I saw her expression become suspicious, and it was clear she could see what I was doing.
She began to turn.
“The reason I keep harping on about your history, Jenks, is I’ve been there,” I said frankly.
It wasn’t the tack I’d been intending to follow, but the words jolted out of my mouth.
She looked confused for a moment. “Sorry?”
“You may not know this, but my father… my father is Admiral Shepherd.”
She didn’t walk away, though. She frowned, gaze locking on me.
“For years,” I suddenly dropped her gaze, “for years I knew what kind of man he was. I knew what kind of a ship he ran. But I… I pushed it out of my mind. I told myself the Star Forces was everything. We kept the galaxy safe, no matter the costs. But slowly, in the back of my mind, it always ate away at me.” I wasn’t saying exactly what I wanted to. I wanted to describe my situation in its entirety. What it was like to be the son of Admiral Shepherd, what it was like to follow the life I had, the pressure, the expectation. But it wasn’t coming out right. It sounded flat. It sounded like I was simply complaining about having grown up in an extremely privileged family. When it had come to joining the Academy, there’d been no question, and there’d been no test. I’d been accepted with open arms.
And even when I’d stuffed up, and I had, it had always been brushed away.
Because I was the son of Admiral Shepherd.
It didn’t matter what I did; it didn’t matter what I achieved; it didn’t matter delete what I believed – I would always be the son of Admiral Shepherd.
But how could I convey that to her without sounding like I was complaining about a scratch while she clearly had a deep wound driven right through her heart?
I started to flounder.
She didn’t walk away.
She didn’t make eye contact either. She fixed her gaze over my shoulder, and there was an unquestionably sad edge to it. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me, sir.”
“But I want to,” I blurted out.
I was never this honest. Never. With anyone. My life had taught me to keep this truth close to my chest. So why was it spilling out now? “All I’m trying to say, is I’m not what you think I am,” I said through a dry mouth. “All I’m trying to say is I won’t judge you, Jenks. You may think you know who I am because I’m the son of Admiral Shepherd,” my voice broke, “but you don’t. Whatever the Star Forces have done to you, whatever has pushed you to this point, let me try to understand it. Give me a chance.”
I honestly thought she would walk away.
She didn’t.
She kept standing there. Only a meter from my side, gaze still locked with a lost dead quality as she stared at the far-off wall.
I found myself swallowing. “Jenks?” I said in a shaking tone.
“You really want to know my history?” she asked. She was speaking quietly, but that did not hide the emotion in her words.
The electric, raw emotion that punched right through my mind and stabbed into my heart. “Yes. I do.”
She opened her mouth, and expectation raced down my back forming a pit of nerves deep in my gut.
I waited, watching as her gaze became steadily more distracted until finally she swept her gaze across to me.
“Nathan,” someone suddenly called my name.
I’d been so invested in what Jenks was about to say, that I jolted with surprise, not expecting an interruption.
I turned sharply on my foot to see Williams hurrying towards me. Her face was pale and drawn.
“Maybe some other time,” Jenks said. She turned from me and walked away quickly.
I wanted to punch out a hand, grab her arm, and stop her, but I didn’t have time.
Williams reached me. She was out of breath. Not from the short run across the hangar – it was clear something had terrified her.
My brow compressed low against my eyes. “What is it?” I asked, fear punching through my tone.
“You’ve got to come see the Captain.”
“Why?”
“Just come see the Captain. Something’s happened.”
I nodded, feeling sick as I followed her back aboard the Ra’xon.
There would be no rest now. It seemed that my life would forever be tugged from danger to danger.
Danger to danger.
…
Dig site, Mari Sector
They’d made no progress.
Killing the dig team and erasing all traces of them had been relatively easy.
Penetrating the wall, however, was proving to be impossible.
They had the best minds of the Miracle working on it, but nobody could find a solution.
It seemed the Alliance simply didn’t have the power to penetrate that metal veil.
But they had a plan.
It would involve recalling an asset, but it would be worth it.
They knew the treasures that waited for them beyond that doorway.
They’d encountered technology like this before, just fragments. They’d never seen anything like this, on such a grand and almost impossible scale.
It whet their appetites.
They wanted more. No – demanded it.
An entire contingent of the most elite unit of the Alliance Central Command guarded the dig site while scientists from the Miracle toiled.
I was on the floor of the cavern, looking up, large scaly hands clasped behind my back.
I could feel it. Beyond the wall. The power.
It reacted with my implants.
I let a slow smile spread across my lips. I’d been standing here staring at that wall for god knows how long. The minutes slipped away from me as I considered the future.
This would change everything.
If only we could get inside.
Professor Axis himself, the father of the modern galaxy, had been diverted to this dig site. Which accentuated how important the Central Command believed it to be. Axis was their treasure. Their alchemical genius. A man who could take anything – the roughest recruit with only the rawest potential for telekinetic abilities – and craft them into a warrior.
