Offensive
Page 16
“Holy shite.” Kyle whistled.
Ari shrugged. “While seeing a TK weapon in action would be spectacular, I wouldn’t mind getting my hands dirty.”
“Too many firefights in the last two weeks have made you bloodthirsty,” Nia ribbed.
“We have seen a lot of action. I thought we were back to covert ops, and then this whole mess happened.” Kira sighed. “Not to mention everything with me.”
“Yeah, how are you doing with your… condition?” Nia asked her.
“It seems to be going well now,” Kira replied. “I mean, well enough. Nothing unexpected has happened since my pairing with Jasmine.”
“You two still getting along?” Nia looked up while asking the question, indicating that Jasmine was included in the question.
“I am quite pleased with our pairing,” Jasmine replied over the comm. “Kira has introduced me to many new experiences.”
Jasmine smiled in her mind.
Kira returned her attention to her team. “Jasmine and I are working well together.”
Unfortunately, Jasmine’s statement hadn’t been lost on Ari. “That was a deflection. What aren’t you saying?”
Kira decided the best distraction from her new relationship status was to get back to the bad guys. Talk about evil telepathic aliens never got old.
“Before our pairing, Jasmine worked almost entirely in medical labs. We didn’t want to freak you out with the idea of having someone along with no combat experience.”
“You’re the one holding the weapons,” Ari pointed out.
Good, he took the bait. Kira nodded. “Yes, but in this particular matter, she’s helping to regulate my physiology so I don’t transform without meaning to. Some degree of a neurochemical surge is necessary in our line of work—Jasmine is still learning how much is useful to me. We think, back on the Gaelon planet, she may have dialed it back too much for me, and that’s why I wasn’t feeling anxious when it seemed like I should have been.”
Nia eyed her. “Yeah, you were acting off.”
Kira sighed. She was trying to hide the truth, probably because she didn’t want to admit to herself how close she’d come to succumbing to their trap.
“There’s something else we discovered,” she went on. “When the dwarf planet was sending out those telepathic frequency bursts, it was interacting with me. While we were going down that exit tunnel, I may have been under a subtle telepathic influence.”
Kyle’s brow furrowed. “So, they can get to you.”
“I’m not sure,” Kira replied. “It wasn’t complete. I think it may have been something to do with the proximity to the pit, which seems to be a kind of nest for them. A source of strength and power.”
“Hmm,” Ari mused. “And their control weakens the further away they are, like when Kaen was way out here?”
“Exactly.” Kira nodded. “For all we know, it’s possible that all of us were being influenced in some small way while on the Gaelon planet. This isn’t an enemy we can predict or understand with what little we know about them.”
“All the more reason to blow up the planet and be done with it,” Ari muttered.
“We may still have an issue on Mysar,” Kira continued. “It appears that there’s a pit on that world, too, and that may be where more of the beings live.”
Nia’s mouth dropped open. “And you didn’t lead with that?”
“What’s the plan to deal with that situation?” Kyle asked at the same time.
“It’s a work in progress,” Kira replied.
“Hold on,” Nia said. “That means Reya was close to a pit when you overpowered her.”
“I guess she was,” Kira realized. She’d been so preoccupied with thinking about how Reya may have escaped Chancellor Hale when the body died that she’d missed the other implications. “Maybe I can stand up to them.”
“We always knew that, Kira,” Kyle said with a smile. “Don’t sound so surprised.”
“After what happened on Gaelon, I was having serious doubts,” she admitted.
“Fortunately, you have us to believe in you,” Ari said.
Kira smiled at her team. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.”
Ari tapped his chin. “I’m torn between you either wasting your gifts as a carnival-style fortune teller or going dark after pushing away everything you ever loved and becoming a super villain.”
Kira stared at him. “Wow, you have a very high opinion of the moderating effect of your friendship.”
“We are pretty awesome,” Kyle added.
“For what it’s worth, I think you’d only use your super villain powers to go after other bad guys,” Nia said, patting Kira on the arm.
“Thanks, I think?” Kira gave the group a quizzical look. “Anyway, since I am a Guard officer, and not those strange alternate reality versions of me, we’ll be working within the official channels to take care of the Trols.”
“Which means… more waiting?” Nia asked.
