by Trevor Scott
Liam backed away from the wall, joining the rest of the crew equidistant from each wall. Purple light shot out of the corners of the floor and ceiling and the rumbling sound of gears rattled beneath them. Soon, the hallway was left behind as the floor gave way and the platform on which they stood descended, spiraling down past hundreds of flashing lights and seemingly accelerating the deeper they went.
It took everything Liam had to retain his balance and he found himself grabbing hold of Nix and Saturn to remain upright. Together, they held on until the platform began to slow, seemingly repelled by magnetism. The platform came to a halt at the bottom of a curved shaft that reminded Liam of the spires on Surya, only underground and without the rough trappings of the desert towers. The walls around them were smooth and looked to be carved from the bedrock. In front of him stood a large white door in steep contrast to the rest of the shaft. Its smooth façade reflected what low light filled the chute.
Ju-Long looked green in the face and held his stomach, remarking, “Now I’m glad I didn’t have lunch.”
Liam was the first to move from his spot on the platform, and when he did, the white door opened quickly, retracting up into the ceiling. Beyond the doorway was a hallway similar to the one they’d just left, only this one had several offshoots branching out every so often. He tightened his grip on his weapon and told the crew, “Keep cool, weapons ready.”
When the rest of the crew had their weapons drawn, he said, “Let’s go,” and started through the doorway.
The hallway was wider than any of the offshoots, leading Liam to believe it was the main corridor. If the Ansarans made any sense in their construction of the place, the central hallway should lead to some sort of hub or control center. The passage went on far longer than Liam expected, making him start to doubt any such logic on the part of the Ansarans. Eventually, they came to a large octagonal door reinforced with painted blue metal crossbars.
The door didn’t open when Liam approached. He searched around the frame with his hands looking for a control panel but found none. Liam turned to the crew and shrugged, open to suggestions.
Ju-Long stepped forward impatiently, charging his energy weapon and creating a ball of lightning between the two tips of the crescent-shaped device. He told the crew, “You might want to stand back.”
He let loose the bolt of energy at the center of the vertical seam in the door. For a moment it seemed to work, but the energy was soon reflected back at Ju-Long, hitting him square in his chest. He toppled to the ground and convulsed there briefly before he stopped moving.
“Ju-Long!” Liam cried, joining him at his side and checking his pulse.
Liam heard a rumbling sound and the octagonal door slid open on a track, apparently too heavy to move aside quickly.
“Is he dead?” Saturn asked.
Liam removed his hand from Ju-Long’s neck and said, “His pulse is weak. Let’s get him inside. The quicker we can leave this place the better.”
Nix helped Liam drag Ju-Long through the wide entryway and into the room, lit only by several holographic projections hovering over the workstations, their green glow flooding the walls with faint images of Narra and various rooms in the facility. Saturn made her way to the nearest console and was able to illuminate the room with the glowing ceiling globes.
It appeared to be a base of operations but it was smaller than Liam had expected. There were six workstations, each monitoring different laboratories with one focused on the Dinari village. They must have been in a security station of some kind.
“Help me prop him up,” Liam said.
Nix helped drag Ju-Long by his forearm and propped him up against one of the workstations. When Ju-Long was in place, Nix bent over and held his knees, panting loudly. “How heavy is he?”
“Too heavy to carry. Let’s hope he wakes up soon, otherwise getting out of here is going to be difficult.”
Saturn began scanning through the various camera angles, changing the projections at her workstation to countless rooms in the facility. Finally, she said, “This place really is deserted. Some of the labs have some damage, but nothing compared to the living quarters topside. Except this one here.”
Saturn pointed to the image and Liam joined her at her side. She was pointing at a lab with half a dozen large broken cylinders. Glass covered the ground amid a pool of jade liquid. Tiny blackened figures littered the ground, too burned for their blood to mix with the liquid that covered the floor. Bits of white foam hung from the remains of the glass cylinders, probably part of a fire suppression system.
