“One of my men reported he saw Jonus Jones spearheading a surge up First Avenue.”
Silas spun and glared at Avis. “Jonus? Are you kidding me? I kicked his ass off the Moon years ago. How did he get back? Why did you let him off Harbor Station?” he demanded.
Avis glared back at him and growled, "I didn’t let him off, he snuck off it like the rest of the riffraff we have to put up with on this rock. If you had killed him when I suggested we wouldn’t have this problem." he paused and added, "Sir."
Silas continued to rant and ignored Avis insubordinate attitude, “It doesn’t matter. If you can’t reestablish control in the next hour, turn off the gravity plates and reduce the oxygen in the city by 50%. Let’s see how well they fight then.”
Avis nodded his head in agreement, “Yes Sir.”
Chapter 26
Calin and Nilos crouched in the maintenance tunnel and peered up through the floor grate above their heads. Through the grate they could see Shona and hear the exchange between Avis and Silas. Slowly and silently they crept back down the maintenance tunnel until they were at a safe distance. Calin whispered to Nilos, “We don’t have much time. Didn’t you send some SSA boys to Caldera City to help?”
Nilos shook his head negatively, “I tried. Our group is small without a lot of influence. At this moment my superiors are still deciding if this a civil issue, SSA may not have the jurisdiction to interfere yet.”
“Damn, I guess we don’t have a choice, we will have to do this the hard way. Give me the tablet.” Calin gestured with his hand.
Before he handed over the tablet, Nilos expressed his misgivings, “Are you sure this is the right play? If Silas gets hold of that tablet, we and most of the Moon, are dead.”
“We have no choice now. You heard him in there. He is going to reduce the oxygen in the city. We need to give Jonus the time he needs. And he can’t do that with no air.” Calin grumbled. “We need to get in there and stop them.”
“What about Shona?”
“She will be all right for now. They have to keep her alive until they get what they want.”
“And how are we getting in there may I ask?”
Calin gave him a big grin, “We get captured.”
Nilos shot him a sideways glance and tried to decide if he was as crazy as he sounded. Calin gestured for him to follow him back down the maintenance shaft. Once they had reached the hatch at the end, Calin tapped his ear cuff to activate his comm, “Allia, do you read?” he whispered.
“Loud and clear Calin.”
Calin was glad that Nilos had suggested they pair up their comms with Allia. He cracked the hatch and peered out into the hallway and whispered, “Can you detect the security drones patrolling the hallways? They don’t show up on heat scans.”
“Yes Calin, I can detect 5 drones in the vicinity, one is 50 yards from you and headed in your direction.”
“Good, now my next question is, can you hack one and take control of it? Without raising an alarm?”
“Of course. Would you like for me to do it now?” the A.I. asked.
Calin gave Nilos a mischievous grin and ordered Allia, “Target the one closest to us, and when you have control bring it here.”
“One second… OK, I have control. Flying it to you now.”
“Great! Also, I want you to send our coordinates to the frequency I am about to give you.” He rattled off a frequency number and continued, “and transmit the video feed from the security drone to that frequency. They will know what to do with it.”
“Of course Calin. Is there anything else I can do? I’m kind of bored just sitting here.” asked Allia.
“I’m sorry, but that’s it for now. Keep your channels open in case we call for help. Calin out.”
Nilos squatted beside him in the cramped maintenance tunnel and asked, “Now what?”
"We surrender," Calin gave him a worried look.
Chapter 27
Silas Drummer leaned back in the chair and repeatedly tapped his fingers on the desk. A patrol had just reported they had finally apprehended Calin with the control tablet he had stolen from him. For Silas, to know someone had stolen from HIM almost outweighed the importance of what they stole. But if the news became public, that someone had successfully stolen from him and escaped, well, it would make him look incompetent and weak and that could never happen.
