Discovery

by Craig Martelle

Char stretched her shoulders and her back, then squatted next to Terry and got a grip. “Remember, lift with your legs.” She winked.

  “On two. One. Two.” Together they surged, and the slab moved with their effort. After they lifted it above their knees, Terry grunted. “I don’t think I can hold it for you to take a look.”

  “And we can’t push it forward because we’ll fall in the hole,” Char managed through the labor of holding the slab.

  “Move sideways, your direction. We’ll slide it off.”

  Char immediately started shuffling her feet, keeping the lateral strain from her knees. Terry pushed her way.

  “Letting go on one,” Char gritted out. Terry nodded, but she didn’t see. “One.”

  She pushed the slab away from her and jumped back, but Terry was a millisecond too late, and he started to go down. He let go and fell face-first onto the slab before rolling into the hole.

  Chapter Three

  The War Axe, Keeg Station, Dren Cluster

  “What do you think of this?” Kai asked. Christina sighed.

  “You know Terry Henry. If we fuck this up, he’ll have our asses. We’ll be scrubbing the hull of the War Axe using nothing but our toothbrushes,” Christina muttered.

  “What’s the big deal? If he doesn’t like them, we can change.”

  “The big deal is that there will be video and images across the galaxy of the Bad Company on parade. We’ve never done that before. If we embarrass him, we’ll never hear the last of it.”

  “How about this?” Kai brought up an image from the old Earth archive. “It says Marine Corps Officers’ Mess Dress. Isn’t that what we want?” The image showed a coat that was dark blue to the point of being black. A red cummerbund sat atop a white shirt. The coat was buttoned at the top and spread open toward the trousers, which had a scarlet and gold stripe from belt to shoe along the outside.

  “That looks like it was made for old men with growing mid-sections, but look here. This is a dress uniform, too.” Christina pointed at an image of a jacket with gold buttons that was dark with red piping. Dark blue trousers with the same stripe completed the outfit.

  “How in the holy hell is that going to look on an Ixtali? Or better yet, a Podder?”

  “A Yollin?” Christina snickered at the thoughts. “That’s the one we’re going with. Get everyone in here to get fitted.”

  “You get them here, Colonel,” Kai shot back. “I’m a simple civilian, little more than an indentured servant.”

  “Sucks being the boss’ grandson? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “There are perks,” he said softly as he made eyes at the Were.

  “If you weren’t so damn good-looking, I might put you in your place. Until then, my husky hunk of man candy, you prepare the process, and I’ll bring the grist to your mill.”

  With a quick peck on the cheek, Christina stood up and walked away. Her eyes unfocused as she used the comm chip implanted in her head to send the message to all hands. All members of the Bad Company are recalled. We have a mission that requires two weeks of training, and we have six days to make that happen. Those warriors currently on the War Axe, report to the hangar deck immediately...

  Okkoto, the Fourth Moon Orbiting Cygnus VI

  Terry curled into a ball as he fell and groaned when he hit after less than a heartbeat of falling. He looked up; it was only five meters to the opening. Char’s head appeared.

  “I’m fine,” Terry said too quickly, wincing as he stood. A rib was out of place, and he twisted until it snapped back to where it was supposed to be. His stomach muscles spasmed with the pain before the nanocytes provided the relief of rapid healing. “No, really.”

  “Throw me your rope,” she told him, ignoring his defensiveness about how badly he’d been hurt.

  He tossed it up and then shined his flashlight, which had survived the short fall and impact without any issue. Landing on it had left a dent in Terry’s body, but not the flashlight.

  He was standing on a metal barrier that could have been the top of an elevator car. A rope slapped down before Char landed next to him, her knees flexed to absorb the impact of the jump.

  Terry looked at the rope.

  “For climbing out.” She knelt to look closer at the metal. “Elevator?”

  “My thoughts exactly. Is this an escape hatch?” A hair-thin outline was visible once Terry had brushed away the dust with the toe of his boot.

