Last Flight of the Ark

by D. L. Jackson

  Melissa nodded. “Don’t worry about me. Keep them busy and I’ll take care of the recon.”

  At least one of them seemed to be collected. Inside, he was torn between protecting his crew and saving another crew that might be too late to save. He’d rather be the one walking onto that ship and taking the chances.

  “In ten minutes, page Jessica on the com. Have her go down to the bay and prep this ship to land on the planet. Have her get on the com and dial the Pony Express. I need a message to go out to Earth Command. They may not be able to help us, but I want them alerted to what’s going on. If they can stop the other ships, they need to do it. This is going to get ugly. We need to be prepared.”

  The “Pony Express” referred to a courier that moved through a wormhole that brought them to this galaxy. The wormhole cut the traveling time to Terra II down by years, but it also made communication with Earth impossible. To solve the problem, Earth had created a station in two satellite segments and a courier system to move between the two parts.

  One part of Ursus Station, Ursus Major, sat on the Earth side of a wormhole at the midpoint of the route to Terra II. The other half, Ursus Minor, a smaller segment of the station, sat on the other side of the wormhole, and due to atmospheric considerations, all messages had to be moved between the two by shuttle.

  Because of the instability of the wormhole, shuttles had to wait for electrical storms inside the tunnel to calm before they could fly through. Sometimes messages could take hours or even days to reach their final destination. Earth Command officers often joked and called the shuttles the Pony Express, after the swift message delivery system of the Old West—faster, they claimed, than their own.

  “Sir, it might not be a good idea to send any transmissions the hijackers might intercept.”

  “Good point. Hold off until we know what we’re up against.” That was the other weakness. In order for the signal to travel the distance it needed to, the transmission was broadcast on a wide band, easy for other ships in the area to pick up. It was never considered an issue since Earth Command thought nobody but their own people would be listening. But now someone else was, and they’d failed to think of that.

  “Do you think they suspect?”

  He shook his head. He wasn’t getting that off them. They wanted what he had onboard and would play along nicely until they got it. He’d be damned if he let them hijack his planet and cargo. No fucking way. They’d just picked the wrong enemy to tangle with.

  Melissa started toward the dock.

  “Melissa?”

  She turned.

  “We don’t know who we’re dealing with. Get on that ship and off as fast as you can. If you can’t get to the crew, see if you can at least zero in on their location and I’ll think of a way to free them.”

  She gave him a quick salute and ran down the hallway. She even looked great doing it in heels and a skirt. Damn, he loved his job. He looked over his shoulder at the conference room door. Most of the time I love this job.

  Kaleb moved down the hall to grab a handful of papers that outlined the genetic studies he’d conducted in the last ten years. If anything would put them to sleep, and at a big blow to his ego, it would be his study. Unfortunately, not everyone loved science the way he did. Ego aside, if he could use it, he would.

  If that didn’t suck up the time, he’d brief them on the microenvironments and talk about dietary requirements for the herbivores, anything to drag them along until he could form a plan. As for the drop schedule, he’d stress the importance of prepping the animals. That would buy time, too.

  He scratched his head and stared down at all his work, which in the last twenty-four hours had been proven false and was now completely worthless. Man could evolve overnight. He only wished he’d figured that out ten years ago.

  Hell, he’d learned a lot in the last twelve hours that he’d have liked to have known months ago, and he had a feeling the information would play into their future in ways he couldn’t fathom. Whoever these people were, their intentions couldn’t be good. They offered friendship on the surface, but there were just some things they couldn’t cloak, and they stank of deceit.

  Could this be how Hector of Troy felt when the Greeks had come out of the horse? Probably damn close. He’d never anticipated this scenario. Earth had never anticipated it. They never thought someone was watching or that they’d want to steal their planet. It had been foolish to think they were the only sentient life-forms in the galaxy. Even more foolish to think what they’d built wouldn’t be noticed by someone or something out there.

  Question was, were the encroachers willing to kill to get it? He’d smelled predator and he had a feeling they would kill if they hadn’t already. Those were Terran uniforms. Where were the real owners?

