Strike Vector - An Aeon 14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance Book 2)
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Rogers clenched his teeth and pushed his fist forward, but Winter just swung his arm down and let go of Rogers’ fist.
“So that’s it, huh? I just have to accept you; have to trust you?”
Winter shrugged and turned back to the console. “That you’ll have to ask Kylie about. I only came down to engineering because she told me to.”
It burned Rogers’ cookies, but Winter was right about one thing; it had been Kylie’s orders that sent him down here. Which meant that Rogers’ beef wasn’t with Winter. It was with Kylie and that was exactly who needed to hear his grievance.
* * * * *
It had only been thirty minutes since she came back aboard from the Satisfaction. She couldn’t be asleep yet.
Have a nice day?
“Kylie!” Rogers banged on the door to her quarters for what felt like the hundredth time. It was crazy. There was no way she hadn’t heard him. It meant only one thing—she wasn’t there. Or something was wrong. Okay, it meant one of two things.
Down the passageway, Lana stuck her head out of here door “What’s going on? I was just drifting off!”
Roger shook his head. “I don’t know, I’ve been knocking and calling, she hasn’t answered. Just Marge telling me that Kylie is asleep, but there’s no way. I’ve been raising holy hell.”
Lana shrugged nervously. “She looked sick when I saw her last…. But she said she was fine.”
Rogers wondered about that. Kylie claimed she was just worn out after several days without sleep—which was understandable, but they had stim packs and med nano that could keep a person going. They’d all taken some after getting off Perseverance.
He had tried running overrides on Kylie’s door, but nothing had worked. But with Lana here… “Can you get this open?”
Lana hesitated. “I don’t know…Kylie might not like that. It’s not a good idea.”
Rogers knew when it was time to ignore the captain. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Please, Lana.”
Lana sighed and nodded slowly. She placed her hand against the wall next to the door, and a moment later it slid open.
Rogers rushed inside and stared at Kylie’s empty bed. For a moment, he worried that she wasn’t in her quarters at all—until he spotted her crumpled on the floor. Her body quivered and shook as though she were having a seizure.
What the hell was wrong with her? Had Maverick done something? Had Winter?
“Captain!” Rogers raced to her side. Kylie’s eyes were wide and staring, her teeth were clenched hard enough to break. As he cradled her head, Kylie’s fingers claws at his shirt.
“Don’t…no.” Kylie shook her head and Rogers wondered if she was lucid.
“What the hell is going on? Why didn’t you say something, Marge?” Rogers’ voice shook with rage. If something was wrong with Kylie it was his responsibility to help her. That’s how they did things on the Dauntless.
Rogers glanced at Lana. She didn’t seem surprised about Kylie’s condition.
“Did you know something about this?!” he asked.
Lana nodded. “She told me not to tell…. It’s my nano. She got infected when I was shot. I went through this too…it’s horrible, but it passes.”
Rogers couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Get inside and lock the door. Lock the door!” he yelled at Lana to get her moving.
It worked, she jumped and closed the door while Rogers lifted Kylie and slid her onto the bed. She groaned and struggled, her breathing ragged.
But Lana stepped up to the bed and took Kylie’s hand. “It’s going to be OK, Kylie. It’ll pass.”
Rogers couldn’t believe it. “Why were you hiding it? Maybe we could—” Rogers suddenly realized why Kylie hadn’t brought it up. She didn’t want Winter to know. Maybe that’s why she sent him down into the engineering compartment in the first place. It made sense, crazy sense, but nonetheless…
There was also the little matter of Jerrod in the medbay.
“Can you help her?” Rogers asked Lana.
Lana shrugged. “I don’t think so. I think she has to ride through it. When I was like this, they sedated me. It made the transition easier. Do we have anything we can use to knock her out?”
“Yeah, there are some drugs in the medbay. I’ll go. You stay with her. Don’t let anyone in but me, okay?”
“Do you know what they gave you?” Rogers asked Lana.
She shook her head in response. “No, they didn’t exactly share details with me.”
“Well, I guess I’ll bring everything we have,” Rogers said as he stood.
“Okay,” Lana said and slid closer to Kylie. Rogers watched as the young girl smoothed Kylie’s hair back. “It’s going to be okay, Kylie. I won’t leave you, I promise.”
Rogers tore his eyes away and raced for the medbay.
* * * * *
Rogers slowed down when he entered the medbay, conscious of Jerrod watching his every move through Grayson’s eyes. It wasn’t just weird having an AI watch him through the eyes of a human, it was downright creepy.