  Char leaned close, and with her fingers, whisked the area clean. She cleared an obstruction from the side and pulled out a release lever. “Shall we?” she asked, using Terry’s phrase.

  “Please do,” Terry replied.

  Char twisted the handle and it popped, releasing a cloud of gas. Char jumped to her feet. Terry caught her and shoved her against the wall, putting his body between her and the trap door.

  Nothing else happened.

  Terry took a breath. “Smells like stale air.”

  He moved to the opening, which was large enough for him to pass through, and shined his light down.

  “Not sure what I’m looking at.”

  Char laid down next to him and peered inside.

  The contraption jerked and started to drop, and they held each other to keep from falling through the hole. They accelerated as they descended. A door slammed shut over their heads, leaving them in darkness lit only by the small beam of the flashlight. Dust flitted through the air.

  Their bodies lifted off the top of the elevator as it dropped faster and faster. Terry and Char both tensed. “This is gonna hurt,” Terry managed through clenched teeth. He worked his arm under his face and Char mirrored his pose as they prepared to hit bottom.

  The War Axe, Keeg Station, Dren Cluster

  “I can’t move my head,” Gefelton complained.

  “These uniforms suck,” somebody grumbled.

  “Embrace the suck!” Kimber repeated a saying her father used at the most inappropriate times. She did a double-take. “What are you bitching about?”

  Gefelton pointed to the clasp that held the stiff high-neck collar in place, which was digging into his neck.

  “If we change that to something weaker, it’ll pop, and your collar won’t stay in place. It’s like that so you hold your head high and keep your eyes straight ahead,” Kimber explained.

  “What if we get into a fight?” he pressed.

  “No one is fighting in these uniforms.”

  “You got that right,” the second voice muttered.

  Kimber jumped onto the short counter that they’d set up to help issue the uniforms. “Crybabies, whiners, complainers, and purple-headed toads...” She glared at the group, who looked uncomfortable yet indifferent. “I don’t know where I was going with that.”

  She stopped to collect her thoughts. Someone laughed before grunting in pain.

  “Oh, yeah.” She remembered. “If you aren’t complaining, you aren’t training. If warriors aren’t complaining, they aren’t happy! So you pack of sandy buttholes must be the happiest and most effective fighting force in the whole universe.”

  Kimber used all of her self-discipline to resist pulling at her collar, which was starting to chafe, and looked down at Kai behind the counter. She couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Kai,” she said softly. “Oversize the collars so each warrior can stick four fingers between the collar and their neck. Any tighter than that and the blood will be cut off to their brains. That probably wouldn’t affect most of them, but they need to stay in step while we march in parade.

  She turned back to the warriors, shocked at her sudden concession. “Hey, you goofy bastards! We only have to tolerate these things for four hours, which means you need to be ready to wear them for eight. Turn in your jackets, square your shit away, and get back here. We start practice drill on the hangar deck in one hour.”

  Kimber jumped down as Christina appeared in the doorway.

  “We’re getting them resized a hair.” Kimber held her fingers close together to show
how minimal the alterations would be. “What are we going to do with our four-legged warriors?”

  “When Terry Henry gets back, we’ll figure out if we can do a dress uniform that will look appropriate on all our people. But for this one, they’re going to have to sit it out.”

  “They probably aren’t going to like that,” Kimber replied.

  “They are going to be the envy of everyone.” Christina nodded toward the crowd, who was happily holding their jackets in their hands, necks red or worse, rubbed raw. “I’m envious.”

  Kimber snickered as she yanked her collar open and started to rip her jacket off. “I expect you’re right. Are you coming to drill with us?”

  Okkoto, the Fourth Moon Orbiting Cygnus VI

  The elevator rose to meet them, now falling slower than Terry and Char. They pressed against the unknown metal as it decelerated significantly and finally stopped. A door within the elevator popped open.

  “Go through, or try to find a way back up?” Terry shined the light back up the shaft, which seemed to rise forever. They couldn’t tell where the door had cut them off from the surface. Everything was lost in the haze.

  Terry checked the comm device to call for the shuttle. “No joy,” he said when there was no signal. “The air looks clear in there.”

