Stranded Justice (The Justice Trilogy Series Book 2)

by Steven L. Hawk

  The sound of rifle fire floated up from below. Chall stood motionless.

  Drah crossed the room and slapped his assistant across the forehead with the staff. It was no more than a glancing blow, but it would hurt and leave a mark.

  “Move!”

  The blow, coupled with the verbal assault, got Chall’s attention and he finally moved from the doorway and raced across the hall to his own quarters.

  Drah couldn’t wait any longer. The fire in his belly drove him toward the stairway at the end of the corridor. He threw himself down the stairs two at a time, eager to satiate his need for violence.

  He pulled up at the final landing before reaching the first floor, though. A trio of still-bleeding Minith bodies lay inside the doorway leading to the corridor below. The warriors below, combined with the commotion of running boots, let Drah know the rangers had already entered the building. His need to hurt someone struggled with his need for self-preservation as he debated on how best to proceed. He growled again at the thought that outsiders dared to challenge him—dared to enter his domain.

  One of his fighters lifted himself from the pile below, and Drah watched as the soldier lifted his weapon and pointed it at something on the far side of the doorway. He never had a chance. A flurry of shots from the other side cut the brave warrior’s attempt short. The pool of royal purple blood at the foot of the stairs grew larger.

  The hunger to kill compelled him to race forward, but the desire to live commanded that he stay where he was.

  “Aaargh!” Drah raged, torn between two needs.

  Chapter 35

  Eli moved forward along the hallway, guided by the directions Sergeant Drek offered. They moved quickly, passing deeper into the building. Benson, Aank, and twenty-four anxious Chih followed along closely behind.

  Most of their remaining forces were positioned near the front of the three-story building. A four-ranger team had been sent to the other side of the building to capture and secure the transportation portal that was their potential lifeboat off this planet. The team had orders to destroy the gate if escape proved impossible.

  The armor had kept the rangers safe, but a few lucky shots had managed to kill one of Sheen’s crew members. Two of Drek’s squad had also been killed, and another seriously wounded, before Jerrone and the rest of team two had managed to fight their way through the gathering crowd of Minith outside, and into the building. For the moment, the group of rangers and their fellow fighters were holding back the Minith attacking their positions from outside the building and from the stairway just inside the building’s entrance.

  Now it was pretty much a standoff, which was good enough for Eli. All they needed now was time. And a little more luck.

  They reached the comms room and found the door locked. Not surprising. Minith soldiers manned the room at all times.

  “How many are in there,” Eli asked of the Minith NCO.

  “Usually two,” Drek said. “Never more than three. The room isn’t that large.”

  Eli nodded and considered his options.

  He could think of only two. Break down the door and enter with his Ginny pumping rounds at anything that moved. Or coerce the Minith behind the door into surrendering. The former option seemed the most likely to work. But option number two was more appealing.

  What the flock, he decided, moving to the side of the door. It can’t hurt to try.

  He tapped three times on the door and waited. No response.

  “We know you’re in there,” he announced in Minith. “I’m Captain Eli Justice of the Shiale Rangers. I need to get in there. What do you say?”

  A low, gruff chortle could be heard through the closed doorway. Someone on the other side obviously found the proposition amusing.

  “Just so you know,” he continued. “I’m wearing PEACE armor. Your weapons will have no effect on me. I can break down the door and shoot you where you stand and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  No chortle this time. Progress.

  “We’re kind of in a hurry,” Eli said through the door. “So I’ll count to three. If the door isn’t unlocked by three, I’m coming in.”

  Another deep chortle. Loss of progress.

  Eli didn’t count. He didn’t wait another second. He calmly stepped in front of the locked door, lifted his right leg, and slammed his armored boot into the barrier that kept him from his goal.

  The door slammed open with a crash and the ranger stepped forward, his Ginny lowered and ready.

  A beam of bright white hit his chest with no effect. A second Zrthn blast reached out and had the same result.

  Eli noted the surprise on the two Minith faces before pulling his own trigger. Both guards went down heavily.

  “What? Not funny now?” he asked, stepping over the crumpled forms. He checked the rest of the room quickly, then waved Aank forward.

  The Waa stepped into the room. He moved around the two Minith, pulled the comm device from the bag he carried over his shoulder, and got to work.

  Chapter 36

  An urgent rapping on his door awoke Grant.

  He’d been dreaming about Eli and Old Earth—two of his greatest losses. Old Earth was history and Eli was . . . well, another type of history. It was best not to dwell on either subject for too long, he reminded himself as he rolled from his bunk.

  The movement was slow and careful. The constant ache in his bones and joints demanded it. He was nearing sixty—six hundred and sixty, if you counted the years he’d spent frozen at the bottom of an arctic lake—and he and felt every year, every hour, and every second of his age.

  His feet hit the deck as another round of knuckles hit the door.

  The dream was nudged slowly aside by the reality surrounding him. He recalled a time when he was able to go from sleep to full mental alertness in the blink of an eye. Those days were long gone.

  “How the fuck did I get this old?”

