Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1)

by Robert C. James

  Seeker Weapon Ship

  The weapon ship moved from the dark side of the moon, and Kione and Althaus maneuvered the goliath toward Psi-Aion. Even with its size and composition, Jason was surprised how agile the vessel was. The Seekers were light-years ahead in interstellar ship design.

  The Marines attached the explosives they’d come aboard with to the outside of the sphere and along the power conduits. If the ancient relic was as powerful as believed, it would create one hell of an explosion.

  Since his excursion inside, Jason wondered about everything he’d seen. Like anyone, he had dreams, nightmares, even hallucinations, but when the light had encompassed him, he’d believed he was actually aboard the Argo again, as a child. It was more vivid than anything else he’d ever experienced.

  With Psi-Aion approaching, he walked over to Nash. “This ship. I know its main purpose is to use this.” He pointed to the sphere. “But I assume it has conventional weapons, too.”

  Nash said nothing.

  Jason turned to Kione. “Does it?”

  Kione studied the workstation in front of him. “It appears so.”

  “Arm them and prepare to fire.”

  With Althaus’s help, he keyed in the commands. “The weapons are armed.”

  “ETA?”

  “We’ll reach the Argo in three minutes,” Althaus said.

  Jason wasn’t a religious man, but if there was ever a time to pray, it was now. “Hold on…”

  Cargo Ship Argo

  Aly ensured she was buckled into her seat while her bones jangled at her father’s crazy excursion on the atmosphere of Psi-Aion. It reminded her of the zero-gravity trampoline at the amusement park on Delta Station. But this wasn’t nearly as fun.

  Her dad’s hands raced furiously across the helm, trying to keep everything together, while on the other side of the bridge, Professor Petit stared through the viewport, the burning of the heat shield producing an ethereal orange glow.

  On the scanners, the Seeker ship continued to gain on them. They fired potshots at every location the Argo had skimmed.

  “It’s working!” she said with glee. But it would only be a matter of time before the Seekers figured out a way to detect them.

  “The heat shield is buckling under the stress. We won’t be able to do this much longer,” Petit advised.

  “Is there any way to keep this up?” Kevin asked.

  “Not unless we stop at a repair facility and install a new shield.”

  “That’s not exactly on our itinerary, Professor.”

  Aly smirked, but it disappeared when the ship shuddered. “The weapon fire is getting closer. We can’t last more than a few seconds. If they get a lucky hit, we’re—”

  The Argo barrel rolled to port. Aly’s harness jabbed into her ribs and her father’s ripped and threw him from his seat. He struggled from the deck but couldn’t reach his station.

  Aly, without thinking, unbuckled and launched herself to the helm. Instead of finding refuge in the chair, she slid back toward her father at the center of the bridge. She clawed toward the Argo’s flight controls, and with her dad’s help, he flung her upward into the seat. With her head spinning, she ran her hands over the console and brought the Argo back to equilibrium.

  Everyone regained their senses and stared through the viewport. The Seeker ship hovered over them like a condor about to feast on its prey.

  Forty-Five

  The two ships were so close Kevin imagined the Seekers could see the whites of his eyes. He put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder and she gazed up at him, with a tear running down her cheek.

  “I’m sorry.” He hugged her tightly as if it would protect her from the inevitable.

  “Look!” Petit pointed at another vessel rounding the planet’s orbit. The monstrosity that was the cigar-shaped beast loomed over the Seeker ship.

  The weapon ship fired on its running mate, unloading its arsenal upon it.

  Kevin squeezed Alyssa’s shoulder, more than he’d meant. “My god, they did it!”

  “I’m receiving a commlink,” Petit said from the systems station. He piped it through the speakers.

  “Argo, are you all right?” Jason asked.

  “You couldn’t have come at a better time.” A grin beamed across Alyssa’s face.

  “Stand by, we’ll do what we can to take care of them for you.”

  The Seeker ship veered away from the Argo and turned toward the weapon ship. The two goliaths went toe to toe, firing their mighty batteries of weaponry upon each other.

