by Sarah Noffke
The lieutenant was stationed on Julianna’s ship, which was cloaked, same as theirs.
Eddie shot Knox an encouraging look. “You ready to do this?”
Knox gulped. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
~~~
The smell of gasoline was strong in the air. Julianna stood at the back of the ship, looking at the junkyard in front of her. Fletcher was instructing his team outside.
I don’t miss that smell.
I kind of like it.
You can smell?
Not technically.
Then, technically, how can you like the smell of a gas?
I’ve studied the characteristics of a large catalog of smells.
I could see that coming in handy if you’re trying to help me investigate something.
This isn’t always about you.
Touché.
Your French is beautiful.
Merci.
Gasoline reminds me a of a simpler time.
Simpler, true, but dirtier. It’s currently polluting this planet’s air.
Yes, I’ve already turned your respiratory intake down to minimize the amount of toxins you inhale.
Smart thinking.
I’d do the same for the captain, but, well…
Stop beating a dead horse.
That’s such a strange expression.
We’re going to discuss this integration business soon, so drop it.
When?
Soon.
I’m holding you to that.
I have no doubt about that. What’s your obsession with being in Eddie’s head, anyway?
Besides the fact that he said I could control his body?
Yes, aside from your damn obsession with control.
He’s a man, if you haven’t noticed.
I’ve noticed.
…Your body temperature just rose a degree.
No, it didn’t, Julianna argued.
Anyway. My reason for wanting to be in Eddie’s head is simple: I want the chance to hear, and be a part of, a man’s thoughts—you know, since I’m a man and all.
You’re male.
Same thing.
How do you think being in Eddie’s head is going to be different than being in mine?
Men are simple.
I’m simple.
Pip laughed. At any given moment, you’re processing six to eight thoughts. As a female, your multitasking abilities are impressive, and also a bit overwhelming.
So you want to be in Eddie’s head so you can have some quiet time? Julianna laughed inwardly.
Should I tell the captain that you think his thoughts are akin to a tumbleweed rolling through the desert?
Don’t put words in my mouth.
Fine. Yes, I’d like to study a simpler being. Understanding the difference between a man and a woman is a goal of mine. Call it a part of my dissertation.
Gender studies, huh?
When I’m done, you can call me ‘Dr. Pip’.
Good thing I didn’t name you Pepper, then.
I don’t get the reference.
Go brush up on inferior Earth sodas.
Sure. I’ve got nothing else to do, Pip said as Julianna stepped out of the Q-Ship.
Fletcher’s team dispersed, scanning the area as they marched through the wreckage.
Eddie smiled at her when she approached. “The greenish haze makes your eyes stand out,” he said with a wink.
Julianna nodded to Knox and Cheng beside him. “The pollution is going to the captain’s head. Take shallow breaths.”
Cheng guffawed, but Knox ignored the interaction.
“I hid the Tangle Thief in there,” the boy said, pointing at the severed stern of the battlecruiser. It was the largest thing in this area of the junkyard, being the size of a ten-story building.
Julianna started in the direction of the ship, intent on making this as fast a trip as possible.
“Carnivore, here,” Lars said over the comm.
Julianna looked up, finding the Black Eagles streaking across the gray sky.
“This is Black Beard. Go on,” Eddie answered.
“You have some company headed your way from the north end of the junkyard.”
~~~
With his back against a rusted-out freight car, Fletcher lifted his rifle. He’d heard rustling from the other side of the car a moment before Lars’s message broadcasted over the comm.
The sound was closer.
Not just closer, he thought. Overhead.
Drawing in a breath, Fletcher tore his gaze upward, but all he saw was the pile of old cars in front of him.
The sound came again, louder and right above him.
Whipping around, Fletcher aimed his rifle at the top of a freight car.
A Petigren cackled, its pointy teeth flashing bright against its dark face. The creature leapt off the top of the car, and Fletcher fired rapidly as he reversed out of the trajectory of the flying beast.