  He uttered the curse quietly, under his breath, then chuckled and shook his head. Even his vocabulary had become ancient history. He’d had to discipline himself against using profanities in front of others. Earth’s current traditions, cultures, and societal norms had demanded it.

  But . . . damn . . . sometimes it felt good to curse. Sometime in the past twenty years, the ancient words—once a rote part of every soldier’s vocabulary—had morphed into his own, private vice. Instead of being simple four-letter curses, the words had become shameful arrangements of consonants and vowels that could only be dusted off and spoken in the privacy of his own company.

  You’re a damned pussy, is what you are, Grant. The thought ushered forth an unexpected snort of glee.

  A third knock sounded and Grant shook off the final cobwebs of his sleep.

  “Enter!”

  The door opened and Lieutenant Sharp, one of the ship’s comms officers, poked his head inside Grant’s cabin. The lieutenant’s face was drawn and he exuded an air of apology and uncertainty as he entered his commanding officer’s personal space. The officer’s temerity and deference irked Grant, but he pushed the feelings down as he always did. He was almost used to the reaction he elicited from most the Earth’s newer soldiers.

  Grant sighed. He was merely another man. He wasn’t the all-knowing, omniscient legend that the Culture Leaders of Earth liked to portray him as. He made mistakes, his body aged, his loved ones died.

  “Um, General . . .”

  “Out with it, Lieutenant,” Grant ordered in a low, calm voice. Years of practice allowed him to project the appropriate tone. It was the tone of a commander: someone who was in control of himself, those around him, and of the situation. He couldn’t show his true self. The soldiers under his command would never understand the old, tired warrior that he had become—an old man who grieved for his lost son and cursed to himself in private.

  “General, we’re receiving real-time transmissions from the crew of the Agate.” Grant hopped to his feet, the aches and pains—physical and mental—suddenly forgotten
. “Um, your . . . I mean, um . . . Sir, Captain Justice has given us a situation report. He’s now speaking with our engineering team on a possible plan for extraction.”

  Grant stood frozen, unable to move as he processed the words he had just heard. As much as he wanted to believe, there had to be some mistake. He’d seen the footage of Eli’s fall and knew the certainty of what a drop from that height meant.

  “How is this possible?”

  “I don’t know, sir. But the connection is still open if you’d care to speak with Captain Justice directly.”

  Grant was moving toward the door before Sharp finished speaking.

  “Fuck yeah, Lieutenant,” Grant whooped, pushing past the stunned comm officer. It was likely the young man had never heard such language in his life. “Fuck yeah!”

  * * *

  Eli raced through the building. Drek was following close behind, once again providing directions. The pair passed several downed Minith, proof that the other rangers had encountered resistance as they’d made their way to the transportation portal. Eli wondered what the Minith sergeant felt at seeing his former soldiers and peers lying dead.

  “The last door on the right leads to the transportation bay, Captain,” Drek said as they turned a final corner. Corporal Aquino stood at the door, his weapon raised and ready.

  “Aquino, what’s the status?”

  “All clear, Captain,” the corporal answered. “I’ve got our team of Minith guarding the exit and three rangers guarding the portal. The portal is open and we’ve seen movement from the other side, but no one has tried to come through. They may not be aware that we’re here.”

  “Hmm. Maybe,” Eli replied, but he was doubtful. The two Minith in the comms room had plenty of time to send out a warning. For all they knew, ten thousand Zrthn soldiers could be assembling on the far side of the portal as they spoke. “Keep our rangers in place with their weapons trained on the portal. If anything gets close to that opening, light it up.”

  “Yes sir,” Aquino said. “What’s our long-term plan?”

  “I’m going to reconfigure this gate and get us off this rock.”

  “And you know how to do that, Captain?” Understandably, the other ranger looked unconvinced.

  “I’m gonna have some help, believe me.” Eli smiled, slapped his corporal on the shoulder, and then entered the room where the portal waited.

  I’m ready, Aank.

  Very well, Eli.

  Instructions for reprogramming the portal began flowing into Eli’s mind. He spotted the control mechanisms on the far side of the room and hurried over, anxious to begin.

  Chapter 37

  Drah paced the landing area like a caged animal. The impotence he felt fueled a rage that threatened to consume him. Every time he got close to the doorway at the foot of the stairs, a shower of lead and plasma fire pushed him back.

  His forces assaulting the building from outside were having no better success, despite their overwhelming numbers. The Zrthn weapons were useless against armored rangers. For all their intelligence and planning, his alien masters were some of the most pitiful, stupid creatures he could imagine.

  He yanked the rifle from his shoulder and flung it angrily down the stairs at the doorway through which his enemy taunted him. The only reaction he received for his effort was a laugh from one of the rangers on the other side.

  “Let me wrap my hands around your puny neck,” he snarled. “We will see who gets the last laugh.”

  He twisted his hands around the agsel staff he carried and imagined the release he’d experience at crushing a human skull with the weapon. He hammered the length of metal against the wall to his left and pictured the resulting hole as a bloody head. The first of many bloody heads, he thought, as he took another swing and put another large hole in the metal wall.

