by S. T. Boston
Taulass hurried to one of the cubes, bringing a holo-display to life by pressing his hand to its top surface. Unlike the rich, high-definition display aboard the Niribus, this model seemed dated, much the way an old 90s computer might look when compared to one running the latest operating system. To Adam's untrained eye, the rich colours and realistic 3D imagery didn't look nearly as convincing. Taulass quickly located the life support systems, and requested a report of where all personnel currently were on the ship. A mere second later, he had the information he'd requested. Once again it was in the form of a three-dimensional image, and Taulass zoomed in on it, revealing the front section of the craft. The crew showed up as tiny green dots, scattered about the few upper and forward decks.
“We are here,” Taulass noted, pointing to their three signals. “I hope that no one is monitoring this, or they will be wondering where the three extra guests have come from.”
“Do you think they would be?” asked Adam.
“No, not for a second. I hope not, anyway.” Taulass paused, fixed his attention on the display and continued. “This is the bridge, there are five crew there. One of them will be Asmodeous.” He scanned down the ship, surprised at how sparsely populated it was. “This ship can hold a couple of thousand personnel. I know we never figured out how many Earth-Breed there were, but I'd wager he hasn't saved many of them, only the ones he could use to his advantage.”
“You sound surprised,” chuckled Oriyanna.
“Wait a second!” snapped Taulass, holding his hand up, as if to cut her off. “Look at this.” He pointed to a room one deck below the bridge, there was a single green dot inside, but outside in the corridor were two more green dots.
“Seems almost like two people standing guard,” Adam commented with a broad grin.
“My thoughts exactly,” agreed Taulass, with a nod. “That has to be where they are holding Sam.” He checked the timer on his handheld screen. “Just twenty-five minutes until the first window opens – go!”
Oriyanna copied the life support schematic to her handheld before grabbing Adam's hand and heading for the door. “It's going to take us about five minutes to reach Sam,” Oriyanna said in a low voice as they rushed down yet another seemingly never-ending passage. At the first turn, Adam made a mental note of the direction they'd taken.
“This place is massive,” he muttered, relieved that they hadn't taken more turns than he could possibly remember.
“I served on this ship thousands of years ago, before the war,” Oriyanna said.
“And you can remember the layout?”
“Not really,” she said, smiling nervously. “Bits and pieces, yes – it's this way.” She led them into another stairway, and once again, it was black as night. This time they climbed a further ten floors. Adam had always thought he was in reasonable shape, but by the time they stepped out into another identical passageway, he felt as if he'd run a marathon.
“How… much… further?” he asked, gasping in air and realising with horror that the ship was a three-dimensional labyrinth.
“At the end, we take a left, then we should see the room they're holding him in. We must proceed with caution now, we are very close to the bridge.” Adam nodded his understanding. He visually assessed the Glock making sure it was in order. He hated guns, hated shooting – but he'd have no issue using it if needed in these circumstances.
Carefully, at half the speed they'd navigated the lower levels of the ship, they both arrived at the corner of the passage. Adam peered around tentatively. About fifty yards ahead were two stern men, both toting handguns. Adam had no doubt Sam would have been able to tell him the exact make and model, even from this distance. To Adam though, all guns did the same thing, and the sight of these two was enough to know they'd found his friend. Now they just had to get to him out.
* * *
“No movement,” Hawker said, his eyes fixed on the mapping display.
“What the hell are they doing?” Asmodeous growled. “Why aren't they heading this way?”
“I can't answer that, sir. The ship hasn't moved since touching down.”
“I don't like it, not one bit!”
“Weather monitoring phase is now at fifty percent,” Hawker said, changing the subject. He couldn't afford distractions at a time like this. Enola was busy, reading Earth's weather patterns and the potential forecast for the next five days. Once this stage was complete, and the targeting phase initiated, the world's superpowers would know something was very wrong. For now though, Enola was still undetectable.
“If that ship doesn't move before Enola is ready to launch, I want you to target a weapon to its location.”
