Cosmic Thunder (Sentinels Saga Book 3)

by Linn Schwab

  “I don’t think so,” Derrick said. “I’m convinced the reason they repositioned this station was to move it out of danger.”

  J Mac walked over to one of the tables and examined one of the plants closer up. “Tsh,” he sneered. “Green beans. I’d like to blow this dome all to pieces myself.”

  “If you did, then what would you eat?”

  “I almost don’t care, as long as it isn’t green beans, or anything that looks like it’s made out of green beans.”

  Derrick chuckled and said, “Let’s get moving. We need to find those thruster control stations before Captain Hoile sends a search party in after us.”

  * * * *

  During the return trip to Volaris, Robin kept a watchful eye on Sheri. Not only did the fever–‌like body heat concern her, but there was also something different about her friend that she just couldn’t seem to put her finger on — something about her personality that suggested a higher level of maturity. Had the injury changed her, or was it something else? Perhaps her brush with death had somehow altered her perspective.

  At one point, she found herself wondering if Sheri was now superior to her, as far as her mental faculties were concerned. And if so, would she be happy in her previous role? Or would she challenge Robin for control of ECHO 5?

  Perhaps she should, Robin mused. She might be the better captain now anyway. The few glances Sheri directed at Robin served to mitigate her concerns in that regard. It was almost like she knew what her captain was thinking, and was trying to reassure her that she had no such intentions.

  After a while, the other girls began asking questions about what the doctors had said to Sheri, and what kind of treatments they’d used on her. She told them she didn’t remember a lot, except that one of the doctors had told her she was fortunate to have arrived on the station when she did.

  “Commander Eldridge saved my life,” she said. “I’d be dead now if she hadn’t sent me to Cumulus.”

  “How did you end up an Libra?” Robin asked her.

  “They just sent me there to meet up with you.”

  Robin wondered how “they” knew where the Cricket was headed, but decided it wasn’t worth worrying about. Commander Eldridge might have told them where we were going. Or maybe they have some other way of finding out. What really mattered was that she had Sheri back now. The intricacies of Command–‌net were not her concern.

  When the Cricket docked at Volaris again, Robin took Sheri by the hand and led her straight to the control room, after being told she would find the major there. Commander Eldridge was present as well. Both of them seemed genuinely surprised to see Sheri.

  “Well,” Commander Eldridge said, “this is certainly unexpected.”

  Major Richards moved closer to examine Sheri.

  “She’s burning up,” Robin complained.

  The major placed her hand on Sheri’s forehead. “She certainly is,” she said, then immediately pulled her toward the elevator.

  With Sheri being cared for by Major Richards now, Robin looked up at Commander Eldridge. “Thank you,” she said. “You saved Sheri’s life. They told her she would’ve died if she stayed on Volaris.”

  “I’m pleased it worked out as well as it did. It’s my hope that she makes a full recovery.”

  “Can I ask you a favor, Commander?” Robin said.

  “Commanders don’t normally grant favors,” she replied.

  Robin refused to be deterred. “I want you to send Chrissy back to Valhalla. Back to the academy. Back to her squad.”

  The commander carefully considered her request, then answered her with a subtle nod. “Very well,” she agreed. “She’s served her purpose. I’ll make the arrangements to have her flown down.”

  “Thank you, Commander. I appreciate it. I think she deserves her time on the surface.”

  “As do I. Let’s hope she makes the most of it.”

  * * * *

  After examining Sheri in the infirmary, Major Richards stormed back into the control room and asked Veronica to patch her through to Cumulus. “I want to speak with Dr. Herrin,” she demanded when the controller on Cumulus answered her call.

  Several minutes passed before the doctor appeared on the screen. “This is Dr. Herrin. To whom am I speaking?”

  Major Richards glared at the doctor’s image. “Dr. Herrin, this is Major Richards on Volaris.”

  “Ahh, how can I help you, Major Richards?”

  “I need to know what you’ve done to Sheri Devries. Her body temperature is highly elevated.”

