by Don DeBon
Deven glared. "Just do it man!"
They both wrapped themselves around Aleshia. A bubble of raw energy formed around the three of them as they levitated into the air and rocketed through the window of the control room sending glass everywhere. Aleshia altered their trajectory and they shot like a bullet through the sealed doors punching through them as though they were tin foil.
Again and again they shot through the doors the complex had sealed trying to contain them, gaining speed. Behind, the power systems reached critical mass. Sparks began to rain down from the lights, the walls, and consoles mounted on the sides a micro second before bursting into flames. The assembly equipment ignited sending the whole area to hell and it reached out to grab them.
Otis' eyes fell upon the fire ball rapidly overtaking them and gulped. "Aleshia I think—"
Deven gritted his teeth. "Shut up you fool! If she loses her concentration, we're dead."
Flames licked the bubble around them, threatening to engulf it any second. They shot through the doors Aleshia ripped open earlier leaving a larger hole. But Aleshia didn't slow down continuing the same reckless speed through the forest plowing through anything over that dared stand in their way.
Half way to the truck she slowed, lowered them to the ground and collapsed. Deven picked her up. "Aleshia! Are you okay?"
"Mmm … will … be. Sooo … tired." A second later she was fast asleep. In the distance a fireball lit up the night sky with a secondary explosion that leveled what was left of the complex.
Deven's data tab beeped and he pulled it out activating the encrypted link. Leon's face flashed onto the screen. "Oh thank God! I've been trying to reach you. We monitored the facility going into overload and the explosion less then a minute later, are you okay?"
"Yes we are, thanks to Aleshia."
"What happened?"
"Otis tripped some sort of alarm."
Otis' eyes went to slits. "I did not!"
"Never mind, we are heading to the truck and I want to move out as soon as we are back aboard. I am sure this has drawn a lot of attention we don't need."
"You got it. See you in a few." Leon's face winked out and Deven replaced the data tab back into its pouch.
Deven turned and glared at Otis. "Now, what did you do?"
Otis glared back. "I didn't do anything."
"Like heck you did. Everything was fine until you hacked into that terminal."
"I am telling you, I didn't trip any alarms."
Deven pointed to the fireball in the distance. "Then how did that happen?"
"I don't know. Perhaps the Nexus left a trap for us."
Deven's face softened. "That is possible. And very likely, if she knew we were on her trail."
"Don't I know it."
Deven picked up Aleshia, holding her in his strong arms. "And I am sorry I called you a fool. I know you are anything but."
Otis smiled. "Think nothing of it Bossman. And I admit I was being rather stupid, of course Aleshia would know what was right behind us."
"Do you know which way is the truck?"
"Nope but I can find out." He pulled out his keyboard and hit a few keys. He pointed to the right. "That way."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep and I will show you." He tapped a few more keys and in the distance they heard a truck horn. "See?"
Deven laughed. "I should have known better."
"Yep you should have. I know my equipment." They made their way to the truck and soon were climbing into the sky. A few minutes later they sat in the main docking bay. Aleshia still slumped against Deven, sound asleep.
"I'm going to take Aleshia to our quarters. Meet you on the bridge."
Otis nodded. "Will do Bossman."
Deven picked up Aleshia and walked as carefully as he could, trying not to disturb her. When he reached their cabin, he lay her on the bed and pulled the blanket over her. He turned to leave she grabbed his wrist. "I'm okay," she said with a groggy slur.
"You're awake!"
"Did you really think I could sleep through you walking up the deck plates?"
"Sorry love, I tried."
"I know, and I love you for it. A little sleep and I'll be fine."
Deven smiled as he flipped off the light. "I will be back soon."
"Mmhmm," Aleshia said but was asleep before she finished.
Back on the bridge Galina pointed a finger at Otis. "How could you not know the place was going to blow? Didn't you access it from outside?"
"I did, and it didn't so get off my back!"
Leon got between them. "Listen you two, this is pointless. It could have happened to anyone. Galina, back off." He turned. "Otis, let's see what you downloaded from the facility."
Otis pulled out his cracking card and plugged it into Leon's console. "Take a look."
Leon scrolled through the data. "I'm not seeing anything about the Nexus."
"Hang on, let me look." Leon hopped up and Otis sat down. Scrolling through the data he stopped and pointed a finger at the screen. "There it is! The system was powered up for only a few minutes. Give me a second and I will find out why." He dug through the data like a termite. "This is odd. Nothing was done except for powering up the system. No orders given, nothing was manufactured."
"Could the Nexus have altered the data?"