“I can do that, but—”
“No buts!” Asmodeous snapped. “You will alter the targeting of one weapon to the location of that ship – is that clear?”
“Crystal,” Hawker grumbled. Enola was fully automated; her main program was running and needed no further input from him. Messing with the targeting now only left more room for error.
* * *
Fifteen decks below, and almost half a mile away, Taulass remotely connected his handheld to the mainframe of Arkus 2. He scanned swiftly though the ship's systems, seeking the plug-in which allowed an Earth-designed program to run in unison with the Arkkadian tech. It was buried deep, and a lesser programmer might not have seen it, but he was not a lesser programmer. A few screen changes later and he was copying Enola's files across to his system. After the file copied he took a moment to get a grip on how it worked. The coding was complex and beautifully designed. Although deadly, as a fellow 'geek', as he would have been known on Earth, he could appreciate the beauty and ingenious architecture that had gone into it.
On the face of it, Enola was nothing more than a rootkit-style hack, although to say that wasn't really doing her justice. This was rootkit hacking on a level which deserved an award, if they gave them out for acts cyber-terrorism such as this. Where a standard rootkit hack would give the user access to the system it was targeting, Enola completely locked anyone else out, giving the hacker full control. Not a massive deal on the face of it, but when you considered the systems it had its claws in, it most definitely was.
To add to his dismay, Taulass discovered the program was well into its start-up phase. One of his screens was now a mirror of the one on the bridge, giving him a remote view of what the operator was seeing, although from here he had no means of controlling it. It took him a moment or two to realise what Enola was doing. It's reading the weather patterns, he thought in horror. Figuring out where best to target the weapons. For the time being, he was helpless to do anything about it.
As the files copied across, Taulass switched to the life support system screen, confirming the two greens dots which represented Adam and Oriyanna were on the same deck as the room they suspected Sam was being held in. He watched, his heart thundering in his chest as they reached the corner of the passageway and paused.
* * *
Asmodeous paced the bridge of Arkus 2 uneasily, the presence of the Arkkadian vessel in southern England worrying his gut. Why hadn't they made their move? He paced the length of the bridge and studied the holo-screen where Benjamin Hawker had been stationed for the past few hours. He stared for a few moments at the solid dot on the screen – there was something about the craft's location which didn't sit right. His uneasiness grew when he noticed a small systems notification alert blinking away in the top corner of the display. “What is that?” he asked, his voice laced with agitation.
“It came around ten minutes ago,” Hawker replied, sounding disinterested. “We get them all the time. It's a big ass ship, sir, and she's a little old and creaky. Likely a life support fault or a power fault.”
“I need to see it,” Asmodeous snapped, leaning on the back of Hawker's chair. He watched Hawker select the tab, revealing the systems notification was from the main power grid.
“It's showing a power surge in the…” Hawker paused and suffered a sinking feeling
in the pit of his stomach. This was one particular notification he should never have overlooked. “A power surge in the lower transportation room,” he finished, his voice sounding a little sheepish.
Asmodeous grabbed Hawker around the throat from behind and bellowed. “The reason that ship hasn't moved is because they are already on fucking board!” He lifted the Earth-Breed from his chair and only just resisted the urge to snap his wretched neck. Getting hold of himself, he let go, and Hawker fell back into the chair awkwardly, pawing at his painful throat, coughing and spluttering.
Asmodeous whipped around to Namtar and shouted furiously. “Take a team down to Sam Becker, that's where they will be heading. Do it NOW!”
