Danny shrugged and regarded the pair of corpses at his feet. “Well, you are the asshole that got me into this mess to begin with, and I haven’t I killed you yet. So there’s that.”
Briggs glowered at the ceiling. “Help me hide these guys and let’s go.”
Exiting the cell block, the trio moved as quickly and as quietly as they could through the complex’s lower level toward the storage lockers at Junction C. According to Briggs, that was where prisoner effects were kept, and rounding the corner to that section, the captain rushed the group into an adjacent utility room upon seeing three guards in the pod.
“They’ll rotate out in a second, so we’ll wait ’em out here then get your stuff,” Briggs said just above a whisper from the window.
“Thanks,” Danny said. “Listen, out of curiosity, you mind if I ask why you’re taking me with you? I mean, him I get,” he said, pointing to Zier. “But why do you need me?”
“Because I’m gonna need you to get the chancellor to Aura,” Briggs said.
“What?” Danny blurted. Zier’s face said he didn’t understand either. “Why?”
Briggs turned to the chancellor. “Sir, you and I both know there’s no place in the empire you can hide where Masterson can’t find you. If you defect to Aura, then at least you’ll be safe, and maybe then, if we’re lucky, you can work something out with President Wylon to stop what’s coming.”
“Hang on, what’s coming?” Danny asked.
“The Kurgorians,” Zier surmised. “He’s pushing ahead with the treaty.”
“It’s already done,” Briggs said. “They ratified it right after they took you out.”
“Stupid fools,” Zier snarled.
“Oh, it’s far worse than that, sir,” Briggs said. “The Kurgorians aren’t just some race of aliens here to help us. Sir, these people are…” He stopped short. “Chancellor, ‘Kurgoria’ was the name of the Beyonder homeworld our ancestors destroyed to end the Great War.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Danny burst out. “You mean Masterson cut a deal with the Beyonders?”
Briggs nodded. “That’s why you’ve got to get to Aura, sir, because it’s the only way our people will ever get the truth about what’s really going on here. You know better than anybody the hold Masterson has on the media, and now most of parliament. Hell, after today even those who do oppose him won’t do so publically for fear of the repercussions to their families.” Briggs shifted back to Danny. “Tucker, I get that you don’t like us, and frankly after today I don’t blame you. If somebody had done that to the woman I loved, I’d want him and everyone associated with him dead, too. But right now, you’ve got to put that hate aside and work with us. Otherwise a lot of other people—yours and ours—are gonna suffer the same fate. Now be straight with me. Can you do that or not?”
Danny felt his nerves tense. There were few things in the world that he despised more than feeling boxed into a corner, but that was exactly where he was. “All right,” he agreed. “I’ll help you do this, if for no other reason than out of appreciation for your getting me outta here. But cross me, or even make me think you’re going to…and I swear, I’ll dust both of your asses and take this intel to Wylon myself. Because at the end of the day, I don’t give a shit about your people. Good enough?”
“Good enough.” Briggs glanced back to the window. “Guards just left on rounds; let’s move.”
* * *
Their business at the storage lockers concluded, the three found their way to a stairwell that, according to the captain, would put them out on the back side of the building.
“Okay, hold up,” Briggs said from the door. “The truck’s about thirty meters down in an alley, but this base is on high alert. That means tons of people in the streets, so wait here, and I’ll come to you. Clear?”
Danny acknowledged with a look and took Briggs’s spot at the door while Zier covered the hallway behind them.
“Hey, what base is this?” Danny asked, spotting the familiar generic grid of multi-purpose structures and two-lane roadways outside, all abuzz with Alystierian troops just like Briggs had said.
“Fort Donner,” Zier said, “about twenty kilometers south of the Eurial city limits.”
“Any idea what all of the hubbub’s about?”
“No clue, Sergeant. To my knowledge, there were no major operations in play, except cleanup in the aftermath of Ky—” Zier broke off when a canvas-topped troop hauler skidded to a halt outside, its rear cargo-flap already raised.
