Shadow Core - The Legacy

by Licinio Goncalves

  “What’s with the little doll?” Nick asked, waving his gun in the girl’s direction, causing her to run to Drake’s side and hide behind him in fear. “And why the heck did you program her to act like that,” he asked with a disgusted, disapproving look.

  “This is Zen.” Drake smiled as he looked at her and put his right hand on her head, bringing an immediate smile to her face. “And I didn’t program her at all. You’ll have to forgive her, she’s a little shy around armed strangers.”

  “So your crew is just synthetics? That makes things simple. Transfer control over to me and no one has to get hurt. We’ll wait here until the Regent arrives and then… well, you’ll be someone else’s problem. Or… I put a round through your doll,” Nick said with a sadistic grin as he looked at Zen’s shaking little body.

  “Finally!!” Drake said with a sound of relief, as Zen stopped hiding behind him, no longer afraid. And everyone else was left in a state of utter confusion.

  “That was easy,” Zen said cheerfully.

  “What the hell are you two so happy about?” Nick asked, infuriated at their behaviour.

  Kade couldn’t believe what she had just heard, the situation just kept getting worse by the second.

  The Regent, a Jupiter class heavy assault carrier and flagship of the Sol Union military, was inbound to their location. Probably with the rest of the First Forward Fleet for backup. It was one of the most formidable fleets in human controlled space and was responsible for the ‘pacification’ of entire colonies out on the fringe systems.

  Kade couldn’t help but wonder why this was happening: Why would the Union mobilise one of their heaviest forces to deal with just one ship? And, more importantly, how the hell had she ended up caught in the middle of this messed up situation?

  “He still hasn’t figured it out.” Zen giggled as she looked at Drake and pointed at Nick.

  Nick was an infiltrator, so violence was just one of the tools at his disposal, his tasks often requiring him to take unsavoury actions to get the job done.

  Generally he was in and out of his assignments without ever breaking cover. Unfortunately he hadn’t been given enough time to integrate into Kade’s crew. Understanding a target’s motivations and ideals was the key to manipulating it, but a couple of months was simply not long enough to pull it off. Especially when the entire mission profile had been changed at the last moment.

  His original mission had never called for this, so he was being forced to improvise since he had failed to convince Kade to leave and alert the authorities once he had gathered his intel.

  With his cover blown Nick needed a weak point he could exploit against Drake, and Zen’s timely arrival had presented him with the perfect vulnerability. Drake seemed genuinely concerned about her, his caring expression and her fragile frightened appearance making Zen the perfect target.

  Overwhelming force, in the form of the Regent, and an imminent physical threat was all that it would take to convince any normal person to comply. But the situation had completely backfired. Not only had Nick’s threats not accomplished their goal he had actually revealed more than he should have.

  Zen’s giggling was pushing all the wrong buttons and it also didn’t help that Nick had no love for synthetics, hating them with a passion.

  Zen turned her head back around, facing Nick. Her eyes opening wide as she saw him aiming his pulse gun squarely at her small head with a sadistic grin on his face. She saw him pull back the trigger, his grin growing wider in anticipation…

  Particle pulse weapons were known for inducing fear on anyone unlucky enough to be on the wrong side of the barrel. Due, in part, to the short lived high pitch noise they made just before a discharge. Signalling the inevitable end of whoever was unlucky enough to be in the line of fire.

  But as Nick pulled the trigger his gun did not discharge, and no matter how many times he tried the gun simply refused to work.

  Zen looked curiously at Nick as he fumbled with his gun, trying to understand why it refused to fire. Her expression was one of fascination, though it wasn’t clear what she found so interesting.

  Drake’s expression, on the other hand, was one of pure and absolute anger. And as he clenched his right fist a low hum could be heard throughout the room. The floor plates vibrating slightly, as if reacting to Drake’s intense emotional state.

