“Uck,” Addy said.
“We’re going to krak out the trackers?” Brak asked.
“Hopefully,” Lucien replied. “If not... maybe our suit sensors can find them for us.”
“We’re going to make Katawa pay for this,” Addy said.
“The best payback will be to deny him his prize and make sure he can’t follow us. Then he’ll be the one stranded on Mokar.”
“Something tells me Abaddon will come pick him up before long,” Addy replied.
“Probably,” Lucien admitted. “But he’ll have to find a new group of suckers to go looking for his fleet. On the bright side, if Abaddon went to all this trouble, it means we’re probably on the right track.”
Their conversation lapsed into silence, and Lucien gazed down between his feet to watch as they slowly sank back down. The darkness swirled below them like a raging sea, ready to suck them under. Smoke from the Specter? Lucien wondered.
“What do you think is down there?” Addy asked, her voice barely audible above the muted roar of air rushing by them as they fell.
“Death,” Brak said before Lucien could reply. “There will be much honor in it. A fitting end to Brak, son of Karva.”
Lucien glanced at him, but it was too dark to see now. He turned on his helmet lamps, and the others followed suit. Six bright white beams of light appeared, sweeping through a glittering mist.
A panicked yelp came from Brak’s direction.
“Motherfrekker!” Garek roared.
“Stop moving or I drop you,” Brak said.
“What happened?” Garek demanded.
“The ship crashed,” Lucien said. “We barely made it out in time.”
“Krak... the last thing I remember was making a break for the airlock. Hold up, why are we going down?”
Lucien explained their reasoning.
Garek’s headlamps joined theirs and swept down to pierce the black. “So our best bet to escape is to walk straight into a trap. How does that not make sense?”
“That depends whether or not we can find whatever Katawa plans to use to track us,” Lucien said.
“And if we can’t? Or if it’s inside of us and can’t be removed?” Garek asked.
Lucien had no answer for that. He cast his headlamps back and forth, searching the impenetrable darkness at his feet, but there was still no sign of the bottom.
“We don’t have a choice,” Addy said. “We have to find that gateway, or we’re going to be stuck on Mokar waiting for Abaddon to come get Katawa—and then us.”
“Yeah,” Garek growled. “So we’re frekked if we do, and frekked if we don’t.”
Lucien nodded slowly. “Exactly.”
Chapter 29
Astralis
A pair of Marine bots scanned Lucien at the door to the meeting room. As soon as they finished, the door slid open and he walked in. Admiral Stavos was seated at the head of a long, glossy black table.
“Welcome, Mr. Ortane,” Stavos said.
All eyes followed Lucien as he walked up to the table and sat down in an empty chair beside Brak—
Only to do a double take as his wife’s blue eyes met his across the table. Shock coursed through him, and he faltered for words. “Tyra...?” She hadn’t mentioned that she would be attending this meeting.
Then he noticed the white Navy uniform and the Captain’s insignia on her sleeves and shoulders.
This was her clone, Captain Forster.
“Hello, Lieutenant Commander Ortane.”
“Lieutenant...?” Lucien trailed off, shaking his head.
“Trust me this is stranger for me than it is for any of you,” she said, glancing around the table at each of them in turn. “None of you remember me—with the exception of Lucien here—who recognizes me as his wife, of all things.” Tyra’s mouth curved wryly at that. “But let me assure you, I know all of you very well already.”
“We had a lill’ somethin’ goin’ on, didn’t we?” one of the men at the table said, flashing a lopsided grin at her.
“No, Tinker, we didn’t. In fact you were killed by the Faros within days of leaving Astralis.”
“Damn,” Tinker replied.
A striking blond-haired woman glanced at him and smirked.
“Perhaps you should make the introductions before we start, Captain Forster,” Admiral Stavos said. He leaned forward and folded his hands on the table in front of him.
“It would be my pleasure.” Tyra turned to the man sitting to her right.
