by Finn Gray
“Great shooting, Lieutenant!” Recess shouted.
“Just get the hells out of here before the next wave arrives.” She was still struggling with the controls. The g-forces were incredible.
“Beginning jump prep now,” Stine said. “QE drive spooling up.”
Another wave of Reapers was closing in.
The Mongoose was now in a flat spin. Sabre killed the port thrusters and goosed the starboard. She did it again and suddenly they were no longer a spinning top—just an out-of-control ship. That she could handle.
Moments later, she was back in control.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Spartan tore off his helmet and vomited onto the deck. Behind them, Shepherd was slumped over in his chair.
“Are you with me, Shep?” Sabre asked.
“Yes, Sir,” he groaned.
“Spool up the QE drive and begin jump prep.”
“Roger, that. Beginning jump prep.”
“There’s no time,” Spartan said. “Look at RADS.”
The next wave of Reapers was almost within missile range.
“Belay that order, Shepherd,” Saber said. “I want power to the forward shields.”
“Aye, Sir.”
She glanced at Spartan. “I got the guns, you got the missiles. Fire at will.”
Spartan had replaced his helmet but she could see through the visor that he was still white as a ghost. He managed a nod.
“All right, you Memnon bastards,” she said. “Let’s see who blinks first.”
Chapter 31
Facility C, Soria
Luthien led Rory into a conference room. The floor was simulated wood, as was the shiny oval table at which four people sat. Like the lab, this room was decorated with fine art. A digital window in the far wall displayed a pastoral setting that reminded him so much of home that he stopped dead in his tracks.
They’re probably dead. Mom, Dad, everyone else I know. Gods, would I even want them to still be alive if it would mean living under Memnon rule in the midst of a nuclear winter?
Behind him, Luthien cleared his throat.
Rory snapped back to alertness and took a few more steps into the room.
He halted at the head of the table and looked at those who waited for him. Two men, two women. Three of them wore lab coats and scrubs. The fourth, a blonde woman, wore coveralls, unzipped to the waist, affording a tantalizing glimpse of a lacy black bra.
Four scientists and an engineer who likes to make an impression, he thought.
“Sorry,” he said. “I haven’t been out in the real world in a long time. This place is a far cry from a marine training camp.” He forced a smile. None of them replied.
Luthien introduced his colleagues. The engineer with the open coveralls, a blonde who wore her hair in a topknot, sides shaved, was Kally Croyle. She winked and made a mocking salute. Ndidi Okafor had dark brown skin and amber eyes. She held a tablet in trembling hands and did not quite meet Rory’s eye when they were introduced. Benjoe and Jila Ahuja, who went by Benny and Jill, were a husband and wife pair. Both had wrinkled brown skin, silver-dusted black hair, and suspicious frowns.
Luthien took his seat at the table. Only Kally appeared happy to see him. She rolled her eyes at Benny, who cleared his throat.
“Please sit down.” Benny spoke in the deep-throated manner of the Peacock Islanders. Rory had known a few in his time. They were a proud, stiff-necked people who were suspicious of anyone from outside their isles. Not that they did not have their reasons, he supposed.
“No, thank you.” Rory kept his tone neutral. He wasn’t in the mood to cooperate, nor give the impression of being too malleable.
“Trust me,” Kally said to him in a conspiratorial tone, leaning forward, “if you knew how long these windbags could talk, you’d sit down.”
Rory chuckled and took a seat. He was grateful she had given him the opening. He was tired and aching, and it was taking all his effort to hold back the thoughts of the people he loved and had lost.
“If we could be serious for a moment,” Jill said.
“Right,” Kally said. “The gods forbid we should laugh while the world burns.”
Okay, Rory thought, there’s at least one person here I can get along with.
“Please tell us,” Jill said to Rory as if she hadn’t heard Kally, “who you are and how you came to be here.”
Rory stuck to the basics. He, Cassidy, and Trent were Marines who had fled to Soria during the uprising. Oates was an escapee from the Memnon facility at Stone Mountain.
At the mention of Stone Mountain, Ndidi let out a little squeak.
Benny rose halfway from his chair, hands on the table.
“If you have brought our facility to their attention…”
“Sit down!” Rory barked in perfect imitation of Sergeant Clancy. The traitorous training sergeant. It bothered him to realize the man had left a mark on him.
Unsurprisingly, the civilian Benny obeyed without thinking. He had probably never been spoken to like that in his life. In the echoing silence Rory moderated his tone.
“Stone Mountain is gone. We destroyed it.”
“Destroyed?" Ndidi said, as if the word were unfamiliar.
“They had constructed a powerful weapon they called Nyx.”
“The goddess of the night?” There was a twinkle in Kally’s eye that suggested she approved of the name.
“Exactly,” Rory said. “We destroyed its core which in turn took out the base. I’m surprised it didn’t show up on any of your instruments.”
They exchanged guilty looks.
“We should have realized,” Luthien admitted. “There’s been an unusual amount of seismic activity. But we’ve sort of had our own issues to deal with here.
“Above and beyond witnessing the end of the world,” Kally added.
