooks wouldn’t lick his child as soon as it was born.
“We’d have a pruney baby from all that washing.” Nell snuggled closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. A tremor rippled through her. Despite the change in topic, she hadn’t forgotten why they were heading below decks.
Or the danger they faced.
Doc’s eyes darkened. “You don’t mind if I run a few more tech-based studies.”
Ugu pursed her lips. “They will tell you the same thing. And we are wasting time. Instead of using your technology to rediscover what you’ve already been told, you could put it aside and tell me what caused Elvis to disappear and run from the assembly room in search of his mate?”
Bei eased his wife behind him as the elevator glided to a stop. Whatever threatened them would have to get through him to hurt her. “We have a traitor in our midst.”
Ugu hissed. “A traitor? Are you certain?”
Shang’hai tossed her pink dreadlocks over her shoulder as the doors slid open. “Mechanic Montgomery Smith doesn’t make mistakes.”
Bei tugged on the thread of tension in his Chief Engineer’s voice. Had something gone wrong in the two’s relationship?
Ugu blinked. “I do not think I know a Syn-En Montgomery Smith.”
“That’s because he’s not a Syn-En; he’s a civilian mechanic.” Nell eased away from Bei as the elevator doors opened. “He has one prosthetic arm and is a whiz at repairing anything and everything.”
“Not anything, Nell.” Standing in the hallway, the ebony Smith bounced on the balls of his feet. His gaze skittered off Bei and stuck to Shang’hai. His jet eyes softened for a moment, then he mentally shook himself and drew up straight. “Just most things.”
Bei marched in lockstep with his men out of the lift and down the corridor. Dread sucked at his boot heels. “Who are they?”
The voice print hadn’t matched any of his men. Nor had there been reports of missing Syn-En on the ships that had checked in. Yet, the Amarooks and Bei’s scans confirmed that the SOS from the life pods had been on a secure Syn-En frequency. But who?
Stuffing his hands in his overalls, Smith tromped across the metal grating and into a repair bay. “Were. Past tense. They’re not alive.”
Swearing blistered the WA.
Save it for the enemy. Bei ordered his command staff.
“Basically, we rescued corpses.” The mechanic led them through pillars of oxygen scrubbers, vats of water reclamation equipment, and tubs of food waste processors. Steam belched from pipes to relieve pressure. Rotors chewed up the garbage. An assembly line of medical waste was stopped on the left. “And they weren’t fresh corpses either.”
Smith shoved aside a curtain of prosthetic legs and arms and stepped into an area with work tables arranged in a U-shape. Cloth draped the contents of three tables.
Two Skaperian scientists poured a silvery liquid around a humanoid mannequin. The metal formed rivulets before collecting in a puddle in the pan under the dummy’s feet. Shaking their feathered heads, they stooped, uncorked the drain and collected the liquid back into their flask.
Bei scanned the material. NeoDynamic Armor. Why were they experimenting with Syn-En skin? And who authorized it?
Ducking under his arm, Nell cleared her throat. Color tinged her cheeks.
What else had his beautiful wife authorized?
“You need a current to make it work. A current.” Smith rolled his eyes and turned toward three tables, each covered with a stained cloth. The shapes underneath were roundish, not humanoid. He grabbed one side of the tarp, but didn’t remove it. His gaze locked on someone beyond Bei. “It’s not pretty.”
Bei cocked an eyebrow and eased his grip from Nell’s.
“Don’t even think it.” Her fingernails bit into his side. “I’m staying.”
“We are soldiers.” Shang’hai’s nostrils flared. She stood near the foot of the table.
Doc flanked her on the left.
The four subordinates fell back to guard the entrance. There would be no accidental observers today. No spies to report that the Alliance now knew there was a traitor in their midst.
Ugu and Apollie fanned out next to Nell.
Sighing, Smith rolled back a quarter meter of the cloth. Then another. And another.
The head was missing. The neck was a jagged mess.
Ugu leaned closer. “Scraptor claws.”
“Yes.” Doc ran a finger along the edges. “Three sets to cut through.”
“God.” Nell clamped a hand over her mouth.
“He wasn’t alive when it happened.” Smith set the folded tarp at the bottom of the leg stumps. The torso had been crushed to a quarter of its normal size.
