“Are they...coming to cut us off?”
“Looks that way.”
“The Lord of the Service,” Andrew grunted. “He’s a life-long friend of the Laird’s.”
“I didn’t see that coming,” she said.
“I didn’t think this thing through,” Andrew admitted as he angled the watcher on a new vector towards the jump gate. “I guess this means the Laird knows his ship has been stolen. I wonder if my cover’s intact still? Ah, it doesn’t matter in the end. I don’t think we’re sneaking out of here as easily as I had thought. I guess the Laird has enough pull to ask the Justice for assistance in recovering his lost Watcher. His hideously expensive, military grade Watcher.”
Christine set aside her impromptu dinner and began to dig into the Watcher’s computer programming. Andrew looked at her questioningly but did not bother the young woman as she began to hack into the coding. After a few moments, he began to understand.
“Use a false ID and plant it into the program,” he instructed. She shot him a look. He shook his head. “Sorry, sorry. You know what you’re doing.”
“Damn right I do,” she muttered as she began to create a completely false identity for the presumed thief of the Watcher. “I taught you, didn’t I?” She frowned, chewing her lower lip as her fingers flew across the mini keys, and proceeded to hack into a system Andrew was unfamiliar with. He read the small screen and his eyes widened as he recognized the supposedly ultra-secure networking system that housed the criminal records of the Dominion Investigation Bureau. With a triple-layered firewall which rotated two encryption features randomly, it was designed to defeat any and all potential intruders into the core system of the Dominion’s top investigative bureau.
Andrew smiled, impressed. Christine had hacked it in eight seconds.
Working at a frantic pace, she quickly created a fictional criminal profile for a young man who vaguely resembled Andrew’s cover ID, though with different eyes and cheekbones. She created past offenses which had been thrown out of the various courts due to a lack of evidence, two minor convictions which had landed him in prison for six months, and placed the criminal’s last known address as Trono del Terra, as well as being wanted for questioning on suspicion of vehicular theft.
She began to work backwards from there, wiping any trace of her tampering from the Deeb’s system. She shot Andrew an apologetic look.
“Sorry about the money laundering charges I planted on your fake ID,” she said. He grinned ruefully.
“That’s actually kind of ironic, given that was what helped me get this job in the first place.”
“Money laundering?” she asked.
“And helping bust a massive sex slave ring,” he added.
“Oh, I bet that was a tough assignment,” she teased. “How deep undercover did you have to go.”
“Deep enough.”
“I bet you did.”
“Shut up.”
“All right, since your cover is still intact, this should hold up,” Christine stated. She pursed her lips in a thoughtful manner. “I think. Well, we’ll know for certain when we get back. Uh...we’ll have to ditch the ship somewhere, though. Wait...won’t the Laird get suspicious about his missing aide, Darius?”
“His chief of staff fired Darius about two hours ago,” Andrew replied. “It’s not like I wanted to get fired, and the timing is a bit coincidental, but...”
“How...wait...what?”
“I hacked my boss and had him fire Darius,” he explained. “I alluded to an inappropriate relationship with his son as the reason for the sudden dismissal, and that Mister Greensburg hoped Darius might find employment elsewhere. Man, the Laird is going to be pissed about losing Darius. He was beginning to rely on him quite a bit, and his family is loaded, money-wise.”
“Oh my,” she giggled. “That’s going to get Greensburg in a bit of trouble.”
“Well, if Greensburg wasn’t such a political whore, I wouldn’t have had to do it,” he said.
“So, did you?” Christine asked after a few moments of silence.
“Did I what?”
“Sleep with his son?”
“No, I don’t swing that way.”
“Huh.”
“Huh what?”
“Nothing.”
“No, you can’t do that.”
“It’s just...well...this is going to be a long trip, and this Watcher is kind of cramped,” she smiled coyly at him. He looked at her, not comprehending, so she batted her eyelashes. He groaned.
“You know we could die if that task force figures out our exit vector, right?”
