Zenith (ESS Space Marines Book 1)

by James David Victor

  “And?” Andy prompted after the pause went on too long.

  “Nothing.” The delivery was flat, but Andy thought she sensed a hint of frustration in Anallin’s voice. Or maybe she was projecting, because that answer certainly frustrated her.

  “What do you mean ‘nothing’?” she asked, barely suppressing most of her aggravation. “That wasn’t normal, even Roxanna could sense that, so how could you not find anything to explain it?”

  “If I had the answer to that, Sergeant, I would tell you,” Anallin said. “I am not saying that there are not abnormalities, there does not exist a human without them, but there are none that would explain what we saw here.”

  Andy took a deep breath. She wanted to scream, but she would not let her team see her break down. They were all breaking down on their own, so she couldn’t let her own weakness show through. That wasn’t who she was. That wasn’t being a marine.

  Collecting herself, she nodded once. “Log the scans and we’ll have medical look at them once we’re back on the ship.”

  Anallin nodded and turned away. Andy noted the lack of proper acknowledgement yet again, but decided that now wasn’t the time to make an issue of that. There were, as one might say, bigger fish to fry. Or maybe they were the fish being fried.

  Suddenly, her earpiece exploded with communication bursts. She winced and turned her head sharply, but there was no escaping the sound.

  “Fire! Fire!”

  “Dear gods, what are they doing?”

  “What am I supposed to do?!”

  “Halt!”

  “Fire at will!”

  “No! No! No! Stop there!”

  The panic in every voice coming across the communication system made it nearly impossible to determine whose voice was whose, but she felt sure that every other team was facing what her team had. In fact, they sounded much worse off.

  “Retreat,” Andy finally ordered tensely. “Anallin, get Thomas. We’re going back to the ship, ASAP.”

  Chapter 9

  “What’s going on? What’s going on?” Jade said, over and over. She barely kept her rifle up while she pressed her other hand against her head.

  Unfortunately for Andy and her team, those burst comms had been full team. They had all heard it, and it certainly did nothing to help their own states of mind. Dan was wailing steadily now. He was so distracted by his panic that he didn’t even seem to notice when Anallin pulled him over a broad shoulder and carried him like that.

  Roxanna was back to her steady stream of Selerid, but at least it was quiet. Jade was straight up panicking. Her eyes were so wide, Andy worried that she was going to tear apart her eyelids and let her eyeballs just fall out.

  “We cannot fall apart,” Andy said harshly. They just didn’t have the time. “Move out!”

  She spoke with more confidence than she felt, not that she lacked confidence in the decision to get the heck out of there. Andy knew that they couldn’t stay out in the station like this and the only chance to recoup some from what was going on was to get back onto that shuttle and then get their butts back onto the Star Chaser. Sometimes, retreat was the only option and she determined that to be the case now. She had full confidence in that fact.

  However, it was an act to make it look like she was not affected. It was there, an emotion burrowing deep into her core as she watched what was happening to her team, but she just had to ignore it. She could deal with it later.

  As they started to move again, Andy found that her sense of direction was skewed. The corridors all looked the same, and the heightened tension combined with the flickering lights and the constant stream of noise was simply not good at helping one keep a mental map going.

  She got them down one corridor before calling for a halt to pull out her scanner. There was a schematic of the station loaded into it, which she hadn’t needed before since her orders had simply been “check everywhere.” She needed it now, however, just to make sure she found the right way back to the shuttle.

  Doing her best to drown out the noise from her team, she looked at the map and oriented herself to where they were and where they had to go. Snapping the scanner shut, she put it away and then gestured for them to follow.

  They moved with even more caution and awareness than they had on the way into the station, but with as much speed as possible. She didn’t want them to be there any longer than they had to be at this point, but she knew that they couldn’t run. They couldn’t be stupid, and she had the strong feeling that the others would do just that if she let them go on their own.

  The more they traveled, the urge to just bolt for the finish line grew stronger, but she resisted.

  As the minutes dragged on, she began to regret her restraint...or maybe she was grateful for it. She couldn’t decide which.

  Suddenly, Roxanna’s stream of sound stopped with a gasp of what Andy could only think of as horror. Turning back to look at her corporal, she brought the group to a stop. She knew this wasn’t good.

  “There’s more,” was all the Selerid said, her skin shimmering again. She wasn’t looking at Andy, but down the corridor they were walking through.

  “How many?” Andy asked, hoping that maybe she could give them some sort of hint.

  “I don’t know...I don’t...know...I...” Her comprehensible language trailed off and the incoherence returned, along with a shaking of her head so violent that she was in very real danger of getting whiplash.

  Could Selerid get whiplash? Andy had never asked.

  “Keep your eyes open, and keep it together,” Andy ordered, hoping that her team was still capable of that. She risked a quick glance to either side and behind to see that Jade had her rifle up, though she still looked like a terrified rabbit. Anallin still had a muttering Dan over a shoulder but the other hand had a rifle ready to fire, though probably not very accurately. Roxanna had managed to stop shaking her head, but her rifle still shook.

  Her squad did not inspire confidence, but she had no choice but to hope for the best.

