Shifting Cargo (A Shift in Space Book 1)

by Danielle Forrest

  The tent was basic, so simple it resembled every military tent put up going back thousands of years. Except, as they crept to the center of the room, the maps on the central table were digital. She touched it, lifting the flimsy corner. The image wavered, distorting, but still held the dimensions and details.

  Zee leaned over the table, placing his hands on the edge as he pored over the contents.

  Biting her lip, Ellie looked around the mostly empty tent, feeling nervous. Zee had his back to the entrance, and that made her even more nervous. She pulled out her gun, holding it at the ready in case anyone entered, although her hands shook slightly at the thought of someone intruding. Zee didn’t even notice as he tried to decipher the maps.

  Ellie looked over her shoulder, wanting to ask him how it was going. Had he found what he was looking for? Did the map tell him where his friends were? Did it tell him why that scout had shot at them? The suspense was eating at her, fraying her nerves as she turned back to the tent’s flap.

  “Hacht,” he said, slamming his hand against the table. The material groaned under the impact.

  “Zee?” she hissed. What was it? What was wrong? Her gaze darted from the opening, where the material played peekaboo with the outside world, to Zee behind her, who had hung his head over the table, letting out a sigh. “Nothing?”

  He nodded, but didn’t lift his head. Ellie locked her teeth together, grinding them as the situation left her nerves wound tighter and tighter. Each second spelled another moment where they might be caught, where they might need to fight. Zee turned his gaze back to the map once more, looking for something else now.

  “What is it?”

  “My unit was sent here to investigate.”

  Ellie turned her back on him once more. Having not found his friends, he’d returned to his mission. She envied him his resolve. She wasn’t sure she would have had the guts to stay the course.

  I never knew I was such a coward…

  “Hacht!” he said, his voice never reaching above a whisper.

  Ellie didn’t turn around this time. She wasn’t sure she could. Every muscle had locked tight in anticipation of potential danger. “Zee?” Her voice shook, the fine tremor giving his name a few extra syllables.

  “Not now.”

  She nodded, even if he couldn’t see her.

  “Is Angus’s bot nearby?”

  Her hands shook harder as she lifted her watch to her mouth. “Angus, bot to me.” Her gun wavered wildly until her second hand returned to steady it.

  Moments later, something scratched at the back of the tent. Ellie jumped and turned. The material lifted, and the bot skittered through, stopping to wait for a command. She let out a sigh of relief and looked at Zee.

  “Record these maps,” he said, tapping the table’s surface.

  Ellie frowned. The bot moved up to the table, but it couldn’t get onto it, its spindly appendages scraping and sliding on the narrow table legs. It was designed for a great many things, but climbing table legs wasn’t one of them. With a shake of her head, she crossed the tent and placed the bot on the table with one hand.

  It scoured over the map with a line of light, scanning sector by sector. When it scanned the entire map, Zee tapped a corner, changing the view, and the bot continued. The process dragged on, but thankfully, Ellie’s nerves started to settle.

  It felt like there was an end in sight. With her back to the table, she’d felt like an eternity yawned before her while she stood at attention. Now, she anticipated slipping from the tent once the bot finished scanning.

  Thank God.

  More moments passed as her gun hand stayed focused on the opening, and her gaze darted back and forth between that and the bot’s progress.

  “Let’s move,” Zee said as the bot’s scanning light turned off.

  Ellie nodded, following Zee as he grabbed the bot off the table, and they slipped out the back of the tent. She expected him to move deep into the forest, but he didn’t. “Zee,” she said stridently, but he ignored her.

  He circled the camp, moving to the next area. With a couple hand gestures, he told her to stay and be quiet, then slipped into the camp. What was he doing?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Zee couldn’t help himself. There had been nothing about his unit on those maps, but there had to be something. He just couldn’t accept that he wouldn’t find some clue as to his unit’s fate. He could accept them being dead, but he couldn’t accept not knowing.

  Each tent looked identical from the outside, but each held the potential for answers. The material shimmered slightly in the moonlight like beacons, and he wondered why they would use such a material for a covert camp. He listened before popping his head into each tent. Dismissing them one by one.

  “Zee!” Ellie hissed behind him, his name the only sound she made as she slinked behind him.

  He turned, signaling her to stay quiet, but he realized he’d never explained any of those signals to her. She’d explained her directions to him, but he’d never bothered explaining his own hand signals. Hacht, he’d been in the military so long, it didn’t even occur to him.

  Too late, now.

  Zee moved quickly through the encampment, passing more tents, grateful the enemy seemed to sleep by night. Each of the remaining tents contained only supplies. Ammo, weapons, food reserves. Under camo tarps, he’d found vehicles and fuel as well. He alternated between two and four legs as he went, checking each area in kind, but he found nothing about his men.

  At this point, he would have settled for a mass grave…

  He sighed without making a sound before corralling Ellie away from the camp and back to their waypoint.

  “Well,” she said behind him as he stopped. “Anything?”