“For now, but not much longer,” Kira told them. “We have a constrained timeline, so I expect we’ll be heading out within the day.”
Ari’s eyed narrowed. “Constrained by what?”
“Less than four days until the planets are aligned,” Kira muttered.
Kyle exchanged glances with the others. “Wait, planetary alignment? With the bio-amplifier.”
Kira gave him a reassuring smile she didn’t quite believe in. “Nothing to worry about.”
He frowned. “Isn’t that kind of a poor design, needing planets to align? It’s incredibly rare for everything to sync up.”
“I mean, it’s planets we’re talking about here, so the scale for what you’d consider a straight line is a little arbitrary. The timeline is fuzz,” Kira said. “Point is, we want to act before the Trols do.”
Her team still looked uneasy, but they nodded.
“Take care of any business around here that you need to,” she advised. “We may be deploying on short notice.”
“Aye,” they acknowledged in unison.
“I’ll be in touch as soon as I have instructions.” She gave them a parting nod and headed into the hallway.
Kira replied.
Her stomach rumbled.
Kira rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, Kira had a better appreciation for what Leon contended with in the lab on a daily basis.
The revelation caught Kira by surprise.
Jasmine said.
Kira thought back to her encounter with Reya on Mysar. The alien had her cornered, but Kira regained control when she transformed into a Robus. Yet she retained that control when she shifted back to Taran.
— — —
Leon flipped through another batch of the test results that had yielded a false positive.
Jack and Tess had departed the lab for the evening, so he figured he might as well work in peace while Kira was meeting with her team.
The work felt fruitless, however. Nothing was showing up in the scans to explain why the automated review had flagged each of the records.
I really wish I knew what was going on so I could fix it.
He was about to dismiss the final record when something caught his eye. The person in question had been involved in the op three years prior when Nox entered Colonel Kaen—an event codenamed ‘Starfall’.
Curious, Leon went back through the records of the people he’d already cleared.
“Well, shite.” All of them had been involved in Operation Starfall.
But there was nothing biologically different about them. What might the trigger be? And why that mission?
He couldn’t find any explanation in the mission logs—those publicly available to him, anyway.
All the same, it was the only lead he had. With no other recourse, he sent a message to Colonel Kaen with the find. If anyone could offer further insight, it would be him.
— — —
Kaen drummed his fingers on the desktop while he thought through the best way to approach the TSS about a joint op.
On the surface, using the Conquest’s TK weapon sounded like overkill. He knew it wasn’t—not for nanoscopic beings whose tolerance for environmental conditions was unknown.
If we’re going to destroy them, we need to vaporize the whole planet.
His thoughts were interrupted by a notification chirp, and a message from Leon popped up:
>>Sir, Operation Starfall three years ago, when Nox found you… all the people whose results are getting flagged by our automated checks were on that op. Can you think of any explanation?<<
Kaen froze in his chair. He hadn’t wanted to think about that op, when so many had lost their lives. But knowing what he did now, he quickly realized exactly what must be causing the flags in Leon’s test.
He initiated a video call with the scientist.
Leon was in his lab and picked up right away. “Sir, thank you for getting back to me so quickly.”
Kaen nodded. “I should have seen the connection before.” He looked down, taking a deep breath. He brought his gaze upward again. “The enemy used a biological weapon on us—an airborne toxin that attacked soft tissues. We lost a dozen soldiers before we were able to figure out what was going on. We needed to synthesize an antidote, and the most accessible lab with sufficient facilities was on a ship belonging to MTech.”
“Surprise, surprise.” Leon shook his head.
“The materials that were used as the base of the antidote were extracted from the plant life on Valta.”
“It must have been based on some of MTech’s earlier research into the planet’s unique properties. And now that we know there are traces of valteron throughout the biosphere…”
Kaen nodded. “Did you and Kira trigger in the automated review?”
“No, we never went through that automated system,” Leon replied. “Kira, obviously, is different; I didn’t even bother to test her. Jack did a manual review of me earlier.”
“Run yourself through the automation. If that triggers it, you’ll have your answer.”
Leon nodded pensively. “What about the soldiers who helped with the raid of the MTech lab?”
“They never ingested anything on the planet,” Kaen replied. “We brought our own rations.”