He shot the Petigren in the midsection several times. It landed on the ground in front of him with a thud.
Inhaling quickly, Fletcher looked up to find two more Petigrens, standing on top of the freight car.
Of course there would be fucking rats in the junkyard, he thought with a grimace.
“Want some cheese?” Fletcher asked, holding up his rifle, aiming it at the closest Petigren.
Its needle-like fingers were clenched by its chest, as it jerked its head to the side. The rat-man growled, narrowing his red eyes at Fletcher.
Fletcher was about to fire, when something caught his attention. He chanced a glance behind him; standing at the top of the pile of cars were two more Petigrens.
Fuck! Just when I thought this was going to be easy.
Spinning around, Fletcher fired at the Petigren on the surface of the freight car. He fell, and there were four more in its place.
Fucking rats! These things are multiplying.
Three jumped from above, and two others began climbing down the sides. Fletcher moved smoothly and swiftly to cover the avenues of approach, firing again and again to knocking out Petigrens with a single shot each. When they tumbled forward, their momentum threw off the balance of the stack of cars, and the top vehicle lurched forward.
Fucking hell.
The whole thing was about to topple.
Claws reached around Fletcher’s neck from behind, and he threw his body weight forward, throwing the Petigren over his back. It squeaked when it landed.
The snarling of the other Petigrens racing for Fletcher was quickly drowned out by a cacophony of screeching metal, as the top car came free of the stack, turning end over end through the air. Two more immediately followed, gliding down behind the first.
Fletcher reached out, grabbing the closest approaching Petigren. He threw it hard in the opposite direction, and it slammed into the bottom of the stack before springing back to its feet. As the Petigren readied to come at Fletcher again, the first falling car landed on top of it, smashing it flat with a squish.
~~~
“If the Petigrens are here, that means the Saverus are, too,” Julianna stated after getting Lars’s report.
Eddie disappeared to the Q-Ship and returned a moment later, carrying the Saverus goggles. He handed one set to Julianna and the other to Knox.
“We’re going to have to share, but we should pull these up every time we encounter anyone.”
All of the color had drained from Cheng’s face. Encountering the alien race who had imprisoned him for almost a decade wasn’t easy.
Knox, seeing his father’s palpable fear, said, “Dad, you don’t have to go with me.”
Cheng shook his head. “Of course I do.”
“No, you don’t,” Knox argued. “Stay in the Q-Ship. It’s secure, and you’ll be safe there.”
“What about you, though?” Cheng asked.
“I have to go,” Knox said.
“You don’t, actually,” Julianna countered. “Tell us where the Tangle Thief is located, and
we’ll retrieve it.”
Knox was shaking his head before she was done speaking. “I’ve got to do this. I’m the reason it went missing. I need to be the one who finds it.”
“Neither of you are trained for combat,” Eddie interjected. “It could be dangerous out there. The Petigrens are vicious, and the Saverus… well, they’re fucking snakes.”
“Knox, they’re right,” Cheng said to his son.
Knox ran his top teeth over bottom lip several times. “I grew up on this planet. I may not know how to fight, but I know how to stay alive. I’m going.”
“Yeah, fine,” Eddie stated.
“Cheng, I think you should stay in the Q-Ship,” Julianna said.
The scientist gave her a look of alarm. “If Knox is going, then I am, too.”
“The captain and I will have our work cut out for us protecting him,” Julianna explained. “You don’t need to go; if the Saverus get ahold of you again, they’ll take you prisoner, use you for leverage against us. That’s not something we should risk.”
Cheng looked between Julianna and Knox. He swallowed. “I haven’t been around to protect Knox for so long. He needs to recover the device, and I need to be there to help if I can. I won’t get in the way, I promise.”
Julianna nodded. She wasn’t going to argue anymore; they were wasting time. “Okay, stick together people.”
