Eclipse: Book Two of the Dark Tide Trilogy

by Dayne Edmondson

  “You and me both,” Derek said. “It seems like every battle gets more and more uncertain and more dangerous.”

  “Do you think we’ll win this war?”

  Derek paused. “We have been preparing for this war for two thousand years. Well, not you and me, but the etern…the guardians. I trust we have the best chance possible.”

  “I hope so.”

  Chapter 8 - No Longer Safe House

  The door to the FIA safehouse slid open and the FIA agents entered. Kimberly turned and pushed Sloane hard against the wall. “What the hell was that!” she shouted. “You conveniently stomped on the one thing which could have brought that entire warehouse crashing down on the Krai’kesh?”

  “It was an accident,” Sloane said with a nonchalant shrug.

  Kimberly drew her sidearm and pointed it at his head. Behind her, she heard weapons being powered up, but whether they were pointed at her or not she wasn’t sure. “No. There have been too many coincidences for that to have been an accident. How did you know the group was named the ‘Cult of Rae?’”

  “You told me.”

  “No, I left the name of the gang out. You filled it in.”

  “Just drop your weapon, little girl, and we can talk this over,” he said.

  Little girl. Rage filled her.

  “Lower your weapon, Agent Hague,” Maskini said.

  Kimberly half-turned her head and looked behind her. Corbin stood with his sidearm drawn pointing at Maskini. Maskini’s rifle was pointed at Kimberly. Baillidh stood in the corner holding only his datapad, watching the exchange but not seeming to take sides. Torrance held a ball of flame in his hand. She turned her full attention back to Sloane. “This man is a traitor.”

  “That man is our commander,” Maskini said. “You are an outsider.”

  “I was placed in charge of this mission.”

  “So you claim. Your credentials could have been falsified. We haven’t been able to communicate with headquarters since you arrived to verify your identity.”

  Kimberly felt a chill run down her spine. “Communications are down?”

  “Stop trying to change the subject,” Maskini said. She heard the weapon powering to the second cycle. He was one trigger pull away from firing at her full force.

  “Don’t you see? Communications aren’t down because of me. They’re down so we couldn’t call for backup when we found them,” she jabbed her sidearm at the floor, indicating the Krai’kesh.

  “Then why would Sloane have taken us down there?” Corbin asked. “If he wanted those monsters to be kept hidden, wouldn’t he have misled us?”

  Kimberly searched Sloane’s eyes. He glared at her, all but confirming in her mind she was right. “He wanted us to die, to be killed in the insurgency and the Federation wouldn’t know a damn thing about what happened to us. We would just be gone and so would the cargo before anyone knew differently. Isn’t that right, Agent Sloane?”

  “You do not understand what you’re dealing with, child,” Agent Sloane said. He twisted his mouth in disdain. “You are in far over your head. I will enjoy having you to myself when this is over.”

  “When what is over, boss?” Maskini said, a hint of doubt entering his voice.

  “Oh, Maskini, always faithful. Faithful and naive.”

  Before Kimberly could ask any further questions, a knock came at the door. “House-keeping,” a female voice called.

  Housekeeping? For a private residence?

  Kimberly turned her head and made eye contact with Corbin. He held a finger to his lips and gestured to Baillidh and then the door. Baillidh tapped on his datapad, and a holographic projection of a camera down the hall appeared in the air in front of his datapad. A group of over a dozen armed men and women stood in front of their door, weapons drawn. Even as they watched a woman was placing a brick of something on the door. Shit. “Is there a way out?” she whispered.

  Corbin nodded and pointed toward the back of the safehouse.

  Kimberly returned her attention to Sloane. “You’re coming with us to face justice. Now move.” She gestured with her laser pistol toward the back of the safehouse.

  Sloane refused to move.

  “Move!” she whispered.

  Still he refused to move.

  She considered knocking him over the head, but that would mean they would have to carry him out. Instead she shot him in the leg. He howled in pain and dropped to one knee. Then she kneed him in the face and he toppled backward. “Go!” she shouted.

