Justine tried not to let her emotions get the better of her, but the atrocities committed against her and the people she cared about stacked up.
She couldn’t simply seal off the room unless she was able to get Lieutenant Jeffries and his men out first, and the only way she could communicate that plan was to rematerialize.
Scanning the area near the two holdouts, Justine looked for anything electrical that she could use her powers on. If she could cause something to blow up near Klaus, it could possibly disable them or provide enough of a distraction to get Lieutenant Jeffries out. But there was nothing she could see that would do what she wanted.
Justine decided to go for broke and hope Lieutenant Jeffries would figure out what was going on and get himself and his men to safety.
She pushed her quantized self through the small opening in the broken window of the workshop door and into the room.
All eyes turned to her as she floated into the center of the room.
Klaus raised his rifle and fired off a single shot in her direction. The ion stream passed through her harmlessly. As if the result did not completely surprise him, Klaus scuttled toward a computer keypad.
Justine had no idea what his intention was, but Klaus had obviously figured out the ball of light in front of him was her, and by the self-confident sneer on his face he most likely had a theory on how to capture or kill her. Of course, when he started the experiments, he would have thought ahead about how to control any transformed subject.
Lieutenant Jeffries wasn’t taking the opportunity, so Justine had no choice.
She transformed back to her human form, and stood in the middle of the room, stark naked.
It had the desired effect on Klaus. He paused in his search for the keypad to look at her.
Justine shouted, “Get out of the room,” to Lieutenant Jeffries and, accustomed to following orders, he grabbed both of his men and complied.
When she turned back to Klaus, he had his rifle pointed directly at her, his lips curling up. In his other hand he held the keypad, and his thumb was pressed down on a key.
Justine immediately willed herself to transform into a quantized state, but nothing happened.
“Too late,” Klaus said triumphantly. Lifting the keypad up, he winked at her. “Kinemetic damper. The same tech they use in a quantum drive. The whole room has been wired for it, not just the lab. Now, I’m afraid, I’m going to have to terminate your experiment.”
Klaus leveled the barrel of the rifle at her head.
There was the distinctive electrical whir sound, and then a frozen moment when Justine’s heart stopped.
A puzzled look on his face, Klaus slowly sank to his knees. On his chest, a small circle of blood blossomed, and he fell face down on the floor, releasing the keypad.
Behind him, one of the younger Cruzados, who Justine had thought was dead, lay on his side, a small ion pistol stretched out in front of him.
“Lo siento,” he said, and then his arm dropped and he went still.
Justine didn’t have time to wonder what had caused one of the Cruzados to turn on Klaus, because Captain Gruber, with a roar of outrage, jumped up from his hiding spot, aimed his own pistol at her, and fired.
But Justine, free from the damper, was able to quantize herself a split second before the first ion stream sliced through her bare skin.
Lieutenant Jeffries and his two men charged back into the room.
His ion pistol spent, Gruber threw it at them in futility. They quickly tackled him and wrestled him to the ground.
Justine, sensing she was nearing the end of her Kinemetic fuel, moved her photonic self to the wall near the door of the lab. Her uniform had been hung on a hook there. She reverted to a physical form and quickly dressed while the lieutenant secured his prisoner.
“What the hell is going on?” Lieutenant Jeffries asked in what Justine thought was a very controlled voice, considering the circumstances. “What was that ball of light? Was that you? I mean, I had a briefing on the Kinemetic effect. Is that what happened to you? That’s what Klaus was doing here?”
Nodding, Justine said, “I’ll explain everything to you later. Right now, I need to secure the observatory. You find a communications room and get word back to Earth about what happened here.”
“Uh, yes, Major.”
Justine took a step toward the door, but paused, and knelt down beside the young Cruzado who had saved her life. She felt for a pulse, but the young man was truly dead.
“And, if you could, please find out who this person was. He saved my life.”
∞
It took Justine a little less than a quarter of an hour to make a full circuit of the observatory and use her electropathic ability to seal off any Cruzado she found. Taken completely off guard, they didn’t stand a chance. By her count, there were at least forty of them held inside the common area, and half a dozen other stragglers she trapped in their individual rooms or work areas.
When she was finished, the returned to the room where the Kinemet was stored. She used her sight to look inside. The Cruzado was standing in front of the container, his face painted with anger.
She spoke in Spanish, and pitched her voice for him to hear through the door. “We’ve taken control of the observatory. Your leaders are dead or captured. We have reinforcements on the way. You don’t have any food or water. Put down your rifle now, lay on the floor with your hands folded on your head.”
There was a brief moment when she thought he either didn’t hear her, or was planning on being defiant. But then he tossed the rifle away from him and got down on the floor.
Justine unlocked the door and stepped inside, quickly grabbing the ion pulse rifle.
“All right, I want you to slowly get up and move into the other room. You’ll wait there until we come for you.”
Glaring at her, the Cruzado nevertheless complied, and once he was safely locked away in an adjacent room, Justine returned to the Kinemet, sat down beside it … and basked in its radiance.
