“Roger,” Riley acknowledged, followed a moment later by his team moving in their respective tasks.
At the mention of the man, Samantha glanced over at their unconscious prisoner, noting that his heat signature seemed to be dimming. Taking a step closer, she could tell the man was no longer breathing. “Major? You better get over here. I don’t think the prisoner is alive.”
Without a word, Nathan came over, standing a few feet away from the now-cooling corpse. The last thing they wanted to do was have any of the gas contaminate the body. “I don’t see any marks. We’ll have Riley check him out when he gets here, but I’m betting he was their backup security system.”
“Major?” Samantha asked, curious about the comment.
Nathan glanced at her, speaking on the command line. “I suspect the man had some sort of electronics embedded inside of him, connected to his vitals. Once he became unconscious, it alerted the base and gave them time to activate their security protocol. It probably also killed him.”
“Pretty ruthless,” Samantha said, shaking her head.
“Agreed, though we’ll know more when we get the body up to Gateway,” Nathan answered.
“Nathan, we’ve got incoming bogey’s on an intercept course from Natal. Looks like a couple of Brazilian fighter jets,” one of the tech’s from the Skytiger said, breaking into their conversation. “They’ll be here in about forty-five minutes.”
“Okay team,” Nathan called over their general channel, nodding to Riley as he trotted up and bent down next to the corpse. “We’re on a timeline. Let’s hoof it to that pond, and then get the hell out of here. Move, people!”
With that, they all raced off into the jungle while the Skytiger descended to take possession of the body. After he and his men returned from submerging themselves in water, Nathan frowned as he watched the shack recede into the distance as the Skytiger raced for space, out of range of the approaching fighters. This op hadn’t gone as planned, but they had learned how deadly serious their opponent was about staying hidden.
Chapter 10
Time: May 12, 2036
Location: Gateway Station, Mid-Earth Orbit
Nabhitha reviewed the latest developments from the odd substance they had found on the moon. The mining tech who’d found it, one Douglas Kent, had decided to name the dark red material after the head of the company. The newly dubbed draconium was still being codified, and the final approval by the officials of the world would take years, but for the time being, that’s what it would be called.
At first, Nabhitha had been slightly put off by the name, but with so many elements named after people, she decided it just made sense. At least it sounded cool, unlike some of the other additions had in past decades.
To date, they had only just begun to delve into its secrets. It showed an extraordinary hardness and seemed to have a strange reaction to very low wavelengths. Colleen had seemed excited about it but hadn’t currently revealed what she was thinking. However, Nabhitha was reasonably sure it was going to lead to something meaningful. Only rarely did Colleen get excited about anything.
She closed down the latest test results, calling up a report she was about to file on the latest construction and expansion projects in Gateway. They were just about done with building two large construction docks which would be used to develop future spacecraft. However, she was interrupted by her DPA, Byangoma.
“Excuse me, Nabhitha? I have a call coming in for you from Tad. Do you have time to take it?” he asked politely.
“For Piper, of course, I have time,”
Byangoma gave an uncharacteristic pause, making her turn toward the silently floating drone. Her DPA’s electronic face held a considering look, rather than the polite smile he usually displayed. “It’s not from Piper. It’s from Tad. He seems concerned about something.”
Nabhitha blinked. She had been amazed at the strides that the DPA’s had taken once they’d connected to their human hosts. They had almost overnight developed personalities that varied between drones, but overall, the program had benefited both the person and the drone. This, however, was something altogether different. It was almost too human.
“Okay,” she said slowly, turning fully to Byangoma. “Put him through.”
A moment later, a light blinked letting her know that Tad was on the line. “Hello? Nabhitha? Are you there? Sorry, I’ve never actually made a call for myself. This is strange. Am I polite enough?”
“Yes, I am here, Tad. What can I do for you?”
“I think I need your help,” Tad continued, his voice strangely reserved. “Piper is not acting herself, and I am a bit confused.”
Nabhitha blinked, considering what the drone was telling her. Piper hadn’t been happy with her involvement in the raid on the enemy’s secret base, especially after learning how the people within had died. Nabhitha hadn’t seen the videos caught from the helmet camera’s, but Piper had.
She was also concerned about Tad. Like Piper, she had set up a direct connection with Byangoma. While it provided a plethora of advantages for both parties, humans were still emotional creatures, and sometimes that caught their electronic friends by surprise. It had most certainly helped them, but they still had a lot to learn.
Now Tad was dealing with Piper’s depression. Piper was, by nature, a very gregarious person and rarely became sad, so Tad probably hadn’t had much experience with this particular emotion. Nabhitha knew she had to help them both.
“Where is she now?” Nabhitha asked.
“We’re both over in the dry-dock working on the satellites for the asteroid belt.
“I’ll be right there.”
With that, Nabhitha closed the draconium file before heading out into the hallways of Gateway. As she moved, she marveled at the number of personnel she passed. It was by no means crowded, but with their growing base came the need for people to oversee the many projects. A third construction ship was due next month. Coupled with the many laboratories, the new dry-dock building, its own ships, and the expansion wing where they had all of their tenant services, Gateway was turning into quite the destination.
