It felt like being pinned to the wall by a semi-truck. My chest ached, and I nearly let go of my blaster. The training from Slate took over, and I gripped a metal rail on the wall, kicking out with all my strength, sending the Bhlat back a couple feet. It left me just enough time to grab the device.
The Bhlat said something aloud, and my translator attempted a translation but failed. A strange noise emanated from the alien, and I guessed it was laughter. I must have looked like easy prey to such a large creature. His long blaster rose as he floated there, aiming right for my head. He said something else, and the translator annoyingly showed an error again.
The device was in my palm, still waiting for the CONFIRM command to be hit. This time, I did so with ease of conscience. It was kill or be killed, and I understood that now more than ever.
Time seemed to slow. His finger bent to pull the trigger just as I pressed the icon. It hummed quickly, vibrating ever so slightly. I almost didn’t feel the blaster beam rip into my side as the Bhlat nearly exploded before me. In my new slow-motion world, I saw his same green-blue swirling eyes widen just before his face pushed out, blood covering the inside of his mask. The rest of him seemed to melt, and when time started again, he was just floating lifelessly, a massive space suit of blood and bones. I nearly vomited in my own suit, and alarms were going off inside my helmet. The suit had been breached.
That was when I felt the pain in my side. My suit was torn open, blood seeping out into the room and floating around in tiny drops, each visible as I hung there staring forward.
“Dean.” I heard my name in my earpiece over the internal klaxons. It was Mary’s voice.
“Mary, where are you?” I asked, reality snapping back to my muddled mind.
“Main ship, near our entry point. They’re all dead. Are you okay?” she asked, her voice strained.
“I’m okay. Just a little shot. I’m coming down.” I grabbed the Bhlat’s weapon, knowing we wouldn’t have any more trouble from them on the vessel. Getting back down was easier with no gravity, and I was thankful, since my wound wouldn’t stop screaming at me. As I entered the tunnel spoke of the gravity wheel, I used the ladder rungs to pull me down the chute. Much faster than I’d gotten up not ten minutes before, I was back on ground level, in the center of the vessel.
“Where are you?” I asked, feeling like I might pass out. She gave me directions, but I could tell she was hurt. I pushed against the walls; every movement sent shooting pain through my abdomen. Blood trailed behind me, and I was thankful the life-support had come on; otherwise, I’d already be a dead man.
I heard something clank around the hall corner, and I raised my pulse rifle. Just because the device killed the Bhlat on board didn’t mean they couldn’t have had other friends on the ship with them. I moved slowly, my vision fading slightly. I’d lost too much blood. I needed to get to Mary. I needed to see her one last time. Ready to fire at an enemy, I pushed out, floating into the next hall, and saw it was Slate just before pulling the trigger.
“Dean!” he called, and I heard him with my ears, not my earpiece. His suit was banged up badly, and his left arm was floating uselessly at his side.
“Slate! Thank God, Mary is over here,” I said, feeling a renewed sense of energy.
We headed to the third room on the right, where she’d described her location to me, and there were four Bhlat in there with her. Four large floating corpses.
Mary was floating lifelessly as well.
Through the pain, I made my way to her.
“Clare, tell me you’re ready. We’ll be there in two,” I managed to get out, seeking a confirmation they were ready for us.
Mary was still breathing. Her suit was blasted open in a few spots, but none near her chest or head. Normally, I would have freaked out at seeing my beautiful fiancée’s injuries, but I could hardly make sense of anything I was seeing, my vision fading quickly.
Slate took charge, grabbing her, and moved faster than I’d seen him move before, leading me back to the room we’d started the mission in. Our ropes were still there, and we clipped them in.
Slate looked at me with a grim, exhausted expression. Yet he still smiled. “You did well,” he said, just loud enough for me to hear before my world went black.
_____________
White light. That was what I saw first. For a brief moment, I thought that was it for me, that I’d passed to the other side, and a small part of me was ready for it.
