by Ken Lozito
“It’s about time,” one of the armed men said to the other.
They were brought around to the front of the room where Noah had seen Lars. Noah glimpsed a holoscreen that had NEIIS symbols on it, but he couldn’t read it. He felt someone grab his shoulder and shove him into a room across the way. There were folding chairs along the wall and a table against the adjacent wall. The man pushed Noah further into the room, and his MPS systems helped him keep his balance as Dash stumbled next to him. Noah turned around. Two men stood on either side of the doorway, holding their weapons pointed at them.
Lars Mallory strode into the room and looked at them. He didn’t say anything, but Noah didn’t think it was some kind of intimidation tactic. Lars simply stood there and studied them for a moment, giving them a once-over. Their MPSs were engaged, and a dark protective mesh covered Noah and Dash. Noah watched Lars from the internal heads-up display on the inside of his helmet.
“You don’t look like ordinary colonists. I’m Lars Mallory. And who might you be?”
Noah knew Dash was waiting for him to do something. The only problem was, Noah had no idea what to do. He hadn’t thought they’d get caught. He tried to think of something he could do, even trying to imagine what Connor would do, but Connor probably wouldn’t have gotten caught in the first place. Not answering Lars didn’t seem like a good idea and would just give their captors an excuse to do something else to them. There was only so much punishment the MPS could withstand.
“Your being here has put me in a difficult position. I really don’t want to repeat myself. My time is quite valuable, and I’d rather just get to the point. You saw something you weren’t meant to see. I don’t know how you found this place, and I don’t know what you’re doing inside the perimeter, but I’m going to find out the answers to both those things,” Lars said, and smiled as he looked at both of them. “So, who wants to go first?”
Here goes nothing, Noah thought.
“You have a funny way of trying to convince us to cooperate,” Noah said, and disabled the MPS helmet, revealing his face. A moment later, Dash did the same.
“Noah!” Lars said, his eyes wide. “How did you find—”
“What are you doing, Lars?” Noah asked.
He glanced at the armed men, and Lars followed his gaze, then made a quick gesture for them to lower their weapons.
“Who else was going to find you here? You’ve been spying on us, and you’ve moved on to retrieving NEIIS stasis pods from bunker sites,” Noah said.
“I’m not sure what you think you know, but I hope you’ll trust me to explain.”
“Trust,” Noah said with a sneer. “Explain away, but I don’t know if I’ll ever trust you again.”
“Don’t act so self-righteous. You’re hardly innocent of spying,” Lars replied and gestured toward the seats by the wall. “You can sit down if you want.”
“I’ll stay on my feet,” Noah said.
Dash remained silent.
Lars glanced at Dash. “Mr. DeWitt,” he said and inclined his head.
“Is this what the Colonial Intelligence Bureau does?” Noah asked.
Lars snorted and shook his head. “Not exactly. You see, this operation is for people who take the protection of the colony very seriously.”
Noah glanced at the two armed men and then back at Lars. “Are you saying this is a CDF operation?”
“Come on, Noah, you know better than that. Although, I will say there are a fair number of people here who’ve recently retired from the CDF, even a few who came from the Sanctuary Recovery Institute, as well as from different agencies throughout the colony. Does it really shock you?”
Noah’s mouth had been hanging open, but he clamped it shut and waited for Lars to continue.
“I honestly expected Connor to do something like this, and I was ready to volunteer if he did. I knew he’d recruit you and that you were taking steps to investigate NEIIS bunker sites—without notifying ONI, I might add. I was disappointed that he didn’t do more than identify bunker sites. I’m not sure what his intentions were.”
“Is Connor here?” Dash asked.
Lars pressed his lips together. “No, he’s not here.”
Dash looked at Noah and frowned. “But I thought you might’ve…”
Lars’s eyebrows rose, and he looked slightly amused. “Do what? You think I’m responsible for what happened to Connor?”
Noah raised his chin. “Are you?”
“No, of course not. I’m trying to find Connor. What are you doing about it?”
“Do you really think Connor would approve of all this?” Noah countered.
“He might, if he knew what we’ve learned about them.”
“You’re wrong. He’d never condone torture.”
Lars considered Noah for a moment. Then his gaze hardened. “On that, we’ll have to disagree. Recent evidence as to what Connor would do to protect the colony suggests otherwise. And the same could be said about you. You may have rationalized your actions, gone back over what happened at that bunker all those months ago, but in the end, would you change anything?”
Noah didn’t reply right away. It was easy to look back on events with the benefit of hindsight, but it would never change the facts. “That doesn’t give you the right to do any of this. The fact that you’re hiding this operation means that not everyone would approve of it if they knew about this place.”
“Are you going to tell them?”
“Yes,” Noah said.
“Really? And you’ll also have to tell them what Connor’s been up to. Are you ready for that?”
“Clearly, running around in secret isn’t working. Look what it’s gotten us,” Noah said and gestured at his hands bound together.
Lars’s gaze flicked toward the bindings on Noah’s wrists. He glanced at the man next to him. “Take those off.”
The men quickly obeyed. Once the bindings were removed, Noah was able to rest his hands at his side.
