by Jay Allan
“No, General.” Tyler stood facing Gilson. He was out of his armor, dressed in the light gray uniform of the Columbian army. His arm was bound tightly in a sling, a wound he took in the final hours of the fighting. He was wearing his last decent uniform for the occasion, the only one that wasn’t torn to shreds or stained with the mud and blood of the battlefield. He was smiling…for the first time in a very long time.
“Your Marines lived up to their reputation yet again.” He looked down at the ground for a few seconds. “I’m ashamed to say that I’d given up hope, and I apologize to you and your people for that. I will never lose faith again.”
“Your people fought with courage I will never forget, General.” Gilson’s voice was sincere, her admiration genuine. “It was a privilege to fight alongside such brave men and women.” She turned her head, looking around her. Everywhere her eyes went, there was destruction. Blackened grass, shattered buildings, the smoking ruins of war. And to the west, she knew, the heartland of Columbia was a radioactive hell, an apocalyptic battlefield, now silent, but still shattered and poisoned by the hell of total war.
“I can’t imagine the task that awaits your people to rebuild their world, General. I have nothing to offer in the way of help besides my good wishes, but those are given with all my heart.”
“You have done enough, General. The rest is our job.” Tyler’s voice betrayed his own exhaustion, but there was something else there too, a new energy, a hope for the future that had been absent from him for a long time. “I ask only one thing from you, General Gilson.”
She looked back at him, an expectant expression on her face.
“Come back to Columbia one day. Come back and see what we have done, how we have rebuilt this planet that you liberated. That will be our tribute to your brave men and women who died here. To reclaim the world they freed for us, to ensure their sacrifices were not in vain.”
She smiled again and extended her hand. “You have my word, General. I look forward to it, and I pray that visit comes in a time of peace and not in answer to another call of the bugle.”
Tyler reached out his good arm, grasping her hand warmly. “A hope we both share, General. We have seen too much war, too much death.” He held her hand for a long time before he let go slowly. “Fare thee well, Catherine Gilson. Until we meet again.”
She nodded slowly. “Take care of yourself, General Tyler, and these people you have led so ably. You have saved them, saved your world. Now use your freedom well.”
She turned and walked slowly back toward the transports, sighing sadly as she did. Tyler’s war was over, at least unless Stark won everywhere else and got around to returning to Columbia. But her battle continued. Hers and the dwindling ranks of the Marine Corps. Earth, she thought, imagining the vastness of man’s homeworld. What could her small band of exhausted survivors possibly accomplish there?
“You should have just let her die, Colonel.” Flag Captain Josiah stared down at Tara Rourke’s still form, lying peacefully in the medpod. “We’re just going to space her ass anyway.”
“You will do nothing of the sort, Captain.” Camille Harmon walked through the door, her voice like iron. Harmon had always been a bit cold and mechanical in her bearing, but since her son had been lost beyond the Barrier with Terrence Compton, she’d become a virtual automaton, focused with razor-sharp precision on the job at hand. She stood just inside the room and stared at the chastised officer.
“I’m sorry, Admiral.” The captain tried to backtrack, unsettled by the grim admiral’s presence. “I…I just thought…”
“You thought that was the penalty for murdering a superior officer, or attempting to do so,” she said without pause. “As well it is.” She walked over and looked down at Rourke’s unconscious form. She’d known Garret’s tactical officer for several years. She had no idea what had happened, but she was sure there was more to the story than she knew.
She turned and nodded to Sarah. “Colonel Linden, I understand thanks and congratulations are in order. I am told you worked nothing less than a miracle in saving Admiral Garret’s life.” She paused, and a faint smile crossed her lips. “Thank you. From me, and from the entire fleet. The navy will be eternally in your debt.”
Sarah returned the smile, though her exhaustion was obvious. “Thank you, Admiral, though I wouldn’t characterize it as saving his life. Not yet, at least. I’m afraid he has a difficult recovery ahead, and many complications could arise.”
“Still, thank you again. Augustus is a tough old bird, and he has the best doctor in the fleet.” She smiled again. “Even if we had to borrow you from the Corps.” She looked down at Rourke. “So what do you think? Did she just lose her mind? It doesn’t make sense. She loved Garret. She was like a daughter to him. And her service record is spotless. She was an odds on bet to make the admiralty someday.”
Sarah struggled to stay focused through the fatigue. “Well, I haven’t had time to examine her. It was actually one of my staff who stabilized her and treated the gunshot wounds.” Garret’s Marine guard had shot Rourke four times, but none of the bullets had hit vital organs. A fully-equipped Marine’s assault rifle would have torn her body to shreds, but Garret’s guard had been unarmored, and he carried a small carbine for shipboard use.
Sarah took a weary breath. “But if I was pressed to take a wild guess, I would say Gavin Stark is behind this somehow. He is fond of using all sorts of experimental conditioning techniques, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been acting under some compulsion she couldn’t control.” She paused, glancing again at Rourke’s still form. “I’d say there is a good chance this was an assassination attempt by Stark and that Tara Rourke was a pawn, as much a victim in this as Augustus himself.”
