Kodiak: Infinity Verge Trilogy: Book I

by DJ Morand

  “Zee! Get the FLAK up here. We need to get out of here before more EXOs show up.” Captain Abel Cain’s voice called over the general communications. Echo knew this was partly for her benefit as a show of command and a genuine order for Zee.

  “Go on Zee. I’ll find some room in crew berthing. I remember enough from when I was aboard earlier.” Zee looked concerned for a moment, but nodded his head and headed back up to the command deck. Echo waited a few moments, sitting there in the relative warmth - compared to escape pod drifting in space. She shivered once as she stood when the blanket slipped off her shoulders. She noted that her entire body was soaked with sweat and condensation, likely a side effect of the trance in addition to nearly dying. She shrugged the blanket back up around her shoulders and made her way towards crew berthing.

  The ship was generally warm, but after her ordeal she felt like the chill would never leave her bones, let alone her flesh. Echo Shade feared too that Abel would still find a desolate planet and drop her off. Once she reached crew berthing she found an empty bunk - one not full of supplies or ordinance and fell asleep.

  * * *

  Edge of the Quintar Prime System: Kodiak: Command

  2972 ESD - Tuesday, October 6th 03:35 hours

  Abel Cain sat up in his command chair, allowing the quantum plates to adjust and conform to his body shape. He usually liked his custom furniture aboard the Kodiak, but with Echo onboard he was feeling a bit self-conscious.

  This reminiscing is getting too rampant, he decided and grumbled aloud about how he was feeling.

  He already felt that Echo Shade was going to disrupt his way of life. After a few moments of dark brooding he realized that Zee was still in the cargo bay with Echo. He slugged himself internally and muttered just as something showed on the view screen. His concern stirred he connected to the general communications.

  “Zee! Get the FLAK up here. We need to get out of here before more EXOs show up,” He bellowed. He knew it was childish, but it would get the point across to Zee that he expected the Quintarran to complete his duties as before. In the same line he wanted to ensure that Echo knew that he - only he - controlled what happened on the Kodiak. He waited a few moments longer for Zee, figuring the Quintarran would see Echo to a suitable bunk and then make his way to the command deck. He needed Zee, it wasn’t just a power play. He needed him to run a diagnostics check on the outer hull and the engines to ensure they could get safely away from the RAVEN F Mark XII and the derelict EXO Vulture BAA-C ships.

  “I am here Captain. Captain Echo Shade is finding her way to crew berthing,” Zee intoned irritably as he climbed the ladder to the command deck.

  “Good.” He pondered the tone in Zee’s voice. There was a slight edge to it and Abel figured it was because of his abrupt commands. ““There should be an open bunk she can take. I’ll take some time while we’re en-route clean up berthing a bit. Speaking of which, can you run a diagnostics on the quantum plating on the outer hull and double check our engines. I saw something a few moments ago that is concerning.”

  “Understood Captain. Diagnostics running now.” Zee turned to the console, again noting the discomfort on Abel’s face as the Quintarran’’s expression blanked. “Outer hull is at eighty seven percent efficiency. Shields have been rerouted through secondary power, giving us seventy percent. Engine power is steady, but the impact from the EXO Vultures seems to have shut down the starboard nacelle. Our propulsion is at sixty percent. In this state Captain only one cluster of planets is within range.”

  “FLAK IT!” He was furious at the EXOs. He stood up and motioned Zee to bring up the ship schematics on the Transteel viewer. “How bad is the damage to the starboard nacelle?””

  “Sir, it would take another EVA trek to even discern the extent. We can prep for this, but it means we’re stuck here until we determine what the extent of the damage is. I would suggest salvaging the Vulture BAA-Cs and then making a jump to the Quintar Prime System, one of the outlier planets. Captain Shade may be able--”

  “No! We’re not bargaining with the EFNF. We’ll take the Kodiak to Eden, at least we know the people there have ousted the EFNF, even if they have some EXO issues.””

  “Some sir? They are practically in league with the EXOs, the only reason the EFNF doesn’t make a play there is because it would be too risky. I would even venture a guess as to where those Vulture BAA-Cs came from.” He pronounced the EXO ship name as ‘vulture backs’ the common term for the Vulture Board and Assault Carriers the EXOs had commandeered in the Human-EXO war. The war waged for several years before Abel had come up with and designed the EXO Shield. The magnetic field preventing the EXOs from leaving Quintar V.

