Resurrection

by Jan Domagala

  Zara pulled his arm so that he turned to face her. Her eyes were wide in disbelief as she asked, “Are you serious?”

  “You read the data package the same as I did, so you know what’ll happen if we don’t,” Kurt replied.

  “How the fuck do you plan on stopping it… go on, this should be good?” she said letting go of his arm and taking a step back to give him room to explain.

  “I have no idea,” he said in total honesty. He could see the signs of stress and fear in her eyes and knew that the initial euphoria of dealing with her powers was wearing off and she was now thinking of the larger picture. She was seeing for the first time the consequences to others of what they were taking part in here. Being able to regenerate was nothing if it meant your friends around you died and you couldn’t prevent it. That was what she was realising now. “But we have to try,” he added hoping his resolve would be infectious.

  Taking a deep breath to calm herself she nodded her head. “Okay, I know we have to try, it’s just…” she said haltingly.

  “Just what?” he asked urging her to finish and say what was on her mind.

  “…what if we fail and they all die?” she blurted out finally.

  “We’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen, won’t we,” Kurt said confidently.

  Zara looked deep into his cobalt blue eyes, probing to see if he was messing with her, trying to put her off because he knew it was a hopeless task. She prayed he wasn’t trying to get her to do anything just to take her mind off the dire situation they were in.

  She could find no trace of duplicity in there, only honest sincerity.

  “Right let’s do this then,” she said.

  Kurt led the way towards the door. As they reached it they saw that it was just like all the other doors in the city, no distinguishing marks, insignia or glyphs of any description adorned it. It was just a plain slab of unknown material that could be opened by a panel placed on the wall at the side. Like the panels up top in the city proper this one acted like a palm reader, although they were not sure if that was its only purpose.

  Kurt glanced at Zara as they neared the panel and she gave him a nod of approval after which he placed his hand against it, palm facing the panel.

  The door slid open, as did all the others allowing them to walk through.

  There was a short corridor beyond which had three other doors leading off it.

  “Which one shall we choose?” Kurt asked as he looked at each of them.

  “Your guess is as good as mine I suppose,” Zara said with a shrug of her shoulders.

  Kurt looked at her and said, “Rock - paper -scissors - then?” his smile told her that he was not serious.

  Zara walked over to the one straight ahead, ignoring the others to each side. She placed her hand against the palm reader and that door opened too.

  The room beyond was devoid of any machinery or equipment of any kind. There was no indication of any kind as to the purpose this room was used for.

  “What the hell!” Zara exclaimed when they took in their surroundings.

  “This is not getting any easier,” observed Kurt.

  “We’re running out of time here Kurt, we have to do something,” Zara said.

  “I know, let’s try through there,” Kurt said as he spotted another door at the far end of the room.

  As the door opened from the touch of his palm on the reader they felt a sudden tremor beneath their feet. It came from deep in the bowels of the planet.

  Kurt looked at Zara and the look he got back mirrored the concern he felt.

  Time had run out for them.

  25

  I

  OMEGA HQ, RH426

  Matt knew he had to find a way out of there for them all and in particular a way that didn’t preclude him having to enter the vacuum of space.

  “There has to be another way out of here, there has to be,” Matt said as they ran through the corridor.

  “But where do you think it’ll be?” asked Guardian as he kept pace with the large agent.

  “And what makes you think there has to be?” Hellcat asked jogging behind them.

  Hacker said, “I doubt they would have a place this big without an extra escape exit, it’ll probably lead to another area large enough to house a landing craft of some sort.”

  “And that’s what you’re hoping to find, I take it?” Guardian said understanding Matt’s reasoning behind his actions.

  “You do know that bitch is psycho and may not be bothered about the safety of anyone in here other than herself,” Cowboy said, always the pragmatist.

  “I know probably better than anyone but I’m banking on her having a craft stashed some place just in case she needed a fast exit.”

  “That makes sense, she doesn’t have to make sure the rest of her crew is safe as long as she is safe herself. Is that what you’re saying?” Cowboy said with a nod of understanding.

  “Exactly, and I think it will be as far from the C and C as possible. She wouldn’t want a member of the crew to stumble across it in normal operations so I’m thinking it’ll be somewhere the crew don’t normally go,” Matt explained.

  “I think I know where you mean,” Guardian said with a slight smile as he became aware that they could possibly get out of this alive after all.

  Matt said, “But we’d better hurry, time is running out.”

  They began to run through the corridors. They had less than three minutes left before the self-destruct device detonated.

  “There, it should be through there,” Matt said when he noticed the doorway. He ran up to it and placed his palm against the reader. The door opened to reveal a smaller version of the docking bay, just large enough to hold two shuttles.

  “Shit!” exclaimed Cowboy from behind Matt. Matt knew what was coming, there was only one shuttle left in the dock, and it didn’t look big enough for all of them.

  “She’s already gone,” Matt said stating the obvious. He spun around to face the rest of them. He held out his arms in a placating gesture. He was lost for words. He had gambled and unfortunately crapped out.