  ***

  Kaleb was right. It was all wrong. Nobody challenged her approach or tried to stop her. Not that she gave them a chance to spot her. She’d slipped in through what maintenance called a back entrance, used by drones only and not something anyone who never worked with them would know about. Melissa docked the shuttle where the remotes sat.

  With a little hacking, she’d mimicked one of the drones. Not hard when she was an officer on the project and had access to almost all of the drives on the Ark, the sister ship, and the shuttles. Only highly classified information that she didn’t have a need-to-know would be blocked, and she didn’t have to get into it to get the job done.

  For all those at the controls of the Genesis II knew, she was an environmental drone, back from a routine scan of the planet’s surface.

  The bay doors slid shut and the pressure stabilized. She opened the hatch and stared across the silent bay. The hair on her arms snapped to attention. Not a motion anywhere, and only the glow of the security lights made the bay visible. Everything appeared to be on autopilot. She swept her gaze right to left. No sign of life in any corner. Obviously the alien imposters didn’t anticipate visitors. Her first hunch had been dead-on.

  Not looking good. She pulled her laser off her hip and set it to kill. She glanced both ways and exited the shuttle, running down the ramp. She stayed low, keeping along the wall and in the shadows. The lift appeared to be operable, but she’d use the secondary route and maintenance shafts. All ladders and crawl space, but she wasn’t about to take chances with the lift and alert them to her presence. Since the Genesis II was the Ark’s sister ship, the layout would be identical. She’d check the main deck first and scan the command station, get a head count on the hostiles if possible. A lot to do in the little time Kaleb allotted for the reconnaissance. She had an hour, tops, in the shafts, if she wanted to get out of there without being seen.

  Melissa pulled a lever and popped a hidden panel open. Only accessed for maintenance, it didn’t have the auto doors like the rest of the ship and had been designed to blend in. Simple and invisible. She dropped down and crawled inside. She didn’t smell death. A good sign, but that didn’t mean anything. They could’ve ejected the bodies into space. It would certainly explain the silence. She crawled thirty feet to a vertical shaft and began to climb up the built-in rungs. A little deeper into the shaft and she heard voices ahead: two men, talking in hushed whispers. But the shafts were well insulated and it shouldn’t be possible.

  The hijackers wouldn’t whisper unless they found out she was onboard. Melissa froze. Could they know she was on board? Unlikely. When she’d approached, she’d stayed in the shadow of their ship, navigating on auxiliary power only and drafting off the stream so her signature ghosted with the Genesis II’s. They shouldn’t have picked up any indication she was around.

  “No. We stay put. You saw what they can do.”

  English. Most likely not the choice of alien hijackers. Melissa crawled laterally from the maintenance shaft toward the vent that led to the conversation. She stopped over the room and stared down through the grates. Two men, both in regulation Earth Command uniforms, argued. She pried the vent off and slowly lowered her body behind them, drop
ping to the floor.

  They both spun around as she hit the floor and glanced up at the open shaft. She pointed her laser. They raised their hands, eyeing her.

  “Who are you?” they asked in unison.

  “I’m Captain Melissa Deluzio of the Genesis I.”

  A tall man with dark hair and cocoa skin nodded. “I’m Captain Bryant James, in charge of security on this vessel and this is Lieutenant Frank Jeffers. My profile is on the console behind you. The security code is—”

  “Don’t need it. You wouldn’t have a private conversation in English if you’re one of the imposters, and we’re working for the same team here. I have access. Care to tell me where the rest of the crew is?” Melissa holstered her laser. That wasn’t the only reason she knew they weren’t the imposters. Strange. She could hear, feel, sense he was telling the truth. Perhaps her senses were heightened because of the danger. She’d heard flight for life could trigger such awareness. She avoided thinking about what the other reason could be.

  He relaxed and lowered his hands. “They missed us. We were quarantined here in the med bay because of the flu. The rest of the crew, except command personnel, is on the lower decks as far as we can tell. We’ve been communicating by tapping Morse code on the water pipes to the level below.” He pulled out a digital clipboard, where he’d recorded the conversations. “Nobody really knows what’s going on above, except our command crew, and we haven’t been able to locate them.”