Climbing onto the in-station shuttle, she held onto one of the bars instead of sitting, wanting to bask in the view as it eased out through a transparent tunnel and raced across the station. The sun was just coming over the bulge of one of the external docking bays, and it bathed the burgundy and off-white construct that spread from the main spine.
Gateway itself was currently capable of supporting four wings branching off of a massive column. Most of their work had been confined to one wing which housed infrastructure and support modules for Empyrean. It already stretched out into space by hundreds of meters, but they’d also built the smaller, second wing which contained housing, labs and support structures for tenants. In addition, the central column could be expanded upward and downward so additional wings could be added on at need.
It was quite a site and would only grow bigger with time. In some ways, Nabhitha understood the caution and fear the great station elicited from the mostly earthbound countries, but fear always came hand-in-hand with change. They were already doing everything they could to help people and nations that would accept it but knew the struggle was far from over.
Several minutes later, Nabhitha walked into the large dry-dock facility. It bustled with activity, having several small bays set up for construction, and two larger ones that housed the bones of two small ships. Robotic workers floated back and forth across the cavernous area, carrying printed components to their respective destination and either installing them or assisting human’s in doing the same.
“She’s in sub bay three,” Byangoma said, orienting himself in the correct direction. Nabhitha nodded, then walked through the crowded area, making sure she stayed within the carefully marked pathways and blocks of area that contained gravity. Most of the bay was weightless, making working on the various craft easier.
She was relieved when she found Piper in one of the gravity a
reas. She was examining a holographic schematic with Tad floating gently behind her. Even as she approached, she could see the bags under Piper’s eyes.
“Piper!” Nabhitha called, putting on her best smile for her friend.
Piper turned, giving her friend a tired smile. “Hey, Nabs, it’s good to see you. What brings you down to the pit?”
“Wanted to visit and see what all the excitement was about. How close are we to sending out the satellites?” Nabhitha said, gesturing to the large, boxy looking piece of equipment that was being assembled in the construction area.
“This one is heading toward Ceres, but there’s a problem. During testing, the prospecting drones had trouble docking with their charging units, and I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.” Piper said, pointing to a boxy area of the schematic.
“How is it not connecting?” Nabhitha asked, peering closer. “Do you have a video?”
Piper nodded, then ran a file that floated in front of them showing several of the small prospecting drones approaching a functioning satellite. They came in one-by-one, and the first several didn’t have any issues, but as the recharging platform filled with the smaller craft, the ones that were yet to dock began having difficulty bouncing off of their brethren. After several playbacks, Nabhitha began to notice that they seemed to have the most difficulty approaching if a drone was already docked below the area they were trying to reach.
“Piper, did you use the same docking algorithm that we use for our drones on the ground?” Nabhitha asked.
Piper nodded, looking at her friend quizzically.
“Is there a part of the code that accounts for gravity?”
Piper blinked, staring at her friend dumbly for several moments before her eyes went wide. Looking back at the video, she put her hand over her face and peeked through her fingers. “Oh, God. That’s exactly what is going on. They’re trying to account for gravity when there’s no gravity. Ugh!”
Nabhitha smiled at her friend, watching her as she called up the coding and studied it carefully. A moment later, she nodded and turned to her friend. “Thank you, Nabs. I should have seen that” Piper said before looking away. “Just one more mistake, I guess.”
Frowning, Nabhitha reached out and put her hand on Piper's shoulder, turning her friend back towards her. “That’s another reason I came down to talk to you. You're too hard on yourself, Piper. When was the last time you got a good night’s sleep?”
Piper didn’t answer right away, trying to look away again but Nabhitha wouldn’t let her. After raising her eyebrow, Piper let out a sigh. “I think I’ve gotten about four hours of sleep a night.”
“Because you made a mistake with the security on Nathan’s raid?” Nabhitha asked, glowering darkly at her friend. When Piper nodded, Nabhitha shook her head. “You’re letting one mistake become many, but more importantly, you’re angry and depressed that you made a mistake against some ruthless organization that was more than willing to kill its own people. Piper, we’re not like those people. How can you expect to think like them when you aren’t a heartless killer?”
“But I should have-” Piper began before being cut off by Nabhitha.
“No. You did everything you could think of. You didn’t do anything wrong. Piper, if you’d been able to anticipate everything those people could have done, I would be a little terrified of you. Not even Nathan guessed that lookout was rigged with some death device.”
Piper nodded tiredly before she teared up and hugged her friend, crying softly into her shoulder. Nabhitha stroked her hair and spoke softly, soothing her tormented friend. After several minutes of this, she led Piper to the closest Medical bay and got her friend something to help her sleep before tucking her into bed.
Moving to the couch, she sat and had Byangoma display a book she’d been reading, settling in to watch over her friend while she slept. It was going to be okay.