“Dean, can you hear me?” a familiar voice asked. That wasn’t unusual. Theologians had speculated for years that we might be ushered into heaven by an old friend or loved one. “Dean, you’re back on our ship. Your wound was substantial, but I’ve managed to stop the bleeding and patch you up.”
So much for heaven. I was still in a trip to hell onboard a small spacecraft in the middle of some unknown galaxy.
My bleary eyes cleared and I could finally make out where I was. The bunks were stripped of any clutter, and a form lay on the one across the room from me.
“The medic bay wasn’t big enough for both of you, and I assumed you would both prefer to be in the same room, so we made do with the spare bunk room. Hope you don’t mind,” Doctor Nick said.
The both of us? It all came flooding back. The device, the massive Bhlat soldiers. Mary’s limp body floating there, blood hovering around her.
“Mary!” I tried to sit up, but the pain in my stomach stopped me from lifting more than a couple inches before falling down on my back.
“Dean, you have to calm down. You’ve been through a lot, but you’re healing faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
The hybrid blood in me helped with the healing process. Mae’s blood.
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked, seeing her chest rise and fall slowly. That was a good sign.
Nick stood between us, looking every bit the part of the doctor for the first time since I’d met him. He was a natural.
“She’s sustained a lot of wounds, but none in themselves are life-threatening. She was shot in the legs and the left shoulder. The suits are made to prevent the serious burning from the beams, but flesh and veins were still seriously damaged. She’ll be fine, but I have her sedated for the time being, while the grafting heals.”
“Are you telling me you have the ability to graft new skin on this ship?” I asked, dumbfounded.
He nodded, smiling widely. “We do. It’s amazing what we learned from the Kraski databases. I don’t think we’ve even begun to scratch the surface. Give us another ten years to analyze and decipher it all, and we could be living in a world with no illness, disease, or famine for that matter.”
The idea was a lofty one, but admirable. Earth needed hope now more than ever.
“Where’s Slate?” I asked, feeling foolish for not having asked after him yet.
“I’m right here, boss,” the big man said, stepping in from the hallway. “I wanted to give you some privacy while you woke up.” His arm was in a sling. He saw me looking at it. “It’s just sprained. I’ll be back to normal in no time.”
“Slate’s being humble. He dragged you two onto the ship and hasn’t left your side since,” Nick said. “I’m going to go grab some sleep, if you don’t mind. Dean, I left some painkillers beside you. If it gets to be too much, take one and rest.” With that, he left the room, leaving me alone with Slate and my unconscious fiancée.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, sliding a chair up beside my twin bed.
“Do you mind passing me another pillow?” I asked, and he even stuffed it under my head. I cringed at the movement in my gut, but propped up, I could speak to him properly, instead of staring at the ceiling.
“I’m not sure how I’m feeling. We got the device, met the Bhlat, and survived.” I looked over to Mary, hoping to God she was going to be all right. She should have stayed with me. She was always trying to protect others first, and it nearly got her killed.
“That we did.”
“How many did you take
on out there?” I asked.
“Killed five of them. By all accounts, there were about twelve or so on board – that we saw. There could have been more hiding out.”
“What were they doing there? If they knew there was a device with the capability to destroy them, why not destroy the station and leave it at that?” I asked, stumped.
He passed me a bottle of water from beside the bed, helping himself to one as well.
“I’m not sure. That’s above my pay grade.”
“Take a stab at it,” I coaxed.
He stared at the wall for a minute. Slate was a trained soldier, but from my experience with him, he was a lot smarter than even he gave himself credit for.
“Kareem said they were chased away, forced to leave the device hidden because they didn’t have their DNA yet. The Bhlat are a big force, we can assume, so maybe they left soldiers here in the off chance the Deltra came back. They pretended it was dead, in hopes of luring them back. Or they’re no better than space pirates, trying to get someone to board, and then stealing their ships. Either way, I doubt they knew about the hidden killing machine Kareem left behind,” Slate said, impressing me with his speculation.
