by Berinn Rae
Fayel visibly swallowed. “We estimate nearly eighty percent of the remaining human population. As soon as Captain Jerrick notified Roden and Nalea, we sent out warnings. Otas’s med-tecs had already been directed to pull the remaining antitoxin, but fortunately they refused his orders and continued to administer the antitoxin, withholding facial scanning.”
“At least we know he doesn’t have unlimited control over the Grax,” she said, though the relief was small compared to the humans now facing a deadlier risk than Omega.
“No wonder Otas recommended all Sephians and Draeken take the antitoxin,” Roden said. “It would have placed everyone, even his own people, at his mercy. Exactly how many have the pika now and are linked to Otas’s detonation system?”
“Over two billion out of the estimated three billion survivors.” Fayel’s voice was quiet, squeaky.
Otas could kill over two billion with the push of a button.
Talla glanced at Jax, and she couldn’t breathe. Strange that two billion meant nothing when faced with the loss of one.
“How about the remaining twenty percent?” Laze asked, bringing her attention back to the room. “The ones who took the antitoxin but didn’t get scanned?”
“As long as they remain decoupled from the system, we believe they are safe,” Fayel said.
Not the most convincing response. It would be far too easy to scan someone without their knowledge. A person could get scanned while on an elevator or walking down the hallway. Talla’s jaw clenched. She came to her feet and leaned on the table, directing a hard look at Roden and Nalea. They had to put an end to the madness now. They’d let a madman go on unrestrained for too long. “Where’s Otas now?”
“He’s on the Grax,” Roden said. “We’ve put up a force barrier around the core ship so he’s not going anywhere.”
“A force barrier can’t prevent him from killing over two billion innocent people with the push of a button,” Sommers said, his expression hard. Something vibrated, giving off a plastic hum, and he glanced down at the phone in his hand. “Excuse me.” He stepped out of the room.
Jax said. “We can’t just sit on our asses when Otas has got his finger on the trigger.”
“We aren’t,” Roden said. “That fregee can’t leave the Grax, and — ”
“If we do nothing, he will take over the world,” Jax interrupted, his words heavy with sarcasm. “Don’t think he’ll stop with just my kind.”
Roden’s lips thinned. “If we go in, he could get trigger-happy. We need to think through our options.”
Sommers had returned while Roden spoke, and he looked none too pleased.
“Otas must be stopped,” Jax said. “The future of the Earth is at stake.”
“And we will,” Roden said, sounding exasperated. “But we need to be smart about it.”
“It’s already too late,” Sommers muttered.
Talla’s blood ran cold. She gripped the table. “What do you mean?”
Just like everyone else in the room, Roden narrowed his eyes on the Colonel. “What have you done, Sommers?”
Sommers went to answer, but was thrown down when a massive blast rocked the ship.
Talla fell onto the table as the entire core ship felt like it was being lifted from the ground. The blast was worse than anything she’d ever felt on the Striga, even worse than a meteor storm. Alarms blared, and the lights switched to emergency mode. No one yelled or screamed, a tribute to their military discipline.
After the initial blast, the ship tilted and heavy gravity sent her tumbling onto the floor. Once the ship righted itself, she looked up to see Jax pull Sommers to his feet and punch him. Laze and Talla jumped to their feet and each took a step forward, but didn’t intervene.
Sommers grimaced but didn’t strike back. Jax looked seriously pissed as he held the other man in place by his lapels. “I can’t believe you fucking nuked us.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jax finally let Sommers go. The man looked as crestfallen as Jax felt. “Do you know how much collateral damage is lying dead outside? People who’d just survived Omega to be murdered by a warhead courtesy of their own fucking government?”
Sommers winced and looked pleadingly into Jax’s eyes. “I didn’t order it. The President ordered first strike. He had a shot at Otas and took it. He thought if we could take out Otas, we could prevent him from killing eighty percent of what’s left of this world. Can you blame him from trying?”
