She continued through the hold, came to a stop, blinked her eyes, and dropped the tracer. “Shit.” Jessica walked forward, leaving the device on the decking. “What the hell is that?” He would shake his head if he heard her ladylike language after she’d ridden him so hard about his potty mouth, but the object before her deserved a few dirty words.
At least twelve feet high and nearly as many feet wide, what sat before her looked like a hornet’s nest. She circled it. No visible opening. She glanced at a maintenance ladder that ran up the side of the cargo hold next to the hive. Perhaps the entrance was on top?
Jessica holstered her laser. She wiped her damp palms on her pants and took a deep breath. “Okay, I can do this.” She grabbed the third rung, stepped onto the ladder, and started to climb.
At the top, she looked over her shoulder. She’d need to get closer. Jessica released one hand, leaned back over the top of the nest, and saw what she’d been searching for. A hole. She shifted her feet until she was positioned sideways and pulled a flashlight from her utility belt.
Jessica leaned farther back and aimed the beam at the hole. A light-reactive goo lit the inside of the pod like the candle inside a jack-o’-lantern. Oval stones blazed like opals. Are those…eggs? She rose up on the tips of her toes and craned her neck. Her eyes widened and she shifted her feet, arching away to try to get a view of what sat in the shadows. Unless she became a contortionist, that was about as close as she’d get. Jessica shifted the flashlight’s beam and illuminated the object.
“Oh, God.” Her heart jumped into the back of her throat. She began to count the bodies, sweeping the light from left to right. One. Two. The light landed on a woman’s face. Everything around her went black. She couldn’t breathe, think, or move. The flashlight slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a loud clang. “No.” She repositioned, hanging by fingertips, hoping the goo lit it enough to prove her wrong.
Her fingers slipped from the rung. Jessica grasped air, missing the rail, and fell, landing on the grating with a thud. Her headset came off in the impact and flew across the hold. Rolling to her belly, she struggled to suck in a breath. Inside, her guts knotted into painful cramps and her throat constricted. She couldn’t vomit. Not here, not now. Jessica slapped her hand over her mouth and tried to force calming thoughts into her head. This wasn’t happening.
From across the hold, her headset crackled. “Get out of the bay, Jessica.” She eyed her com, paralyzed. Oh God, oh God, oh God.
“Jessica?” Kaleb’s voice.
Numb, Jessica crawled toward the headset, struggling to breathe.
“Melissa.” He spoke again, this time sounding frantic.
“Yes, sir,” Melissa responded. Melissa? Jessica glanced over her shoulder at the nest and began to weep as relief poured through her. She curled into a ball and sobbed, hugging her knees. For a moment she’d thought…. What she felt now should be wrong. What kind of a person was she?
***
Once he was in the room, the visitors became more uncomfortable. The enemy commander sneezed and wheezed. Her reaction to the canine DNA seemed to get progressively worse every trip they made to the Ark. It might delay further trips or stop them all together. That meant they might not get another shot to get on board the Genesis II and locate the command crew, if the search of the planet didn’t turn up anything.
Kaleb glanced at his wrist monitor. Jessica had left ten minutes before, going to the bay to plant the tracer. She was the perfect woman for the job. Since she wasn’t infected, she wouldn’t leave allergens to make them question if someone had been on the shuttle, but she’d need another ten minutes or so to get out and back up on the main deck in order to keep her actions secret. With the way his guests fidgeted, he’d give her five.
“And the final agenda, the last drops scheduled. Predators. We need to get half the herbivore herds on the planet and in location before we place the predators.”
“A month? Is this an error?” The imposter looked up from the schedule, her eyes red and teary.
“No. It takes time to place the animals if we want them to thrive. We have to be careful not to rush. One mistake and they could all die.”
She sneezed. “Couldn’t we place the predators first?”
“No. We need to establish the herds first and get them settled in before they’re hunted. It’s a process.”
“Then we’ll take our leave.” The encroachers rose to their feet. “I need to brief my crew and go to the planet to prep for the herbivore drops. You can reach us on the surface.”
“Don’t you want to tour the animal bays?”
The commander sneezed again, in several rapid bursts. “I have a lot of briefings—phachoo!—to conduct with my crew on the drops.”
He eyed the time. They needed to stay at least another seven minutes and that was cutting it close. Shit, shit, shit. He needed to think of something. Hold them here a little longer. “I’ve discovered an illness in our canines. We might have to keep them quarantined an additional week. I’ve got an alternate schedule ready if this is the case.”
The enemy commander locked gazes with him. “Is it lethal?”
“No, I don’t believe so. I’ve been running tests.”
The look of disappointment on her face made his stomach twist. She nodded. “I’d like that schedule.”
“Give me a couple of days. Would you like to send one of your veterinarians over to help with the diagnosis and treatment?”
The disappointment changed to horror. She clearly didn’t want what was going on out in the open. If she sent one of the Genesis II’s crew members, she couldn’t be certain they wouldn’t disclose the situation to him. If the canines were toxic to these encroachers, she sure as hell wouldn’t send one of her crew down to the bay to help him with them.
He’d intentionally cornered her. Probably not a good idea, but he needed to know if the decision he had to make was the right one.