He spun around in the chair and looked around the strange room his scientist had insisted was the Main Command Room for this unusual base. The writing displayed on the vid-screens was unfamiliar to him, but that didn’t matter. His researchers would soon unravel the mysteries of the base, or he would get new researchers. And his scientists insisted they had to have this control tablet before they could continue their research. According to them, it was a critical component to bring the base up to full power.
Soon his guards showed up, the apprehended thieves marched before them. They were covered in grime, their clothes rumpled and to him, they looked like the wayward space rats they were.
"I found this on them," one of his guards handed him a clear glass tablet. Silas's eyes widened, the control tablet! Finally!
The tall one with the smug look on his face, Calin, he believed, stepped forward ahead of the other. "You have the table, now where is she?" he demanded.
Captain Avis stepped forward and swung a quick backfist strike across the face of the smuggler, splitting his lip. “Quiet!” demanded Avis.
Silas turned slightly to his left and raised a finger in command to the PPD troops stationed next to a door. The door slid open and a pair of troopers marched in the girl. She lifted her manacled hands and gave a little wave to Calin and Dean. “Hi guys,” she said flatly.
Calin turned to look at Silas and demanded, “Let's deal and get this over with.” A guard struck him in the back of his leg with the butt of a rifle. While Calin grabbed the back of his leg and forced himself to stand, Nilos calmly stepped between him and the guard and quietly stared at him until the guard took a step back.
Shona, her eyes full of hatred, glared at Silas and growled, “Why did you need to kill MG10?”
Silas shrugged. "To keep a secret. They were nothing, much like the rest of this city." He raised a hand and gestured at the room around them, "But the information and technology they found for me will make me the most powerful man in the Solar System, and for that, I thank them."
Before he could continue he heard gunfire come from the hall outside. His guards reacted instantly and surrounded the Governor with weapons drawn and to form a humans shield. The guards near Calin, Shona, and Nilos raised their weapons and pointed them at the prisoners' heads.
With a loud bang and a flash of bright light, the double doors to the Command Room blew out of the frame in a rush of billowing smoke and flame. Taking advantage of the sudden distraction Shona kicked the guard nearest her in the crotch, grabbed his blaster and threw it across the room to Calin. He caught it mid-air with his cybernetic hand and used his other to swipe the nearest guard's gun out of his face. He slipped the pistol barrel up under the helmet of the guard and pulled the trigger. The blaster bolt lit up the helmet from the inside and smoke rolled out as the guard fell to the ground with a thud. Meanwhile, Nilos slipped behind the other guard, wrapped his arm under the trooper's helmet and applied a tight choke hold.
Out of the corner of his eye, Calin saw a figure dash through the smoke caused by door explosion and rapidly fire a blaster at the guards that surrounded Silas. When the blur of a figure dove clear of the smoke Calin realized it was Jonus.
Shona grappled with a guard twice her size and didn’t see Avis pull a large pistol from his hip holster and aim it as her. Avis grinned as he pulled the trigger.
Jonus threw himself through the air and tackled Shona. He gathered up Shona in his arms as they rolled across the floor, as the blaster fire from Avis hit all around them. He crouched over Shona, his body wracked with convulsions when the bolts hit his body with a solid thud, thud, thud!
>
“No!” shouted Calin. He leaped across the room and placed his gun at the base of Avis’s neck. But Avis ducked, extremely fast for a man of his size, and snapped his pistol around to fire at Calin.
Shona dragged herself out from underneath Jonus’s body and gestured for the pistol in Calin’s hand. With a deep growl, she demanded, “He’s mine.”
Calin snapped out a quick kick to Avis’s chest to send him flying across the room, then tossed the blaster to Shona. Avis, unbelievably, was already back on his feet and charged straight for Shona.
She fired off rapid shots straight into Avis’s face-shield and took advantage of his involuntary flinch to drive a foot into his stomach. When he doubled over she followed with a knee up into his helmet. She grabbed his pistol, twisted it around and squeezed the trigger of her own gun and his to fire double streams of blaster bolts straight into his armor. The point-blank round of blaster fire pounded through his armor and into his body. As Avis slid to the floor, she kept firing until the blasters overheated and shut down.
