Absolution: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 2)

by Jonathan Yanez

  I made my way to the pod where Commander Shaw was staying. I knocked on the door preparing to act as casual as possible.

  Commander Shaw opened the door on the second knock. He looked better. His cough was gone at least.

  “Thought I’d bring you something hot to drink,” I said offering him one of the cups. “I know caf always helps me.”

  “Thank you,” Commander Shaw said with a sincere smile. “I’ll be fine. I think I just caught a bug that’s been going around the Vault.”

  While we spoke, I saw X busy at work. Commander Shaw’s body flashed green. I could see his bones and organs for the briefest of moments.

  “Done,” X said in my head. There was a definite halt in her tone.

  “Right. Well, rest up,” I said as I moved away from the door, eager to see what X had found.

  “Daniel?”

  Something about the commander’s voice made me freeze.

  Did he know he had just been scanned? I thought to myself as I turned. No way. How could he have known that?

  “You’re a good man whether you know that or not,” Commander Shaw told me. “I don’t know who you were before, but right now, you’re on the right path. Don’t sacrifice today for a need to relive your past.”

  I didn’t really have anything to respond with. I just nodded.

  Commander Shaw did the same then closed his door.

  “What do we got, X?” I asked as I hurried back to the kitchen-living space hybrid area. “Did you find anything?”

  “I-I don’t know what I’ve found, Daniel,” X said. Everything in her voice was wrong. In the time I had known the AI, she always had an answer. X has always been the voice of reason.

  I reached the living area that wasn’t much more than a sofa and a few chairs across from the kitchen. We were alone there and that was what I needed the most at the moment, privacy.

  “What is it?” I whispered. “What did you find?”

  “The commander,” X said with a long pause. “He’s more than a thousand years old.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I felt like I was going to have a mental breakdown. The punches just kept coming. Cyber Hunters, Skull Bearers, and mutated Krull in the Badlands and now immortality?

  That was another question I didn’t even want to think about. The revelation that I could die was a mixed bag on its own. I was actually grateful I wasn’t immortal. But if I wasn’t killed, would I live forever? Could I age?

  “You should probably sit down,” X said in a whisper. “There’s more.”

  “Of course there’s more,” I said, lowering myself into one of the cushioned seats. I took a long swallow of my hot caf. “Lay it on me, X.”

  “The commander is human as far as I can tell,” X said. “I don’t think there has been any genetic testing on him; however, his organs are having a hard time adjusting to the age of his body.”

  “Not following you at all,” I said. “Talk to me like you’re talking to a small child.”

  “I think Commander Shaw may have been in some induced sleep for a very long period of time,” X said, speaking slowly as if she were still working out the details in her own mind. “His body is having a difficult time adjusting.”

  “I’ve heard of hypersleep and being cryogenically frozen,” I said. “Do you mean something like that?”

  “Something like that,” X said. “I’ll need more time to tell you exactly. In the meantime, I can show you what I scanned.”

  An image of a completely naked Commander Shaw appeared in my vision like a hologram.

  I immediately slammed my eyes closed.

  “X, come on, I just ate,” I said, shaking my head free of the picture in my mind. “I can’t unsee that now. I mean, I’m finally not getting space-sick anymore and now this?”

  “What?” X asked. “It’s just the human anatomy.”

  “Yeah, well, you can just tell me,” I said. “I’ll believe you without all the visuals.”

  “Well, this is all theoretical, of course, but I think the commander has been kept in a sedated sleep for over a thousand years, to be awoken now,” X explained. “He’s taking whatever substance he has in those vials of his to help his body adjust.”

  “Why would he be awoken now?” I wondered out loud. “Because of the super seed, you think? Something else?”

  “I don’t know,” X answered. “The only real way to get these answers is to ask him.”

  I mulled over the idea. What would I have to lose? So the guy was super old. That didn’t mean he was working against me. Did I have anything to gain by holding on to the information and not letting on that I knew?

  “Lady and gentlemen, we’re about to experience a solar storm cutting through our hyperspace route. You’ll experience some jarring, but I assure you all is well. Find somewhere to sit down and we’ll ride this out,” Lori’s voice came over the speakers. “Here we go.”

  I drained the rest of my caf and settled.

  Apparently what Lori thought “jarring” meant actually meant being thrown around the inside of the corvette dropship like a piece of unsecured luggage. The ship rattled and rocked from side to side. At times, I was nearly thrown out of my seat despite holding on to the chair’s arms with both hands.

  “What’s going on out there?” I wondered out loud.

  Instead of sitting and doing nothing, I started making my way up the hall past the bedrooms and bathroom area and toward the pilot’s cabin.

  The walk was easier said than done. The ship continued to rattle and sway from side to side. Monica popped her head out of the restroom, as did a concerned Commander Shaw from his bedroom.

  I tried not to look at the man sideways. As far as he knew, I didn’t know a thing was wrong with him. For the time being, it was better to leave it like that, at least until I had a plan of what to do with the information.

  “I don’t think this is normal, even for a solar storm,” Monica said.