“He’s busy getting the clinic on the planet set up for any animals that take ill. I’ll send him over to deal with your canines when he gets back from the planet.”
Clever. “Thank you. I’ll wait to hear from you.” He glanced at his monitor again. Three more minutes. Could he hold them off?
The commander spun on her heel, sneezed, and exited the room, followed by her security.
Fuck. Kaleb pressed the wrist monitor. “Get out of the bay, Jessica.”
His com remained quiet. “Jessica?”
No response. Shit. “Melissa?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where are you?”
“Docking.”
“They’re coming your way.”
“Hold them off. I have to get the shuttle shut down and cleared.”
“Too late. Cut the engines and drop her in place. I don’t care if it’s a perfect parking job. Jessica’s on their shuttle. You’ve got to get her off now.”
“Contact her on the com.”
“It’s not working,” he said. “Something is blocking it.”
“You need to slow them down, sir. I don’t have enough time.”
He hit the door, running for the lift. He tried the com again. “Jessica.”
“Here, sir.”
“Get out of their shuttle.”
“Sir, I—”
“Now. They’re almost there.”
The com went dead, and he glanced at the panel that controlled the power to the lift. If he shut it down, they might suspect something was going on. It would be close. His stomach convulsed. What good was he if he couldn’t protect her? He leaned his head against the panel and said a prayer, the only thing he could do without putting them all in danger. “Come on, Jessie.”
Chapter Ten
Kaleb raised his head as the lift came to a stop. Melissa, Jessica, Frank, and Bryant stepped off.
“You could’ve let me know everything was okay.”
“No could do. They were on the shuttle and would’ve intercepted our transmission.”
Melissa lea
ned against the wall and shut her eyes. She drew in a deep breath. “It was close. I just got her onto my shuttle before they walked into the bay.” She pushed off the wall and turned to him. “I got a whiff of them, sir.”
“And?”
Melissa didn’t say anything. She handed him the remote.
Captain James nodded. “I’ve never smelled anything like it. They’re killers. I wouldn’t have known before you gave me the mutation.”
“Same here,” Frank said. “They smell like death.”
“We need to talk,” Jessica said. A warning flickered across her face. “In private, sir.”
Well, this was going to be fun. Kaleb nodded to Melissa, dismissing her.
“We’ll be on deck.” Melissa escorted the men away.
He studied Jessica silently, waiting. She wouldn’t have asked for a private conversation only to talk about the infection. Instinct told him there was more to it.
“You infected them?”
Then again, maybe not. “We’ll talk about this later.” Or never.
“I’m going down to the surface, sir.”
“Like hell you are.”
“They’ve been doing something down there and I’m certain I know what.”
“It’s too damned dangerous. I don’t like sending anyone over to the other ship, but I don’t have a choice. Down to the planet is another matter. Forget it. Who knows how many of them are down there?”
“We can’t wait.”
“Who’s in charge of this mission?”
“Sir, I found the bodies of the command crew. They didn’t lock them up separate from the rest. They killed them. Some of the remains were stuck inside these hive-things full of what looks like eggs. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Melissa or the others. Who knows what those things are? If they hatch, we could be done.”
“Go on.”
“I recognized one of the dead. She was—I couldn’t believe what I saw. I lost my headset. I’d just gotten it back when you contacted me. It was like I was looking at Melissa. Did she ever tell you she had a sister?”
“Shit.”
“It gets worse. I could only account for half of the bodies. I’m certain they took some of them to the planet. If they’re planning on hatching these things on the surface, I’m going to stop it. I have to stop it.”
He grabbed both sides of her face and closed his eyes. She was right. Someone needed to go down there. If what she said was true, their guests had already started colonizing the planet. The alien commander had told him they could be contacted on the surface, which meant she’d taken the hive—and the bodies—with her.
“I need you to infect me. It might provide some protection. I don’t know what the hell to expect down there, but I want to have every weapon possible at my disposal. I felt vulnerable on that shuttle. I don’t want to be in that position again. What if they’d caught me?”
“Even if you go to the planet, what makes you certain you’re going to find the pods?”
“Once I break atmosphere, I can lock on to the transmitter I placed in the shuttle.” She sniffed. “I’m going to put a torch to the nest.” When she looked up, tears glistened in her eyes. “Melissa’s sister, Kera…. They wrapped her up and hung her like a side of beef. She didn’t deserve that. How am I going to tell Melissa?”
“You don’t have to.” He tried to keep the lump down. “My job.” His voice still cracked. He looked away before he lost it. Not in front of Jessica. He needed to stay strong. She didn’t need to see anything but strength right now.
“I want to kill every one of them. Extinction is what they deserve. They invaded our ship, our planet, ate our people. They need to die.”
“We can’t let this get personal, Jessica. If we let our guard down, we’re dead.”
“It got personal the second they killed the command crew, killed Melissa’s sister. Kaleb, infect me. Let me do this.”
“Do you understand what you’re asking me? If I can’t reverse this, you’ll never be able to go home. I have to infect the others to free them from that ship, but I have a choice with you. If I can save one person from this fate, I will. I don’t want to condemn you to this world forever.”