  “That’s to be expected,” Dr. Herrin explained. “It’s a normal side effect of the treatment we used.”

  “And just exactly what treatment is that?” the major pressed, making no effort to conceal her displeasure.

  Dr. Herrin seemed surprised by the major’s aggressiveness, and answered in a somewhat uncertain tone. “We ... artificially increased her metabolism in order to facilitate the healing process.”

  “You did WHAT! Do you have any idea what that might do to her!”

  “Yes, Major Richards, in fact I do. There’s a very good chance it might shorten her lifespan. But as I’m sure you’re well aware, the war is far more likely to kill her first anyway, long before the end of her natural life. And besides,” she added, “it was her decision. She didn’t want to be away from her squad. We explained the risks to her, and she elected to go through with the procedure anyway.”

  Major Richards looked at her in horror. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” she said.

  “Relax, Major,” the doctor insisted. “The effect is only temporary. In a few days her temperature will start to come down. A few weeks from now she’ll be back to normal. In the meantime, make sure she gets extra rations. And don’t allow her to overexert herself, as any additional rise in her temperature could prove to be quite harmful to her. Contact me again if there are any complications. Try not to worry about this. She’ll be fine.”

  The screen went blank before the major could respond, leaving her to simmer with her outrage trapped inside. She turned around and stormed out through the exit again to vent her anger outside the control room.

  * * * *

  It took several attempts to get the figures right, but eventually they managed to ignite the thrusters in the right combination of sequence and duration. After checking his instruments one final time and determining the station was correctly positioned, Derrick retrieved his timing device and headed back toward the Mona Lisa. In a section of corridor adjacent to the airlock, he found J Mac snacking on a handful of grapes.

  “Hey, where did you get those!” he demanded.

  “From the Great Grape Elf, of course,” J Mac answered.

  “The what?”

  J Mac bit down on a grape and swallowed. “Haven’t you heard the story of Jack and the Grapevine? Where he climbs up, up, and up, until he encounters the Great Grape Elf?” He casually tossed another grape in his mouth.

  “You mean Jack and the Beanstalk,” Derrick corrected him.

  “Ughhhh! Enough with the beans, already! Here, have some grapes and keep quiet for a minute. You’re ruining my snack with all this talk about beans.”

  Derrick reached for a few of the grapes. “Are there any more where these came from?” he asked.

  “Yes, but there aren’t very many. If we took any more of them, someone might notice. I don’t even want to guess what might happen to us then.”

  As he looked at the succulent grapes in his hand, Derrick struggled with feelings of guilt that made him somewhat reluctant to eat them. It wasn’t right that he and J Mac alone should have this pleasure. “We should be sharing these with the rest of the crew,” he said.

  “That was my first thought, too,” J Mac insisted. “But there just aren’t enough of them to go around.”

  Derrick bit into one of the grapes and savored the juicy sweet taste in his mouth — a reminder of happier times back on Earth, where foods were available in more varieties. “Tastes li
ke it’s fresh off the vine,” he said. “I remember when I was a kid, my brother and I, we used to sneak into our neighbor’s back yard and steal grapes from a grapevine that was growing on his fence.”

  “Stealing grapes,” J Mac said with a grin. “See, you’re just as bad as Jack.”

  Derrick chuckled. “Jack and the Grapevine. Sometimes you come up with the craziest ideas.” As he popped another grape in his mouth, something suddenly occurred to him. “Hey, wait a minute! Jack and the Grapevine! You just gave away your secret!”

  “What?” J Mac said, confused.

  “The J in J Mac stands for Jack. You let a clue slip by, and thought I wouldn’t notice.”

  J Mac laughed and shook his head. “Sorry. Wrong again, my friend. It’s just a coincidence that Jack starts with J. And didn’t I tell you I wasn’t going to give you any clues?”

  “Yeah,” Derrick said grudgingly, “but you also said you’d tell me if I ever guessed it right.”