  Char followed his flashlight beam. “I don’t think the way out is up there.” She pointed and shook her head. “And before you ask, I did not set this up. We were just supposed to walk around and check out ruins. Simple, but that’s what you do on vacation—not take death-defying falls a thousand feet down an elevator shaft.”

  “You think we fell a thousand feet?”

  Char rolled her eyes.

  “I get you,” Terry conceded. “But it could have easily been five hundred. We fell a long way.”

  “I’ll go first,” Char said and was halfway through the hatch before Terry could protest. She dropped lightly to the floor and waited for her husband to follow. He landed next to her and took a step forward to block the doors with his body before shining the light down a short passage that turned sharply.

  Char walked through and stopped. Terry watched her closely.

  “A lot of energy being pulled from the Etheric down here. It’s bad,” she told him.

  “Like Benitus-Seven-vortex-to-Hell-bad or just some-heavy-machinery-with-a-few-Kurtherians bad?”

  She shook her head.

  “If those ginormous throbbing ass-munchers are down here, TH, you’d better be ready to beat them six ways till Sunday with a bent pencil,” a familiar voice said from the corridor before them. Their heads snapped to the sound.

  In a glossy black suit of form-fitting armor stood Bethany Anne, Queen of High Tortuga, one of the most powerful people known, and a vampire who could channel Etheric energy almost like magic. She watched them, mildly amused by their looks of confusion.

  Terry started to bow, but Char stopped him.

  “How did you get down here?” Char asked.

  “That is a damn good question. One minute, I’m with my kids, and the next I’m standing here listening to you two plan your next honeymoon.” Bethany Anne tapped the side of her head. “TOM? ADAM?” She exhaled as she looked around. “Great. You two fuckers picked a wonderful time to take a vacation.”

  “We weren’t planning anything,” Terry replied feebly before shaking his head and straightening up. “We need to get out of here. I think the shaft was a trap, but it’s too late for recriminations on my miscue of jumping in to check things out. We’re on Okkoto, the fourth moon circling Cygnus VI. There are the ruins of a Kurtherian city up top, but it was destroyed a long time ago in a civil war of some sort. That’s it—all we know, my Queen.”

  “Cut the Queen shit, TH,” BA snapped. “It’s BA to my friends, and you’ve known that for over a century. The questions are, what is pulling so much Etheric energy down here, and what are you two going to do about it?”

  “I thought the question was, how do we get out of here?” Terry offered before adding, “BA.”

  Char laughed softly. “There’s only one way to go. Let us take the lead.” Char stepped away, nodding as she passed the Queen. Terry followed, smiling as he went.

  “I guess if we have to be trapped five hundred feet below the surface of a moon in some Kurtherian outpost, we couldn’t have asked for better company.”

  “I could say the same thing,” BA replied tactfully, “although I think John would come in handy. He would love this shit.”

  “He punched me in the face,” Terry said gently.

  “He’s punched a lot of people in the face,” she replied as she shrugged. “Don’t take it personally.”

  “I didn’t,” Terry answered. He and Char peeked around the corner and saw a long corridor with regularly-spaced doors and frequent passages branching off. “This is going to take a while. Want to split up?”

  He turned, but BA hadn’t followed. He rushed back to the corner, but she wasn’t there either.

  “Where...” Terry started to ask. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “My dislike for this place is growing with each heartbeat.” Char scowled.

  “Did we just see Bethany Anne?” Terry asked, still confused.

  “I saw her.” Char was convinced.

  “As did I.” Terry shined his flashlight back and forth for one last look. “What was she wearing?”

  “Looked like some new battle armor. It was badass and emphasized her shape. I want some like that.”

  “I’ll put Smedley on it the second we get back. We will get back to the War Axe.”

  “If you say it, you have to make it happen.”

  Terry walked briskly to the first door and tried it, but it wouldn’t open. There was only a panel to the side, no handle. It was, after all, Kurtherian-made, and they didn’t waste time turning doorknobs.

