by Jan Domagala
“What’s a SUT?” Zara asked not sure what was going on here but suspected there was some sub text she was not privy to.
“It’s a very dangerous device,” Matt said then elaborated with, “It stands for Single Unit Transporter. It can slip a person through a dimensional portal from one place to another but it causes such damage to the wearer at a cellular level that the Rand’s stopped research into the device. After three uses the wearer is condemned to an agonising death.”
“But you and Kurt have no need to worry on that score,” Sinclair said.
That comment took them all by surprise. They all stared at the General wondering what made him say it. They knew that he had his suspicions about Kurt’s abilities but they all thought that he had managed to keep the truth hidden from him. If his comment was anything to go by they all could be wrong on that score.
“Excuse me?” asked Zara, playing along hoping to bluff it out.
“Oh come on now Zara, don’t you think it’s time we ended this charade. I know that Kurt has the ability to regenerate, I’m not sure exactly how far this ability extends but looking at you I would say that he, and now you are practically indestructible. I am assuming that his blood transferred into you through open cuts on your body when you were both in jeopardy on Toldax. What happened Zara; did he shield you from something? Anyway, in his report he clearly states that he saw you gunned down in front of him. Now I know he skated over some details in his report but something like that, something so traumatic he inadvertently reported the truth. He saw you killed in front of him. Yet here you are, alive and kicking. What other conclusion should I draw from this? Before you answer it was a rhetorical question, you see I already know the answer. The experiment was a total success.”
There was nothing any of them could say that would sound convincing so they said nothing.
“What, no denial? I thought at least one of you would say something. Well if we are all, finally on the same page here can we continue with this mission?”
“What do you intend on doing?” Kurt asked as he walked up to Sinclair. He felt his anger rising, he had tried to keep his abilities from Sinclair in the hope that what he most feared would not happen. Now though he could see all his efforts falling apart.
“Completing this mission, what else?”
“You know what I mean, after that?”
“We regroup and rebuild then carry on,” Sinclair said.
“Why are you evading my question? What do you intend to do with this knowledge, what does it mean for Zara and I?”
Sinclair looked deeply at Kurt all traces of a smile vanished then. He said, “You went to a lot of trouble to keep this from me and I have no doubt you had good reasons, but the changes in you can help a lot more people. Some already have benefited from the results of the experiment and many more can also, but you have to trust us.”
“Trust you to make an army of soldiers like me? How will that benefit anyone? All it would do is prolong war,” Kurt spat the words at him.
“When I said trust us I meant it. You have to trust that we would use the information wisely. Yes the temptation to make an army of soldiers like you would be enormous but I agree that it would not benefit either side in this and that is why we have to destroy that base on the Moon. If they have Norsky there and if he is anything like you then we could be in real trouble,” Sinclair said calmly.”
Before Kurt could reply Jake said, “That’s as may be but what you want of them is basically a suicide mission.”
Sinclair turned from Kurt to look at Jake, “Not at all,” he said, “We need them inside that base to learn just what OMEGA is planning in there. With that Intel it may give us an idea of what they are doing elsewhere. It is vital we learn what they are doing and stop them. This may be our first and only opportunity to get in front of them in this, Kurt and Zara are the ideal agents for this,” he added.
Kurt looked at Zara for confirmation, she nodded her head and he said, “Okay, we’re in. We can sort out our future when this is done.”
“Right, let us sort out the details,” Sinclair said.
Kurt held up a hand halting him. He said, “Before we go any further I think you should know, if you plan on doing anything stupid, and I think you know what I mean, then, don’t. If I even get a sniff of a hint that you plan on anything against us then we’re outta here and you won’t be able to stop us. You have no idea what we can do and trust me General, you don’t ever want to, not if it’s turned against you.”
“And I suspect that Norsky has similar abilities as the both of you which is why it is so important you get across there and get the Intel we need so we can stop them,” Sinclair said, not intimidated in the least by Kurt’s thinly veiled threats.
Kurt had hoped that Sinclair would have at least paused to consider what he’d told him but the man seemed fearless. Instead it was he who paused. Whatever happened next at least the cards had been placed on the table so everyone could see. All he could do now was play the hand he had been dealt and hope for the best.
“Okay, we are agreed then. Let’s do this,” he said.
*****
Apollo stood outside the hyperbaric chamber looking at the figure immersed in the healing fluids. Norsky had been placed inside so that his severed limbs could rejoin with the rest of his damaged torso and begin the regenerative process.
They had taken a sample of his blood and genetically spliced some of the modified d.n.a. from one of the captured octo felines from Tartaran to it. Once the splicing process had been completed they had transfused the blood back into Norsky.
The addition of this new d.n.a. wouldn’t take effect until Norsky’s body had reformed and the regeneration had begun. Once that started the new blood would mix with the old and the changes would start, or that was what they had hoped.
As Apollo watched he saw the limbs begin to knit together. He was fascinated by the process; it was like watching something magical. During his growing process he had learned that what was once thought to be magic was now considered science. What he was watching at that moment though was beyond each discipline and a strange mix of both, a sort of arcane science.