~~~
Verdok stood in his natural form, between the wreckage of a tank and a pile of farming equipment. This planet mostly appeared to be the trashcan of the system. He’d been staked out for a few days and had watched shuttles fly in and dump loads of junk and garbage.
Whoever was flying the ships didn’t care about this planet, or the fact that the offloaded trash would contaminate the water supply. They didn’t concern themselves with the race who called the unclassified planet home, either. The natives had probably been overrun long ago; maybe they were even extinct, deprived as they were of a clean supply of water. Or maybe, like the Saverus, they were biding their time, preparing to strike back.
Verdok slipped into the shadows. “The boy is here and will lead them to the Tangle Thief,” he said to the three other Saverus.
“Our patience has paid off,” one of them said.
“Yes. The Petigrens will serve as a distraction, overwhelming their other forces, while we track the boy and his friends to the device,” Verdok explained. He shifted into the form of the woman holding a rifle, having catalogued her identity when in Area 126.
“One of you change to the form of Cheng, the scientist we had imprisoned, since we know he’s here,” Verdok ordered.
The closest Saverus shifted until he had taken on the appearance of the scientist who had never given them any helpful information regarding the Tangle Thief.
“You two, take on any human form you wish; once you’ve gotten close to a member of Ghost Squadron, steal their identity,” Verdok said.
The Saverus shifted into different forms, one male and the other female.
“We must stay back until they lead us to the Tangle Thief,” Verdok ordered. “Once we find out exactly where it is, then we can do what we do best.”
The Saverus in the form of Cheng smiled disingenuously. “Confuse and deceive.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Black Eagle, Outskirts Junkyard, Planet L2SCQ-6 in Frontier space
It astounded Lars, how large the junkyard was. It covered at least four square miles. But more staggering than its physical size was the sizable infestation of Petigrens.
He’d first noticed the rat-men, crawling among the wreckage of an ancient plane, as he circled the perimeter of the junkyard. Now that he was on alert for them, he noted that there had to be a few hundred. The Saverus had been expecting them, and came prepared for a fight.
But the Petigrens couldn’t touch Lars in the Black Eagle.
He’d flown over the same section twice, ensuring that only Petigrens littered the area. The rat-men scurried around the heaps of junk as if they were hunting for food.
Soon they’d realize that Ghost Squadron was there; Lars had to decrease their numbers before that happened. Otherwise the ground forces would be overwhelmed.
Lars locked his sights on a pack of Petigrens clogging a path. He never enjoyed killing, but in taking out these evil creatures, he felt like he’d been sent to clean out an infestation. Lars pulled the trigger, unleashing a barrage of bullets.
“Exterminate. Exterminate,” he said, watching as the Petigrens were ripped apart by the rapid fire.
Petigrens shot out of various hiding places, scared by the sudden noise. Lars swerved the Black Eagle around, taking aim at another swarm. He was about to celebrate an early victory when a ship dropped out of the low clouds overhead.
Lars’s chest tightened at the sight of the chrome ship. Dammit, not again.
~~~
Nona had pulled herself into the top of the old fire tower when Lars’s voice crackled over the comm.
“Enemy ships have appeared,” the Kezzin said.
“Dammit!” Eddie yelled over the comm. “The shapeshifting ones?”
“Yes, sir,” Lars said.
“Avoid any air attacks,” Eddie ordered. “Focus all efforts on defending the ground forces. Do not, I repeat, do not fire at aircraft. They’re trying to confuse us, and we can’t risk shooting down one of our own.”
“Copy that, Black Beard,” Lars said.
Nona looked up from the edge of the tower. In the gray sky filled with ominous clouds, she counted half a dozen Black Eagles. A moment later, the chrome ships materialized, and she realized that they’d been there all along, blending in with the sky due to their mirrored appearance.
She pressed her scope to her eye and looked up at the sky, finding one of the Saverus’s ships. The chrome vehicle flashed, sending out a blinding light, and was replaced by a Black Eagle.