  He shook his head. “I think we can find out why they’re here from the maps we scanned, but nothing on my men. At least I should be able to complete the mission.” His mood had soured, though. He couldn’t keep the disappointment from his face. These weren’t the answers he’d hoped for.

  Ellie touched his shoulder, and he looked up. She looked at him with an expression he didn’t recognize.

  “What?”

  “That won’t get your men back.”

  He let out a breath. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “What?”

  She sighed, rolling her eyes at him. “You care about those men. Where I’m from, people in the military see their unit as family, brothers. Hell, they see them as closer than brothers. They would give their lives for them. Losing them is never easy.”

  He couldn’t argue the point, but he had no time to grieve. He had a job to do. “The mission comes first.”

  Ellie frowned, but didn’t call him out again. “Now what?”

  “We head back and analyze the data.”

  “We can’t do that here?”

  He pointed at her wrist. “On that little screen?”

  She laughed. “I guess not.”

  It felt surreal as Ellie stepped on board her ship once more. The plain metal walls felt claustrophobic after the open expanses, after the wind running through her hair. And though she should have felt safe here, should have relished that, she didn’t. For the first time, the ship didn’t quite feel like home.

  It unnerved her.

  “Angus, have you analyzed the data from the scans yet?”

  “What do you take me for, an amateur?”

  “I take you for a pain in the ass,” she muttered under her breath.

  “I heard that.”

  Zee chuckled at their bickering. Ellie turned back and glared at him. He shut up immediately, trying to plaster an innocent look on his face. He did a fairly good job at it, and she turned around, choosing to ignore him as she walked to her room with the wall-to-wall display.

  “Bring it up on the wall, Angus.”

  “Aye, lass.”

  She rolled her eyes, wondering for the thousandth time if she could get Cass to change the voice at least.
Zee followed her into her room, the display flashing to the maps as they entered.

  “Angus, can you identify what regions the maps portray?”

  “Aye.” Angus enlarged the map on the top left of the screen. “This map portrays the region that includes our landing site and the enemy encampment.” That map shrunk down, and the next enlarged. “I believe this map shows the entire planet, though that is an extrapolation of known data.” That map too shrunk, then another popped up, this one a star map. “This is a map that seems to cover this and the adjacent star systems.” Then Angus enlarged the fourth and final map they’d scanned. “This map is of a planet in the adjacent star system. According to my database search, it is called Balaena.”

  “Ezzaruh,” Zee whispered.

  Ellie turned at his tone. A look of horror covered his face. “Zee, what is it?”

  He looked at her, shaking his head. “Ezzaruh. It’s the second largest Ateles colony.”

  Ellie looked back at the map again, her breath coming with difficulty. “Angus, is there any indication on the map of the enemy’s plans?”

  Angus didn’t respond immediately. Ellie rung her hands, chewing on her lip as she watched the screen, then snuck peeks at Zee behind her. He didn’t seem as on edge as she did, his form straight and tall, but his tail flicked back and forth, reminding her it was there.

  What was he thinking? She knew nothing of his people, of this colony, but even she was terrified for them. What if these guys were planning an attack? An invasion? Images of adorable little babies with black skin and happily slapping tails flitted through her head, sending longing deep through her, but the images morphed, distorted with terror. Babies cried out, begging to be soothed as chaos reigned around them.

  Her lip split open, bleeding, the tang coating her tongue. Her nails dug into her palms, the sharper talons of her natal form painful in her distraction. She looked down and shook her head. Four deep cuts ran in a line on both palms. She forced herself to relax her hands, to wait patiently, but she couldn’t bear the idea of innocent families being torn asunder if there was anything she could do about it.

  Stop borrowing trouble.

  “Based on the information in the maps, I estimate a 97% chance that the Thunnus will attack planet Balaena here.” Angus highlighted a point that looked to be in the middle of a populated area.

  Both she and Zee took a step forward. “What is their plan?” she said, before shaking her head, disgusted at herself.

  Not my problem.

  Except she couldn’t seem to convince herself completely. She should turn tail and run. Her ship was repaired, she now had enough information to know why they’d been attacked, and it was really none of her business. She wasn’t military. The smart thing would be to get the hell out of dodge.

  Angus zoomed out the current map, bringing up the map of the planet they were on and the star map. “Forces will amass here.” He highlighted the camp they’d infiltrated. “And here.” He pointed out several points on the star map. “There is a 76% chance that forces will proceed as such.” Arrows formed on each of the maps, stretching across the screen in representation of the movement of the enemy forces.

  Everything converged on Balaena.

  Then the map switched to the Balaena map, and the arrows continued, different colors indicating different ships or units. First, they took out satellites, eliminating most long-range communication. Ships would have alternate modes of communication, but if the colony wasn’t advanced, it might not have any ships on the surface when the forces struck.

  Next, the arrows converged on the populated areas, taking out facilities on the edges. She didn’t recognize anything, but she suspected they were probably military or government buildings. It would be logical to take out infrastructure so the rest of the planet fell without a fight.

  Within moments, the arrows had completely overrun the colony.

  “Shit,” Ellie said, falling a step backward. She turned to Zee. “What do we do?”