"Not in the time the system was powered, it would take a lot longer. There are many safeguards against tampering, even from the Nexus."
Leon's eyebrow went up as he scratched at the stubble on his chin, the last few days there wasn't time to shave. "What in the world was she doing there?"
"I don't know." Otis tapped a few more keys. "Oh here we go! The terminal accessed the public Global Network for almost the two minutes then shut down."
Galina's eyes narrowed. "The Nexus goes into the plant, starts it up, only to get on the Global Network? Does anyone else think this is odd?"
Otis nodded. "You bet it is. I can't imagine why, she should have instant access to everything. Heck by all accounts, she helped build it."
Leon rubbed his chin. "Unless she didn't want to be discovered and is trying to hide her trail. Can you get an indication where she linked in from?"
Otis shook his head. "Nope. There isn't any evidence of that. It is as if she directly connected to the terminal. Which also doesn't make sense."
Deven walked through the hatch. "Did you find anything out from the data?"
Leon laughed. "Only more questions, and not one answer."
Miles voice came through the speaker as his camera focused on Deven. "Ahem, if I may, I can give you one answer."
Deven looked up. "Which is?"
"Otis did not trigger a self-destruct. Nor did the Nexus plant some sort of trap for you."
"Miles, how do you know?" Otis sat back in his chair as he watched the camera swing around to focus on him.
"While I have been instructed not to intervene unless asked, I have examined the data you bought back, and I have determined while the explosion was due to a self-destruct, it is not anything you triggered. Nor is it something the Nexus did."
Deven cocked his head. "Explain."
"Certainly. One aspect you may not be aware of is most Mechand manufacturing complexes had a fail-safe installed in case the security of the facility was compromised. If the Mechand security force did not respond to the alert, it had instructions to set the power generation system on overload."
Otis stood up. "But I didn't trip it!"
"That is correct, you did not. Aleshia did."
Deven shook his head. "Wait a second, that is not possible. The only thing she did was open the front doors."
Miles' camera iris opened and closed. "Correct."
"And it was long after the overload was activated."
"That is also correct. But you are forgetting the facility was offline and in full power down mode. Only after power was restored did it realize the doors had been compromised."
Otis sat back down. "And when the Mechands didn
't respond to its call, poof."
Deven sat down in his chair. "And what was the Nexus doing there? I assume there was something in the log we almost got blown up for?"
Otis shook his head. "Yes and no. The plant was only on for two minutes in the past couple of weeks."
"And what did the Nexus tell it to do?"
"Nothing."
Deven sat forward. "Nothing? It doesn't make sense."
"It gets even stranger. It seems all she did was access the public Global Network."
"Shouldn't she have anywhere instant access to the whole thing?"
Otis nodded. "Yep, she should. But it appears she didn't."
"Okay, and where was the signal relayed from?"
"Here."
"What?! Are you telling me she is aboard the Defiant?"
Otis laughed. "No, sorry, at this facility. There wasn't any relay, it was as if she walked in and accessed the terminal directly."
Deven sat back. "What in the world is going on. The Nexus doesn't walk around. Her carrier flew around yes, but nothing else. There must be some sort of remote access you aren't seeing."
"I tell you there isn't. I have been through this thing three times."
Miles camera focused on Otis. "That is correct, and I have verified the data does not contain any indication the Nexus accessed the complex remotely. Also, something else none of you have considered: the facility was in full shut down. Remote access would not have been able to activate the systems. Someone had to have been inside to do so."
Otis' eyes went wide. "Hey he is right! Someone is trying to make it look like the Nexus is doing this."
Galina turned in her chair. "But to what end? There are a lot of ways to do it other than trying to make us think the Nexus is still alive."
Leon walked back and forth across the bridge. "Unless they know it is the one thing that would get our attention."
Deven sighed. "Which means the explosion wasn't an accident, but intentional."
Otis shook his head. "Can't be. Aleshia triggered the security system, if I had hacked in, nothing would have happened."
"True. All we have is questions and no answers."
Chapter 6
Aleshia woke to the dim illumination of the baseboard safety lights. Her eyes adjusted and after a moment, she realized she was in Deven's cabin, correction, their cabin. "What am I doing here?" She sat up quick and wished she hadn't. It felt like several large weighted balls were rolling around in her head. After a few minutes it came back to her, the Mechand facility and the explosion. She rubbed her head, swung her legs off of the small bed, and stood up to almost fell back onto the sheets a second later. Aleshia held her head for a few moments and stumbled out of the cabin into the bright hallway light. She squinted, but despite the pain, kept walking towards the bridge.
