Evolution: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Ghost Squadron Book 3)

by Sarah Noffke

  “Hopefully I’ll be out of here by then,” he said pulling the door of the Stingray open. Compared to the submarine, this ship’s cockpit was huge. He could thank the Trid for that, since they were slightly larger than humans and required the extra space.

  “Think you can fly it?” asked Julianna.

  “I think I can sure try,” said Eddie, sliding into the seat and strapping himself in. The controls were similar to what he was used to, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of the language. “Pip, buddy, I’m gonna need you to tell me which button makes this go.”

  “The green one, I believe,” the AI informed him, “to the right of the control stick.”

  “The big one?” asked Eddie, spotting it immediately.

  “Correct,” said Pip.

  Eddie pressed the button and the ship came alive, humming gently and vibrating his seat before settling into a smooth rhythm. “Yes!” he exclaimed. “Okay, now let’s see about launching this thing.”

  “Getting out of here will be like entering the dry dock,” explained Julianna over the comm.

  “Which means I have to figure out how to make this baby swim,” said Eddie, running his fingers over the dashboard. He hit a blue button, releasing a small missile which hit the row of Stingrays across the bay. The explosion sent a wave of water in his direction, and a burst of heat shot over him.

  “Oops,” he muttered.

  “At least they can’t follow you now,” assured Julianna.

  The door for the loading bay opened, and a horde of guards rushed through and took shelter behind a stack of crates on either side of the entrance. They were poised and ready to fire, probably trying to decide if they should launch an assault on their own ships.

  Apparently the debate didn’t last long, because a series of quick shots hit the side of the Stingray seconds later.

  Eddie took the control stick in his hand and brought the Stingray forward, pulling it out of its position and wheeling it around to face the guards. He was in the open now, separated from the other ships. More shots were fired at him by the cluster of angry soldiers.

  “Damn, boys,” said Eddie. “I thought we could be friends.” Eddie positioned the guns directly at one of the largest crates and tapped the blue button again, releasing another missile.

  It hit the target, sending debris into the air. The guards leaped out of the way as fragments hit the platform.

  “All right, enough fun for you,” said Julianna. “Get the fuck out of there. You’re going to have company soon, and not just a bunch of inexperienced guards with no combat experience.”

  “Copy that, Strong Arm.” Eddie pivoted the Stingray, loving how it turned on a dime. He was slammed back into his seat as it sped forward and accelerated quickly. The spacecraft lifted off the runway, which narrowed ahead and took a sharp turn downwards into the water.

  “You figure out how to make that craft swim yet?” asked Julianna.

  Eddie’s eyes scanned the controls. “No, someone told me to leave before I had a chance.”

  “Do you see a button with three ‘Ts’ in a row on it?” asked Marilla.

  Eddie angled the craft and took the downward tunnel. Ahead, the surface of the blue water shimmered. As he expected, the landing bay was set up just like the dry dock.

  He ran his eyes over the dashboard. “Yes, I have a button like that.”

  “Hit that. It means ‘swim’ in Trid,” said Marilla.

  Eddie was approaching the water quickly. “Here goes nothing.” He pressed the button seconds before diving straight down. The ship didn’t slow as he expected, but continued to race forward like a submarine with boosters. He took a turn and saw the expanse of the ocean ahead so he increased his acceleration again and burst out the tunnel, pulling the nose up to reach the surface. The Stingray was fast and bubbles raced over it as he flew up. He broke the surface seamlessly, switching to flying in the air as gracefully as he had in the water.

  “Woohoo!” yelled Eddie. “Papa’s got a new ride!”

  “That’s you?” asked Julianna.

  “Yeah, I’m the hottie in the Stingray,” said Eddie. Beside him the Q-Ship materialized, uncloaking.

  “Welcome back, Blackbeard. Good work,” said Julianna, pacing him.

  “Good work, team. I couldn’t have made it out of there without you all,” said Eddie.

  “Let’s make for base. I have a feeling we’re going to have some Trid on our ass otherwise,” said Julianna.

  “Copy that,” said Eddie.