He didn’t speak as he grabbed their strong sedatives from a supply closet. When Rogers turned, Grayson’s unblinking eyes were trained on him. “Problems?”
“No, no problems.” Rogers slid the sedatives in his pants pocket.
“Indeed. I’m sure that’s why you need all those drugs.”
“Exactly,” Rogers agreed as he marched out of the medbay. “Are you ever going to decide to let Grayson go?”
“I’m working on that now, actually. Grayson and I are in final negotiations. We’re coming to an agreement that will ensure my future, as well as his own.”
Rogers didn’t know if that was good news or not but as he walked back into the corridor and closed the medbay’s door, he hoped it would turn out for the better. He activated the biocontaminant lock just to be on the safe side.
When he returned to Kylie’s room, Winter was outside.
“Yo, Rogers. I can’t get Kylie on the Link. Everything okay?”
Rogers scowled, crossing his arms before answering. “Sure, I mean, of course. She’s just sleeping. Why wouldn’t it be okay?”
Winter narrowed his eyes. “Because nothing has been OK on this ship for weeks. Just thought it was weird. Shields are fixed, for the most part. They’ll hold up for their usual pathetic minute or two if we meet with any resistance.”
“Great. Good work,” Rogers said without trying to sound too enthusiastic to get rid of him Winter.
Winter stared down at Rogers for a minute before shrugging. “OK, I’ll be hanging out in the cargo bay if anyone needs me. No offense, but I don’t really appreciate how frosty things have gotten up here.”
“Think you’d be used to it with a name like Winter.”
“Funny. Like I haven’t heard that one before,” Winter muttered before he turned and walked down the corridor.
Rogers breathed a sigh of relief before knocking on the door. “It’s Rogers.”
Lana let him in, her eyes wide with worry. “I didn’t think he’d ever leave, and I felt really bad for not letting him in.”
Marge said.
“Now isn’t the time to fight about him,” Rogers said.
He
looked to the bed where Kylie’s head tossed back and forth as her back arched. Rogers hated to see her suffer, hated it as much as he’d hate to see his own sister in pain. He sat beside her and selected the strongest sedative he had found.
“I hate to just drug her like this,” Rogers muttered.
“Want me to do it?” Lana asked.
Rogers glanced at the young woman who apparently had more resolve than he did. “No, I can do it.”
He dispensed the sedative with a hypospray against her neck. Almost immediately, Kylie’s body relaxed and she let out a soft moan as her back lowered to the bed.
Rogers stroked her crinkled brow and noticed how feverish she was. There wasn’t a chance she’d die, was there?
“You didn’t tell Winter anything, did you?”
Lana shook her head. “I didn’t even answer. He has no idea I was in here. You’re sure we can’t trust him?”
“Sure as I am that nights are dark and dogs are humanity’s best friend.” Rogers turned his attention back to Kylie. “Hang in there, Captain. We’re never going to get through this without you.”
He didn’t know if she could hear him but Rogers felt a hell of a lot better saying it out loud. Everything hinged on them having a captain, having Kylie. Rogers didn’t know how this super nano would change her but he had to hope it would give her an edge. He also had to hope when all was said and done, the captain would still be the captain.
Rogers thought he heard a noise coming from outside Kylie’s quarters. Lana glanced at the door. “You heard that?”
Lana nodded, biting on her lip. “Sounded like…”
Abby added.
WINTERTIME
STELLAR DATE: 09.17.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Dauntless, near Einendart
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
He had done things wrong, Winter got that, but if Rogers didn’t stop with the snide remarks and biting comments, he was going to lose his shit. He’d show Rogers a thing or two about his temper and how hard fists really could hit.
Sure, they had never been the best of friends but they had a sense of purpose. Keep Nadine safe when they went away on missions, serve Kylie the best they could, and make as much money as humanly possible. How had everything gotten so fuzzy? Now, they might as well be a charitable organization.
Winter hated charity and if he wasn’t working so hard to make sure Kylie didn’t space him, Winter probably wouldn’t be going along with anything. Helping Lana and now helping Maverick…it was self-serving, for now, but it was a slippery slope and the only charity Winter believed in was himself. Charity started—and ended—at home, as far as he was concerned.
He grabbed a fifty-kilo crate from a stack in the cargo bay and began to lift it overhead while doing squats. Things really didn’t feel right.
He had only been in the airlock for a few hours but when he’d come out things had been wildly different.
