by Francis, Ron
Joldas answered the communicator to the sound of a frantic voice. “You better get down here, Sir. A small strike team broke into the warehouse. They killed most of the guards and sabotaged the Interrogator. She’s not quite destroyed, but it’s doubtful she’ll ever fly again.”
“Did they get our clues and maps?” Joldas asked, hoping against hope that he still had something left.
“Yes, Sir, they took everything, and they killed Kora, too,” the voice answered.
“I care nothing of that alien trash, were they human or Zinnebailan?” He asked in desperation. He was hoping they were human so he could go find Jesse Marcos and get his property back.
“Unknown, Sir, no one that managed a look at them is still alive and the cameras in the warehouse had been disabled. It’s possible some of the soldiers survived the initial fight, but any survivors were killed in one of the subsequent explosions.”
Joldas ended the communication by throwing his communicator against the wall in anger. As the pieces of the communicator fell to the ground, he looked at his uncle in pure hatred and said, “I hope you’re happy.”
Eliphaz replied with a smile, “It would appear we have nothing left to take from one another. Guard, I wish to return to my cell.” As he stood at the door, waiting to go back to his cell, he turned one last time to his nephew and added. “This is the last you will ever see of me.” The door closed, and Joldas was left wondering where it all went wrong.
______
As Collin and Sandstorm carried Jesse though Endeavor’s corridors, Collin had SAMMI call Suzy to the med-bay. They burst into the room with Jesse’s battered and unconscious body as Suzy was putting on her gloves and getting out her portable diagnostic unit. “What happened out there, Collin? This was supposed to be an easy smash and grab.”
“I don’t know yet, Doc, but I‘m gonna find out,” Collin replied as he stormed out of the room.
Kimiko went straight to her room, she didn't want to be anywhere Captain Reed was likely to be. She was furious with her. She knew she needed to calm down before confronting her or Suzy would have another guest in med-bay.
Agent Sandstorm’s communicator buzzed and he motioned the crew for silence. “Yes, Captain Topanar,” he answered. “How may I be of assistance?” After a moment, he cried out. “What?” in feigned outrage. “They blew up your ship? How many dead? They took what? No, Sir, I’ve been sitting on Endeavor all night. To the best of my knowledge, no one has left the ship. After how you scared the doctor, my bet is that Colonel Marcos has decided to keep his crew in-house until they are ready to depart. Have you checked for any Zinnebailan activity in the area? I will keep my eyes open for any suspicious activity, Sandstorm out.” He smiled as he excused himself from med-bay and left Endeavor to return to his supposed post spying on them. He hated Topanar, and the impotent rage in his enemy's voice made him smile.
Suzy looked over the handheld diagnostic unit's results as she prepared to put the Colonel in the pod for the second time since they reached the Kalephi galaxy. He had more injuries than she had monitors. He had been beaten within an inch of his life. How could this have happened? She wondered. He had a broken collar bone, his left arm was broken in three places, his hand had several fractures, he had three badly bruised ribs, and that was just for starters. He had suffered significant damage to his right kidney, he had torn ligaments and cartilage in his knee, and a broken ankle. Both of his eyes were practically swollen shut. He fractured his jaw, and there was a large gash over his eye. His body was one giant mass of bruises and broken bones. Jesse would be lucky to be out of the pod in less than two hours. Even then, after sleeping for a couple days, he was still looking at a several days recovery time.
As Suzy gave Collin Wennagal and Josiah the full rundown of Jesse’s injuries, Collin stormed off to find Kimi and Cassie. Josiah looked at Wennagal, raised an eyebrow at Suzy and said, “That can’t be good, I better follow him.” He was curious to know what had Collin so riled up. He and Wennagal took off down the hall to find Collin.
Collin found Cassie at the same time Kimi did. “Just the ladies I was looking for,” Collin started, angrier than Kimi had ever seen him. His entrance had their attention. “How is it that the best Special Forces soldier I’ve ever seen and one of the best fighters our world has ever produced get’s beaten within an inch of his life, while the two people sent in with him come out with barely a scratch? Could one of you explain that, because I’m confused?” Collin’s tone told Cassie it would be a bad idea to talk about her own bruises.
