A series of loud booms could be heard from above everyone’s heads.
Everton looked up. “Sounds like we’re being bombarded.”
The female trooper nodded. ‘The Brelac. They’re starting another assault.”
“Then we have to move,” replied Everton. “One of you troopers can take me to the bridge to see Captain West. We’ll try to help get communications up and running – our priority, since we need to call for help. The rest of you head to engineering. If we can’t get this ship off the ground, we’ll have to abandon her.”
The male trooper escorted Everton and the two technicians down the corridor to reach the bridge. The rest of the group followed the female trooper in the opposite direction. As they walked through the corridor, the lights in the ceiling flickered on and off in time with the bombardment outside.
They reached the wide round entrance to the ship’s engineering section. The huge room sported two rows of bright circular lights shining down from the low ceiling. At the far end of the room stood a row of four large, black cylindrical machines with red pulsating lights and thick black cables along their sides. The entire room hummed loudly. A female trooper with short blond hair knelt in front of the machine at the far left, yanking cables from an open panel. A coil cable and several tools lay scattered around her.
“That’s Lieutenant Garbo over there,” said the female trooper, pointing to the kneeling blond woman.
Lieutenant Garbo stood when the group approached. She focused her attention on Colin, Diane, and Kelly. “Civilians? Where the hell did you come from?”
“Lieutenant Garbo,” Colin said, “we’re with the CID. I’m Colin McKenzie. My friends here are Diane Christy and Kelly Lytton. We’d like to ask you some questions about Lieutenant John Mertz.”
Garbo stared at Colin for a moment, then said, “What more do you want to know? Other than the fact that he’s a deserter.”
“We were hoping you could tell us what he was involved in,” replied Colin. “Mertz was found dead in an apartment.”
“And not just dead,” Diane added. “He was fried like a strip of bacon on a hot griddle.”
Kelly grimaced. “Thanks for that colorful description.”
Garbo blinked her eyes in obvious surprise. “He’s dead?”
Colin nodded. “Yes. Burned to death in the same manner as several victims during the attack on President Drennan’s rally on Tacoma Three. There’s a definite connection.”
A frown formed on Garbo’s face. Colin noticed that here eyes began to water. We’ve got a definite reaction here, he thought. She knows something.
“If he wound up dead,” Garbo replied, “then maybe that’s his reward for running out on us.”
“I was told that you and Mertz were friends. Possibly you were the only person on the ship that he was close to. Did he give you any reason why he would want to jump ship?”
Garbo shook her head. “We spoke a few times. But it was just officer to officer. All I know is, a week ago our ship stopped at Starbase Perseus before being deployed here. When the ship took off, all hands were on board except for Mertz. I didn’t know that he was a damn coward and a deserter. He got what the deserved.”
Colin considered the frown on Garbo’s face. “You seem to be pretty upset.”
“Oh, you think?” she snapped. “I’m stuck in a derelict ship with power failing, shields failing – and outside there’s an army of alien psychopaths eager to burn my face off. Wouldn’t you be upset too?”
“Good point. But that’s not what I meant. You seemed upset over the news about Mertz.”
Garbo smiled and shook her head. “Upset about that deserter? I already told you, he ran out on his ship. He got what he deserved.”
Three loud booms set of a tremor that rocked the ship and made the ceiling lights flicker on and off.
“Somebody please tell me that’s normal,” Kelly said in a nervous tone as he looked up.
“It’s normal if you’re diverting power from two engines through a damaged hyper-capacitor to keep the ship’s shields working while half of your main power couplings to your shield generators are fried,” Garbo explained. She looked to the female trooper. “Martiz, did you start work on those couplings yet?”
“No, lieutenant. I started to when our guests popped in on us.”
“Well stop standing around and get your ass out there. We need those couplings fixed,” Garbo snapped.
With haste, the female trooper turned and left the area.
Diane approached Garbo. “Can you tell us anything about why Mertz would want to jump ship?”