Bei increased the sensitivity of his optical scanners. The heel marks matched Scraptor boots. He committed the pattern to memory. The perpetrators would be repaid in kind.
Shang’hai’s hand shook when she lowered it on the remains. “What kind of projectile penetrated our armor?”
Smith rubbed his damp cheek on his shoulder. He held up an assortment of screwdrivers and drill bits typically located in Syn-En finger cavities. The metal was bent and twisted at the ends.
Bei swayed on his feet. “They used our tools against us?”
“They have to be strong enough to pry apart locked armor to make repairs.” The tools clanged against the table. Smith wiped his hands on a stained rag. “I don’t think we ever anticipated them being used as darts.”
Shang’hai glared at her dark fingers. “There’s another substance here. Chalk.”
“Targeting our vulnerable points.” Compression alerts flared in Bei’s jaw. He forced himself to relax. “The enemy practiced killing us.”
Shang’hai rubbed the back of her neck. “They’re going to need more practice to kill us before we destroy them.”
“Who were they?” Nell stumbled toward the next table. She yanked off the cloth and threw it aside. The blue fabric fluttered for a moment before drifting down.
Bei caught his breath. The second body was worse than the first. Limbs had been stuffed where limbs weren’t meant to be on a Human. This Syn-En husk was bloated and his sensors detected explosive residue, as if blown up from the inside. The head was an empty shell. A singed optical sensor hung from an eye socket.
Nell moved toward the third body. “This is wrong on so many levels.”
Increasing the strength in his legs, Bei sprang over the first remains and lunged for his wife.
Apollie held her burgeoning belly with one arm and grabbed Nell’s elbow with her free hand. “This insult will be repaid.”
“On an infinity loop.” Shang’hai cracked her knuckles.
Smith skidded to a stop in front of the third set of remains and clamped his hands on the blanket, pinning it to the table. “This one is the worst. There are… remains still inside.” He paled under his dark skin. “I think we need an autopsy more than a deconstruction on it..”
Bodily fluid stained the cloth and the stench of decay and charred flesh permeated the air. Worse. Bei tugged his wife from Apollie’s hold and turned Nell to face him. “Perhaps, you—”
“No. I need to see this. Everyone needs to see this.” Her heart raced and her skin was warm.
His wife was angry. Very angry. But she would stand in line behind him and his men if she wanted revenge. “I don’t think it is wise for everyone to see this.”
“Definitely not!” Ugu thumped her staff. “Right now everyone believes the Syn-En and Skaperian forces can best the Scraptors in a ground battle. We need them to keep believing it.”
Nell’s blue eyes bore into his skull.
A prickle alerted him to her presence in his mind. He locked the memories of her disappearing away. His allies could know this development, but not Nell’s vanishing act. What are you looking for?
You’re keeping something from me.
Apollie retrieved the tarp from the floor. “Is this why you didn’t wish to make more Syn-En?”
Smith’s jaw opened in shock. “You’re going to make more Syn-En?”
“No.” Bei grit his teeth. Damn, but he’d love to ping the mechanic into silence. Few knew of the Syn-En’s death deal with Earth. For now, their allies only knew that the wormhole to Humanity’s home had collapsed, and it would take too much time to jump there with the bubble engine. “Syn-En can only be made on Earth.”
Smith’s ebony brow wrinkled in confusion. A moment later he chuffed out a breath. “True. I’ve attempted to recreate the conditions here without success.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” Bei pointed to the Skaperians standing over their bucket of silver material.
“No. Yes.” Smith turned toward them then faced Bei. He held up a finger and pointed to the liquified NDA. “That’s stronger armor for our allies.”
Ugu snorted. “It may not be worth the time, if the Scraptors can cut through it so easily.”
“They can’t.” Smith carefully unveiled the severed arm of the third body. Picking up the scorched green arm, he shuffled over to Bei. “This armor wasn’t completely hardened. I’d say, the owner set it for light combat.”
“I don’t understand.” Nell blinked rapidly and looked away.
Bei was beginning to. And the evidence pointed to a traitor. One of their own. “We set our armor to light combat for the first battle.”
Six months ago.
“Where we lost over a hundred thirty men, compared to the enemy’s ten thousand casualties.” Smith’s mouth thinned.
“Why didn’t your men know to strengthen their armor?” Ugu patted the severed limb.
“Because they weren’t alive.” Smith carefully returned the limb to the table.
