Daedalus (Interstellar Cargo Book 2)

by Matt Verish

  “She’s a Musgrave,” Fej said, and Cole wasn’t entirely sure if he was kidding. “That, and she claims to have been at ground zero when the collider released its energy.”

  “Patient zero,” Cole muttered.

  “Whether or not that story carries any weight means little to me. She’s a survivor, and her strength and convictions are unmatched.”

  “How many of her own crew did she...absorb?” He gagged at the word.

  “More than any of us,” Fej offered without hesitation. “There was venom in his voice. “Of that, I’m certain.”

  Good ol’ Mama Harper. Always thinking of number one. Just like Dad. Cole glanced up at the viewport, his Ocunet registering the Daedalus in the far distance. He wasn’t sure if he was glad or horrified that it was still there. “Before we dock, is there anything you can tell me about my mother that’ll give me the upper hand? My silver tongue doesn’t work on her.”

  “Hm, you’re more of a snake charmer, Cole,” Fej said, some of his humor returning. “In regard to Harper, I honestly don’t know much about what she can do. She kept her abilities private, and when she applied them, only her most trusted were around.”

  “You weren’t one of her trusted?”

  “Not near the end. To be honest, if it wasn’t for your arrival, she’d have probably Absorbed me next.”

  “So there is a finite lifespan for you cyberfreaks,” Cole pointed out. “That can work to my advantage...if she doesn’t Absorb someone from her inner circle first.”

  “It’s not her lifespan you should be worried about,” Fej said. “It’s her unpredictability. That, compounded with her increased strength.”

  “Again with my mother’s villainous superpowers,” Cole said, frustrated. “You keep talking her up like she’s a bulldozer, yet you don’t have a clear idea what she can do. Help me out, here.”

  “Bulldozer would be an accurate description,” Fej stated flatly. “I might not have seen her openly display her abilities, but she has exerted her will through brute force.”

  Cole could almost feel Fej shudder through the vessel. “Go on.”

  “And in terms of ability,” Fej continued, “I can only go by what I can do.”

  “Which is?” Cole was growing tired of fishing for answers.

  “Other than Organitech, which I openly displayed for you, my strength was enhanced, and I maintain a constant wireless connectivity to all things electronic.”

  “Like an antenna?” Cole inferred.

  “More than that. If I’m close enough, I can manipulate, restructure, and physically reshape machines, computers, and even programs, with a thought. Though it takes a lot of energy and concentration.”

  Cole thought of his spacesuit and how it seemingly walked on its own into the escape vessel. “So this biomechanical coalescence is also a weakness.”

  “For me, yes. Especially since I have run out of ways to replenish any spent energy. Harper, on the other hand, seems to have reserves in spades.”

  “Probably because of her insatiable thirst,” Cole said. The gap between him and the Daedalus was closing too fast. “We’re gonna have to think outside the box to take her and her cronies out. Discussion and a full frontal are out of the equation. And speaking of attack, is there anyone else in my mother’s Absorption retinue I might regret killing?”

  “I would hope you haven’t reached a point where killing doesn’t inspire some form of regret.”

  “Oh, you’re a philosopher now,” Cole mocked. “I wasn’t aware you fit the Starforce stereotype of bleeding heart liberal. Military would be disappointed.”

  “And I was unaware you’d crossed over to become the kind of heartless murdering machine Military always envisioned during the Carbon War.”

  “Touché,” Cole said, smiling. “I’ve missed you, Jaworski. Sorry I inadvertently transformed you into Frankenstein’s monster.”

  “Yeah, I can’t say the same, Musgrave,” Fej jested. “You can make it up to me by getting things right this time around.”

  Cole laughed, though inside, his guts were twisting. He hadn’t the slightest clue as to how he was going to face his mother, let alone kill her while looking her straight in the eyes. There was the assumption that he would have Fej as backup, but the odds didn’t favor him with two against six. As the Daedalus came into clearer focus, he started to form a plan.

