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

by Chris J. Pike

He didn’t answer, and Kylie didn’t even sense his presence on the Link. Where the hell was he?

  Marge said to both of them.

  “Lockdown?” Grayson asked. “Who the hell could authorize such a thing?”

  “Only one other person other than me has that code.” A sinking feeling hit Kylie’s stomach. “Winter. It has to be Winter.” When Grayson scowled, she explained further. “He didn’t think going back to the SSF was such a great idea.”

  “Perfect. So, we’re headed to…”

  “Trade her in for Nadine, if I had to guess.”

  Grayson sighed. “That man is more trouble than he’s worth.”

  Kylie couldn’t argue with him about that…at least not at present.

 

 

 

  Kylie’s eyes fixed on Grayson and wondered if part of that was true. Was she so desperate to be accepted by him even after the years that passed, the divorce? Winter didn’t respond.

  Maybe he was willing to risk it. Even if Lana didn’t kill him, Kylie just might.

  “We better get these doors open,” Grayson said and tried to pull them apart with his hands.

  “Grayson, what are you doing? You know that won’t work.”

  “We have to try. If we’ve gone off course—”

  His words were cut off as they both felt the ship jink to the side. The Dauntless’s internal grav compensators weren’t made for that sort of maneuver. Kylie grabbed onto her desk to keep from falling over. “That felt like…”

  “Evasive maneuvers,” Grayson nodded. “Jerrod, send a secure message to that ship and tell them what’s going on in here.”

  He said it aloud for her benefit, that much was obvious. “What is going on? I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me. Again.” Kylie’s chest tightened under a rising pressure.

  “It’s a Silstrand Alliance cruiser. If we’re not going to rendezvous with the SA, they’re going to take us in. By force.”

  “By force?” Kylie repeated the phrase back to him, trying to wrap her head around what it was Grayson knew and when exactly he had known it. “Do you want to explain yourself?”

  “I’ve been in contact with the SSF. Of course I have, that’s my job.”

  Kylie nodded. She hadn’t heard anything yet that she hated. “Go on.”

  “We went to rescue Lana, and the SSF wasn’t far. Far enough that they wouldn’t show up on anyone’s sensors, but they wanted to be close incase anything went wrong.”

  She was still listening and getting less happy about what she was hearing. “So, they babysat us. Typical for the SSF.” Typical for Grayson, too, even though she didn’t want to admit it.”

  “Right. Once we had Lana, I was to convince you to take her to the base at Freemont, and if you couldn’t or wouldn’t, they’d move in.”

  “And take her.” Kylie’s lips drew thin and determined. “So, that’s what they’re doing now. They’re going to disable us and then board. Like good old times, huh?”

  Grayson gave her a look. “I didn’t tell you because…”

  “Because then you wouldn’t be able to convince me to do anything. I know my character flaws well enough, Grayson. I just wish you had trusted me enough to do the right thing.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “But now that we’re headed off course, I can try to reason with them. I can tell them Winter took the ship…”

  “And what happens to him?”

  “You care?” Grayson asked coolly. “After all this…”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “They throw him in the brig, and he never sees the light of day again.”

  Maybe he deserved it, but Kylie hated the idea. “And the rest of us just are allowed to go?” Kylie didn’t think so. “They’ll take us all in. We can kiss that letter of marquee goodbye and any chance of freedom.”

  “Yes,” Grayson said and turned back to the door. “The cruiser out there isn’t answering my communications. They might think I’ve been compromised.”

  If they lost faith in Grayson, then things didn’t look good for the rest of them. Kylie grabbed a butter knife from the table and used it to unscrew a panel beside her door. Before Marge said anything, Kylie pulled on a bundle of cabling and began separating them, ready to strip them with her teeth.

  “You’re going to hotwire the door?” Grayson’s voice was puzzled.

  “You have a better idea?” Kylie asked.

  Marge said.

  Kylie snapped. She didn’t mean to, but her AI was breaking her focus.

 

  Kylie did as instructed and felt a tingle as a batch of nano left her body.

 

  “Bet you wish you had opted for an AI years ago,” Grayson said with a smirk.

  “Shut up.”