“If you destroyed their weapon, how did you manage to survive?” Bennie asked.
Rory knew what he was hinting at. “You’re right. It must seem impossible that anyone came out of there alive, but a couple of us did.”
Ndidi was shaking her head. “How do we know you’re not Memnons yourselves?”
“I could ask you the same question,” Rory said. “A top-secret base on Soria that not even the other branches of government are aware of? And you know about Stone Mountain.”
“Don’t you dare accuse us of being Memnons,” Bennie said.
“I wouldn’t piss this guy off if I were you.” Kally’s eyes bored into Rory but her words were directed toward the others around the table. “He looks like he’s almost out of fucks to give.”
“You’re not wrong about that.” Rory flashed a rueful grin. “My friends and I are just four people who have lost everything, same as all of you.”
Slowly, the mood around the table relaxed.
“You told us how you came to be here,” Kally said, “but you didn’t exactly explain why you chose to come here specifically.”
Rory was taken aback. He had thought her his ally, but she had seen through his intentional vagueness. He wanted to tread carefully. The connections Oates and Trent each had to Stone Mountain wouldn’t win them any friends here.
“Oates was aware of this facility’s existence, although he didn’t know who it belonged to or what was done here. We figured, worst-case scenario, we would get to kill some Memnons. Best-case, we find allies, provision, safety. I don’t suppose you could offer us a way off the planet, could you?” he added, grinning.
Ndidi actually flinched at the question. What was with her? Maybe she was one of those academic types who hated soldiers on principle.
“Have you been able to track what’s been happening on the outside?” Rory asked.
“To some extent,” Benny said. “We have to be cautious with the way we go about gathering information. The last thing we want to do is draw the Memnon’s attention.”
“Can you give me the broad strokes?”
“The Memnons have seized power at virtually every
level of government. They had enough people,” the corners of his mouth twisted, “in place to keep things from completely falling apart. They’re already providing medical and relief services in areas that have been pacified.”
“Pacified,” Rory muttered.
“Some are fighting back,” Ndidi said. “Mostly suicide bombers or people with a death wish who want to take a few Memnons with them as they go.”
“Any news of the armed forces putting up a fight?”
“No,” she said simply. “They’re gone. The situation is the same on Thetis.”
“But they got away?”
“Yes. The surviving military vessels jumped away along with a large civilian fleet. They probably lost half their forces in the battle, but they managed to escape.”
Rory shook his head. “And I don’t imagine they’ll ever have a reason to come back.”
“Not when they’re the last hope of Aquaria,” Luthien said. “The sensible thing would be to find somewhere to start over. This world is wasted.”
“Tell me about your facility,” Rory said, trying to take his mind off of Jemma.
“This facility was established for biological experimentation.”
“The dinosaurs?” Rory asked.
“Hardly. The initial purpose was to develop edible plants that could thrive in a radioactive environment.” Benny said. “To that end, the center studied local flora and fauna, and attempted to develop edible strains of both. Hence the fruit trees you might have seen outside.”
Rory nodded, uncomfortable. Developing edible plants and animals that could grow in a toxic environment seemed to go hand-in-hand with the Memnons’ attempts to develop an anti-radiation therapy.
“You look like you disapprove,” Kally observed.
“To be honest, it sounds like a Memnon program. A way to keep their population alive after the uprising.” He told them about the experiments that had been conducted at Stone Mountain.
Benny and the others exchanged dark looks.
“McDowell,” Luthien muttered.
“What’s that?” Rory asked.
“The original, and only, director was a man named Mitch McDowell. He seemed all right, but…” Kally paused, waved her hand. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Anyway, the experiments never bore fruit, pun intended.”
Rory held up a hand. “Luthien said something about an energy source.”
“Of course he did.” Jill rolled her eyes.
“The original researchers constantly had problems with interference with their instruments from a mysterious source. It was traced to a series of caverns beneath the facility. When the source was discovered, the entire purpose of the facility changed. The biological research continued as a cover, but we were brought in to study the energy source. That’s where we’ve been for years.”
“How many of there are you?”
“Just what you see. Mitch got himself killed, along with another engineer and our entire security force, small as it was.”
“How?"”
Jill hesitated. “When the uprising started, Mitch… opened a door, for lack of a better term. We don’t know what he was trying to do, but he’s the one who let the dinosaurs in. They did the rest.”
Rory was having difficulty wrapping his head around this bizarre tale. What door? Where did the dinosaurs come from? Why had this Mitch fellow done what he did?
Luthien seemed to read Rory’s mind. “We’re still not completely certain why he did it. Perhaps he was trying to escape the uprising and made a very bad choice.”
“Please,” Kally scoffed. “He knew we’re safe and sound here and that we have food for months. He was a damn Memnon, part of the uprising. I’ll bet his assignment was to sow chaos however he could.”
“Memnon Mitch,” Benny said softly.
“This door that he opened,” Rory began. “Where is it and what’s on the other side?”
“The door is on a lower level of this facility,” Luthien said. “As for the latter question, we don’t know. All we know for certain is there are dinosaurs there.”
Rory was still having trouble wrapping his head around what they were saying. A doorway to a place where dinosaurs were real?