“Potentially.”
“You’re going to be insufferable.”
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Can we at least make it to the jump gate – alive, I’ll add – before you start to torment me?”
She sighed dramatically. “If you insist.”
“I do,” he said as he pushed the throttle forward. “We’re going to burn a ton of fuel but I think we can beat them to the gate. Then we’re going to have to take an indirect route to our destination.”
“So our trip is going to take longer than expected?”
“By about a day and a half, since we need to jump and translate back in twice.”
She grimaced. “Will that give you time to...whatever it is that you’re going to do?”
“No idea,” he admitted.
“So what are you planning on doing? Going to stop him?”
“No,” Andrew shook his head. “I’m going to rescue him.”
“From the Abassi? Isn’t it his job to go to dangerous places and kill things?”
“No. I need to rescue him from himself.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know Gabe,” Andrew began as the Watcher left Trono del Terra behind, the blue-green ball disappearing rapidly as the ship’s velocity continued to increase at a drastic pace. “When I heard Ptolemy got hit and he joined the Wraiths, I figured his former fiancée was there and he’d do just about anything to rescue her. Even if it meant risking his life.”
“I don’t see how–”
“He’ll burn the galaxy for her,” Andrew interjected. “She’s all he ever lived for, ever since we were kids. If she’s dead, then he has nothing left to live for.”
“So...what? He’s crazy? That doesn’t sound like the smart thing to do, risking everything just on a whim.”
“Tell me, honestly. Have you ever been in love? I mean, in love so much it hurts to be apart from that person?”
“Uh, no.”
Andrew shook his head and smiled at her. “Then you wouldn’t understand.”
“Have you?” she flipped the question back at him. Andrew smirked.
“Nope. But I know my brother. I was there when he proposed. I saw it in his eyes. I saw it when she was off at the Naval Academy years ago. It’s what happens when two people are one. Take away half of a person, and there’s only half left. Imagine now if the half remaining is a coiled ball of rage, hatred, anger and seething with the desire to hurt something until the better half – the real better half, not just the figurative one – heals the bitter half. Now...imagine the better half, the cream to your horrid, bitter coffee, ceases to exist.”
Christine grunted but said nothing. Minutes ticked by slowly as the watcher hurtled through space towards the jump gate. The task force, mobilizing but still further away from the gate than the Watcher, moved to where they assumed the Watcher would end up. Andrew continued to focus on plotting their jump through the gate.
“Prepare to jump,” Andrew said as the jump gate drew closer.
“All drives are ready,” Christine said after a quick inspection of the engine display.
“Engaging jump drive, killing thrusters,” Andrew announced. “In five, four, three, two...thrusters disengaged.”
“And we’re in,” Christine said as the universe around then briefly flickered blue before everything twisted. Color became backwards and forwards for
a second before settling into the familiar unnatural gray of the alien warp tunnels. Andrew looked over the instruments one final time before he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
“I hope we get there in time.”
Chapter Eighteen
The small star was the only G class in all the Dominion, having been discovered quite by accident by an astronomer after Trono del Terra was settled. It was given the name Xanthus by the astronomer and forgotten soon afterwards as the Caliphate settled closer worlds. It was finally discovered to have a hospitable planet during the transformative years at the end of the Caliphate, which had worked rapidly to expand the word of Allah to the stars. It was brought under the yoke of the Dominion soon after the final battles of the bloody war for independence and the coronation of David the Magnificent, the first emperor of the Dominion of Man. It would not be inhabited, though, until his firstborn son, Solomon, became emperor.
Solomon, discovering the alien jump gates were located throughout the region of space the Dominion was expanding into, immediately began colonizing said worlds. The massive gates, which bent time around the ships and increased their speed beyond the limitations imposed by faster-than-light travel, allowed rapid transport to commence between the planets. This meant the ships of the Dominion could drop in tonnage and size, as they were no longer encumbered by the massive FTL drives which never worked properly, power plants used by the Caliphate. One such gate was parked in a heliocentric orbit around Xanthus, placed there eons ago by a long-forgotten alien race. It took the gate ten months to orbit the star, perfectly matching the orbit of the star’s lone habitable world, Ptolemy.