  ESCAPE

  STELLAR DATE: 08.47.8947 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Salvage ship Dauntless, en route to Freemont

  REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

  His head was throbbing so much that Rogers thought his eyes might pop from the pressure. Or maybe he’d just throw up. Maybe both.

  Rogers couldn’t remember where he was or how he got there. With a long groan, he opened his eyes in a narrow squint. His vision was blurry and whatever room he was in appeared to be split in two. A few blinks later and it snapped back together, revealing that he was in a small closet on the main level of the ship.

  Close to the cockpit and away from the weapons locker. Rogers was cozying up with cleaning supplies and disinfectant. The smell was enough to increase the intensity of his headache.

  Man…

  He pushed himself up to his knees and touched the blood on his forehead. Dried now, it hinted that he was hit rather hard over the head. Who the hell? Did the ship have an angry stowaway?

  The girl. Lana. No, it hadn’t been her. Someone else had been in the cockpit with him right before Rogers was struck. That’s right, it all came back into place, and now Rogers growled his name. “Winter.”

  The supply door only had a manual release, and as he grabbed it, his suspicions were confirmed. It was locked from the outside.

 

  Rogers stood and rifled through the contents of the shelves, looking for something he could use to pry the door open—as if something like that was even possible, but he had to try, didn’t he?

 

 

  Rogers fell to his knees as the ship jinked sideways. Was something attacking his ship?

  He waited for a reply, but Winter blocked him out. He wasn’t going to say anything. Hot damn it all to hell.

  , thank God you’re all right. Where are you?>

 

 

  Him, taking out Winter? Had they lost their minds? Rogers thought he’d be more adept at taking out a primal snow beast—actually, Winter wasn’t that far from being a primal snow beast.

 

  Rogers couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about that service tube. He’d spent more than one shift in there fixing flight control systems. He blamed the headache. his words were cut off by another shudder in the ship.

 

  That was enough for him. Rogers swept an armful of supplies off the shelves and climbed them, bracing his back against the wall.

 

 

  Rogers smirked as he reached overhead and undid the twist-locks that held the panel in place. Nice thing about a ship is that anything that needed to be opened for maintenance was never screwed or bolted on. The never-ending vibrations would loosen anything over time. The spring-loaded twist locks, however, held things tight, and released like a charm—a minute later he had pulled himself up into the service tube.

  He oriented himself toward the bridge and took a deep breath. That was odd…he heard something.

  “Help!” a voice called out. “Help me!”

  It was female and not the captain. Must be Lana, and boy, was she was freaking out. The lockdown must’ve scared her. “Lana?” Rogers called, but he doubted she could hear him.

 

  Her words caused Rogers pause for a minute. He hadn’t thought God or any of that was important to Kylie anymore. With a shake of his head, he began to shuffle forward in the tube. It was only ten meters to the bridge; he could do it in no time. What he would do when he got there was another question entirely.

  A metallic clang echoed through the ship, the shock of it nearly knocked him out of the tube and back into the supply closet. This one wasn’t a weapon blast or evasive maneuvers, but something else. It was metal grating against metal.

  Something had grappled onto the Dauntless. They were going to be boarded. Rogers rushed forward on his elbows and knees, slithering toward the bridge as quickly as he could. His girl wouldn’t be taken. He couldn’t let that happen.

  If anything bad happened to the Dauntless, to Kylie, Rogers didn’t think he’d ever forgive Winter. Not in this lifetime and not in the next.

  THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER

  STELLAR DATE: 08.47.8947 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Salvage ship Dauntless, en route to Freemont

  REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

  The ship’s erratic movements terrified Lana. Someone, or some group of someones, was coming for her. She just knew it but what could she do about it?

  “Hello!” she called out in terror and banged on the door. Why couldn’t she get it open? Why didn’t anyone answer? Why was she locked in like some criminal?

  “Hello!” Someone had to be out there somewhere. It wasn’t like they could just walk off the ship and disappear into space.

  Abby said.

 

 

  Lana ran her hands through her hair. If someone was coming for her, she needed to defend herself.

 

  So, in other words, they were sitting ducks. Great. “I really, really wish Kylie was here.” Lana hadn’t known her long, but the captain had gotten her away from that Harken woman. That meant something. Lana wasn’t sure if she could trust Grayson—he was one of her father’s cronies, after all—but she definitely could trust Kylie.