He had thick, angry scars running all the way down one side of his face. His head was shaved, with a faint black shadow where his hair was supposed to be, and a matching shadow of stubble on his lower jaw.
“This is Garek Helios, who I’m told is the father of Director Helios from the Resurrection Center. We called him The Veteran, and he served as our medic on the Inquisitor.”
Garek grunted at his introduction, looking like he wanted to add something, but he settled for a scowl instead.
“Sitting next to him is Jalisa, our gunnery chief and demolitions expert, as well as our second-best shuttle pilot.”
Lucien studied her: dark skin and intense violet eyes with long black hair wound into dreadlocks. She certainly looked like someone who knew her way around a weapons locker.
“Jalisa and Garek were something of an item on the ship,” Captain Forster added.
Jalisa glanced at Garek in disbelief, and he winked at her. “Heya, sweetheart.”
She rolled her eyes. “Another example of my poor taste in men.”
Garek snorted, and Tinker chuckled.
Captain Forster went on, “Sitting on the other side of Jalisa we have Troo, a Fosak. She was our comms operator.”
“I is being therapist now,” Troo said.
“That only adds to your qualifications,” Captain Forster replied, nodding. “Troo’s telepathic abilities make her a unique asset to any mission, especially during first contact.
“On the other side of the table we have Teelo Ferakis, a.k.a Tinker, our chief engineer.”
He raised his hand and waved dramatically to everyone at the table as if he might be about to get up and take a bow.
“He’s also our resident comedian,” Tyra added, frowning. “Tickets to his show are free, but nobody wants them.”
“Ouch,” Tinker said, holding a hand to his chest. “That stings, Cap’n.”
Tyra nodded to Addy next. “Next up is Adalyn Gallia, or Triple S, our scout and sniper.”
“Triple S?” Addy asked.
“Sexy sniper scout. You can blame Lucien for that. Feel free to come up with a new nickname. I believe it was Lucien’s misguided idea of flirting.”
Addy turned to Lucien with a disgusted look. “He’s a married man.”
“Indeed. Now he is, and with two young daughters, but he wasn’t married when you met him.”
Addy nodded slowly, her disgust fading to a furrowed brow.
Lucien’s mind reeled. Addy was beautiful, no question there, but it was strange to be told that he’d been in a relationship with someone that he couldn’t even remember having met.
“Sitting beside Addy is Brak, the Gor: violent, impulsive, and unpredictable to the point that I question the wisdom of asking him to join us again.”
Brak hissed and bared his teeth at her.
“Nevertheless, Brak is a specialist in melee combat, which turned out to be extremely useful against the Faros, whose personal shields rendered all of our ranged weapons useless.”
“Yeah, he’ll definitely be an asset,” Lucien agreed.
“And finally, there’s Lucien Ortane, executive officer aboard the Inquisitor, commander of flight ops, and our best pilot.”
Lucien shook his head, his jaw set and eyes thoughtfully narrowed.
“Is there something wrong, Commander Ortane?” Captain Forster asked.
“You’re introducing us all as if we’re still your crew, but we’re not, and in a sense we never were. We have no recolle
ction of each other or any of the time we spent together on the Inquisitor.”
“That’s correct,” Admiral Stavos put in, “but we’re hoping to change that.” He went on to explain what Lucien already knew about the proposal to send out clones to explore the universe.
“Woah, back that krak up,” Garek said, holding up a hand to stop the admiral there. “You don’t actually want us to go. You want our clones to go?”
“That’s correct, but make no mistake, thanks to the Judicial Department’s ruling on the matter, your clones will have to sync their memories with yours every time they return, so you will ultimately acquire all of the same experiences as them and vice versa. You will essentially be living two lives in parallel, one here on Astralis, and one out there among the stars.”
“Waa-how! That’s all kinds of frekked up,” Tinker said.
“Please mind your language, Mr. Ferakis.”
“Fine. It’s all kinds of sexed up. That better?”