Liam squinted at the hologram trying to discern what the figures on the ground were. Were they animals? Liam said, “Try to scan their records, see if you can find out what they were working on. Nix, let’s take a look around. Maybe we can find a medical kit somewhere.”
Nix nodded and started searching around the workstations. The security station was small, but there was a door near the back that caught Liam’s interest. It might have been an armory or supply room. There was a panel next to the door with a green sensor pad. Liam didn’t have time to mess around with Ansaran security measures. He approached the sensor and slammed his energy weapon into the pad, crushing the metal housing and shattering the glass. The green light dissipated, turning to a flashing red before finally fading to black. The door opened a few inches at the bottom, just enough to get a hand underneath.
“Hey Nix, over here.”
Nix halted his search and made his way over to the doorway. He smiled and said, “That’s one way to do it.”
“Help me open it.”
Liam and Nix placed their hands under the door and lifted with every bit of strength they had. The door was heavy but began to give way, sliding up slowly. When the door was raised just above their heads Liam saw a flash of blue before something strong pushed past him and Nix, knocking them to the ground. By the time they’d made it to their feet Saturn had her energy weapon charged and held up to an Ansaran’s chest, a ball of energy swirling violently mere inches from the alien’s skin. The Ansaran leaned back against one of the workstations, eyes scanning for an exit.
Saturn growled, “Move an inch and I’ll fill you with so much energy your organs will be barbeque.”
15
The Ansaran was visibly frightened, gripping the edge of a workstation and leaning back to avoid the heat put off by Saturn’s energy weapon. She was the first Ansaran female Liam had ever seen. He circled the workstation to get a better look at her. She wore a form-fitting outfit that showcased her elegant curves. The tight clothing was the same light blue as her skin, with a pattern of geometric shapes that crept up the side and continued onto her skin as though tattooed there. Her eyes were not large black orbs like the males of her species, but rather were a smaller and more brilliant shade of blue that almost looked manufactured. Her face was not as angular as the males, her modest chin leading up to high cheekbones and small ears that came to a slight point partway up her bald head.
“What do you want me to do to her?” Saturn asked Liam through gritted teeth.
Liam dragged a chair up to the workstation and said, “Let her up, we need to have a talk.”
Saturn gripped the Ansaran’s stretchy clothing and brought her to her feet, quickly pushing her down into the chair. The Ansaran rubbed her collarbone near where Saturn had grabbed her. She continued to look for an escape route but ultimately slumped down in the chair, defeated.
“If you’re going to kill me, just do it,” she said, distraught.
Nix took that as a golden opportunity and raised his energy weapon up to her ample chest. Liam put a hand up between the Ansaran and Nix’s weapon and said, “That’s enough.”
“You don’t know what she is, Liam. You’d be wise to let me kill her now and spare us all the risk.”
Liam ignored him and came around to the front of the chair, kneeling in front of her. He asked in his kindest voice, “What’s your name?”
After a moment of hesitation, s
he replied with a shaky voice, “I’m Astrid, of House Gaya. I don’t know anything, I swear.”
Liam could hear Saturn scoff. In his experience, if someone led with ‘I don’t know anything,’ they probably knew something. He regarded her blue eyes, which glowed brilliantly even in the bright light of the security station. He asked her, “What happened here? Why did everyone leave?”
“We received a message from the high council. The projects here were terminated and moved to a new location. We were compromised.”
“Compromised how?”
Her eyes started to well up and she mumbled, “The Kurazon. They were two days away. We packed up what we could and destroyed the rest.”
Saturn crossed her arms and said, “Of course. Convenient, isn’t it?”
“Why have you come?” Astrid asked.
Nix gripped his weapon tighter and yelled, “We ask the questions.”
Astrid didn’t seem like much of a threat. Liam looked into her eyes and saw someone truly scared. She was probably a low-level scientist, but she still might have known something about the Quantum Trigger.