“A nuclear bomb can’t damage these ships,” Roden said, helping Nalea back into her chair. He knelt before her for a moment, concern in his eyes, until she batted him away. He stood. “It’s no worse than a strong solar flare. Bombing a core ship is like dropping a grain of sand on a boulder and hoping it will break. Already the power fluctuations on board are leveling out.”
“Except the cat’s out of the bag. With the attack, Otas is going to put two and two together. By now, he knows that we’re aware of the pika pills,” Jax said.
The door banged open, and Jax spun to find one of his team barging into the room. “What are you doing here, Tanel?” he asked.
Tanel glanced at him as his fingers flew over his wrist-com. The large screen in the center of the room lit up. “I think you need to see this.”
Filling the screen was Otas Olnek, healthy and not a silver hair out of place.
“He’s broadcasting on all television and radio stations worldwide, even on the Draeken channels,” Tanel said, backing up a step.
Jax, and every other pair of eyes in the room, were fixed upon the screen. By the looks of things, Otas was already well into his speech.
“I am disappointed in you,” Otas said as though chiding a young child. “I gave you the cure for the Omega virus, asking for no payment in return, only for the chance to live alongside you on this wonderful planet. How do you repay me? You drop a nuclear warhead on my ship. Fortunately, no damage was done to my ship or crew. But, take a look at what you did to your own land and people.”
Otas’s face was replaced by a video of utter desolation. Where trees and fields stood before, now was a barren landscape, with slivered stumps spotting the monotone ground. A toxic haze clouded the pictures. Seconds of exposure to that poisoned air guaranteed death. The camera must have been on a small ship, like an aggressor. There was no music or words accompanying the video, just the eerie sound of wind and silence. As it moved further from ground zero, the stumps grew larger and debris could be seen. Some of the debris was the size of people. Countless gnarled limbs and misshapen torsos came into view.
Bile rose in Jax’s throat, but he refused to look away. Color crept into what had been a shadeless brown before. A dust covered the grass, and trees still stood, though many were broken. Movement off in the distance brought the camera closer. People, dozens of them, still by their cars, stood on the interstate. They were waving at the camera as if it would bring help. Instead, it zoomed in on blistered faces. Cries and moans filtered through the sound of wind. Some victims were throwing up already, others simply lying on the ground.
The camera hovered over a woman trying to get her crying baby out of a car seat. She fumbled, her red fingers swollen, the skin no longer resembling skin. When she finally unlatched the seat, the buckle took the baby’s skin with it. The baby screamed, and its mother cried out, “Why?”
Jax bent over and sucked in deep breaths, one after another, to keep from puking his guts out. From the sounds in the room, not everyone was able to hold down their breakfast or their murmurs of sympathy. He looked up to see a tear run down Nalea’s cheek as she held a hand to her stomach. By the time he could look at the screen again without tasting his own stomach acid, the camera was skirting over the landscape, back into the heart of the desolation. It panned out as it got within several miles of ground zero. There, through the haze, proudly stood four unscathed core ships, radioactive dust coating their shiny hulls the only thing marring their cold mammoth beauty.
He checked on Talla, who watche
d the screen in horror. He wanted to run to her and pull her into his arms, but he’d felt that if he moved at all, he’d likely puke. Her gaze turned to his then, and they watched each other for a long moment, sharing their pain, sending assurances that they had each other, and taking a burden off one another.
By the time he looked back to the screen, the image had faded, and Otas’s face reappeared. “None of those innocents had to die today. As you can see, you will murder your planet and people long before I can be harmed. Their deaths fall on their own government’s hands. To protect you, I am forced to disband all governments, effective immediately. I will take care of Earth now.
“To ensure peace, the antitoxin included a safety measure. For anyone found guilty of a crime, punishment is immediate death. As of five minutes ago, every country’s leader and their next two in succession, were executed for crimes against humanity.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jax muttered.
“Fyet,” Talla whispered at his side.