  Eden, where the Exodus had crashed when Admiral Shade shot it down, was terraformed with lush jungle and lasted for about ten years before the distance from Quintar Prime increased. The planet known as Eden had an irregular orbit and eventually moved too far away from the star to give the planet enough heat. The people of Eden had nowhere to go, so they adapted instead.

  The fact that the EXOs do not need to breath and their organic host is nearly immune to cold made the fringe planet a perfect location. Humans and Quintarrans on Eden fought the EXOs for a time before ultimately making peace with them. However, that deal came with a price, one that soured relations between human and Quintarran. The people of Eden handed the Quintarran populace over to the EXOs.

  The Quintarrans on Eden were returned to the control of the AI. The exile of the planet - at the command of Admiral Shade - cut everyone off from the much needed EFNF supply chain and further ensconced the EXO presence on the planet. Most still speculated that Eden was EXO controlled.

  “I don’t like it any more than you do Zee. Eden is the closest planet we can reach to get the Kodiak repaired. No, I don’t care one iota how you feel about the humans on Eden, they’re worthless scumbag pirates who wouldn’t give a flak if their mother were being eaten alive. I don’t much care for them either, if you can’’t tell. You will keep the safety on your rifle cocked unless they draw on us first, is that understood?”

  Zee stared defiantly for a moment longer. “Fine. I’ll behave.”

  “One more thing, Zee.” Abel began as his Co-pilot turned to look at him again, “I don’t trust her. She is EFNF and Shade’s kid. While we are planet-side I want her sedated. Do you have anything on board?”

  “I do,” Zee started, obviously apprehensive. “There is a bracelet I have kept, if activated properly it will render Quintarrans incapacitated.””

  “First off, why do you have something that harms Quintarrans? Second, are you sure it will work on her?”

  “I am sure. I have kept it since my time on Quintar V. The AI designed it to kill, but I altered it.” Zee said seeming subdued.

  “Why?” Abel was genuinely curious.

  “Because … if I can alter it I may be able to use it to transmit a signal to enslaved Quintarrans, I may be able to free them. I am not certain now, what with the EXO virus and the evolution of the AI.”” Zee explained.

  “I thought you said you did not believe it was evolving?” Abel accused.

  “The battle with the Vulture BAA-Cs changed my mind. The AI has most definitively evolved.” Zee said ominously.

  “Alright. Rig it up and let me know if it will work on Echo. I don’t want to hurt her, just keep her out of the loop until we’re done on Eden.”” Abel said.

  “Yes, Captain.” Zee replied resignedly.

  SECRETS

  Edge of the Quintar Prime System: Kodiak: Command

  2972 ESD - Sunday, November 1st 03:17 hours

  The Kodiak had suffered critical damage in the fight with the EXO Vultures. The front panels were locked in front of the viewport and the shield emitters were badly damaged. On top of the structural issues the starboard engine was only running at ten percent capacity. With half of the propulsion burned out by the damaged nacelle, the Kodiak struggled to make to Eden. This left plenty of time for Echo and Abe
l to butt heads with one another.

  “Captain Echo Shade, Captain Abel Cain has decided that we will be setting down on Eden.” Tensions were high already when Zee announced they were on a course for orbit above Eden, but Echo escalated them further.

  “Eden!? Why the flak are we going to that run down glitch hole?” Echo asked, obviously distressed at the idea. “Why not meet up with the EFNF on Quintar IV?””

  “Have you lost your wit as well as your ship?” Abel started in, “if we try to make it all the way to the inner core of the Quintar Prime system we’’re good as dead. We have little enough fuel as it is, and we need to pick up some gremlins to repair the starboard nacelle.”

  Echo didn’t care what a gremlin was, at least not enough to comment on it, “Flakking glitch!? So, Eden is your best choice? What about Quintar VII, it is within range isn’t it?”