The old man was pushing 222, his face now wizened, his grey hair a wild clump around his head. He looked like the archetype of the mad scientist. But if there was one thing Axis wasn’t – it was insane. All traces of eccentricity had been carefully eliminated from his character. He was reason embodied. Cold hard reason.
He walked up to me, footfall slow and measured as his head turned towards the wall.
I too let my gaze slice towards it. It had an uncanny ability to draw you to it.
“All my attempts are failing,” Axis admitted. “We must default to my final plan.”
“Do you think it will work?” I asked objectively.
“With further training and advancements, yes. It is our only option. You managed to shift the wall if only for a second, Commander. You are the second most powerful creation I have ever managed to produce. She will be able to go further than you.”
I brought one of my hands up and turned it over slowly. I had two telekinetic implants lodged in my wrists, two more inserted into the space between my thumbs and fingers, and three embedded up each arm. “But the door repaired my damage quickly.”
That massive wall of metal was not dead. Somehow it responded to damage. Healed it like a body might heal over a scratch.
“If we are to open the door, we must apply immense pressure across its entire surface evenly.” Axis observed.
We’d already tried explosives. Directed pulse weapons. Everything in our arsenals. None of it worked. It was also very dangerous. This moon was unstable, not just geologically, but spatially. If one were not careful with the weaponry they used, they could accidentally trigger a spatial event, and that wall and everything behind it would be sucked into a black hole.
“So you want me to go ahead as planned and retrieve her?”
Professor Axis nodded slowly. There was a
glitter in the old man’s eyes.
Greed. But not ordinary greed. Not the greed of a simple man, but that of one who possessed the sharpest intellect in the galaxy. One filled by pure unmitigated reason.
Of all the universal forces I had ever encountered, there was none as powerful as that.
“It’s time you bring her back,” Axis concurred as he shifted his head from me and appeared to pay complete attention to the wall once more. “I had so hoped that she would destroy the resistance for us. But perhaps another time.”
“Another time,” I conceded. Then I took a step backwards. I tried to keep my attention locked on Axis, but it wouldn’t work. My mind was drawn towards the wall, and a few seconds later, it pulled my eyes towards it again.
I’d seen some of the greatest wonders in this galaxy. I was privy to secrets few others were. I knew the truth of some of the greatest mysteries in history.
I was not a stranger to wonder.
But this… was different. This was….
“Go and retrieve my child,” Axis repeated. “There is work for her to do.”
Chapter 5
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
“What?” My face paled as I stared at the Captain.
“There is a spy on board. There has to be,” she said. It was telling that her voice broke – she was such a strong woman and not given to emotion.
The Chief Engineer and Williams were in the room. I’d never seen the Chief look so lost. That was nothing compared to the sheer shock playing through Williams’ gaze though.
“I can’t believe they took one of our crates. It took so long to gather that much Omega weaponry. Without it…” she trailed off.
The Captain brought up a hand. “We know how much the telekinetic warriors of the resistance need those Omega weapons. Don’t worry, Lieutenant, we will find that crate.” She levelled her gaze at the Chief.
The Chief didn’t react. Not at first. Instead she locked one of her many hands on her mouth and drummed the fingers hard into her flesh.
“Chief?” Williams demanded with a searching tone.
Finally the Chief reacted. She dropped her hand and took in a stuttering breath. “I can’t even begin to imagine how that crate was stolen. If we hadn’t taken such meticulous care in organizing those weapons, I’d almost assume that we miscounted. But we didn’t,” her voice shook. “We didn’t. And somebody, without our knowledge, and defying our sensors, managed to get into that room and steal an entire crate. I have no idea how they did it. There isn’t even room in one of those service tunnels to drag a crate. The only reason we got all those Omega weapons in there in the first place is because I used a specialized transport procedure.”
“Well, couldn’t our spy have done the same?” I asked.
The Chief shook her head, the move so quick it looked as if it would tear her head free from her neck. “No. That would leave traces. Distinctive traces. Evidence we could track. And I scanned – trust me, Shepherd – I’ve scanned. There is no evidence whatsoever that anyone transported one of those crates out. Plus, if they could have somehow got past my defenses they would have stolen more than one.”
Silence met her comment.
“Then what are we dealing with here?” the Captain asked, doing a good job of controlling her stress, even though I could see fracture lines cracking up the side of her mouth.
“I… I have no friggin’ idea,” the Chief admitted. “But somehow someone got in there and stole a whole box of weapons.”
She let that statement settle. It felt like it was an anchor dragging across the floor.
I arched my neck, realizing my muscles were so tight they could have twanged. Resting a hand on my trapezius, I took a stiff breath. “Why would someone only steal one crate of Omega weaponry? If they were planning to take on the resistance, surely they would take all of them.”
Williams made a soft sound.
I turned to face her.
Her brow was crumpled, gaze locked on the wall.
“You suspect it’s telekinetic warriors, don’t you?” the Captain said.