  “I agree,” Commander Shaw chimed in. “There’s an incredible light show going on outside the windows of the pods. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Together, the three of us made our way to the pilot’s cabin. Every step of the way, we braced ourselves against the wall of the hall.

  I was the first to reach the cabin and opened the door.

  Riner chanced a glance back at us in the copilot’s seat. Lori didn’t bother looking back. She stared intently out the pilot’s screens in front of her.

  I might have taken more time to read the expression on Riner’s face, but the incredible scene outside the front window captured my attention at the moment.

  A brilliant light display of yellows and oranges was being put on. A stream of light cut through our path, flowing from right to left, as if we were caught up in some kind of space current.

  It was awe-inspiring and strange at the same time.

  “I’ve never been hit with one this strong,” Lori said as she white-knuckled the helm in front of her to keep the ship on track. “The solar storm is trying to pull us out of hyperspace. With any luck, we’ll be out of it soon enough.”

  “It’s amazing,” Monica breathed. “Scary but amazing.”

  Commander Shaw didn’t say a word. He was thinking hard. If he had answers as to why this was happening, he didn’t feel like sharing with the rest of the class.

  “I’ve only seen a handful, but Lori’s right,” Riner said. “Nothing ever like this. Nothing this strong or bright.”

  “What causes these solar storms?” I asked as the ship shuddered again. “Is it natural or manmade somehow?”

  “Usually happens when another ship’s hyperspace lane comes too close to our own,” Lori explained. “But they never last this long or are this intense.”

  “So it’s like something massive just passed by us,” Riner went on to explain. “But it can’t be, since nothing exists that’s that large.”

  “Still so much about space we don’t understand.” Monica sighed.

&nbs
p; “So much about a lot we still don’t know,” I said, eyeing Commander Shaw.

  If he noticed my remark, he didn’t show it.

  With one last shudder, we were free of the solar storm. The screen in front of us went to black. Apparently, in hyperspace, there were no light shows, stars, or planets, but complete and utter darkness. The corvette dropship settled back into its normal state of travel with a sigh.

  “Well, you all better get some rest now that that’s over,” Lori said with a sigh. “We’ll be reaching Mars soon and I’m sure you have a lot of things to get done before you arrive.”

  “Right,” I said, turning to leave the cabin. Monica and the commander did the same, closing the cabin door behind us.

  I had a decision to make. One I was struggling with since I found out there was more to Commander Shaw than met the eye. I could just watch his movements and carry on like there was nothing wrong or I could confront him here and now to get some answers.

  “I’m turning in,” Monica said with a yawn. “I’m going to grab as much sleep as I can. Something tells me that once we reach Mars, there won’t be a lot of downtime.”

  “Smart move,” Commander Shaw said. “I plan on doing the same. We’ll convene an hour before landing to go over the plan and change into clothes more befitting a corvette of traveling business people.”

  I just nodded and moved on to my own pod. I wanted to watch the commander for a bit longer. So he was old. It didn’t mean he was guilty of anything. Maybe it was better I didn’t tip my hand just yet.

  Instead of calling him out, I went to my own pod and closed the door behind me. I fell asleep reading the notepad filled with my old life that Sam had given me. I read about past missions, a pet the members of the Pack had apparently adopted, and my Amber.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I woke to a knocking at my door. I couldn’t be sure how long I had slept, but it felt like I had just closed my eyes.

  “Daniel, we’re meeting in the kitchen area in twenty minutes to go over the plan,” Monica said through the door. “Are you awake?”

  “I’m up,” I said, rubbing the crust out of my eyes. “I’m up.”

  “Okay, I’ll get a cup of caf on for you,” Monica replied.

  “Thanks,” I said, lying in bed and looking up at the dark ceiling.

  I had fallen asleep on my back. The notebook Sam gave me rested open on my chest. Reading the book hadn’t provided any flashbacks or déjà vu moments like I’d hoped. Not even a rogue dream disguised as a memory visited my sleep.

  Reading the book was like reading events that happened to someone else altogether. Sam was detailed on missions we went on, what life was like, and the other members of the Pack. I might as well have been reading about strangers.

  I closed the notebook, tucking it away in my back pocket. Besides my MK II, it was probably my only other valuable possession. I didn’t think of X as belonging to me or a possession. She was more of a partner and friend.

  I left my pod, making my way to the kitchen where food and caf waited. Commander Shaw and Monica were already there. The commander sat down on a couch with a holo display in front of him. The small cylinder-shaped viewer projected a light blue hologram a meter into the air.

  “Daniel.” Commander Shaw nodded in my direction.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “If you two are ready, we can talk about the plan in place.” Commander Shaw motioned to the hologram. “It’s simple, but we can be sure something will go wrong. No mission ever goes to plan. When we are off the planned path, we’ll adjust as needed and we’ll see this through.”

  I decided to remain standing.

  Monica handed me my promised caf and a plate of food before taking a seat.

  The food was simple, some kind of man-grown grain with water milk in it. It was energy and didn’t taste half bad. I powered it down as I listened to the commander’s plan.