  “What’s your beef with Eden, Echo?” Abel barked. “For starters it is the closest planet. I don’t care how the flakking EFNF does it, but we’re not going light years out of our way just because a planet is a bit … greasy!”” Abel was yelling again. Echo huffed and did not say another word. Zee and Abel exchanged a knowing look and Zee nodded. Abel nodded back and then retreated to the cargo hold to get some sleep. He imagined Eden was going to be an ordeal even if they were not discovered. He lay down in a bundle of blankets and fell into a fitful sleep.

  * * *

  Quintar V - Alpha Squadron: Command Deck

  2954 ESD - Monday, September 30th 17:12 hours

  “My god! It’s beautiful.” Abel heard Aries comment. There was a chorus of agreement from the other members of ALPHA Squadron.

  “Reign it in pilots.” ALPHA-Leader ordered. “Regroup and form up for atmospheric entry. ALPHA-4 take point.” ALPHA-Leader was all business, it was mission time and the mission is all that mattered. Abel checked his clock. He formed up behind ALPHA-4 and ALPHA-5 as the plan dictated. ALPHA-1, 2, 3, and 6 were the RAVEN F vessels and they made up the rear of the formation. The unit entered the atmosphere of P5 - later to be named Quintar V. In accordance with ALPHA-Leader’s command he switched off his radio, and the section vanished from his HUD. Abel switched on stealth mode. Despite being in the midst of re-entry the RAVEN S shimmered and vanished. To Abel the ship and its functions still looked the same, but his display showed he was projecting the field properly. That was the last thing that went right.

  As soon as the stealth field activated alarms began to blare in the cockpit of the Intrigue - he decided the night before that it was the proper name for his ship. The vessel began to shake violently, before the systems went dead. The holo-projected controls vanished and the ship began a free fall. Abel tried to look around noticing that his SATYR armor was dead as well. He was paralyzed and all he could do was watch his ship plummet to the ground. As he tumbled Abel caught a glimpse of the other members of ALPHA squadron free-falling as well.

  The ship was still shaking violently and being drawn in by the planet’s gravity when ALPHA-Leader and two other ALPHA unit ships collided. The fireball was blinding and the shock wave hit the Intrigue like a battering ram, flinging the ship into a sideways spiral. The anti-matter blast should have destroyed him, but instead the ship seemed to absorb the molecules. Systems began to restore themselves, within a few seconds he had full power to his suit again and could move. He brought up the holo-projected display and hard powered the ship. The matter-antimatter engine failed to respond.

  “Flak! Flak, flak!” he cursed. Abel adjusted power flow to come out of the backup cell. The ship fired up giving power to the sub-light drive. Breaking protocol he switched on communications, ALPHA-Leader was down, he was not next in command, but he needed to know if he was alone.

  “Mayday mayday, this is ALPHA-7. Re-entry encountered some sort of EMP; took all systems offline. Anyone else out there?” he hoped against all odds he was not alone.

  “ALPHA-7 this is ALPHA-6, read you loud and clear. Stealth field offline, matter-antimatter engine offline, running on emergency backup power. Gunners are gone, atmo breach.” Aries said.

  “ALPHA-7 this is ALPHA-10, reading you--” the transmission cut off as another blast of antimatter poured over Abel and Aries.

  “Flak! Aries!? Was that you, or--” he grasped for a name, but realized he didn’t know who ALPHA-10 was.

  “You can’t get rid of me that easy Abel.” Aries taunted. Abel was sincerely relieved to hear the fighter pilot had survived. He checked his systems and noted that power was depleting quickly.

  “ALPHA-6, we need to land these birds. I am willing to bet we can’t get any comms out through, whatever that was.” Abel stated.

  “You’re the boss ALPHA-7.” Aries joked. Abel blanched, Aries didn’t realize how true that was.

  * * *

  Edge of the Quintar Prime System: Kodiak: Command

  2972 ESD - Sunday, November 1st 09:12 hours

  A little more than five hours later, a call from Zee came over the general intercom. Zee wanted to alert both Echo and Abel of their current heading.

  “Captains,” Zee intoned, “Eden is within range. I have queried Exodus Colony port authorities for an approach vector.” Zee’s calm and stoic voice carried through the communications nodes on the ship. Captain Abel Cain had been staying in the cargo hold instead of crew berthing, hoping to avoid Echo.

