“Saves us a hell of a walk,” Joseph said as Petricia entered in front of him. Cory followed with Dokken running up the stairs last. The German Shepherd could still taste the jerky. He wanted more, but he wanted to find Cory’s daughters first. If they smelled anything like her, he could lead Cory to them. They only had to get close.
And then he would ask for more jerky.
Keeg Station, Dren Cluster
In space, day and night had no meaning beyond what was created artificially. Humans built Keeg Station, and it ran full-time operations, but personnel worked according to the human clock, twenty-four hours with a set eight hours of so-called night.
Although it was foreign to many alien cultures, they quickly adapted. Being spacefaring meant never-ending change. It was the only constant in the universe.
The lights had been turned down in the cargo bay and the recruits were in their racks. It had been a long, hard day. The leadership team expected them to sleep well.
“Should we hit them with a significant emotional event?” Christina asked.
“Tonight?” Auburn asked. His face said ‘no.’
“Let them get their beauty sleep. Maybe tomorrow morning, rock their world an hour early.”
“To what end?” Auburn wondered. With the shift in training styles, they would have to explain. It required more effort than yelling at the recruits to see how high they could jump.
“To tighten them up as a team. Give them another challenge,” Christina explained. “I want them to face an enemy, see if they rise to the occasion.”
“Do we have an enemy handy that doesn’t mind getting killed?” Kimber wondered aloud.
“A rampaging bistok.”
“Not one of your better ideas,” Auburn stated.
“We don’t have time for subtleties.”
“Didn’t Terry tell a story about something like that in New Boulder?” Auburn suggested.
“Timmons went after a buffalo herd when he was missing a hand to show that he could contribute to the pack,” Kimber clarified.
“That was it.”
“I don’t like it.” Auburn crossed his arms. Kimber leaned forward
“No one has to know.” Christina was digging her heels in.
“Everyone will know, but to squeeze three months of training into one month without having a real training area, we have to get creative. Where do you propose we acquire a live bistok?” Kim asked.
“I have one already. It came in on a supply shipment. It was going to get butchered for that Seppukarian place. I diverted one. It’s in the next cargo hold over. Do you think I can expense it? I hope so, because I charged it to the Direct Action Branch tab.”
Auburn didn’t respond. The look on his face resembled that of a stunned mullet.
Kimber’s comm device buzzed. She stepped further into the corridor away from the cargo bay hatch. “Major Kimber,” she answered the unknown caller.
“Ted here, calling from Earth. Kailin left the plant. Where would he have gone?”
“Is this a loaded question? He would have gone home.”
“Joseph here, Kim. It’s not that. They ran him out four months ago. This place is a lot different already. He went away, four months ago. Do you know where he would have gone?”
Kimber backed up against the bulkhead. Auburn appeared at her side, supporting her with one arm as he leaned in to catch the conversation.
“Yes. In the hills beyond the stockyards and the main ranch, there were a few cabins. They are pretty remote. He could hole up there. But he disappeared a long time before we left and toured the entire country before returning. He could be anywhere.” Kim groaned and started to breathe faster. Auburn rubbed her back to calm her down.
“There’s nothing we can do from here.”
“We should have convinced him to come with us,” she whispered.
“We tried, and it didn’t work. Taking over the plant was a solution that worked best for everyone. The fact that they, what did Joseph say, they ran him out, that changes things. Maybe he’ll be more amenable to coming out here. This time, anyway.”
“I hope they can find him.”
“I hope we can, too,” Joseph replied, having heard the conversation between Kim and Auburn.
“Is this the IICS? It sounds like you’re right here.”
“Ted’s a genius,” Joseph replied.
“You got that right. I look forward to hearing that you found our son.” There was a delay. Auburn thought they’d lost the link.
“We are doing our best. Nothing is as it was. I want to find the kids and then get the hell out of here. This planet is giving me the creeps.”
Kim remembered the decades that Joseph and Petricia had lost as prisoners of the blood pirates. They were only too happy to leave the last time. They only agreed to go back because of Cory.
“Time to go, Kimber. We’re descending over the hills beyond your old ranch. At least the stockyards look the same. We’ll be back in touch.”
The light went out on Kimber’s comm device. She stared at it dumbly. “What happened to our son?” she sobbed.
“I hope nothing,” Auburn replied, trying to be comforting, but he was frustrated. A galaxy separated them. He felt helpless. “Trust Joseph and Cory and the others. We couldn’t ask for anyone better to be looking for him.”
“Mom and Dad. Can you imagine the rampage? I can hear it now. ‘No one runs off my grandson!’ He probably wouldn’t have left the factory standing if they pissed him off enough.”
“That’s a comforting thought.” Auburn shook his head. “Just as comforting as turning a wild bistok loose on the recruits. When’s that going to happen?”
Christina had been waiting patiently, not wanting to interrupt the family crisis. “Four in the morning is a great time to be alive, don’t you think?”
“Four it is. Heaven help us that nothing goes wrong.”
“I expect everything will go wrong, but if I have to blast a bistok, so be it. We’re going to have a barbecue in either case. Too bad Jenelope isn’t here to help us with it.”
