I walked forward, ensuring that same impassive look was still smoothed over my face.
… The shields didn't kill me.
They formed right around me.
I reached the technician.
“Follow me,” the man said, with a less abrupt tone than the soldier.
I nodded.
This… wasn't going according to plan.
For some reason I thought that both Alyssa and I would be taken off our shuttle at the same time.
Still, I couldn't give up.
Nor could I let my true nerves show.
Instead I followed the technician silently.
The hangar bay of the Miracle was massive, almost as large as the Ra’xon, even though the Ra’xon was at least two times the size of the Miracle.
In a controlled manner, I let my gaze dart around as we walked. Every time someone was looking at me, however, I returned my eyes to the midline.
There was plenty of technology around that I recognized, but more I didn't.
Alyssa was right. Taking down the Miracle would be the greatest victory the resistance had ever had, and maybe ever would have. We’d gain access to such incredible technology. It would push us forward in the fight, finally make us even.
I controlled my enthusiasm as we finally exited the hangar bay and into one of the main corridors.
It was wide and clean, the walls painted in a shiny blue white.
It seemed clinical.
Cold.
Sure enough, every person we passed had the same expression. Dulled like they’d had the humanity whittled out of them.
The technician didn't say a word until he led me to a room.
The further and further I walked from my shuttle and Alyssa, the more the fear tightened around my gut.
I had no idea what was happening to her, no idea whether they believed me.
But I told myself that if the worst happened, the Ra’xon would be there.
Even with the Miracle’s increased shield capability, she still wouldn't be able to prevent the Ra’xon from ramming her head on.
Our self-destruct plan would work. But I would do anything to ensure it wouldn't come to that.
I entered the room and sat down. There I waited for a full five minutes until somebody entered.
It was a face I wasn't expecting.
A sight I hadn't seen for a full six months.
My father.
He walked so casually into the room, barely glancing at me as if questioning me – his son – was just another ordinary task.
Smoothing down his blue and white uniform, he sat across the other end of the table, glancing at a holo image above his left wrist device.
I could tell he was still looking at me through his peripheral vision. I could tell he was sizing me up.
So I had to use everything, absolutely everything to control my expression.
That initial kick of fear that raced through my stomach upon seeing my father subsided. It subsided because I used every ounce of control to stifle it.
Any ordinary father and son would probably embrace after such a long time apart.
Not us.
Finally, finally he looked up from the information flicking across the holo image. He gave me an impassive look. His eyes darted down my form. It would have been easy to assume he was checking to see if I was alright.
He wasn't.
It was just his training. He was probably looking for a weapon.
Though I was still wearing my armor, I’d removed my helmet.
“Where did you capture her?” My father got straight down to business.
“Alyssa Nightingale?” I questioned.
“Of course.”
“The primary resistance base in the Hegel Sector. I was aboard the Ra’xon when it faked its destruction.”
My father nodded. He glanced back at his wrist device for a few seconds.
I knew the information playing across it was gibberish.
It was a distraction.
He was trying to intimidate me.
As I clenched my teeth harder and harder, I was determined not to let it work.
“You mentioned Commander F'val in your report. You mentioned he was taken prisoner aboard the Ra’xon, and that when you realized he was a double agent for the Star Forces, you took up his original mission, which was to return Alyssa Nightingale.”
“Correct.” I placed my hands neatly before me, staring at my father with the exact same cold impassive stare he used on me.
Admiral Shepherd pressed a finger into his mouth as he stared at the information playing across his holo device once more.
A part of me wanted to lean forward, slam a hand on the table, and point out I knew this was all a distraction.
It was unnecessary.
He should just cut to the chase.
But my father was not a direct man. He was the kind of man who knew exactly how to get what he wanted. And that often involved misdirection and manipulation, not being upfront.
"How did you capture Alyssa from the Ra’xon? And where is the Ra’xon now?"
"I managed to convince the Captain and the senior staff that I was on their side. I was also able to capitalize on the confusion caused by Commander F'val."
"I want an exact report. Exact details," my father said.
"You'll have them. When do you want my report?"
"Now."
I nodded. "There is far more critical information you should be concerned about now."
I watched him press his finger slightly harder into his lips. "What information?"
He fell for my ploy.
"I have information on the resistance fleet."
"You do?"
“The exact location of her three strongest heavy cruisers."
"Where are they?"
"Show me a star chart, and I’ll show you their locations."
My father stared at me. Then he appeared to make a decision. He unclipped the wrist device from over his arm and rested it on the table before pushing it towards me.
I grabbed it up and started typing something onto it.
"That only has access privileges to navigation maps," he said as an afterthought.
I stopped, fingers hovering over the controls. "Don’t you trust me, father?" I asked directly.
