by G J Ogden
Sterling lowered his wrist and drew his plasma pistol. A Sa’Nerran half-moon blade was also attached to his armor. He’d could have a used a Fleet-issue close-quarters weapon, but he preferred the alien blade. It was brutally-effective and brutality was exactly what was required of him.
“We have no idea where Colicos is or even if he’s still here,” Banks added, dialing the power setting of her Homewrecker to maximum, “and we have less than two hours to get in, locate him and get out again before Sa’Nerran reinforcements arrive. I know it sounds impossible, but the impossible is our specialty.”
There was a hiss of air as the pressure between the ship’s docking section and the station equalized.
“We’re through, Captain,” Shade announced as the sound of the boarding tunnel extending into the alien station whirred through the cabin. The indicator then turned green and the hatch opened. “Go, move out!” Shade called, slapping the lead commando on the back. “Move, move, move!”
Shade and her squad had barely reached the inner corridors of the station before plasma fire erupted through the opening. Sterling and Banks followed, rushing through the boarding tunnel, weapons raised. A single commando then dropped down behind them and set up a gun emplacement to guard their entry point. Unlike the assault on the Sa’Nerran cruiser, there was only one way in and out of the station. They had to secure their route back to the ship or they’d be trapped inside.
“This doesn’t look like any Sa’Nerran station I’ve seen before,” Sterling commented, moving up behind the advancing squad. “These outer sections are more densely packed than normal. The Sa’Nerra prefer open spaces.”
To either side of the corridor were doors, spaced only a few meters apart. As he advanced further into the station, Sterling saw that the same arrangement continued along intersecting corridors and appeared to run around the entire circumference of the station.
“Maybe they’re storage areas?” Banks suggested, creeping forward, holding the powerful Homewrecker in one hand and a pistol in the other.
“I don’t know what the hell they are, and I’m not sure I want to find out,” Sterling replied.
The commando squad had advanced with ruthless efficiency and was approaching the open area in the center of the station. Stepping over the charred remains of Sa’Nerran warriors, Sterling got his first clear look at the central area. Unlike the boxy, honeycomb layout of the outer sections, the central area was a like a giant mesh scaffold, except built on the inside rather than the exterior of the structure. There was a long, sweeping staircase, spiraling down to the lower levels, plummeting hundreds of meters into the belly of the station.
“It could take days to search this place,” said Sterling, coming to terms with the scale of their task for the first time. Despite his bravado about the Omega Taskforce specializing in the impossible, he wasn’t foolish enough to believe that there was some supernatural hand guiding their journey. Perhaps naively, he had hoped that they would break into the station and find James Colicos merrily working at a console right where they’d entered. However, that hadn’t happened and now he was faced with an entire space station and no idea where to look first. He didn’t even know if the scientist was on the station at all.
Sterling felt a neural link from Lieutenant Shade form in his mind. He opened it to allow the rest of the assault squad to monitor.
“We’re at the central area, Captain,” Shade began, as more plasma blasts filtered down the corridor close to his position. “Emergency bulkheads have sealed off the decks below level three. We can’t get lower, at least not from here.”
“Any sign of Colicos?” Sterling asked, remaining hopeful.
“Negative,” Shade replied, crushing Sterling’s hopes with a single word. “There’s extensive damage to this central section. We’re meeting moderate resistance, but these warriors look tired and old. Their weapons and armor are outdated and are no match for ours.”
“Understood, Lieutenant, secure your position and wait for instructions,” Sterling replied. A link then formed from Commander Graves on the Invictus and Sterling opened it, allowing Banks to monitor.
“Captain, I have some new information from Lieutenant Razor,” Graves began. Sterling was about to ask why his engineer hadn’t formed the link herself, before remembering that her neural abilities had been temporarily suppressed.
“Go head, Commander, but make it good. We’re searching for a needle in a haystack down here,” Sterling replied.
