by Trevor Wyatt
Then, she returned to the pilot chair.
“This is shuttle Seeker Two, I repeat, this is shuttle Seeker Two. Does anyone copy?”
“Shuttle Seeker Two, this is TUS The Revenge, we read you.”
“Come get me, Revenge. We need to find out where they took my fucking ship.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
The Revenge blinked into view a second later. Within a minute, Ashley was docked and leaving the shuttle, a security team and doctor ready to escort her to the CNC.
You're fucking dead, Kaine, she promised. Nobody fucks with my family.
Chapter 26
Jeryl
This better work, for fuck’s sake, Jeryl thought.
The compartment was barely large enough to fit the platoon of commandos. There was no extra room to maneuver and hardly room to breathe—not that he wanted to. The air was foul. It stank of sweat and unbrushed teeth. The ship’s climate control helped, but the temperature was rising with so many bodies crammed together. Body heat intensified the smells and threatened to gag him. The only thing that kept him from puking was the thought of adding that smell on top of the others.
The crew had difficulty staying still and quiet. Jeryl wished he could inject them with a sedative just for a little while. That would make his job so much easier.
He wanted everyone to think he abandoned ship, so he gave his commandos orders to meet in front of a barely used storage compartment. Engineering rigged the control panel so that it was useless and rerouted it to Jeryl’s tablet. Those that truly knew him, or at least studied his movements, wouldn’t be fooled so easily. Hopefully, the invaders were idiots. In stories, the bad guys usually were, but it didn’t work that way in real life.
The original plan was to outsmart The Ghost in battle, but in case they failed, Jeryl and Flynn had devised Plan B. A reckless suicide mission that would take Jeryl and a small commando squad into the heart of the Syndicate.
He flinched every time one of the commandos shifted. They were getting restless. Even he was getting more nervous than usual. It wasn’t really about the dark sardine can, it was the waiting. The longer they waited, the more he wondered if his plan was a futile suicide mission.
“The ghost—he’s here,” someone whispered frantically in the back.
Well, no shit, Jeryl thought. He assumed the commando was talking about The Ghost. Maybe the pressure was getting to him. It was damn near getting to Jeryl, and none of them had half the experience he did.
“He’s here. He’s telling me how we’re gonna die.”
“Who?” another commando whispered.
“The ghost. Can’t you hear it?”
There was a hesitation, as if all of them held their breath to listen for this ghost.
“Shut it!” Jeryl hissed.
He’s lost his damn mind.
He was talking about an actual ghost. He picked the commandos according to their training. Deep inside, he knew that training and real life were different. This guy probably had some buried claustrophobia issues that they failed to uncover. Jeryl understood, but this was the worst time for someone to face their fears. If they lived, he would talk to Flynn about upping the stakes at the Academy. That wouldn’t weed out all the crazies, but it would help.
“We’re gonna die. Then I’ll be the ghost. I’ll be the ghost. I’ll be the ghost,” the whispering turned to muttering, rising an octave each time.
“Someone shut him the fuck up!” Jeryl had to raise his voice over the commando’s.
Jeryl winced when he heard a muffled thump followed by the sound of a body crumpling to the floor. Well, there was no other choice. Too much depended on this operation’s success.
“Done, Captain,” a commando whispered.
He felt bad for the poor bastard, but he would be discharged as soon as this assignment was over.
It seemed the rest of them relaxed as well. Panic was contagious, and even Jeryl felt his heart pounding a little faster with every whisper.
“Secure him so he doesn’t blow it when it’s time to move,”
“Yes, sir,” he tried and failed to be quiet as he trussed his colleague about.
“Bound and gagged, sir,”
“Let’s just hope he stays unconscious,” Jeryl muttered.
That was a fiasco, but it did serve as a slight distraction against the monotony. Now that things were settled, the smells invaded his nose again. He wished with all his might that the fuckers that took over would get to the Syndicate headquarters already.
They used that time to prepare themselves. Jeryl closed his eyes and did his best to still his mind, which tried constantly to return to his wife. Was Ashley okay? Would she forgive him for disabling the shuttle? Was she in pain? He cursed himself for not being with her. She and the baby should be his first priority, but...service to the Terran Union would always hold that title. She knew that and loved him anyway.
He shook his head in an attempt to drive out those thoughts. They would have to wait. Instead, he concentrated on listening for any noise outside. If the plan worked, they could overpower the Syndicate thugs and send the coordinates to Flynn.
There were random clangs and scrapes outside. Jeryl held his breath. Someone was tinkering with the control panel right in front of them. They paid attention. The malfunction should’ve only shown if they ran a specific diagnostic. Jeryl had hoped it would go unnoticed.
Apparently, it didn’t. All he could do was hope that Engineering did a job and repairing the panel would be impossible. At least, until they docked at headquarters and got the right parts.
The sound of a spark from the panel followed by loud cursing made Jeryl smile. His Engineering team was the best. He made a mental note to commend them for a job well done.
The sound of the invader punching the wall made him want to giggle. He contained himself and it was quiet again. Jeryl could only assume the asshole had walked away.
He dozed a bit, his eyes popping open when a poke to the arm woke him.
