“About fifteen years of back-story, give or take half a decade.” Kade and Jude smiled.
“What?” Nick asked, thoroughly confused.
“Never mind,” Kade said dismissively and then turned back towards Jude. “You think you can open this up?” She asked, pointing at the chamber.
Jude walked up to the chamber controls and quickly read through the information displayed, trying to get a grasp of the system.
“It can’t be opened from the outside while the sequence is running. At least, not without a command override, which we don’t have,” Jude said.
“Can you hack it open?” Nick asked.
“Of course! But I would need my system breakers, which are back at the airlock room. But there’s an easier way,” Jude said.
“How?” Kade asked.
“Like this,” Jude said and then took a deep breath. She pressed the intercom button and shouted at the top of her lungs, “WAKE UP DRAKE!!!”
Startled by the rather rude awakening Drake slowly opened his eyes and looked around the chamber. The walls of which were actually transparent to him.
Drake couldn’t help but wonder just what, exactly, had happened while he was sleeping, and why Static hadn’t bothered to wake him up. But mostly he just wondered how these people had managed to get inside the sleeper room unchallenged, which shouldn’t actually be possible.
Still a bit groggy, Drake moved towards the door and pressed the controls, reactivating the gravity inside the chamber and causing the door to open.
He stepped outside the chamber, his feet touching the cold room floor, and as he saw the expressions stamped across the three strangers faces he suddenly realised that he hadn’t gotten dressed after leaving the pod. He was down to his shorts.
As he stood there, in his underwear, Drake wondered what he could have done in a previous life that would cause the universe to keep putting him in these situations. He must have certainly done something completely vile in a past existence, like kick a kitten or something, for crap like this to keep happening to him. Or maybe this was just another example of Static’s warped sense of humour.
“He’s awake,” Nick said out loud, and then whispered to himself, “This could complicate things.”
“He’s naked!” Kade said, blushing slightly.
Jude whispered to Kade, “He’s cute.” Causing her to blush even more.
“Oh! Sorry about that,” Drake said, though he didn’t look particularly embarrassed by his lack of clothing. “I was supposed to be awakened shortly after you docked. But someone, who shall not be mentioned, probably thought it would be funnier this way.” He walked past them, heading towards his pod.
Kade whispered to Jude, “Who is he talking about? I thought he was the only one on board.”
Jude whispered back, “I’ll explain later.”
“Ah-ha! I knew I wasn’t seeing things,” Nick said happily. “That girl I saw was real, so… who is she?”
“Girl? What are you talking about?” Drake asked without turning to face Nick.
“Don’t play dumb. The girl that was in the corridor a while ago, looking at us as we searched the room. She ran off when I noticed her but I bet she was the one that was supposed to wake you up, right?”
“Not unless ‘she’ looked like a man, about my height, with a beard… and I very much doubt he would have been in the corridor,” Drake said as he reached his pod. The nearby storage locker opening automatically.
Inside the storage locker was a set of black clothing, bearing the Shadow insignia.
Drake reached inside, grabbed his clothes and started getting dressed. And as he started putting on his trousers, he looked at his three visitors. Trying to gauge their state of mind.
The man seemed jumpy and a little confused.
One of the women was doing her best to avoid eye contact, looking at just about everything in the room but him. And the other just kept staring and smiling, which was making Drake feel a little self-aware. Then again, he was down to his shorts.
“How did you get in here anyway?” Drake asked. “And please don’t tell me you broke your way in. I’ve got enough stuff to fix as it is,” he said as he finished putting on his trousers, now looking marginally more presentable.
“Kade used a code to open the door,” Nick said.
“She did?” Drake asked, looking at the two women and wondering which one of them was Kade.
“You did?” Jude asked while also looking at Kade, wondering where she had gotten the code from.
“It was… a lucky guess?” Kade said, still trying to avoid eye contact with Drake.
Drake finished putting on his T-shirt, Kade’s overall level of discomfort dropping significantly now that he was mostly dressed.
He paused for a moment, as he looked at Kade unconvinced at her explanation. Then he tilted his head slightly, smiled and resumed getting dressed.
“I see… nice guess!” Drake said.
“Really? Just like that? You’re a very trusting person,” Nick said in a condescending tone.
“Not really,” Drake said. “Trust, much like respect, must be earned. It’s not something I’m in the habit of just giving away. But if that’s the story Kade wants to stick to then I’ll accept it… for now. I would have preferred ‘I saw it in a vision’, but ‘lucky guess’ works too I suppose,” He said as he finished putting on his boots.
“Vision?” Kade asked, surprised at Drake’s comment. “How did you know I said that?”
Drake smiled and asked, “Lucky guess?”
The Infiltrator
Drake was finally looking presentable, though by current standards his choice of clothing wouldn’t exactly be considered stylish.
His choice of attire in the real world wasn’t all that different to his virtual environment counterpart. He was wearing a black T-shirt with shoulder emblems, black cargo trousers and reinforced boots. The only real difference was that now he was also wearing a silvery technical harness over his T-Shirt.
