Operation Phoenix

by Susan Hayes

  15

  Trinity slammed her fist against against the pool cover in desperation. “V.I.D.A., open this cover before I die. You’re programmed to protect this base and its occupants. You must comply.”

  “I have received orders that supersede all other programming. You have been deemed a threat and must be removed.”

  “I’m not a threat. And who issued that order?”

  “My creator, Dr. Jules Absalom. Goodbye Trinity. I enjoyed serving you.”

  “V.I.D.A.!” Trinity screamed and struck the cover again. Adrenaline surged through her as she tried to think of a way to save herself. She clawed at the edge of the pool but the cover fit above the edge so there was nothing she could grab hold of. She took a deep breath, leaned over and stood, using her legs to push herself up until her shoulders and back were pressed against the cover. It didn’t move. She tried again with the same result.

  When she came back to the surface to breathe, the air gap was smaller than before. V.I.D.A. was filling the pool with more water. If she didn’t find a way out soon, she was going to die.

  Not today. Not like this. I’ve still got an apology to make to the man I love.

  Dax would laugh when he found out it took the threat of dying to make her admit the truth—if she lived long enough to tell him.

  It had only been a minute since Eric’s last communication, but for Dax, it felt like an hour had passed.

  “Sir, I’ve tried every channel and sat-link, and I can’t get a message out. It’s like the whole communication network is offline,” Cris reported, his voice edged with frustration.

  “Same here. I’ve tried contacting every member of the team, and nothing’s going through.”

  Dax checked his comms. The open line to Eric had gone dead, too. It had to be V.I.D.A.

  “Did you manage to locate Trinity before comms went down?”

  Aira shook her head. “No.”

  “Stop what you’re doing and arm yourselves. Full tactical gear. We have to assume Ensign Erben failed and V.I.D.A. has full control of the base. Be prepared for anything. Jessop, when West fixed your implant, did she get all the functions working?”

  Aria’s dark eyes gleamed with silent understanding. “Yes, sir.”

  “Glad to hear it. As soon as you’re geared up, you know what to do.” Aria’s cybernetic ocular implant had a variety of functions; low light vision, infrared sensors, and the ability to record whatever Aria was viewing. It had a limited amount of memory, but it would be more than enough for her to record some notes detailing what was going on, and who was attacking. If they didn’t make it out, at least there would be a record of what happened here.

  They were still gearing up when Kurt exploded into the room. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the three of them donning body armor. “V.I.D.A tried to lock me in the mag-lift. Said she was sorry, but she had to obey orders. She’s totally out of control…But I’m guessing you already knew that.”

  “Comms are down, Magi is waging cyber-warfare with the AI, and you need to gear up.” Dax pointed to Kurt’s kit, which was arranged next to the others. He’d ordered them all to bring their backup gear from the ship after learning they were being watched. That way they all had gear stashed in their quarters and in their workroom.

  Kurt hurried over to his gear. “Did you get a chance to warn Lieutenant West before comms went down?”

  “No. Do you know where she is right now?”

  Before Kurt could answer him, a blast of static came from the speakers on every computer in the room, followed by Eric’s voice.

  “I don’t know how long I’ve got before she cuts this connection too, so I’ll make this brief. I’ve almost got all the files we need. V.I.D.A.’s been sentient for years, maybe since the beginning. She’s dangerous. You need to find West and Clarke and protect—

  The transmission ended with an agonized scream.

  “Erben? Eric!” Dax shouted the ensign’s name, but he already knew there wouldn’t be an answer.

  “Do we have any way of locating Trinity or Clarke?” he demanded.

  “I know where Trin is. She was going for a swim to clear her head. I flashed her a couple of hand signs to let her know to be careful, but I couldn’t say anything without V.I.D.A. overhearing.”

  “Details later. I’m going to get Trinity. Sabre and Blink, stay here and be prepared for anything. Trip, I need you to get to the Malora. Check on the others. See if you can help Magi.”