* * *
In the server room, Taulass kept one eye on the two stationary dots, which represented Adam and Oriyanna, and watched the download of Enola impatiently with the other. Why aren't you moving? he thought. Three dots suddenly rushed from the bridge and made their way down the long passage leading away from it. In dismay, he watched as they dropped a deck and headed straight for the room where he suspected Sam was being held. They know, he thought. I don't know how they know, but they do. If they'd figured out the ruse then it would only be a matter of time until they scanned the life support system, just as he was doing. They would be able to see just how many uninvited guests were on board in an instant. His mind racing at a thousand miles an hour, he got into the life support systems program. In a few minutes, they would come face-to-face with Adam and Oriyanna, and there was nothing he could do to warn them – coms hadn't been an option for fear of them being picked up too easily. Taulass had only one option, to stay hidden. He navigated his way deeper into the system's operating procedure as swiftly as he could, hoping to find a way to shut off the monitors in his section of the ship. There were still twelve minutes before he'd have all of Enola's files, and a further three before the return hub activated.
It was going to be close. Too close.
* * *
Adam glanced around the corner for a second time and eyed the two men on duty outside the room. He turned to Oriyanna and whispered, “How the heck are we going to play this?” He adjusted his grip on the Glock, his hand clammy and his shooting arm felt about fifty pounds heavier than the other. He was sure that as soon as he lifted the weapon to fire, it would slide from his fingers.
“Leave it to me,” Oriyanna said, although she sounded unconvinced. Before he had chance to question her she broke cover. He'd expected her to run, but she didn't. Instead, she sauntered along the corridor, acting as if she should be there. Forcing himself into action, he followed.
“We are so lost,” he heard her say, as they closed the gap. “We only arrived a few hours ago and—”
“Stop right where you are!” one of the men shouted, his accent Hispanic. Adam knew the play she was making – hoping to influence one, or both – but it wasn't going to work, and Oriyanna realised it, too. In a flash, she whipped up the Arkkadian weapon and fired. Adam watched as the guy who'd issued the command convulsed as if he was having a seizure. The sight caught his partner off guard and spurred Adam into action. He sidestepped Oriyanna and levelled the Glock, discharging two rounds. He'd never been the best of marksmen, but one round hit the guy square in the torso. The recoil from the weapon made his hand sting as though he'd just whacked his palm against a brick wall. When the second guard doubled over, Oriyanna discharged her weapon at him. His whole body appeared as if it had been struck by lightning. Bright green flashes of what Adam guessed was some type of electricity raked over his body, and he stood bolt upright, his face contorting for a second before his hair began to smoulder. Less than a second later he hit the deck, dead.
Wasting no time, they stepped over the bodies and Oriyanna placed her hand into another recess, and opened the door.
* * *
Despite the gravity of the situation, Sam was knackered and with nothing else to do other than worry and run through a never-ending list of what-ifs, he began to drift off to sleep. His mind had been locked in a torturous quandary of unanswered questions. Was Lucie truly pregnant? Why the hell did they know, and he didn't? In his semi-awake state, he heard a female voice outside the room and thought nothing more of it, dismissing it as part of a dream leading him into the land of nod. The second voice, much louder, shouted, “Stop right where you are!” It chased away his on-coming sleep in a flash. Following the command, he heard two deafening shots ring out – someone had discharged a firearm. The next few seconds seemed to pass at the speed of minutes. Sam bolted from the bed and stood in a ready position by the door. The idea of rescue flashed though his head, but he quashed the thought as quickly as it came, fearing he was setting himself up for a fall. When the door slid open he had to do a double take at the sight of Adam and Oriyanna when they rushed into the room, both with their weapons out, ready.
“Don't fucking shoot me!” he shouted, and he was only half joking. He knew how trigger happy even the most well-trained soldier could be under pressure, and although he'd trust Adam with his life, his friend was far from well-trained in the field of combat.
Adam lowered the gun and embraced Sam, almost choking the air out of his lungs and he winced with pain when Adam crushed his shoulder. “Glad to see you too, bud,” he laughed. “You saving my butt – now that's one to remember.”
Adam broke the bear hug and grinned. “A wise crack? Guess that shows that you're more than alright.”
Sam smiled. “How the hell…”
“We don't have time now,” Oriyanna cut in, sliding the handheld from her belt and checking the display. “We have less than twelve minutes before the first return hub opens.”
“Return hub?” Sam questioned.
“Later,” Adam urged. “We need to move.”
