The Soldier: Final Odyssey

by Vaughn Heppner

  Drang insisted the convoy circle as best it could and wait outside, as there wasn’t enough room in the Spaceport for 500 extra people and their heavy equipment. Since the mutants weren’t attacking, everyone should be safe.

  Godfrey radioed the other armored cars, which infiltrated through the convoy until the eight cars parked before the gate. Each armored vehicle was aimed at the convoy, including the turret and machine guns.

  There might have been a rebellion from the Pit people, but the space station’s heavy lifter made an appearance as it came down from orbit. That had to mean something positive, right?

  As the convoy people and those inside the Spaceport held their collective breath, the heavy lifter settled onto the tarmac on its four huge landing pads, air hissing from its thrust tanks.

  Soon, the belly ramp whined as it opened and five armored men cradling laser rifles marched out. A wheelchair appeared with a heavily bandaged person crouched forward and pushed by a beefy man in nurse whites. The seven people exited the lifter and headed for the nearest building.

  Ten minutes later, Cade received a call in the armored car. He listened on the headphones, finally turning to Godfrey. “The Arbiter wishes to consult with me in person.”

  “Just you?” asked Godfrey.

  Cade reached out, gripping one of the lieutenant’s shoulders. “You did good at the Pit and during the journey, Lieutenant. You’re in charge of the convoy now.”

  “You’re leaving us?”

  Cade stared into Godfrey’s eyes, thinking about his oath to Raina of the Golden Hair, his beautiful Valkyrie. Drang hadn’t told him much just now, but the Arbiter had said that Dr. Halifax was in charge of the space station party that had come down in the lifter. The congenital schemer was up to something. Cade knew Halifax would want to survive more than anything, and probably had a plan for their escape from the system. What should he tell Godfrey? What did he owe the lieutenant?

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” Cade said. “However, there is a possibility I’m part of a trade and will have to leave on the lifter.”

  “You’re going to abandon us?”

  Cade dropped his hand from her shoulder. “I have an appointment to keep on Earth. It means saving my wife, if I can. I helped you save most of the people from the Pit. I’ll do what I can to save you from the mutants and smugglers.” He shook his head. “I really don’t know why—why the Arbiter wants me.”

  He knew he’d hedged, some might say lied. It was a tactical decision, misdirection. He suspected Halifax was arranging a way out of the system. Maybe the doctor felt he could reclaim his old position of confidant this way. Cade only suspected this, though, because he knew Halifax was a Canidae Vulpes of a man.

  “It feels like you’re abandoning us,” Godfrey said. “I’d hoped…”

  Cade took one of her hands, shaking it. “I may only be gone an hour. Hold the fort while I’m away.”

  “Sure, Cade.”

  With that, he climbed out of a hatch, carrying the pack and laser, and with black armor pieces protecting him as he headed for the gate. It opened just a crack, allowing him to disappear within.

  ***

  Several military people he didn’t recognize ushered Cade into the comm shack. Drang was there, speaking to two Patrol Intelligence operatives.

  “You can leave,” Drang told the military people who had brought Cade.

  Cade no longer possessed the pack, laser rifle, armor or heavy revolver he’d worn at his side. The military people had taken them at gunpoint.

  “You’re trading me to the Sub-Protector?” Cade asked.

  Drang shook her head, her face unreadable. The two Intelligence operatives had drawn their guns, aiming them at him.

  “Please, sit,” said Drang.

  Cade didn’t shrug. He looked around and chose the nearest chair, sitting and folding his arms across his chest, staring at her.

  “You know Dr. Halifax came down,” Drang said. “What you don’t know is that he’s heavily bandaged, in a wheelchair and pumped full of painkillers. He was caught at the fringe of the antimatter blast you avoided. Despite all this, somehow Halifax convinced the Sub-Protector that you two are Group Six operatives willing to buy all the cyborg relics found at the Pit and have also shown an interest in acquiring the lurker Estevan and I saw earlier.”

  “That sounds like Halifax,” Cade said.