Garbo laughed. “You CID people don’t listen very well. Beyond cowardice, I have no idea what would have motivated that bastard to run out on us. All I know is that he ran. In my eyes, that makes him an enemy no different from the Brelac. And speaking of Brelac, I’ve got work to get back to, so we can keep the shields up and avoid ending up elbows-deep in the monsters.” She knelt down to the open panel on the machine.
The sudden scream of a woman from the corridor startled everyone, and Garbo jumped back to her feet. “That sounded like Martiz!” she exclaimed, grabbing for a nearby laser rifle.
At the sound of a laser rifle firing rapid shots and another scream, Diane pointed her rifle at the corridor opening. “It’s the Brelac!”
Garbo shook her head. “No. Our system alarms would sound if they breached the shields.”
“The alarms didn’t go off when we got in through a hull breach.” Colin warned. “We’ll investigate this. You stay here and keep working.”
“Like hell. This is my ship, and I’ll defend it!” Garbo snarled, hefting her laser rifle.
Colin ran out of the engineering section and into the corridor, with the others followed behind. The group stopped short, stunned to find Martiz lying face-down on the floor in a pool of her own blood, her right arm severed at the elbow and lying near her head. “Oh, my God!” Garbo cried out. A reptilian humanoid six feet tall with thick reverse-joint legs was bent over Martiz, with long silvery claws buried in her back. Covered from its pig-snouted head to its long thrashing tail by long sharp metal shards, it looked like a metallic lizard porcupine with long pointed ears covered with thin metallic needles. As soon as its red eyes spotted them, it opened its mouth full of long sharp teeth and hissed, then snarled loudly.
As Diane and Lieutenant Garbo aimed their laser rifles at the creature, it hoisted Martiz’s body up over its head and flung it toward them. Colin jumped back to avoid being hit as rapid bursts of crimson laser fire struck the creature and knocked off several metal shards from its chest. The creature’s body jerked left and right as it staggered back under the assault, but physically it appeared to be unhurt.
Colin knelt down and touched his glowing blue hand to the metal floor, releasing his power over electrically conductive material. In a second, a wide fissure opened along the floor and headed for the advancing creature. The creature let out an angered growl as it fell down into the space beneath the floor.
“They’re after me! I’ve got to get out of here!” Garbo exclaimed. She turned and ran back to the engineering section.
Colin stood up. “They? Who are they?”
“Run!” shouted Garbo.
Colin and Diane and Kelly rushed behind her back into the engineering section. Garbo stopped at a small panel of glowing red buttons at the right side of the doorway. She jammed her fingers onto the panel, and a thick metal door slid down, closing off the corridor with a hiss and a loud boom.
Garbo, her face pale with fear, gulped in heavy breaths. Colin scowled and demanded, “What the hell is going on? Do you know what that thing is?”
“I can’t believe it!” Garbo screeched. “They came all the way here to find me!”
“They?” Colin grabbed Garbo’s arm. “Who are they?”
The loud bang and scraping from the other side of metal door made Diane turn and point her rifle toward it. “Sounds like it’s trying to break through.”
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“What’s going on here?” Colin shouted at Garbo.
“It’s the Enforcers,” Garbo whined. “They killed John, and now they’ve come all the way here to kill me.”
“The Enforcers?” Colin asked. He released Garbo’s arm. “Who are they, and why do they want to kill you?”
Garbo took in a deep breath. “They’re monsters. They’re here to kill me because of my relationship with John. They want to keep me quiet about the plan.”
“What plan?”
“They needed pilots. John signed up. Him and Corby. Vendetta made us a whole bunch of honeyed-up promises about power and prosperity. How they would end the war. Give us better lives. Then they told him about the plan and what he’d have to do. He thought that it was too horrific, so he backed out and went on the run.”
A hoarse growl came from the other side of the door as four long metal blades stabbed through the door and pulled away. They stabbed through again.