  Melissa nodded. She needed to get them out of here and maybe they had some decent intelligence. They could also help her access the ship’s logs, need-to-know data she couldn’t get into. From there, she could see what the hijackers had been doing with the Genesis II since they’d taken control. But now wasn’t the time for that conversation. “Tell the others we know what’s going on and we plan to rescue them. Tell them to hold tight.”

  “Captain, excuse me for saying this, but doesn’t the Genesis I only have a crew of three?”

  Melissa nodded. “We may be small, but we’ve got Colonel Titan on our ship. If anyone can figure out a way to rescue you, it’s him.”

  “I hope you’re right. You’re not going to believe what we’re dealing with.”

  “You’d be surprised, Captain James. I’ve become a believer in a lot of things lately.”

  ***

  She wanted off this ship. She wanted off bad. The imposter commander fought to keep still as Kaleb discussed the evolution of single-celled life forms and how it could be applied to the new world. He eyed the clock. Two hours. Melissa had been gone for two hours. Jessica had excused herself an hour and half ago, after Melissa paged her to assist in helping a grizzly with constipation. When she offered to give a demonstration on how to give the bear a suppository, their guests had looked appalled. He fought the smile that threatened. If only. He’d give them first crack at it.

  “How much longer on this presentation?” The imposter sniffed. She looked at him with watery eyes. “Are there canines on this vessel?”

  A little allergy problem, commander? “Why, yes. We have several down in the bay. Wolf…coyote. Would you like a tour?”

  She sniffed again and sneezed. “Not today. We’ll take our leave now and come back at the same time tomorrow. I need that drop schedule.”

  “Right, the drop schedule. I’ll be damned if I know what I did with it. I have to make some changes anyway. Move the schedule up.” He glanced at the clock. Where was his crew? “I still haven’t gone over my presentation on—”

  “I’ve had enough for today,” she barked and sneezed again. “Are you sure there are no canines up here?”

  Kaleb nodded.

  She rose to her feet and went through a series of sneezes, one after another, finally stopping on a count of twelve or so. She sucked in a deep breath and started again. Her bodyguards followed on her heels as she sneezed and walked, sneezed and walked, all the way out the door. If he wasn’t mistaken, she wasn’t the only one affected by his canine DNA. Her escorts had teary eyes and red noses. As soon as the doors shut, he hit the com.

  “Melissa, report.”

  “I just docked the shuttle. They’ve got the crew locked up in various rooms all over the ship. We can spring the locks via a transmission from our ship. I hacked into their ship’s computer and implanted a transmitter, but it’s going to take time for me to get the right codes so we can download the Genesis II’s logs.

  “I also rescued a couple of their security personnel. They were quarantined with the flu in med-bay and were locked into an area I could access. They’ll fill you in on what they know once the envoy is off our ship. They should be able to help us access the Genesis II’s logs and get a bigger picture of what’s going on. Just wrapping up on the shuttle now.”

  “They’re on their way down. You’re going to have to sit tight for a moment.”

  “Roger.”

  Kaleb walked over to the glass and stared out at the Genesis II. He’d hated putting Jessica and Melissa at risk like that. Who knew what the encroachers were capable of? They didn’t seem to have any trouble seizing a vessel with two thousand passengers and locking them up. Somehow, sometime, the commander of the Genesis II had underestimated them. That wouldn’t be the case with the Ark.

  ***

  As she debriefed Kaleb on the status of the Genesis II, Melissa began to feel hot. Her temperature kept climbing until she thought she would faint. She tried to focus, but only caught bits and pieces of what was said.

  Having been in quarantine with the flu, the security officers knew little, but they planned to hack into their ship’s mainframe after the meeting. With the information they should be able to secure, they’d have a better idea of what was going on. When she finally wrapped things up, she turned the remainder of the meeting over to Captain James and excused herself to go to her quarters, claiming she had a headache. It was almost impossible not to run from the room in a panic. She needed to stay calm, even with her body on fire. Something wasn’t right.

