Ecstasy Bound

by Kerce, Ruth D.

  “What about Delemar?” Pitch asked. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Delemar is dead,” Torque answered.

  Everyone looked over at him.

  “Broken neck.”

  Nobody said anything. But everybody suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

  After a tense moment, Erik pulled Torque aside. “What happened?”

  Torque shrugged.

  “Don’t brush this off. I want a report, Torque.” He lowered his voice. “Did you kill him?”

  Torque’s eyes narrowed. When he answered, his voice came out tight and low.

  “That’s the way I found him, Erik. It’s what he deserved. I’m not going to feel sorry for the man or give it another moment’s thought.”

  Erik didn’t know whether to believe Torque’s words or not. He was still hurting over Tara’s loss and was more than capable of exacting revenge if he chose to. But if he truly hadn’t killed Delemar, then that meant someone else had. One of the Egesa? Or one of them?

  * * * * *

  Sam circled back around a connecting corridor, trying to take the Egesa soldier by surprise while the creature continued to track Brianna. Luckily, the Egesa was alone.

  If more soldiers came upon them, they’d be in trouble. But if he could down this one, they could get a weapon and they’d at least be armed if any others intercepted them before they reached decon. Also, another advanced weapon would come in handy later, on Earth.

  Brianna had told him what to expect but he hadn’t yet gotten a close look at these creatures that were supposedly half-lizard and half-humanoid looking.

  When he eased around the corner, he saw and smelled the Egesa. Damn! Big bastard. With enough muscles to be a professional wrestler. The creature smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in a month.

  From the back he looked fairly human. Bald. One hand held his weapon, the other hung down by his side. Longer nails than what he would have expected, almost like claws. He wore some sort of brownish-gray uniform and heavy boots.

  Sam started to make up the distance between them, moving as quietly as he could.

  He heard Brianna making noises up ahead, causing a distraction.

  Something must have alerted the Egesa though, obviously a well-trained soldier, for he suddenly stopped, whirled around and raised his weapon. Sam froze at the sight of the Egesa’s yellow eyes and the thin tongue that flickered out from his mouth.

  He knew his mistake, his hesitation, had just cost him his life. The sharp sound of a shot filled the corridor.

  His heart clenched. But he didn’t go down.

  The Egesa’s eyes widened and he toppled forward, falling on his face. When he hit, the crash sounded deafening and the corridor floor rattled.

  Sam’s heart about stopped beating, then raced triple time. He saw Laszlo with a weapon in his hand and Brianna standing close by, worry evident on her face, which gradually turned to relief as she looked at him.

  “Now you’ve seen one up close,” Laszlo said, stepping nearer. “Don’t freeze up again.” He pulled the Egesa’s weapon out from under him and handed it to Brianna.

  “Let’s go,” Laszlo ordered. “We need to get to the decon room fast.”

  Sam fell in step behind Laszlo. Brianna took up the rear. He felt lucky to be alive.

  He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

  * * * * *

  Erik paced. “Where are they?” The oxygen couldn’t be cut off until everyone was accounted for. He refused to sacrifice even one of their people.

  Worry rolled through him. If a group of Egesa arrived at the decon room first and tried to get in, he couldn’t go ahead with their plan, for the others wouldn’t be safe. He couldn’t even dematerialize them in from another location. Decon security would have to be disengaged first and they couldn’t do that from inside the room. He could leave the room and—

  “Here they come. Laszlo and the others,” Pitch announced, looking at the monitor.

  “Leila, get the door. We’ll provide cover.”

  Kam and Torque stood at the entrance, acting as the primary line. Pitch, with the weakest weapon, hung back as did Erik, who watched the monitor. No Egesa looked to be in the immediate area.

  “Now,” Erik ordered.

  The door slid open and Laszlo, Briggs and Brianna hurried inside.

  Without warning, three Egesa suddenly appeared around a blind spot from the opposite corridor.