  “Understood Zee.” The captain’s voice came directly to Zee’s console. For the remainder of the flight to Eden - after his EVA heroics - he had avoided talking to Echo directly. He feared another interaction that would disrupt his view of the universe.

  The same feeling had led him to bunk in the cargo bay, using a few blankets as his bedding. He grumbled about the indecency of it all. He was the captain of the ship hunkering down in the cargo hold to avoid a woman, it was scandalous.

  In Abel’s absence, Zee and Echo had formed a bond. Both grew tired of Abel’s incessant complaining, and had taken to talking with one another instead of engaging the captain. Abel pretended not to notice, although secretly he wondered if Echo was more inclined toward the Quintarran than him.

  The behavior of the makeshift crew continued for the majority of the flight. Zee had tried, once, to reconcile the two, but Abel proved to be difficult and distant; rather than forcing him, Zee realized he should let it lie. After Zee announced their near arrival to Eden, Abel decided it was time to give up his brooding and make an appearance on the command deck. He made his way through crew berthing noting that Echo was not there, which likely meant that she was on the command deck with Zee.

  “Great.” He muttered to himself. As he reached the command deck he saw that Zee had been busy, or was it Echo? The deck was cleared of debris and trash. His captain’s chair had obviously been dusted and polished. He looked at it in confusion and met the guilty stare of Echo. He tried to be angry about it, but in truth the relative lack of hygiene and cleanliness had started to bother him. Neither he, nor Zee, ever took much care to clean up around the ship. On a normal starship semi-intelligent robots would clean the ship, considering both crew members’ distrust of AI, the ship was without such robots to clean and maintain the vessel.

  “Where are we at Zee?” Captain Abel Cain turned to his copilot, ignoring the grin growing on Echo’s face. Why was she acting like a shy school girl anyhow? He would have done the same for anyone, Zee, even the Admiral. Well maybe not CPR for the Admiral.

  What possessed him to do that anyway? He thought.

  “Zee?” Abel queried again, impatient with the Quintarran’s lack of a response.

  “I was checking on it sir. We’ve been given partial atmospheric clearance, but landing is another matter. It seems they recognize my accented voice. We’re being directed to a sub-orbital vector, could take hours to get clearance.” Zee looked perplexed and a bit angry.

  “You think it has to do with race Zee?” Abel asked, not entirely certain it was. The last time they had paid a visit to Eden, they left with more enemies than they had
started with.

  “When does it not sir?” Zee replied, already feeling his anger rising.

  “It doesn’t always Zee, you know that. Oh stop looking at me like that, it was a moment of shock considering Shade’s predilections against the Quintarrans. If I had known ahead of time he had a half-Quintarran daughter, let alone a daughter! I wouldn’t have been so worked up.” Abel explained, not even acknowledging Echo standing beside them. He could, however, smell her scent and it was difficult for him to ignore her entirely; until she spoke.

  “I’m right here.” Echo spoke up, her face a bit flush giving her a purple cast to her cheeks.

  “I wasn’t asking you Echo. Zee, we agreed you would behave on Eden. We need to make repairs to the Kodiak or we’re not going anywhere.”” He paused on that thought and turned to Echo. “What exactly brought you out to us in the first place? It couldn’t have been just to, offhandedly, let me know that the man who betrayed me was dead and in the act of dying betrayed me a second time. What do you want?” Abel accused. His cheeks reddening with anger.

  “Captain, now is neither the time nor the place. You are correct. All of us will need to be on our best behavior while on the planet. We can question Captain Shade at a later time.” He gave Echo a look that said he intended to know everything.

  “In any case, we must stand united while on Eden, that includes you Echo Shade, if the humans of Eden decide we are a threat – perceived or otherwise – they will hand us over to the EXOs.” Zee lied, knowing the plan he and Abel had already put in motion. Captain Abel Cain scowled for a moment, still thundering inside, but having lost his bluster in the face of Zee’s perfect logic.

  “Agreed. We will know everything once this is done. Pass me comms at my station Zee, I am going to get us an approach vector; one that doesn’t take us through a full sub-orbit loop before we get to land. Flakking glitches.” He cursed as he sat down into his chair.