  The other three FIA agents hurried to the back of the room. The door exploded inward, narrowly missing Sloane who lay prone on the floor. Laser fire followed, peppering the room with high energy heat. The antique wooden table they had hours earlier been playing card games at burst into flames, as did wall hangings and other flammable materials.

  Maskini provided cover fire from around the corner as the other three made their way to the end of the hallway. A metal door with a keypad stood there.

  Baillidh ran into the doorway next to the door and connected his datapad. His hands flew across it. The door buzzed in a negative manner. “Shit,” he said.

  "Shit what?" Kimberly also asked from the doorway.

  “Sloane changed the passcode. I have to hack it.”

  “Please hurry,” Kimberly said. She looked at Corbin in the doorway across from her. “Do you have any explosives we can use?”

  He shook his head. “There’s stuff in the armory, but that’s back in the main room off to the side. No way to get there now.”

  “What about you, Torrance? Can you use magic?”

  Torrance, who stood beside Corbin, nodded. “Yes, I will provide a barrier to buy us some time,” he said. He traveled back down the hall to where Maskini was firing and summoned a wall of air which blocked the lasers of the enemy and allowed Maskini and Torrance to retreat down the hall. Maskini took up position again in a doorway, this time the one Kimberly occupied and prepared to fire when the wall fell, while Torrance prepared fire to throw. "The barrier will not hold long, ma'am. They have a mage with them who is already dismantling my wall."

  “Shit. Faster, Baillidh, faster!”

  “I’m…trying…,” Baillidh said through gritted teeth. He continued to tap and moments later an affirmative-sounding beep sounded and the door slid open.

  The barrier of air Torrance created crumbled, as shown by lasers flying down the hall once again. “Go, go, go,” Kimberly said, ushering Corbin and Baillidh and Torrance through. “Maskini, let’s go!”

  Maskini shook his head and met her gaze. “With respect, ma’am, I owe you a debt for doubting you. I will hold them off long enough for you to get a head start. Go to the Federation embassy, ma’am.”

  “But you’ll die!” she shouted.

  “I knew the risks when I signed up, ma’am. We all did.”

  Kimberly hesitated. He was right, she knew he was right. But why did everyone always sacrifice themselves around her? “Fine,” she said at last. “Thank you for your sacrifice, Agent Maskini. Don’t get taken alive.”

  He gave her a toothy grin. “Not planning on it, ma’am. Now please, go.”

  Kimberly turned and fled through the doorway during a lull in the laser fire. She jinked to the side as soon as she was through and almost ran into Corbin. “Oof, what are you guys doing?” she shrieked. “Go!”

  “We’re not leaving our leader behind,” Corbin said. “Now we can go.”

  Kimberly looked at their surroundings. They were in a plain gray corridor which mirrored most other corridors in Crossroad Station. Dim lighting on the ceiling lit the area. “Lead the way.”

  Corbin took the lead. They ran down the hall, the sounds of laser fire fading the further they traveled. There were no people in the corridor, which made sense since it was a secret getaway corridor. They passed door-shaped seams, which suggested this was an escape corridor for more than just the FIA safehouse.

  “Where does this lead?” Kimberly shouted in-between breath
s as they ran.

  “Out to the main market. We should be able to lose our pursuers there,” Corbin said. “Then,” he huffed, “we’ll go to the embassy.”

  Kimberly tried her implant as they ran. Isabelle? But there was still no response or even a connection. How had someone jammed all the comms of the FIA? Or was it the entire station? She tried something different. She could tap into local news feeds and even Federation-wide news feeds, but could not transmit out. So, the station was receiving signals, but only certain ones?

  At last Kimberly could no longer hear laser fire. That either meant Maskini was dead or they had gotten out of range. Either way, they couldn’t afford to stop.

  The hallway did not branch off, it continued in a straight line. At last, they came to another door with an access panel.

  Baillidh again connected his datapad and tapped on it. This time the beep indicating a successful code came on the first try. “He didn’t change that code,” Baillidh said.