  “Does it? Are you in truth Group Six agents?”

  “This is tiring, Arbiter. Do you believe what I told you before, or do you believe Halifax? Consider it this way, which of us is more likely to have spoken the truth?”

  “Halifax told Krenz that you took the cyborg relics from the Pit. Tell me. Which of the heavy vehicles holds the convertor?”

  “The remaining relics were destroyed in the nuclear blast. Unless…”

  “Yes?” asked Drang.

  “Unless the Diggers removed the relics first,” Cade said. “I doubt that happened, but I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.”

  Drang studied him and glanced at the two tense operatives pointing their guns at Cade.

  One of the two gave a quick shrug.

  Drang regarded Cade again. “These two came down with the lifter. Earlier, they bugged the place where Krenz and Halifax spoke. I can play the recording for you if you like.”

  “Please do,” Cade said. “I’d like to know exactly what’s going on.”

  “You’re going to persist in your charade?”

  “Let’s hear the recording.”

  “Listen then,” Drang said, as she switched on a device. It played with excellent sound, repeating the conversation between Krenz and Halifax. Finally, Drang turned it off. “Well?” she asked.

  Cade shook his head at Halifax’s mental agility. The man was incredible, a gifted liar. He regarded the Arbiter. “I doubt you can believe me, but what you just heard was Halifax at his best. Here he was sick, confined to a wheelchair and yet nimble of mind and tongue enough to fool Krenz. We no longer belong to Group Six, or if we do, my intention is to free my wife and my friends even if that means destroying Earth in the process.”

  “You’re as convincing as Halifax,” Drang said.

  “I’m not even close,” Cade said. “I’m telling you the truth and it sounds like it. Halifax can make any lie palatable. Look, Arbiter, this is the opportunity you need. I’m talking about getting people onto the space station. We have the heavy lifter, right?”

  Drang shook her head. “Krenz is watching from the space station. If we try to load the lifter with half the convoy—”

  “You’re not listening to me,” Cade said, interrupting.

  “And you don’t seem to realize that Krenz still holds the power position. He can destroy the lifter at any time. His people are here, in the lifter. They’re in constant contact with him. You have to load the relics you stole from the Pit and go yourself. That’s it.”

  “Right,” Cade said. “Thus, we take a few items from the convoy, fill them with your people, maybe with Lieutenant Godfrey’s people, and load them up. Have you ever heard of the Trojan horse?”

  “I’m aware of the myth. Hmm. I see what you’re suggesting. You expect me to continue to trust you?”

  “I’ve done everything I said I would.”

  Suddenly, Drang sat forward, putting her face in her hands. She scrubbed her face with her palms, and then ran her fingers through her hair while growling an oath. Finally, she looked up. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Arbiter, I saved most of the people at the Pit. Integrate them with the defenses here or let Godfrey do it.”

  “I thought you wanted her in the lifter.”

  “All I’m saying is, use the opportunity given you.”

  Drang just stared at him.

  “Do you know one of the key reasons why we Ultras are so effective?”

  Drang shook her head.

  “Because we act faster than others,” Cade said. “We see an opportunity and strike like lightning f
or it. This is one of those moments.”

  “You’re saying Halifax is an Ultra?”

  “Halifax is a natural plotter and backstabber, able to shift on a dime. He’s a regular human, but he knows when a chance presents itself. Capture Krenz and you’ve won half the battle.”

  “Krenz will know that and act accordingly.”

  “Or stay here dithering until the smugglers and lurker destroy the station, cruiser and destroyer. Then the smugglers and lurker crew will join the mutants and overpower you. The choice is yours.”

  “I’ve heard this before,” Drang said.

  “You’re halfway to achieving victory,” Cade said. “Do you have the mental agility to shift and move, using what Halifax has won through his honeyed tongue?”