  “What do we do now; we don’t have time to find another craft?” Hellcat asked.

  “You get in there and go,” Matt said before anyone could argue. His voice was firm and authoritative.

  “We all get in,” Guardian said cutting off Matt from saying anything and placing a hand on his arm to prevent him from walking off. “We’re not leaving anyone behind this trip,” he added just as firmly.

  “But we won’t all fit in,” Cowboy said immediately regretting it.

  Matt looked at Cowboy, saw the shame spread across his face and hooked a thumb at him then said to Guardian, “He’s right and you know it so stop wasting time and get your asses in there and leave already.”

  Guardian looked around and said, “Where’s Hellcat?”

  Matt turned towards the shuttle; he had been so busy arguing with the two men that he hadn’t seen her slip away. He saw her appear in the hatch and she tossed something out and shouted, “I’ve made some room, so get your asses over here so we can get off this rock before she blows.”

  Matt looked at Guardian with raised eyebrows. He said, “You’ve got your hands full with that one.”

  Guardian shrugged his shoulders, “You have no idea,” he said.

  II

  Colonel De Boer had supervised the download of all relevant data from the main computer.

  “Okay, wrap this up, we just have time to get back to the Legend and get off here,” he said signalling for his men to gather and evacuate the C and C. They left what they couldn’t carry and headed back to the docking bay.

  They were aboard the Legend moving away to a distant orbit when De Boer came onto the bridge. He stood in front of the viewscreen. He turned to the command chair where Captain Biggs sat and asked, “Any sign of Matt yet?”

  Biggs simply shook his head.

  “Hold this position,” Biggs told the helm then to Ops said, “Ke
ep scanning that facility, I want to know the second anything changes.”

  Before Ops could reply a bright light lit up the viewscreen. As it expanded towards those watching De Boer saw debris flung high into the airless vacuum that stood for the atmosphere of the dead planet.

  “We’re too late,” he said as he watched the base tear itself apart from within. His expression mirrored his frustration and he folded his arms across his chest, as he looked down at the floor unable to watch the screen any further. He was about to turn away when he heard Ops say, “What’s that sir?”

  De Boer looked up and a smile crossed his face. “It’s them, it has to be,” he said.

  “Hail that shuttle,” Biggs ordered leaning forward in his seat.

  De Boer held his breath as he waited for confirmation.

  “This is Red Team plus one,” Guardian said, his voice coming through loud and clear inside the bridge.

  Letting out the breath he had been holding De Boer said, “Bring them home.”

  III

  It was cramped inside the shuttle but they had all somehow fitted inside.

  Matt was crouching behind the two seats along with Hacker whilst Hellcat lay across them both. Guardian and Cowboy were in the only two available seats.

  They had taken off mere seconds before the self-destruct device had detonated. The massive shockwave chased them out of the area as the small shuttles overburdened engines vainly worked to power them to safety.

  Inside the small craft, especially in the cramped space behind the two seats, the shockwave was felt more as the three occupants were bounced around.

  Guardian steered the shuttle around towards the Legend deftly dodging the debris that was flung at them by the explosion.

  Matt craned his neck to see around the back of the seat he was behind. Hellcat smiled down at him and said, “Don’t worry big boy, I’ve got you.”

  Matt couldn’t help but smile back. This young woman had come up with the idea that got them all off the base when he was willing to sacrifice himself for them. Was that willingness to die due to the guilt he felt at dragging them into this predicament in the first place or did it go deeper? Was he still grieving over the death of the real Tanya Wilde? He knew he hadn’t given himself time to recover. Had General Sinclair been right to allow him back in the field or did he need longer to rehabilitate? One thing was certain though and that was the people he had with him were the best. They had looked out for him even when the shit had hit the proverbial and he was almost to the point of giving up. He also knew that if he had been at one hundred per cent he would never have even considered what he had suggested.

  “Thanks,” he said. He leaned back and tried to relax as there was nothing else he could do. Events had spiralled out of control, his control at least. They had finally shut down OMEGA by rendering their Rover5s useless. The Tanya clone had escaped but that was a small setback in the grand scheme of things. This had been a huge success and he should feel good about it. OMEGA was finally on the run. The Hyperion had returned to Earth once the Legend had shown up, they were safely away from the base which had been destroyed and they had obtained all the data they could from the computers in there. They could definitely chart this in the ‘win’ column.

  So why didn’t he feel as good about it all as he should. He could not shake the feeling that they had missed something vital.

  IV

  De Boer turned from the viewscreen when he saw the shuttle head towards the docking bay area of the Legend. The base had been destroyed that was for sure as they had seen the destruction on the live feed from the sensors.

  “Captain, can you confirm there is no one left alive down there from the ship’s sensors from here?” he asked. So far the mission had gone as planned but he had to be sure.

  “We’ve been running active scans every minute since arriving here Colonel and I can assure you there is no one left alive down there,” Biggs told him confidently.

  De Boer relaxed his shoulders a little at the good news. It was over, finally. They could start the rebuilding now and get things back to normal once more.

