“And what’s the second thing?”
“You cannot go back to your world. At least not yet. That gate is closed.”
EPILOGUE
The Kye-shiv banked sharply, re-adjusting its course to a bearing heading southwest of the Skag. In the cockpit, Radovan Mozik sat at the controls and used his SageSeven implant to adjust the craft’s altitude and speed.
Twenty-five years ago, on that horrible day, he had been the Kye-shiv’s lone occupant. Today, he had five passengers in the hold, a strange band of travelers if there ever was one. The two United States Marines were sitting next to each other with their backs against the hull, the older of the two examining a bandage wrapped around the other’s left shoulder.
The two Zero Stock – Kettle and Haley their names were – attended to the Saffisheen woman, who was lying unconscious on the deck between the rows of seats. Kettle was sitting with his legs flat on the ground, Saeliko’s head on his lap. He was using a sanitized cloth to wipe the blood off her face. Haley was examining the plaster-foam casing over the knife-wound in the woman’s chest.
She needn’t have bothered; there was nothing more to do but wait. Radovan had already taken out the knife, carried out the necessary diagnostics and attended to her primary needs. The blade had punctured a lung and done a lot of secondary tissue damage, which given the state of medical technology on VGCP Eleven, would have been a death sentence. Fortunately for the Saffisheen warrior, Radovan had the technological wonders of VGCP One medicine at his disposal. At this very instant, a nanomaterial-based scaffold was holding her lung in place while tissue repair and growth agents went to work putting things back together. She would be in considerable discomfort for the next few days, but she would live.
Speaking of which, Radovan was surprised that Dallas and Soup were still alive. It was standard procedure when crossing through a gate for the first time to get a vax injection. All of the Verse Gate Connected Planets were nearly identical in terms of genetic makeup and biodiversity, but there were diseases and bacteria unique to each world and contracting something fatal was a very real possibility.
Kettle and Haley had explained to Radovan that the pilot on their airplane had given them two injections each before the crash. Radovan explained to them that one of these was a vax injection. He gave Dallas, Soup and Saeliko the same injection before guiding them onto the Kye-shiv.
Radovan hadn’t explained the second injection yet. That would take more time. There was so much they didn’t know. He would have to tell them of their ancestors, that somewhere back in history, Zero blood had found its way into their family lineages, that right now genetic traits buried deep within their DNA were being unlocked, teased out and pulled apart by the contents of that second injection. They would probably doubt him at first, but the evidence was right there in front of them; their bodies were in a state of change. Their minds, too.
He would answer their questions soon. He would give them purpose. But first he had to get them off of VGCP Eleven.
The Kye-shiv was low on fuel, a problem created by the fact that Zodo Corp’s bases on VGCP Eleven hadn’t been re-supplied in decades. However, it would be enough to reach the exit gate and beyond. He would take them to VGCP Thirteen where help would be waiting.
In less than an hour, the gate was in range. Suddenly he heard a voice over his shoulder.
“Hey, brah. What’s that?”
“A verse gate,” Radovan told the Marine. They were both looking at a rectangular image being projected by the hologram. The blocky rendering of the Kye-shiv was headed directly for it.
“Is that what we came through to get here?”
“No, the gates are only one-way. The one you came through is on the other side of the Sollian. This one here will take us to a planet called Dremmos.”
“Dremmos,” Dallas repeated. “Do they have cheeseburgers there? I’d kill for a good cheeseburger.”
Radovan smiled. He liked Dallas. Seemed like a man who was used to making the best of bad situations. “Come to think of it, I think they might.”
The Marine smiled as well. “I like it already.”
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
1 COLLISION COURSE
1.1 KETTLE
1.2 SAELIKO
1.3 KETTLE
1.4 SAELIKO
1.5 KETTLE
1.6 SAELIKO
1.7 SAELIKO
1.8 KETTLE
1.9 SAELIKO
2 COLLISION
2.1 SAELIKO
2.2 JANX
2.3 KETTLE
2.4 SAELIKO
2.5 KETTLE
2.6 SAELIKO
2.7 JANX
2.8 KETTLE
2.9 SAELIKO
2.10 KETTLE
3 DAMAGE
3.1 JANX
3.2 KETTLE
3.3 KETTLE
3.4 SAELIKO
3.5 JANX
3.6 SAELIKO
3.7 JANX
3.8 KETTLE
4 COURSE CORRECTION
4.1 SAELIKO
4.2 KETTLE
4.3 SAELIKO
4.4 KETTLE
4.5 SAELIKO
4.6 KETTLE
4.7 SAELIKO
4.8 KETTLE
EPILOGUE
Children of Zero Page 39