  “I did, and I will,” J Mac insisted. “If you ever guess it right. Come on, hurry up and finish those grapes before the captain sends someone looking for us.”

  * * * *

  When the shuttle from Valhalla arrived in the hangar, Robin took Chrissy by the hand and led her to the base of the boarding ramp. The rest of ECHO 5 gathered in around them to say their farewells to the young Sentinel.

  “Will I ever see you again?” Chrissy asked.

  “Probably not,” Robin answered truthfully. “If you’re lucky, you’ll have seven more years before they send you into space again. I want you to enjoy every minute of them. Now that you know what it’s like up here, maybe you’ll appreciate Valhalla even more. Explain to the others what it was like, so they can all cherish the time they have left.”

  “I’m going to miss all of you,” Chrissy said, before giving goodbye hugs all around. The final hug she saved for Sheri, who she’d only met just a short time earlier. “Take care of Robin for me,” she said. “Don’t let her do anything she might regret.”

  Sheri smiled and said, “I’ll try. Thank you for helping out while I was gone.”

  In a flood of tears, Chrissy walked up the ramp, and disappeared into the shuttle’s interior. A moment later the shuttle was gone, and Robin was left with an empty feeling inside. “Will I ever see you again?” echoed through her mind. No, she thought. Not in this life. But maybe I’ll see you in another form. She envisioned Chrissy as a dolphin pup, and found that it wasn’t so hard to imagine.

  * * * *

  After pondering who to approach with Jason’s request, Virginia decided it was probably best just to go straight to Commander Eldridge. She caught up with her just outside the control room, and asked her if they could speak for a moment.

  “What’s on your mind?” the commander responded

  “It’s about Jason,” she said. “...I mean, Lieutenant Elliot.”

  “What about him?”

  “He wants to know when we’re going to release him. When we’re going to send him back to his fleet with a message, the way we did with Lieutenant Samuels.”

  “I’m not sure that we are,” the commander informed her. “That decision has not yet been made.”

  The answer left Virginia puzzled. “Why wouldn’t we? You were willing to take a chance on Dave.”

  “Because things are different now, Miss Scot. Lieutenant Elliot himself informed us they’ve tightened their recovery procedure for lost pilots.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would that make any difference?”

  “Because,” Commander Eldridge explained, “part of the reason we released Lieutenant Samuels was to secretly expose his shipmates to the virus. That way, if they refused to meet with us, we might have still gained something from his release. The fact that they’ve tightened their recovery procedure makes it less attractive for us to try again.”

  “The virus?” Virginia asked, perplexed.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the virus. The one that wiped out half our population, and left us to wither as a single sex species.”

  “But I thought they had a cure for that. Isn’t that what we’ve always been told?”

  “It’s what we assumed,” the commander said. “But as far as we can tell, they have no such vaccine. Lieutenant Samuels exhibited no signs of such a treatment, and so far neither does Mr. Elliot.”

  Virginia felt a touch of panic. “You mean Jason’s going to die?” she asked.

  “If he remains here much longer, it’s more than likely. While we can’t be certain they don’t have a cure, we definitely know that we don’t possess one. His best chance of surviving is for us to release him, but as I said, that decision has not yet been made. In any case, we still need to tamper with his fighter’s instruments before we can risk releasing him. We need to be certain his people can’t trace his flight path, and determine precisely where Volaris is positioned. Also, Janine should be returning shortly. I want her to question him before we reach a decision. Until then, I’m afraid he’s stuck here with us. He’ll just have to sit tight for a while.”

  “Yes, Commander,” Virginia said. She lowered her head and turned to leave, confused and inwardly upset.

  “You seem uneasy,” Commander Eldridge observed, suggesting she was not yet finished speaking. “It would seem you’ve taken a liking to our guest.”

  Virginia searched helplessly for a response, still trying to decipher her feelings toward Jason. “I...” she said, shaking her head in uncertainty.