Garbo backed away. “These are monsters that you don’t quit and run out on. John tried to go into hiding. He wanted me to go with him, but I was afraid and backed out. He told me that it would be okay, that they wouldn’t find us. He was wrong. You can’t hide from these monsters. You can only run so far until they catch up with you.”
The blades continued stabbing and slashing through the door.
Diane moved closer to Garbo. She placed her hand on Garbo’s shoulder. “Look, it’s okay. If someone is after you then we’ll protect you.”
Garbo took a step back and laughed. “You’ll protect me? Not against the Enforcers. You won’t be able to protect yourselves.”
“You’d be surprised at what we can do,” Colin told her. “Now tell us who these Enforcers are and what this plan of theirs is all about.”
Garbo opened her mouth as if to speak. Then she let out a high pitched shriek. Her body jerked forward. She took a step toward Colin, then fell onto her face.
Colin, Diane, and Kelly were startled by the sight of the creature standing on the floor behind the fallen Garbo. It was the same spider-like creature they had encountered in the tunnel, with eight long legs attached to its black six-foot-long oval body and two small pinchers on the end of each leg. At the rear end of its body, a long serpentine tail with a stinger on the end thrashed around menacingly. Four glowing ruby-red eyes at the front of its body and a maw grinning with long sharp teeth completed the horrendous look.
The spider-thing hissed at them, then darted to the right and vanished.
“Did you see that?” Kelly shrieked. “It’s the same thing that we saw in the tunnel.”
“We saw it, kid. And it’s still here,” Diane replied. She looked about the entire engineering section, spinning left to right as she aimed her rifle.
They all turned to the sudden noise from the far end of the room and saw the creature clinging to the ceiling next to a large circular air vent. It was using the pinchers on two of its legs to grab hold and tear open the vent. Then it scurried into the ventilation shaft and disappeared again just as Diane sprayed the area with laser fire. “Damn, that thing moves fast – it was just a blur!”
Colin knelt down to Garbo and turned her over onto her back. Garbo was not moving or breathing. He pressed his ear onto her chest to listen for a heartbeat. There was nothing. “She’s dead.”
Another explosion above shook the engineering section, and the lights went out just as the loud shrill of an alarm filled the air. The loud hum generated by the huge machines in the engineering section began to fade.
“That can’t be good,” Kelly said in the darkness. A second later, the dim emergency lighting in the ceiling came on. “What do we do now?” he asked.
A male voice boomed over a loudspeaker above their heads, “All crew members prepare to evacuate the ship. Proceed immediately to Corridor C on Deck One. I repeat, proceed to Corridor C on Deck One for immediate evacuation.”
Colin stood up. “That’s sound advice. Corridor C is back the way we came.”
“We’ll have to deal with that thing on the other side of the door,” Kelly reminded him. “
“I don’t hear it,” said Diane. “Sounds like it stopped slashing at the door.”
“We’ll have to risk it,” said Colin. He walked over to the door’s control panel and examined the glowing buttons until he found the right one. “Get ready.”
Diane stood with her laser rifle aimed toward the door. Kelly stood six feet at her right with his hands raised, ready to direct his power to the creature that might be waiting on the other side. Colin pressed the button, and the door slid open with a loud hiss. Much to his relief, there was nothing on the other side.
“Where the hell did it go?” asked Diane.
Colin looked up at the ceiling as two more explosions from outside shook the ship. “Probably the same place we have to go. Off this ship before the Brelac blow it apart.”
Moving with haste, Colin led the way through the corridor and reached the opening in the floor he’d created to allow them entry from the subway tunnel below. Everton and several other troopers rounded a passageway and gathered in the corridor. “All hell’s breaking loose!” Everton shouted. “The Brelac are pulling out all the stops. We’ve got to get our asses off this ship and get back to the stadium.”
“The stadium?” asked Colin. “You think we’ll be any better off back there?”