Out of the massive jump gate, the DV Eye of Solomon translated into real-space with a subtle blur of ultraviolet colors as the translation ionized nitrogen atoms clinging to the hull. The brief instance of color and light illuminated the ship, creating a blue and red halo around the vessel. The lights danced across the outer hull as the nitrogen atoms returned from an excited state to a grounded one. It resembled, for the briefest of moments, an aurora effect as the shadow of the jump gate cast the entire length of the ship into darkness.
As quickly as the brilliant light appeared it vanished, leaving the area around the jump gate seemingly empty once more. The arrival of the Eye was, fortunately, unnoticed by anyone in the system. The ship slid in front of Xanthus, the system’s star, remaining on the dark side of the planet it was targeting. It became nothing more than a small speck dancing across the face of the massive star.
The small Abassi relay station which sat near the gate was destroyed before it had even known that the gate was open. Sixteen missiles from the Eye had quickly shredded it, and the five aliens inside never realized they were under attack as their world exploded around them.
The conquerors of Ptolemy, as attentive as they were since conquering the small colony world, could not have stopped the small ship once the relay station was gone.
Maneuvering deftly, the Eye moved around the slowly expanding debris cloud and into clear space. Out of the belly of the silhouette, six missiles dropped into open space. Quick puffs of air changed the direction they were pointing from the brightness of Xanthus to one of the four planets which orbited it. Once the missiles were aligned with the third planet of the system, the targeting systems came to life. They scanned the mostly deserted space above the planet, locked onto the largest object and the rest of the programming awoke.
The lead missile’s propulsion system engaged, accelerating rapidly. Behind it, five missiles fired simultaneously, keeping pace with the lead. The Wraith suit inertial compensators adjusted accordingly, keeping the human inside its pod from being turned into a pulpy mess. As quickly as the propellant system engaged, it shut off, leaving all six missiles as nothing more than fast-moving pieces of space debris. Slight adjustments corrected the course of the missiles as they silently tore through space, their first destination growing rapidly in each individual’s vision. The targeting systems shut down to avoid announcing to every nearby ship that missiles were aimed at them.
Gabriel shifted slightly on his ride, his view screen filled with various icons as Ptolemy grew larger. He quickly identified the main colony city, which was where he assumed the aliens were keeping their captives. Ptolemy was not a well-populated world, which had been the main reason Sophie had originally chosen it. He used his HUD to take a quick glance behind him to see how the rest of his squad was faring as they attempted the insane and was mildly surprised. There they were, strung along behind him like goslings following their mother, all five of them.
He had not understated to them just how dangerous what they were attempting really was, and yet, with the exception of Joshua, they had followed him without question. Even Captain Reukauf, despite his objections at having his ship commandeered by the hulking Wraith and having a gun pressed against his temple, had not questioned Gabriel’s tactical decision. Nor did he overtly protest the use of tactical nuclear missiles to ride through space undetected, all to risk a coordinated drop onto Ptolemy. Gabriel could not fathom their reasoning or their loyalty, but was thankful for both; he doubted he could have done it alone.
“Gabe?” a quiet voice interrupted his musings. Gabriel blinked in surprised as he recognized the speaker. It was Joshua, the complainer, the one man who never really seemed to fit in with the rest of the squad. It also was coming through a private link, which was even more intriguing. Gabriel thought about ignoring him for a moment before deciding against it. He starts complaining though and I’m cutting him off, Gabriel silently swore as he responded.
“Go ahead Josh.”
“Gabe,” Joshua’s voice was filled with caution and trepidation, recognizable even with the scrubbers the links went through. A moment passed in silence and Gabriel almost killed the link as silence filled the void between them. Just as he was about to do so, Joshua’s voice came through the comm link. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah Josh, I know you are but we all love you anyway,” Gabriel snarked.