  Kevin replaced Alyssa at the helm and he toggled in a course to maneuver the Argo out of the area, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.

  Seeker Weapon Ship

  Jason, along with everyone else, watched on from the monitors at the workstations before them, holding on to anything within reach while the ship rocked and rolled.

  “We’re severely out-gunned.” Althaus’s hands jumped up and down the console.

  “Continue firing!” Marquez ordered.

  Jason looked around the chamber at the explosives all rigged and ready to detonate. “If they keep this up, we won’t need to use these.”

  “Idiots!” Everyone turned to Nash, who was brimming with fury. “They’ll destroy this ship!”

  Another blast hit them hard and they all sprawled to the deck. All the lights flickered out around them.

  Then the blast of a weapon and an agonizing yell echoed around the chamber. Jason pulled himself up, and when the light returned, there between he and the workstations, was Private Utkin laying in a heap with a scorch mark on his chest.

  Nash broke free and ran over to a spare workstation. Jason darted toward him, but before he got close, his friend pointed his weapon at him. He had one eye on his console and another on Jason.

  “Move any closer, Cassidy, and I’ll pull the trigger.”

  Everyone else gathered themselves from the deck and eyed him warily while another blast reverberated beneath them.

  “I’m saving your lives as much as I am this ship,” Nash said frantically.

  An ominous hum filled the chamber, and the sphere flashed orange.

  “What are you doing?” Jason tiptoed ever nearer to him.

  “He’s distributing the energy from the sphere to the weapon emitter.” Kione stared at an adjacent console. “But you haven’t even tested it yet!”

  Nash smiled sadistically and activated a large hologram above their heads, revealing the battle taking place. “No time like the present.”

  The conduits throbbed with the power from the six-million-year-old artifact and a brilliant bright-blue beam launched toward the Seeker ship from the enormous emitter.

  Then nothing.

  The Seeker vessel didn’t move a millimeter.

  Jason narrowed his eyes. “Well, that was underwhelming.”

  The Seeker ship then throbbed and trembled. It became smaller and smaller. From the size of four carriers, it turned into something no bigger than a cruisier.

  “It’s as if it’s disassembling,” Marquez said.

  With each passing moment it got continually more minute until it was the size of a transport pod. And then as if a dandelion blown in the wind, it vanished, little more than vapors amongst the blackness of space.

  Silence filled the chamber as everyone tried to understand what they’d just witnessed. The smile returned to Nash’s face along with a smug satisfaction.

  Jason inched closer toward him as delicately as he could without being shot. “What just happened?”

  Nash clutched his weapon. “What the Seekers had hoped. Torpedoes. Tritonium warheads. Like pop guns to a child.” He pointed at the sphere. “This is true firepower. And now we’ve harnessed it.”

  An alert klaxon blared around them and Nash peered down at the readings. His smugness once again faded.

  “Something the matter?” Tai said, coming up beside Jason.

  “The ship…we took too many hits.”

  “The s
hip’s reactor has failed,” Kione said. “We have only minutes before it blows.”

  “That’s it.” Althaus studied Kione’s station. “It’s time to go!”

  “No. No one is going anywhere. Especially not you.” Nash’s eyes pierced Jason’s. “I should have done this when I first saw you on Orion V. How could I have been so blind?”

  He pushed his weapon forward. His arms shook, and his fingers twitched. It seemed he was fighting a battle within himself.

  “You can’t pull the trigger, can you?” Jason walked to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Marquez bound toward Nash and bundle him down as if he were a linebacker from the Hyper Bowl winning Holden City Pioneers. The two tumbled to the deck in a tangle of arms and legs.

  But Nash still had the gun. A volley of blasts launched from it, sending everyone ducking for cover. Marquez knocked it from him and tried to lock him down. But Nash was too quick and regained his feet, finding his weapon. He pointed it at Marquez who raised his hands in defeat.