  “Our IDs have us as sellers coming in from Earth after a scavenging mission,” Commander Shaw explained. “Monica will be the key point of contact while Daniel acts as our security detail. Lori and Riner will stay on the ship. Once we reach the checkpoint, there will be a heavy Galactic Government presence and that should be fine. We have nothing to worry about. Our intel is good, our credentials will check out.”

  Commander Shaw paused here. He pressed a button on the hologram display, first showing the landing dock on Mars and then sliding to a one-story building in the heart of the city of Elysium. I knew it was Elysium because a small name of the city appeared right underneath the building.

  “There’ll be a car waiting for us that we’ll take to our safe house where our Phoenix contacts will be waiting for us,” Commander Shaw went on to explain. “We hit the Immortal Corp facility tomorrow night. We’ll retrace our steps with Professor Warden in tow and be off.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” I said. “Did you get anything else out of Echo before you left? I, mean did you try and go back into his mind after I did?”

  “We have plans to try again, but Doctor Bartelbee has informed us that the process should be used sparingly, as with each continued delve into Echo’s mind, we risk there being permanent damage,” Commander Shaw said. “We’re going to give him some time to recover before going in again.”

  “We have disguises too,” Monica said, turning the conversation back to our current mission. She went over to a narrow closet door set beside the living area. She pushed the panel, opening the closet, and revealed three garment bags on hangers. “Let’s get dressed and we can reconvene.”

  “Agreed,” Commander Shaw said, looking over at me. “You’ll be the only one with a weapon. I was able to secure a weapons permit for you to carry that MK II. Makes sense since your disguise is our security, but I don’t know how the Galactic Government is going to feel about that extended drum.”

  “I’ll take a charge pack with me and stow the drum,” I said.

  “Sounds good,” Commander Shaw nodded.

  We dispersed to our own pods to dress. It turns out I didn’t look half bad in a suit. The fabric actually felt nice. I had been given black dress shoes and matching black slacks, coat, and tie. The white shirt under the coat was a perfect fit, even around my neck and arms. Whoever had been in charge of preparing our disguises was a real pro.

  In my jacket pocket was a chip card that carried my information. On the card, it read Frank Wolffe. As good as any alias, I guessed.

  “This is your captain speaking,” Lori’s voice came over the speakers. “We’ll be making our descent to Mars in a few minutes. Might get a little bumpy, but weather is good and there’s no solar storms in sight.”

  I had memories of Mars from Echo’s head, but I wanted to see it for myself. I sat on my bed in the small pod and lifted the window shade. The window was about two meters long and a single meter high.

  I had to crane my neck to see our trajectory toward Mars, but everything I saw brought a sense of wonder with it. I felt more like a kid at an amusement park than a grown man heading for a landing.

  Mars was unlike anything I had ever seen. Not like the cramped metropolitan area of the moon or the vast desolate landscape of Earth. Mars was wide open and free with life.

  We were much too high up to make out any sign of actual human life, but buildings started to take shape below. Other aircrafts and ships dotted the space around Mars.

  Like the expert she was, Lori took us on a descent that made a smooth transition from space into the atmosphere. Mars wasn’t as large as Earth, but it was a whole heck of a lot larger than the moon.

  I’d never seen so many different kinds of crafts as we made our way through the Martian sky toward the hangar.

  On the moon, we were relegated to pretty much dropships controlled by the Galactic Government or massive freighters with supplies. Every once in a while, we’d get a private ship on business, but that was on very rare occasions.

  Here in the skies over Mars, there were sleek streamlined craf
ts made for pleasure, other bulkier ships I could only guess at, and small Galactic Government patrol crafts we didn’t have on the moon.

  “I just received permission to land,” Lori said over the speakers. “Just a heads-up: the craft will be inspected as soon as we touch down.”

  I understood everything Lori wasn’t saying. I reached for the notebook Sam gave me and stuffed it into my jacket pocket. I grabbed my MK II, removing the drum.

  I left my room, wondering if Monica or the commander had the foresight to bring along a few extra charge packs for the weapon.

  Monica ran into me on the way out of my room.

  Actually, the ship came to a hard touchdown. She more fell into my chest than anything else.

  “Oh, wow. Sorry, Daniel,” Monica said, placing a hand on my stomach for support. “Wow, you haven’t been slacking on those gym days, huh? Wait, how do you eat like you do and still have a flat stomach? That doesn’t seem fair.”

  “I think my body runs through calories to heal myself, using up anything extra I put in,” I said, helping to right her. “On the downside, I’m always hungry.”

  “You and me both.” Monica grinned, handing me a pair of charge packs for my weapon. “Since you have to leave the drum to the MK II on board, once we get to the safe house, I can have another made for you.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” I said, accepting the charge packs. I tried not to look at Monica with anything other than the eyes of a colleague. At the moment, it was difficult.

  Like me, she had changed into a business suit with a tight skirt, high heels, and a low-cut blouse. A brown jacket completed her attire. Her hair was up, pinned on her head.

  “You two ready to go?” Commander Shaw asked as we turned to see him. “I’ll do the talking. Just play it cool.”

  The commander looked smart in his navy blue suit. His hair was combed to the side. The long white beard that hung from his chin made him look as professional as it did trendy. He didn’t cough this time, but he drained another vial of liquid from his pocket.