Admiral Stavos scowled.
Tinker turned to the rest of them. “What if we get all depressed after we sync because we’re still waking up every day to our dull little lives?”
“It’s better than living our dull little lives without even the memory of adventure,” Addy replied. “This is the chance of a lifetime, and it’s the whole reason we came on this mission. As far as I’m concerned, it’s about time we found a way to get back out there. Where do I sign up?”
Admiral Stavos smiled. “Now there’s the explorer’s spirit we’re looking for. What about the rest of you?”
Addy looked around the table.
“I’m in,” Garek said.
“Likewisss,” Brak hissed.
“Aww, sex it, I guess I can always pop some pills or start smoking glow. Sign me up, too.”
“You may go back to cursing now, Mr. Ferakis,” Admiral Stavos.
Tinker just grinned.
“I is deciding to be joining this mission,” Troo said next.
“That just leaves you, Mr. Ortane.”
All eyes were on Lucien once more. His wife’s words echoed through his head, urging him to consider the consequences of his choice.
“Commander?” Captain Forster prompted. “I’d be hard pressed to find a better XO, but I will if I have to.”
Lucien gazed back into the Captain’s blue eyes—his wife’s eyes. Less than an hour ago they’d been pleading with him not to join this mission, and now here she was asking him to go for it.
Tinker’s right, Lucien decided. This is all kinds of frekked up...
Ultimately, he found he had to agree with Addy: it was the chance of a lifetime and there didn’t appear to be any kind of downside to it. “I’m in,” Lucien said, nodding once.
Captain Forster grinned. “There’s the Lucien I know.”
And love? he wondered. Under different circumstances they’d ended up falling in love and getting married. How much of that potential had they explored while they were crewmates aboard the Inquisitor?
“That settles it,” Admiral Stavos said, nodding. “Chief Ellis is working with the council to draft the legislation for all of this as we speak. If all goes well, we’ll be able to send out the first Galleons within a month. That will give us enough time to grow a new clone for Garek, who recently used his to resurrect after being killed by the Faros.”
“You don’t have to wait for me, sir,” Garek put in.
Stavos nodded to him. “We aren’t, but I’m glad that you’ll be able to join us all the same.”
That caught Lucien’s attention. “Us...? Are you coming with us, sir?”
Stavos grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it for the universe.”
“I thought Captain Forster was going to be in command.”
“She is—of her ship. We’re sending out the galleons in pairs for better security this time. Captain Forster will command the Retribution, with you as her crew. I’ll have command of the Harbinger, as well as the overall mission.”
Lucien began nodding. “I see.”
“This is going to be one for the history books,” Stavos went on.
“Sex yeah!” Tinker blurted out.
Everyone turned to glare at him.
“What?” Tinker asked innocently.
“I understand why the Faros kill you,” Brak said.
Jalisa chuckled, and Addy laughed with her.
“So do I,” Stavos said, his blue eyes glittering with amusement.
Lucien couldn’t help feeling apprehensive now that he knew Stavos would be commanding his mission. For whatever reason, he didn’t trust the admiral after the Faros had touched him. But he’d been cleared for duty by a mind probe and the subsequent comparative analysis. Besides, if Stavos or any of the others had somehow been corrupted by the Faros, they would have called in a Faro fleet by now.
Lucien leaned back in his chair with a sigh, and allowed his suspicions to drift away. He was just being paranoid.
Chapter 30
Mokar: Underworld
They touched down in the still-smoking crater that the Specter had punched in the bottom of the pit. Heat radiated through Lucien’s faceplate, scalding his skin and threatening to suffocate him.
“Shields up and weapons out!” Lucien said, his voice booming as it echoed off the sheer rock walls. Lucien armed his lasers, and the weapon barrels slid up out of his gauntlets with a whirring click-click-click.
“Way ahead of you,” Garek replied, his voice echoing back.