  “I may not be able to shoot Cassidy, but there’s nothing stopping me from killing you.” His hand steadied, and he squeezed at the trigger.

  A blast fired.

  Marquez’s eyes closed, but he didn’t fall. He reopened his eyes and stared across at Jason who had the smoking gun in his hands.

  Jason’s hands shook.

  What have I done?

  He looked across at Nash who had a scorch mark on his chest. His knees buckled and he fell to the deck. Jason hurried to his side and held him upward. He coughed up blood, and it dripped down his face. Gone was the air of superiority that had been so prevalent. He was the Nash Jason remembered.

  “You know what you said on Orion V?” he said to Jason.

  “What?”

  “That you were sorry for letting me go instead of you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I forgive you.” The grin returned, and Nash’s head fell backward. It was as if he’d died all over again.

  This time at my hand…

  “She’s been hit!”

  Jason turned to his brother’s voice ringing around the chamber. Over at the adjacent workstations, the others huddled over a fallen body. He rushed over to find Doctor Tai laying on the deck.

  Captain Marquez rushed toward her and kneeled down, trying to comfort her while applying pressure to the wound on her right leg. Jason assumed she’d been hit when Nash and Marquez had tussled over the gun.

  Damnit!

  “How…does…it…look…?” she asked Marquez, gritting her teeth at the end of every word.

  “A glancing blow. We’ll get you back to the Argo and patched up in no time.”

  The ship boomed around them once again. The screech of metal bending and splitting echoed throughout the chamber.

  “We have to leave now!” Althaus bellowed, charging toward the central elevator.

  Tyler put a hand on Jason’s shoulder as he peered across at his friend. “If we don’t go, we’ll die here with him.”

  Everything around Jason seemed to slow down. Kione, Higgs, and Burns lifted Tai into their arms and hurried to the elevator while Marquez and Tyler bolted over to far side of the chamber to grab Private Utkin’s body.

  An almighty bang erupted, bringing Jason back to normality. The ship groaned, and the deck began to tear. Metal burst upward, splitting the chamber into two, forming a gigantic chasm.

  Through the sparks, Jason eyed the other side. Tyler and Marquez stared back at him. There was no way they’d be able to jump it without falling to their deaths.

  “It’s okay!” Marquez yelled, as calmly as possible. “You get down to the hangar deck. We’ll find a way to the Maybelle and meet you on the Argo!”

  Jason hesitated for a moment. The fear on his brother’s face was hard to take his eyes off.

  “Let’s go!” Althaus yelled, equally anxious with the sight of Tyler across the gulf.

  The ceiling caved in, and beams fell. Marquez and Tyler made a run for it, while Jason in turn hurried for the elevator. When he stepped inside, it came to life and descended through the heart of the weapon ship, which steadily broke apart around them.

  At the hangar deck, the Julieanne was where he’d left it when he’d first fled. He took the controls, not worrying about a flight check and prepared to launch. Althaus stood to the rear of his seat, while Kione and the Marines helped lay down the barely conscious Doctor Tai.

  “Where’s Nicolas?” she asked groggily.

  “Don’t worry,” Kione told her. “He won’t be far behind.”

  Jason powered up the transport pod and whisked it from the deck. He maneuvered through the long labyrinth, ducking and weaving around all the falling debris.

  Over the final hurdle, the Julieanne burst forth from the weapon ship just before the aperture fell in on itself.

  Jason inspected the scanners and spotted a small blip on the move. “There they are. The Maybelle. They’re following us.”

  A bright white flash filled the holographic viewport and everyone shielded their eyes. The weapon ship exploded into a giant ball of fire and debris discharged in every direction.

  “Hold on, everybody!” Jason said, gripping the helm.

  Boom!

  The Julieanne lurched forward and Jason did his best to keep her level. He pushed the thrusters to overdrive and grabbed on tight.

  Then just as soon as the shaking had begun, it dispersed. The shockwave dissipated and Jason wiped the sweat from his forehead.

