The Iron Altar Series Box Set One: Books 1 to 3

by Casey Lea

  Zak slowly focused on Amber. “What?”

  “Are you well?”

  He scowled into his empty glass and shuddered. “No. That was the most awful experience of my sweet little life.”

  “They're a fearsome enemy.”

  “Please. I've found scarier things hanging from my nose in winter. The problem is not the drakking enemy.” Zak shoved the beaker against a storage strip in the wall for a refill. “You asked where I've been. Well after the three of us dragged the two lazy gats back here, we all took an involuntary nap.”

  Amber did a double-take, looking down to Falkyn and then up again. “Truly? You slept?”

  “Passed out like drunks in a brewery.”

  “That’s odd.”

  “At the least,” Falkyn mumbled and Amber bit off a glad cry. He tried to sit up, but she stopped him with a palm on his chest.

  “Lie still. You're mending and I want to clear all the scar tissue I can from your wing. You don't want to damage your aerodynamics.” Falkyn instantly stopped fighting and dropped back into the med field. Amber hid a smile and bent to her work again while Zak wandered across to watch over her shoulder.

  “You missed a rip. Angling off at the bottom,” he pointed out and she spared him what she trusted was a withering look.

  “I can't do it all at once and the primary cut has priority. If you want to help I suggest you get healing and forget the backseat stitching.”

  “Truly? You'd let me practice on Falkyn's wing?”

  Falkyn lifted his head to eyeball Amber. “Truly? You'd let him practice on my wing?”

  “Don’t be a baby. Shut your eyes and remember that ladies love scars.” Relax/trust he's already better than all my staff at the BGP. I just don't want him to know it.

  “He's been drinking,” Falkyn protested.

  Zak laughed, without looking up from the tissue he was mending. “It was medicinal. Isn't that the stuff doctors drink to get in a medical mood?”

  “That's not funny,” Falkyn growled and this time Zak did straighten.

  “Those things that attacked us were though. We thought the Harvesters were in deep freeze and as dead as old erectile tissue, but they were still up for a drakking party.”

  “You have a truly weird idea of fun,” Misty observed and moved to stand beside Amber. “I lifted these scans from the enemy. Thought you might like to analyze them.”

  “All done,” Zak announced, distracting Amber from the new information hovering above her com. She looked up in surprise.

  “Already?” She shifted slightly to inspect Zak's work and then bent closer. “It's gone. There's no trace of tearing.”

  Zak shrugged awkwardly. “I thought we were supposed to leave minimal scarring?”

  Amber stood upright and turned back to her work. “What? Oh yes. Decent work,” she murmured as nonchalantly as she could. The chick was more than good, but he was also as rough as rocks and more arrogant than the Arck. There was no telling what effect being a medical genius was going to have on him in the future. If any of them had a future.

  Her jaw clenched and she stepped away from her patient. “You're done,” she told him and Falkyn was upright in a second.

  He curled his wing forward to examine it closely. His brow creased and he brought the other wing up to his face too. “They look exactly the same. I can't even see where the cut was.”

  “You're welcome,” Zak smirked. “Donations can be made to my com.”

  Falkyn looked up. “Sure, as soon as we stop the ice. Zyl, can you help us get close to our old ship? You'll have to outfly the Last Chance to get us past it. We need to target ground zero more precisely this time.” He looked around the room. “Ace, Misty, it's time for game face, not suck face. Where's Zariss?”

  “In the nest,” Amber said distractedly, while she checked the scan Misty had provided. She drew her breath in sharply over her teeth and her eyes shifted to Falkyn. "That's impossible. The infected Harvesters that attacked you show no mental activity at all. They’re completely brain dead. I don't understand."

  "Oh, yeah, I do," Jace volunteered. "They’re zombies."

  "Ice zombies," Misty added. "Cool."

  She and Jace laughed, but Amber tapped her foot. "There are no such things as zombies."

  "Drakking are," Zak interrupted and nodded at the image on Amber’s wrist.