Apollie sucked in a breath. “The Founders have been grave robbing?”
“Deep inside our lines.” Bei called up the star chart. His men had been sent on the long chariot ride inside protected space. His armor hardened into battle mode. The bastards had infiltrated deep into the heart of protected space and he hadn’t known about it. What else had they done? “To find them, let alone reach them without a sentry being alerted, could only mean one thing.”
“A traitor.” Nell rubbed her temple. “But are the dirty dogs Human or another species?”
Ugu tugged on her ear. “We have some unusual allies. The Picaroons are expert smugglers and could easily elude our security detail.”
“The vampires?” Nell rubbed her arms. “I never liked them.”
“There’s more.” Smith crossed to a screen near a workstation. He jiggled the computer keyboard out of its slot and tapped in a command. “I opened the biologic core of the first two and took some scrapings. One identified as our crewman. The other is an unknown Human.”
Captain Amazon’s photo flashed next to a dark silhouette. Petty Officer Dallas Roswell filled another spot, with a fourth slot taken by a question mark.
Smith pinched his bottom lip and rocked back on his heels. “My guess is, the enemy thought the Syn-En are shells like the Scraptors’ armor, and any Human could make it work. When that failed, they tested it on the poor souls they’d stuffed inside.”
Bei nodded. The theory sounded reasonable. But something niggled at the back of his thoughts. “Identify the third body.”
“Aye Admiral.” Smith didn’t budge.
Bei stiffened. Biologics usually obeyed immediately. Was Nell setting a bad example? “Is there something else?”
The mechanic nodded. “If you do choose to make more Syn-En, I volunteer.”
“No!” Shang’hai’s shout bounced off the metal ceiling. “Absolutely not.”
Smith raised his chin. “You don’t have a say in the matter. Not anymore. And I never asked for your protection. Not once.”
Shang’hai glanced his way. “Bei, you can’t—”
Bei pinged his officer. Now was not the time to lose discipline. Even if he understood her concern.
She flinched, but spoke anyway. “Don’t let him become one of us! You know what it’s like. You know—”
Slapping a hand over her mouth, Shang’hai stomped away.
Doc turned to follow.
Bei shook his head. Let her go. She’ll talk when she’s ready. He glanced at his wife. Nell was always ready to talk, but usually it was about anything but the subject bothering her.
Ugu fiddled with the red ribbons on her staff. “Does Earth still exist?”
“Of course.” A haze of fermites swarmed Nell’s hands. She inched close
r to the third body.
Smith intercepted her. “You don’t want to see this one.”
“There’s something not right about it.” Silver striped Nell’s arms.
“There’s a lot not right about it.” Smith batted aside the fermites.
Doc. I think the pregnancy is making Nell’s superpowers unstable. Bei ordered his medical officer to intervene.
Understood. I have her results back from the blood test. Doc waved an information packet at him inside cyberspace. There’s no interference by the fermites and the NDA is behaving normally, but….
Bei’s sensors froze. But?
Perhaps I should tell you both together.
The hell he would. Bei wanted to know now, the better to prepare Nell.
Ugu planted herself in front of Bei. The raptor claw on her middle toe tapped the deck. “Why can’t the Syn-En return to Earth and assemble an army?”
Bei drew in a deep breath. Where to begin to untangle that knot?
“The Syn-En have been banished. The facilities that make them dismantled.” Nell angled away from the body on the table. “They were given a choice either colonize Terra Dos or face extermination.”
He’d volunteered for a death mission. The orders of extermination had come later.
Stroking her stomach, Apollie frowned. “Why would any race banish their warriors? Even your males are competent fighters.”
Nell opened and closed her mouth.
Bei wanted to help, but he hadn’t seen this particular movie clip.
“The Syn-En can’t be bribed.” Smith sidled around the table. “They treat all people fairly and humanely. It doesn’t matter if we were a civilian or a citizen. When we needed justice, we caused enough of a ruckus that the Syn-En were sent in. Their video clips proved the righteousness of our cause and led to calls for reform. The ruling party didn’t want that. Nor could they alter the Syn-Ens’ programming. The solution was to get rid of the Syn-En.”
Grafting the mechanic’s theory onto his information, Bei looked for flaws. The scenario fit quite well despite a few outliers.
Syn-En: Pillar World Page 8