“You might not feel the same,” Lars continued, “if you knew what we’ve learned. Got any idea how many of them there are? Why they’re in stasis pods in the first place? What the warring factions hoped to achieve? The purpose of the ryklars and the purge protocol?”
Noah heard Dash shift his feet.
“Maybe they know what happened to Connor,” Lars said.
“How would they know anything about that?”
“Why don’t you join me across the hall and find out,” Lars said. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. The entrance to the holding cell across the way was open, and Noah saw the NEIIS inside. Not liking any of his other options, he followed.
The NEIIS strapped to the chair glanced at Noah and Dash as they walked into the room with Lars. Its dark eyes flicked to their hands for a moment, noticing that they were unarmed.
Noah glanced to the side. “You’ve obviously shown him the stick. Why not try the carrot instead?” he said, and gestured toward the pitcher of water on a small table.
Lars shook his head. “We’ve tried being nice. They only seem to respect the use of force.”
Noah looked away. There was nothing he could say, and with the armed men in the room, there wasn’t much he could do either.
“Kendall, show him this latest batch of images,” Lars said.
Kendall was a tall woman who looked extremely strong. She stood in front of the NEIIS and held up her wrist computer. A large holoscreen appeared, and an image materialized in the middle, then minimized to the upper left corner. The pictures showed a NEIIS city under the water.
“Where did you get these?” Dash asked.
“From the inland sea near New Haven. Apparently, we’re not the only ones keeping secrets,” Lars said.
The NEIIS watched the images. The slideshow paused for five seconds on each of them before switching to the next one. The NEIIS hardly reacted to the images at first and then looked as if it were straining to hide its reactions. A few moments later, the NEIIS looked away.
Lars grabbed one of the stun batons and held it in front of him. The intent was clear, and the NEIIS looked back at the images on the holoscreen. An image of a massive archway came to prominence with glowing points along the base. The NEIIS’s eyes widened, and a choking sound came from its mouth.
“Hold that image there,” Lars said.
The NEIIS’s breaths came in ragged gasps. The skin over its brow ridges stretched, and many lines formed on its face as it crumpled and looked away. It began to shake almost uncontrollably.
Lars was about to jab the stun baton into the NEIIS’s middle, but Noah shouted for him to stop. “It’s afraid. Look at it. Right now it’s more afraid of what’s on the holoscreen than it is of you.”
“That’s the problem,” Lars said, and jabbed the stun baton into the NEIIS’s middle.
The NEIIS wailed in pain as each strike of the stun baton sent surges of energy into it—not enough to knock it out but enough to hurt. Noah watched in horror as Lars repeatedly jabbed it into the NEIIS. He was unrelenting, and Noah almost couldn’t believe that his friend was doing such a thing. He felt molten heat spread throughout his limbs, and his knuckles ached to strike out. He launched himself toward Lars, but his friend seemed to expect the attack. Lars spun and jabbed the stun baton at Noah’s exposed neck right where the MPS ended. Noah crumpled to the ground, writhing in pain as Lars kept the tip of the stun baton on his neck. Noah heard a scuffle off to the side and a loud thump as Dash cried out.
The stun baton came off his neck, and the pain stopped. A strong hand gripped Noah and lifted him up. Lars glared at him. “Stick to what you’re good at, Noah, and leave the dirty work to us.”
Lars shoved Noah back, and he landed on the ground, hard. Lars came to tower over him.
“This is wrong,” Noah said.
“Survival requires tough choices. You’ll survive because of me so you can bask in the approval of your precious morals. I’m prepared to do what’s necessary,” Lars said, and spun around, striding toward the NEIIS.
41
“Combat shuttles are aboard,” Lieutenant Burrows said.
“Acknowledged,” Sean replied. “Gabriel, how’s the signal analysis coming along?”
“I’ve isolated the command headers, which is to say that I’m ninety percent certain I can tell those systems I’d like to do something. However, without further input, I’m afraid we will not be able to control them, Colonel,” the Vigilant’s AI said.
Sean glanced at his two tactical officers who were busy overseeing their defenses. He then looked at Oriana, who met his gaze.
“The AI is correct. Any attempt at guesswork and we may not make it home.”
Sean nodded and put a mental stranglehold on his irritation. The door to the bridge opened, and he saw Connor and Diaz, escorted by Boseman. They were followed by a young man he didn’t recognize.
Captain Boseman guided them to the Command Center. “Colonel, here’s the general, delivered safe and sound as promised. He wasn’t nearly as stubborn as you said he’d be.”
Connor grinned. “I see you’re still telling lies about me.”
“Fostered by a well-deserved reputation,” Sean said, and looked back at Boseman. “How’d it go down there?”
“Ten confirmed KIAs and at least two colonists missing—a former CDF combat engineer, John Rollins, and a scientist by the name of Oliver Taylor.”
“Understood, Captain. Go get yourself checked out,” Sean said and looked at Connor. “Having you here on the bridge almost makes it seem like old times.”
Connor smiled. “Except now you’re in command. I’m just… well, me. This is Tommy Lockwood, Noah’s protégé. He thinks he’s learned something about how to get us back home. I know you’ve already got people working on this problem, so maybe we can get them together and see what they can come up with.”
