Star Splinter

by J G Cressey

  Kaia let out a long breath. “Well, it better fool them. If we don’t manage to disable that signal…” She shook her head. “There’s so many unknown elements.”

  Cal silently agreed. It was most definitely the riskiest part of the plan but also the most crucial. Moving around the synthetic alien, he peered closely the black lump attached to the back of its neck. “The Insidion looks real too: suitably slug-like.”

  Kaia frowned. “To be honest, both the Carcarrion and the Insidion looked pretty awful before you all arrived on the scene. Constructing the chassis was fairly easy. It’s just bigger than the norm. The equipment down in the tech lab practically built it for me. The musculature and the flesh though…my attempts were pretty laughable. It wouldn’t have even gotten close to the Insidion vessel let alone inside it. Fortunately, your young friend Viktor is nothing short of a genius. He’s been working nonstop on it since I told him what I had planned.”

  Still staring at the synthetic Carcarrion, Cal nodded in agreement. “He’s a good lad. Brave too.”

  ”He’d have to be to hang around with you lot,” she said with a brief laugh. “He’s also upgraded the cloaking technology on the Star Splinter with a ghosting net system. It’ll be as undetectable as The Orillian.”

  “I must say, Kaia, this really is pretty damn impressive considering the amount of time you’ve had.”

  “I just hope I’m not missing anything.”

  Cal shook his head. “Even the best-laid plans have weak points. If problems arise, we’ll adapt. There’s only so much planning you can do. The rest is left to chance.” He shot her his best lopsided grin. “Don’t worry; we’ll pull it off.”

  “I hope so. I can’t stop thinking about all those people held captive. It looked like hell down on that planet, Cal. Even if we can only save some of them, we’ve got to do it, right?” Kaia looked at him with an expression that longed for reassurance.

  “We’re doing the right thing, and the sooner we do it, the better.” His words were full of confidence that he didn’t really feel. But Kaia needed and deserved the reassurance. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to take her in his arms, but then, in all honesty, he’d been wanting to do that since he’d seen her emerge from that pool.

  Seeing her relax a little, he turned to the crates. “Quite the collection.”

  “Yes, we had a few guns on board, but the majority I salvaged from one of the drifting starships. It was pretty spooky, Cal, walking around on a completely empty ship of that size, especially when all the lights and equipment had been left on. Imagine just leaving them to drift among the moons like junk. It’s as if they’re collecting them, like some damn hobby.”

  Cal nodded. “Or trophies.”

  “Cocky bastards,” Kaia said angrily.

  Cal turned to her with raised eyebrows and a grin. “Cocky bastards?”

  Her anger quickly dissipated. “Sorry, just venting,” she said with an embarrassed smile. “It’s frustrating though. If only they’d invaded us twenty years down the line, ten even, then they’d have had far less reason to be cocky. We’ve got some incredible technology here, stuff that would have given us the chance to put up one hell of a fight. The Orillian’s ghosting net alone has proved that, not to mention all the new biological agents we’ve discovered on Alvor. We just needed more time. Time to implement all this stuff into our military.”

  Cal put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. The fight hasn’t even begun yet. If we—when we—pull off your plan, that will be the start. These Insidions are going to find out a thing or two about guerrilla warfare. And I wouldn’t worry about their cockiness. It’s a blessing. From everything you’ve told me, it’s because of their arrogance that you’ve already found a way in. They’re overconfident; they’ve left gaps wide open.” Cal turned and looked over to the thousands of syringes lying neatly in the racks. “The Alvorian serum you told us about?” he asked, nodding at the racks.

  Kaia’s face brightened. “Inside every single syringe.”

  Cal stared at the multitude of little, bright green tubes. This is what he’d been itching to see. This was the part of Kaia’s plan that had kept him most intrigued through the night. As they made their way over, he could see pride in her expression. Unlike the clunky weaponry in the crates, the contents of these syringes well and truly fell within her area of expertise. This was her arena.

  “It’s known as Xn-4283-p61.”

  “Huh.”