  “Egesa!” Torque warned.

  “Fire!” Erik shouted, issuing the order at almost the same moment.

  Kam and Torque got off shots immediately, driving the Egesa back.

  Laszlo and Brianna turned, ready to fire if necessary.

  “Close the door!” Erik kept aim with the others, knowing the soldiers wouldn’t give up now that they’d found them. “Leila!”

  “It’s glitching!” The doors slid partially closed, then stopped.

  They all fired at once, trying to keep the Egesa at a distance.

  The Egesa regrouped and surged back toward them, returning fire. Their protective uniforms prevented any direct body hits.

  The doors finally whooshed completely closed. Right before the room sealed, several shots hit the doors and one flew into the room, barely missing Erik’s cheek. The blast hit the far wall. It left a deep black scar but that’s all the damage it did.

  “Is everyone here?” Laszlo asked.

  “Yes,” Erik told him.

  “Then cut the oxygen.”

  Torque moved to the control panel and began the procedure. “It’ll take a few minutes.”

  “Braden?” Brianna rushed over to her brother.

  “He’s all right,” Leila explained. “Hit in three places, but already healing fast. He needs sleep though.”

  “Where’s Alexa?”

  “She and the babies dematerialized up to the old repair station. A backup plan Braden devised using Briggs’ transport-connector.”

  “Look,” Pitch said. “The Egesa have transport-connectors.”

  “They can’t get in,” Laszlo and Torque said at the same time, both staring up at the monitor.

  “It looks like they’re doing something to the door now,” Briggs said.

  “Energy balls.” Halah moved next to Kam.

  “Are they strong enough to blow the door?” Josella asked.

  “No way.” Brianna stepped up beside Briggs and laced her arm through his.

  Laszlo stepped closer to the monitor and his eyes widened. “Those aren’t energy balls. They’re nuclear orbs. Hit the floor!”

  Everyone dove just as the door blew inward. Debris and shards of metal flew everywhere. Two more Egesa joined the other three and all five surged into the room, firing blindly through the smoke.

  Pitch, Torque, Laszlo and Kam rolled to their knees and fired back. Erik scrambled to the control panel and hit the overhead lights, punching them to maximum. The glare would blind the Egesa, whose eyes were extra sensitive to bright lights. He heard them wail in pain and then in frustration as their shots missed their targets.

  In the chaos, Halah got behind one of the Egesa and zapped his neck with an electrically charged chop. He went down immediately and she grabbed his weapon.

  Briggs dragged Braden from the medical table and overturned it to use as a shield.

  Leila crawled behind it with them, pulling Josella along with her.

  An Egesa headed their way and Erik took him out, getting him in the knee, then the head.

  Torque wasn’t wearing his Warrior jacket, with its built-in protective shield, and he suffered a hit to the arm. But his shot got an Egesa in the neck and the creature toppled.

  Brianna’s weapon jammed. “Shit!”

  Erik saw an Egesa take aim at her. Damn it! Pitch was standing in his line of fire.

  “Brianna! Move!”

  Her head snapped up.

  Before Erik got a clear angle, Br
iggs rushed forward and tackled the soldier from behind. They crashed to the floor, Briggs landing on top. He grabbed the Egesa’s head and snapped his neck.

  The last Egesa turned to run but Laszlo was waiting and got him right between the eyes.

  Erik felt lightheaded and dropped to his knees. “The oxygen,” he whispered. He saw Torque holding his injured arm and crawling across the floor, trying to make it back to the control panel.

  With the door blown out, the seal in the room had been broken. All their air was quickly being sucked out.

  Laszlo fell into a heap. From lack of air or an injury, Erik didn’t know and couldn’t find the energy to make his way over to the man.

  Torque finally struggled to his feet and staggered the rest of the way to the controls.

  He fell to his knees before the panel.

  “Hurry,” Erik encouraged in a low voice, unable to move or catch a full breath. He noticed everyone struggling to breathe. All of them had collapsed to the floor.