“But fifty years? It doesn’t add up. Unless Mae was able to communicate to them?”
“There was no ship there. They had to have been dropped off some time ago.”
“What happened with the grav-system out there?” I looked to the ceiling, even though I had no idea what direction the Deltra ship stood.
He smiled at this. “We were losing, and I wanted something to turn the tides.”
“Thank God you did, because I was about to get shot.”
“And how did that work out for you?” He nodded at my stomach.
“I got shot,” I said, laughing along with him. “Stop, it hurts.” My hand settled on my wound, which was extremely tender to the touch.
“Sorry, boss. No more jokes.”
“Are we still at the station?” I asked.
“We moved away a few thousand kilometers.” He crossed the room and picked up a tablet. “See?” He showed me the image from the viewscreen on the bridge. The ship lingered there, just in orbit of a gorgeous, lifeless world, particles, water, and ice creating a visually stunning ring around the planet.
“I can’t believe something so beautiful can be so treacherous at the same time,” I said, still staring at the planet on the tablet.
“I had a girlfriend like that in high school,” Slate said, straight-faced at first. Soon we were laughing, and I was literally busting a gut. The pills beside my bed were starting to call for me.
“You guys are going to want to see this.” Clare’s voice came through the room’s speakers. Slate’s tablet switched to the map mode; Clare was pushing through. A small icon blinked once again on it. “Mae’s ship is back and moving fast.”
TWENTY-ONE
“Mae’s ship?” I blurted, hardly able to believe what I was seeing. “How is that possible?”.
“We don’t know. She’s heading out from the asteroid field we passed just now. Maybe she found a way to hide from our sensors inside it.” Clare slapped her palm to her forehead. “We should have gone back and checked. Sit a ship on a large enough hunk of rock, with just the right amount of radioactive metals inside it, and it would probably jam our sensors.”
I nearly smiled at Mae’s move. She’d hidden from us on an asteroid and was now getting away.
“Follow her,” I said.
Three heads turned to look at me, propped up in the captain’s chair wearing a cheap med-suit, and solemnly nodded.
“What choice do we have? If we want to keep the Bhlat from knowing we were here, she’s the last moving piece,” Clare said.
“She has to be exterminated.” Slate stood tall, staring forward toward the map on the viewscreen. His words bothered me, but I knew they shouldn’t. He was right.
“How do we know where she’s going?” Nick asked, still wearing his scrubs.
“We don’t, but we can predict where her current trajectory will take her. We’ll aim for that path, and maybe we can even cross paths. We have the advantage because we can see where she is, but she can’t do the same with us.” Clare was taking charge, and I obliged her. With Mary incapacitated, we needed someone who could fly the ship and think outside the box.
“What do you think she’s doing?” Nick asked.
“She has to be going to the Bhlat. The Kraski are gone, for all we know… but maybe that was a lie from Mae. She had no affiliation with the Deltra, at least none that we knew of.” I thought back to my memories of the Deltra visiting Janine and convincing her to work with them. They, of course, tricked her, just as they had tricked us last year. I looked down at the new Deltra tool I held in my hand and wondered how I had trusted Kareem so quickly. Suddenly, the killing device I was holding made me want to throw up. How had it even gotten into my hands? For all I knew, they were tracking us with it. The urge to release it out the airlock passed over me, but we might still need the damned thing. After that, I was sure I needed to dispose of it, once and for all.
“Make that happen, Clare. Slate, can you give me a hand back to the room? I think I need to rest.” My body was in serious pain, and the events were leaving me lightheaded.
“For sure, boss.” He took most of my weight and soon I was back in the room, lying on the bed looking at the ceiling. I took another pill, and before I knew it, my vision was fading, my brain getting foggy.