“Astrid, have you seen a black box? It would be about this big,” Liam said, gesturing with his hands.
“I should have known,” Astrid said, wiping her eyes. “You’re here for the Quantum Trigger. Well you’re too late.”
“Where is it?” Nix asked in his darkest voice.
“Our job was complete. It was moved long before this Kurazon threat.”
“Where did it go?” Liam asked, his kind tone dissipating.
“I can’t,” she said, trembling. “They’ll kill me.”
It didn’t seem like she was lying, but Liam needed to know. He asked again, “Where?”
Nix took a step closer, his weapon mere inches from her chest now. He growled, “Answer the question.”
Astrid’s long ears pricked, turning slightly in Nix’s direction. She regarded the Dinari with a look of disgust and her frightened tone changed to one of loathing. She taunted, “If you kill me, you’ll never know. You’d be smart to call off your Dinari dog, Outsider. There’s a reason we keep our distance from their kind.”
Nix let out a guttural snarl that Liam had never heard before. It was an animalistic sound that was uncharacteristic for him despite his reptilian appearance.
“Nix, give us some space. There will be plenty of time for that later if she doesn’t cooperate.”
Nix shifted his gaze to Liam. He wasn’t happy, but he lowered his weapon, the spinning ball of energy dissipating into the twin tips of the crescent. He said, “Ansarans can’t be trusted. She knows far more than she’s telling. Force is all they understand.”
Liam ignored him and asked her, “What do you want?”
“I want off this planet. There’s a planet three days from here. If you deliver me safely, I’ll give you the coordinates of the box.”
Liam looked to Nix, who seemed to understand.
“The only planet that close is Taleris. During the war it was the Ansarans’ main shipyard. The twenty-seven moons are known to hide several of the trappings of war. Foundries, weapons silos, and more. She’s leading us into a trap.”
Astrid smirked, and then said, “Your knowledge of this system is stale, Dinari. Taleris is the last bastion of hope against a threat we haven’t faced in generations. Go back to whatever backwater planet you came from and wait for us to save you yet again.”
“The Reapers,” Liam said.
Astrid nodded.
“They’ve attacked three colonies in the last few months, in addition to several trade vessels. They’re testing their strength and moving toward Ansara every day.”
Nix was right. The threat of the Reapers was not only real, but more dangerous than any of them had realized. The war left the Alliance forces devastated and they had done a poor job rebuilding them. The Kurazon, on the other hand, seemed to have only one purpose in mind. Liam asked her, “Why do you need to get to Taleris?”
Astrid’s eyes shifted and she replied, “I have my reasons. Trust me or don’t, but those are my terms.”
Saturn chimed in, pointing at the Ansaran, “This is bullshit, Liam. We can’t trust her.”
“Saturn’s right,” Nix said. “She will betray us.”
If whatever Astrid had up her sleeve came to pass, they might be right, but Liam had another idea. It might not be the most popular one, but if they wanted to pursue this Reaper threat and find the Quantum Trigger it was the only option he could come up with.
“I won’t let that happen,” Liam professed. “Because she’s coming with us not as a passenger, but as a prisoner. If she wants to be released unharmed, she’s going to spill her guts. We’ll have more persuasive tools at our disposal on the ship.”
Saturn’s lip curled up into a smile. She said, “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“There’s a time and a place for everything.”
Astrid looked like she was about to speak but thought better of it. She merely crossed her arms and slumped back in her chair. It seemed her plan wasn’t going exactly as she expected.
Liam heard a grumble from behind him. He’d nearly forgotten about Ju-Long. His muscular Asian crewmate staggered to his feet and tenderly touched his chest, a hole burned through his clothing where the electricity had struck and small burns stamped into his skin. He squinted his eyes as he looked around the room in a daze, finally landing on Astrid. His expression quickly changed to one Liam knew all too well. Ju-Long approached her with his best swagger and said, “Hey, how about you come back to my ship and I show you the stars?”