  Kaia smiled “One of technicians began calling it Xcel, so maybe we’re better off sticking to that. It’s extracted from one of Alvor’s deep sea algaes.”

  “It’ll make us stronger?”

  “And faster. You’ll heal far more rapidly too.”

  “Sounds…well, it sounds pretty damn wonderful.”

  Kaia smiled again, and Cal didn’t miss the mischievous glint in her eye. Every new expression only made him want her more.

  “You want to try one?”

  Cal shrugged, hit by a wave of unexpected nerves. “Now?”

  “Of course.”

  He shrugged again, trying to look calm. “Why not?”

  Kaia nodded her approval and, not giving him a chance to change his mind, plucked one of the syringes from the nearest rack and passed it to him.

  “How long does it take to kick in?” he asked even though he already knew the answer. He’d seen Kaia use it only moments after he first laid his eyes on her in the lab.

  “It’s fairly instant. Then, the effects will eventually start to fade after about three or four hours.”

  “That long?” He held the little glass tube up to the light. “It’s um… It’s an interesting color,” he said, still attempting to look and sound nonchalant.

  “It’s okay, Cal. It won’t hurt, and it certainly won’t do you any harm. Quite the opposite in fact.”

  Cal laughed.

  “What’s funny?”

  “Nothing.” he answered with a shake of his head. “It’s just that you seem to be able to see straight through my bravado. I’m usually pretty good at hiding my nerves.”

  Kaia’s lips curled in amusement. “Don’t worry. Your record’s still intact. It was more of an educated guess. The stuff is bright green. Who the hell wouldn’t be nervous?”

  Cal twiddled the syringe in one hand and used the other to rub his jaw. “I still remember those damn muscle stim drugs they made us test in the military. I thought I was going to explode with adrenalin overload. To be honest, I wasn’t overly keen on the experience.”

  Kaia shook her head. “Those stims relied on sloppy science, Cal. They concentrated only on the effects without a moment’s thought for the consequences. I can assure you, there’s nothing that your body will benefit from more than the liquid in these syringes.”

  “Something like the black pool?”

  “Consider it a close relation, a kind of bigger brother.”

  “Okay. I’m sold.” Taking a deep breath, he put the syringe against his neck then took another breath and pressed the button.

  The effect was immediate.

  A warmth spread out from the injection point and suffused through his entire body, seeping into every muscle. Pure, liquid energy. He grinned uncontrollably, and as the warmth faded, he felt his head become clearer than it had been his entire life. His thinking suddenly felt sharper and more focused, all mental debris purged. “My God… This is incredible.” He looked at Kaia wide-eyed, feeling sure his grin must be stretching from ear to ear. It felt as though his body were a solar-powered machine that had been moved from a lifetime under cloud into dazzling sunshine.

  Kaia was beaming back at him, her eyes full of knowing.

  Looking down, he experimentally began to move his arms and legs. Every muscle felt relaxed but at the same time spring loaded. Charged up. He looked at his hand and wiggled his fingers then clenched his fist, feeling incredible power within the grip. It was as if his tendons were enhanced by cybernetics. “I feel like I could lift a horse!”r />
  Kaia laughed, obviously amused by the look on his face. “You probably could! That crate full of guns looks pretty heavy, wouldn’t you say?” she said, indicating the crate to his left.

  Cal grinned and moved over to the nearest corner of the container. It was at least three square meters and, with the amount of weapons loaded in it, probably weighed a good eight or nine hundred pounds. Feeling like a little kid trying out a pair of hover boots for the first time, he grasped the corner and couldn’t help but laugh out loud as he easily tilted the huge box.

  “I’d say that right now, your strength isn’t all that far off that of a fully grown male Carcarrion, and you’re possibly a touch faster.”

  “That’s good to know,” he replied as he slowly lowered the crate to the floor.

  Kaia shook her head. “Of course, Carcarrions have lethal claws, and their flesh and skin is a hell of a lot tougher. Unless you had a weapon, I’m afraid my money would still be on them if it came to a fist fight.”

  “Well, let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.”