“Good morning, Captain,” one of the commandos whispered with a smile in his voice.
“Oh shit. How long was I out?”
“About an hour.”
“Did I snore?”
“No, but you farted.”
Snickers rolled across the compartment. Jeryl glowered, not that anyone could see.
What an immature thing to say.
Then, he realized that they had been stuck down there for a while. They were just trying to find some humor in a situation that would otherwise drive all of them batshit crazy. Why not a good laugh over a stupid fart joke?
Okay, that was a little funny, Jeryl admitted and allowed himself a small chuckle. It was mostly for the others’ benefit, to let them know everything was going to be okay. He could already feel the tension drain from the compartment.
The Seeker shuffled and lurched at bit in a barely recognizable sign of docking. The movement was slow and easy. It had a permanent feel to Jeryl and his instincts told him they had arrived.
Jeryl squared his shoulders and welcomed the burst of adrenaline that surged through his body. He was anxious to bust out of that fucking compartment and take down the Syndicate.
“Ready, crew. Weapons out,” he whispered.
The sound of the platoon sliding out their weapons was ominous but satisfying.
Jeryl slipped his tablet half out of its pocket and hit the icon.
The compartment door slid open.
Chapter 27
Jeryl
They stormed out of their hidden compartment. Jeryl was at the forefront, his assault rifle’s butt knitted gently with his right shoulder blade. The muzzle was at eye level, aimed forwards.
They came into a large empty corridor on the Engineering deck. The corridor wound around the entire deck like a huge snake coiling around a prey. There was no telling where Kaine’s people were.
“Stay alert,” Jeryl whispered to his men. “These guys could be—”
Before he could finish his
statement, a man came whistling around the bend, bouncing—or more like skipping—along like he owned the place.
Wrong move, pal.
Jeryl saw the man skid to a halt, shock painted across his face. Then, he saw the man’s head jerk violently to the side and a hole appearing on his forehead right before he saw the flash of a muzzle beside him.
The man collapsed to the ground, dead.
And then the alarms went off.
Jeryl started moving again, allowing his weapon to lead him. They all moved at a fast pace, looking at the world through the scopes of their rifles.
Kaine’s men started filtering into the corridor. They were all cut down as Jeryl proceeded with his men to Engineering.
As they got closer to the main entrance, more men found their way into their path. The sharp blare of the sirens drowned their screams as they were shot in the head or chest.
They turned the final bend and came to a final stretch of corridor leading to a double door. As they approached, the alarms went silent.
Jeryl paused, his team stopping right behind him. He looked around. He knew this place like the back of his hand—it was his ship after all. The corridor had progressively narrowed along the way, although it could barely be noticed.
Jeryl couldn’t sense any present danger. The corridor was spartan. The lights were a dull red, signifying some sort of emergency mode or low energy mode. Jeryl was still not sure how Kaine had been able to pilot The Seeker here.
The last Jeryl checked, Kaine’s ships had damaged The Seeker’s engines and left her drifting through space, lifeless.
“What’s the problem, boss?” asked the nearest commando.
“Something’s off,” Jeryl replied, eyeing the door ahead.
“You think he knows we’re the ones here?”
Jeryl glanced over his shoulder at the soldier. He was a sincere looking young man with a clean shaven face and a dreamy expression in his eyes. He was fitted tightly with combat fatigues, and weapons hung from the many compartments on his attire.
“Soldier, he knows we’re here,” Jeryl replied. “I’m wondering if he knows why.”
Jeryl took a few steps towards the doors. “I’m also wondering if he’s set a trap behind these doors.”
The doors were made of the same material used to make the hull. It was completely impenetrable. It could withstand a blast, except of course a torpedo—but that would just blow out this entire section of the ship, so no sense using that inside the ship.
There were no see-through windows or tiny portals that they could use to see what was behind the doors, just a thickly armored door.
Jeryl was about to take the final steps that would put him within reach of the door and cause the systems to open the door automatically, when he heard the door click. It had been locked.
“What do you suppose to achieve, Jeryl?” a voice boomed over the external comm speakers.
Jeryl ignored the voice and said to his men, “The door is locked. I need it opened now.”
A scrawny looking soldier scurried out from the back of the platoon of commandos and ran to the front. He was carrying some sort of computer device. It was a medium-sized black box with a screen, a keyboard, a stub for an antenna and a wiry aspect.
The tech specialist knelt down beside the door and revealed a small, hidden circuit compartment on the wall that Jeryl didn’t know even existed. He went on to connect his device to the circuitry and began his hack into the program.
Jeryl may have waved his arm console at Kaine’s private office in Smuggler’s Cave to open its door, but this was no office door. This was a standard military facility door. A wave of the hand wasn’t enough. Getting into the circuitry was essential.
“Done,” the tech specialist mumbled just as there was a click and a sharp hiss. The doors slid apart.
They barreled into the Engineering room. Jeryl made a beeline for the main computer systems ahead, while he commanded the rest to barricade the door and stand guard. As he suspected would happen, Kaine’s people began to pour in minutes after they broke into Engineering, guns blazing.