  Kimberly still could not believe Agent Sloane was the traitor. I mean, he had all but admitted it, but she couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge such corruption would have reached even the ranks of the FIA. If someone in his position could be corrupted, who could they trust? “Wait,” she said before Baillidh opened the door. “Do you guys think we can trust the embassy?” she asked.

  “We don’t have a choice, do we, darling?” Corbin asked. “Those goons looked like they were from the merchant’s guild, which means they likely have connections at every docking bay on this station. The only way we get off this station is if we go through the official FIA docking bay.”

  “But they would know that,” Kimberly argued. “Especially if Sloane is still alive and told them where we come out. They could be waiting outside that door for us,” she pointed to the door.

  “She makes a good point,” Torrance said. “We should check.”

  Baillidh sighed. “We don’t have time for this. The enemy could be right behind us, ready to blow us to pieces.”

  "And they could be right outside that door waiting to do the same!" Kimberly argued. "If Sloane wanted us dead and orchestrated that assault on the safehouse don't you think he would have known of this escape path?”

  “Let’s check and see,” Baillidh said as he set down his backpack and rummaged through it. He set a silver orb on the floor. It cracked open and turned into a small robot which crawled on four legs. The robot became flat as paper and slid under the door. “It will re-materialize on the other side,” he explained. “We should have a feed now.” The feed activated as the spider looked around.

  At first, Kimberly saw nothing but pedestrians walking along the busy market street minding their own business. But then she spotted them. “There,” she said, pointing to a rooftop. “Zoom in.”

  The image zoomed in, revealing a figure laying prone on a rooftop in view of the door they were about to exit. The barrel of a rifle poked out. “Sniper.” The image zoomed out again and she pointed to another two figures wearing cloaks leaning against a wall nearby. They tried to appear as though they were talking to one another, but their eyes kept drifting toward the door and they fingered something beneath their cloaks. Probably automatic weapons.

  “Damn, we’re like sardines in a can,” Corbin said. “Can’t go that way, can’t go back.”

  Kimberly snapped her fingers. “Torrance, can you create a shield long enough to block the first few shots? If we get out we can make a run for it and blend into the crowd, or charge across and take them out.”

  “I can try, but I’m weaker after the warehouse and what I did back there,” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “It won’t last as long.”

  “We don’t have another choice. Open the door on my mark, Baillidh.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Kimberly stood to one side of the door in front of Corbin.

  “Oh, if only it were different circumstances,” Corbin said, “me behind you in such proximity.”

  Kimberly slapped him on the head. “Oh, shut up you big lug.” She looked across at Baillidh and Torrance. “Now.”

  The door slid open. Torrance’s eyes turned white for a moment. “The shield is up.”

  “Follow me,” Kimberly said, charging through the doorway.

  The first sniper shell exploded against the wall of air, shattering into pieces. A second shot followed this one from another sniper in a position Kimberly couldn’t pinpoint as she ran. She ran into the crowd straight toward the two men along the wall. The others followed her. Another sniper shell slammed into the floor next to her before she was on the other side of the street. Corbin came next, then Baillidh and Torrance.

  Torrance stumbled as he ran and Kimberly realized with horror he was hit in the leg. A second shot took him in the shoulder. A third hit him right in the head, and he dropped to the ground. “No!” Kimberly shouted. Why hadn’t he been shielding himself?

  Two men with sub-machine laser guns approached, firing wildly and taking her mind off Torrance. She, Corbin and Baillidh ducked down a nearby alleyway to avoid the fire. The street was quickly clearing out as people fled in every direction to avoid cross-fire. Kimberly peeked out and returned fire. “Now what?” she asked, turning her head toward Corbin for a moment.

  “We’re pinned down and this alleyway is a dead-end,” Corbin said.

  “All right, come up here and draw their fire. When they take a moment to let their weapons cool I’ll run out and hit them.”

  “If you miss, you’re dead.”

  “I guess I won’t miss then.”

