Endless Advance: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Uprise Saga Book 2)

by Amy DuBoff

  “Are we going to Nezar?” Edwin asked.

  Ava nodded. “We’ve planned a covert infiltration. Karen is going to establish herself with the government, and she should be able to help get us in. We’ll need our stealth gear and your hacking wizardry to get the access we need.”

  “That’s what we do best,” Samantha said with a smile. “Is it just the four of us?”

  “Yes, core team,” Widmore acknowledged. “I’d like to accompany you on the Raven, but I think it’s best if I stay home for this one to keep an eye on things. We’re keeping the colonel’s past subversion very need-to-know, and he’s requested I shadow him to look for any out-of-place behavior.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Nick assessed. “Based on what we saw from the chancellor while we were on Coraxa, these aliens are not to be underestimated.”

  “As for us,” Edwin chimed in, “what’s the infiltration plan?”

  Ava and Widmore talked the team through the strategy they’d devised with Kurtz, Luke, and Doctor Dwyer. The combination of covert ops, science, and pure luck would be a challenging combination to pull off, but overcoming such odds was part of what made her job so thrilling.

  “Is Karen going to be enough help on the inside for us to pull this off?” Samantha asked when they were finished with the explanation. “Nick and I can override the locks, sure, but people are going to see those doors open, even if we’re in stealth armor. And Karen is a visitor there, herself. Can she really clear the way?”

  “I could get someone under my control,” Ava suggested.

  Widmore shook his head. “No, save your abilities for dealing with the chancellor. The less they see you in action before that encounter, the better.”

  Ava nodded. “Understood, sir.”

  “Sir, back to my point about the infiltration…” Samantha cut in. “What kind of help can we expect?”

  Widmore folded his hands. “We haven’t been able to communicate with Karen since she went undercover, but she may not be perceived as an outsider. After all, she was originally sent to work with the Alucians by Nezarans.”

  “Yes,” Ava conceded, “but as far as Nezarans would be concerned, Karen defected. She was sent to assassinate the Alucian president, and… well, he’s still alive. Plus, she’s now publicly his press secretary.”

  “Well, the FDG’s supposed information leak changed the assassination plan,” Widmore pointed out. “She didn’t have the opportunity to kill him, or so she could say. Besides, Kurtz was her contact, not anyone on Nezar. As far as the rest of the government is concerned, she was following his orders, and he may have instructed her to back off. She can go back to her original group and say she wants to return to the good work they were doing and now has a better position to leverage toward that end.”

  “Counting on an untrained, non-military contact for such a dangerous undercover operation is a big risk, sir,” Nick cautioned.

  “Right, but she’s all we have.” Widmore looked around the table. “I don’t think we can trust anyone in the Nezaran government right now.”

  “All right, so we only rely on ourselves to get in and get out,” Edwin said with his usual assurance. “Simple.”

  “I have every confidence you’ll pull it off.” The major smiled. “You leave in an hour.”

  * * *

  Having full control of his own body again was deeply satisfying in a way Kurtz could never have imagined, but part of him felt empty. As much as he’d detested Nox’s presence, he’d become accustomed to having a companion in his mind. Though he’d only been consciously aware of Nox for a matter of days, the alien’s time as a hidden passenger for the three years prior had left a lasting impact.

  How could such a clear invasion of my mind be something I miss? Kurtz shook his head. No, it wasn’t that he missed Nox, it was that he had become used to having constraints around his consciousness—in the way that a newborn enjoyed being swaddled. He was now his own person again and he needed to embrace his independence.

  And, moreover, he wasn’t alone. The reason he temporarily felt isolated was that Nox had forced him to withdraw from those who’d always rounded out his life, all his friends in the FDG. To regain the sense of fullness, he only needed to reintegrate himself.

  He smiled at the thought of being able to participate in those relationships again without an unseen force manipulating him behind the scenes. Good times were ahead in the coming months and years.

  In the meantime, though, there were loose ends to tie up.

  Kurtz headed for Luke’s lab. He suspected the young man already had designs on further research into the alien tech, but it was important to set some ground rules.

  When he arrived at the lab, Luke was talking with his two associates. They cut off their conversation as soon as they saw Kurtz.

  “Sir, what can we do for you?” Luke asked by way of greeting.

  “I wanted to thank you again for helping to break the alien’s hold over me,” Kurtz replied.

  “Of course, Colonel. I only wish we’d known sooner.” Luke studied him. “Doctor Dwyer and I believe we have calibrated a scan to make it easy to monitor your condition.”

  “We’ve adapted that to the routine medical exams for all warriors to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Tess added.

  “Good work,” Kurtz acknowledged. “I take it you’ve used scans of Jared to test the new systems?”

  Luke nodded. “I know he’s a prisoner and not a test subject, sir…”

  “That’s why I’m here,” Kurtz rested his elbow on the counter of the central workstation. “Regardless of what atrocities Jared helped commit, he’s still a person with rights. We can’t keep him as an experimental tool for our own gains.”