  “Also, be aware that your body can be a little too fragile for its newfound strength. The Xcel serum does seem to toughen up the skin and harden the bones after long-term use, but you can still do yourself damage. For instance, you’ll now have the strength to crush certain hard objects in your hand, but your skin and flesh wouldn’t enjoy the experience.”

  “I see your point.”

  “That caution motto of yours might be worth remembering,” she said, her mischievous glint returning.

  God, she’s beautiful.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I um…how long can I hold my breath?”

  She gave a little laugh. “Long enough to dive to the bottom of the healing pool for a time.”

  He nodded, and an image of her pale face and swirling hair surrounded by blackness flashed through his mind. A dream? Their eyes met and lingered. We’re having a moment, he thought, feeling a little mesmerised by the blue of her eyes and the curve of her smile. He’d known beautiful women in his time, but there was much more to this attraction. A blend of emotions unlike any he’d experienced before.

  Eventually, those beautiful eyes looked down, and Kaia’s smile became almost shy.

  Definitely a moment.

  Suddenly feeling a little shy himself, Cal looked about the hangar.

  “Now what are you thinking?”

  Cal laughed. “Haven’t you found a serum to help you read minds?”

  “Not yet, but you never know.”

  He continued to look about the hanger. “I was actually trying to think of a good way of testing this speed that you mentioned.”

  “Oh. I could help with that,” Kaia said and plucked out another syringe from the rack. Pressing it to her neck, she gave him another mischievous look as the bright green liquid disappeared from the tiny glass tube. “Think you can catch me?” she asked and barely gave him a chance to laugh before spinning on the spot and vaulting easily over one of the weaponry crates to run towards the hangar’s exit.

  Deciding to leave the crate vaulting until he’d gotten a little more used to his newfound strength, Cal skirted around it and took off at a speed that threatened to make the ridiculous grin on his face a permanent feature.

  Part Four:

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  C9

  Cal stood alone in the center of The Orillian’s observation deck. Lost in thought, he twiddled a control wand between his fingers and stared through the huge exterior viewing panel that stretched out a good twenty-five feet to his left and right. Directly in the center of that viewing panel, and amid the array of distant stars was the Carcarrion planet of C9. Despite the effectiveness of The Orillian’s ghosting net systems, he and Kaia had decided not to get any closer than necessary, and from this distance, the planet appeared little more than a blip.

  Just as he had every day for the last week, Cal raised the control wand and activated the zoom capabilities of the smart-glass until the planet filled the viewing panel. The planet was a black orb broken up by veins of red magma and streaks of gray ash cloud. Its tectonic plates were in a constant, extreme state of convergence and divergence, resulting in an extremely unstable planet. The only vegetation that managed to thrive was a thick, vine-like plant that tightly wound its way around the entire landscape as if desperately holding it together. There were also huge oceans made fierce by the earthquakes and as dark as the rocks they pounded against.

  Cal manipulated the control wand and brought up a view of the planet’s moon cluster. Zooming in further still, he focused on the collection of drifting military starships. Kaia was right in her estimations: The ships seen here only represented about a third of what had once been the Federation’s military fleet. Cal could only speculate as to what had happened to the rest. Perhaps in a similar state, drifting aimlessly around some other conquered planet.

  He focused in on the starship that Kaia had chosen to execute the plan. All appeared normal. It was distressing that only one of the ships would be needed to transport the surviving prisoners. The numbers within the camp were only a fraction of those that would have once crewed that portion of the fleet. It seemed only the very strongest had survived. Or perhaps the enemy was simply killing at random. Such thoughts only served to strengthen Cal’s resolve that time was of the essence.

  Bringing up the view of the planet surface, he activated the preset close-up of the prison camp. True to historical form, the invaders hadn’t been satisfied keeping their prisoners idle. The expanse of black rock within the boundaries of the camp’s force field had been turned into a mine of sorts. Cal didn’t imagine for a second that these Insidions needed humans armed with crude, handheld machinery to excavate the rock; such work could be done in a fraction of the time with basic mining drones. Subjecting them to such unnecessary slave labor was more evidence that these alien invaders were sadistic to their core. Fear and despair were effective weapons, and it seemed the Insidions knew it only too well. The fact that they’d begun their invasion by destroying an entire planet only served to strengthen this theory. Perhaps the disabling of long-range communications was further proof, a calculated decision that caused fearful rumors to escalate and inevitable chaos to ensue.