“No, asshole. I’m sorry about what I said last year, at MITC,” Joshua apologized, his voice quiet. “I shouldn’t have said those things about your– about Sophie.”
“Ugh,” Gabriel closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “Josh, this isn’t the time or place–”
“If not now, then never, Gabe,” Joshua interrupted, his tone firm yet surprisingly gentle. “We’re condemned men anyways, now. We drop and we’re probably dead, killed by Abassi or God knows what. If we survive the drop and retake Ptolemy, we’re probably arrested for commandeering the Eye. I think. Hell, I don’t know. They won’t let us off the hook completely. They can’t. I wanted you to know, since I’ve met you, I’ve come to respect you.”
“This could’ve been said face-to-face, you know,” Gabriel muttered darkly. A dry chuckle came over the comm.
“Yeah, that would’ve been good,” Joshua acknowledged. “But you have this way of being intimidating, and since I still have a not-quite-working hand after what happened last time I pissed you off...” his voice trailed off.
Gabriel nodded. “True. I’ve had a slight change of heart regarding you, too.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like you,” Joshua corrected him, humor evident in his tone. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t follow you to the gates of Mecca Prime itself if you wanted to go kill the Caliphate.”
“Why?” Gabriel asked, surprised.
“Gabe, you kept us alive on Ibliss when everyone else died,” Joshua began, his voice earnest and sincere. “You led us through that death trap city, destroyed all three laser emplacements that had shredded the Fifth Fleet, rescued prisoners from an Abassi laboratory and even shot down a damned enemy cruiser. The Emperor’s light favors you, Gabe. I will follow that light and favor to hell itself and piss on Satan’s feet if you told me to.”
“Oh.”
“If we find your girl, Gabe, I swear to you we will get her out of there no matter the cost,” Joshua promised him. �
�You deserve that much.”
“I’m a Wraith, Josh,” Gabriel reminded the young man from Avalon, steel encasing his heart at the reminder of Sophie. “I deserve only what the Emperor gives me.”
“Contact,” Twist’s voice cut through the link. Gabriel quickly switched to the squad’s broadcast net.
“Info?”
“Not sure,” Twist admitted after a moment. Gabriel shifted his HUD to look over his right shoulder but the man from Ibliss was out of visual range. He quickly tracked in on his using the IFF. The Boer continued after a moment. “Looks like a derelict vessel of some kind. No energy readings, slight radiation leakage out of the stern. Yeah, makes sense. Engine containment must’ve failed during battle, which means that’s no Dominion naval ship. No heat signatures, lots of nearby debris. Man, that thing took a beating. Best guess? I’d say that is the Nuevo Esperanza. Or, rather, what remains of her.”
Gabriel winced but said nothing as his ride’s momentum brought him closer, the magnified image of the massive colony ship suddenly filling his viewscreen. The hulking ship twisted slowly, jagged bits of the once proud vessel protruding in various directions. That’s the ship Sophie had been on, a small voice whispered in his soul. He gritted his teeth and shoved the quiet little voice down to a dark, lonely place in the back of his mind.
“Passive scan,” Gabriel ordered his suit. The mechanical beast obliged and began to scan the area around the destroyed vessel. Gabriel nodded once to himself as no electronic emissions emerged on his screen. “Looks clear.”
“Gabe, I hate to ask awkward questions,” Esau grunted a few seconds later over the comm. “But I was wondering...what’s your plan for getting us down to Ptolemy?”
“A quick drop,” Gabriel replied immediately, his eyes tracking the approaching planet carefully. “The missiles will reposition once we hit the ionosphere. We need to be clear when their burn kicks in, because it’s only a few seconds until they hit the planet. We let the pressure waves guide us down, and we drop into the middle of a valley, while the nuke airbursts cover us. We move through the Tristeza Valley and down to the Luto coastline. Then...then we hunt.”
Wraithkin (The Kin Wars Saga Book 1) Page 26