“Breaching the hull of the station has allowed us to conduct more detailed scans of the interior structure,” Graves continued. “Lieutenant Razor believes that the honeycomb structures surrounding your current position contain life signs.”
“Life signs?” repeated Sterling. “Sa’Nerran or human, or something else?” It was the ‘something else’ option that concerned him the most.
“There is no-way to distinguish with any accuracy Captain,” Graves continued, “but, given the distant location of the facility, coupled with the fact it was armed, perhaps it is a prison installation of some kind?”
Banks raised an eyebrow at this suggestion. “If they brought Colicos here to continue his experiments, that might make sense,” she said.
“Thank you, Commander, keep us updated,” Sterling said, tapping his interface to close the link. He then glanced over to one of the many doors lining the corridor. “I think it’s about time we found out what this honeycomb contains,” he said.
“I can try to bypass the lock,” said Banks, reaching for her computer.
“No time,” Sterling replied. “Just bypass it the unsubtle way.”
Banks smiled as she stepped in front of one of the doors. Aiming the powerful Homewrecker rifle she unloaded a barrage of plasma blasts, smashing open a section of the door and the wall beside it. Sterling wafted the smell of burning electronics and molten metal from his face then advanced, pistol raised. Banks also moved up to the new opening. It was dark inside and Sterling couldn’t see anything other than smoke.
“Can you make the gap wider?” Sterling asked, still aiming into the darkness.
Banks slung the rifle then gripped the sides of the door with her armored gloves. Gritting her teeth, she pulled back, wrenching the door away from its housing. Sterling flicked on the searchlight built into the shoulder section of his armor and stepped nearer, shining the beam inside. The light fell first onto a narrow cot bed, then as Sterling swept it across the room, it shone onto the face of a man, huddled in the corner. The prisoner was emaciated, dressed in dirty grey overalls, and looked terrified. Sterling met Banks’ eyes, each as shocked and surprised to see a human in the cell as the other. Sterling dimmed the light then lowered his pistol.
“It’s okay, we’re with Fleet,” Sterling said, extending his hand to the man.
“Fleet?” the prisoner answered, climbing gingerly to his feet. “Fleet was destroyed. Earth too.”
Sterling shook his head. “Not yet. The war is still going on.”
The man took a few tentative steps toward Sterling, his hand raised to shield his eyes from the harsh light in the corridor outside.
“You’re a rescue party?” the prisoner said. The man’s frail body remained guarded and his timid voice was filled with doubt. However, Sterling could also see the flicker of hope in the man’s eyes.
“We’re looking for someone,” Sterling replied, dodging the question. “James Colicos. Do you know him? Is he here?”
The prisoner recoiled at the mention of Colicos’ name and retreated further into the darkness.
“You’re with him?” the man asked, suddenly terrified once again.
“No, but we need his help. The Sa’Nerra have a new weapon, one that controls our minds. We need Colicos to stop it.”
The prisoner shook his head violently and began to laugh, though to Sterling he looked on the verge of tears. It was an unexpected, freakish sound. The sound of madness, Sterling realized.
“He’s the one who hurts us
,” the man said, returning to the dark corner of the cell and sliding down onto the filth-stained floor. “He experiments on us. Hundreds of us. I’ve seen what he does!” There was now bitterness in the man’s voice. The bile that had been festering in the prisoner’s gut for who knew how long was oozing to the surface. “He says they make him do it, but he enjoys it,” the prisoner continued, spitting out the words. “He’s evil. He won’t help you. He only helps them.”
Anger swelled inside Sterling’s gut at the way the prisoner had been treated. Seeing the man broken and tortured only further fueled the rage and desire he had to destroy the Sa’Nerra. However, he was unable to offer the prisoner sympathy or salvation. He needed to find Colicos and this man was his best hope.
“I’ll make Colicos help me,” Sterling said, using the prisoner’s obvious hatred of the scientist to his advantage. “Tell me where I can find him, and I’ll make sure he suffers. I’ll hurt him, like he hurt you.”