It would be hours yet before the process was complete and to prevent him regaining consciousness there had been a sedative added to the fluids in the hyperbaric chamber.
He turned from the chamber and said to the guard standing watch close by, “Inform me the moment anything changes.”
The guard nodded his head in compliance and Apollo walked on by and left the room.
39
“What back up can we expect?” Kurt asked.
They had been working on the details for a few hours. This was their last chance to gain any sort of advantage in this war. So far they had barely survived each attack but now it was their chance to go on the offensive.
“None this time I’m afraid. You and Zara will have to go alone. Any other troops, even the Wildfire Team would be spotted. I am sure that even now they have all of our bases under surveillance from their base and any troop movements would be spotted. We cannot alert them to what we intend. Once you have the information you make the call and get out of there. You will have only a few moments to get clear because I will have the Odyssey on standby on the dark side of the Moon. The second your call is logged they will come in to attack. They have orders to obliterate the base. I have given orders that nothing is to be left, not a molecule left so let us be clear on this Kurt. If you are still in that base once the attack starts, you will not get out alive,” Sinclair said.
Kurt smiled.
“What do you find so amusing?”
“If you knew what I had survived you might have chosen your words a little more carefully, that’s all,” Kurt said.
“Quite.”
“If that’s all sir, Zara and I had better get going,” Kurt said.
“That is all. You have transport at your disposal, you can leave whenever you are both ready,” Sinclair said.
Ku
rt and Zara turned to leave the Command and Control centre which was occupied only by staff working there. Everyone else had left to carry out their new orders.
“Good luck to you both,” Sinclair added as they reached the door.
*****
Apollo had returned to the Command and Control centre to monitor events on Earth. They may have failed in their recent plans but they kept the Col Sec bases under close scrutiny.
The Rover5 monitoring comm. channels said, “Sir I’m receiving a lot of chatter about troop movements.”
“That coincides with what I’ve been monitoring from Nellis Base and Fort Bragg sir. There seems to be a large massing of troops from both bases. They seem to be preparing for some mission,” agreed the Rover5 on the sensors.
“Where are they heading? Have they learnt of this base?” Apollo asked.
“According to the comm. chatter they are grouping the troops together. I think they are waiting for transport on a starship but, as yet I have no idea of their destination sir,” replied the comms officer.
“Keep an eye on them, at this late stage in the game we can’t afford to be caught napping,” Apollo said.
“Yes sir.”
*****
Kurt and Zara were smuggled out of Nellis base in among a transport convoy the moment the sub dermal tracker had been identified and removed from her body. They left the tracker active so that anyone monitoring the signal would think they knew where she was.
They were put aboard a Silver Dart at McCarran International Airport and sent to Washington where the RandCorp Building was located. A vehicle was waiting for them at Dulles International Airport, a Grand Voyager 600si, one of a fleet of cars that Col Sec owned. It was specially equipped with sensors and armed with on board pulse rifles mounted on the front of the car hidden in recesses close to the headlights. It also had small missile pods that were housed just to the rear of the front wheel arches.
Kurt got behind the wheel and drove to the RandCorp building. He parked in the underground parking garage where a space had already been allocated for them. The local Constabulary was still in evidence policing the cordon that was still in place around the damaged structure. They had been forewarned that a vehicle would be arriving and to allow them through to the parking garage beneath the building, which they had.
There was an elevator nearby where they had parked that took them up to the Penthouse.
Kurt exited the elevator and walked up the corridor. He remembered the layout from his battle with Norsky and as he walked he looked at the damage the fight had caused.
“Kurt, glad to see you again,” Able Rand said from the doorway to his office. He was leaning his tall frame against the doorframe, his arms folded against his lean chest.
“You too Mister Rand. I must apologise from the state I left your offices in the last time I was here,” Kurt replied.
“Oh don’t worry about that, this place needed redecorating anyway, you just forced us to do what we were putting off until we had the time. We’ll have to make the time now, and call me Able,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“Only too glad we could help then,” Kurt said with a self conscious smile.
Able walked up to him and Zara and said, “Why are you here, what is it you want?”
Kurt glanced at Zara then said, “What I’m about to tell you is classified beyond top secret.”
“Go ahead,” said Josh as he came out of the office. Kurt or Zara had not seen him in there but the second they heard his voice their senses told them there were more in there.
“You can all come out now as well, you may as well hear this too,” Kurt said.
Josh saw Zara and smiled, clearly he was not expecting the beauty that greeted him.
“Down boy, I’m here on business,” she said with a smile of her own.
Jess and Mitch Ryan emerged as well and stood all together just behind Able.
“Go ahead Kurt, we’re listening,” Able said.
“We have detected a base on the Moon where OMEGA has been directing their offensive against us from. The thing is we can’t reach it without being detected ourselves, at least not in force and not from in orbit. What we intend on doing is planning our own mission to gain access to the base using your base, the base you offered to Col Sec as a staging ground,” Kurt explained.