  It was another group that emerged from the shadows. They were all human or humanoid, and all wearing the starbase’s uniform. They looked much like the ones they had already encountered, though some bore obvious injuries.

  There was no mistaking the fact that the new group was fully aware of them. Andy never had the chance to tell them to stop or give them a chance to back off. This group saw her and her marines and they simply rushed forward with an incoherent, half-screaming war cry.

  Andy grit her teeth. “Fire,” she commanded.

  The pulses arced forward with the same slightly haphazard paths that they had followed before, but at least they were lined up in such a way that they couldn’t shoot each other. Small mercies, that. The first few took hits, but only Andy’s were on target enough to bring them down and the group crossed the space between them far more quickly than she would have expected.

  “Back up,” she ordered. “Keep firing. Stay in formation.”

  Her muscles tensed, but she forced herself to stay loose enough to follow her own directives. They shifted back carefully, but Jade had started crying, or that was what it sounded like. Andy tuned it out as best she could to focus on the problem before her, but the enemy group kept advancing and her focused fire was not enough to stop them.

  The narrow corridor was the only thing that saved them. There just wasn’t enough room for more than two or three crazed crew members to attack at a time. Unfortunately, every time one went down another was there to take its place. It made the enemy seem never-ending. Andy was beginning to wonder just how many of them there were and how many more would be coming when Roxanna cried out again.

  “Side!” she managed to get out clear enough for Andy to be warned. She snapped her head around to a side corridor they happened to be shuffling back past and saw that there was another group coming. This one looked far smaller, but it was still a second threat when they had their hands full with the one they were already facing.

  A str
eam of colorful curses bounced around inside her brain as she ordered them to move back a little quicker, but still keep up fire. Their shots had managed to take down enough of the opposition to start to stem the tide with a barrier of bodies, but the ones staggering over the top and the ones coming from the side were still going to be too much.

  Andy just had to hope that none were coming up behind her, and take a chance. “Into the next room,” she commanded, firing once more before looking over her shoulder to see when the next door was coming up. “There!”

  Jade stopped firing first, racing for the door and scrambling for the button. Their one piece of luck of the day was that it opened without having to use the micro press to force it open; that would have been their doom. It opened and Andy shouted at them all to get inside while she kept firing until she backed in and shut the door before any of the deranged star base crew could get in. A shot to the interior control panel disabled the door, or at least she hoped it did.

  She just hoped that she wouldn’t turn around and see something worse behind them.

  Chapter 10

  It was another tiny bit of luck that the room was empty.

  Anallin all but dropped Dan onto the floor, but instead of rolling back into a near fetal position, the he remained upright. Andy thought she saw a shift in his posture, but she didn’t have time to think about it.

  “Move that against the door!” she barked, gesturing at the short, ESS regulation sofa against the back wall. Dan and Jade didn’t move despite the rather pointed look she gave them, so Anallin and Roxanna made their way over. They had the piece of furniture moved in a moment, and for the best, since thudding came at the door just moments later.

  The door seemed to be keeping the deranged mob out of the room, but Andy wasn’t going to take any chances. She had already crossed to another corner to find whatever wasn’t bolted to the floor or wall and drag it over. Between the three of them, they had a high enough pile that no one coming in from the outside would be able to get to them.

  “Oh no!” Jade wailed. “This is exactly what the others did! This is what they did! Don’t you remember?!” She ran up to Andy and grabbed her by the front of her uniform. “Didn’t you see? Didn’t you see?! They put up the furniture and they locked the doors and they barricaded themselves in, but you saw what happened to them! YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM!”

  Jade was all but shaking Andy now. Before she could shake herself free, someone else pulled Jade off her.

  Big hands grabbed Jade by the back of the shoulders and ripped her away, screaming. It was Dan! He spun around and threw the smaller woman into the wall, where she hit with a loud thud and cry of pain. He was on her in a moment, punching her in the face. It was just once, but hard enough that blood spurted and she shrieked.

  Andy and Anallin were onto him a heartbeat later. She grabbed one shoulder and Anallin the other, pulling him away. He fought against them, trying to get back at Jade with a roar that didn’t sound like it should have come from a human’s vocal chords but it did. There was a ferocity in his motions as he tried to pull away from them.

  This was not the sort of professional violence they were trained to let free when the situation called for it, but something wild and unhinged. She had never seen it from one of her own people, and she had never imagined it possible from Dan, who was always so jovial and easygoing. She had seen him do his duty, but never exhibit such rampant violence.

  “Thomas!” she shouted, but he just growled and jerked his shoulder out of Anallin’s grip for a moment before whirling on Andy.

  Her rifle was down, but she would not have wanted to shoot him in the first place. Her weapon did not shoot to stun. As soon as she felt his shoulder pulled from her grasp, she jumped back and brought her hands up. Dan swung a wild haymaker from her left. She crossed her right hand to catch his wrist before he could connect, spinning her back into him and using his momentum to throw him to the floor.

  Dan landed with an angry grunt and was already trying to get back up, but Anallin had recovered and was on the floor, holding Dan down.