  “I would never think of it,” Luke replied. “The thing is, though, we can learn things by studying him that we can’t gain through any other means.”

  “I’m well aware. I recognize my former state makes me rather biased, but we need to understand the magnitude of this threat. Can anyone become subverted by touch, or is the procedure more involved?”

  “We were just wondering the same thing, sir,” Jack said.

  Kurtz took a slow breath. “I can give you two days to study Jared. That aligns with our vetting time for suspects in any investigation. To continue study beyond that point would violate our ethical codes of conduct.”

  Luke glanced at his team. “That doesn’t give us much time, but we’ll make the most of it.”

  Kurtz stepped back toward the door. “Good. I want to know how to take these aliens down.”

  * * *

  Two days would hardly be enough time to run all the testing scenarios he’d like, but Luke was glad they’d be able to use Jared to a positive end after all the harm he’d caused.

  After working for hours straight, Luke had his team take a short break. He needed to see Ava off on her mission, and he knew Tess and Jack would work smarter after a power nap.

  “How’d your team react to the plan?” Luke asked Ava while he watched her toss items into her travel bag.

  “Excited for the thrill of the challenge,” she replied. “I still wish Karen weren’t in there. As helpful as she may be, I hate having to worry about civilians.”

  “She can take care of herself pretty well.”

  “I know resourcefulness runs in your family, but this isn’t any old enemy we’re up against.”

  Luke nodded, thinking back about all the times Karen had talked herself out of tough spots while they were kids. “At least she’s adept at mental guards. She’s in a better position to protect herself than most would be.”

  “This is true.”

  “By the way, we’ve been given two days to study Jared before we give him the same neural cocktail we used on Kurtz. Dwyer and I should be able to develop an effective treatment for Chancellor Heizberg once you get her back here, assuming it’ll be more difficult than helping the colonel.”

  “If it’s even possible to get the alien presence out of
her.”

  “I thought I was supposed to be the skeptical scientist here. Why the ‘if’?” Luke asked.

  Ava leaned against the wall. “What if the longer the being is in someone, the more difficult it is to remove?”

  Luke nodded. “So, we have no way of knowing how long the chancellor has been subverted—or if she’s been someone else all along.”

  “Heizberg has been the chancellor since we were little kids…”

  “Exactly. If she’s been an alien that whole time, how much of the original her would be left? She may have been a young woman when she was first taken over, for all we know.”

  “What would you do in that case?”

  “Bring her back here and see if there’s anything we can do for her. At a minimum, she’ll have information.”

  Luke took a step toward Ava, seeing the concern in her eyes. “Do they want you to extract that information?”

  She shook her head. “I may as well be benched. Widmore has forbidden me from using my abilities until we have a better understanding of this transformation.”

  He could sense her frustration and see the annoyance written on her face, but Luke had to acknowledge that Ava shouldn’t be going anywhere. Aside from his own feelings about her and his desire to see her safe and secure, the scientist in him recognized that Ava had undergone a transformation. Too much was still unknown about the extent of those changes. She should be under close observation, not out in the field where there were so many variables.

  Why is Widmore okay with this? Luke asked himself, though he already knew the answer. Ava was part of a team, and that team’s skillset was unique. That team was stronger when it was intact. They stuck together no matter what, and her precarious position was worth the risk because her going along kept the team together.

  All the same, he had a responsibility to say what no one else seemed willing to bring up. “I don’t like the idea of you going into a dangerous situation like this, Ava. If you started to change—”

  “This again? When you agreed to come back to the FDG with me and give this relationship a try, you knew what my day-to-day job entailed. Don’t ever try to stop me from doing that job,” Ava shot back.

  Her tone stung, even though Luke knew she was right. He had understood exactly what he was getting into. Her career was her first love, no matter how much she cared about him, too. But the circumstances had changed. This wasn’t just about her being in the Force. She, herself, was undergoing a change that transcended job responsibilities or relationship status. Duty may come first, but not at the expense of individual identity.

  “I would never stand between you and the Force, Ava,” Luke said in what he hoped was a calm tone. “My concern is that we still know so little about what’s going on with you.”

  “You said yourself that I’m too stubborn to let this thing get the better of me.”

  “I did, yes.”

  “So, everything’s fine,” Ava stated.

  “No, it’s not fine! Colonel Kurtz was subverted by some sort of alien parasite, Chancellor Heizberg is in the same situation, and a Vampire psychopath made you a medical experiment—”

  “Luke,” Ava placed her hands on his arms, “I know you mean well, but this isn’t helping.”

  He looked into her hazel eyes. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to be concerned.”

  “No, it’s not, but I haven’t had any transformations since that one. I can’t live the rest of my life on a maybe. My life here is about taking action, and I adjust when I have to. Right now, the Force needs me out there with my team.”

  Luke looked down. “I didn’t mean to stop you. I’m just afraid of what may happen when you’re put in a stressful situation. Those are the kind of circumstances where something in you could trigger.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but let me worry about me. Study my nanocytes when you finish with Jared.