  “You said the power is on down here?” Terry asked, still relying on his flashlight. “Lights on!”

  Nothing happened.

  “Maybe you have to say it in Kurtherian,” Char suggested.

  “I don’t speak Kurtherian.”

  “Then it appears that we’re shit out of luck. How long do you think the batteries will last?”

  “I hope it’s about forty hours.”

  “Why forty?”

  “That’s when the shuttle from Venus arrives to pick us up. I hope they look for us. Our ropes should lead them to the shaft. They can blast it open and get to us.”

  Char wasn’t so sure they would look that hard since the ruins sprawled. Or that they would be that diligent in trying to get them out. She wondered how long it would take before Christina and the War Axe came looking for them.

  No amount of pushing or pulling changed the fact that none of the doors would open.

  “I guess we have to find a different way than brute force,” Terry offered.

  “Channel your inner Ted,” Char replied.

  “I love that guy. And then there’s the rest of the time when he chaps my ass.”

  “He didn’t choose to be that way. Once you get past the all-business veneer, he is as much one of us as anyone else.”

  “I know,” Terry replied. “He’s done more for all of us than anyone else, but he’s not here, so it’s up to us.”

  “Don’t get hurt, because Cory’s not here either.”

  “Nobody’s here.”

  “Just BA and me. I’ll tell her you called both of us ‘nobody.’”

  “Hang on, hot mama, you know what I meant.” Terry eyed her suspiciously.

  “Words, TH. Use them wisely.”

  Char didn’t seem at all perturbed by the situation. Terry started to suspect that it was all a setup—the purple-eyed werewolf and the Queen conspiring to get his goat.

  Terry relaxed. “Try this corridor?” He pointed to the left. “We’ll keep taking lefts until eventually we’ve circumnavigated the entire place. I expect we’ll find a way out.”

  Char patted her pockets. “Four nutrition
bars and two liters of water.”

  “Same here,” Terry confirmed. “Forty hours’ worth and then some, if we stretch it. What did Kurtherians eat?”

  “Food?” Char shrugged. “Unless we figure out how to get these doors open, we won’t know anything.”

  “Let’s follow the corridors before we start breaking things.” Terry was starting to think of the underground as an amusement park, there for wealthy clients to live an adventure, like that old show Westworld on television.

  Terry took off at a good clip, waving a hand in front of doors as he passed. He tried them all but didn’t expect any to open. The corridor ended with a T intersection, so Terry turned left. They passed six more doors, three on each side, mirroring each other, but none opened as he passed. The corridor ended at a double door.

  “I think we can get these open,” he said over his shoulder. He jammed his fingertips against the center crease where the doors butted tightly against each other, then stood close and pulled. Terry groaned with the effort until a small gap appeared, wedged his fingers in to give himself more leverage pulling outward, and doubled his efforts. The doors popped and rocketed into the frame on each side.

  Terry’s arms went straight out to the sides, and he stumbled forward into a large room filled with various equipment. Red eyes blinked to life, and a pencil-thin laser lanced through the air and burned a hole into and through the human’s chest. Terry yowled in surprise and jumped to the side, leaving a trail of smoke from his clothes and the stench of burnt flesh.

  Char ran into the room and dove to the right. She hit and rolled, then scrambled behind a metal stanchion.

  Terry was doing the same thing on the left side of the room, but his wheezing was giving him away. The hole the laser had burned through his lung had not yet sealed. Char picked an empty flask from a table behind her, stood up, and threw it.

  The plastiglass flew straight and true and smashed into the bot’s head, and it turned and fired its laser pistol. She was already down and looking for different cover when a metal table screeched as it was pushed across the floor and rammed into the bot.

  Terry stood, lifting the table and slamming the heavy top like a pile driver into the bot’s chest frame. It arced and sparked electric blue through the metal table. Terry flew backward, bounced off a stand, and rolled to the floor. Char ran for the bot, picked up the laser weapon, and drilled a series of holes into the thing. When she was sure it was dead, she rushed to her husband, only to find him unconscious.