He jumped, not realizing she’d gotten from her chair and moved to his side. Her expression was that of utter shock. She stared blankly at the screen, her face pale. He reached out and gripped her hand. It broke her daze, and she threw a thoughtful glance his way before watching the screen once more. He didn’t let go of her hand, even if he could, because she had it in a death-grip, as though he were her anchor. And, she was sure as hell his anchor.
“He’s not bluffing, is he,” Sommers stated on Jax’s other side. No one responded because everyone in the room, including Sommers, already knew the answer.
“ … We must all work hard to achieve a future without war. For now, stay in your homes. I will begin to roll out a new, more effective government structure later this week.”
The screen went blank, and the room swelled in uproar.
“Pompous ass,” Sommers said.
Someone’s wrist-com chimed, and Nalea spoke. “Otas is hailing me.” She looked at Tanel. “Put him on the screen, please.”
The Sephian com-tec rushed, and Otas’s face appeared on the screen once more.
He glanced over the room and smiled at Nalea. “It’s good to see you again, Nalea.”
Using her first name was an outright breach of Draeken protocol and a blatant act of familiarity. Nalea narrowed her gaze on him. “Nice speech.”
“I’ll get right to the point,” Otas said. “I need the support of the Striga, Artox, and Evo.”
Jax was surprised that Nalea didn’t laugh outright. Whispers and mutterings erupted throughout the room. “Why would I give you more resources to enslave this world?”
“I saved this world,” Otas replied, his voice rising with each word. “Without me, the humans would all be dead.”
Roden barked. “Bullshit! It’s because of you that the Etzee was attacked. You sent out the Omega virus, and now you expect homage for killing billions? Everything’s that happened in the past year falls on your shoulders.”
“You will pay for your crimes,” Sommers bellowed from Jax’s side.
Otas frowned. “Colonel Sommers? Why do you still live? You were found guilty of crimes against the future.” He was busy working on something off-screen.
Sommers belted out a laugh. “Can’t find my scan to terminate me, can you?”
Otas’s gaze snapped back to the screen.
Talla released Jax’s hand, only to wrap her arms around Jax’s waist. He glanced down to see she was terrified, her eyes wide in stark fear. He wrapped his arm around her. “I’m too low on his radar,” he whispered.
She swallowed and nodded tightly, staying tight in his embrace.
“Omega — and now pika — are mere symptoms,” Nalea added. “You, Otas Olnek, are the real plague this world faces.”
Otas shook his fist, his face darkening. “I control this planet! War will be eliminated. Only I can guarantee absolute peace.”
Nalea shook her head sadly. “You demand unconditional power. That only guarantees absolute corruption.”
Otas shook with fury. “Release the force barrier around my ship and give me full support.”
Nalea rose to her feet. “I am the Grand Lord of Draeka. You do not give me orders. You are a common criminal. You are nothing. I charge you, Otas Olnek, with treason to the Draeken people. You impersonated the Grand Lord Hillas Puftan, my father. And, now you declare war against your Grand Lord, which means you declare war against the Draeken people. You will be executed for your crimes.”
“You killed the Grand Lord!” Otas shouted. “You do not deserve to wear the title!”
A smile crept onto Nalea’s face. “Yet, I wear the title, and you don’t. I carry the Puftan blood in my veins, and you don’t.”
Otas opened his mouth, and then shut it. He glared for several long moments. “The time for talking is over. You will release the force barrier and turn control of all four core ships to me. For every ternion you delay, I will erase a country.”
He glanced off-screen once again. “Switzerland is a so-called peaceful nation, yet they conspired with the U.N. against us.”
Nalea’s face hardened. “Do not do this,” she warned.
Otas sneered. “Everyone of Swiss nationality has just had their pika programming activated.”
Jax could’ve sworn his heart stopped for a moment. Switzerland? They were a peaceful, neutral country. They were known for watches, cheese, and chocolate; not war. How many lives were lost with the push of a button?
“You bastard,” Nalea ground out.