  Accessing Ocunet, he hoped he was within range to establish a link with Lin, Chrys, and Rig. NuFi was nonexistent in this new universe, but the lenses themselves acted as mini antennas when out of range of a satellite signal. Why he had not thought to contact his crew until now was beyond him. Then again, he could say the same of them. A connection might have been impossible...or his mother was purposely interfering.

  Or they’re dead.

  As Cole waited for his lenses to bridge the gap, he noticed something peculiar in the corner of his vision. A tiny message notification was blinking, urging him to open and read. The sender’s name was unknown, and again he wondered how he could’ve missed something so obvious. Just what had his mother done to his mind?

  “You’re suddenly quiet,” Fej said, startling Cole.

  “I’m starting to doubt my sanity, that’s why,” Cole said, his attention up on the notification. “Did you send me an instant message?”

  “Why would I need to do that.”

  “Huh, I wonder....”

  “Wait!” Fej warned. “Who’s it from?”

  “Unknown.”

  “And it wasn’t there before you woke up?”

  Cole frowned. “Now that I think of it, I haven’t received any messages since Cain locked that function on all of my crew’s Ocunet lenses.”

  “Who?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Cole said, hoping to return to the topic. “What does matter is that it shouldn’t be there.”

  “Harper,” Fej said with certainty. “Don’t open it. Who knows what sort of damage that message could cause.”

  Great, now I have to open it. “I appreciate your concern for my safety, Fej, but if my mother wanted me dead, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have taken such a roundabout a way to do it. If it’s from her, she intended for me to view it.”

  “I thought you knew Harper better than that, Cole.”

  “Hey, I need any intel I can scrounge before I lay down on the cutting board and bare my throat. Besides, she must’ve anticipated I would come for her, so she probably decided to politely discourage me from doing just that.”

  Fej scoffed. “Yes, because we both know she’s so subtle.”

  Cole smirked, though in truth, he was terrified to open the flashing notification. But open it he did. And what was inside was more than enough to discourage him from attempting anything again.

  19

  WHISPERS

  Cole was hardly aware when they docked with the Daedalus. He entered the cockpit and placed his recorder device back into the front pocket of his suit. Sitting down heavily, he stared dumbly at the failed communication notice with his crew. Were it not for the irrefutable proof of his worst nightmare, he would’ve considered the video message a fake. Rather, it was the lack of the Icarus’s presence that drove a dagger through the heart of his very last hope.

  “They’re gone, aren’t they.”

  It wasn’t a question, and Cole knew that Fej had already figured out the source of his silence. He nodded. How could they betray me so completely?

  “Are you sure they aren’t just out searching for you?”

  Cole tossed the message file at the viewport, allowing it to play in all its theatrical glory. He watched it again—the expertly edited point-of-view moment when his mother and the other changed members of the Daedalus approached the crew of the Icarus with a peace offering: a chance at redemption in return for their services. Both Rig and Emmerich had been eager to defy their traitorous captain, and Cole had stomached the pain of Lin’s devastation as she learned of her lover’s “death.” He swallowed his fury when they per
suaded her to reveal the secrets of the Cosmic Particle and how to employ the Colossus for travel through a black hole.

  He relived it all, knowing the entire scenario was his fault.

  At some point Fej had rematerialized and joined Cole’s side. His presence was hardly comforting. “I’m sorry you didn’t make it in time.”

  “Not as sorry as I am for rewatching that video,” Cole said, heading back toward the holding area. He walked to his spacesuit and detached it from the makeshift oxygen valve. Without fully understanding why, he began to suit up.

  “Where are you going?” Fej asked.

  “Out,” Cole replied. “I have to make sure.”

  “Make sure of what, Cole? I saw the same video you did. They turned on you.”

  “But why?” Cole demanded. “Sure, there was tension related to our survival, but I had no reason to doubt our camaraderie. They made no argument—nor did they try and stop me—when I explained to them why I was boarding the ship to your planet. Not a peep from them....”

  Fej raised a knowing eyebrow. “Harper disrupted your communication.”