Briggs leaned out of the driver’s side window. “C’mon.”
Both men headed straight for the back of the truck and jumped in.
“Go,” Danny said, dropping the flap and tying it down.
With that, the truck rumbled out of the drive and into the open road, which would carry them off post and into the city.
“Hey Briggs, you said the base is on high alert, right?” Danny asked from his bench in the back. “Why?”
The captain made eye contact with Danny in his rearview, but didn’t answer.
“Briggs?” Danny repeated, drawing it out this time. “What aren’t you telling us?”
The captain’s face contorted with visible unease. “It’s nothing, Tucker. I’ll tell you about it when we’re offworld.”
“No,” Danny said, “you’ll tell me now. Otherwise, I’ll find my own way home once we’re into the city.”
Briggs exhaled. “Once the treaty was ratified, Chancellor Masterson issued orders for a joint-operation with the Kurgorians to hunt down the last of the ASC armada that attacked us at Kyma, to wipe them out.”
“Whoa, what attack on Kyma?” Danny snapped upright. “What armada are you talking about?”
Briggs looked to Zier. “You didn’t tell him?”
“I was about to when you pulled up with the truck.”
“Okay, you bastards, out with it now!” Danny said. “What’s going on?”
Briggs down-shifted then turned onto a four-lane highway. “The ASC launched a two-hundred-ship offensive yesterday to seize control of our operations at Kyma 4 in Revlin Province. Masterson intervened with the help of the Kurgorians. The Aurans never stood a chance, and now what’s left of their armada is holed up in the Coralin System, getting patched up for a jump back to Aura.”
“How many ships were lost out of the two hundred?” Danny’s thoughts turned immediately to Lee and the others. “Was the Praetorian among them? How about the Kennox or the Keystone?”
“I saw the Praetorian get out myself, but she was hit pretty hard,” Briggs said. “No clue on the Kennox and the Keystone. All in all, though, I think they lost around ninety ships.”
“Fighters?” Danny asked.
“No idea,” Briggs said. “But a lot.”
Danny hunched over on his bench and ran his hands through his hair. “So that’s the big op everyone’s been talking about,” he murmured to himself.
“What’s your plan to get us off world, Captain?” Zier asked from the bench opposite Danny.
“A guy I know runs a supply freighter out of Dunn Station down at the port,” Briggs said. “I’ve booked passage for the three of us on his ship, which ought to get us to Krenza Province. From there, we’ll take a shuttle along with Sergeant Tucker’s IDC across the border; then it’s on to Aura.”
“Screw that!” Danny protested. “If Masterson and these Kurgorian people are really going after Lee and the others then there’s no way I’m riding the bench for that.”
Briggs’s head snapped around. “Lee who?”
“A friend of mine, don’t worry about it,” Danny said. “The point is, if these aliens are as powerful as you say, and the ASC is that bad off, then we’ve gotta find a way to stop this, or at the very least get them a heads-up it’s coming, or they’ll be slaughtered.”
“Not happening,” Briggs said with a left turn toward the Eurial skyline. “Our first priority is getting Chancellor Zier to Aura. My people’s future depends on that.”
; “Yeah, I think I made my thoughts on your people pretty clear back in the cell block,” Danny said, shoulders squared. “Now you can either help me stop this or find your own means across the border. But one way or another, bro, it’s happening.”
“And tell me, bro,” Briggs mocked, “how exactly do you plan to do that? In case you haven’t noticed, we’re all of three men here. Even if we had a warship, which we don’t, we’d still be no match for one of those Kurgorian ships, much less the four that’ll be accompanying the Kamuir and her sisters.”
“So get us onboard one of the alien ships,” Danny suggested.
“To do what?” Briggs said. “Stomp our feet on their hull in protest?”
“I’ve done more with less.”
“It’s not that simple. The only people who’ve been allowed near the Kurgorian vessels have been our R&D teams, and even they’re being scrubbed for launch.”
“You said it yourself,” Danny said. “This is a joint operation, right? Besides, you’re Masterson’s XO. If anybody can get us in, it’s you.”