Williams slowly nodded her head. “It makes sense. If they only stole one crate. It makes more sense to think that they’re not after the weapons, but they’re after the antimatter to synthesize more compound 78.”
I stared at Williams.
I had no idea what to say.
I was out of my depth.
The Captain cleared her throat. “We need to find out who has stolen those weapons. And if it is a telekinetic warrior, we need to identify them. Immediately. It makes sense to assume that they had a hand in sabotaging the Ra’xon’s life-support. I will not allow them to do more damage,” she proclaimed as she stabbed a stiff finger at her desk.
I nodded, purely out of habit. I had no idea how to follow through with her order.
“Chief,” the Captain growled, “I want you to scour this ship, from end to end, and the rest of the base too – I want you to find that crate. We will retrieve those weapons, if we can.”
Now the Captain shifted her gaze to me.
I swallowed.
“Lieutenant Commander, I want you to find our spy.” She held my gaze.
At least in the Star Forces, I thought bitterly, you got some shakedown time. In the resistance, you went through emergency after emergency.
“Dismissed,” the Captain said through a rattling breath.
I turned on my heel and marched out of the room.
First sabotage, now a spy who was very likely a telekinetic warrior.
What next?
What horrors would the galaxy throw at me next?
As I shivered, I realized I would just have to wait to find out.
Chapter 6
Ensign Jenks
Something was happening to me.
Something awful.
It had been several days since my last fix.
I was already starting to shiver. I could already feel the tingling in my fingers.
I didn’t understand.
I’d always had three weeks grace in the past.
Now that window had closed.
I was desperate.
And I had to keep it to myself.
Though we didn’t have defined duty shifts now we were with the resistance, the Chief seemed fond of me, and was requesting I complete tasks whenever I could.
At least it took my mind off the horror.
At this rate, the compound 78 I’d synthesized would barely last several months. And if my symptoms continued to worsen….
I didn’t know what to do.
What was worse – I hadn’t been nearly as careful as I thought.
The resistance now knew that somebody had stolen one of their crates of Omega weaponry. And everyone was determined to flush out the traitor.
They were calling them a spy. A spy for the Star Forces.
If only they knew the truth.
I was working in an isolated corridor. Though I had a complex task to complete, every few seconds I would pull up a hand and stare at it.
It was so weak.
I was so weak.
This wasn’t fair.
This wasn’t fair.
…
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
It had been several days now. No luck. No spy had been uncovered.
I was no closer to finding out who in our ranks had sabotaged our ship and stolen that crate of weapons.
As far as I was concerned, everyone was a target. But I had to admit that my suspicions mostly lay with the other members of the resistance.
I didn’t trust them, J’axal especially.
My personal theory was that the enforcement officers had damaged life-support, and that someone else – a spy amongst the resistance – had stolen the Omega weapons.
I couldn’t imagine a member of the Ra’xon’s crew doing it.
We were too disciplined, too devoted to the vessel.
Maybe I was allowing preconceived notions to
get in the way of my investigation, but I couldn’t brush them aside either.
And anyway, it didn’t matter.
Despite the Chief’s continued attempts, we had absolutely no idea who’d stolen the weaponry or how they’d done it.
There was simply no evidence.
Just the fact that the crate was gone.
I was kept busy. Too busy. I barely had the time to stop and breathe.
But I saw her occasionally.
Jenks.
Only briefly though. She’d been about to open up to me just after she’d saved me from that scaffolding.
I knew it.
And I yearned for the opportunity to ask her again.
An opportunity that would not come. The Chief was keeping her busy too.
Still, I was determined to find a way.
In fact, I’d found myself with a few spare minutes, and I was now scouring the Ra’xon trying to find her.
That’s when my command PIP beeped. “You there?” the Chief asked.
“What is it?”
“Come to engineering. Now,” she snapped.
I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t protest.
I turned sharply on my foot and headed to engineering.
When I walked in the doors, I found her in her office. She was bent double over a workbench, staring at something in a containment field.
I walked right up to her, gaze slicing towards what looked like an innocuous lump of metal.
Finally she acknowledged my presence with a grunt. “Here it is, Lieutenant Commander.” She gestured to the lump of metal.
“What am I looking at?” Brow crumpled, I looked up at the Chief Engineer.
She blinked all three of her eyes and tilted her head to the side. “Have you lost your powers of observation, Lieutenant Commander? It’s clearly a lump of metal.”
I shot her an irritated look. “Thanks for pointing that out. Seriously, though, why did you pull me all the way out here just to have me look at a lump of metal?”
“Because this is no ordinary lump of metal,” her voice dropped ominously.
I felt a chill feeling racing up and down my back. My brow crumpled even further until it was hard to see. “What are you talking about?” there was a kick of nerves in my voice.
I watched the Chief latch three of her hands onto the edge of the bench. I also saw her swallow expressively. “This is what’s left of our missing Omega weapons.”
The Crucible- The Complete Series Page 22