∞
Once she felt her energy levels were back to normal, Justine once more tried using her clairvoyant ability. This time, she pushed herself and tried to home in on Alex’s weak signal.
It was difficult to get a fix on him because he seemed to be fading in and out.
Having the ability to see at great distances without physically being there was revolutionary. Alex’s ability, kept top secret and shared with only a privileged few, had all but dissipated during the years he was not infused with Kinemetic radiation. He had told Justine once that he could only push his senses so far before he became mentally exhausted, even at the height of his power.
It was possible, Justine thought, that Alex had tried to use his power to find her after the hijacking and had exceeded his capacity. If so, he might have exhausted himself and didn’t have enough reserves to pull his consciousness back to his body.
Experimenting, Justine confirmed what Alex had told her. At about one hundred and fifty kilometers from the Lucis Observatory, her conscious vision stopped moving forward. It was as if she had hit a barrier, and no matter how much energy she exerted, she could not push past it.
As Justine moved her sight back toward the observatory, she took in the deadly beauty of Venus. Unlike Earth, whose surface detail could be seen between patches of cloud, Venus was completely covered by its sulfuric clouds. It was mesmerizing, and Justine wanted to drift out there in space forever, exploring all the celestial wonders of space.
But too many people were relying on her.
Returned to her corporeal self, Justine reflected a moment on the powers she had acquired, and being a trained astronaut, she connected most of the dots.
In order to navigate at luminal speeds, a pilot would need the ability to sense the star beacons as if they were a navigational map. She assumed the clairvoyant sight was a reflection of that ability. The electropathy would be twofold. Although she had no empirical data on which to base her theory, it made sense t
hat she would be able to course-correct a quantized ship in flight using the ability. Also, it would be needed once a quantized ship was returned to normal space, in order to dampen the engines and prevent a secondary Kinemetic reaction.
Or, she thought, she might be able to stop the reaction herself without the aid of a damper. There was a lot of experimentation that needed to be done.
She wasn’t certain where the enhanced visual memory would come into play. It could just be a side-effect of being a Kinemat.
She remembered that was the word Alex called himself, and had wondered at times if he was still human.
As she processed the thoughts, she continued to bathe in the radiation of raw Kinemet.
∞
When Lieutenant Jeffries found her and gently shook her shoulder, it took everything in her not to ignore him and sink deeper into the influence of the powerful metal.
“We’ve secured the observatory,” he said to her when she opened her eyes. “All of the Cruzados are in the common room, along with Gruber. We can keep them there indefinitely.”
“What about the young man who saved my life?” she asked.
“Gruber wouldn’t say a word. One of the other Cruzados said the man’s name was Terry, but he wasn’t really one of the rebels. You’ll never believe this: he was the grandson of that Mayan who had the scroll in Honduras. I didn’t get the whole story, but apparently Klaus and Jose—the leader of the Cruzados—tricked him into stealing the scroll.”
More treachery, Justine thought.
The lieutenant said, “You were right, we did get transferred to another ship, the Ultio. It’s a space yacht, with some upgrades. It’s in dock.”
“I assume the Diana is lost, then.”
The lieutenant nodded, then said, “We did an inventory of the computers in the lab. Most were destroyed in the fight, and if there were any data backups, we can’t find them. There’s no way to retrieve Klaus’s work.”
“Did you find the scroll?”
The lieutenant shook his head. “No sign of it. It may have been destroyed once Klaus had what he wanted from it.”
“Well,” Justine said, “we’ll just have to trust that our scientists can reverse engineer … me.”
He looked uncomfortable with reciting the next portion of his report, and it was only after Justine prodded him that he spoke.
“We’ve removed all the bodies; they’re in cold storage.”
“Clive?”
“Yeah. Him too. I’m so sorry about that,” Lieutenant Jeffries said, gently placing a consoling hand on her shoulder.
“Never mind,” Justine said, pushing her feelings deep down. She would think about it another time, when she was more capable of dealing with it. “Did you contact home?”
The lieutenant cocked his head and made an inscrutable face. “It’s about a five-minute delay in EPS transmissions, so we don’t have the whole story. I’ve got Private Genero in the communication room. So far, though, it looks like we’re going to be on our own.”
Justine stood up. “What?”
“Colonel Gagne said it all started with a crackdown in Honduras. Apparently, the Cruzados down there kidnapped the old Mayan and Michael Sanderson, and killed a U.S. national, George Markowitz. Mr. Sanderson managed to escape with the Mayan. The Honduran military moved in and put down the rebels. Apparently, the three of them figured out what was so important about the ancient scroll—probably that the formula for … making someone like you … was in there all along.”
“My God,” Justine said. “George.”
Jeffries took a breath and continued: “But that information was leaked, and now most of the world country corporations know that someone has worked out the solution to Kinemet. Both the People’s Republic of China and the Arabic Consortium are howling mad.”
“The Arabs?” Justine said.
“I guess since most countries have stopped using oil for fuel, they’re scrambling for a way to get back on top. They’ve issued ultimatums to share the technology under threat of hostilities. The world is in gridlock at the moment. Everyone’s borders are closing. There’s talk of war.”