  She banged on the door again. “Is anyone out there? Hello? Please, help! Someone answer!” Lana didn’t want to be dissected—or whatever was going to happen to her.

  She dropped her hand to the door’s manual release, pulling on it with all her might. It wouldn’t budge. She let out a long sigh and was about to let go when she felt her hand tingle like it had before when she’d sent out a nanocloud—or at least she thought it had been a nanocloud—to kill the three soldiers back near the labs.

  A moment later, the door latch made a snapping sound, and she pushed it open. Her nano—Lana hadn’t thought to even try it. Had the tech opened the door itself, like it had a mind of its own, or was she able to control it on a subconscious level?

  Abby suggested.

  That was good advice. Gingerly, Lana stepped out into the hall and peered around. Her heart pounded so fast, it couldn’t be normal. Was it stress?

 

  She was the weapon. Lana didn’t know how to process that and decided the best way forward was to just not think about it. She’d just get flustered, and when that happened, the nano was harder to control. So, she skirted along the edges of the hall, looking for someone that looked familiar. A friendly face.

  Down the hall, Lana heard metal scrapping against metal. She crept forward and peered around the corner. There was nothing there, maybe the sound had carried from further away than she thought. How was it she could even hear it?

  The thumping continued, and it was growing closer. So loud it almost hurt. Lana grimaced and pressed her hands over her ears to ward off the pain.

 

  She could really do without it. Lana fell silent as she identified the sound as heavy boots hitting the deck—they were getting closer. If she didn’t hurry, they might find her. Scurrying along, Lana crawled as quietly as she could until she found herself at what appeared to be the weapons locker.

  Finally, at last something was going her way.

  Lana went through the weapons and picked up a pulse rifle. It was heavier than she expected and Abby voiced concern.

  She really wished she had taken the shooting lessons like her dad had always wanted.

 

  The Dauntless rocked to the side, and a metallic clang assaulted her ears.

  A point that Abby couldn’t counter.

  She stepped out from the weapons locker at the precise moment a scary albino man forced his way inside. He wore a dangerous scowl and Lana nearly screamed, but he put his hand over her mouth.

  “Quiet,” he ordered. “Name’s Winter. I’m first mate on this ship. You’re Lana, right?”

  Lana nodded, her eyes wide. Winter? Had she met him before? Something about him seemed familiar
.

  “Good. I’m going to remove my hand and then we’re going to talk. Quietly. You got me?” Slowly he removed his hand and Lana took a shallow breath.

  “I thought…”

  “I know, but it isn’t important. We’re been boarded, and I’m going to need your help to get rid of them. Okay? But you’re going to have to do everything I tell you.”

  Lana stood up straighter. “Just tell me what it is I need to do.”

  Winter grinned. “That-a-girl. I knew I could count on you.”

  GRAPPLED

  STELLAR DATE: 08.47.8947 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Salvage ship Dauntless

  REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

  “The stars,” Kylie whispered, “they’re gone.”

  Through the viewports in the weapons locker, the stars were completely blocked. Kylie surmised it must be the SSF cruiser that had grappled on to their ship. It was getting closer, which meant in a matter of moments, the cruiser would extend an umbilical and board the ship. They would take what they came for, which at this point might be all of them.

  Winter had royally screwed them. It had been a mistake to trust him again—that much was clear. No more second chances.

  “Jerrod says the cruiser was in a fight. Some of its key systems are offline, but it seems to be functioning well enough to take us on. He thinks perhaps they’re not responding because they can’t,” Grayson said.

  The thought left Kylie’s stomach feeling sour. “Who would’ve engaged that thing in a firefight?” They were on the fringe, but taking on an SSF cruiser was no laughing matter.

  “We can ask them later,” Grayson said ghastly. “We can still make this right. We can resist them when they board.”

  Resist them when they board? Was that really his plan? Kylie was in no rush to end up dead. “They’ll just send more. It didn’t work out so well for Rogers when he resisted you boarding, did it?”

  Grayson handed Kylie her rifle. “Don’t go soft on me now, Captain. If we resist, if I can have a few moments to talk with their commanding officer, I can fix this. I’m not Rogers. I know these people, and even if I don’t, they’ll know of me.”