Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance)

by Chris J. Pike

  Just like that, General Samuel cut off the transmission and Grayson was left to wonder about him. He hadn’t asked about Lana—if she was all right or what her condition was. Did the team know, or where they going in blind?

  Grayson asked.

 

  Everything Jerrod said was true, but he was beginning to believe maybe he needed to know more. Maybe being with Kylie and her team had taught Grayson a bit more about transparency and trust than he realized. Whatever it was, he didn’t feel right about what was going on. Something was up with Samuel.

  He should share it with Kylie, but if he did, she might not want to go along with what he needed her to do. And if Grayson had to come clean about the marquee, she’d space him—or worse, skin him alive.

  His stomach grumbled, and Grayson stood and left his cramped quarters. Perhaps things would look better after a hot meal. He walked down the corridor and turned into the galley, nearly colliding with Kylie, who was carrying a steaming mug of that black tar she called coffee.

  “Everything all right?” She eyed him up and down. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Fine,” Grayson smiled. “Everything’s fine. Just feeling a little peckish.”

  “I was, too.”

  He stepped inside but glanced back at her. She had just come aboard and he hadn’t properly greeted her yet, or asked her how she was. Grayson didn’t want to make Kylie suspicious. “How are you doing? With Marge?”

  Kylie gave a brief eyeroll. “All right, I guess. It’s weird to share my headspace with someone else. I feel like I’m never really alone. You know?”

  Grayson did at that. “Don’t worry; you’ll adjust. And now you’ll always have someone to keep you company.”

  “Greeeat,” Kylie’s lips pulled together in a sarcastic display. “Like it wasn’t hard enough to think on this ship as it is.” For a split second, her eyes narrowed. “Are you sure there’s nothing you need to tell me?”

  “Nothing.” Grayson licked his upper lip. “I’m on food rotation tonight. Spiral potatoes?”

  “Sure. Why not? Some more potatoes before we get where we’re going. Maybe chocolate pudding surprise for dessert while we’re at it.”

  “Please,” Grayson groaned. “Don’t tell me what the surprise is…”

  “You don’t ask. I won’t tell.” Kylie continued her walk down the hall, and Grayson thought there was a definite bounce in her step. It was nice to be able to talk to her again. A lot of things were nice since being on the Dauntless, but Grayson had to put that out of his mind.

  A young woman’s life was at stake, and he had a job to do. Soon, Lana would be in his hands, and they would hand her off to the SSF. Stars willing, the crew of the Dauntless would survive and be agreeable.

  Stars, let the crew—Kylie especially—be willing. Grayson didn’t want to do what was expected of him if they weren’t.

  LANA

  STELLAR DATE: 08.36.8947 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Harken’s Research Facility, Perseverance

  REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

  Lana closed her eyes, but the pain raging in her head wouldn’t be quelled. With a groan, she mashed her face into the thin, white pillow they had given her, but who were they? Lana didn’t know. She had been waiting for a transport and then…then what had happened?

  She had been kidnapped. Someone snatched her as she stood on Platform 42 awaiting a shuttle that would take her out of Silstrand space forever. That would’ve shown Daddy a thing or two about her independence. School, college, it was for the birds. Lana was going to make a quick buck by doing something easy and then be set for life.

  Turned out, things didn’t always go the way you wanted. What she wanted more than anything was for Daddy to show up with his soldiers and save the day. Wasn’t that a joke? She hated his rules and now Lana wished she had followed them in the first place.

  Now, she was locked in this space-rotted room, and no one would even talk to her. Her trendy clothes had been taken and all she had were plain white pajamas. They itched, the bed sheets were rough, everything scratched.

  She peered at the sheets, they looked normal enough, why did it feel like they were tearing at her skin every time she moved? Even her eyes felt like they were made of sandpaper. Thousands of needles might as well have been poking her at all times.

  What was happening to her?

  “Help!” Lana screamed, and in response, her muscles spasmed, forcing her back into a painful arch.

  her AI, Abby, said. Another gift from Daddy so she could ace her tests and do well at the same university her mother had attended. Really handy when it came to papers and essays but less handy when it came to skipping out of class to go to parties.

 

 

  Well, that was something.

  Her body barely felt like hers anymore. Lana gritted her teeth and gripped the sheets of her mattress tight. Something in her was changing, she could feel it. Something was wrong. They told her it wouldn’t hurt her, that it wasn’t dangerous. But they lied. They really fucking lied.

  Lana squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.

  The door to her room opened, and two men rushed in. They wore lab coats, but she was sure they must’ve been hired guns because they were strong. So strong. They grabbed her arms and forced her onto her back.