“Are you winding me up?”
“You saw the dinos,” Luthien said. “And since we seem to have decided to trust one another, I think it’s time to show you and your friends the Pool.
Chapter 32
Battlecruiser Kestrel
Every eye on the bridge felt like a dagger in Jude’s back as he leaned in close and concentrated on the data. Commander Begay had suggested that Jude might have a greater chance at success if he had all the resources of Kestrel’s command center at his immediate disposal. Jude knew that was code for, I’m keeping an eye on you.
“What do you think, Doctor? Check the core for an extreme power fluctuation?” Modric asked. The young science officer was an unending source of new and useless suggestions.
“You are welcome to check, but I suspect a burst of that sort would have destroyed the ship.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw petty officer Bonebrake watching him. Suspicion danced in her big, brown eyes. “But we should eliminate every possibility, no matter how remote. You should definitely take a look at that.”
He stood and stretched. “Gods, my back is aching.”
“That civilian life sure is a bitch, isn’t it, Coc?” Bonebrake said.
“Petty Officer Bonebrake!” Colonel Winona Nez’s voice boomed.
“Sorry, Sir.”
“The doctor has work to do,” Nez said. “Let him do it.”
“Aye, Sir.”
The tension on the bridge was palpable. Military types were people of action. Sitting in one place doing nothing was antithetical to their preferred form of problem-solving. The longer they were forced to inaction, the thinner their patience grew. It wouldn’t be long before they started taking it out on him. What was more, word of their plight had begun to leak out. Soon, everyone would know that they were lost.
“I’m calling up that data now,” Modric said. “It will take a minute.”
“Excellent. I think I’ll go for a cup of tea. Would you care for one?”
Modric raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Please. Two cream, two sugar.”
“And would the Black Fox care for anything?” Jude said quietly to Bonebrake.
“I’d like a day without science nerds chattering in my ear,” Bonebrake said. “And don’t tell anybody I told you that.”
“Why did you tell me?” Jude asked.
Bonebrake sighed and turned her gaze upon him. There was something about her that was both enticing and terrifying.
“If you must know, I have a thing for old guys. Really old guys.”
Jude was somehow flattered and offended at the same time. “I’m afraid I’m married. And I’m not that old, am I? I still have my hair.”
Bonebrake quirked an eyebrow. “Yes, you have very nice hair. But you can’t deny, you’re literally a battlecruiser commander’s dad.”
“The youngest battlecruiser commander in the history of the fleet,” he said with a sly smile.
“Yeah, did you keep the receipt for that purchase?” Bonebrake asked.
“I promise you…”
Bonebrake raised her hands. “Just kidding. We talk a lot of trash in the fleet. It’s how we get through the day.”
“Fair enough. Should I reply to your joke with one about Commander Begay’s favoritism toward Echotans?”
Bonebrake’s jaw dropped, and for a moment, Jude thought the young petty officer might hit him. But then she laughed. “That’s fair. Seriously, though. It’s a credit to the commander that he trusts me with this post. Western Echotans hate Eastern Echotans.”
“And is the feeling mutual?” Jude asked.
“I thought you knew. Eastern Echotans hate everybody.” She glanced in the direction of Commander Begay and Colonel Nez, who were deep in conversation, then leaned in close. “You and I should ha
ve a drink some time. That is, if you’re not too happily married.” She bared her teeth and let out a low growl.
“My gods,” Jude said. “Do you kill after mating?” He had no idea if the woman was serious or simply trying to take the mickey.
“Only once.” Bonebrake grinned and licked her lips. “And I was exonerated.”
Jude chuckled, then turned away, sweat dripping down his brow. “I’ll get that tea now, Modric.”
“You’re not trying to escape are you?” Modric asked.
“No, why would I?”
“Because I want to escape. I can’t imagine how boring this must be for you, trying to clean up someone else’s mess.”
Jude forced a smile. “It’s not a bother. I only regret that I haven’t managed to solve our little conundrum just yet.”
Modric looked up, smiling.
“You know what, Doc? You’re a much nicer guy than that tech from Starrolt made you out to be.”
Jude smirked. Starrolt was one of his biggest competitors. “Mister Starrolt and I have never seen eye to eye. I don’t like him because he produces cheap products, and he doesn’t like me because I say so every chance I get. I suppose his attitude filtered down to his staff.”
“I didn’t like him. Came in here to upgrade our QE drive. Treated us like we were a bunch of knuckle-draggers. I’ve probably got more years of academy than he does.”
Jude froze, stunned.
“Is something wrong, doc?” Bonebrake asked.
Jude felt as if he were in a dream. All of his senses tingled.
“Did you say Starrolt upgraded your QE drive?”
Modric nodded. “I know. I thought it was a questionable decision, too. Vatchertech is the best. The fleet has been making wide-scale cutbacks for cycles now. Maybe if they’d seen this war coming, they’d have doled out the extra cash.”
Jude’s heart raced. His mouth was suddenly dry. Did he dare hope?
“But it can’t be the QE drive. Every one of our jumps has gone off without a hitch.”