“I wonder how those guys are doing,” Kim said.
“They’re on liberty, which means that everything has gone sideways, blood has been shed, songs sung, and Onyx Station will never be the same,” Auburn suggested.
“Pretty much.” Christina nodded.
The War Axe
Aaron and Yanmei stood on the bridge with the captain and the helmsman. “Why didn’t you go with the others?”
“Independence.” Aaron didn’t expound. He watched the image of Onyx Station on the main screen. An impressive facility, a crossroads in this part of the galaxy. It was where Terry and Char had gone along with most of the Bad Company warriors.
Some had already returned. That bunch looked to be in a sour mood, so Aaron didn’t ask them what was up as they trooped purposefully to the galley, where they were getting ministered to by the head chef and psychotherapist.
Yanmei saw that Micky wanted to know more. “We helped to move Cory a certain distance on her journey. Each leg will take someone different so she doesn’t grow too dependent upon any one person. She had to go to Earth. That was her time to find her daughters. As Terry and Char had to go to Onyx Station. As Marcie and Kaeden had to go wherever they needed to go. We have our own journeys to follow, but our paths are inextricably linked. We travel together when we can, alone when we must, but we never forget how far we’ve come.”
Micky scratched his chin. “Onyx is a big station. Why didn’t you go?”
“The waves dance to their own music,” Yanmei said, clasping her hands and bowing.
Aaron shook his head. “We overslept.”
“There are four shuttles in the tubes, at your convenience.”
“We’ll be off then,” Aaron said, waved to Wenceslaus, now a nearly permanent fixture on the captain’s lap, and strolled off the bridge. Yanmei shrugged and followed him out.
Alameda, Earth
The trees su
rrounding the cabin prevented the ship from getting close. It hovered, pressing down on the uppermost branches.
“Looks like we’re going to have to climb down,” Ted said.
Joseph tapped him on the shoulder. “He’s not down there.”
“Where is he?” Ted asked. Joseph held his hands up.
“Plato, take us past the other cabins in the area. Slowly.”
Ted sat on the deck and used his own ability to see the Etheric dimension to look for those who could also tap into its power. He often forgot that he was a werewolf, but Joseph’s search for minds to touch reminded him.
Together, they explored the land below, searching for Kailin or for any of the others. Sylvia and Sarah both knew about the cabins. Maybe they were nearby.
Cory watched, grinding her teeth in anticipation.
Joseph gripped her shoulder and smiled. “Kailin is far up the hill.”
“I see him,” Ted said. The ship lifted out of the trees and shot away, following a track that took it over Kim and Auburn’s son. He started to run at the appearance of the ship.
Ted activated the ship’s external communication system. “Kailin, it’s Ted. We heard about the factory. We need to talk.”
Kailin stopped running. He turned uphill and found an opening through the trees where he waved at the strange ship. They opened the hatch, and Cory waved at her nephew.
“Rope!” Joseph called. Petricia jogged down the corridor to a storage locker where, as part of the provisioning process, she’d added everything she could think of, including what they used to carry on missions before they went to space.
She handed a long coil to her husband. He passed the end back to her. “Tie it off, if you would.”
“Wrap it around my stalk, it’s tough enough to hold the weight, and we’ll grab the rope together,” Bundin said. She looped it twice. The Podder took it with his tentacle arms and she coiled the end around both her arms.
“Go,” she called.
Joseph sent the rope into the clearing. Kailin let it hit before taking hold and starting to climb.
“Pull,” he told the others and they started hand-over-handing the rope, letting the excess coil on the deck behind them.
In no time, Kailin was pulled through the hatch. He looked young as ever, smiling broadly and showing his perfect white teeth against the milky caramel of his skin.
“Look at you!” he exclaimed before stopping to stare at Bundin. “And look at you, whatever you are.”
“My name is Bundin. I’m from Poddern. Your family rescued me.”
“Of course they did.” Kailin’s wide smile returned. He shook hands with Joseph before rushing to hug his Aunt Cory. “Where’s Ramses?”
Everyone froze, and Cory burst into tears. She was unable to answer him.
“That’s why we’re here. We’re looking for Sylvia and Sarah to tell them that their father didn’t survive the mission to Benitus Seven.”
“My Uncle Ramses is dead? But we don’t die.” Kailin continued to hold Cory.
“We do, and it makes it that much worse.” Petricia and Joseph both put a hand on Cory’s shoulder to wait for her.
When she finally pushed back, she looked up at Kailin. Her eyes glowed blue and carried the question that they all had.
“I think Sylvia is in Pittsburgh. Sarah and her husband split and no one knows where she is. Ted and Felicity’s kids are still in Chicago, last I heard.”
“Plato, take us to Chicago,” Ted ordered. The ship smoothly gained altitude while turning and racing east.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The War Axe
Ankh finished the assembly of the prototype and looked critically at it. “Smedley, where can we conduct a live-fire test of the atmospheric combat drone?”
“Not here,” the AI responded.
Ankh looked at the empty hangar bay.
“Smedley, I am certain there are a great number of places in this universe where we cannot test the drone. I want to know where we can.”