Briggs shook his head. “Sorry Sergeant, but I can’t. It’s too risky.”
Danny rocketed to his feet. “You know what, you selfish piece of sh—”
“You said there are four Kurgorian ships in orbit?” Zier clasped his hands in his lap.
“Sir?” Briggs said in surprise.
“Four, correct?”
The captain wrinkled his nose. “Yes, sir. For now, Masterson has four Beyonder ships with him, though he’s expecting another six by week’s end.”
“And what are the odds, Captain, that you’ve been discovered by your peers on the Kamuir?”
Briggs checked the dispatch display on the truck’s dash. “If they’ve put a flag out on me, it didn’t go network-wide, which is a good sign. I think we’re still okay, for now.”
“Good,” Zier said. “Turn us toward Donner’s airfield then access the public information network for the IDC on a Dr. Samuel T. Russell.”
Briggs’s expression fell flat. “Sir, you can’t honestly be considering this as a—”
“Your objection is noted,” Zier said. “But the decision is made. Sergeant Tucker is right. We must stop this from happening. Or at the very least, warn the ASC of what’s coming. Whether they’re our enemies or not is irrelevant. The game has changed, Captain, and frankly we owe them that much.”
Briggs’s agitation was all over his face, but that didn’t stop him from turning the truck around as instructed. “What do we need Russell for, anyway? I thought he retired when the science directorate handed the C-100 program over to Miles Tarsus.”
“He did,” Zier said. “But he retained his liaison status as a civilian when he turned in his badge, which means he can still operate with governmental authority as a consultant. Trust me. If anyone can get us onto one of those ships, it’s Sam.”
“How do you know?” Danny asked.
“Because he’s a friend.” Zier looked back to Briggs. “Now make the call.”
* * * * *
Chapter 34: Boarding Call
Several minutes later, the skyline of Fort Donner gradually reappeared in the truck’s windshield as Danny checked his ammo in the backseat. Zier had been right. Sam Russell, whoever he was, had come through for them in spades. Not only had he managed to cut through the red tape to get them a science shuttle offworld, but he’d also gotten them legitimate IDs and an iron-clad cover story to get them aboard a Kurgorian ship.
Arriving outside their designated hangar at the base’s airfield, Danny, Zier, and Briggs leapt from the truck and darted for their ship, which had already been prepped on its launch platform. In it, they found three enviro-suits hanging in the cargo hold along with a pre-established flight plan, a fresh IDC for docking, and a hand-written note addressed to Zier.
“Good man, Sam,” Zier said with a gentle smile as he read it.
“Mind if I inquire what it says?” Danny asked from the cockpit’s nav chair next to Briggs.
“It says ‘safe travels,’ and that he and I are now even.”
“Even for what?” Danny asked as the shuttle’s engines began to power up.
“Sam and I go way back to his days on the Starshadow project.” Zier’s forehead crinkled in thought. “Several years ago, his daughter, Raya, followed him into the engineering field. Only two weeks into her first tour she found herself assigned to a cruiser bound for Phaxus.”
Danny cringed. To date, the Battle of Phaxus was still on record as one of the bloodiest days in the history of the war, for both sides. Tens of thousands had been lost.
“You got her out,” Briggs surmised from the pilot’s seat.
“Yes,” Zier said. “As the record shows, I needed Raya’s expertise with another project at home, so I had her transferred back planetside to the science directorate’s main research facility in Eurial. Now she lives outside the city with her husband and Sam’s four grandchildren.” The old man smiled faintly then folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket. “In any event, now isn’t the time for reminiscing. The Alystierian fleet is set to jump in thirty minutes, so let’s get to it, gentlemen.”
Not long after, the blue horizon outside the forward view port gave way to open space then swept hard to starboard, where a cluster of ships were moored to a docking station in orbit.
“I’m going out on a limb here and guess that one of those is our ride.” Danny pointed to a group of alien ships in the center near five Alystierian cruisers. Long and lean, their hulls boasted the same strange porcupine armor he’d seen on the Larrin’s attacker. “What the hell kind of configuration is that, anyway?”