It took a moment for Justine to process that, but her thoughts returned to George Markowitz. She’d met him a few times. Another senseless death. And there would be many more if matters continued down their current path.
“So,” Lieutenant Jeffries said. “What’s the plan, boss? We sit here and wait?”
“Did Colonel Gagne give any specific orders?”
“Nothing other than to secure and defend the Kinemet. He’s waiting on higher-ups to make a decision.”
“In that case, I’d rather not sit around here waiting and doing nothing. Why don’t we load this container back on the Ultio and head back to CS3?”
The lieutenant looked surprised. “CS3? Why there?”
“You remember that boy we brought on board before the hijacking?”
“Alex, the one you told me to forget about?”
Justine nodded. “Yeah, well, he’s in trouble, and I think the only way to save him is with that Kinemet.”
“There’s only four of us and over forty of the rebels,” Lieutenant Jeffries said. “I’m not sure we can handle all of them on a trip back.”
“There’s enough food and water here on the observatory for at least a few weeks or so; enough time for the U.S. Space Corp. to get up here and take care of them.”
Lieutenant Jeffries raised an eyebrow, looking unsure.
Justine stood up and patted the top of the container. She smiled.
“Well, are you heading my way?” she asked. “Wanna lift?”
33
Canada Station Three :
Lagrange Point 4 :
Earth Orbit :
Although Michael wanted to work through the sixteen-hour flight from Nova Scotia to CS3, he fell into a deep exhausted sleep soon after launch and didn’t wake up until the ship began to slow on approach.
While Yaxche had found the skybus trips from Honduras to Toronto and from Toronto to Yarmouth horrifying experiences, he seemed to really take to space travel. After all, there was no turbulence in space.
Michael found him in the forward observation lounge, sitting on a comfortable sofa bench, watching as the two-kilometer-wide space station slowly grew larger and larger as they got closer. There were twenty or so other people in the room, all watching in companionable silence and mesmerized appreciation.
“I could not take my eyes off the Earth as we left,” Yaxche said into his translator when Michael sat down beside him. “I have seen videos from my grandson’s pocket computer, but it is not the same. I am a simple man from a simple village.” He pointed to the massive space station. “This is like something from a dream. It is no wonder the gods reside out here.”
“It’s addictive, being in space.” Michael crossed one leg over the other and leaned back, sharing in the moment. “I’ve only been a few times. I keep forgetting how beautiful it is.”
An attendant entered the room and quickly set his eyes on Michael. He approached and leaned closer. In a soft voice he said, “You have a call from Earth, sir.”
“All right, thank you,” Michael said, and with a smile to Yaxche, he got up and followed the attendant to a communication booth.
∞
It was Calbert.
“I don’t know if you’ve scanned the newsblogs yet,” the CEO of Quantum Resources said, “but the survivors of the Diana have contacted Earth.”
“Survivors!” Michael said, his voice loud enough that a few other passengers who were taking calls turned their heads at the sound. His face flushed red, not from embarrassment, but from anger and worry.
“Four of the Americans, including Major Justine Turner, managed to overpower a band of Cruzados on the abandoned Venus orbital, Lucis Observatory, and recover the stolen Kinemet.”
Michael breathed a sigh of relief that Justine was alive, but a thousand questions flooded his mind. He bit his tongue until Calbert wa
s finished with his story.
“It looks like the Cruzados were led by Klaus Vogelsberg and Trent Gruber. Klaus was killed in the firefight, but they managed to capture Gruber alive.”
“Klaus?” Michael hadn’t heard that name for years, and had completely dismissed him from his memory.
“Yeah. Apparently, he’s been trafficking in information all this time since the Quanta hijacking, and over the years managed to set up a network of contacts throughout Earth and the Moon. That fits in with your theory of who was behind all this. He somehow recruited the Cruzados to his cause, as well as quite a few others. They’re cleaning house on Luna Station as we speak.”
It did explain things, but there was obviously much more to the story. “Are they sending a rescue mission?”
“Not right away,” Calbert said. “The prisoners are secured on the observatory, and Major Turner and the American soldiers are on their way to CS3—they’re using Klaus’ ship, the Ultio. We’re assuming the Diana has been disintegrated by the Sun.”
“Did you find out what Klaus was doing there?”
Calbert shook his head. “If the Americans know, they’re keeping silent about it so far. Especially since the People’s Republic of China has filed an official complaint with the United Earth Corporate Council against USA, Inc.”
“The Chinese? On what grounds?” Michael asked.
“Can you believe it? They’re citing the Nuclear Ban Treaty of ‘42.”
Michael blinked. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
“Well, Kinemet is based on nuclear technology. They demanded that we prove we aren’t using it to make weapons.”
“That’s ludicrous!” Michael said.
With a shrug, Calbert lifted his eyebrows. “There are a lot of country corporations who feel they’ve been excluded from the technology. With everything that’s been happening on Earth, there’s renewed interest in new developments. No one wants to get left behind. The Council is convening an emergency session. Talk from SMD is the motion might be ratified. It’s a political move.”
Music of the Spheres (The Interstellar Age Book 2) Page 23