Chapter 11
Time: May 28, 2036
Location: Sea Base Atlantis, One hundred miles west of Empyrean Island, Pacific Ocean
Images of fire and smoke cascaded over her mind’s eye along with the sounds of distant screaming. Mixed in with the smell of burning was the overwhelming tang of the ocean. Colleen felt herself looking around, blinking as if waking from sleep but didn’t recognize the room. The bed she was on tilted slightly, enough for her to feel her weight move and the panic began to bloom in her chest. The ship! Something was wrong!
A moment later, Colleen sat bolt upright in bed, yelling out that the ship was sinking, but soon recognized that everything was calm. The gentle thrum of distant machinery continued working. It was something that had been bothersome at first, but she’d quickly grown used to it, and it helped her sleep now. She found that she had to take a recording of the machinery hum with her whenever she left Atlantis if she hoped to get any sleep.
More importantly, there was no fire or screaming. Colleen slid out of her comfortable bed, walked across the room and poured steaming water into a teacup from a high-heat spigot on her sink. A moment later, she slipped some of Helen’s tea tablets into the water, watching as they dissolved. It had been a small, side project of Helen’s that most people probably wouldn’t appreciate, but Colleen had been grateful for her friend's innovation.
Picking up her cup and saucer, she moved toward her sitting area, leaning back against the comfortable seat that faced the water outside. Taking a sip, she breathed out in relief. The dream she had woken from seemed so vivid. She could still almost feel the heat and smell the smoke, but she shook her head, trying to dismiss the vision.
As she reached to put her tea down on the coffee table, another flash of roaring firelight reflecting off of the ocean made her gasp, dropping the cup to the floor where it shattered. Dazed, she continued staring into the darkness of her room. That hadn’t been a dream. She was awake, and yet it still felt like she’d been standing on the deck of a large ship for a moment.
An uneasy worry for her friend Helen began to creep over her as she walked over to her desk. Helen was out on one of the hospital ships, helping to take care of patients. Colleen called up a tracking program that had information on the whereabouts of each of their hospital ships around the world. She zoomed in on the one near Japan, narrowing her eyes as she noticed that the live signal was still green, but flickering.
“Brett?” Colleen said, calling up the security analyst in their global security center on her com channel. A young man’s attentive face came on the screen. “Can you look at the feed for the Mary Eliza? I’m showing there’s some interference in the live feed.”
“Just one second, ma’am,” Brett said, pausing as he called up the relevant files. A moment later, he frowned. “I just sent a ping to their computer systems, but there’s no response. Everything show’s green, though? How can that be?”
“Do you think someone is hacking our signal?” Colleen asked. “Can we get a team out there to check on them? Something is wrong.”
Brett leaned over and checked on something. “Still no response. We can have a security team out there within the hour, will that be acceptable?”
“Yes, and I’ll be coming down there. Hopefully, it’s nothing, but I just have… a bad feeling.”
“Very good, ma’am. We have some fresh doughnuts and coffee,” Brett said, and then signed off.
Colleen went to get dressed, hurrying her way down to the security center.
***
It was nighttime over the Pacific sea as the Skytiger came screaming down from orbit. Even from several miles out, they could see the flames licking up toward the sky as the massive ship listed to the side. There were scattered lifeboats spread in a wide circle along with debris from the massive liner.
When they got within a mile of the devastation, one of the tech’s turned and spoke to the security officer in charge of the detachment. “We’re getting a strong jamming signal,” he reported over the howl of the Skytiger’s engines.
Lieutenant Josh Kreen cursed, le
aning over the tech’s shoulders and watched as their radar and communications degraded. Immediately he called up to the pilot to halt their advance. “Hold up and take us back. We’re getting a lot of interference as we get closer to the ship. I want to report what we see to base before we go in.”
The pilot acknowledged the order, slowing the Skytiger and turning back to get out of range of the interference. A moment later, the tech forwarded the video they had received while the lieutenant reported to Nathan.
“Looks like there’s been an attack or an accident. The Mary Eliza is on fire and listing with the crew abandoning ship.”
“Can you confirm if it’s an attack?” Nathan said, leaning over the security center response table. “We show you are still a mile out from the ship.”
“We were experiencing jamming so had to back off to give you a report, sir. We’ll be heading back in as soon as we’re done transmitting-” Lieutenant Kreen stopped mid-sentence, yelling out as a red alert began flashing over the Skytiger’s icon.
“What’s going on, Kreen? Report!”
“Under attack!” the Lieutenant shouted. Missiles are coming at us from the wreck!”
A moment later, the icon of the Skytiger flashed, and then disappeared, chilling Nathan and the rest of the people observing the situation to the bone. Nathan’s eyes narrowed, and he paused only a moment before activating several commands on his console.
“What do we do now?” Colleen said softly, staring at the spot where the Skytiger used to be.
“We head out there in force and save who we can,” Nathan said, turning for the door.
Colleen moved after him, a determined look on her face. “Are you going to take the Komodo carrier? If you are, I’m coming.”
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