Harmon nodded. The whole thing sounded insane…until you considered the players. Then it made perfect sense.
“I will examine her now, but I would also suggest you run a check on where she has been the last few years. Leaves, detached missions, hospitalizations…anything. Stark would have had to get his hands on her to implant conditioning this powerful, so see if there has been any time when you can’t confirm her whereabouts.”
“I’ll take care of that right now, Sarah.” She turned to leave but stopped and look back over her shoulder. “And, again, thank you. We’ve all lost so much, so many of us gone. If we’d lost Augustus too, I don’t know if the fleet could have survived it. Everyone has a breaking point.”
Sarah just smiled. She knew Harmon was talking about herself as much as anyone in the fleet.
Chapter 28
Stealth Ship Spectre
Asteroid Belt, Sol System
Cain leapt out from behind the crate, his good arm slipping around his victim’s neck. He felt a wave of pain from his stricken shoulder despite his efforts to use only his right side. His muscular arm tightened like a vise, and he twisted, breaking the man’s neck in a single quick motion.
He let the body drop slowly to the ground, looking around, making sure he was alone. He wondered for an instant if he could have incapacitated the man instead of killing him, but he quickly put it out of his mind. He wasn’t going to take any chances. Unconscious men woke up. Bound men escaped their bonds. But dead men were reliable. They stayed dead.
Besides, he thought, Stark’s crews were made up of scum and criminals, men and women who’d signed on to serve the psychopathic bastard. The Shadow Legion clones might be victims, slaves created to serve their evil master, but the spaceship crews had joined of their own free will. Cain had only one thought on that. Fuck them all.
He searched the man, finding a key card and shoving it in his pocket. The dead man had no weapons, and Cain hadn’t been able to find any in the hold. He’d have to make do. At least any Shadow Legion guards he ran into on the ship would be unarmored.
He stepped up to the door, sliding his hand over the plate. It slid open, revealing a doublewide corridor. There was a lift at the far end, and a ladder next to it, leading both down
and up.
Cain hurried down the hallway, stepping as softly as he could and listening for any sounds. There was a faint hum, the type of noise common on spaceships, but he didn’t hear any footsteps. He reached out and grabbed the ladder, climbing down, quickly and quietly, to the lower level.
The humming was louder, and he walked toward its source. He knew the engineering spaces would be at the base of the ship, and he intended to disable the ship. He was determined to kill Stark, but if he failed…if he died in the attempt, he could give his comrades another chance to prevent their enemy from escaping.
He heard voices ahead, at least two different ones. They were having a discussion, but they didn’t sound alarmed, so he figured no one knew he was there yet. He rubbed his hand along his waist, wishing he had a pistol or even a knife, but wishing didn’t accomplish anything. He’d do this with what he had, even if that was only his bare hands.
He crept down the hallway, slowly, cautiously, remembering to keep guard behind him as he did. One Shadow Legions soldier coming down the ladder could end his quest for vengeance in an instant.
He ran his hand over the door plate, but nothing happened. “It’s locked,” he muttered to himself, his voice thick with frustration. Then he remembered the keycard he’d taken in the cargo hold. He pulled it out and put it into the slot. The door slid open, and he stepped inside, turning his head quickly, getting a comprehensive view of the room.
It was small, even by the tight standards of spaceship architecture. The reactor was to the side, behind a shield of reinforced polycarbonate. It was a compact design, and the core was no more than two meters in diameter. The engines were directly to the rear, two small units, with access panels for maintenance and repair. The room itself was no more than five meters square, and there were two crewman standing in the middle. They’d been speaking to each other, but they turned when Cain walked in.
“Who are you?” One of the engineers turned and walked up to Cain. He had a suspicious look on his face, but he wasn’t overtly hostile.
“I’m Simon. Alex Simon.” Cain took a few slow steps, trying to get within striking distance without arousing suspicion.
“I don’t know any Alex Simon.” The engineer looked at his partner then shot his eyes back to Cain. “Stay where you are. I’m going to call the bridge.”
Cain sprang like a tiger. He was on the first man in an instant, driving his fist under his adversary’s ribcage with every bit of strength his muscular body could produce. The engineer doubled over and vomited up a spray of blood, falling to the ground, his eyes wide open, fixed, staring at the ceiling.
Cain knew his victim was dead, and he moved immediately toward the second man. His shoulder was wracked with pain, but he ignored it, swinging his leg around, taking the technician in the head with a powerful roundhouse kick. Marines fought most of their battles in powered armor, but their comprehensive training program taught them how to kill using whatever was available. Erik Cain was a deadly combatant, even with nothing more than his hands and feet.
The tech fell back, his head snapping around grotesquely on his broken neck. Cain rushed over, confirming he was dead and searching him for anything useful. Neither of the dead men had any weapons, but he grabbed their keycards and shoved them in his pocket with the first one.
He ran over to the control panel, sitting at one of the workstations. He looked at it for a few seconds, but he didn’t touch it. Without any passwords it was too risky to mess around with the computer system. He looked around the room, trying to find something, anything he could use to scrag the reactor. He knew he was short on time. The crew might not monitor the surveillance system on a constant basis, but sooner or later someone would see the bodies in engineering or try and contact the two dead technicians.