“The only family I have is you and Melissa. I wouldn’t want to go back to Earth without you anyway.”
He nodded. “When the time comes.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. She began to sob quietly, shaking against him. Not a sound came from her, but he could feel it, the pain in her silence. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
“I’m holding you to it.” Jessica tipped her chin up and looked in his eyes. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, stepped away, and walked out the door.
Damn it. He didn’t want to infect her; he didn’t want to infect the people onboard the Genesis II. Everything was turning to shit, quick. He might be saving their lives, but he sure as hell wasn’t saving them.
And the worst part was he had to break the news to Melissa.
***
“Kera? It couldn’t be. She’s not dead. I’d know it.” Melissa’s face had gone white and she’d collapsed in the navigator’s seat. She punched at random buttons, apparently trying to keep the tears under control.
“Melissa.” He touched her shoulder. She shrank into herself and stabbed at another button, missing it.
“We were going to meet up on our first night on the planet. Have a drink together. I’ve been saving a bottle of rum for months.” She sucked in a breath. “Cheap rum. The kind that rots your insides. She always liked the stuff.”
“Melissa.” He turned the seat around so she faced him and dropped to his knees in front of her. “It’s okay to cry.”
“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have stopped you. I should have let you infect them instead of delaying it. I….”
“No. It happened before they arrived. There was nothing you could do.”
She burst into tears and dropped her head. “Oh, God. You were right. They want to eat us.”
“I wish I wasn’t.” He pulled her into his arms and let her cry. For the second time that day he felt helpless, defeated, and for the second time, he pulled himself together to be strong, knowing if he was anything but, the world would crumble around them.
“I’m now the commander of this entire mission.” He pressed the remote into her hands. “Give them a dose. I hope they choke on it.” For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s Law was the law of the universe and he was about to put it to the test. Everything man did, right or wrong, had consequences. Though he’d like time to sit and contemplate what those consequences were, that wasn’t feasible. Lives were at stake, and maybe even the human race.
Melissa placed her finger over the button. “For my sister.”
He nodded. “For Earth.”
She pressed and they stared at one another.
***
“It’s been a little too quiet over there.” Kaleb eyed the Genesis II. It floated silently, like a ghost ship. Waiting was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Had he killed the encroachers or everyone onboard the Genesis II, including the crew? Had it affected the aliens at all?
“Do you think it worked?”
Jessica hadn’t moved from that spot in forty-five minutes. He could feel her tension. She wanted to go to the planet and finish the job. He’d ordered her to stand down until they knew the status of the captured ship’s crew. Until they knew if the virus worked and the Genesis II’s crew was safe on the Ark, no one should go to the planet. Any trip to the surface could tip off the enemy and cause the deaths of everyone on the Genesis II—if they engaged their weapon and blew up the ship.
He still hadn’t infected Jessica. Ordering her to stay put had a lot to do with that. If she went down to the planet, she couldn’t go as she was. She was right. They didn’t know what they’d find down there. After the close call, he didn’t want her to take that chance again and end up like Melissa’s sister. And
he’d promised to infect her, but he could also send one of the security officers to the planet. He didn’t need to infect her….
Why’d he made that promise? What the hell had he been thinking?
“It’s been twelve hours. I’ve tried to contact the deck multiple times and I haven’t gotten a response,” Jessica said. “I think that virus did something to the hijackers.”
“We don’t know that. They could be waiting for us to go over there.”
“We should spring the prisoners.” Melissa strolled over to the glass to stand beside Jessica. Her fingers splayed over the surface.
There was another one who was full of tension. Not just tension. Anger, hurt. She was headed for a breakdown, and he couldn’t hold it off much longer. He couldn’t blame her. On the outside, she appeared to be handling it better than expected. It was all an illusion. If he hadn’t been able to smell her distress, hear the staggered breathing or the way her heart pounded, he would think she wasn’t affected.
But he could. Melissa’s grasp was slipping. She was only one beat away from falling apart. Under any other circumstance he would’ve had her sedated and watched. Melissa needed to be held and comforted, impossible at the moment, and that was killing him. He hated her hurt. He hated those who’d hurt her. But he couldn’t show it, inside or out. She needed his strength right now. They all needed it.
“Not until we know it’s safe.” He scrolled through his data on the virus one more time. He didn’t need to, but it was something to do, to keep his focus off her distress.
“Don’t you think they’d have responded to our transmissions before now if it hadn’t affected them,” Jessica snapped.
God, back to the bitchiness that had plagued the mission before he’d been bitten. He didn’t need her attitude. Not now. Keeping Melissa calm was hard enough. With Jessica feeding it, she’d break. Kaleb glanced up from the screen and drew a deep breath.
“If they’ve somehow discovered what we’ve done, they might be playing possum and waiting for us to make the first move.” The entire crew was going to be sick as hell until the mutation eliminated the flu. Even if they did spring them, those rescued might not be up for a revolt. They’d be lucky to crawl out of their beds, and some of them might die from it. A wrong move right now could result in the deaths of the entire crew, a chance he wasn’t willing to take.
Last Flight of the Ark Page 10