  "Very well,” she admitted, “they do somewhat fit the role, but they’re not actually undead-"

  "They sure ain't alive," Jace pointed out, "so what's with the moving and roaring and general unfriendliness?"

  Amber opened her mouth but nothing came out. Instead Zariss entered the med bay at speed. “Something strange is passing with our enemies.” He turned and gestured to the wall, where an image of the two frozen vessels appeared. They were side-by-side in space, but the Last Chance seemed to be shrinking.

  Amber silently ordered her com to place an overlay on her vision to check and it was true. The Harvester ship was slowly disappearing. How was that possible? There was nothing near it except the other infected vessel.

  “It's ground zero,” she realized. “The mother ship, the source of the plague, is cannibalizing the other vessel to concentrate all of its stolen energy in one spot.” Amber finished her explanation just as the truth of it became obvious. The Last Chance collapsed into a twisted pile of tattered metal and fullerene. It drifted away from a massive iceberg that now hid their infected ship. That craft had doubled its original size and a solid layer of smoky white blocked any entrance to it.

  “Brilliant,” Falkyn said with conviction and everyone stared at him. “The plague is trying to run and hide. It's scared of us. You three must have made a serious impression.”

  “You five,” Amber corrected, but Falkyn shook his head.

  “Nikareon and I came back as stretcher cases. No, it was you three who kept us alive.” He frowned at Zak, Jace and Misty, who stared silently back. “I can't remember everything, but I do know it hit maximum weird out there. I've always wanted a unified crew, but you guys were extreme.”

  Amber pinched the blade of her nose and watched the iceberg ship in the image turn ponderously away. “Explain.”

  “The way they fought, it was... I don't know. I don't think there's a word. Their actions were more than synchronized. It was like a merging of some type.”

  Amber's head flicked round. That phrase had set off a definite mental alarm. She studied the trio more closely. There was something strange about the way they were watching her. Misty tipped her head slightly to stare back- no. All three tilted their heads at exactly the same time, to an identical angle. They regarded Amber without expression. Her skin prickled and she rubbed her arms. Time to do some scanning sure enough.

  “Into scan fields, chicks. Scoot.” She flapped her hands and ushered all three toward shallow bays at the end of the room, but Zak shook his head and dug in his toes. He stopped so abruptly that Amber ran into him. He caught her by an elbow to steady her, but then pushed back past her and almost knocked her over again. Amber had to find her own balance this time and stared after the retreating Beserk with a frown. What could possibly make him run away from a simple scan? “Zak?”

  Her reluctant patient stopped, but kept his back to them. “No. I'll do tests if you want, but not with those two. Keep them away from me.”

  Amber sent a silent cry for help to Falkyn and he gently laid a hand on Zak's shoulder. “Everyone is in danger from this ice. Everyone you love and only the three of you can fight it. We need you, Zakareon. Think back to that battle and accept the merging again.”

  Zak shuddered, but then slowly turned to walk stiffly back to the scanning bays. He was the first to enter one, with Jace quickly following and finally Misty. Amber glided to stand in front of the trio, all of whom stared at her impassively. Her hair tried to rise on the back of her neck and goosebumps prickled down her spine. She cleared her throat and switched her attention to the overlays appearing in front of the patients. />
  "I'd normally encourage you to relax, but not for this. Think back to the battle instead. I want you to remember exactly how you felt and what you did when you-"

  “Sweep,” said Jace.

  “High,” murmured Misty.

  “And wide,” Zak finished without hesitation.

  “Strike fast.”

  “Over,”

  “Under.”

  “Swap,”

  “Swords.”

  Amber pursed her lips and exchanged a look with Falkyn, who moved to join her. “What do you think, Doc? Has my loco crew finally jumped off the cliff?”

  Before Amber could answer all three spoke together “No. We said before. We are Trinity.”

  Hmmm. Perhaps Falkyn was right. Maybe this was some sort of high-functioning insanity.

  “No.”

  “We were,”

  “broken.”

  “Now we are,”

  “whole.”