I watched him twitch. He shifted back in his chair, and finally the impassive edge to his stare changed. He became outright angry. "What have I told you about referring to me as your father when we are both on duty?"
"That I should never do it."
"So don't do it."
"Answer the question. Don't you trust me?" This was a dangerous game I was playing, but I couldn't stop myself from playing it. If it had been anyone else but my father, I would have been composed and in control.
My dad… he was a goddamn monster. A goddamn monster who’d convinced me for years that he was a hero.
I controlled my anger, set my gaze straight. "I was following up my original mission," I said, fingers still paused over the controls, "the mission the Star Forces gave me before I was transferred aboard the Ra’xon. When it became clear that the Captain was resistance, I joined their ranks and gathered as much information as I could."
"Give me the locations of those three ships," my father ignored my comment, that hooked finger still pressed against his lips.
I shrugged. I'd already talked this through with Captain H’agovan. The information I was about to give my father was accurate. To a point. These three ships were on the move. They were also the fastest the resistance had. While this information would have been accurate at a time, and my father would be able to confirm that, the resistance ships would still be able to flee.
I finished typing the coordinates. I placed the wrist device on the table with a clang, and pushed it towards my father.
Then I shifted back in my seat and stared at him.
He made no move to pick up the holo device. Instead he stared right back at me. "Did you join the resistance?"
he asked directly.
I frowned deliberately. "I infiltrated the resistance," I corrected, "as per my mission parameters. And I brought you Alyssa Nightingale," I said voice dipping low as I said her name.
I watched my father. Watched him carefully. Searched his face for every sign of movement and tension.
He twitched. It was subtle, and you had to be looking at him as directly as I was.
But it was there.
"Yes, you did. Just when we needed her most."
I didn't let any sign of confusion crumple my brow. "What do you mean?"
"That is on a needs to know basis," my father said coldly. "Now, you will prepare your report and give it to me as soon as you are finished." He stood and turned. Though not immediately. For a few seconds he watched me.
I looked directly into his eyes.
He turned and walked through the door.
Once it closed behind him, I heard it lock.
… So this was it. I was now locked in this briefing room, with an order to come up with a full report of how I fooled the resistance.
That wouldn't be the hard part. I'd already come up with such a report with the help of the Captain and the Chief. It was believable, and no detail had been left out.
Still. Would my father believe me? Did he already know that I hadn't left the resistance? Was this just a game to see how long I could keep the act up?
As those thoughts span through my mind, I didn't react to them, at least not visibly. I couldn’t afford to. I knew I was being watched. Though the walls of this room were smooth and clean, there would be recording equipment somewhere.
My father would be watching my every move. And if it became obvious I was still a member of the resistance, I was sure he would kill me himself. No trial, no court martial, just a bullet to the back of the head.
It was now up to Alyssa.
Wherever she was, I prayed she would succeed.
Chapter 11
Alyssa Nightingale
They scanned me aboard the shuttle, but they didn't move me.
They'd taken Shepherd away, and I had no idea what they’d done with him. Maybe they trusted him, and he was now walking around the ship, ready to enact our plan. Maybe they didn’t… and he was… and he was dead.
That thought was like being stabbed in the heart. Every time it slashed through my mind, I thought I would gasp.
I still lay there on the floor of the shuttle, behind those containment shields. As more time wound on, I became more and more agitated.
There was nothing stopping the crew of the Miracle from gaining access to the environmental controls of the shuttle and incapacitating me with more of that drug.
At least the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Ra’xon had thought ahead for that exact eventuality.
She’d done her best to assess the compound F'val had used on me, and had come up with a cure, of sorts. It would take at least five minutes to work though.
Five minutes.
I was playing a dangerous game. A deadly dangerous game.
Soon enough all the soldiers who had boarded our shuttle disappeared.
I was left alone.
I counted down every second, feeling time pass with all the excruciating pain of claws slashing into my back.
And that's when I heard it.
More footfall. This time it wasn't heavy, it wasn't the strong reverberating sound of armored feet slamming against the polished metal floor.
It was light. Sounding like a shuffle.
Instantly, somehow, I knew who it belonged to.
I chilled. It felt like someone had injected ice into my veins. Every centimeter of flesh felt like the cold depths of space.
Someone entered the vessel.
From my position, I couldn't turn to see who it was.
So I had to wait.
It was excruciating, far worse than being shot or beaten.
I had to be careful not to even swallow, lest I give away that I wasn't fully drugged.
I saw a shadow – someone leaned down towards me on the other side of the containment shield.
"There you are."
Axis.
It was Professor Axis.
I almost jolted. Fear almost curled so hard and fast around my spine that I snapped to my feet.
I controlled myself with all I had left.