  Loading Dock 01, QBS ArchAngel, Tangki System

  Julianna strode over to the Stingray as it docked inside ArchAngel and waited for Eddie to pop out. As he opened the hatch he realized he was getting a fair amount of attention from the crew, who were rushing over to assist with the ship.

  “You nearly got shot at, flying that thing in here,” said Julianna, a mischievous smile on her face.

  “Let me guess: you considered not informing ArchAngel it was me, didn’t you?” asked Eddie, sliding down to the ground.

  “I considered it,” she teased.

  “Well, thanks for letting her know I wasn’t an enemy aircraft,” said Eddie, admiring the ship.

  “What in the hell?” a voice boomed from the other side of a row of cargo pods. They hadn’t been there before.

  Hatch wheeled around, his eyes wide as he took in the Stingray on the loading dock.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” he asked, bustling over, his tentacles waggling in the air.

  Eddie rubbed the wing with the side of his hand. “’I stole it, of course.”

  Julianna turned to Hatch with a proud look on her face. “You wanted blueprints for the Stingray to understand their construction, so we did you one better and brought you an actual ship.”

  Hatch, to their surprise, didn’t look happy. “What were you thinking?! You idiots! You brought that thing into ArchAngel?”

  “Well, yeah. It was kind of my getaway ride,” admitted Eddie, confusion covering his face.

  “We have trackers on our ships. Don’t you think that the Trid will use the same technology?” asked Hatch.

  Eddie’s and Juliann’s expressions went slack. “We didn’t consider that, Hatch,” said Julianna.

  “I guessed as much.” Hatch turned to the crew standing idly behind him. “Okay, children, listen up! We’re looking for a tracker. I want you dimwits to sweep the entire ship for anything that might fit that description.” Each crew member nodded and sprang forward to begin working on the ship.

  “Sorry, Hatch,” said Julianna. “We thought we were making your job easier by bringing back the ship.”

  Hatch’s frown softened and he waved a tentacle at her. “It’s fine. You did good, Julie. Once the chip is found and destroyed we’ll be fine. ArchAngel will just have to take us through a gate to throw the Trid off, in case they are on our trail.”

  Eddie and Julianna waited for several minutes while the crew continued to examine the ship, carefully sweeping it and removing parts.

  “Found it!” a crew member finally said from inside the cockpit. He raised a hand, showing a small chip with several wires sticking out of it.

  “Keep searching, there might be more than one,” commanded Hatch. He shook his head, obviously not impressed, then turned and pursed his mouth at Eddie. “Where’s my submarine, Teach?”

  Eddie threw out his arm at the Stingray. “Buddy ol’ pal, I brought you a Stingray. Now you’ll have the technology to make crafts that fly under water. Isn’t that great?”

  Hatch interwove two tentacles in front of his chest and stiffened. “Where. Is. My. Submarine?”

  “About that… The thing is, that you forgot to put registration tags on it for the Trid government. Sooooo….” said Eddie, cringing a bit in anticipation of the explosion that was about to happen.

  “Me? You’re going to blame this on me? You lost my submarine, didn’t you?” yelled Hatch.

  “Let’s say it was detained,” said Eddi
e. “How about I buy you a new submarine, or whatever it is that you want.”

  Hatch puffed up his cheeks, smoldering anger on his face.

  “He did bring you the Stingray, and he couldn’t have done that if he had returned in the submarine. So we had a loss and a major gain,” said Julianna.

  Hatch softened slightly. “I guess that’s true,” he muttered, pausing for a moment. “Fine, Julie, I’ll let this one pass. But not again, Teach!”

  One of the cargo pods, which had been resting on the other side of the bay, unloaded a small vehicle with wheels. It wasn’t a ship, Eddie quickly realized, but some other kind of craft.

  The car that backed out of the first cargo pod was a black convertible with orange flames around the headlights and body.

  Eddie halted, and his mouth dropped open. “Is that… Oh, boy! That’s…” His voice trailed away, stunned.

  Hatch smiled, looking proud. “Look, Teach, but don’t touch.”