  “This charade has gone on long enough.” Drake stared angrily at Nick. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, when I said your guns couldn’t hurt me, I was being literal. The security system hacked your weapon controls when you boarded my ship. Did you really think we would allow visitors to roam the ship with functional weapons? That would be rather dumb, don’t you agree?”

  Kade thought back to when they had first boarded the Zenith. The Aurora interface had talked about ‘Boarding Protocol 1’ and told them that weapons would be deactivated and should be left at a secure location at the embarkation room. They had indeed been warned, they had simply misunderstood the meaning. They had assumed weapon controls would have been enforced by whoever was supposed to sit in the empty security station of the embarkation room. Not that the ship would have somehow managed to hack into them, which she didn’t even know was possible.

  Kade brought her head closer to Jude’s and with her gaze still firmly fixed on Nick’s actions she whispered, “We have got to get something like that installed on the Icarus.”

  “I’m still trying to figure out when it happened. But yeah, definitely on my upgrade wish list,” Jude whispered back and smiled.

  With one final glance at his side-arm, and a defiant look on his face, Nick holstered his weapon as he reached behind his back with his other hand. Pulling something out of a hidden section of his space suit.

  “Your fancy security needs some tweaks, how do you disable this?” Nick said with a murderous look in his eyes as he pulled out a combat knife.

  “A knife? How barbaric!” Zen said in disgust.

  Drake’s expression changed, clearly amused at the turn of events. And with a hint of a smile he asked, “You weren’t briefed on who you could be facing once you boarded this ship, were you? You really think you can come aboard my ship and threaten us? Seriously?” Drake started moving towards Nick, showing absolutely no fear.

  Kade saw an opening. Drake’s seemingly suicidal actions had caused Nick to take a few steps back, his attention clearly focused on Drake as he approached. But before Kade could make a move, her sister grabbed her arm and whispered, “Let it play out. I have it on good authority that Drake can handle this.”

  Kade gave Jude a questioning look, but could see that her sister was serious. Somehow she seemed completely convinced that there was nothing to worry about. In fact she had been completely calm all this time, just quietly observing the unfolding events.

  Jude looked into her sisters questioning eyes as she thought back to her conversation with Nexus.

  “Are you serious? This ship can actually do that?” Jude asked with an astonished expression.

  “Yep, the Zenith was not originally a warship. The design team was led by an engineer who believed in maximum flexibility. The result was the Zenith class capital ship design,” Nexus said proudly.

  “They don’t build them like this anymore,” Jude said as she ran her hand over the console frame, feeling as though she was touching a part of history.

  “In a way you remind me of him, the lead engineer. He also had a passion for technology and a desire to create a better future.”

  “Thanks, that means a lot,” Jude said sincerely. Feeling honoured to be compared to anyone who could help design such a ship.

  “I like you, so I’ll be straight with you. How well do you know Nick? Do you trust him?” Nexus asked.

  “About as far as I can throw him,” Jude replied back in a joking manner. And then continued in a serious tone, “I’ve only known him for a couple of months. His attitude gets on my nerves, but that could just be me, I never could stand pilots. Too much bravad
o, not enough brains. Why do you ask?”

  “I ran a check on all of you when you first came on board, and I found Nick’s credentials and background were forged. He’s not who he’s pretending to be.”

  “I would like to say I’m surprised, but stuff like that is fairly common in our line of work,” Jude said, not showing any particular signs of concern.

  “And is it common for your ship to deploy its distress beacon on its own? Because I was forced to destroy it shortly after all of you came on board, but I’m not sure if I took it out in time. Half the system probably knows we’re here now,” Nexus said, clearly concerned.

  “Our ship did what? I need to warn my sister! What’s the quickest way up there?” Jude asked impatiently.

  “I’m sending a map to your Echo now, and upgrading your security clearance. When you get there, don’t confront Nick. You should let Drake handle him. And regardless of what happens, don’t worry, Drake can take care of himself. He will not allow any harm to come to you or your sister, of that you have my word. Just make sure your sister stays clear if things start to go wrong, and… enjoy the show.” Nexus smiled as Jude’s Echo unit started displaying the map data, showing the shortcut route.