“You have a ternion — three hours — to release the barrier before I activate the next country.” He closed his eyes and pressed his forefinger against a screen showing a map of the world just on the edge of their view. He leaned closer to the map and smiled. “It looks like Zimbabwe is next.”
“You are a madman,” Nalea said, with Roden now standing at her side.
Otas glared at Roden before looking at her once again. “Things would be different now if you accepted my offer a year ago.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “You’d be dead already.”
His face reddened and his features tightened. He moved, and the screen went blank.
“What’s he talking about?” Talla asked. Her tension lessened slightly, but Jax kept his arm around her, her warmth infusing him with strength.
Nalea smiled grimly. “He invited me to take him as my consort.” She glanced at the man at her side. “Fortunately, I already had a much better option lined up.” Roden lowered his head, and she kissed him.
Jax found himself wanting to feel what their closeness portrayed. He pulled Talla closer, and he nearly smiled when she leaned into him.
After the kiss, Roden looked across the room. “It’s time to run. We’ll move the Artox and Evo to Alaska as soon as they can get prepped, but with the nuclear fallout blocking the moon, it may take them a couple extra days to recharge their power cells enough for the short move.”
“Why Alaska?” Jax asked.
As locations went, Alaska wasn’t ideal. The U.S. had bombed the core ships. They should be looking somewhere in another country. And, while Alaska was relatively remote, much of its land was treacherous. Not the best military setup, in his mind.
“Alaska and Hawaii didn’t appreciate getting abandoned by their government when Omega hit,” Roden replied. “They reached out to us. Brazil has also offered us land in exchange for our resources. For now, we’ve selected Alaska. It’s the least inhabited, and we can land in the northern region to minimize risk to local inhabitants in case there are further attacks.”
“Alaska is our new home,” Talla said softly.
“Yes, for now, anyway,” Roden replied with a smile. “We have a home.” His smile quickly faded. “However, the Striga will remain here to maintain the force barrier. We cannot allow Otas the chance to flee or use the Grax offensive power.”
“Millions more will die every three hours,” Sommers said. “Until we do something.”
Roden and Nalea looked at eac
h other and both of their faces hardened. Nalea’s lower lip trembled. It was Roden who spoke. “There’s nothing to stop him from killing every scanned human already. If we succumb to his demands, this planet doesn’t have a chance. These three core ships and pockets of unscanned humans are all that stands against the power-hungry lunacy of Otas Olnek.”
“I’m not disagreeing,” Sommers said. “But we need to get on board that ship and take Otas down.”
“So are you saying you’re with us?” Roden asked.
Sommers nodded. “I can learn the secret handshake later. I can vouch for my division and pretty much guarantee you’d have any remaining military forces at your back. Give me ten minutes to see who I can get here in time. I may be able to pull together some semblance of a coalition.”
Jax looked at the man who’d trained him, who’d led him through some pretty sticky situations, and felt pride again. The Six had always been a hands-on leader. It was clear he was hankering for action. “It’s good to have you on board, Colonel.”
Sommers turned his attention onto Roden. “Can we get through the force barrier onto the Grax?”
“Of course,” Roden replied. “But once you’re on the Grax, there’s no guarantee against the ship’s sensors picking you up.”
“It’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Sommers said.
Nalea looked over the faces in the room. “Going after Otas is a high-risk mission, so it will be volunteers only. Who will accompany Colonel Sommers?”
Hands raised and voices yelled out, “I’m in.”
“You can count on me,” Jax said.
“Me, too,” Talla said from his side. Jax snapped his attention to her, and she pulled away. “Taking down Otas is more important than anything,” she said bluntly, cutting him a hard look.
He was about to tell her no fucking way when Roden spoke. “Everyone with Sommers meet back here in ninety minutes for details. That gives you time to see your families and pull gear together. When you get back here, be ready to go.”
There was a silent pause before everyone moved and funneled out of the room. Jax reached for Talla. “We’ve got to talk.”