As soon as Lucien activated his shields, the heat abated, and his suit’s cooling system took over, making it easier to breathe. He swept his headlamps in a slow circle to get his bearings. Black rocks shone in the light, and gravel crunched under foot.
“Where to now?” Addy asked.
Lucien’s lamps flickered over the opening of a passage, visible just over the rim of the crater. “Over there,” he said, pointing and taking a step in that direction.
“Hold up,” Garek replied. “Let’s scan each other first. If we’re carrying tracking devices we might be able to detect the signals.”
Garek scanned Lucien with a flickering blue fan of light and spent a moment studying the results on his HUD.
“Well?” Lucien demanded.
“There’s a problem...” Garek said.
Lucien was already imagining the worst. “What is it?”
“There’s no signal, and I’m not detecting any foreign bodies inside of you besides your AR implant.”
“So there’s no tracker?” Addy asked.
“Try scanning me,” Garek suggested.
Addy did so, and Lucien took his cue from that and scanned her while they waited. The results flashed up on his HUD a few seconds later.
“Same thing. Addy’s clean.”
“Thanks, I took a shower this morning,” Addy replied.
“Ha ha.”
“Garek’s clean, too,” she said. “Either Katawa isn’t tracking us, or he is, but we can’t detect it.”
“The trackers could be cloaked,” Lucien suggested. “The Gors are all born with self-replicating cloaking implants—that’s how they can cloak themselves without armor.”
“It could be cloaked,” Garek agreed, “but we’d still be able to detect the tracking signals.”
“Unless they’re not actively transmitting,” Addy said. “The trackers might be sophisticated enough to wait until we go through the gateway before they broadcast our location.”
The beams of light from Garek’s headlamps bobbed. “If that’s true, then there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“We could do something if we had a comms jammer,” Addy said.
“Or a spaceship,” Garek pointed out. “While we’re playing that game we may as well wish for an entire fleet. The lost Etherian fleet, maybe?” His mouth twisted sardonically and he shook his head.
Lucien sighed. “Whoever planned this, they really frekked us over. I can’t see a way out. All we can do is hope the gateway takes us somewhere far enoug
h away that Katawa won’t be able to follow us before we can go somewhere else.”
“That’s not much of a hope,” Addy said. “Especially not since we know how fast Faro jump calculations are.”
“It’s all we’ve go—”
“Shhh!” Addy whispered sharply. She turned slightly, looking at something, and stood perfectly still. Lucien followed her gaze. Bits of ash and debris fluttered down through their headlamps, but otherwise there was nothing to see—just more black rocks and gravel.
“What is it?” Lucien asked.
“Switch to comms!” Addy said, her voice no longer echoing, but canned by the limited acoustics of her helmet.
“What’s going on?” Lucien snapped back over the comms while casting about with his headlamps and sensors.
“You didn’t see that?” Addy asked.
“See what?” Lucien demanded.
“There’s nothing on sensors,” Garek added.
“It was up there,” Addy insisted, pointing to the rim of the crater.
“What was?”
“I don’t know.... a light. Something glowing.”
“Which way do we go?” Brak interrupted.
Lucien found the Gor a hundred meters away, up on the rim of the crater. “It was light from Brak’s headlamps reflecting off something,” Garek suggested.
“I guess that’s possible....” Addy said.
Lucien turned his attention to Brak. “Did you find any other paths leading out of here?”
“Many,” Brak replied.
“Hang on, I’m coming up for a look,” Lucien said, and blasted off the bottom of the crater with his grav boosters. He flew in an abbreviated arc and touched down beside Brak with a loud crunch of gravel. Sweeping his headlamps from side to side, Lucien saw no less than five tunnels leading away from the rim of the crater.
Garek hovered up silently beside them, and touched down just as quietly, his caution betraying his twenty years of experience with the Paragons. “Scanners show those paths connect to a larger network,” he said. “Some kind of labyrinth.”
Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within Page 22