"There you are, precious," he said with a chuckle. "It's been so long. And you look so different now. You changed your appearance, and you’ve done a particularly good job, too. I can see you're training paid off. But now you're back, and there's work to do," he continued speaking to me in a singsong tone like a father speaking to a small child.
It clearly didn't matter to him that I couldn't answer.
"Now you just stay there, my darling Alyssa. We must be careful until we get you back to your old cell. There I can give you your new implants. Much more powerful than the last, with them, you'll be able to complete my every dream."
I wanted to shiver. Oh god did I want to shiver, but I couldn't. I just listened to his awful voice.
"We've made quite a few discoveries since you left. It’s been over three years, after all. You will be quite pleased, I'm sure. You’ve returned home and the Miracle is even stronger than ever."
He honestly was speaking to me as if I was his treasured child who'd been away for nothing more than a trip, and now he was filling me in on all the things he'd done since I'd been gone.
"When you're stable and have accepted the new implants, then, my precious, then we can begin." His voice dipped low. It shook.
Begin what?
"There's something you can do," he said, voice now little more than a harsh breath, "something you were born to do. There’s a secret in this sector, my dear, and we need you to open it."
… It had to be down on that moon, I realized quickly.
But what on earth could it be? And why would he need me specifically to open it? While I had unrivalled telekinetic abilities, such abilities could technically be replicated with enough technology. You didn't need me to lift a crate into the air – hover pads could do it. And as for destructive capability, a heavy cruiser could certainly outgun me.
… So why did he need me?
Again I wanted to shake – I had to release the tension growing in my shoulders.
I didn't and I couldn't.
"We have some new medication for you, Alyssa," he promised with a chuckle as if he were informing me about a grand present he’d prepared in my honor. "It will help you to behave," he promised.
Oh god. Oh god no. He'd finally done it. Throughout all these years he'd been threatening to develop some kind of means to control my behavior. To turn me into the mindless weapon he truly wanted.
Though Axis was arrogant, he rarely overstated his abilities.
Which meant he had the drug.
Which meant I was now in a dire position.
"It shouldn't take too long to fit you with your new implants. And it won't take too long to see if your new medication will work. And when it does, Alyssa, you will help us usher in a new era in history. You will help us access the greatest power that has ever existed in the Milky Way." As he spoke, his voice became louder and louder, his words grander and grander as if he were speaking to an auditorium rather than a crumpled half-unconscious woman behind a shield.
“All in good time. You will find what is waiting for you down on Moon 78 all in good time. For now, rest tight. Your medication will be ready soon."
With that he rose. I heard the creak of his knees. Then he turned and walked away.
My heart hammered in my chest, so hard I was sure it was going to tear from my rib cage and pound right through the floor.
I still had no idea where Shepherd was, but I couldn't allow myself just to lie here and wait for Axis to follow through with his promise.
Before we left the Ra’xon, Shepherd and I had gone over the plan what felt like 1000 times. Every contingency, every possible scenario.
I
f we were separated, I was to wait for an opportunity.
But no matter what happened, I wasn't to reveal myself in the hangar bay. Due to the nature of the hangar bay, it was always separated from the rest of the ship. It was the one place you were most likely to have hull breaches on accidents. So the shields were some of the strongest aboard the Miracle. It was also easy to keep the hangar bay contained. Even if I used my full power, I may not be able to punch through it before the Miracle pumped the room full of gas.
But I had to do something. I would not allow Axis to control me.
Never again.
…
Annabelle Williams
“Captain, we still haven’t heard anything from the Miracle. Her shields are up, and her communications are fine.” I turned nervously in my chair to face the Captain.
She sat there, face directed towards the primary view screen.
I had no idea what she was thinking.
“Five minutes,” she suddenly announced.
Though she didn’t explain herself, she didn’t need to. Everyone on the bridge knew exactly what she was referring to.
Five minutes until the Ra’xon initiated its last ditch suicide mission. It would ram the Miracle and take both heavy cruisers down in the ensuing explosion.
My heart skipped a beat as I jerked my head back and stared at the primary view screen.
I didn’t know what was happening out there on the Miracle, but goddamn I hoped and prayed that wherever Nathan and Alyssa were, they were okay.
Because if they weren’t, then none of us would be.
Chapter 12
Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd
I had to do it. My only hope was to look for an opportunity, any opportunity, and take it.
Because without one, this was over.
I finished my report quickly, not too quickly though. I didn’t want my father to think I’d prepared it beforehand.
When I was done, I stood, walked to the door, knocked on it once, turned, and sat back down.
It was excruciating waiting for somebody to answer. But fortunately they did, and I shifted back in my seat in time to see the door open.
I expected to see my father.
It wasn’t him. It was another faceless armored soldier, his black helmet directed down towards me.
He lifted his hand up in a clear motion for me to stand.
The Crucible- The Complete Series Page 42