  Torque reached up and punched a button with his palm. Then he slid flat onto the floor.

  Erik heard the ventilation system kick on in the corridor and air whooshed back into the room. Yes. Sweet, beautiful air. Even a thin atmosphere was better than none at all. Then everything went black.

  * * * * *

  Brianna pushed into a sitting position. Her head pounded fiercely. She glanced around, wondering how much time had passed. “Sam?”

  She remembered him saving her life. The disruptor Laszlo had given her must have jammed when the Egesa fell on it. She’d fixed the weapon but it had been too late, if Sam hadn’t intervened.

  Where had he disappeared to? Just as the thought entered her head, he stepped into the room from the corridor.

  “All the Egesa are dead,” he said. “I did a quick search. I moved the bodies into an empty room. All their equipment is in a pile by the control panel.”

  “Are you sure?” Erik asked groggily, pushing to a sitting position.

  “If any more were down here, they’d be in our faces right now.”

  “Unless they’re still knocked out from lack of air,” Pitch said.

  “I checked the main areas of the facility and didn’t see anyone,” Briggs further explained. “I think we’re all right.”

  “What happened?” Brianna heard Braden ask as he tried to sit up.

  “Stay still.” Leila attempted to hold him down but she didn’t look quite recovered and obviously didn’t have the strength for he had no problem resisting her.

  Braden held his side. “Is everyone all right?”

  “I’m hit,” Torque said.

  Leila turned and crawled over to him. She looked at his arm. “It’s not bad. I’ll wrap it. It’s a miracle none of us were killed. I can hardly believe it.”

  “We all have a destiny in this universe,” Laszlo said, leaning against the wall.

  “As in a higher power or fate?” Kam stared at him with narrowed eyes. “I think it was a little less mysterious than that. What did you do?”

  Brianna wondered at his question, looking between the two men.

  “All right. I helped out. A little. I projected false angles with my visionary powers as the Egesa fired. As best as I was able to anyhow.”

  “Well, whatever you did, it worked,” Brianna said, grateful for any remaining powers Laszlo possessed.

  Erik looked at the destroyed door. “Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?

  Because we have a big problem now. We can’t fix that door. We don’t have the supplies or the equipment down here.”

  Brianna’s heart sank.

  Sam sat down beside her. “Can we use any of the Egesa equipment to get us all out of here? Like maybe their comm devices to call for help.”

  Pitch shook his head. “Their vid-comms will be monitored. If we try to use one, they’ll zero right in on us and know their men weren’t successful. They’ll send in another team immediately.”

  Laszlo stood and walked over to pick up one of the devices. “I’ll send an alpha-text message to their command fleet, saying they’ve got us cornered in the decon room, but their orbs were ineffective. I’ll tell them that they’re going to try to negotiate us out and if that doesn’t work they plan to pump in non-toxic gas to flush us out. I’ll let them know they won’t report in again until their mission is complete. That should keep any other teams from showing up for several hours at least.”

  “Their ships are going to be a problem when we launch,” Braden said.

  “They won’t keep their ships in orbit. Not with Xylon ships in the area. It would draw too much attention. They’ll give the planet some distance, then move back in later.

  If we can continue to keep those ships out of orbit, it will make it easier for us to get away unnoticed. Hopefully, numerous Xylon rescue ships and fighters will be in the area to help us out.”

  “You’re making a lot of assumptions,” Brianna said. “Marid ships could have taken out most of our fighters by now, given their larger numbers.”

  “If our base on the Ice Moon is still operational, the Warriors will protect Xylon as best as they can in the hope of finding some survivors. We’ve already seen the rescue ships. I’m assuming they didn’t come in without cover. So let’s try to stay positive here.”

  “What about the Egesa’s transport-connectors?” Josella asked.

  Halah picked one up. “They’re all military issue. They won’t transport anyone who doesn’t have an Egesa physiology.”