“You will still have the same problem even from there I would assume. They would detect your approach across the surface of the Moon the second you set foot outside the base,” Josh offered.
“We have a way around that, we think,” Zara said.
“You want to use the SUT,” Jess said.
40
The Gateway opened a portal to the Moon Base which Kurt and Zara stepped through. They were accompanied by Able, Josh, Jess and Mitch Ryan.
They could not see a way to keep their secret from them. The Rand’s and Mitch knew all about the SUT and the effects it had on the user in intimate detail. They knew the first volunteers who had tested the device and had watched them die in agony while they attempted, fruitlessly to find a way to reverse the effects. So for them to use it, a full explanation had to be forthcoming or Able had frankly refused to allow it, no matter how important it was.
He argued that he had seen too many die because of something he had done or set in motion and he would not stand by and see others suffer needlessly. After a brief discussion Kurt and Zara had agreed to tell them. It had made sense to the details of the mission they had sworn them to secrecy over. Able had insisted he accompany them to the Moon Base to help keep their secret from the staff working at the base, some of which were Col Sec while the rest were still RandCorp employees. The transition to Col Sec personnel had not yet fully taken place. His children and Mitch would not allow him to go alone so they went too arguing that the more of them there was it would be easier to keep prying eyes away from what they were doing.
Kurt and Zara were supplied with combat suits; the new edition of Remm M25 assault pulse rifle along with a Sig P999 each. They also had a K-Bar knife strapped to their forearm in a quick release sheath. In the combat suit were patch pockets where extra battery clips were stored. They had enough ammo for what they intended or so they hoped. On their heads were the new Rapier battle helmet which has a HUD display on the inside of the visor.
They had the co-ordinates of the OMEGA Moon base which they had obtained from sensor sweeps from the Odyssey that had been ordered into long range orbit. The sensor sweeps were conducted from just beyond the horizon whilst the starship was under a stealth shield. The Odyssey remained on station ready for the command to fire.
The co-ordinates were programmed into the SUT’s before being strapped to Kurt and Zara’s wrists.
“Where exactly will we appear in that base?” Zara asked as the final preparations were made for their departure.
“Good question and one I’ve been asking myself since this idea was first aired,” Kurt added looking from the woman beside him to the Rand’s who were standing close by. They had been with them, along with Mitch Ryan, every step of the way, Josh making sure their equipment was all working at full spec’s, Mitch ensuring security was tight even though Recon Delta marines were everywhere and Able and his daughter Jess were overlooking everything else.
Jess fielded that particular question, “Because we haven’t been able to penetrate their stealth shield there is no way of knowing exactly where you’ll show up. What we’ve done therefore is aimed your landing site as close to the edge of the structure as we can. Admittedly a lot of it is guess work but we’re confident that we have the math right on this,” she said.
“How close?” Kurt asked.
“You do mean inside the structure, don’t you?” Zara added not liking the sound of this at all.
Jess looked from one to the other before replying. “A few feet and yes, we do mean inside. It would defeat the object of the exercise somewhat if we dropped you off outside the base, don’t you think?” there was a hint of
sarcasm to her tone which did not go unnoticed. Zara took a step toward the young woman, anger flaring in her eyes briefly but was halted by Kurt placing a hand on her arm.
“Obviously Miss Rand, but we have to ask these questions, after all it is us who are taking the risk here and not you,” he said.
Jess saw the look in Zara’s eyes and knew she had overstepped a boundary. She said, “Of course I understand, and please call me Jess. We may not be military but we do know what we’re doing here. You can trust us to do everything we can to ensure this mission goes ahead like you want it to. The second you arrive inside the base you’ll be able to access their computer via your NI’s and you can get a layout of the interior displayed on your HUD. Once that happens you’ll know where to go.”
Kurt looked at Zara to see if she was indeed ready for this. It would be the first time she had put her trust in something other than her own abilities, which she was still coming to terms with and he needed to know she could go through with it and not baulk at the last second. One look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know
She was ready.
“Okay, let’s do this,” he said.
*****
Apollo stood watching as the lab tec went down the line of Rover5’s administering the new serum to each of them via a hypo gun.
“How long before we have any results?” he asked once the task was completed and the tec had returned to him.
“It’s hard to say, this part is not an exact science. It could be minutes, it could be days, who knows?” the tec said as he placed the hypo gun on the table before him. Apollo grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around, “That’s not good enough,” he said staring directly down into the face of the smaller man.
“What do you want from me? I’ve done everything you asked, I manufactured the serum like you ordered and I’ve given it to your men, what more can I do, the rest is out of my hands. You’ll just have to wait to see if there is any changes, but like I told you from the start, this may not work at all, there may not be any improvements,” the tec said his voice almost pleading. He was afraid for his life and with good cause, he had seen some of the things these Rover5’s were capable of and had heard of other things that had chilled his blood. He had agreed to work with them because his contract with MaxCorp would have been terminated otherwise but he never thought for one second that he would be involved with anything like this. Fearful for his life didn’t quite cover how he felt, he was terrified.