  He looked at the big man in the command chair and said, “You can take us home then once that shuttle has safely docked.”

  “It would be my pleasure sir,” Biggs told him.

  As the Colonel was leaving the bridge he was replaying the mission over in his mind. He was pleased at how it had gone; casualties were lower than on any other mission he had led which was more than just a bonus. He hoped that the tec guys back at HQ could make use of the data they had procured from the base’s computer.

  Putting everything aside he was looking forward to having some free time to spend with his family once they got home. He headed for his quarters smiling at the thought of his wife greeting his arrival back home, which was suddenly destroyed when he felt the familiar tingle of a call being routed to his NI.

  “Colonel we’ve been ordered to go Tartaran to assist the Odyssey and Atlantis. It seems things there have taken a turn for the worse,” Captain Biggs said through the private comm. channel he had accessed.

  De Boer’s shoulders slumped at the thought of his much needed shore leave being cancelled once again and it was with great effort that he said, “Thank you Captain, I’ll inform my men.”

  That was something else he was not looking forward to either. He accessed the comm. channel they shared and he added the Red Team along with Matt Hawk and said, “It seems our shore leave has been put on hold for a while. We’ve been ordered to Tartaran to assist those out there. I’ll issue a full briefing in the Ready Room in ten minutes.” After closing off the rest of ‘C’ Platoon he said to Matt and the Red Team, “If there is anything you can tell me about what’s going on there before the briefing I would appreciate the heads up guys, this sounds serious.”

  “We’ll be on board in a few minutes sir, we’ll tell you what we know then,” Guardian said which earned him a look of surprise from the others in the shuttle.

  26

  I

  Tartaran

  “Finally,” Kurt said as he saw the room before them. The door had opened just as the tremor hit. They entered and lights came on just like all the other rooms they had entered.

  “Have you noticed how each room inside this city switches on when we enter? They must be tuned to the biorhythms of the inhabitants of the city,” Zara said as she looked around the room. All the machinery and equipment seemed to be coming to life at their approach.

  “And in that way the energy consumed can be regulated and conserved because when the room was vacated everything inside the room was shut down too,” Kurt added, finishing off her thought. He too had noticed in spite of everything else what was going on around them.

  “The data package we received said that this entire city runs on some sort of geothermal energy. They somehow managed to tap into the planet’s core to funnel off the energy from it to power everything here,” Kurt said walking forward to inspect some of the equipment. He was no scientist; he was nothing more than a grunt, a soldier who fought on the front line, a Captain maybe but still a grunt in his own eyes. He had no idea what any of this stuff did and yet he had to figure it out to save all the lives of his friends up in orbit, the Alliance soldiers too.

  “What are you thinking?” Zara asked as she came to him. She looked at the array of equipment before them; instruments she had never seen before let alone any idea of their use.

  “I’m thinking we’re screwed,” he said as he turned to look at her, his cobalt blue eyes betraying the failure he was experiencing.

  II

  Jake stood on the bridge of the Pulsar looking at the battle group arrayed in orbit around the planet below. They had backed off to a safer distance once they had come aboard. He stood with his hands folded across his chest, one hand stroking the stubble growing on his chin.

  “Artie, are you sure we can’t be detected by their sensors?” he asked the AI a little worriedly.

  “We are undete
cted so far sir, and as long as our stealth shield remains operative we will remain so,” replied the AI who had become a member of the team in the eyes of everyone involved.

  “But we’re out of range of their SUTs,” Jake confirmed with the AI.

  “I am afraid so sir.”

  “Don’t worry Jake, I’m sure Kurt and Zara will contact us when they’re ready. At the moment there’s nothing either of us can do until we know what that battle group is planning,” Torres said as she stood by Jake’s side. She placed a comforting hand on his arm to reassure him he was not alone in this and to let him know they all shared the burden of concern over their teammates stranded down below the surface of the planet.

  “Look,” Cooper said as he pointed to the viewscreen. On it they all watched a shuttle limp home towards the Cronus, with one of its engines trailing smoke behind it.

  “Looks like the Black Knights made it home alright,” Vance said, commenting on what they were seeing.

  “They paid a heavy price though,” Jake said as he looked down at Torres’ hand on his arm. He smiled at her in thanks then said, “I’m not about to pay the same price though. Artie is there any indication of what they’re planning across there, any signs of activity?”

  There was a pause, which was unusual for the AI as it normally replied instantly, or seemingly so to the crew.

  “I am getting some activity from the battle group sir. It seems they are readying to deploy thermobaric missiles into the atmosphere of the planet. It seems they intend to clear a path for their invading troops,” Artie said calmly.

  Jake looked at his team as his mind raced through all the possibilities and the counter measures they needed to take to prevent this ecological disaster from happening. Before he could voice his thoughts Artie continued with, “I am also getting serious geological readings from the planet below sir.”

  Jake looked up as he tended to when he spoke directly to the AI and said, “Define ‘serious’.”

  “It seems there is a build-up of geothermal energy from somewhere below the surface sir.”

  “To what end?” asked Cooper, a worried frown creasing his brow.