  “Off!” Dan shouted, amidst a few other words that seemed more like inarticulate curses that Andy didn’t bother trying to decipher.

  Roxanna was muttering at high speed again and Jade was crying outright with her hands over her face. Andy was looking around for something to restrain him with when she heard Anallin shout and turned to see Dan shake free. Dan surged back to his feet and Andy shifted back fast, the idea flashing through her mind that she might actually have to shoot her own teammate.

  She wasn’t given a chance to decide. Anallin was already back up. With one leap forward, thick blue arms were wrapped around Dan’s neck. The Hanaran was smaller, but incredibly strong and did not let go as Dan flailed around trying to break free. Anallin was able to get him to the ground and was attempting to keep him down, but Dan was using his superior size to twist free of the choker hold.

  “Filthy human, be still!” Anallin said with a growl as Dan landed an elbow to the head.

  For a moment, it was all too much. Jade’s wailing and Roxanna’s chattering; Dan attempting to tear apart anyone in the room and Anallin on the verge of strangling him; the sounds of the unruly mob outside pounding on the door. Andy could, for that instant, hear everything in such clear and precise detail that she thought she might be having some kind of breakdown herself.

  They couldn’t fight a battle from within and without.

  When the instant ended, it all snapped back into her and she remembered who she was. She surged into motion. Dan had just thrown Anallin over his shoulder where the Hanaran landed with a thud and a grunt. Dan looked like he was about to go for Hanaran again but Andy inserted herself between them and slammed the heel of her hand against his chest.

  His breath rushed out of his body in a gush as he staggered back several steps.

  Dan recovered fast, though, and came at her again, but she was ready for him. She had her rifle up. He obviously saw it, but didn’t stop in time.

  Andy did not, however, fire.

  Instead, she brought it up as she shifted to the side and then drove the butt of it into his temple. He grunted, staggered to the side, and then she hit him again. With the second strike, he collapsed to the ground. She gasped softly, looking down at the crumpled form of her friend and squad-mate. No time for that, she reminded herself, as she crossed the room and sought out something to restrain him with.

  She found a length of industrial rope and returned to Dan’s side, kneeling down and securely tying his hands. “I’m sorry, Dan,” she murmured as she did it. It would have been an extra measure of peace to tie his legs as well, but she didn’t know what was going to happen and she hoped he’d be more cooperative when he came to and be able to flee under his own power.

  Anallin was pacing like some sort of caged animal while she worked. The Hanaran’s breathing was normally so level that she couldn’t hear it but now it came out ragged in a way she had never heard before, even when they had been pushing themselves past physical endurance. Now, it somehow almost drowned out the rapid clicking.

  She watched the Hanaran warily, but then moved away to check on Roxanna and Jade. The latter was on her knees, leaning against the wall. Blood was still flowing from her nose. Instead of trying to block it, she had both bloody hands over her ears and was rocking back and forth like Dan had been earlier.

  How long would it be before she lost it and attacked them too?

  Chapter 11

  The only one that seemed to still have a shred of coherence, beside herself, was Roxanna. Blowing out a breath of aggravation—and a little fear that she stalwartly ignored—Andy moved in front of Roxanna and put her hands on the woman’s shoulders. Roxanna was more slender than Andy, but slightly taller. The sergeant looked up to meet the purple gaze with as much sobriety as she could muster.

  “Roxanna,” she said levelly. “You have got to stick with me. This is bad and I’m running out of both allies and ideas. St
ay with me!”

  The Selerid pressed her thin lips together, but she stopped talking. She stared into Andy’s dark eyes and then nodded jerkily, lifting her chin shakily. “Yes, Sergeant!” she replied, obviously trying to make a firm tone but not completely succeeding. Still, her gaze was clear and she was looking at her sergeant like a marine.

  Andy nodded in return and then pulled her hands away, stepping back with a resolute breath. “We need a plan. We need to make a guess. What’s going on here?”

  “Yes, Sergeant,” Roxanna said again with a small nod. Her breathing was still rough and shallow, but Andy could see that she was thinking now.

  “The situation,” Andy began, looking around to the other three and seeing that they were all exactly as they had been before, “is not good. Understatement. Everyone is coming apart at the seams and if the calls over the comms are any indication, we aren’t as bad off as the other squads. Everyone who is banging on that door is wearing a station uniform, so I feel safe to assume that whatever is happening to us is what happened to them. Yet they are obviously still alive, so how is it that we didn’t pick them up on sensors?” She stared at the other woman. “Think, Corporal. Push past it.”

  “Our sensors were blocked somehow,” she said uncertainly, but then the wheels were obviously picking up speed in her thoughts because she frowned. “Somehow, so were my empathic senses. I didn’t pick up anything when we were on the ship, or even when we came into the station. It wasn’t until we were almost on top of them that I felt anything at all.”

  “Okay, so, the ship’s sensors and your senses were blocked. Have you ever encountered something that was able to do that?” Andy pressed her, sensing an opening in the insanity and making full use of it. “I’ve heard of a lot of technology that could block or obscure the sensors, but to block you must have taken something else entirely.”