The man’s eyes suddenly widened and he scrambled closer, remaining on all fours. “You can do that?” he asked, suddenly becoming alive. “You’ll make him pay?”
Sterling nodded. “Just tell me where he is.”
This time the man smiled, revealing toothless, rotten gums. He nodded, the movements so ferocious that Sterling thought the man would send himself unconscious through dizziness.
“His lab is on level three,” the man said, stabbing his finger toward the deck. “That’s where they take us, the aliens who do his bidding.” His face twisted into a tortuous mix of revulsion and grief. “So many screams. So many corrupted. So, so, many dead…” the man was becoming lost in his own grief and Sterling realized they were losing him. Then the prisoner switched on again, becoming suddenly alert and excited. “You’ll make him suffer, right? Torture him? Make him pay!”
Sterling nodded again. “I'll make him pay, of that you have my word,” he promised. He then looked to Banks and they both stepped away from the cell.
“You’ll take us all with you, right?” the man said, as Sterling and Banks moved away. “Once you have him? You’ll rescue us all?”
Sterling sucked in a lungful of the foul Sa’Nerran air, which was laced with Sulphur and the stench of the prisoner, soaked in sweat, feces and urine. It only made him more determined to find the cause of the prisoner’s suffering and to bring Colicos to justice. However, he also knew that he could not help the man. The Invictus was not a rescue ship and Sterling was not his savior. It was a hard truth of the sort that required the cold, heartless logic of an Omega Captain to accept. He considered lying to the man, but he would not add insult to injury. He deserved to know the truth. That was the least – and the most – Sterling could do.
“I’m not here to rescue you,” Sterling said, making sure to hold the man’s eyes and not release them. “I’m sorry.”
The man tried to crawl toward Sterling, pleading for him to change his mind, but his frail body collapsed underneath him.
“But you must!” the prisoner cried out. “I’ve been here so long. So long and so alone.”
“I’m sorry,” Sterling replied. He meant it, but he knew the apology was meaningless. Nevertheless, it was all he could offer.
Sterling and Banks stepped away from the prison cell and headed back toward the rest of the squad. To their backs, the man continued to cry out to them, his words becoming slurred and tainted by grief. Then the prisoner’s sobs were drowned out by the hiss of Sa’Nerran warriors and the fizz of plasma weapons. And then they were absent completely.
Chapter 26
The unique warrior
Sterling hurried down the steps to level three, the thud of his heavy boots causing the open grating of the metal staircase to clang and rattle. More warriors appeared on the upper levels, filtering out of the honeycomb-like outer layers of the station like worker bees.
“Take cover!” Sterling called out as plasma blasts began to rain down around them, causing sparks and molten metal to fall from the levels above.
Sterling returned fire with his pistol, striking a warrior in the chest. Normally, the Sa’Nerran armor would have saved the alien’s life, but this time the metal buckled, along with the warrior’s sternum. The alien tumbled from the upper level, clattering onto the metal deck below. Moments later the thunderous pulse of multiple Homewrecker heavy plasma rifles drowned out the sound of his pistol. Chunks of alien flesh rained down on them as the powerful weapons blew the warriors to pieces. However, the Sa’Nerra had also claimed a commando in the exchange.
Reaching the bottom of the stairwell, Shade’s commandos charged onto level three and obliterated a group of defending warriors like they were carboard cutouts on a shooting range. Sterling entered the level with Banks at his side. It was clearly a laboratory space. Like Colicos’ lab on Far Deep Nine, it was well equipped and at least ten times larger than the science lab on the Invictus.
Sterling moved up to one of the consoles as Shade and the commando squad secured a defensive perimeter. He could see that the machines were clearly alien in construction, but it was also apparent they had not been designed for the long, spidery digits of Sa’Nerran hands. Whoever had used the lab was a human. Sterling felt hope swelling inside him again. They may have just found their needle, he realized.