  As soon as she hit the door, she rushed to the facet and cranked it on full. Melissa leaned over the sink and splashed water into her face, not caring that she soaked her uniform. Nasty. She sniffed and reached over to grab a towel, rubbing the moisture from her skin. The water smelled like sewage. Why hadn’t she noticed that before?

  Something was wrong. She’d gone from hot to cold and back to hot again. She’d only exposed herself to the flu two hours before. There was no way it could affect her so quickly. And then there was the other problem, the reason she was in the latrine splashing ice-cold water on her skin.

  She burned. Every square inch of her flesh burned. She unzipped her flight suit and shoved up her T-shirt sleeve. Infected? Melissa peeled the edge of the bandage off her shoulder to expose the skin underneath. There was blood on the bandage, but—Melissa leaned toward the mirror. No. Oh God. Maybe she was looking in the wrong spot? She tugged her shirt over her head and shoved her bra strap off her shoulder. She brushed her fingers over her skin.

  Nothing.

  No wound, no mark, no nothing. “Oh, hell.” She twisted her shoulder toward the light, examining it at another angle. “It’s there. You need to wash the blood away.”

  She dipped the towel under the water, wrinkled her nose, and began to scrub, harder and faster. She looked again. Nothing but red skin from the vigorous buffing. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

  The door slid open. “What?” Jessica walked up behind her.

  “Nothing.” Melissa slapped her hand over her shoulder, hiding the spot.

  Jessica raised a brow and reached over to grab her hand and pull it off. She stared for a moment and released it, letting it drop. “You’re infected.”

  Melissa sucked in a breath. “That’s what it looks like.” There was a good chance she’d never see Earth again. Her heart sank. If Kaleb couldn’t cure this, they’d never go home.

  “Anything else?”

  Actually there was. She wanted Jessica. The moment she’d walked in, she
could smell her and her heart began to pound. She wanted to taste her, kiss her, and touch her. The burning in her body raged into an inferno, threatening to ignite her from the inside. Melissa grabbed the front of Jessie’s flight suit and yanked her face to face.

  “Yes, there is.” She closed her eyes and inhaled. Jessica’s heart pounded against her breasts, sending a flush of heat between her legs.

  “And that would be?” Jessica’s voice dropped to a whisper.

  “I’m hungry.”

  “For a second I thought you were going to say—”

  “For you,” Melissa growled and kissed her.

  Her tongue slid between Jessica’s lips, coaxing her mouth to open. She tasted sweet. It all seemed amplified, every smell, taste, or touch. The need coiled tighter, winding her body like a spring. Never had she hurt with lust. She did now. She had to have her or she’d die.

  Jessica ground her body against her, whimpering. The smell of her arousal washed through Melissa’s senses. She grabbed Jessica’s skirt and tugged it up, sliding her hand up her leg. The pulse in her thigh thrummed against her fingertips, tapping out a staccato beat under her touch. Higher and higher she slid her hand, savoring every inch of silken skin that slipped under her fingers. Jessica moaned and rocked against her, urging her closer to the heat, needing, wanting.

  Melissa dropped to her knees and shoved her skirt to her waist. She ran a finger along the inside of Jessica’s panties and pressed her face against the fabric, inhaling, taking in all that was Jessica. Lust. Fire. Desire. “You drive me crazy.”

  She ripped her thong off, shredding the delicate weave. Her flesh blazed under her touch as Melissa pushed her fingers inside and twisted.

  Jessica’s knees gave way. She fell back against the sink, bracing herself. “Melissa,” she said, riding her fingers, taking her deeper. “Please.”

  Melissa positioned Jessica’s leg onto one of her shoulders and licked her clit. She tasted like honey. Melissa groaned and sucked her clit between her teeth. Jessica’s body quivered. She fisted her hair and tipped her head back, crying out. Melissa continued, sliding a third finger in and worked them in and out. She laved Jessica with her tongue, licking, sucking, unable to get enough, wanting more, needing more, never having been so desperate.