  “Relax, Lana. You have to relax,” one of the men said, his voice kinder than she would have expected.

  “I want my father!” she screamed and gnashed her teeth at one of them. “You bring me my father!”

  “I’m afraid we can’t do that. I’m afraid you’re going to have to trust us. We can help him.” The kind man smiled, but Lana didn’t believe a word of it. His eyes weren’t trustworthy. There was something about him that was smarmy, just like the men who worked for her father.

  “He’ll be looking for me,” Lana whispered. “If he finds out what you’ve done…”

  “But he won’t find out, will he?” Someone else entered the room, the staccato snap of a woman’s heels a change from the men’s heavy footsteps. Lana peered around the men restraining her and caught sight of long, dark hair. She remembered the woman’s name from earlier. When they first brought her in…she remembered the woman inspecting her like a side of beef.

  What was her name?

  Harken. That was it. Harken.

  “Let me go. He’ll make you suffer!” The pain surged behind Lana’s eyes, and she felt a wave of nausea come along with it. She moaned and let her head fall back onto the rough pillowcase.

  Abby said.

  Oh, stars. They said she’d be safe. They said she could smuggle it in her body without it hurting her. Money and lies, they went hand-in-hand, right?

  Lana stifled a sob and realized those around her were still talking.

  “Have you figured out how to get it out of her yet?” Harken asked the lab techs.

  When had they arrived? It was like the room was suddenly full of people.

  “Not yet. It’s changing her faster than we thought.”

  “Sedate her, then. We can’t have her causing any trouble or hurting herself. We need to slow it down, too. We can’t have her changing completely on us.” Harken turned and left the room, not even sparing a final glance at Lana.

  One of the lab techs drew a hypospray out of her pocket, and Lana bucked and fought the two orderlies who held her down

  “Stay away from me!” She got an arm free an
d swung at one of the orderlies, but he grabbed her wrist and pinned it against her side. Two more orderlies appeared and grabbed her kicking legs. Lana was completely helpless.

  Her back arched as the cold hypospray touched the base of her neck. Warmth spread through her body and then it flipped and ran cold. Her fingers splayed against the sheets as her body was racked with convulsions.

 

  Abby said, sounding worried for an AI.

  The drugs they had injected into her were making Lana’s body go numb. She couldn’t fight it anymore and before long, the only thing she could feel was the pain in her skull, but even that seemed so far off. Lana moaned; that was about all she could do.

 

 

  That damn nanotech. Transporting it was supposed to be easy. Most people had nano, at least the rich did, so why was was so different? What made it so special?

  And why did everyone want to get their hands on it?

  Now, it was in the very blood that flowed through her veins, boring into every cell in her body. Whatever happened next, Lana was helpless to fight it. She’d be changed, used, and if they could find a way to extract it from her, Lana would be dead.

 

  If that was true, Lana hoped they would hurry. She didn’t know how much longer she had.

  * * * * *

  Harken strode down the corridor toward the labs in the research facility’s central hub. She needed to ensure the scientists there had worked out the logistics necessary to extract the nano in a fashion that would allow it to be reprogrammed. So far, when they pulled it out and attempted to reset its ownership, the nanobots had died.

  And now it was a race against time.

  Reba raced after her, carrying a hyfilm note in her hand. “Ma’am! The GFF has been trying to get ahold of you.”

  “I have more pressing matters to worry about than the GFF, Reba, as do you.”

  She nodded. “I know Lana is top priority, but the GFF is calling you back in. Since Maverick’s indisposed at the moment—while he heals.”

  “Unfortunate, but the attempt on his life brought a warning that someone is onto us and that we have the girl. It’s only a matter of time before they find us.”

  Harken wasn’t worried about Kylie and her rag-tag group of junkers. She was worried about the man she saw shoot Maverick—before she removed all evidence of him and pinned the whole mess on Kylie. Whoever that bounty hunter was, he had some serious tech. Tech she would love to get her hands on.

  “They want you back on Jericho and to take over for Maverick.”

  “That isn’t happening, Reba. Stall them. I don’t care what it is you have to do, but there’s no way I can go back at present. They’ll need to wait.”

  Her hurried footsteps chased after Harken. “What do I say? What do I do? Jericho needs someone at the helm. People are going to start asking questions. People—”

  “Enough, Reba!” Harken’s temper erupted. Reba was a worm, but even this was a new level of annoying for her. “Do or say whatever you have to. This moment is critical and I can’t be interrupted by a trip to Montral, and certainly not by you every ten minutes.”