Whoa.
She’d heard that the Saverus’s ships could shapeshift, but seeing it firsthand was trippy. Nona had always been happy with her choice to become a sniper, but sometimes she’d wondered if she’d do well as a pilot. For once, she was wholeheartedly glad that she didn’t take that path. The pilots overhead had gone from having an easy job of picking off Petigrens from the safety of their ship, to being surrounded by a disguised enemy.
Nona swiveled her rifle down, scanning the area for Petigrens. She was definitely in the safest place for this battle, with a bird’s eye view of the junkyard, and no enemy who could easily touch her. She stabilized her rifle on the balustrade of the tower, ensuring she had the most stable platform she could get.
A Petigren scurried from behind a pile of old, beaten up appliances.
Time to start picking off rats.
Nona rested her cheek on her rifle, looking straight through the scope and finding her target. She focused on the reticle, set up her sight alignment, and released the safety, conscious of the loud click the action made. Placing the pad of her finger on the trigger, she started the steady build of pressure until the rifle fired.
The bullet struck the Petigren in the back of the head. One shot. One kill.
~~~
Julianna was at the front of the retrieval team, while Eddie brought up the rear. The putrid smell of rot mixed with dust wafted through the metal structures all around them. If Eddie had a chance, he’d pause to appreciate the different piles of junk they passed. In a strange way, they were beautiful, these unwanted items piled together, accidentally making sculptures, works of art.
Julianna halted. Her back tensed. She slid her gaze to meet Eddie’s, and with a slight hand gesture, motioned to something on the other side of a bus that lay nearly on its side. It was barely being held up by the scrap pieces of cars stacked under it.
Eddie nodded, acknowledging Julianna’s signal, and released the safety on his rifle.
Then he motioned for Knox and Cheng to move back. His enhanced hearing picked up on the scratching seconds before a Petigren leapt out from behind t
he bus.
Julianna shot it twice and threw a glance at Eddie. “Fucker never stood a chance,” she said, glowing from the adrenaline rush.
“Damn straight,” Eddie replied, catching sight of another approaching Petigren in his peripheral. “This one is mine.”
He took a step forward, raising his rifle.
A Petigren with zero sense of self-preservation ran straight for them.
Aiming, Eddie took a breath, holding it as he pulled the trigger. The Petigren fell on his hairy face, his feet tumbling over his head from the momentum.
“They really are dumb little shits,” Julianna spat, assessing the path. It was clear ahead.
“Guys?” Knox’s tone was apprehensive.
Eddie turned to find exactly why. Behind them, scurrying over broken cars and around mountains of junk, were dozens of Petigrens. With their teeth bared and eyes glowing red, the beasts looked hungry.
“Fucking hell!” Eddie yelled.
“Get moving,” Julianna ordered, urging Knox and Cheng into the lead and pushing them down the clear path.
Eddie unleashed a volley of fire, taking down a few of the Petigrens. For every one he hit, though, three more took its place. He sprinted after the group as he reloaded, fully aware that the Petigrens were closing in on them. The little shits are fast as hell. Eddie and Julianna could have outrun them, but Knox and Cheng would have been left behind.
After going through another magazine, Eddie threw his rifle over his shoulder. He pulled his pistols from his holsters and held up both guns, alternating shots, taking out Petigrens one at a time.
“Eddie!” Julianna yelled behind him.
“What?” he asked, not daring to turn around.
“We’re boxed in!” she exclaimed.
Julianna stepped up beside him, taking over the coverage. He spun around to find that they were in a dead-end of a valley of junk. It had all been pushed up into slanted walls, and the Petigrens were closing in from every angle.
“Fuck!” Eddie yelled. “We’re going to have to reroute.”
“Knox says that the Tangle Thief is that way!” Julianna said, motioning in the distance before firing beside Eddie. They were barely keeping the Petigrens back.
“Hey, Knox!” Eddie called, throwing a glance at his back.