  If only he had a way to get around the rangers’ defenses. He needed a weapon that didn’t require getting close, a weapon that was capable of breaking through that blasted armor. What he needed was a . . .

  . . . a bomb.

  Drah smiled and turned to face Chall. The worthless pile of Minith excrement waited quietly above on the next landing. He was afraid—not of the humans, but of his commanding officer. After all, the humans were satisfied with holding their position, at least for now. They couldn’t hurt him. Drah, on the other hand, had already struck him twice. The colonel knew he should feel remorse about abusing his assistant, but he couldn’t help it. His rage needed an outlet and Chall was an easy target. In a way, he was doing his part, serving his master in the only way he could.

  But Drah suddenly knew another way Chall might serve his master. They needed a bomb, and they were on a mining base, after all. They had plenty of explosives.

  “Chall,” Drah called up to his assistant. “I need you to make your way to the mining building.”

  * * *

  Eli completed the last adjustment to the strange device.

  Without Aank’s mental guidance and directions, Eli would have never figured out the controls on his own. Even with the knowledge implanted inside his head by the Waa engineer, the task was supremely daunting. It was certainly nothing he could replicate on his own, even now, after having gone through it once.

  All that is left is to restart the system, Eli. That will take approximately three minutes. Once that is done, the portal will be disconnected with its current location and will be connected with the portal aboard the Waa Song.

  We did it, Aank.

  Blink blink.

  Gather the Chih and make your way to the portal room, Aank. I’ll have Benson and Drek rejoin the main force until we’re ready to go.

  We will be there shortly, Eli.

  Eli lifted his hand to activate the restart of the portal. His finger hovered above the button that would complete the reprogramming, but he hesitated.

  He spared a quick glance at the doorway on the other side of the room, and the rangers guarding the portal. He noted a slight movement on the other side. What was that, he wondered? Where did the portal lead? Could it be a link to the Zrthn’s home world?

  His father had a saying: “curiosity killed the cat.” Eli understood its meaning, but still he wondered what lay on the other side. His father also was fond of saying, “Knowledge is power.”

  The two maxims seemed at odds. They provided opposing answers to the same question: what would he find on the other side?

  Eli removed his hand from the control panel and rested it on the butt of his Ginny.

  Curiosity is nothing more than an innate desire to acquire knowledge.

  “All rangers, this is Captain Justice,” he spoke over the suit’s comm system. “Prepare to withdraw to the portal room, but wait for my order before moving. Maybe five minutes.”

  Eli received acknowledgments before crossing the room and inspecting the portal more closely. The limited view he had of the far side wasn’t good. Dark, shadowy, and damp.

  “Ming, any sign of life through there?”

  “Nothing so far, Captain. The occasional shadow, but nothing more.”

  “Okay,” Eli nodded. “Come over here for a moment.”

  Eli led Ming to the control panel and pointed to the switch that would activate the reprogramming sequence. He explained its purpose to the ranger, who nodded his understanding.

  “I’m going to do a quick recon of the far side,” Eli said, pointing to the portal. “If I’m not back in three minutes, or if you see significant movement that would indicate the Zrthns plan to come through, I want you to push that switch. Then get everyone here and through the doorway. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No other questions, Ming,” Eli ordered. He knew the other man had a long list; he would also if the roles were reversed. But they were short on time and he didn’t want a debate on whether he should or shouldn’t follow through with what he was planning. “Three minutes, no longer. Or a rush of Zrthns. Either of those and you push this button, with or without m
e.”

  Ming stared at Eli for a long moment, then answered with a curt “Yes, sir.”

  Eli nodded and strode to the portal. He looked the other two rangers in the eye as he passed and said, “Be back in a minute or two.”

  He paused at the portal and tried to make details from the darkness using the various views offered by his suit. None penetrated the gloom on the other side. Unsuccessful, he lifted the Ginny, took a deep breath, and stepped through the gate.

  * * *

  Chall scuttled across the open area between the mining operations building and the administration building. His destination was the makeshift rope ladder he’d assembled to escape Drah’s third floor office.

  He toted one of the large backpacks the miners used to carry equipment, food, and water into the hole they had carved out of the surface of the planet. The pack was loaded with the items that Drah had requested: explosives, timers, and blasting caps. He didn’t know exactly what the colonel had in mind, so he had gathered a wide assortment and filled the pack with as much as would fit. He did not want to disappoint. The dual knots on his forehead were painful reminders of what frustrating the colonel meant.

  The majority of the Minith forces aligned against the humans inside were assembled near the front of the admin building. A few scattered groups stood to the side or at the rear of the facility. Many sat, lounged, or paced in place.

  It was strange, but none of the Minith Chall observed seemed overly invested in their siege. It seemed as if they were just going through the motions of their duties and acting out the roles that the Zrthns and Drah had assigned to them.

  Chall could relate. He didn’t want to be here. He’d followed the wrong leader, at the wrong time, and ended up banished to this planet as a result.

  He reached the rope ladder and briefly debated on whether he should climb or run. Running would remove him from this situation and put distance between him and Drah. That was what he wanted, but he recognized it as a short-term solution. Drah would eventually find him and deal out his punishment.