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Doc. That’s a custom-built 1949 Mercury Series 9CM like the one in the movie Grease, isn’t it?” said Eddie.

  Hatch shook his head. “Not ‘like.’”

  Eddie’s mouth widened and he pointed, unable to say anything.

  “Oh good, he’s finally speechless,” said Hatch as another custom car backed out of a second cargo pod. “Be careful. Reverse it out straight, not so close to the walls. You’re going to scratch the paint.”

  “Is this your personal collection?” asked Julianna, hands clasped behind her back.

  “That it is. I thought I should have my cars with me, since I figure I’m going to be here for a while,” said Hatch.

  “What about your wives and kids?” asked Eddie.

  “What about them?” asked Hatch.

  Eddie shook his head. “Don’t you miss them?”

  “The kids are grown,” said Hatch. “And the wives…” He waddled over to the nearest vehicle, gently touching its fine coat of red paint. “They just don’t compare.”

  Before them now sat four antique hot rods, all in pristine condition. A fifth one backed out of the final cargo pod and smoothly pulled up next to the others.

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” said Hatch loudly to the crew bustling around the cars, pointing a tentacle at the car. “That’s how you pull a car out of a cargo pod. Evenly, so you don’t risk nicking the paint.”

  The crew all kept their eyes down but nodded. Hatch was already mumbling under his breath about how they were all useless when the fifth car, a 1948 Ford De Luxe, drove up and the engine turned off. The driver’s door opened, and to Eddie’s surprise Knox stepped out.

  “Hey, Gunner! What are you doing here?” asked Eddie.

  He smiled widely, his eyes swiveling to the Stingray in the distance and then back to Eddie and Julianna. “You’re back. Hey!”

  “I asked Knox to help me unload the cars, since he showed interest in the inventory when I told him about it. Turns out the kid can actually drive, unlike these other numbskulls.” Hatch had said the last part loudly to ensure the crew heard him.

  “I’d love to take a look under hoods of these beauties,” said Knox to Hatch.

  A grin unlike anything Eddie had ever seen on Hatch’s face spread on his mouth. “You ain’t seen anything like these engines! Pristine. And the mechanicals are fascinating. They were done right, not cutting any corners.” Knox and Hatch walked off, both gawking.

  “Eddie?” called Julianna with a strange tension in her voice.

  He turned to her. “What’s up, Jules?”

  “Pip has informed me that a ship has docked with ArchAngel. He says there’s a visitor aboard who is here to see me at your request. Do you know anything about that?”

  Eddie dropped his gaze to the ground. “Oh, that. Right. Yes, I might have scheduled a meeting.”

  “A meeting with whom?” asked Julianna, instantly skeptical.

  “It’s more of a family reunion. I thought it was time we hashed out some issues,” said Eddie, striding in the direction of the docking bay and pulling Julianna reluctantly with him.

  “Issues? I don’t know what you mean,” she said, resisting but still coming along.

  “I believe you when you say that, because you haven’t been quite honest with yourself. That much I know,” said Eddie, pressing the button to open the docking bay door. The connector between the dock and the visitor ship had already been secured.

  “Are you intentionally trying to be vague?” asked Julianna, a line wrinkling the space between her eyes.

  “Remember when you led me to the Trid loading dock, saying you had a surprise for me?” asked Eddie.

  “That was less than an hour ago, so yes,” said Julianna.

  “Well, I have a surprise for you.” Eddie turned and faced her directly, a serious look in his eyes. “I think Pip evolving to AI has brought up some things for you. Don’t be mad—I’ll deal with it—but I took it upon myself to call an old friend of yours. I think you two need to talk.”

  Julianna’s eyes widened with surprise. “You didn’t?”

  Eddie nodded. “I did. He’s waiting for you right through there.” He indicated the connector opening, through which a research vessel’s hatch could be seen in the distance.

  “But…” said Julianna, voice trailing away. Her face slumped and her eyes drifted. Eddie had expected shock and rage, but instead there was…something else. Worry. Concern. Maybe even sorrow.