  Cal studied the image. Though it wasn’t easy to see from this birds-eye view, every one of the prisoners appeared strong and able. He allowed himself a humorless smile. When the time came, those men and women would get the opportunity to put up one hell of a fight, a fight they’d been denied when the enemy had disabled their weapons. Despite his anxieties, he couldn’t help but look forward to that part of the plan.

  Shifting the view, Cal homed in on the Insidion base. Five huge, gleaming blocks sat in a circular pattern upon the dark landscape. When Kaia had last viewed the planet, those blocks had made up one monstrous vessel, quite possibly the very one that had destroyed Earth. Now, that vessel had broken apart, perhaps to make a more effective base, the circumference of which dwarfed even the prison camp. There was a pale line connecting the two. It was a massive conveyor belt, ten times wider than the average hover track, which was slowly transporting cut rock into the center of the alien’s base. Once there, unmanned machines were manipulating it further and constructing structures. Cal peered at the image. Were they buildings? Were the invaders building a home?

  “Hey, that’s a good look for you, Calie boy.”

  Cal used the control wand to brighten the overhead lighting and turned to see Toker, Eddy, and Jumper entering the observation deck via an elevator that had emerged from the ceiling. The three of them had been loading the multitude of crates containing handheld weapons into the Star Splinter’s cargo hold. He shot them a grin, which they probably couldn’t even see under the big, shaggy beard he had seamlessly stuck to his chin. Kaia and Viktor had somehow managed to make the beard in the lab. He didn’t like to think what materials they’d used. He was also wearing a military uniform salvaged from one of the starshi
ps. He’d made good use of the rock dust and dirt samples in the biology lab to make the uniform suitably filthy before proceeding to tear it ragged.

  “Think it’ll do the job?” he asked, holding his arms out and doing a three-sixty turn.

  “You look like crap,” Eddy said, wrinkling up her nose. The girl’s mood still hadn’t improved.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Toker nodded. “Yep, reckon you’ll blend right in.”

  “Um… I’m not so sure,” Jumper said, frowning as he approached. “The beard’s nice and bushy, but it really is pretty damn filthy in that prison camp.”

  “You don’t think I’ve made it dirty enough?” Cal asked, looking down at himself.

  “Sure, the uniform’s dirty enough, but um…” Jumper rubbed his fingers into a particularly heavy patch of grimy, black rock dust on Cal’s shoulder and smeared it across his face. “There. Perfect.”

  Eddy interrupted her bad mood with a quick snort of a laugh.

  “Nice touch, J man,” Toker said, walking over and giving Jumper a slap on the shoulder. “So the doc and her little skinny sidekick are all ready for you up there, Cal. You really sure you wanna risk it?”

  “It’s not too late to go with the synthetic Carcarrion option.” Jumper added.

  Cal shook his head. “Those people down there need a face they can trust, one without fangs.” He had run through Kaia’s plan countless times in his head and, despite a few weak spots, couldn’t fault it. All of those weak spots were unavoidable except perhaps one. To set the plan in motion, contact had to be made with the prisoners, their trust gained and their cooperation agreed. Kaia’s original plan had been to send down the cybernetic Carcarrion and use it to infiltrate the camp unnoticed. The body of the Infiltrator could be controlled within a specially designed sync sphere on board The Orillian and used as an avatar to communicate with the prisoners. Cal was unconvinced, however, that they would give their full trust to one who looked exactly like their captors. Explaining the situation and convincing them would take a great deal of time, and the more time they took, the more likely they’d be discovered. Also, he wasn’t keen to risk the infiltrator; they were going to need it later in the plan. After a fair amount of discussion and reluctance, he’d convinced them that venturing into the camp himself was a better option.