  Harken opened the door to the lab and slammed it shut in Reba’s face. She paused and then locked it for good measure.

  The faces of her scientists inside were worn and tired as they huddled around a table covered in plas and hyfilm with a jumble of holoprojections dancing above. “I guess from the long faces that you need increased motivation.”

  “Harken, we’ve been here for days. The tech we need to extract the nano from Lana’s blood in a null state…we just don’t have it.”

  “And she’s changing,” another answered. “She’s changing faster than we can keep up with. Soon, she’ll be the most advanced human being the galaxy has ever known.”

  “Correction,” Harken said. “She’ll be one of at least two. Everyone in this room knows what Tanis Richards is capable of. Or do we need to review the vid again and refresh your minds?”

  “No, we know what she can do,” The scientist swallowed hard and gazed down into his coffee cup.

  Satisfied, Harken smiled. “Good. If we don’t want Lana to end up as another Tanis Richards, then we find a way to succeed. Otherwise, she could single-handedly take every one of us down and blast her way out of here.”

  “Well, we’re not on the Intrepid!” one of the scientists exclaimed. “We don’t have the tech you’re talking about. Maybe if we were Silstrand Alliance. Maybe….”

  Silstrand. Harken nearly laughed. They’d never pay as much as the Scipio Federation or the other buyer who was interested in this tech. Harken had been fighting against Silstrand’s rule all her life and she certainly wasn’t going to let them get their hands on something this powerful. It could change the Alliance’s position in their never-ending struggle against Scipio, and the last thing Harken wanted was for Silstrand to come out on top.

  No, she was going to bet on a different horse—the sure winner—and it would make her very, very rich.

  “…we don’t think we can extract it cleanly without killing Lana.”

  Harken snarled. Finally, they were getting somewhere. “Then let’s look at all the options, gentlemen. The girl’s survival has never really been an issue for me.”

  “She’s just a girl.”

  Harken disagreed. “No. She’s a goldmine, and when I send her lifeless body back to her father, I want him to see that I stripped it completely.”

  * * * * *

  Days had passed since Lana had first awoken in this facility. They kept sedating her to keep her quiet, or maybe it was to slow the changes coming over her. The last time she had fallen asleep in a bed, but now they had moved her. Now Lana woke in a sterile cell that didn’t even had a mattress or windows. It was a steel room reinforced with something powerful. Lana couldn’t see it, but she could feel it.

  It made her insides shiver as if she could feel some sort of vibration. Lana had never felt anything like it before.

  Abby said.

  Military-grade? What kind of facility was she in, anyway? Who had her? Lana had to figure it out, and soon. If her father didn’t send someone to rescue her, what would she do? Escape? This was way more than she bargained for. Way more.

  She stroked the metal panel that should’ve been a door, except it had no handles or even a sensor pad. The panel was completely smooth and almost entirely seamless. It must’ve only opened from the other side. If only she could figure a way to jimmy it…

  Abby implored.

  Lana retorted as she threw her hands in the air and turned around, leaning against the wall and sliding down to a crouch.

  Abby sent her a pleading face.

  Lana responded as she wrapped her arms around herself.

 

  Lana chuckled to hear something she often said repeated back to her. Then, s
he noticed a tingle in her hand. With wide eyes, Lana watched as her right hand changed texture—it was beginning to match her shirtsleeve merely by touching it.

  “Oh stars!” Lana screamed and quickly uncrossed her arms and slapped her hand against the wall desperate for it to change back. Contact with the steel wall triggered a change, but not the one she wanted. Now, her hand took on a steely sheen, and the effect began to travel up her arm.

  She shrieked and waved it in the air. “Help me! Abby!”

 

  Being sedated was the least of her problems. Lana glanced around for anything to cover her arm, but there was nothing. In a blind panic, she threw herself into the corner of the room, squatting down and wrapping her still normal arm over her changing one. What would they do when they found her like this?

  She gasped erratically, unable to regulate her labored breathing. What was she going to do? Lana hung her head and focused on the door.

  It was opening. Moving. She could hear something going on from the outside, and a split second later, she could hear their conversation.

 

 

 

  Harken? Lana’s eyes widened. Where had she heard that name before? She waited for Abby to fill in the gap, but her AI didn’t speak up in her mind like she normally would. Not that it mattered, it sounded like this Harken wanted her out of the way—dead. Lana didn’t want to die. All she had wanted was to get away, stick it to her dad. This wasn’t what she signed up for!

  The two orderlies entered her room, but neither of them appeared to see her right away. They cast about as they walked into the center of the room. One scratched his head. “Where the hell…”