_____________
“Dean, I’m just going to go for a run. I’ll be back soon, and I’ll make breakfast.” Janine walked over to me at the kitchen island as I was pecking away at my laptop. She leaned over, resting her chin on my shoulder. I turned my head and she kissed my cheek, leaving her freshly applied lip balm. She always wore vanilla. I loved the scent.
“Have a good run. Can we have bacon with breakfast?” I asked. She rolled her eyes.
“Dean, do I go for a run just to counter a couple slices of bacon? Maybe you should join me.” She prodded me in the side with her finger.
“I promise I’ll go next time. I have some work to get done for this afternoon.” It was mostly the truth.
“Okay, babycakes. I’ll be back.” She hopped from one foot to the other, warming up her blood flow. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she didn’t have any makeup on. She was the most beautiful woman I’d even seen.
The door closed, and I went back to working on the Peterson file.
_____________
I awoke from the strange dream wondering why I’d remembered that brief moment of my past. It was from eight years ago, probably not even a year after Janine and I had met. The pain pills left my mouth dry, another side effect of the medicine. Finding the bottle of open water on my table, I guzzled half the bottle before setting it down.
The dream had left me shaken, seeing Janine again. Mae looked just like her. I always felt like there was a difference I could notice between them, but since I hadn’t ever seen them together, it was hard to tell. Either that, or my brain filled in the Janine role in my dream with Mae’s face, her nuances.
“Dean,” a coarse voice whispered from across the room.
“Mary!” I exclaimed, so happy she was awake. “I’m here.”
Getting off my bed proved easier this time than the last, and I saw from the tablet on the wall that I’d been out for four hours. The pills really packed a punch.
I pulled the chair Slate had been sitting in and brought it to her bedside.
Mary’s eyes were closed, but she opened them when I touched her hand. It was warm, but not hot to the touch, and I took that as a good sign.
“How are you feeling?” I asked her, squeezing her fingers ever-so-lightly.
She groaned but smiled at me through the pain. “I feel like I fell from a cliff and landed on the ground in a poof just like a cartoon coyote. What happened?”
“You don’t remember? You talked to me, letting me know which room to find you in.”
“No. The Bhlat cornered me, and I tried to shoot my way free, then… nothing.”
“The device worked, and they turned to mush in their suits. It was terrible and lifesaving at the same time. We found you unconscious, and I was barely hanging on. Slate ended up hauling us the pair of us, passed out and bleeding,” I said, getting a slight snicker from her.
“We make quite the team.” She rubbed the back of my hand with her palm.
“We sure do.” I kissed her forehead, getting a shot of pain from my stomach wound, though it felt way better than it had. The hybrid blood was helping me heal from it at a welcome expedited rate.
We talked, and I filled her in on Mae’s ship reappearing. I hated to tell her, but she swore she wanted to know everything. With any luck, we would have time to heal a bit before we were back in battle mode.
“I wish Magnus and Nat were here,” Mary said, mirroring my own thoughts.
“Me too. I still can’t believe they’re married.”
“I wish we were,” Mary said. “I was running around that damned place trying to distract the monster Bhlats and all I could think about was walking on a beach with you, a little boy holding our hands between us. We walked, swinging the boy, sand warm and messy under our bare feet. It was wonderful and scary at the same time. I thought that was it. Like I was having an afterlife vision of what wouldn’t be, if that makes any sense.”
“It makes a lot of sense. I love you, Mary. Let’s go stop Mae from doing whatever it is she’s up to, and go home,” I said, wishing it were that easy.
“Deal. Now where can I find one of those crazy pills you were talking about?”
_____________
“Has she changed course at all?” I asked. We were all on the bridge, six days after the adventure that had resulted in two of us being badly wounded. Slate still had a few bruises, mostly healed by that point.
“Nothing substantial. She only moves when there’s something standing between her and her target. Wherever that is.” Clare had gone from bubbly engineer to focused pilot. Mary took some light duties now, but she needed to walk around with crutches, which they surprisingly had stored on the ship.
The Survivors Box Set Page 39