  Amber's eyebrows felt like they were trying to climb up her forehead. She had no idea how to respond and turned to her scan results instead. She took one look and her brows tried to go into orbit. "This is amazing. Look at the underlying brainwave activity. This one, the lowest reading, it's stretched between all three. The pattern is what you'd get from one brain, but spread over three bodies." Amber's fingers flew and she threw results from a range of scans into the air around her.

  “Look at that,” she breathed. “Have you ever seen such before? Look at the ongoing genetic modification. They're changing each others' DNA. But how did the new templates invade- oh, the fight! When Zak and Jace disagreed over Darsey and you all rolled around on the floor for a time. Zak bit Jace and Misty bit Zak. The blood must have been absorbed and then some of its genes impacted on the host cells. Is this a Beserk thing? No, no. Jace is involved too. A flight thing then? Possibly, because their DNA has already been rewritten. It's been merged and manipulated before.”

  Amber looked back to the scan bays and all three of her subjects were sagging. They seemed to have wilted and she had to step forward to catch Jace when he slumped from the shallow alcove. Falkyn hurried to help her and they supported their dazed pilot until he found his feet.

  “Jace,” Amber asked “did you ever taste Zak's blood?”

  “What? Course not. Dreamed 'bout ripping out his throat, but no.”

  Amber frowned. “There must have been some fluid exchange- ah. Between you and Misty. She's the link, but in your case the fluid wasn't blood.”

  Misty’s gaze became even more unfocused and she smiled vaguely. “Some of it was.”

  “Please,” Amber snapped, “am I clinging to your arm like a school girl demanding details?”

  “Some clinging could be helpful,” Misty answered thickly. She staggered from her booth to lean against Jace. He caught her and they swayed together, but both stayed upright. “So, diagnosis?”

  “Yeah,” Zak coughed. “Can we stop the drakking thing? If not, please say it's fatal.”

  “There's no data to indicate that. The experience does seem to exhaust you, but you'd recovered completely from your first joining. There's no reason to believe that won't happen again. I don't entirely understand the process, but its result is clear. The three of you can combine to form a gestalt.” Everyone looked at Amber blankly and she sighed. “Under stress your minds operate as a single entity. You work together as perfectly as the different limbs of a single body.”

  Silence returned. Amber looked at Falkyn, who had the fingers of one hand pressed to his temple. He sighed and pursed his lips. "Is it safe to take them out again?"

  Zak snarled at him. "It'll be drakking unsafe not to. You need me to fight, but that doesn't mean I have to go gestalt. I do just fine on my own."

  “I can't say,” Amber interrupted “and I wouldn't like to guess. Right now I think you should rest. All of you. This merging seems to tire the system...” Amber paused to replay her own words. That vague alert that had first caught her attention when Falkyn mentioned melding was back. What was her subconscious trying to tell her? She closed her eyes and the others seemed to understand. No one interrupted her while she thought.

  “Yes.” Amber clapped her hands together and opened her eyes. “That's it. It has to be. The way this plague thinks. The ice, we know it's sentient. It can chase us. It shifts from place to place tactically. Zak, Misty, did you see any brains with your silver vision? Any cognitive centers that might be vulnerable?”

  “No,” they both answered without hesitation.

  “Nothing like that,” Zak clarified. “Just energy flows and connection points.”

  Amber clapped her hands again. “Exactly. The ice moves separate units, but they don’t have neural centres. We can call them zombies if you wish, because none of those individuals can think. That's happening somewhere else. We're looking at a hive mind. It has autonomous units that can be separated off and later reclaimed, but the orders come from somewhere else. Hive mind.”

  Amber smiled triumphantly and the others stirred, then exchanged glances. Falkyn slowly nodded. “Hive mind.”

  “How clichéd,” Jace murmured and Amber tapped a toe impatiently.

  “Hive minds have been extremely successful for many species. Soon or late one was bound to be sentient.”

  “It makes sense,” Falkyn agreed “and it fits the facts. This ice plague has just finished a defensive retreat. All of its resources are now protecting a single ship. The brain, the queen, whatever it might be, it must be there.”