“You seem remarkably calm considering you have armed strangers on board your ship,” Jude said, wondering if Drake had noticed Kade and Nick’s side-arms. “For all you know we could be pirates.”
Drake said confidently, “In my experience, panicking doesn’t solve much. It just tends to make things worse. Besides, your guns can’t harm me.”
Kade took another look at Drake, seeing that there wasn’t even a trace of fear in his eyes. He seemed to truly believe what he had just said.
She couldn’t really decide if the person standing in front of her was courageous or just plain stupid, though she was leaning heavily towards stupid. His state of mind would have to be questionable at best for him not to fear a pulse gun.
Nick removed his gun from its holster and started examining it, choosing to err on the side of caution. The readout on the gun was saying that it was fully charged and there was no visible indication that the weapon was anything but fully functional.
He looked around the room, searching for any obvious defence systems which could be triggered in order to protect Drake, but could see none.
“Our weapons can’t harm you?” Nick asked as he held his gun, as if showing it off. “I think someone left you in the freezer past your expiration date. You actually expect us to believe that you’re what? Immortal?” He asked, holstering his gun.
“Believe what you wish. Your perception of reality does not change the reality of existence.” Drake shrugged his shoulders.
“What?” Nick asked.
“He means that a belief can’t change a fact,” Kade explained, surprised by Drake’s words.
“Very good. Most people don’t get it right away.” Drake smiled, causing Nick to feel dumb.
“Our grandpa used to say something similar. It was one of his favourite sayings actually,” Jude said.
“Smart man.” Drake smiled.
“We should have left him in there. Now we have to deal with this lunatic!” Nick said to Kade.
/> “That’s not very nice!” Drake protested the accusation and then said, “I prefer to think of myself as ‘eccentric’.” Kade instinctively smiled at the comment, which further infuriated Nick.
“You two need to calm down.” Kade said, trying to defuse the escalating situation.
“Indeed! You need to calm down Nick, you’re gonna give yourself an ulcer at this rate.” Drake said.
“Could you stop antagonising my pilot?” Kade asked, wondering why Drake was behaving this way.
Kade saw Drake tilting his head slightly to the left, and giving her an annoyed look.
She had always been good at reading situations, but this one seemed to make little sense:
Nick, the consummate joker, was tense and quick to anger. He also seemed frustrated for some reason.
Jude, with her usually calm analytical approach, seemed to be bordering on giddy for no apparent reason.
And then there was Drake, the supposed captain of the Zenith, whose attitude and demeanour seemed completely mismatched to the situation.
“That all depends now doesn’t it,” Drake said calmly, breaking Kade’s train of thought.
“On what?” She asked hesitantly.
“Can you keep your boyfriend on his leash and stop him from insulting me again?”
“My what?” Kade’s eyes widened in shock at his comment. She glanced at Nick and said softly, “Eeew!”
Her soft spoken words seemed to resonate throughout the room as Jude laughed herself silly, but Nick was showing no reaction at all.
“Wow… that was harsh,” Drake commented, and then closed one eye and dropped his head slightly to the right, wincing as if in pain.
“You OK?” Kade asked, looking concerned.
“Hmm? Oh… yes… I’m fine,” Drake said in clear discomfort and then turned his head away from view and whispered, “Static, would you shut the hell up! It’s hard to concentrate with you laughing your ass off in the background like that.”
As Drake’s discomfort subsided, he found himself looking in the direction of the open doorway. And there, hidden in the shadows of the corridor, he saw a small figure like that of a scared little girl, hiding as she looked into the room.
The girl noticed Drake looking at her, and was about to begin moving when he made a slight gesture with his right hand, signalling her to stop.
Drake was surprised to see her here, though it did explain what Nick had seen earlier. But even more surprising was the information he was receiving from Static over his neural communications link.
“I told you he was nuts, he was talking to himself just now. How much more proof do you need? I say we stick him back in his pod and deep freeze his backside again. Let whoever thaws him out in 100 years’ time deal with him,” Nick said, clearly upset with Kade’s handling of the situation and making no effort to keep the conversation quiet.
Drake turned back around, facing his visitors again, but his expression had changed. He was angry and clearly concerned about something.
“Who did you call?” Drake shouted suddenly while staring at Nick, startling all three of them.
Kade could almost swear that she had felt the ground tremble beneath her feet at that very moment. She was certain she had imagined it, but for a split second it was as if the Zenith had somehow reacted to Drake’s emotional state.
It was obvious that Drake was upset, though Kade didn’t know why. But his stare in her general direction was as cold as ice, and she felt a sense of impending danger like none she had ever experienced before.
Before Kade knew what was happening Jude grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. And as she was dragged away Kade saw that Drake’s gaze had been firmly fixed on Nick all along.
“There is a fleet of ships approaching this location, at least one of which is capital class. So I’ll ask you again, one last time… who did you call!!” Drake shouted again, the sound of his voice seemingly resonating with the very ship, causing the whole room to shake slightly.