She heard arguing and walked through the hatch onto the Defiant's bridge. "Mind telling me what is going on?"
Everyone stopped. "Aleshia! What are you doing up? You should be resting," Galina said.
She held her head, rubbing her temples. "I have rested enough. What's going on?"
Deven led her over to a chair. "If you won't go rest, at least sit down."
She sat down with a grunt. "Fine, now tell me what is going on? Why did that place blowup in our face?"
"Well …"
"Deven, please, I am not in the mood."
"Otis?"
Otis shook his head. "No way, I am not telling her. You do it. I know what she can do, and she looks mad enough to tear a guy limb from limb"
"I'm not mad, not yet anyway. So I will ask again, what happened? Did the Nexus leave a trap for us?"
Deven sighed and sat down on his haunches next to her. "No she didn't."
"Then why did—"
He took her hand into his and gazed into her green eyes. "You. It was you."
She blinked. "Me? I didn't do anything other than open the doors."
Deven signed again and nodded. "Yes, and everything was fine until Otis woke up the control room. At that point it realized the doors were ripped apart and called for security. When it didn't find any, it fell into an old fail-safe which was the destruction of the whole facility."
Aleshia sat back and rested her head against the padded neck area of the chair. "So it was me. I'm sorry, I had no idea."
Deven put a finger to her lips. "It wasn't your fault. Well, it might have been but was not anything intentional. Could have happened to anyone."
"I don't think just anyone could have torn those doors off of their tracks. You should have seen it!" Otis said.
Deven glared at him. "Otis, you are not helping."
"Oops, sorry Boss."
Aleshia waved her hand. "No it is okay, they should all know how I messed up."
Deven took her hand. "You didn't mess up. How would any of us know the facility would take that kind of action."
Aleshia smiled and patted his hand. "Thanks sweetheart, but I am not some crazy woman that is going to tear you apart because you told me I did something wrong. But I do appreciate the attempt. Did we at least get something useful out of it?"
Otis nodded. "We did, although it doesn't make sense."
"Why not?"
"As far as I can tell—"
"Mr. Otis, we have both examined the data," Miles said in his normal calm voice.
Otis rolled his eyes. "Okay as far as we can tell, she arrived, turned on the power for two minutes, accessed the public Global Network, and left."
Aleshia blinked. "That's all?"
Deven sighed. "Yes, I'm afraid so."
Aleshia rubbed her temples again. "What's our next move?"
"It is what we were discussing when you came in."
"Sounded more like a fight."
Deven laughed. "It wasn't really."
Galina's eyes narrowed. "I am not so sure."
Aleshia blinked as knowledge poured into her mind. "Okay some of us want to go on the hunt for the Nexus, while others think we should wait until she appears again. But we don't know how long it will take. Is that about right?"
Otis' eyebrows met. "Yeah, and how did you—"
Aleshia pointed to her head. "Sorry, after what I did earlier my normal safeguards to block reading minds are a bit weak. It wasn't intentional."
Galina folded her arms. "Well since now you know everything, care to weigh in?"
Aleshia nodded then wished she didn't. "Yes, I think we should wait until she shows up again. I am sure it won't be long, and we can prepare for when she does."
Otis nodded. "Works for me."
Deven turned to face Galina. "Galina? Is this okay with you?"
Galina snorted. "I guess. She does have a point, we don't know where to look and it will be a shot the dark without more information. But waiting for the Nexus to make the next move rubs me the wrong way."
"I don't like it either. But wasting our time isn't going to help matters."
"I know. I know. All right, I'm with you."
"Good, now can we take a little trip to Bermuda? We still have the rental for the next couple of days, and we haven't been there more then ten minutes," Aleshia said.
Deven smiled and squeezed her hand again. "But the Nexus could pop up anytime."
"I am not asking we go off alone. I am suggesting the Defiant park a couple of miles above us." She pointed to a nearby screen. "See? We are in the neighborhood as it is, we can be there in a few minutes. Everyone here can work on the systems while we rest a little. If there is any trouble, we can be back here in no time."
"But I will be needed—"
Galina smiled. "No you won't. We can handle it."
"But—"
Leon pointed. "Do you really want to upset this woman? One who can rip doors to shreds or fly you out of an exploding fabrication plant?" He smiled.
"Looks like I am out voted."
Otis sat back and folded his hands behind head rotating his chair back and forth. "Yes you are Bossman. Go have a good time. We can tak
e care of things here. And as Aleshia said, if we need you, we know where you are. Go love your wife, before she gets mad." He winked.
Deven stood up and offered his hand. "Let's get out of here."