“My apologies, Ankh’Po’Turn, I thought you wanted to test it as soon as possible.”
“Your assumption is correct. Revised question. Where is the closest location we can conduct a live-fire test of the drone? Define close as the least amount of time to reach.”
“With the gate drive, there is a nearly infinite number of locations that are within minutes.”
“Pick one and prepare to move the War Axe,” Ankh ordered.
“Don’t you think you should ask the captain?” Aaron suggested, appearing in the hangar bay with Yanmei at his side. They were dressed in traditional, loose-fitting attire and on their way to one of the shuttle pods.
Ankh didn’t answer.
“Never fear, the voice of reason is near,” Smedley quipped.
“I should have known! Keep the lights on and the house warm, Smedley. We’ll be back soon.”
The weretigers waved and disappeared into a shuttle that launched immediately after the rear deck closed.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Captain San Marino told Ankh over the loudspeakers within the hangar bay.
Ankh dispensed with verbal communication, reverting to his and Ted’s preferred direct link.
We need to test the atmospheric combat support drones, he stated as if the captain hadn’t understood why Ankh requested the move.
“I know. We will test it on our transit back to Keeg Station. In the meanwhile, we are missing too many people, in addition to four drop ships. We’re not going anywhere,” Micky explained.
But we need to test the drone before we begin manufacture. We are wasting manufacturing time by not testing them now. That means during the next mission, we may not have as many combat support drones as we need.
“I understand, but weighing the risk, we can’t get underway with as few people as we have on board. If anything happens, we might not have the manpower to get us back into action.”
But I’m here, Ankh said, confused.
“That is true, Ankh. You are a force multiplier, but I don’t want to get underway with so many of my crew off-ship. I think that we’ll only be here for a week or two. It’s been two days, so it won’t be that much longer and we’ll take you where you can conduct a proper test on that drone. I expect Colonel Walton will want to see how it performs.”
What am I supposed to do while I’m waiting for the test?
“I have to believe that Ted left a long list of things to work on.”
He did. Most of them are related to the drone.
“I’m sure you’ll think of something. Captain out.”
Ankh looked from his drone to the hangar door. He sat where he was in the middle of the bay and closed his eyes. Through his comm chip, he activated the engines of the drone and lifted it into the air, flying it around the hangar bay.
Begin data collection on flight parameters. Lock weapon systems in the safe mode. Run diagnostic program Ankh One.
Keeg Station
“Get your big, dumb ass in there,” Christina growled. Her eyes flashed yellow as her anger threatened to let her inner Pricolici take over. The bistok didn’t want to have anything to do with going into the cargo bay. It wanted to run down the corridor in the other direction.
Christina had a tight grip around the creature’s neck. Auburn was trying not to get involved, but Kimber waded in and started pushing the bistok. Auburn didn’t think the three of them were strong enough to get it to go where they wanted without hurting it. The beast was terrified.
“Hold on!” Auburn called.
“I’m trying!” Christina shouted.
“Not that. We have a whole platoon of recruits who can help get it back into its pen.”
“Change the training?”
“Yes, rescue and recovery.”
“Stop fighting me!” Christina tried to dig in her heels, but the beast kept lifting her into the air. “Fine!”
Kimber darted to the cargo bay hatch, opened it, and started yelling. Christina was slam
med against one wall of the corridor and Auburn was jammed against the other while the bistok tried to turn around. The creature’s horn screeched a cringe-inducing cry as it scraped along the wall, leaving a long mark as a testament to its anguish.
The first recruits appeared in the hatchway, disheveled and mostly disoriented. “What the hell are you waiting for? Bistok. Wild. Get it back in its pen. Now go!”
The recruits spilled into the corridor.
Auburn groaned as the creature slammed him into the bulkhead in its desire to run from the inbound onslaught. The recruits piled onto the beast, three of them weighing down the horns and with Christina’s incredible strength, were finally able to get its head turned around.
Auburn was launched toward the cargo hatch when the bistok’s hip unwedged from the wall. He stumbled through the recruits and finished up behind them. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but he took comfort in having the recruits facing the wrong end of the beast and not him.
Kimber stepped back to give the recruits room. Christina wasn’t in a position to let go, so she hung on. The sheer weight of numbers gave the bistok nowhere to go. The mob surged around the creature moving slowly, one step at a time. It surged back and forth, but the numbers pressed in. When they reached the hatch leading to its pen, it bolted inside, accepting the pen as the best of its bad options.
K’Thrall walked past the others and casually secured the gate. He brushed his hands on his pants and then looked at the pen. He contorted his face, which made his mandibles click. He held his fingers near his nose and grimaced. “I’ll never be able to get that creature’s stench off me.”
“How about some PT?” Christina yelled, trying to distract the group. She sniffed and realized that her suit was permeated by the smell of bistok. “Get back in there and form up for PT!”
The recruits ran, assholes and elbows down the corridor, disappearing through the hatch into their training home.
Kim stood with her hands on her hips. Auburn rubbed his sore ribs. No one looked happy.
“Fine. Not my best idea, so shut up about it.” Kim and Auburn started to laugh, then slapped hands in a high-five. “What?”
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