  Back in the present moment…

  Kade and Jude looked on, as Nick held his combat knife at the ready, prepared to strike at Drake.

  “Go on then, attack me and see what happens. I bet you get a kick out of it,” Drake said, stopping a few steps away from Nick and then just waited.

  Nick lunged forward without a moment’s hesitation, with the clear intent of ending Drake’s life.

  Two steps would be all it would take to be in striking distance. Or so he thought as he took the first step only to suddenly collapse, his body feeling as though it was made out of lead as it crashed into the cold metal floor.

  He was unable to move and felt as if every single part of his body was being crushed.

  As Nick laid there, struggling to breathe, his mind was trying to understand what had just happened: Drake hadn’t moved so much as a finger, he hadn’t issued any verbal commands to the ship, so how had he managed to drop him so effortlessly?

  Even his eyes felt heavy and difficult to move. Nick looked around still trying to understand. He could see Kade and Jude out of the corner of his left eye, and they weren’t being affected. He tried to think but the pain was unbearable, making it impossible to focus.

  “You look so utterly confused right now that it’s almost painful to watch. I almost feel sorry for you, being sent on this assignment without any details on who you could potentially face… almost,” Drake said in a neutral voice, deriving no pleasure from this act.

  “I… can’t… ” Nick said as he struggled for breath.

  “Breathe? Yes I imagine so. How about now?” Drake said, and Nick could feel the pressure lifting from his body. He still couldn’t move but at least it was easier to breathe, the pain starting to subside.

  “What… have you done… to me?” Nick asked with a pained expression.

  “Isn’t it amazing how we can take a common place piece of technology, that’s been around for ages, and not even realise it’s there until it’s crushing the living daylights out of us?” Drake asked as he pointed to the ground. Nick immediately realising he was being crushed by the Zenith’s artificial gravity plates.

  “Now then, I answered your question, now it’s your turn. Who, or what, was your primary target?” Drake asked.

  “You expect me… to talk?” Nick asked defiantly.

  “You want to live through this? Because I have no issues with ending the life of anyone that threatens me, my ship or my crew,” Drake said calmly with a hint of a smile, which only served to prove the point that Nick’s life wasn’t worth much to him.

  The Uncertainty

  Nick was experiencing a whole world of pain as he lay pinned to the floor by the intense gravity. His upper body felt like it was going completely numb, probably caused by impaired blood circulation, and his mind was rapidly becoming addled.

  It was painfully obvious, in more ways than one, that Drake wasn’t kidding. If this carried on then Nick was going to die. He was incapacitated and completely vulnerable, his silence a self-imposed death sentence.

  “Kade…my orders were to… infiltrate and lead her here. If that failed… I was to… retrieve target object.” Nick struggled to breathe.

  “What object?” Drake asked, looking at Kade, but saw by her blank expression that she didn’t know.

  “The sphere…” Nick replied.

  “Sphere?” Drake asked, seeing by Kade’s expression that she now realised what Nick was referring too.

  “Hmm, OK then, next question,” Drake said, looking at Nick once again. “Who do you work for? Who’s pulling your strings?”

  “You’ll… find out soon.” Nick smirked.

  “You think the approaching ships scare me? That they’re gonna save you? TALK!” Drake shouted and Nick felt the pressure on his body triple for a split second.

  “Aaaargh!! S.I.S… I work for… the S.I.S!” Nick shouted as the pain became unbearable.

  Kade and Jude looked pale, as if all the blood had drained from their faces. They weren’t expecting good news at this stage, but Nick’s revelation was the worst of all possible outcomes.

  “We… are… so… screwed!” Jude panicked. “We’ve been chauffeuring a Solarian Intelligence Service lackey around with us… for two months?” She asked, looking at Kade.

  “Have you been reporting in?” Kade asked Nick, her voice carrying a hint of despair.