  Cole thunked into one of the seats with only one of his legs halfway in the suit. How could I have been so stupid? “They probably thought the same of me.”

  Fej nodded. “All they saw was you abandoning them to a derelict cruiser. Their reaction might be justified...though, I admit that I’m surprised Harper’s story regarding your death was all it took for them to accept your passing. True crew members would question the legitimacy of her story. No one even asked for evidence.”

  Not even Lin, Cole thought. “I never said we were tight. Circumstance brought us all together, and we’ve had to adjust to one another through constant opposition.” He resumed dressing.

  “Those people in that video aren’t worth your time or consideration. They’ve chosen a new captain.”

  “Not all of them,” Cole said, defending Lin.

  Regardless of what you believe, what do you hope to accomplish while aboard the Daedalus?”

  “Check the engine room.” He pulled the suit up and over his shoulders.

  Fej collected Cole’s helmet and handed it to him. “I don’t know what you hope to find in there, but whatever it is, Harper probably took it first.”

  Cole collected his helmet. “You coming?”

  “Someone has to cover your six.”

  Cole looked him up and down. “Not like that, you aren’t.”

  Fej grinned. “Another gift from the particle gods. Some of us—myself included—can withstand the extremes of space for extended periods of time.”

  “Oh?” Cole wasn’t sure if he was serious. “One day I’d love to hear the tale behind your unfortunate discovery of this ability, but I’ll simply ask how you managed that.”

  Over the course of the next thirty seconds or so, Fej inhaled one impossibly long breath. When he finished, his chest did not seem any larger than before. It was his face that changed. It looked as though his lenses had thickened, fortifying Fej’s eyes. All other visible orifices—ears, nose, and mouth—sealed shut so they were smooth with the rest of his gray, scaly skin. When he spoke, it was inside Cole’s comm.

  “Just like that.”

  ~

  Cole wiped his hand across a slight indentation where the Icarus had rested. There was no way to know for sure if the ship had actually made the impression, but it brought him slight comfort in believing it had.

  Gotta stay focused. As bad as it looks, they have good reason to hate my guts. Just remember that Lin cried for me. Thinking of Lin surfaced a thought. Just what was she doing on the Daedalus?

  That last thought was enough to get him up and moving with renewed vigor. Fortunately, he’d saved and logged the interior schematic of the Daedalus into his Ocunet lenses before the Icarus had departed. As much as he wanted to trust in Fej, he had changed. His friend claimed to not be holding a grudge, but Cole couldn’t take him at his word—not after what his crew had done to him. It was best he trust only in himself.

  “How is it the power is up and running?” Fej asked through his comm.

  “You can thank that cranky show-off Archytas, for the lights,” Cole said. Even he got to join my mother. He better be taking care of Lin.

  “How did you manage to sway that droid?”

  Or whatever Archytas is, Cole thought. He never did get a straight answer as to how a simple AI program became a bipedal being. “Turns out Archytas was Lin’s nanny, so he...it, whatever, ignored his duty as gatekeeper and reverted back to being her caretaker. Her father must’ve utilized the Archytas program to carry out his master plan aboard this ship.”

  Fej caught up to Cole. “At the beginning, no one was sure where it had come from, though it seemed willing enough to help us. Harper, as expected, fleeced the droid of any information it contained before putting it to work.”

  “As the caretaker of something almost equally as precious as his daughter: the collider,” Cole surmised. “And Archytas was the reason why you guys knew we were here.”

  Fej nodded. “Yes, but the droid is gone, and I still have no idea what it is you hope to find in its stead? It’d be nice to know what you’re looking for so I can help.”

  “I’ll know it when I see it,” Cole said as he stepped through a doorway. “If I see it. You’re here solely as my acting tough. Think of me as your damsel in distress.”

  “I think a lot less of you now after that comment.”

  Cole smirked. “Just leave the clue-sniffing to me. I have reason to believe Lin left me behind something as a precaution.”

  “Such as?”

  “A miracle, I hope.”