  “Which means they’d planned to kill us all?” Josella asked.

  “Doubtful,” Leila said. “They would have taken the babies and maybe Braden, I would think. I know the Egesa in medical purposely didn’t use his disruptor when he tried to get to the triplets in the storage room. And he probably had the time to finish Braden off, and me, if he’d really wanted but he didn’t. He just left us there and disappeared.”

  “He might have figured you’d be more valuable alive, at least temporarily, for information purposes. A medical team and interrogation squad were probably scheduled to transport down with one or more generic multitransport devices after the area was secured.” Brianna stretched her arms, still feeling half out of it, though her headache had eased.

  “What are we going to do now?” Josella asked.

  “Braden?” Brianna looked to her brother.

  Braden’s face darkened and he cleared his throat. “This doesn’t change anything.

  Three people will still have to stay behind in this shelter. There’s no other way. The weight capacity of the orbiters demand it. Unless someone has another idea.”

  “We’re not sacrificing people,” Erik said. “And it’s two. Delemar is dead.”

  “Dead?” Braden’s eyes narrowed and he glanced around. “How?”

  Erik looked briefly at Torque. “Unknown.”

  “We’ll do what we have to do,” Laszlo said, looking up from the comm device, seemingly unaffected by the news.

  Braden’s brow furrowed. “Two,” he replied in a low voice, not questioning the situation further. For now. “Actually we do have two of our own transport-connectors,”

  he said slowly.

  “They’re not functional,” Erik told him. “I used some of the parts to strengthen the power in the device we gave Alexa.”

  Braden nodded. “But can you and Halah use some of the generic parts from the Egesa devices to get ours working again and chain the power supplies to make them strong enough to reach Quadrant Port XST? Two of us could transport to the repair station where Alexa and the babies are.”

  Erik looked over at Halah. She shrugged. “We can try,” Erik said, turning back to Braden. “But we can’t test them. It could be a death sentence.”

  “Staying down here without any protection from the gases once the launch bays are opened is a definite death sentence. We have no choice.”

  Kam rubbed his throat. “Halah and I found the co
mmunication files from Frost on the computer. It detailed how to sabotage the power and oxygen. We can get those fixed now.”

  Laszlo set down the comm device. “Good. Leila and I will finalize the injections for Earth. Braden and Torque, you’re coming to medical for your injuries. Josella, you come also. I want you to prepare two survival packs for whoever will be dematerializing out.

  Then maybe you can prepare something for us all to eat.”

  “Food sounds good.” Torque rubbed his stomach. “I’m starving.”

  “How can you even think of food right now?” Halah asked.

  “It’s a basic need, sweetheart. Like sex.”

  “Don’t ever call me—”

  “Stop,” Laszlo interrupted. “You’re giving me a headache.”

  “It’s the lack of oxygen,” Leila said. “It should fade fairly quickly, especially once the oxygen levels start coming up.”

  Laszlo nodded. “Yes. Of course. Halah, you and Erik get those transport-connectors working. Kam, you fix the oxygen and get the levels back up so we all can think more clearly. Mistakes now could be deadly. Pitch, you fix the power drain. Kam can give you the specifics. Leila and I need to use a lot of equipment in medical and we can’t afford anything becoming nonfunctional. Some of what we need was destroyed by disruptor fire but I think we can still manage, as long as we don’t lose the main computer or the medical processor and the AMD.”

  “AMD?” Sam asked.

  “It’s a machine that quickly tests the effects of certain compounds on DNA types and detects deadly flaws in serum and other compositions,” Leila explained. “That machine is going on the orbiter with the team to Earth. It’s indispensable.”

  “What about Sam and me?” Brianna asked. “What do you want us to do?”

  “Get some rest,” Laszlo said. “You two have been through enough today. You’ll need to be sharp for the mission.”

  His answer surprised her but she was grateful and nodded.