  “Is everybody okay?” he asked.

  They all nodded.

  “Nicolas!” Tai howled, hysterically.

  On the scanners, the board was clear of everything but the Argo. The weapon ship. The Maybelle. They were gone.

  Jason turned to Althaus, his mouth wide open. He wanted to speak, but nothing came out.

  He peered back through the viewport where the weapon ship had once been. Somewhere out there, Tyler’s body floated amongst the stars along with the memories of Benjamin and Janice Cassidy.

  I’ve lost two brothers today…

  Forty-Six

  Cargo Ship Argo

  Kevin waved a medical scanner over Tai’s wound, while Jason stood by the observation screen wondering how much more could go wrong since his return to the Argo. She was conscious, but a lot more sedate than when she’d returned from the weapon ship.

  Jason entered the infirmary, but Kevin cut him off at the pass. “I’ve given her some medication to help her sleep.”

  “I’ll be quick.”

  Kevin considered the request and nodded. “Don’t take too long.”

  Jason walked to her side and took a seat. There was agony in her eyes. An anguish that wasn’t from the wound. When they’d got back from their mission, Kione told him she and Captain Marquez had once been married. It explained a lot. She was going through hell on the outside and the inside.

  “Any luck?” Tai whispered.

  He shook his head. “Our scanners have searched on and around the planet. We’ve even taken another look at the moon. There’s no sign of them anywhere.”

  “Why was there no debris?”

  “Professor Petit believes the sphere’s destruction aboard the weapon ship vaporized everything in the blast radius. Including the Maybelle.”

  “Then they’re gone.” A tear rolled down her cheek and without saying another word, she closed her eyes and fell into a slumber.

  Jason put his head in his hands and glanced over at Kevin who stared back at him.

  “What’s her prognosis?” he asked his old mentor.

  “The wound is unlike anything I’ve seen. It may have grazed her instead of hitting her point blank, but it’s caused a paralysis in the leg. Unfortunately, it seems to be spreading.”

  “Can’t you do something about that?”

  “No.” Kevin shook his head. “Perhaps with a better medical facility—”

  “We’re fifteen years away from Outpost Watchtower.”

  “She d
oesn’t have fifteen years.”

  Jason closed his eyes and the image of Tyler on the other side of the chamber appeared.

  “How are you?”

  Jason reopened his eyes and glared at Kevin. “Bit of a stupid question, don’t you think?”

  “I’m sorry. You and Tyler, I guess, are like nephews. When your father died, he told Althaus and me to look after the two of you. I feel as if—”

  “Don’t,” Jason began. “This wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I was the one who asked Tyler to come out here. And now—”

  “Take your own advice. You couldn’t have foreseen this. No one could have. And beating yourself up over it…well, you know what track that’ll lead you down.”

  Jason did indeed, all too well.

  Aly’s eyes were still stinging from the tears. Wiping them only made them worse.

  She placed the broken linkage and sliced it in half with the laser cutter. Hoping to salvage part of it, she put the good piece aside and threw the other part behind her with force.

  “Aly.”

  She turned to the forlorn figure of Jason standing at the engine room door. He looked like Tyler. Like their father. They had a way of standing straight while leaning to their right. She hauled herself out of the junction and walked over to him. The tears burst out again, and she hugged him.

  His reassuring arms coiled around her.

  Aly didn’t want it to end but realized she couldn’t hide there forever. She pulled away and stared at Jason’s blank face. She knew his emotions were in there, but he was doing his best to bottle them up.

  “Have you seen Petit?” he asked her.

  Aly wiped aside her tears once again and tried to remember where the professor had got to. “I think he went down to the cargo bay to get some parts.”

  As if on cue, the sound of footsteps approached.

  “Did someone call?” Petit arrived with a storage case in each hand.

  “Yes, Professor, I’ve been made aware of the Iota Particles you scraped from the Argo’s exhausts. I was wondering if you had any ideas how we might use them to get us home.”