  Fej sighed. “It’s a wonder you ever landed an intelligent woman like her. I distinctly recall you managing to offend everyone of the female persuasion.”

  “I’m a persuasive offender all genders, Fej. I’m a difficult man to love.”

  “And does the daughter of the notorious Singularity love you?”

  Cole thought back to the last time he’d spoken—rather, argued—with Lin, and he wasn’t so sure. He had feelings for her, but he could easily attribute their unlikely relationship to a complete lack of choice in partners. Whatever the reason, he cared for her, and he wanted to believe she felt the same way despite what the others may have told her he’d done.

  Cole glanced at Fej. “She understands me. I’ll just leave it at that.”

  “Then she’s as crazy as her father.”

  “Crazy like a fox.”

  “What the....”

  Cole’s face screwed up. “You know, the saying—”

  “No, shut up,” Fej snapped. “Listen.”

  Cole blinked, wondering to what he should be listening on an empty ship.

  “I hear someone whispering.”

  “Whispering? In a vacuum?”

  Fej scowled. “Whatever it is I hear, I hear it.”

  “You just said someone.” Cole stopped in a hallway not far from the engine room and began looking around for evidence of a disembodied voice. “You sure your new computer brain doesn’t need a soft reboot?”

  “The words are difficult to make out.” Fej said, ignoring Cole. “Something about a virus and a trap.”

  Now you have my attention. “Try harder to translate, because I can only hear you.”

  Fej’s face tensed in concentration. “It’s too faint, though I’m enhancing the audio I’ve recorded so far. Here, listen.”

  The audio coming from Cole’s comm was jarring. He was about to have Fej lower the volume of what sounded like white noise, when he, too, heard the voice. The longer he listened, the more he was able to discern a repeated phrase, broken though it was. When he realized who the speaker was, he turned and ran down the hallway as fast as his bulky suit and magboots would allow.

  He ignored Fej’s pleas for him to stop and explain himself, though his friend easily caught up with him. When they finally rounded the corner leading to the engine room, Cole could not slow, and his
bum knee gave out, bringing him to the ground just inside the open doorway. He grabbed Fej’s extended hand and was lifted to his feet as though he weighed no more than a child.

  Stupid knee. It’s gonna get me killed one of these days. Cole cringed when he put weight on his leg, but he managed to stand. Fej was already focused on something else: the still-active collider, the vibrations in the floor reverberating through his boots. A familiar object was sitting on the floor just in front of the mysterious machine.

  “The voice is much clearer in here,” Fej said, still staring at the collider.

  Cole knew Fej’s attention was on the wrong subject. “It’s Cain you’re hearing.”

  “The AI you mentioned?” Fej asked, perplexed. “How is that possible?”

  Cole shrugged, pointing at the glass cylinder. “Dunno. You should ask him since I can’t. And you better hurry, because I didn’t like what he was saying.”

  Fej frowned at the item containing the AI’s brain. “What makes you think it will hear me?”

  “What, suddenly you’re afraid to use your nifty upgrades?” Cole asked. “After everything you’ve done so far, I’m sure you can establish some sort of connection. Why else would he have signaled you if not to communicate?”

  “You’re probably right. I’ll give it a shot.” Fej knelt inside the container and placed a hand on top. “Cain. My name is Francis Jaworski, former executive officer of the Daedalus. I’m here with Cole Musgrave....”

  Cole blinked, wondering why Fej had trailed. “What?”

  Fej held up a silencing hand. As the seconds turned into minutes, his concerned expression changed to panic. He yanked away his hand in horror, recoiling from CAIN.

  Cole had had enough. “If you don’t start talking, I’m gonna go back to the dock and push your ship over the edge.”

  “I’m sorry, Cole. I didn’t hear it.”

  Cole didn’t like his tone. “Didn’t hear what?”

  Fej was staring at the ceiling as though searching. “The silent alarm.” He finally met Cole’s gaze. “Harper had the Daedalus set to self-destruct if either of us set foot aboard.”