  Drang looked away. She was obviously stricken. Finally, she swore at Cade, standing. “You win, for now, Ultra. We’ll try this your way. But I’ll have people watching you. If you double cross us—”

  “Fine,” Cade said, standing. “I accept your threats. Now, this is how I think we should proceed…”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The heavy lifter rose from the Spaceport, heading for the mesosphere.

  Several station security people came back to check the loaded “cyborg relics.” They found Lieutenant Godfrey and her people, who arrested them, taking them to the temporary brig where Arbiter Drang’s people took over.

  Cade joined Halifax in a different compartment. The medics watching the doctor left at Cade’s suggestion, one of them dragged out by the other, as Cade rendered the most disagreeable medic unconscious.

  Once again, Drang’s operatives intercepted the people, taking the medics to the temporary brig, putting them with the security people.

  “Well, Doctor,” Cade said, as he sat down beside the heavily bandaged man.

  “Uh, bugs,” Halifax said in a low voice, his gaze roving around the area.

  “I understand,” Cade said with a nod.

  “Good. Then you realize…?”

  “Yes,” Cade said. “It’s being done right now.”

  “Wait. What do you think I just implied?”

  “Right,” Cade said.

  “Listen, we have to move, ah—” Halifax licked his lips as if considering his words.

  “Doctor, please, don’t strain yourself. I know very well what the Director told us to do given the present situation.”

  Halifax stared meaningfully at Cade, as if to say, Shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re saying.

  Cade put a hand in his pocket, debating whether to use the scrambler Drang had loaned him. He had a feeling she would still be able to hear them. She was an Intelligence officer, after all. Given Halifax’s past actions, Cade didn’t know if he trusted any Intelligence person of any stripe. Finally, he figured to hell with it, clicked on the scrambler and sidled up to the doctor.

  “Have you seen the lurker?” Cade asked.

  “A still image of it,” Halifax said. “Look, Cade, bugs are—”

  “I’m using a scrambler.” And to put the doctor at ease, Cade took it out of his pocket to show the man.

  “Oh. That’s different,” Halifax said. “Cade, we’re in trouble. I told Krenz we’re with Group Six and are willing to buy the relics. You did bring some aboard, right?”

  “Fake ones,” Cade said.

  “Good,” Halifax said. “Do you have a plan?”

  “I do,” Cade said.

  “Good,” Halifax said again. “What is it?”

  Cade grinned. “You’re going to have to wait like everyone else to see what it is.”

  “Listen to me,” Halifax said urgently. “It is imperative you realize the depth of the Sub-Protector’s commitment to his goal.”

  “I do—but I have a greater depth of commitment to mine.”

  “Krenz holds the stronger cards.”

  “Not for long,” Cade said.

  “Krenz is barricaded behind a hundred military people. He controls the best warships and has his space station. Just how powerful is a lurker anyway?”

  “Your point?” asked Cade.

  “We’re entering a battlefield. The smugglers are coming on strong. If the Patrol takes any damage, I’m wondering if the lurker can come in and sweep up. I don’t want to end up in a cyborg convertor.”

  Cade patted the doctor on a bandaged knee. “You’re learning. That’s the real danger. As to a lurker—I never was a navy man, but a ground pounder. So, I don’t know how dangerous the lurker is. It may be we’re going to find out.”

  “You’d better have a better plan than that.”

  “I do,” Cade said. “If it gets too bad, we’ll head back down to the planet and make a stand at the Spaceport.”

  Halifax groaned.

  ***

  As the heavy lifter entered the stratosphere and began to traverse the planet to reach the space station presently on the other side, the smugglers’ huge aerosol cloud reached half a million kilometers from the station. That was a little more than maximum distance between Luna and Earth.

  The Patrol cruiser Illustrious, the destroyer and the four stings headed away from the space station on an intercept course for the aerosol cloud and the expected smuggler task force behind it.

  The cruiser had three times the mass of the destroyer and stings combined. The cruiser had heavier hull plating and far more firepower, including laser emitters able to reach one hundred thousand kilometers. The cruiser had been constructed for ship-to-ship battle. The destroyer—like most destroyers—was made to patrol areas and kill smaller craft, and stings were meant to act as police escorts rather than war vessels.