Kimiko replied, “I don’t know, I was sabotaging the ship. I didn’t arrive at the fight until the end. I saw about a dozen heavily armored soldiers dead or wounded around Jesse, and I killed the one that remained standing above him to kill him. Cassie was engaged in combat with Kora at the time. While I was planting the explosives, I saw eight or nine of the armored guards run past my position. I just assumed Jesse and Cassie would be gone by the time they arrived.” She looked coldly at Cassie as she said that last line.
“Oh, I get it,” Cassie surmised. “You think it’s somehow my fault that Jesse got hurt.”
“Yes, I do,” Kimi replied with ice in her voice.
“Cassie, you don’t understand.” Josiah intervened not wanting the situation to escalate. “Jesse would never willingly take on those kinds of odds and put the mission in jeopardy. Not unless he couldn’t leave someone behind. If you were stuck, he wouldn’t hesitate to fight an army to save you. Especially given how he feels about you. I guess what Collin is really asking is, was there a point you could have left before the fight got out of hand?”
“No, absolutely not,” Cassie started. “Jesse had taken down the first four fairly easily. He had taken a couple shots, but he was fine. I was trading shots with Kora at the time, and Jesse yelled over to me that we had to leave. But I didn’t want to turn my back on Kora. Then Jesse yelled something else, and we kept on fighting until Kimi came.” As Cassie was speaking, it hit her that they were right. She was so focused on vengeance that she lost sight of the mission and almost got Jesse killed. It was her fault.
“Cassyanna, are you alright?” Wennagal asked, a hint of concern in his voice. She looked up and they were all staring at her, waiting for her to continue.
“No, I’m not alright. It was my fault, Wen. I was so focused on Kora, so blinded by my need to get revenge that I couldn’t comprehend Jesse’s warnings. I lost focus. It is my fault.” She stood up as the realization set in. “It is my fault,” she repeated and she walked slowly away. Now all she wanted to do was be alone, hoping Jesse still wanted to help her when he woke up.
As Cassie walked away, Kimiko found she was still annoyed that Jesse had chosen to be with this woman. Why had Jesse chosen Cassie over her? Maybe Josiah was right, maybe she should have told Jesse how she felt before he fell for Cassie. She certainly couldn't tell him now, could she? She wasn’t sure how this was going to play out, but she couldn’t help but wonder if things would ever be the same between her and Jesse again.
______
…… Jesse finally woke up from his time in the recovery pod almost three days later. It felt like every bone in his body still hurt, and he was having trouble moving. He noticed he was in Endeavor's med-bay, and he called out to Suzy in a weak raspy voice, “I’m thirsty.”
She seemed surprised that he was awake, and he noticed with a twinge of sadness that Reece was still in a coma. She came over with a cup of water. She raised the upper half of his bed with the push of a button and held his head forward as he drank. He was really thirsty.
“How long was I out?” he whispered.
“Almost three days, Jess, you really gave us a scare. You needed a little less than two hours in the recovery pod. What happened?”
“I’m not sure. I dropped the first four guards, but I couldn’t get Cassie to leave. She was too focused on fighting Kora. She didn’t see the armored guards approach. I couldn’t just leave her there, so I stayed and
took the beating, I think.”
“Oh, you took a beating all right. And you broke your own personal records of most injuries and most time spent in the recovery pod. Jess, you’re not going to be right for weeks. Even after sleeping almost three days, I’d be surprised if you can even stay awake for six hours today.” Her concern was evident and he knew there would be another conversation about taking it easy and slowing down in his future.
“I really did try to leave before the odds got too bad, Suzy, it just didn't happen and I don't know why." As he saw the worried look persist, he decided to change the subject. "What’s the status of the crew?”