  The commander elected not to wait for her to finish. “Tell me something, Lieutenant Scot. Have you ever listened in on enemy transmissions? Even briefly, just out of curiosity?”

  “No,” Virginia replied truthfully.

  “And why not?”

  “Because we were told it’s forbidden.”

  Commander Eldridge nodded in approval. “But do you understand why it’s forbidden?” she asked.

  Virginia shook her head in reply.

  “I’ll tell you why it’s forbidden, Lieutenant. Because we learned long ago not to trust what they say. Our enemies are masters of lies and deception, and will stop at nothing to gain an advantage. Long ago, we monitored enemy transmissions to see if we could learn where their forces were deployed. It proved to be a costly mistake for us, though. When we tried to launch surprise assaults on those positions, we discovered they’d lured us into a trap, or tricked us into shifting some of our forces away from an area they were planning to attack. For a time, we fell prey to various deceptions, resulting in tragic losses of life. But thankfully we somehow managed to survive, and we came away all the wiser for it. Or at least I’d like to believe we’re wiser. Be careful what you believe, Lieutenant. Remember, our guest is one of them.”

  “I understand,” Virginia said.

  “Good. And one more thing, Lieutenant, should you happen to speak with Mr. Elliot again. Not one word about the virus to him. Consider that topic off limits.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  * * * *

  As Mindy lay awake in her bed, staring up through the darkness at the ceiling overhead, she kept hearing Sheri’s voice in her thoughts — something she’d said during the return trip from Libra. “Commander Eldridge saved my life. I’d be dead now if she hadn’t sent me to Cumulus.”

  She got up and walked to Sheri’s bunk, and looked down at her face as she lay there asleep. It was such a relief to have her friend back, not only alive, but apparently healthy — almost as if Mindy’s prayers had been answered. It seemed that everything had been put right by the timely arrival of Commander Eldridge.

  Wait a minute! she thought. Could it be? Could they have had something to do with her arrival? Suddenly suspecting there might be a connection, she turned toward the wall in the darkened corridor where she’d first made her plea for Sheri’s well being — a plea that she’d long since given up on, but perhaps had been answered through indirect means, despite her unwarranted displays of frustration. Determined to make amends
for her earlier behavior, she dragged herself into the corridor, looked up at the wall, and humbly said, “Thank you!” Although there was no apparent response, she was more convinced than ever that she was not alone there.

  DANGEROUS GAME 089

  The Calypso’s bridge was quiet and still as she drifted along the outer edge of Pangea. Her crew was on edge, their nerves run ragged by the drawn out search for a vicious predator whose teeth took the form of powerful machine guns. Although the Hornets had agreed to help neutralize the ship, just finding it was proving to be a real problem. With so much firepower at its disposal, the slightest mistake could prove to be fatal for anyone who found themselves in its path. Reaction time would be the difference between life and death if the ship were to suddenly make an appearance. And with so many rocks on the outskirts of Pangea, the monster could be hiding anywhere, ready to strike without the slightest warning.

  As the nose of the Calypso entered a clearing, Cora reached for a dial on her console. “Sensors are detecting metal ahead,” she announced.

  Emily immediately reached for the throttle, preparing to initiate a hasty retreat.

  Delia felt her pulse rate quickening now. Death could be staring her in the face at this instant. “Scan for Sentinel I.D. code,” she ordered.

  Cora shook her head. “Scan for I.D. code shows negative.”

  “Should I call the Hornets?” Audrey asked.

  “No, not yet,” Delia said. “Imagine what that thing could do to a fighter if it fires at them before they see it. Let’s see if we can sneak in a little closer. Maybe we can draw it out into the open.”

  Emily nudged the throttle forward. The Calypso began a slow advance. Cora kept her eyes on her screen. “It’s definitely a destroyer,” she said when the scanner revealed sufficient detail.

  Delia glanced at the screen for an instant. “Can you tell which direction it’s facing?” she asked.

  “It’s facing almost ninety degrees to our left.”

  “Any signs of movement?”