Nick pulled his gun out of its holster and pointed it at Drake’s head. The high pitch sound of the gun’s charger signalling that the safety was off, and it was ready to fire. But Drake just stood there, unfazed.
A few moments passed as Nick considered his options. He had been reckless by drawing his gun on an impulse, but Drake’s revelation of the approaching ships called for action. He had underestimated Drake, and his mission was now at risk.
“I suppose this ruse has gone on long enough,” Nick said while shifting his weapon’s focus towards Kade and Jude.
“What are you doing!” Kade asked as her heart raced in fear, staring down the barrel of a charged pulse gun, which meant certain death at this range.
“Drop your gun Kade, and kick it away, now!” Nick said with a cold stare, devoid of all emotion.
“Please do as he says,” Jude begged her sister as she held her arm tightly, fearing she would do something reckless.
“Fine.” Kade dropped her weapon and kicked it away, causing Nick to focus his gun back on Drake.
“So, are you corporate or government?” Drake asked calmly standing there, facing down a charged pulse gun with no fear in his eyes.
“What makes you think I’m either?” Nick asked with a smug attitude as he started to feel that he had regained control of the situation. “And I’m the one asking the questions here! How did you find out about the strike fleet? And for that matter, how did you figure out it was me that called them in?”
The entire situation was spiralling out of control, and Kade could do little more than watch and try to figure a way out of this mess.
It was clear from his actions that Nick was not the person she had been led to believe. After this was over she would need to have a few words with the people that had recommended him for the job.
She had never fully trusted Nick. From day one she had always thought something about him wasn’t right, but all her checks had come up clean. And she had been in desperate need of a pilot after her last one had vanished without a trace. Which, in retrospect, seemed like a highly convenient occurrence for Nick.
Kade couldn’t help but wonder if Nick could have had something to do with some of the weirder events which had played out since he joined the crew. And, even more troubling, was the possibility that she had been manipulated all this time just to get him onto the Zenith. Meaning that she had attracted the wrong kind of attention during her search.
Regardless, it was probably a good thing that her weapon was out of reach, for she had half a mind to ventilate his brain right then and there.
The situation seemed pretty grim. The one and only doorway was half a room away, with Nick having a clear line of fire all the way there if they tried to make a run for it. And Drake was on the opposite side of the room, so coordinated action wasn’t likely.
And then she noticed it… Drake was smiling.
“I must admit, I thought it would be harder to try and get you to show your hand. I thought you’d try to play dumb and buy some time until your backup arrived. But then you go and break character. Disappointing really.” Drake said, obviously amused.
“Are you seriously gonna carry on playing this tough guy act? Answer my questions before I decide to ignore my orders! What gave me away and how did you find out about the strike fleet?” Nick demanded to know.
“OK, why not? We know about the fleet because we can see them on sensors, as for you… did you really think setting off a distress signal on top of this ship would somehow go unnoticed? So we did some snooping around inside the Icarus computers and found some interesting logs. Our second clue was your knowledge of the Zenith. Not many organisations know about the Shadows in general, and fewer still about the Zenith in particular. Add to all this, the fact that your background is an obvious forgery and you became the prime suspect.”
Kade couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
She wasn’t particularly pleased at the suggestion that Drake had somehow managed to break into the Ic
arus central computer and accessed her logs. But the thought that Nick had somehow tampered with her ship was downright infuriating.
“I see,” Nick grinned. “So that Aurora program lied to us. This ship does have a crew, and they’re the ones that are running the show while you distract me. I suggest you call them in here if you value your life,” he said, focusing his weapon’s aim on Drake’s head.
“That would be an interesting trick to pull off,” Drake laughed, clearly amused and completely disregarding Nick’s threats.
“How so?” Nick asked, his frustration growing with every minute due to Drake’s attitude.
“Well, for starters, because Aurora doesn’t lie. Aside from you three I’m the only living being on this ship, and it’s been like that for some time,” Drake said.
“Don’t give me that crap. I saw someone by the corridor before.” Nick said angrily, “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the figure by the door. Call her in here!”
Drake paused for a moment, looking as though he was considering his options. And then smiled as he signalled the figure by the door to enter the room.
A little girl, who looked as though she was no more than 10 years old, hesitatingly left her hiding spot and walked slowly towards Drake. Looking like she was frightened out of her tiny body.
She had waist length purple hair, arranged in a braid, and her skin was a pale white.
Her eyes were a strange shade of purple, matching her hair colour.
The girl was dressed in a white one piece suit with light grey reinforced padding, covering everything but her head and hands.
The little girl hesitated and stopped before reaching Drake, seemingly paralysed with fear.
Kade’s first reaction was a desire to want to walk over to Drake and pummel him into the ground for allowing this girl to walk into the room, exposing her to danger. But as she looked closer Kade noticed that the girl wasn’t human, she was a synthetic.
“Good grief, you are one sick bastard!” Nick laughed at Drake.
“One of us is, but it’s your mind that’s in the gutter right now, not mine,” Drake calmly replied back, unfazed by Nick’s insinuation.
Shadow Core - The Legacy Page 9