“Josiah thinks he almost has a location for the planet with the treasure. Collin is really upset with Cassie and Kimi over what happened on the mission, but I think he’s mostly over it. Luckily, Garrinoras has yet to contact us again. Apparently, he really wants us to be thinking about the destruction of the Catamaran. I guess he’s trying to make us more compliant when he does get back to us. Wennagal and Cassie have been helping Josiah with the final clue and Kimi has been actively avoiding Cassie. She blames her for what happened to you. Agent Sandstorm sends get well wishes from the Mayor, and that’s about it."
“That’s a good status report, Suzy. You would make an excellent information officer.” Jesse tried to laugh, but it hurt, a lot.
“You just rest and put the jokes on hold. Doctor’s orders,” she replied.
He had all the crew members come in and give him a brief report. He just wanted to touch base with all of them before he fell asleep again. Josiah updated him on his condition. He was walking without crutches, jogging a bit, but not quite ready for action. He also mentioned he believed they were close to finding the planet that contained the treasure. Collin had gotten over being mad about what happened on the mission, and had managed to tweak the light drive to get another three percent out of it. Jesse was impressed. Wennagal had come across some information about deep space telemetry on a planet called Hyperia that sounded very interesting, if they missed their window for the return trip through the matter conduit, it might come in handy to have a route planned to get back home. It would of course take longer, but it never hurt to have a backup plan.
Kimi had been devising a plan for the exchange, she didn't think Cassie had Jesse's best interests in mind so Kimi didn't want her anywhere near the process. She also mentioned how upset she was with Cassie over what happened on the mission. He smiled and told her that it was alright because he was going to be fine, and when she smiled back at him, he was surprised by how much he liked it.
Cassie was last to come in. He felt like she had been avoiding him. When she finally came in, she sat on the edge of his bed and didn’t look at him. She started by saying, “I almost got you killed. I was so obsessed with revenge on Kora, I almost got you killed, Jesse. I’m so sorry.”
“Yes, you did.” He replied, and Suzy took that as her cue to leave. “You also put the mission at risk. That would have put our plan to save Enso at risk.” Cassie looked like she was about to break down, but she needed to hear this. “Cassie, I’m telling you this because you have to understand that when you are part of a team, your choices affect everyone on that team. I know my limits very well, and if I mention to you that I don’t think I can take that many guards, it means we break off and withdraw. I’m not mad at you because I know where your mind was. It would have been very difficult for any of us to pass up the chance to take out Kora. But I do need to know that next time you’ll trust that I know my limits so I don’t end up back here.”
She just looked at him. She had been so angry with herself that she couldn’t believe Jesse wasn’t angrier with her. He seemed annoyed, but not really mad. “Why aren’t you mad?” she asked in a not-so-quiet voice. “You should be furious. I almost got you killed! Please, yell at me, scream at me, do something.”
“Cass, you’ve already beaten yourself up enough for the both of us. I just want to know that next time you'll pay attention to the situation and then we can move past this.”
“I’m not ready to, Jesse; I’m just not ready to.”
“Okay, let’s move on for now. We can fight tomorrow if you would like, when I have more energy.” He smiled as he finished talking, and Cassie knew he had forgiven her, she just couldn’t figure out why. She leaned over and gently kissed him on the lips. She reached down and took his hand in hers and held it for a while.
As he started to fall back asleep, she let go of his hand to leave. He opened his eyes again and smiled but did not speak. Cassie smiled, but her heart hurt as she realized she may be falling in love with this man, that she never had any intention of staying with.
______
Jesse woke up fifteen hours later and he was still in a fair amount of pain. He needed to get up and get moving. Suzy was sure he was in for another short day and long night. As he made his way into the common room, Cassie began speaking to him while he took a seat.
“Wennagal and I came across some information about some new deep space telemetry technology Hyperia has just unveiled,” Cassie began with a smile that captivated him. “It’s supposed to be able to get detailed imagery up to three full galaxies away. We figured if you could use that equipment, you could figure out how far away your galaxy is. Then, if you miss your window, maybe you could still get home.”