  Zee scratched the back of his neck, studying the maps. “We need to get this information to headquarters. They need to know about the invasion.”

  Ellie nodded. She could get behind that plan. Help Zee get the information out, then get back to her real life. “Angus?”

  “On it. I will just need coordinates and protocols to get through.”

  Zee spouted out a bunch of gobbledygook, and Ellie’s eyes rolled over, but Angus had no problem following it.

  “It will be sent.”

  Zee nodded. “It would also be best if we could determine a timeline for the assault.”

  Ellie didn’t like the sound of that. She’d just convinced herself she was done with this. This sounded like he was trying to reel her in even more. Besides, how could they possibly determine a timeline when Angus had been less than helpful with that message earlier? “We can’t read their writing.” She looked at the maps. It was lucky they’d been able to determine their plans from this. Fortunately, most maps were pretty self-explanatory.

  He sighed. “Can Angus scan vocal frequencies?”

  “Are you kidding? They could literally be on any frequency. Sure, he can monitor, but if they’re using a frequency he’s not programmed for, we’ll never catch it.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll check if there are any additional frequencies to scan.”

  Ellie bit her lip again, thinking her lip was going to be a bruised, bloody mess by the time all this was over. “But how’s that going to help us?” And why couldn’t she seem to say no?

  He sighed. “I’m hoping we can determine something from tone, patterns, et cetera. We might not know what they’re saying, but maybe we can figure something out from how they’re saying it.”

  Ellie nodded, but didn’t hold a lot of hope on that front.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Zee walked into the control room to check on the frequencies Angus could monitor. It would take too long over vocal commands. He sat down in front of the console and frowned. He’d forgotten the interface wasn’t in Usan. The screen spouted information like an abstract drawing. He had no idea what it said.

  His head sagged. Outside, darkness still loomed, difficult to see because of the room’s bright interior, leaving the trees and clearing in shadow. He lifted his head and pushed back the desolation gnawing at the edges of his mind. They had a plan. Angus was sending a message to his superiors, and they would monitor local frequencies hoping to gather more information. They would prevent the attack on Ezzaruh. “Angus? Can you show all your broadcast and reception frequencies on the monitor in Usan?”

  “Of course.”

  The screen lit up with a long list of numbers with broadcast on the left and reception on the right. Zee scrolled through them with his finger, checking if there were any more he could add.

  “Zee?” Angus said, interrupting him.

  “Yes, Angus?”

  “I am getting an unauthorized sender message when attempting to transmit the intelligence data to your superiors.”

  Zee frowned. “Bring up the protocols you used on my screen.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Zee was a grunt. He didn’t usually have to deal with communications, and he was rusty. All military personnel were trained, but again, they were trained using their own equipment. Now, he feared the equipment sent its own codes along with his to verify it was a secure connection.

  He scratched the back of his neck as he stared at the data, picking his brain apart trying to remember if he’d forgotten anything. What could he have missed? He changed a few details, added another code he wasn’t entirely certain was correct and sat back. “Okay, try sending now.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  The screen returned to his list of frequencies, and he started adding more, frequencies they often used in military activities, either for communication or monitoring enemy forces. He’d never come across the Thunnus, so he couldn’t say if any of them would work, but it was better than nothing.

  “Long-ra
nge transmissions are down,” Angus said, breaking the silence and startling Zee out of his task.

  “What?”

  “Long-range transmissions are down.”

  “You mean you can’t send it.”

  “Aye.”

  Zee ground his teeth together, his tail flicking back and forth against the metal floor plates. He leaned back. “Try all frequencies, including the ones I just uploaded. Determine the extent of the communications blackout.”

  “Aye.”

  The room grew quiet, Zee’s nerves urging him to get up and move. Like always in situations like this, he just wanted to do something. He paced the room, waiting for an answer from the AI.

  “No response on any long-range frequencies. Most short range frequencies are working, but several are encrypted.”

  “Hacht,” Zee swore, stomping his foot. They’d been found out. Between the missing scout, the missing vehicle currently in their cargo bay, and sneaking into the camp, something must have alerted them. It didn’t matter what, though. Without long-range communications, they couldn’t call for help. They couldn’t send the army to defend Ezzaruh. Hacht, he couldn’t even call for a ride.

  They were on their own.

  He stopped his pacing. “Angus, work on communications. We need them up and running yesterday.” He paced some more, then stopped again. “And monitor all channels. I need to know what the enemy is doing.”

  “I can monitor short range channels, but this planet is uninhabited and the only active channels are encrypted.”

  “Hacht.” Those channels were probably being used by the Thunnus, which meant it would be a waste of time to monitor the inactive channels. “All right, just work on it. If you can crack the encrypted channels, all the better.”

  He stormed out, desperate to let off some steam.

  Zee moved toward the gym, intending to run through some stances and burn off some excess energy. He’d had a little too much frustration and nowhere near enough activity to ease it. Entering the room, his hand was still on the door as the sight before him locked him in place. His entire body froze, and his free hand reached for the smooth doorframe to steady himself.