  “There may be another way, ma’am,” Baillidh said. “Watch.” He showed on the datapad as his spider navigated across the river of people and came up behind the assailants. The display showed “weapons activated” and moments later a small dart shot from the spider into the back of the leg of the first assailant, causing them to drop like a rock.

  The second assailant turned on the spider and destroyed it with a flurry of laser fire, but it gave Kimberly the moment she needed.

  Kimberly raced into the now-abandoned street and fired at the second assailant before he could bring his weapon to bear. A flurry of three shots to the chest brought the man down, but not before he unleashed a peppering of laser bolts. Two hit Kimberly, one in the stomach and one in the leg. She hit the ground hard, crying out in agony. Her implant displayed a healing in progress message, but that provided little solace to her as she squirmed in agony.

  Corbin ran out. “Shit, lass, you shouldn’t have done that,” he scolded her. “Ya could have gotten yourself killed!”

  “It…would have been…worth it…” Kimberly said through gritted teeth.

  “Can ya walk?” he asked.

  Kimberly tried to stand, but her leg gave out. She shook her head.

  “All right, well, it’s only a short way to the embassy. Just down this street. Here, I’ll carry you.” Corbin bent down and lifted Kimberly up.

  Corbin had only taken a step when they heard stomping of boots coming from behind them and in front of them. Moments later at least two dozen merchant guards stood at both ends of the street. They trained their weapons on the three FIA agents. Plus, the two original snipers had come out of hiding and were pointing their weapons at the trio.

  Corbin looked down at Kimberly in his arms. “Well, it was nice knowing you, darlin’.” He set her down.

  Kimberly closed her eyes as she sat, waiting for the end. Her implant indicated nanites had completed healing her, so she stood back up, feeling far less pain in her leg now. Goodbye, Isabelle, she sent toward the communication address for Isabelle, not expecting a response.

  Hang on, Isabelle said through the link. As my uncle used to say, ‘it’s not over till the fat lady sings.’

  At that instant, a black mist appeared around the group. The mist materialized into soldiers in full suits of black armor bearing the insignia of Federation Marines. A woman wearing body armor but no helmet appeared next to Kimberly. "Well hello there!"
she shouted. "I see you were about to execute my agents. I can't let you do that." As one, the Marines formed double fire lines, with half the Marines kneeling and the rest standing and trained their weapons on the merchant guards.

  The merchant guards looked at one another with uncertainty. “Kill them!” One commander of the merchant guards shouted.

  None of the merchant guards fired.

  Isabelle looked at the merchant commander. “It looks like your men would prefer to live, commander. So, get out of my way,” she said in a menacing voice, “or I’ll make sure you’re the first to die.”

  The merchant guard commander swallowed and hesitated. “You will all burn in the fires of Rae’Shela!” he shouted, then turned and fled, his guards following him.

  Isabelle waited until they had turned the corner before she turned to Kimberly and helped her up. “Are you all right? I went to the safehouse, but the place had been shot up. I found an FIA agent’s corpse near the back door. Then I got your message and locked on your position and, well, here we are.”

  “Are we glad to see you,” Kimberly said. “Someone has been jamming our communications. I don’t know if it affects only the FIA or what but…”

  “It’s affecting the entire station. All the outbound antenna were damaged through sabotage. The authorities claim no knowledge of who was responsible.”

  “So, we can’t get any word out to the rest of the Federation about the Krai’kesh. Damn.”

  “Krai’kesh,” Isabelle said, putting her hands-on Kimberly’s shoulders. “The Krai’kesh are here?”

  Kimberly swallowed. “Yes, the fifth warehouse in the merchant district is filled with what I counted are over two hundred Krai’kesh skitterers. We believe they were planning to move them across the galaxy using the trade lanes. We’re not sure with what end game in mind.”

  "Well the Krai'kesh fleets have emerged at the edge of our galaxy," Isabelle explained. "More than likely, this is an attempt by the Krai'kesh to undermine our systems and wreak havoc across the galaxy. Sow dissent among our people, terrorize the populace. It disturbs me they could have gotten so deep so early in the conflict unless they were in our galaxy much earlier than we ever knew."