He was impressed, they had been in the Kalephi galaxy almost two and a half months now, and this was the first time he had started thinking of a legitimate back up plan to get home in case something went wrong with the matter conduit. Now, all they had to do was figure a way to get Hyperia to let them use it. “Cassie, that’s amazing! This will be exactly what we need if we miss our window. Thank you and, Wennagal, thank you. Now, how can we get them to let us use the equipment?”
“I think we might have that worked out, too,” she explained, still smiling, and he really wanted to kiss her. “One of the pieces of art rumored to be in the treasure is an ancient Hyperian work that is incredibly important to them. If we found the treasure, we may be able to give them that piece in return for letting us use the equipment to plot a course to your galaxy.”
"Why would a painting be that important to them?" He asked as he realized he knew nothing at all about Hyperia.
"Over four thousand years ago," Wennagal began. "The Hyperian sector was in disarray. There was war, crime, slavery and poverty throughout the sector. Hyperia itself was incredibly wealthy and powerful and their King, Sansabar decided to unite the sector. Hundreds of planets voluntarily united under his banner and within fifteen years, crime, slavery and poverty was virtually wiped out in the sector. He then built a palace so majestic that to this day, there is none like it in the entire galaxy. He also commissioned one of the galaxies greatest artists to paint a rendering of the Hyperian capital. The piece is called Sansabar's Hyperia and was an instant classic. It was the most beloved painting in the sector because it was a reminder of what Sansabar had done to bring order to the chaos. Almost two hundred fifty years later, the painting was stolen and never seen again. It has always been rumored to be among the paintings in the treasure of Ameteo."
“Wow, this is amazing. We really have to find that treasure now.”
As he looked around, he could see the look of apprehension on Cassie and Wennagal’s faces. He quickly continued by saying, “I just want to let you know that Enso is still the first priority, Cassie. If it comes to it, we give up the treasure to save him, no questions and no regrets. We'll just find another backup plan. Saving Enso was always the plan, and it still is.”
Cassie looked a little relieved to hear him say that, because the one thing she had learned about Jesse Marcos in two and a half months is that he is as good as his word. “Thank you, Jesse, thank you guys, that really means a lot to us.” She replied softly.
Kimi left the common room, upset that Jesse had so readily forgiven Cassie. She was also upset with herself for being so upset about it, given how Jesse had forgiven her for trying to kill
him six years earlier. She just couldn't shake the feeling that Cassie was going to wind up hurting Jesse.
______
Early the next morning, a transmission came in from Garrinoras, and Jesse was ready for it. He had the spare flight recorder force field set up on a table, placed right in front of the vid screen. He also had all of the fake artifacts and the fake key scattered around the table. As the transmission came in, Garrinoras greeted the crew of Endeavor with a carnivores smile. “Have we come to a decision yet?” Garrinoras asked in a way that let them know that he was certain he was going to come away with everything he wanted.
Jesse looked him in the eye and replied, “As I have already said, when and where?”
“Today, you bring all of your artifacts, your key, and your map to one of my men in the spaceport. When he has returned them to my ship, and I am satisfied with what I see, then I will send Mister Reed down by shuttle to be released to you.” Garrinoras smiled as he awaited Jesse’s answer.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. You must think we’re idiots, Garrinoras,” he exclaimed, raising his voice. “These artifacts don’t leave my sight until I’ve seen Enso in person, on the surface of Kaldor.”
“You try my patience, human.” Garrinoras shouted into the view screen.
“And you try mine, pirate.” Jesse looked deadly serious. “You have already destroyed the Catamaran, and I will not give you the chance to betray us again. I will destroy every one of these artifacts before that happens, and then no one will get the treasure.”
Garrinoras held a knife to Enso’s throat and said, “You have already seen me destroy Captain Reed’s ship. Shall I take her cousin from her, too? You do not wish to test my resolve, Marcos, unless of course you wish for Mister Reed to die.”
Cassie steeled her expression, not willing to give an inch to the pirate as Jesse continued. “If he dies, you get nothing, remember that. By the way, I found this map that explains what the artifacts are for, and how to use them. I now know that to release the treasure, you will need at least seven of the ten artifacts and the key. I have seven and you have three, which means you still need four to get the treasure."