Saturn shook her head and said, “Wow.”
16
“Keep your hands off me, scum.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Liam saw Nix tighten his grip on Astrid’s shoulder, digging his claws in and breaking the skin. The Ansaran made a muffled noise but refrained from crying out. She was tougher than he expected of a scientist. Then again, Ju-Long didn’t exactly scream intelligent and he might be the smartest of all of them, when he wasn’t hitting on anything with a pulse.
They were trudging through the dense jungle, daylight fading, in a race to reach the ship before dusk. Liam didn’t want to find out how difficult it would be to traverse the thick jungle vegetation at night. Astrid had hardly said a word on their ascent up the underground spire. Liam had never tortured anyone before, and with any luck he wouldn’t have to start now. He was continuously looking for an angle he could exploit to avoid an unpleasant situation on the ship. He wasn’t worried as much about himself as he was Nix. If there was a rough interrogation Nix might not be able to separate his feelings for the Ansarans with the task at hand. Without as much history, Liam would be a better fit to question her.
Ju-Long hacked away at some heavy foliage, his sharp machete making quick work of it. His ratty leather shirt had found its way to his waist again amid the incredible humidity. Even without direct sunlight Ju-Long was sweating profusely and moving like a man who didn’t just take a bolt of electricity to his chest. Either he had some kind of healing ability Liam didn’t know about, or something was broken in the pain center of his head. Liam was willing to bet on the latter.
Under the jungle canopy it looked far darker than Liam knew it must be above the trees. Only a stray ray of sunlight penetrated the top and made it to the ground. Liam wiped a bead of sweat trailing from his forehead and continued along the old path, taking up the rear to keep an eye on Nix and Astrid.
After a few more minutes of navigating the jungle, Ju-Long pushed aside several thick vines and muscled through into the glade. Once Liam crossed to the other side he nearly bumped into Nix and Astrid, the Ansaran stopped in her tracks, gazing up at their ship.
“That’s your ship?” she asked incredulously.
Nix pushed her forward without rendering a response.
Astrid’s eyes glowed brighter and she continued, “I changed my mind, leave me here. Someone is bound to come eventually.”
> The Garuda’s landing gear had sunk another couple of feet into the moist soil while they were away. Though it had been less than a day, tiny tendrils crept up the landing struts. If they’d stayed any longer, they might never have gotten off the ground again. When they neared the ship, Nix retrieved a flat circular device from his inner pocket and pressed a claw down on the button. The ship responded by slowly lowering the ramp until it touched the ground at an angle that was shallower than normal.
Astrid was reluctant to board the ship, squirming against Nix’s hands. Her skin-tight body suit had become ripped on the shoulders where Nix’s claws had dug in. Tiny droplets of purple blood soaked into the elastic fabric. The black geometric shapes along her graceful neck glistened under the occasional ray of sunlight. The marks crept up her jawbone and behind her ears, where they terminated with a hexagonal shape.
Saturn helped Nix drag the Ansaran up the ramp, Ju-Long following close behind. Liam was left alone at the bottom of the ramp. The sun was setting in a display of brilliant orange and red. He scanned the jungle edge, not sure what he was looking for. Liam saw a brief flash of green and then nothing. It looked like Jalin or one of the other local Dinari were seeing them off.
If the rest of the Dinari in the system were like the ones on Narra, they were going to have a hard time drumming up support for any kind of resistance. It was clear most of them knew nothing of fighting or war. Liam took one last look at the sunset and ascended the ramp, hitting the square red button at the top to close it behind him.
Nix had sat Astrid down on a cargo crate, his claws still holding the Ansaran in place. He asked, “I still maintain we should kill her.”
Liam shook his head and said, “There’s no need for that. She’s done nothing to merit such an action, yet.”
“What should we do with her?” Saturn asked.
Liam considered her question. There were no prison cells on The Garuda, so they’d have to deal with what they had.