“We’ll have to hold out until help arrives,” replied Everton. “We managed to get the bridge communications working just long enough to send out a call for help. We’ve got a small task force of ships from the Twenty-ninth Assault Squadron. Unfortunately they could only spare four battle cruisers and two transports. There won’t be room for everybody to get a ride, so some people are going to be left on the ground to fend for themselves until more help arrives.”
Colin frowned at this dire news. Just six ships to try evacuate a few thousand people? This is going to be a mess.
Everton glanced at Martiz’s body the monster had slammed against the corridor wall. “What happened?” he asked.
“An unidentified creature killed Trooper Maritz,” Colin said simply.
Everton nodded. “Where’s Lieutenant Garbo?”
“She’s dead.”
“How?”
“A seddrax killed her. Apparently it was with the creature that killed Martiz. We have to stay on the alert. I’ve got a feeling this isn’t over.”
Colin felt his tension mounting as he waited with Diane and Kelly, watching the mob of troopers descend into the opening he had created in the floor. He feared there could still be hostile creatures hiding aboard this ship, waiting for the chance to strike. These creatures had already slain two crew members. Colin thought back to Garbo and realized the large seddrax had made her a deliberate target, most likely keep her silent about the plan Vendetta had cooked up. But the investigation didn’t end with her death. The name Garbo had revealed before she died, along with the rest of the information, offered a solid lead in this case. Now, being able to continue with this investigation was only a matter of getting off of this planet alive.
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Chapter 8
Colin, Diane, and Kelly, accompanied by the surviving crew members of the Chimera, made a frantic dash toward the stadium as multiple explosions went off on the ground at their left and right. While running, they kept their heads down as dozens of laser and plasma bolts flashed back and forth through the air. They were fortunate that the path from the subway tunnel back to the stadium was still experiencing light activity from the Brelac. But now the Brelac were staging a major offensive to crush the stadium base and everyone stationed inside.
As Colin approached the stadium, he noticed that the energy wall that once protected it was now gone. He watched swarms of enemy plasma bolts striking the stadium wall, along with several missiles that produced deafening explosions when they detonated and blasted away huge chunks of debris that showered the area.
Looking up at the sky, Colin saw
four black stingray fighters flying over the stadium, strafing the wall with their plasma fire. Colin ran to catch up to Everton, who was running a few feet ahead of him. “I just saw Brelac fighters overhead,” he shouted.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Everton shouted back. “The Brelac are making a big push to take this entire sector. That means this base is toast.”
“So are we, if we stay here and wait long enough. How soon before those relief ships arrive?”
“We were told seventeen minutes – assuming they won’t be intercepted and shot down.”
That’s really encouraging, Colin thought to himself.
As the group advanced to the stadium, they were flanked by dozens of troopers crouched behind tall heaps of rubble while returning fire at the enemy forces. The group ran into the entrance to the stadium. Once inside, they found the scene was more chaotic than outside. Screaming troopers were running left and right, and wounded troopers were being carried arm in arm by their comrades.
At the sound of a particularly close explosion, Colin looked just in time to see one of the laser turrets blow apart. The loud blast sent flaming fragments of the turret flying in all directions. A second later, to the right side of the destroyed turret, a large section of the stadium wall exploded, also sending chunks of debris flying into the air.
“We’re in for a fight!” Diane shouted at Colin.
A larger section of the already damaged stadium wall exploded and collapsed. Colin turned to his left when he heard another loud blast going off. That section of the stadium wall was now being blown away by the enemy firepower. Dozens of armed troopers began to rush toward both of the damaged sections. It was obvious to Colin that they were running to try to repel the Brelac as they penetrated the stadium. But the question that Colin asked himself was ... could they?
Colin approached Diane and Kelly. “We’re going to have to give them a hand,” he shouted over the loud commotion.
Kelly looked about. “Where do we start?”
“Follow me!”
Assassination Anxiety (The McKenzie Files) Page 10