“That explains it.” Leon nodded. “Thank you for the additional insights, sir. I’ll look into this.”
“Good work. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Kaen ended the call. At least we’re one step closer to solving one of our mysteries.
The next order of business wasn’t a mystery, but rather a matter with a clear solution. After the ambiguity of the past two weeks, Kaen was happy to have a problem he could shoot to make it go away.
Now all he had to do was get the proper weapon.
With his thoughts as ordered as they’d ever be, Kaen called General Lucian—his best chance of getting what he needed. While an in-person plea would have been preferable, he was presently away from headquarters, and he couldn’t delay submitting the request.
General Lucian answered the call after twenty seconds. “Colonel Kaen, I’m surprised to hear from you.”
“It’s been an eventful few days, sir.”
He filled him in on the developments since they’d last spoken.
“That’s quite a mess,” he said when Kaen had finished.
“After talking through the options, my recommendation is to destroy the dwarf planet in Gaelon,” Kaen stated.
“I agree with that approach. These beings pose too great of a threat to be left unchecked.”
Kaen nodded. “I don’t think anything we have in the Guard arsenal is sufficient for the task, sir.”
General Lucian leaned back in his chair and sighed. “What did you have in mind?”
“The TK weapon on the TSS Conquest.”
“Did someone put you up to this?” the general demanded.
Kaen titled his head. “Sir?”
Lucian sighed. “I had a personal run-in with that ship about three years back.”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” Kaen lied. He’d heard unconfirmed rumors that General Lucian had had a tense encounter with a senior TSS Agent during the conflict surrounding the Priesthood’s transition from power. Word had it that he’d pissed off the wrong person, and the command of Orion Station was a way of putting him out to pasture before retirement. Based on the general’s reaction, Kaen suspected there was some truth to the rumors.
“We’ve always made a point of keeping Guard operations separate from the TSS,” Lucian stated.
“Part of the Guard’s effectiveness is recognizing the proper tool for the job. In this case, I believe the thoroughness of the TK weapon is most appropriate.”
“It’s not the ship that gives me pause, but rather it’s likely captain.” Lucian shook his head. “I’ll reach out to the TSS High Commander to see if they’ll be able to assist.”
CHAPTER 17
Ellen hadn’t been frightened many times in her life. As she thought about the alien beings lurking just outside the city, however, it took all of her willpower to keep from giving into the terror.
I’m suppose
d to be the rational advisor here. I can’t give up. She took a few minutes alone in her office to settle her nerves. As she stared out of the window at the city below, she was reminded of the people she had sworn to protect.
She took one more slow, steady breath and released it. “I can do this,” she whispered to herself.
As calm as she was going to get, Ellen stepped over to her desk to send a summons to Trisha and Fiona.
The two women arrived at Ellen’s office a minute later, their faces drawn with concern.
“What’s going on?” Fiona asked. “You’ve been acting strangely since that meeting with Edgar.”
Ellen motioned for them to close the door, and they complied.
“We’re in danger. The aliens are still on Mysar,” she explained as soon as her associates had taken a seat across from her.
“But Hale die—” Trisha began.
“I’ve spoken with trusted friends in the Guard and learned that the alien consciousness lives in pits, just like that one in the valley that Edgar told us about.”
Fiona paled. “If that’s nearby, then…”
“Reya had somewhere to escape to after leaving Hale,” Ellen confirmed with a nod. “We need to assume that the aliens will take an offensive stance.”
“Try to take people over again?” Fiona asked.
“Maybe. Or an attack,” Ellen said, wishing she knew.
“Mysar has more of a military than Elusia, but we’re not that well-armed,” Trisha replied. “And certainly not prepared for a telepathic assault.”
Ellen tossed her hands in the air. “Short of a planetary evacuation, which isn’t close to realistic, the best advice I can offer is to have everyone stay in their homes. The fewer people we have congregated in one place, like all the workers in Dome 1, the less likely it will be for the aliens to hit everyone at once.”
Trisha’s eyes bugged out. “Stars! You don’t think they’d really—”
“Everything I’ve heard suggests that these beings feed on pain and trauma. If they want to get stronger, they’ll do whatever it takes to survive.”