  “Likely,” Amber agreed, “or possibly a link back to the hive's brain. Certain-sure it's where they're vulnerable. Can you get in there?” She looked at Falkyn, but he turned to Misty.

  “Can we?”

  She shook her head without hesitation. “No. Not with our present weapons. We'd need something more powerful.” She studied the iceberg in space for a long moment, before giving them all a delighted smile. “Which I can make. C'mon, Ace, it's playtime.”

  51

  To the Rescue

  Darsey had no idea how long had passed. Sound returned first, an intermittent rasp that interrupted the absolute hush of space. A moment passed before she recognized the rough noise as her breathing. Her body was too numb to feel, but somehow she was still alive. She started to shiver and retched in the thin air.

  “Easy now,” a familiar voice soothed and warmth touched her, flowing up her com arm and on, through the frozen slab of her body. “That's better,” Jileea continued and Darsey managed to pry her eyes open. She was still in space, but her friend was floating beside her and the hull of the Wildflower rose above them. “They'll reel us in any second. Unless they want a flogging.” Jileea's voice rose with the threat and more light struck them when the hatch opened further.

  Darsey let her eyes seal again and drifted while she was carried aboard. The next thing she was aware of was heat searing the back of her hand. She heard a choking gasp that sounded surprisingly close. Was that her? She tried to open her eyes, but failed this time. The lids seemed welded to her face once more and her body prickled and itched, but through the pins and needles she could feel the softness of a support field. Where was she?

  “Wing?” she croaked and the flames tightened their grip on her hand.

  “Still not the right Wing,” a soft voice murmured and Darsey choked again.

  “Clear?”

  “Right here.” The fire squeezed her fingers and Darsey realized Clearwing must be holding her hand. Crazy. Her grip felt so hot. “You're core temperature's rising. The healer says you'll soon be well.”

  Darsey felt a new warmth spreading through her and it was matched by the sweetness of relief. “I’m alive.” A familiar snort from the other side of her made Darsey smile. “Sorry to scare you, Jileea.”

  “I don't scare, boss. But you surely are the Luckiest person in space.”

  Darsey grimaced at that. “I don't deserve to be. As a parent I really suck.”

  “Untrue, boss,” Jileea objected and
Darsey sighed.

  “If only.”

  Clear squeezed her hand again and there was another surge of heat. “Your parenting must certain-sure be better than mine. I fear I'm truly obsessive.”

  Darsey smiled and tipped her sightless face toward her friend. “Thanks, Clear, but I was mothering like cling film.”

  “The mild approach then.”

  Amusement/surprise/disbelief flowed from Darsey's frond and straight to Clear's with as little effort as ever.

  However, her friend remained adamant. “I was worse, truly. I was like a razorback on its kill, warding off all contact. I was in total shock at Misty's Beserk genes-”

  Shock/horror/understanding. Nikareon?

  “Indeed. A present that was added to his other handiwork.”

  “Clear, how awful-”

  A new voice interrupted them. “Captain, I've an incoming message from Lady Darsey's son.”

  Memory flooded back and Darsey hiccupped. “Zak escaped?”

  “I don't know who that is, ma'am,” the Communication Senior answered. “The in-talk’s from Jace. Voice only.”

  “Put it through,” Jileea ordered and Darsey managed to pry her eyes to a slit. It was a wasted effort of course, because there was no image of her baby, but it still felt right.

  “Jileea?” a deep voice asked and Darsey threw protocol away to answer before the ship's captain.

  “Jace.”

  “Mom? Thank God. Are you okay?”

  “I'm supernova.”

  He chuckled at the old phrase from his childhood, but his laugh caught at the end and it was a minute before he replied. “That's good to hear. I was a bit concerned when Zak said you made a suicide shuttle run.”

  “You've got Zak? Is he okay?”

  “He's supernova too,” Jace assured Darsey, but then a less welcome voice cut in.

  “I'm also fine.”

  Darsey closed her eyes again. Saving Nikareon was obviously the downside to good mothering. “You're welcome, Beserk. Jace, when can we rendezvous?”