  “All right,” Luke agreed. “But promise me you’ll be careful.”

  Ava gave him a kiss. “I always am.”

  * * *

  A wave of heat struck Karen as soon as the shuttle door opened. She blinked as the dry air hit her eyes.

  I’d forgotten how hot it can get here in the summer. She walked down the shuttle’s ramp onto the landing platform next to the Nezaran capital building.

  Unlike the glass tower housing the Alucian government, the Nezaran capital building was only two stories and hewn of black stone. The higher temperature from the planet’s proximity to the sun dictated architecture to match the extreme landscape.

  Alucia, as a cool world rich with sea life, provided the water to sustain Nezar’s agricultural industry under massive biodomes. Plant life flourished in the intense sun, when temperature in the domes was regulated. The mutually beneficially arrangement of Alucia provided fish and water while Nezar provided plants and metal ores from the planet’s many mines was the foundation of the Alaxar Trinary’s economy.

  Now, though, with Alucia in the Federation, Nezar was facing a future on its own—a future that wouldn’t be sustainable with their current operations.

  Karen had sworn allegiance to Alucia and the Federation, but she still cared about her Nezaran neighbors. She’d gone to school on the planet and had many friends still living there with young families of their own. If those people were being led by an alien outsider working toward its own twisted ends, then she needed to do everything she could to help stop that menace. It was the only way she could start making up for her deceit.

  She looked over the capital building, her jaw set with determination. Inside was an enemy lair, and she had to make an opening for Ava’s team to come in to free the Nezaran people.

  “Is it always this hot?” Leon asked from next to her.

  Karen glanced at the Alucian president’s assistant coming down the ramp behind her. President Connors had entrusted Leon with the secret of Karen’s true mission, and he’d rendezvous with the FDG ship once it arrived to serve as a political liaison while Karen and Ava’s team were on the inside. That way, if anything started to go poorly, Leon could give an unofficial heads up to President Connors rather than having an official FDG communication on the record. After all, the FDG should have no business on Nezar, especially in terms of taking military action. The more communications handled via backchannels, the better.

  “Not quite this hot,” Karen replied to his comment, “but Nezar is a veritable hellscape compared to our icy Alucia.”

  “No wonder they have such an attitude problem. I’d be angry all the time in this heat, too.” Leon wiped beads of perspiration from his brow with the back of his hand.

  “You might be onto something there.” Karen took a step away from the shuttle and turned around. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. The Force spaceship should arrive tomorrow.”

  Leon nodded. “I’ll be waiting for them. Good luck.”

  He returned to the shuttle and sealed the door. The ramp retracted with a whir as the engines wound up.

  Karen walked toward the government building’s entrance while the shuttle took off behind her. Even passing into the building’s shadow, the oppressive heat barely lessened.

  “Hello,” she called to a sentry posted at the entrance. “I’m Karen Carter. I’m here to see Dominic Thoreau.”

  The sentry consulted the HUD on his helmet. “I see you on the list. Reception will direct you inside.”

  “Thank you.” Karen nodded as she passed by.

  The revolving door cycled to allow her inside. She breathed in the cool, conditioned air. It was still at least five degrees warmer than the interior temperatures she was used to on Alucia, but at least her lungs didn’t feel like they were burning.

  A man and a woman were seated behind a reception desk directly ahead. Both were of pure human heritage, based on their darker features, and they examined Karen with interest.

  “Hello. Dominic Thoreau should be expecting me,” she told them. “I’m Karen Carter.”

  The fe
male receptionist made an entry on her console hidden behind the counter. “Take the elevator on the left down to Sublevel 4. Mr. Thoreau will meet you there.”

  Karen inclined her head and walked across the lobby to the elevator door. She pressed the call button. Five seconds later, the elevator doors parted, and she stepped inside.

  To her surprise, the elevator’s control panel had destinations listed all the way to Sublevel 22. What the Nezarans lacked by way of a skyline, it seemed they made up for underground.

  The elevator zipped to its destination of Sublevel 4 in a matter of seconds, and the doors parted to reveal a well-appointed lobby space complete with hydroponic plants, padded seating, and holographic wall art.

  A man with dark hair and blue eyes approached from the left hallway feeding into the lobby. “Karen, I didn’t expect to ever see you back on Nezar.”

  “Unforeseen developments have forced a change,” she replied. “It’s good to see you, Dominic.”

  “Likewise.” Dominic held out his arm. “Come, we’ll talk in my office.”

  She followed him down the wood-paneled hall to an opaque glass door at the end. The office beyond was sleek and modern with a black sofa and glass coffee table near the door, a small conference table, and a wooden desk near the left wall.

  Dominic gestured to the couch, and she took a seat while admiring the high-definition screen across the entire side wall. The image was presently set to a tropic seashore.

  “Beats a view out the window, doesn’t it?” Dominic commented.

  “That it does,” Karen agreed.

  “So, what brings you here?”

  “I’m looking for a new way to continue our original work.”