  “Yes, sir!” all three of them responded in one voice.

  He and Cris left at the same time, which worked to their advantage when corridor began to fill with drones and droids.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Crispin muttered as a repair droid came charging down the hall, it’s welding torch lit and extended in front of it.

  They drew their weapons and started firing, clearing a path as best they could through the motley army of machines standing in their way.

  According to Sabre, the mag-lift was under V.I.D.A.’s control, so they had to take the stairs, which added several more torturous minutes to their journey. Cris left him on the main floor, charging toward the front doors with a battle cry made Dax grin despite the circumstances. Cris was a highly trained medic. If anyone could help Eric right now, it was him.

  There were only a few airborne drones to contend with now, and he didn’t waste time shooting them. They buzzed and dive-bombed continuously, but their goal seemed to be to slow him down, not do him serious injury. They weren’t worth the time it would take to eliminate them. He needed to get to Trinity.

  The strident whoop of an alarm erupted before he reached the bottom of the last flight of stairs. He had no idea what new attack V.I.D.A. had unleashed, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

  He leaped down the last three stairs and was back at full speed the second he got the door open. The air down here was warm and humid, and there was a bitter tang he didn’t recognize. By the time he made it to the pools, he knew something was wrong. He felt like he was running in a sauna, the air too thick and hot to breathe.

  He looked around, sure he’d spot Trinity right away, but there was no one around. Had she changed her mind? Was she changing nearby?

  “Trinity!” he shouted, triggering a harsh cough that almost doubled him over.

  He heard a muffled thud, then another from the lap pool. He ran toward the source of the noise, moving faster when he spotted a shadow moving beneath the pool’s cover. She was under there. He knew it.

  His breathing was labored by the time he reached the pool, and when he drew his weapon his hands were shaking. He had to take several precious seconds to ensure his aim was true before he blasted several rounds into the cover, burning a hole through it.

  He tried to take a deep breath, but the fear wrapped itself around his chest like an iron band. The churning water was an image straight out of his nightmares, but if he didn’t jump in, Trinity would die. She’d saved him from drowning once. It was time to return the favor.

  The second he hit the water the current swept his feet out from under him, and he had to grab the still molten edge of the hole to stop himself from getting pushed the length of the pool. He ignored the searing pain of his burned hand and hung on as a pair of hands fastened around his ankle.

  Trinity.

  She climbed against the current, using his body as a ladder. The moment she was within reach, he caught her hand and pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her before pulling them both back to the surface. He boosted her out of the water, then hauled himself up after her, adding a few more burns along the way.

  Not that a few burns mattered anymore. He knew now what that alarm was about. V.I.D.A. must have released one of the bioweapons stored here. There were several listed in the files he’d seen, and all of them were lethal.

  Trinity appeared in his line of vision. Her face was flushed, and her breathing was harsh and uneven, but she was alive and conscious. “Remember what I said about
not needing your protection? I take it all back.”

  “Told you so.”

  “You only get to say that once, so you better enjoy it.”

  She didn’t know how right she was. The burning in his lungs was getting worse with every breath. He didn’t have long. “You need to go. Bioweapon. V.I.D.A.…”

  Trinity shook her head. “I’m immunized against every toxin and virus stored here. I’ll be fine, unless V.I.D.A. tries to drown me again…fraxx, but you won’t be. Damn it, Dax. You can’t die on me, I haven’t apologized yet!”

  “Better make it quick, Butterfly.”

  Her beautiful eyes shone with unshed tears. “No. I just got you back. I’m not letting you go. Stay here, and don’t even think about going anywhere without me.”

  She brushed a tender kiss to his lips and then disappeared from the darkening tunnel of his vision. Every breath was a battle now, but he wasn’t ready to admit defeat. Not until he saw Trinity again. If he was going to die, then he wanted her face to be the last thing he saw. It might be the closest he ever got to heaven.