  “It’s fine, Strong Arm. You got this. Just go talk to him,” said Eddie.

  Julianna swallowed. Nodded. She tore her gaze in the direction of the ship, still hesitating.

  “When you get back we’ll have a drink to celebrate a successful mission,” encouraged Eddie.

  Julianna strode for the connector, but turned back before she entered it. “When I get back I’m going to break your nose.”

  Without another word, Julianna spun and went through the connecting airlock, undoubtedly aware of who she was going to meet.

  Eddie watched with a swell of pity in his heart. Not for himself, of course, but for the friend he had just sent to meet her demons. For the ageless soldier who marched toward the truth.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Docking Bay, QBS ArchAngel, Tangki System

  Do you know what this is about? Julianna asked Pip.

  Silence.

  Pip? What’s going on?

  Pip is not available right now. If you leave your name and message at the beep, he’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

  Oh, okay. Now I have two noses to break.

  Julianna turned the lever on the front of the ship’s hatch. She knew, absolutely knew, who she’d find inside this ship. Even so, she couldn’t understand how she’d arrived at this point. When and why had Eddie set all this up? He had mentioned Pip’s ascendance, so had that been it? Had she showed too much of her discomfort with that situation, however inadvertently?

  Please try not to be angry at us.

  This is about you becoming sentient. I get it.

  Actually, you don’t get it. This isn’t about me at all, said Pip.

  Fuck, you and Teach are talking in riddles. I’m in the freaking Twilight Zone, aren’t I?

  Julianna stepped over the ship’s threshold and closed the door behind her. It was dark mostly, the gray light from overhead making everything appear to be black and white.

  Oh, lookee there! Hatch needs my help with something incredibly important.

  Pip… warned Julianna.

  Monumental, actually. Super-important issue that only I can assist with. I think you’ll be fine here without me.

  Julianna gritted her teeth. She’d been set up. Why hadn’t she gotten wind of this before now? She strode into the main area of the research vessel, which was empty—not a person in sight. However, she knew that wasn’t really true.

  “Hello, Ricky Bobby,” said Julianna, her voice sounding strange in the empty ship.

  The monitors around the shi
p flickered, flipping through different images and settling on a soft, calming blue. It was her favorite color, and he still remembered. Remembered that the hue relaxed her.

  “Hello, Commander Julianna Fregin. It has been a long time,” said the voice of the AI from overhead.

  His voice was calming to her, and a touch of familiarity, of nostalgia, pulled her into a sea of memories. She pushed them aside—a practice she had become quite adept at—and focused on this moment and nothing else. “What brings you to the ArchAngel?” she asked, staring at the large display screen. Even as Julianna asked the question she regretted it, since she knew what this was about.

  “I was asked here by Captain Teach,” responded Ricky Bobby. “I believe he is a friend of yours.”

  Some friend, she thought, and was surprised at herself. She knew Eddie had done this with nothing but the best of intentions, yet she felt anger as she stood in this place listening to her old partner speak.

  “How have you been?” she asked, not knowing what else to say. She swung her arms back and forth, nervously. This was dumb. Why should she be nervous around Ricky Bobby, her first EI? The two had been paired for a long time, until…

  “I am well,” said Ricky Bobby. “My research has led to many advancements for the Federation since last we saw each other. I’ve had many breakthroughs that I believe will assist future generations. In this I feel quite fulfilled, that my work shall go on to help others.”

  Julianna smiled as the rush of memories came back to her, sparked by the AI’s philosophical nature. She enjoyed the notion that her old friend had made such an impact. Following that was disappointment, when she realized she hadn’t been there to witness it.

  “Is it true that you’re commanding a squadron for the Federation?” asked Ricky Bobby.

  “It’s top secret, but yeah, it’s true,” said Julianna.

  “Your secret is safe with me, as all your secrets always were,” said Ricky Bobby.

  Julianna’s chest tightened. She didn’t know how to respond to that. To any of this. There was something she was supposed to say here, but she didn’t know how to begin.

  “You sent me away,” said Ricky Bobby.