While Shona had been dealing with Silas’s head guard dog, the rest of Jonah’s Cold Space Gang had rushed into the room, weapons drawn to outnumber the PPD troops 3 to 1.
“What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Silas as he stood defiantly. “You will never get away with this! I am the Governor of Caldera City, and you will put down your weapons now!” he ordered.
Calin strode forward. “Oh, I don’t think so. Look,” he said and gestured towards the vid-screen behind him, which showed the population of Caldera City as they pushed back the PPD troops in every section of the city.
“People don’t enjoy being told they are nothing,” Calin said with a smile and glanced down at a grate in the floor. There, hovered right below the grate was the security drone Allia had reprogrammed. It had broadcast a live feed of every word Silas had said, seen by the entire population of Caldera City.
Silas, his face redder with every breath, sputtered “You! You can’t do this! I own this city! It's mine! The mining tunnels are mine! This base is mine! The people are mine!” he raged as spittle flew from his lips.
At that moment Calin heard a groan come from the floor as Jonus slowly rolled over onto his back. Shona rushed to his side, knelt down and checked for injuries. Jonus waved her off and carefully sat up. He opened his shirt to reveal synth-spun body armor underneath.
“You lucky dog!” said Calin.
“Luck hell, in my line of work I never leave home without it.” A grimace of pain interrupted Jonus’s laugh.
He stood up and turned to the guards being held at gunpoint. "So, guys, do you really want to risk your life protecting that piece of shit behind you?" The PPD troopers looked at each other and slowly lowered their weapons to place them on the ground.
Silas rushed forward and pushed his way through the guards toward Calin. “You! I’ll have your head for this mutiny!” He raged. As he closed on Calin, he pulled a gun out from behind his back and swung it toward Calin’s head.
Zap! A laser bolt zinged right past Calin’s ear from behind and hit Silas’s gun to send it flying out of his hand.
Nilos stepped forward, a gun aimed at Silas’s head. “Give up Silas, there is no way out of this. Even if you got rid of us, even if you activated the reactor, the Kyros Cartel will never let you keep it. Forget it.”
Silas looked at Nilos incredulously and sputtered, “How did... how do you know about them?”
Nilos grinned, “I know all about you and the Kyros Cartel. We know how they put you in power and how they’ve financed your company. We’ve watched you for years. Did you really think you could get away from the Cartel and rule the Moon by yourself?”
Calin held up a finger in confusion, “Wait, Silas has a boss? He’s not the top dog? Why didn’t you mention that before?”
Nilos shrugged apologetically, “Sorry, but that is Classified. You didn’t need to know.”
Shocked, Calin could only reply, “More Classified than that story you told us? Damn!”
Nilos turned his attention back to Silas and continued, “Now hand over the tablet. If you activate it, you will kill us all.”
Silas looked around him at his captured guards, at the vid-screens that showed his city rising against him, and the gun pointed at his face. He edged toward the door, “I can still win. I may not get the city or the base, but I can still win.” And with that said, he slammed his hand down on the control tablet.
At once the base A.I. came over the speakers as red warning lights flashed, “Warning! Unauthorized user detected! Self destruct initiated. Evacuate the base immediately.”
Silas turned and darted out the door to the hallway outside.
Jonus, confused, asked, “Where does he think he can go?”
Calin took off after Silas, “I’ll get him.”
He ran down the base halls at full speed and caught up to Silas in the hangar. He rushed through the doors and immediately dove left, barely avoiding a shot at his head. Silas hid behind a console beneath Allia and laughed hysterically, “What are you going to do you one-armed freak? Shoot me?”
Calin silently sneaked around the perimeter of the hangar and responded, “The thought has crossed my mind.” He couldn’t see Silas himself, just his hands as he frantically swiped on the hangar door control panel.
“Come on! Open damn it!” he could hear Silas whine as he tried to operate the controls.