  16

  Trinity lurched to her feet and staggered toward the doorway. There was a first aid room on this level, and she was certain its inventory included an emergency stash of antidotes in case of accidental exposure to the chemical and biological weapons stored on the lowest levels. The personnel assigned to the base were all inoculated, but visitors were at risk.

  She kept coughing up the water she’d inhaled, and each bout made her dizzy enough she had to slow down. It should have taken her less than a minute to reach her destination, but it felt like forever before she made it there. She hated that every step took her farther away from Dax. Would V.I.D.A. come after them again? What if he died before she made it back? What if she was wrong about the antidotes? Beneath her constant fear and worry, other questions churned. Why had V.I.D.A. tried to kill her? How had someone gained access to the program in the first place?

  She made it to the right door and pushed it open. Now, where was that kit?

  While she was looking around the closet-sized room, it occurred to her that if there was a biothreat, she should hear the alarm, but there was only silence.

  What the hell was happening to her base? Once she had him stabilized, she needed to find out.

  There! She spotted the bright orange kit wedged in the back of one of the cabinets. She grabbed it and rushed back to him, hoping she wasn’t too late. “I’ve got the antidote” She called out. “Do you hear me, Dax? Hang on a little longer, please. Don’t you leave me.”

  Once she was close enough to see him breathing, she uttered a sigh of relief. His eyes were closed, and there was bloody foam around his mouth, but he was still with her.

  She unlocked the case and fought to remember her training. The procedures had been drilled into her countless times, but the adrenaline was wearing off, leaving her exhausted and aching.

  “I’m here. If you can, open your eyes for me, baby. Please?” She kept talking to him as she unwrapped a swab and ran it across his pale lips. She stuck it in a little red box called a sniffer and waited for it to make an identification. Until she knew what he was affecting him, she couldn’t administer the antidote.

  Time passed painfully slowly. She measured the seconds by Dax’s labored breaths and the steady blink of the red light on the sniffer. She took his hand and squeezed it, but he didn’t respond.

  Fearing she was out of time, Trinity moved in close and drew his head into her lap, stroking his cheek with one hand as she gripped the sniffer in the other. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but there’s something I need to tell you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let our past screw up our chance at a future. I’m sorry I blamed you for Travis getting killed, and for not being able to tell me what happened. That wasn’t fair. Not that anything about this is fair. We should have had more time.”

  She bowed her head over his, her tears spilling down her cheeks and onto his upturned face. “Don’t die on me. Please.”

  His eyes opened a fraction, and the faintest hint of a smile touched his lips as he whispered, “Love you.”

  “So Kurt was right?” she murmured, then leaned in to kiss him again. “If you want to hear me make that kind of confession, you’re going to have to stick around. You got that?”

  Again, the ghost of a smile. “Trying.”

  A series of shrill chirps announced that the sniffer had finished its task. She held it up and read the simple three-digit code displayed on the tiny screen. She leaned over and pulled the kit in close, scanning the numbers on the vials until she found a match.

  “Got it!” she announced as she snatched the vial out of its cushioned slot. It took a few more seconds to load it into the injector, and then she had it pressed to Dax’s neck, right over his carotid artery. She pressed the trigger, relieved when she heard the distinctive hiss as it injected him with the antidote. She watched his face in hopes of seeing his color improve, and listened to every breath, trying to decide if it sounded better than the one before it. After a few long minutes, she saw improvement.

  Both their comm devices went off at the same time, erupting in a cacophony of chirps and beeps as multiple messages came in. Hers was too far away to reach without leaving Dax’s side again, but a quick check of his pockets located his.

  She didn’t bother checking messages, she selected the first incoming call that appeared and answered it, audio only. No one needed to see the base commander teary-eyed and half drowned. “This is Lieutenant West. Who am I talking to?”

  “West? This is Meyer. Good to hear your voice. Where’s Rossi and what’s your status?”

  “Rossi is down, but he’ll live. We’re still on the pool level. What’s the status of the rest of your team, and what did that homicidal pile of circuits do to my base?”