  Kade was worried because not all the jobs they had carried out in the last two months had been entirely… legal. Not to mention that some of her less friendly patrons could react extremely badly if they were to ever find out they had been exposed to the S.I.S.

  Even though Nick was in some serious discomfort, feeling as though his rib cage was about to implode, he still couldn’t help but give off a defiant smile at Kade’s obvious concern. Unfortunately for him, Drake wasn’t amused by his reaction.

  “Answer her!” Drake shouted. The gravity pinning Nick to the floor spiking once again.

  “Aaaaargh! No!! I was… to remain undercover… until I could secure the objective…”

  Drake paused his interrogation momentarily as he considered the situation. At the same time Kade was trying to think of a way out of this catastrophe. Not only had she played the host to an S.I.S operative, but if he were to die here she would be the prime suspect.

  “So, the Solarian Intelligence Service knows we’re here and has dispatched the Regent and its support fleet to intercept us. Good grief, what a pain! Zen, speed up the probe recall, we’re leaving this system as soon as possible,” Drake ordered.

  “OK, but what do we do with him?” Zen asked as she pointed at Nick, who was still pinned to the floor.

  Drake looked at Nick for a moment as he considered what to do, and the overwhelming gravity pinning Nick to the floor suddenly dissipated.

  “This ship isn’t going anywhere!” Nick said confidently as the pain started subsiding from his body. “All the safe exit vectors out of this system are under our control. If you try to burst out of the system you will be destroyed. If you fight back you will be destroyed. I have no idea how you managed to sneak into this system, but you sure as hell aren’t getting out. Your only option is surrender.” Nick got back up, his breathing becoming regular again.

  “You don’t know your history very well if you think this ship can be so easily defeated,” Drake said, amused at Nick’s confident speech. “And we will be leaving soon enough, there’s very little that can stop that.”

  Nick’s body was in bad shape, he was probably going to feel the pain from this adventure for months to come. But his mission wasn’t over yet and he was still holding his combat knife, which Drake had foolishly ignored all this time. He saw an opening as Drake was distracted giving Zen an order, probably assuming that he was in no shape to fight any
more. And quickly lunged forward with all the strength he had left, his combat knife swiftly cutting through the air as it neared Drake, who was facing away from him. And just as he was about to strike he noticed Zen’s mischievous smile.

  His body slammed against the cold metal floor one more time, knocking the wind out of him. And then it floated up into the air as the gravity plating under him completely cut out, leaving him at Drake’s mercy yet again. This realisation of helplessness coming at around about the exact time as Nick saw Drake perform a round house kick to his stomach, sending him flying clear across the room against a sleeper pod in the far wall. His body plummeting to the floor as the gravity was restored under him, knocking him unconscious.

  As Drake stood there, looking at the sleeper pod now sending sparks out of its control console, his mood suddenly changed. Drake shrugged his shoulders as he let out a low grumble, upset at having created more work for himself by ramming Nick into the pod. It was bad enough that Static seemed to revel in finding new and interesting ways to break stuff, he didn’t really need to add to his own workload. He had gotten caught up in the moment and reacted before he could think it through. In hindsight it would have been just as effective to gravity spike Nick into the floor right there, but it was too late now.

  Zen was standing next to Drake, with her arms crossed while she faced Nick’s unconscious body and a disapproving look on her face as she looked at the mangled console sending sparks into the air.

  “You think you hit him hard enough?” Zen asked jokingly as she pointed at the damaged pod.

  “Yeah… sorry about that,” Drake replied sheepishly as he looked at Zen and scratched his head. A habit of his when he did something wrong.

  Kade and Jude were still stunned by what they had just seen. After all, it was not every day one would see someone get kicked across a room like that. But what really seemed strange to Kade was Drake’s sudden change of attitude as he apologised to Zen.

  Kade was finding it difficult to understand the dynamic between Drake and Zen. Zen was a synthetic, that much was obvious, but Drake was treating her like she was a real person. A behaviour which was not exactly common.