  The space station possessed more missiles than the cruiser but lacked the same laser firepower.

  The cruiser and destroyer—under Captain J.F. Williams’s orders—launched a staggered salvo of missiles. These were all much larger than the antimatter missile fired before at the grounded shuttle.

  The missiles accelerated at a terrific rate, their exhaust plumes growing to exaggerated lengths. The aerosol cloud could not dodge or change its velocity. That made things easier for missile targeting.

  Would the smuggler vessels see the missiles coming? If they did, would the smugglers attempt to launch counter-missiles or use lasers against them?

  The heavy lifter reached the other side of the planet and continued to rise higher into the thinning atmosphere. The piloting crew spotted the space station, the Patrol flotilla 54,230 kilometers beyond the station and the aerosol cloud now 439,328 kilometers and approaching the station.

  “Let’s wait here a while,” Drang said.

  The piloting crew looked back at her and then at her operatives with their drawn weapons.

  The heavy lifter slowed its rate of ascent as the sensor operator strained to show the battle.

  “What’s that?” Drang asked, pointing at an indicator.

  The communications officer looked up. “The Sub-Protector is sending the smugglers an ultimatum.”

  “Put it on speaker so I can hear it,” Drang said.

  The comm officer tapped her board.

  “I repeat,” Egon Krenz was saying. “the missiles will slice through the aerosol cloud, detonating behind it. That means if any of your ships are there, the antimatter missiles will detonate among you. You must immediately show yourselves and power down any laser weaponry. Failure to do so will result in your destruction.”

  Tense seconds passed, and nothing changed out there.

  “If you’re ready for open battle,” Krenz said, “then prepare for it, because I plan to fight to the death.”

  More seconds passed—

  “What’s that?” Drang asked, as she leaned toward the main screen.

  ‘I’m not sure,” the sensor operator said.

  “Start being sure,” Drang said.

  “They’re big,” the sensor operator said seconds later. “I’m counting four of them. When I say big, they’re bigger than any of us expected smuggler vessels to be. Each
of them is a little smaller than the Illustrious, which means they have more than three times the mass of our flotilla. I’ve never seen that type of vessel before. They have laser emitters. That means they’re definitely military craft and have accelerated through the aerosol cloud. Look—”

  The sensor operator ceased speaking as intensely bright lasers speared from the four vessels. The lasers reached out, striking the first Patrol missile. The missile exploded, but the detonation seemed too small to have been a nuclear or antimatter explosion. That meant the lasers had destroyed it.

  “What was the distance from the enemy ship to our missile?” Drang asked.

  The sensor operator tapped his board, studying it and turning over his shoulder to the Arbiter. “This is incredible. That was two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers. That’s two-and-a-half-times farther than the Illustrious can reach.”

  “How’s that possible?” Drang asked.

  The sensor operator shook his head. “Maybe everything aboard those ships is dedicated to increasing laser range.”

  The next Patrol missile exploded under the barrage of enemy lasers.

  The missile after that detonated as well, but it did so with vastly greater power. The heat generated by the blast showed it had been an antimatter detonation.

  “The Sub-Protector’s force is hiding the remaining missiles behind the antimatter whiteout,” a piloting crewmember said. “I suspect it’s the best he can do under the conditions. The enemy laser range is frightening.”

  “Military ships,” Drang said. “I wasn’t expecting enemy military ships with exceptional laser range, but smuggling vessels with a few armament pods.”

  “I don’t think the Patrol flotilla was expecting this either,” the sensor operator said. “Look, the stings are breaking off.”

  The screen showed the small stings veering away from the cruiser and destroyer, accelerating. They weren’t meant for this kind of battle.

  After the stings began veering away, the cruiser and destroyer did likewise. It looked like they were breaking off contact with the enemy. The problem was, where could they run and still protect the space station? The long-range lasers appeared to have turned everything to the enemy’s advantage.