Nothing. There was nothing useful. If he’d had his armor he might have accomplished something, but he couldn’t think of a way to disable the ship, not with what he had.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath as he moved back toward the door, tapping the plate and opening the hatch.
“You! Stay where you are.” The voice came from the end of the hall, and Cain reacted instantly. He leapt back into the room just as the guard charged down the hallway, opening fire as he did.
Cain felt a sharp pain in his leg, and he looked down as he combat rolled back into a standing position. The burst of fire had caught him in the leg. It was just a flesh wound, but it hurt like hell.
He ran over to the side wall, moving around toward the door. The hatch had closed again, but he knew the guard would open it and come in firing any second. Worse, the whole ship would know there was an intruder aboard.
He pressed himself up against the wall, right next to the hatch as it slid open again. He was ready, focused, adrenalin coursing through his veins. It was time to kill again. Or be killed.
“Scan again. Look for energy leakage, a particle trail. Anything. But find that ship.” Mondragon barked into the com, his voice angry, demanding. He had a whole squadron out looking for Stark’s ship, but they hadn’t found a thing. One minute it had been right there on their plots and the next it was gone. And that wasn’t an answer he was about to accept. Not with Gavin Stark on the verge of escaping. Not with Erik Cain on that ship on his own.
His flagship was between his searching squadron and the rest of the fleet positioned around the enemy asteroid. The ships near the base were landing Marines, sending the help Teller and the other survivors of Cain’s team needed. With any luck, they’d secure the facility and get Teller’s people out of there before they were overrun. But Cain was a different story. By all accounts he was alone, trapped on Stark’s ship, and his own fleet couldn’t even find the damned thing. If they didn’t manage to detect it soon, it would be gone. And as good as Erik Cain was, Mondragon didn’t think he could take on Stark’s whole ship by himself. Not and live to tell the tale.
“Admiral Mondragon, Captain Frieden reports that the Marines have landed, and they are moving into the facility.” The communications officer was reading the incoming message aloud. “General Teller’s people are still holding the control center, sir.”
“Very well.” Mondragon nodded perfunctorily. That was good news, but the prospect of losing Stark was weighing on his mind.
He turned back and stared toward the com station. “Any updates on the scanning sweeps?” It had been less than five minutes since he’d asked.
“No, sir.” The com officer’s voice was somber, all traces of his elation at the Marine landing gone. “There is no sign of it, sir. It’s just gone.”
Mondragon felt his fists clench in frustration. He stared at the screen, his thoughts a blur as he began to realize Stark was going to escape again. He wanted to scream, but he held onto his self-control. It wasn’t over yet. There was still hope.
“Keep scanning, full power.”
Teller heard the sound of combat outside the door. He and his companions had barricaded the entrance to the control room, ready to fight it out to the end if that’s where things led. They had no idea how many of Stark’s soldiers were still on the station, but they knew how many they’d killed, and they figured there couldn’t be too many left. Enough to wipe them out certainly, but they’d resolved to hold the control room until the reinforcements arrived.
Now it sounded like relief was at hand. He ran back to the command chair – Stark’s chair, he reminded himself – and tapped the com unit. “This is General James Teller, calling any Marine forces on this base. Please respond.” He stared back at the unit, almost willing someone to answer.
“General Teller, this is Major Stanford Winston.” Teller could hear the sounds of battle coming through the major’s com. “We are almost to your location, sir.”
A broad smile erupted on Teller’s face. “Understood, Major.” He turned toward the other three Marines trapped with him and nodded. “We are looking forward to your arrival.
“James, there’s something wrong with this readout.”
Breyer was sitting at one of the workstations, eyeing the screen as he kept watch over the bound prisoners of Stark’s staff.
Teller walked over. “What is it?” He leaned over Breyer’s shoulder, taking a look for himself.
“I don’t know, sir. Some kind of power spike.” He stared back at Teller. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Teller turned toward the cluster of prisoners. “What is this?” He reached over and pulled up one of the captives with his armored hand, dragging him to the station.
The officer was defiant at first, but Teller squeezed his shoulder until he let out a yell and looked at the workstation. He stared for a few seconds and gasped. “The reactor is building an overload.” His voice was shrill, surprised.
“What would cause that?” Teller turned the man around to face his armored form. His blade slid out of the sheath on his arm. “I want an answer. Now.”
The quivering man could hardly speak, torn between fear of Stark and now the newer terror of this deadly Marine holding a molecular blade a centimeter from his neck. But most of all it was what he’d seen on the screen. “I don’t know what is causing it, but this station’s going to be blown apart if we don’t stop it.”
“How long?” Teller’s voice was harsh, demanding. “I said how long?” He tightened his hand, squeezing the man’s shoulder until he cried out.
“I don’t know. Fifteen minutes. Maybe less.”
“Can you stop it?” Teller loosened his grip slightly.
“I don’t know.” The man’s voice was heavy with fear.
Teller motioned for Breyer to get up. “Well sit down there and try.” Teller dropped the man in place. “And don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll pull your head off like a bug’s.”