“I sure do. Tommy, I want you to sit with Dr. Evans and tell her what you’ve got,” Sean said and gestured toward where Oriana sat.
“Thanks for sending us some help. We wouldn’t have made it otherwise,” Connor said.
The former CDF general proceeded to give Sean a debriefing of what occurred on the planet.
“You really think this is just a staging area? An entire planet?” Sean asked.
Connor nodded. “I could be biased because of all the NEIIS research I’ve been a part of for the last few years. They were afraid of something, so afraid that they put themselves in stasis pods to escape it. That and a host of other things that didn’t make sense until… I’m not sure. I need some time to think about this.”
“We thought this was their home system, but I guess not. The fact that they resemble the NEIIS we’ve seen can’t be a coincidence, and I know better than to question your instincts.”
Connor drew in a deep breath and sighed, then glanced at the main holodisplay. “Would you kick me off the bridge if I asked what the status of the ship was?”
Sean grinned and shook his head. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little bit tempted. We’ve been playing cat and mouse with five enemy destroyer-class vessels. Their tactics are a bit irregular. Their main weapons systems are combat drones that have the potential to chew up even this ship. We’re essentially at thirty percent weapons capability, and if it weren’t for the Talon-V squadrons, things would be much worse. Nathan almost had to strong-arm me into allowing them on board, and I’m sure glad he did.”
“Where did those ships come from?”
“They don’t have an arch in space, but they do have a space gate. We saw three destroyers arrive through it earlier. A story for another time.”
“So what’s your plan?” Connor asked.
“Here I was hoping you’d have some kind of brilliant tactic that I hadn’t considered yet,” Sean said with a wry smile.
“I wish I did. The only thing I can think of is making a run for that”—he glanced at Sean with raised eyebrows—“space gate, but only if we can get home. The one on the planet has been disabled. We tried to destroy it, but whatever it’s made from could withstand the combat shuttle’s weapons.”
“Well, that should slow them down, at least.”
Connor’s brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve had a little bit more time to think about this problem—” Sean began but was cut off.
“Colonel, Talon-V squadron commanders report the enemy ships are withdrawing,” Lieutenant Burrows said.
“Damn it.” Sean returned to the commander’s chair. “Ops, order the squadrons to the following coordinates.” He looked at Connor. “They’re not withdrawing.”
“Where are they going?”
“The space gate is located near the moon. If I were them, I’d send all my ships to run picket duty to prevent us from destroying their only other means of getting reinforcements.”
“That’s exactly where we need to be,” Connor said.
Sean frowned in thought and then looked at Oriana. “Dr. Evans, please tell me you have some good news.”
Oriana looked over at him. “He has something,” she said, gesturing toward Lockwood. “We’re just not exactly sure if it will work. It’s going to be a gamble either way. And you’ll need to get in close so we can even try the override.”
Sean nodded. “And since we’ll be close, we’ll need to be committed, which means that we only have one shot at this.”
“That’s correct, Colonel,” Oriana said.
Sean rubbed his chin for a moment. “We don’t have any choice. We have credible intel that this fighting force has the potential to reach our home. We have to warn them.”
Connor gave him a firm nod.
“Tactical, I need a firing solution for the gate devices to be detonated after we go through,” Sean said.
Lieutenant Russo looked away from her console for a moment. “We can do this,” she said, and Lieutenant Scott began to say something but Russo shushed him. “How much time do we have?”
Sean glanced at the main
holodisplay. “We have eighteen minutes, and be advised that we’ll be ‘danger close’ on this one.”
“Understood, Colonel.”
“Helm, best speed to our target.”
“Colonel,” Lieutenant Burrows said, “by my calculations, there won’t be time for the Talon-V squadrons to come back aboard before we transition.”
Sean’s mouth was already dry. He’d known this before he gave the order. “Understood. Order the Talon-V squadrons to make the best speed to our target. They are to engage the enemy on our trajectory.”
Sean hated giving those orders. A lot of CDF pilots were going to die. “Comms, inform engineering that we need the secondary comms array at full capacity in fifteen minutes,” Sean said.
Specialist Sansky confirmed the order.
“We have limited comms capability?” Connor asked.
“We can do short-range transmissions, but we’ve taken a lot of damage since we last spoke,” Sean said.
He felt a mixed sense of failure, even though he knew Connor would never see it that way. Sean was doing everything he could, but he wasn’t sure it was going to be enough. He looked at Connor and saw a grim understanding in his mentor’s eyes. This was what it meant to be in command—to make the tough choices. Sean wasn’t a stranger to them, but perhaps his standards were a bit higher than they should have been. No one questioned his orders. His crew would follow him.
“Colonel, we have a firing solution, but it requires your authorization,” Lieutenant Russo said.
“Send the details to my console.”
Sean reviewed the firing solution and glanced at Lieutenant Russo. “They’ll be exposed. The enemy can pick them off.”
“It is a risk, Colonel, but there’s a chance that they won’t be detected.”
Sean looked back at his console and pretended to read the screen, but all he was doing was giving himself a few moments to make a decision. “Approved, Lieutenant.”