“You don't have to ask me twice,” beamed Sam. “Just one question – Lucie?”
“She's fine, safe and back in good old Blighty,” Adam replied. Before Sam had time to question his friend about the baby Adam continued, “Thought you might want to use this,” and slid the second Glock from his waistband.
Sam took the gun and gave it a quick onceover. At the door, he watched Oriyanna operate the bizarre opening mechanism again. The door slid open, only to reveal three armed figures on the other side, their weapons raised and ready to fire.
* * *
“Well, isn't this nice and convenient,” Namtar snarled, as he trained his weapon on Sam Becker. The surprise on the faces of the trio had been nothing short of priceless. “Just when I was beginning to think we'd only have the pleasure of Sam's company for the big show, you two literally fall into our laps.”
“How's the eye?” Sam grinned when he saw Croaker. The third guy was a new player to the equation. He stood almost as tall as Namtar and his stature was equally as impressive. His black tee-shirt appeared to be a size too small and highlighted the bulging muscles beneath. His sandy blonde hair was close to the same shade as Sam's, but that's where the similarities ended. Next to the two giants, Croaker seemed almost weedy. All three were toting lethal Diablo tactical handguns.
“I'd shoot you dead here and now if I could,” Croaker snapped. “Now if you'd please lay down your weapons, that'd be appreciated.”
Sam lowered his gun reluctantly, motioning for Adam and Oriyanna to do the same.
“There is a certain someone on the bridge who would just love to make your acquaintance,” Namtar grinned, watching Adam. “And it's been many years since you last met,” he added, switching his attention to Oriyanna as she placed her weapon on the floor. “Now kick them towards me,” he ordered. They did as instructed and watched helplessly as Namtar collected them up. He stopped to admire the Arkkadian gun. “Isn't this a little against your code of conduct?” he asked, turning it over in his hand. “Alien technology on Earth… tut-tut!”
“If you'd care to hand it back, I'll demonstrate the latest in our weapons developments,” Oriyanna offered in a low voice. “Not even the Gift can save you from th
is.”
Namtar smiled coldly. “You might want to ask Sam about the Gift, when you get the opportunity. Let's just say the pair of you might need to offer yourselves up first for a bullet. Now, let's get moving.”
* * *
“Excellent news!” Asmodeous beamed when Namtar reported in on the ship's com system that he had both Adam Fisher and Oriyanna in custody and they were on their way to the bridge. He turned to Hawker who was eyeing him warily from the control console he was working at. “Please excuse my outburst,” he said, patting Hawker's shoulder. “It was inexcusable.”
“Don't mention it,” Hawker grunted.
“Now let's see if we have any other gate-crashers. If you'd be good enough to call up the life support systems. It might help us flush out any more rats.
* * *
From the mirror on the main control panel, Taulass watched as the operator called up the life support system and ran a scan. Just seconds before, he'd successfully managed to shut down the censors which would have given his position away. If the user searched hard enough, he'd easily discern that this particular part of the system was not functioning, but Taulass hoped they would only carry out a quick scan and he'd be in the clear.
From the bowels of the ship he watched as the screen come to life, reporting a total of eleven crew, including Adam, Sam and Oriyanna. With bated breath he waited, not wanting to see the operator delving meticulously deeper into the system. After a few tense seconds, the screen swapped back to Enola, still busy doing her thing.
Moments before, he'd watched the two green dots outside Sam's room blink out of existence. Foolishly, he'd allowed himself a moment of hope, thinking Adam and Oriyanna would have time to snatch Sam and get clear before the other three dots, heading relentlessly toward their position, arrived. Much to his dismay the trio had stalled, likely caught up in a rapid question and answer session. The delay was just long enough to ensure their capture. He'd been so anxious, he'd had to reel himself in from screaming pointlessly at the screen, shouting useless warnings to the three. It had been torturous to watch. There were just seven minutes now until he had Enola in his possession and he was fast coming to terms with the fact that he'd be heading back to Niribus on his own.