“No idea,” Briggs said. “I know the hulls are made of something called metasteel which makes them tough as nails, but that’s about it. Trust me, though, if you think the outside is strange, wait til you see the interior. It’s like something out of a damned horror story.”
“So you’ve been aboard one, then,” Zier said.
“Yeah, once,” Briggs said with a mild shudder. “Shortly after we made first contact in the Expanse, I went aboard their flagship, the Vanxus, to oversee our transfer of the study-ship they gave the Kamuir. I’ve got no clue what the interiors of their other ships look like, but all appear based on the same design. So let’s hope that bodes well for our ability to get around.”
“What’s up with all of the umbilical cords?” Danny gestured to the wad of cables connecting the four Kurgorian ships to several of their Alystierian counterparts.
“I don’t know how it works exactly, but it’s some sort of piggy-back system that allows our ships to keep up with theirs in lieu of C-100 power of our own,” Briggs said. “It’s how we were able to get back to Alystier from Kyma so quickly.”
Briggs glided their shuttle through the outer edge of docking traffic toward the third alien vessel as Russell had specified in his flight plan.
“Alystierian shuttle,” a slow, modulated voice boomed via the ship’s translator. “This is the Kurgorian vessel, Axius. All imperial personnel are being recalled at once. You are advised to alter course and return to the planet’s surface.”
“Copy that, Axius. This is the Alystierian research shuttle, Brinner,” Briggs responded from Russell’s script. “One of our initial hazmat scans turned up a peculiar reading near your engine core, to the tune of 78.2 LPMs. Now those are relatively benign levels, especially for ionized caldrasite. But spike them any higher than 89.4 and our people could be at risk for some majorly adverse health effects without the proper precautions.”
“State your point.”
Briggs flipped the page. “My point, Axius, is that we can’t know the real extent of that risk until we map your core’s CST field strength through a live jump—that’s why the directorate fast-tracked this mission to bring us aboard. We need an accurate reading to track rate of exposure.”
“Nicely done, Sam,” Zier murmured past Danny’s shoulder.
A long pause of static ensued.
&
nbsp; “What do you require, Brinner?”
“Not much,” Briggs said. “Just a small space near your reactor to set up our gear and a few minutes to make sure everything’s functioning properly. After that, the equipment can take over and we’ll be out of your way. Again, the exposure scans I spoke of earlier may well be an outlying event, and if so, then we’re good. But on the off chance that they’re not, we need to know for the sake of our people’s safety during the retrofit.”
Another long pause…
“Understood.”
“Excellent,” Briggs said. “Transmitting order authentication and IDC now, Axius. FYI, directorate liaison Samuel T. Russell is on standby to verify the order if you so require.”
“The order has already been verified, Brinner,” the voice said. “You are clear to proceed to bay nine, aft. Your escort will await you there.”
“Escort?” Danny frowned. “Great, we’re getting a babysitter.”
“Thank you, Axius,” Briggs said. “Brinner is inbound. Out.”
Once the shuttle had entered their designated bay just behind the Axius’ starboard nacelle—or at least, Danny thought it was a nacelle—they rose from their seats and headed for the cargo hold to suit up.
“All right, Tucker, I got you on the ship,” Briggs said, slipping his arms into the sleeves of his orange enviro-suit and allowing the cowl and breather mask to dangle behind his neck. “This is your show from here on in, so what’s the plan?”
“First things first,” Danny said from his own suit. “Russell’s cover story gave us an in to check out their engine room, so we take advantage of that. If nothing else, it buys us a chance to scope the layout, and if we’re really lucky, maybe we find a sweet spot to use for taking it out.”
Zier and Briggs agreed.
“All right then,” Danny said. “Anything I need to know about this place once we’re out into the open?”
“Yeah,” Briggs said with a quick check of his O2 supply. “Unless you want your kids to come out with three heads, don’t breathe the air.”
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