“Take a couple of commandoes and check the surrounding rooms,” Sterling called out, directing the order to Banks. “That asshole is here somewhere and we’re not leaving without him.”
Banks acknowledged the order then detailed two commandoes and began going from room to room. Plasma blasts continued to fly as Shade and the remaining commandoes picked off the Sa’Nerra like they were fish in a barrel. Remaining vigilant and watchful, Sterling continued to explore. Then he spotted a door close to the stairwell. Unlike the automated doors he was used to, this one had a long, wide-bodied handle, designed for alien digits. Wrapping his left hand around the metal, Sterling tested the handle and it turned. Flinging open the door he thrust his pistol into the room. A hand caught his wrist and pulled him inside. Stunned by the surprise attack, Sterling was then struck hard to the chest. Staggering back, he saw a Sa’Nerran blade embedded into his armor. He felt no pain, but couldn’t be certain whether adrenalin had numbed his senses or if the blade had miraculously fallen short of slicing his flesh. Sterling raised his weapon, aiming it at the alien that had attacked him, but the Sa’Nerran quickly slapped the weapon from his hand.
“Captain!” Sterling heard Lieutenant Shade call out from the lab outside.
His weapons officer’s shouts were soon lost as the alien slammed the door shut, then broke off the handle. Its yellow eyes studied Sterling with an intelligence and an intensity that was strange and unsettling. The warrior’s attire was also different. In fact, it wasn’t wearing armor at all. In all of Sterling’s extensive experience fighting the alien race, he’d never see a warrior wear anything other than their distinctive protective shells. However, Sterling didn’t care how unusual this alien was – its fate would be the same as all the rest. Pulling the Sa’Nerran blade from his armor, he aimed it at the warrior and prepared to fight. A sliver of red coated the very edge of the blade. The alien had drawn first blood – he would draw it last.
“You’re too late…”
The voice shook Sterling like an earthquake. It seemed to have come from the Sa’Nerran warrior, though the alien’s thin, slug-like lips had not moved.
“Yes, I speak your words, human,” the alien said, again speaking without moving its mouth.
Sterling saw that the warrior had a device implanted in the side of its head. It was similar to a Fleet neural interface, but the technology and materials used looked alien in nature. Then Sterling realized that he was not hearing the alien’s words spoken out loud. He was hearing them inside his mind.
“You’re the warrior that took Colicos from Far Deep Nine?” Sterling asked, also replying in his mind. He could scarcely believe it. Hubbard, the old man from Thrace Colony, who claimed the alien had spo
ken, had been telling the truth.
“Not warrior. Scientist,” the Sa’Nerran hit back. “Your human made me a prisoner. Now the human is mine.”
“Not for long,” Sterling replied, angling the blade toward the alien’s throat. “I’m taking him back, then I’m blowing this place to hell.”
This time the Sa’Nerran’s lips did move as the creature hissed at Sterling. At the same time the words in his mind turned to an angry white noise.
“You are too late, human,” the Sa’Nerran continued, as it and Sterling circled around each other. “The weapon is perfected.” There was a thump against the door and muffled cries, but Sterling ignored them. He was focused only on the alien. “Your species will soon die.”
Sterling adjusted his hold on the Sa’Nerran blade. The droplet of his own blood pooled on the lower edge then dripped and splattered onto the metal deck.
“If you think that shooting holes in little moons is enough scare us, you’re even more stupid than you are ugly,” Sterling said.
The warrior hissed at Sterling and a garbled laugh filled his mind, like something out of a haunted house of horror.
“You are stupid, human! You do not understand!” the voice said in Sterling’s mind. “You think that is our weapon?” The alien hissed again, and more twisted laughter filled Sterling’s mind. “It is a shame you will not live to see what our weapon really is.”
Sterling swung at the alien with the blade, but cut only air. The Sa’Nerran scientist dodged back as the blade flashed in front of it then hissed at Sterling again. He hadn’t intended to hit the alien; only keep it on its toes. The opportunity to interrogate this unique being was too important to miss.