“Keep them off me for a second!” Jeryl groaned aloud, falling to his knees to make himself a smaller target.
He accessed the ship’s systems and then ran a pinpointing algorithm to get his exact location.
The screens were large enough for everyone in the room to see, including the enemy soldiers that were trying to destroy them.
A motion to the right caught Jeryl’s attention. He fell backwards and dodged a spray of particle beams, raising his gun in that direction. More beams whizzed past his head as Jeryl saw that an enemy combatant had somehow snuck past the small ring his men had formed around him. Jeryl didn’t blink twice before he squeezed the trigger.
The advancing fighter rocked backward with a sharp force, the beam tearing through his upper torso. The man crashed to the ground to the amazement of the nearest soldiers.
“Sorry, boss!” one called out.
“Just keep your eyes peeled,” Jeryl boomed.
One problem with the room was that there were too many entrances. And since the computers were at the center of the room, they were too exposed. But it was something they had expected. It was something they had planned for.
Jeryl threw himself back at the computer just in time for the screen to flicker and change to show a space station orbiting a blue and green planet.
“Earth?” someone whispered amidst the rat-a-tat of gunfire.
“No, not Earth,” Jeryl replied, his voice almost as weak. He was marveling at the beauty of the planet on the screen. He saw The Ghost fleet arrayed in all its majesty around the station. The Ghost itself was docked with the station, as was The Seeker.
Then underneath the image, a series of numbers rolled out. Coordinates.
Jeryl was about to relay the information back to the fleet, when the image flickered and dissolved to show a smirking face.
Kaine.
Jeryl felt his cheek burn with anger. Almost immediately, he noticed the silence that followed. Kaine’s men were no longer attacking.
“You’ve been a bad boy, Jeryl Montgomery,” Kaine said in a condescending voice.
From Kaine’s surrounding, Jeryl could tell the man was still on a ship. He wasn’t sure if it was The Seeker or The Ghost.
“Trying to call for help?” Kaine said. “Hiding in your own ship?” The man shook his head in disapproval. “Parlor tricks, Jeryl? How low can you go?”
Jeryl felt his palms ball into a fist. “I’m going to take you down,” he whispered. “Even if it’s the last thing I do.”
Kaine seemed to draw himself up to his full length. “The last thing you'll do is be captured. I’ve called off my forces for only one reason. Surrender.”
Jeryl sneered.
“I have Engineering surrounded,” Kaine said. “I have more men than you have ammo and they’re trooping into The Seeker from the space station as we speak. You’re far away from home. No one knows where you are, and you’ll die if you don’t do as I say.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Kaine glared at Jeryl. Then he nodded. “Very well.”
The screen flickered off. The computer systems died out immediately after.
Jeryl whirled around in search for the tech specialist. When he saw the scrawny man, he marched towards him.
“He’s cut all power to the engineering from the CNC,” Jeryl said. “He’s either there—or he’s got some of his people there. Did you get the coordinates?”
Jeryl had ordered the tech specialist to program the coordinates into a storage device as soon as they appeared on the screen, in the event that something happened and they lost the data from the computer systems.
The man nodded and pulled out a small rectangular disc. “I’ve already programmed the coordinates into this disc as per your command.”
“Good,” Jeryl said.
All his men had inched towards him, closing ranks. Their backs were still to hi
m, while they kept an eye out for any Syndicate thug.
Jeryl took the disc. “The only place I can send this information from is my office adjacent to the CNC. He won’t be able to cut the power going there.”
“And if he’s cut off all communication, it wouldn’t affect the one there since it runs on a self-sustaining, independent system,” the tech specialist said.
“To the ready room, then!” one commando said chirpily.
“No,” Jeryl said. “I’m going alone. You guys will only attract his attention. He may shoot us out of the sky when he realizes what we’re up to.”
“You need to go alone, then,” the tech specialist said.
“And you all need to surrender,” Jeryl said.
They began to grumble.
Jeryl had to speak over their voices. “You can't keep on fighting. If you surrender, you at least have a chance to escape by determining the terms of your surrender.”
The comms crackled to life. “Last chance, Jeryl!”
Jeryl led his team to a set of steps that led to a gangway. There was an access way there that led into the bulkhead. Jeryl knew his way to his office from there.
“We surrender!” Jeryl blurted out.
Kaine only laughed through the comms. “Typical. Tell your men to stand down. We’re coming in.”
Jeryl turned to his men. “Spread out. Stand down. If they ask, tell them I ran off into the hallway and commanded you not to follow.”
Jeryl didn’t need to speak again. They nodded and began to spread out. Jeryl opened the access way, crawled into the small tunnel, and closed the access way behind him.
He found it difficult, crawling through the small space with an assault rifle, so he abandoned the weapon soon enough.
He was already in another section of the ship, when he faintly heard the sound of yells. Kaine’s men were now storming Engineering.
Jeryl found a ladder and climbed about three decks up before he had to crawl some more to find a connecting ladder.
These spaces had been made for Engineering staff to fix problems within the ship's bowels, especially when the elevators were damaged. It was also meant to give them easy access to the parts of the ship that were too embedded in the hull to be accessed from outside the bulkhead.