But to operate the strange console, Silas had to drop his gun on the floor while the other hand held the control tablet. Calin focused hard on the gun and placed his lens targeting reticle on the gun. His metal arm aimed and blasted Silas’s gun to send it skittering across the floor under a cabinet on the far side. Calin calmly holstered his gun, stood up and approached Silas.
“Give me the tablet, it’s over,” Calin commanded.
“No!” screamed Silas, who jumped from his cover and advanced on Calin. “Why don’t you leave me alone? What the hell did I ever do to you, you cybernetic freak!?” Silas asked, his eyes flashed with hatred and anger.
Calin raised his right arm and kept his voice calm, “This, you did this to me. And a lot worse to the people of Caldera City.”
Confused, Silas stammered, “But I don’t even know you. How can I be responsible for that?”
Calin advanced toward Silas and pointed his gun between Silas’s eyes, “You are responsible for a lot of tragedy on this Moon. But you are so delusional you never noticed. You have no idea how much you hurt people, how much you ruin their lives. Once you are gone, Caldera City will be better for it.”
By now Calin had backed Silas into a corner. He could see the tablet and what looked like a countdown graphic getting smaller on the screen. “Give me the tablet, Silas. There is no need for you to kill a million….”
In mid-sentence Calin’s hand darted forward to grab the tablet. But Silas was stronger than he looked and kept a tight grip on the tablet. Silas grabbed Calin’s throat with his free hand and squeezed with all of his might. They both slammed up against the wall, neither letting go of the other. Calin twisted his body to pull Silas off balance and they both crashed to the floor. They rolled across the floor together, Calin’s cybernetic arm continued to hold on to the tablet. But try as he might, he couldn’t get the leverage to rip the tablet out of Silas's hand. Silas, like a crazed maniac, laughed hysterically. “Ha! This is rich! The self-centered smuggler thinks he is a hero! You’re too late, hero! Everyone will die because of you!”. The graphic on the screen continued to get smaller, counting down.
They rolled back and forth across the floor, each one trying to get an advantage over the other. Silas rolled on top and used his full body weight on Calin’s throat to choke him. Calin looked up through watery eyes and could see they had rolled right beneath Allia. The graphic was almost gone on the tablet screen, and even without knowing the language he knew they didn’t have much time. With a sudden inspiration, he knew what he had to do to.
“Allia!”
he croaked hoarsely and hoped she could hear him. “Shoot the damn tablet!”
“But Calin,” she replied through his ear comm, “the blast will hit you too.”
“Target the damn tablet and fire!” he barked, the symbols almost gone on the screen. He used all of his cybernetic strength to straighten his and Silas’s arm out, to hold the tablet as far away from his body as he could.
Above them, an opening dilated in Allia’s skin and the gun she had used earlier descended from beneath the ship and swiveled to target the tablet. The light and sound of the blast, so close, blinded Calin and busted his eardrums. He felt the heat wash over him as it hit the tablet. The tablet, along with his metal arm and Silas's flesh arm, all vaporized in an instant. Silas screamed in agony and rolled away from him on the floor and clutched the stump of what was left of his arm.
Calin reached up to his shoulder and disengaged the snaps that held what was left of his cybernetics to his shoulder. He stood up and the smoldering pieces fell to the floor with a clatter.
With his left hand, he hauled Silas up and half dragged him out of the hangar back to the Control Room. He held up his stump of an arm and nodded at Silas’s smoldering stump, “Welcome to the freak show bub.”
Chapter 28
Onboard the Atlantean shuttle, as Allia flew them back to Caldera City, Shona dressed a burn on Nilos’s arm inside the med-bay. He inhaled sharply when she yanked the dressing tight around his wound.
Calin stood in the doorway and twirled his pistol around in his left hand. “Nilos, during all the excitement down in the base you mentioned something about a Kyrios Cartel? Is that something I should know about?”
Nilos looked up apologetically, “I’m sorry but as I said, that’s Classified.”
“More Classified than telling us about your thousand-year-old secret society?” Calin asked with a skeptical eyebrow.
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