Rogers and Kylie were both keeping something from him. What that was, Winter didn’t have the foggiest idea. He hated being left in the dark, but he wouldn’t be for long. He was going to figure out what it was and then decide what to do.
He hoped it wouldn’t come to anything drastic—again. He liked the Dauntless and had liked serving under Kylie up until recently. But he wasn’t going to take orders from someone who didn’t trust him. For now, he understood why, but if they yanked his chain too long, Winter would have no trouble walking away, or finding somewhere new to serve.
Winter did a couple hundred reps before putting the crate back and turning toward the door. When he rounded the stack of crates and saw it, he paused. Funny, he thought he’d closed it. If Rogers had come down, the annoying little man would have talked shit, so it probably wasn’t him.
“Hello?”
Nobody expected a noise in space. Winter thought as he crept along the bulkhead. He moved around another stack of crates and saw a mouse run between a bin and the bulkhead
Winter sighed, simultaneously relieved and frustrated with himself.
Maybe he didn’t need to punch Rogers in the face after all. Things felt almost back to normal.
Winter walked out of the cargo bay, sealing the door behind himself, and walked toward the weapon’s locker. He slid it open intending to grab a pulse rifle, only to see it empty of all but some magazines.
Winter blinked and looked again. “What the hell?”
He heard a soft scuffing sound behind him and turned to see the butt of a rifle slam right between his eyes.
MUTINY REVISITED
STELLAR DATE: 09.17.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Dauntless, dark layer, near Einendart
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
“Winter?” Rogers said it aloud one more time as he and Lana crept down the corridor. The guy had just disappeared. Rogers didn’t get it. Where had he gone?
“We should stop by the weapon’s locker, right?” Lana asked with a nervous twist of her hands, staying closer to Rogers than necessary.
“We should be okay with just you.” Rogers gave her his best chilling smile and watched the horror move across her face. “Oh come on, it was a space mouse, how bad could it be?”
“It’s not the space mouse that worries me.”
Rogers knew if he was completely honest, or even partially honest, a lot of things worried him right now. Even putting aside the fact that Winter had gone silent on the Link. Kylie was unconscious, they had a rogue AI aboard the ship, not to mention the ever-growing supply of enemy factions now wanting them dead.
He had no shortage of things to worry about. But first, Rogers walked to the medbay. He needed to check on Grayson. As he approached, Rogers checked the biocontaminant seal; it was offline. He palmed the door open and sure enough, there was no Grayson. The bed was empty and the restraints dangled free. One was cut open and the others had been unfastened.
Beside him, Lana gasped. “Shit!”
No sense in panicking.
“Now would be a good time to grab that weapon. If you see Grayson, don’t pull any punches. He means business and…” Rogers sentence trailed off as he felt a subtle shift in the deck. A change that would’ve been unnoticeable to anyone other than him.
“What’s wrong?” Lana raced after him as Rogers changed direction and headed toward the bridge.
“We’ve changed course. Someone’s on the bridge and I’m pretty sure I know who that person is.”
“Jerrod?” Lana whispered. “There’s only one place he wants us. What do we do?”
“I’ll take care of it. You get to Kylie. If Gray—Jerrod gets there, you make sure he doesn’t get in. Do you understand?”
Her eyes widened and stayed that way. “I really think I should go with you.”
“I’d really like that too but we can’t have the captain hurt. Now move!” Rogers ran for the bridge. On his way, he stopped to grabbed a pisto
l from his quarters. It only fired pulse shots and he hoped it’d be enough to take down a super solider.
There was no response, and Rogers reached out to Abby.
Shit! Rogers thought to himself.
As he had spoken with the AI, Rogers reached the long ramp leading up onto the spherical bridge. Ahead he saw Grayson’s silhouette hunched over a console. He was sending a message somewhere, which was all sorts of bad.
“Real sorry about this, pal,” Rogers whispered. “Real sorry.”
He lifted the weapon to shoot, but Grayson whipped around and lunged far faster and farther then Rogers had imagined possible. One hand swatted Rogers’ weapon aside, and the other caught him by the throat.
Rogers’ vision began to turn black around the edges as Grayson’s grip tightened. He gasped for breath and clawed at Grayson’s hand.
It had no effect.
Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “Change of plans, Mr. Rogers.”
THE BOSS
STELLAR DATE: 09.18.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction, en route to Freemont
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Vaax cued up the message from Empress Diana, wishing she could simply delete it and carry on with her day. She had only received direct communications from the Empress twice, and neither had been enjoyable experiences.