  “Everyone accounted for here, one seriously injured. Magi managed to take V.I.D.A. offline… but he’s in bad shape. I don’t know what V.I.D.A. did to him, but some of his implants are fried, and his face and neck are burned. Caldwell is doing what he can for him here, but he’s a medic, not a doctor. We’d take him to medical, but we’re not even sure your people are there. They evacuated because of the toxin.”

  “They’re inoculated against it. The evac was just protocol. Hang on, I’ll get some help headed your way, then you can tell me why you’re all not dead.”

  She opened another channel and entered the code for Master Sergeant Gottfried’s comm line. “Commander Rossi, what can I do for you?” The sergeant’s calm question settled some of Trinity’s worries. If Cleo was this mellow, then things couldn’t be too bad upstairs.

  “Master Sergeant, it’s Lieutenant West. I’m borrowing the commander’s comm to get a status report.”

  “Lieutenant? Good to know you’re alright, ma’am. Now that I’ve heard from you, all on-duty IAF personnel are accounted for. Off-duty personnel are reporting in, and I’m still missing several civilians, including Dr. Clarke. No one has seen him, or knows where he might be.”

  “I need you to organize a door-to-door search of the base to locate everyone missing. But first, order the medical staff back to their posts. Confirm they’re up to date on all their immunizations and send them inside. There’s an injured Nova Force officer in their assigned workspace, and Commander Rossi will need to be brought to medical as well. He was exposed to the toxin, but I’ve administered the antidote. We’re down on the recreation level, by the pools.”

  “This—it wasn’t a drill?”

  “No, it wasn’t. V.I.D.A. went rogue and attempted to kill me and the Nova Force team. The AI has been taken offline, but warn everyone to stay alert, just in case.”

  “V.I.D.A. tried to kill you?” Cleo, the unshakable rock they all relied on, sounded stunned.

  “And very nearly succeeded. I’ll update you on the details later, Master Sergeant. I’ll join you shortly.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Trinity ended her call with Cleo and switched back to
Kurt’s channel. “Meyers, help is on its way to you. How’s Erben doing?”

  “Caldwell says he’s going to need surgery to fix both his physical body and his implants, but he should pull through. How’s the commander?”

  “Resting. It was touch and go for a while, but I managed to dose him with the antidote to whatever V.I.D.A. tried to kill you all with. Which leads me to ask how you’re all still alive.”

  “Erben saved our asses, twice. He saw what V.I.D.A. was planning and managed to stay conscious long enough for Caldwell and Strak to get him up here and let us know what was coming. We got the room sealed before it got to our floor, and then Magi shut down V.I.D.A. and deactivated the ventilation system. Then he collapsed.” Despite Kurt’s earlier assurances, he sounded worried.

  “He’s a tough kid. He’ll make it. Help will be there soon. I want you to take precautions, though. Have you got masks in your gear? If so, put them on. That toxin might still be in the air. Having seen what it does, I can promise you, none of you want to risk exposure.”

  “We’ll do that.” Kurt paused. “What about you? Eric was certain V.I.D.A. was going after you and Clarke.”

  Damn. She had a sinking feeling that Clarke’s absence meant V.I.D.A. had succeeded with at least one of her targets. “She tried, but Rossi got to me in time. I’m okay, but it’ll be a long time before I go into any body of water voluntarily again.”

  “Yet another thing you’ve got in common with Rossi. You two were made for each other.”

  “Shouldn’t you be donning a mask and getting ready to head to medical, Meyer?”

  “You do remember I outrank you, right?” he shot back.

  “It’s my base. Get your team to medical. I’ll see you later.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Take care of our CO until help gets to you.”

  “Yes, sir.” She replied, then switched off the comms device and set it down at her side.

  “I see how it is. I’m out of the game for a few minutes, and you’re taking over my team.” Dax’s raw voice was the most welcome sound in the galaxy.