The Corsair Uprising Collection, Books 1-3

by Trevor Schmidt

  Liam looked down the row of lockers to the end. The wall was solid save for a few seams. There might have been a door somewhere in the wall, but there was no keypad or scanner to be seen. “Any kind of tech you can find. If there’s no keypad there must be a trigger somewhere.”

  Saturn took her weapon from the bag in Nix’s outstretched hands. After holstering her energy weapon and sheathing her machete she checked the curved screen on her wrist and shook her head.

  “What is it?” Liam asked her.

  “The stupid thing has gone haywire. It can’t even tell us where we are.”

  Liam nodded and said, “Keep looking the old fashioned way.”

  Saturn continued forcing open lockers and tossing out the contents. Despite her frustration she looked like she was having fun. It had been a long time since their last smash and grab.

  Ju-Long tossed the footlockers at the head of each bed, removing clothes and strewing them around haphazardly. When Liam approached, Ju-Long continued on with the next trunk, breaking the latch off with his bare hand and flipping up the lid to reveal tightly folded clothes within. The faster he tossed the clothes and objects within the quicker his smile grew. He stopped just long enough to remove his machete and energy weapon from the bag and strap them to his body. While he pitched the contents of the next box he said to Liam, “When’s the last time you had this much fun? We might as well be Space Pirates looking for loot.”

  “Space Pirate?” Nix asked Liam curiously.

  “Don’t ask,” he replied, then said to Ju-Long, “I thought we agreed on Freelancers.”

  “You and Saturn agreed. I was never part of the conversation.”

  Ju-Long stopped rifling through one of the boxes, a couple of stray objects in his hands, and stood up straight. “And if it were my choice, we’d be Space Pirates, searching the planets for treasure.”

  “What’s that?” Nix asked.

  “Treasure is anything valuable, whether it’s rare ore or precious metals.”

  “No, that!” Nix said pointing to the spherical object in Ju-Long’s hand.

  Liam approached him and examined the device. The small metal sphere had several seams that flashed different colors from somewhere deep inside. Ju-Long handed Liam the device and absentmindedly tossed the goggles in his other hand over his shoulder, cracking the glass lenses when they hit the hard floor.

  Liam ignored the sound, intent on the fist-sized sphere. He tried turning the device along the seams and it instantly heated up, searing his hand. He dropped it and the ball rolled away toward the wall of the living quarters that bordered the main facility. The device gravitated toward a spot near the center of the wall and began to spin, sending multi-colored flashes of light out in every direction.

  Along the locker side of the bay Saturn stood up and stared at the scene incredulously. She called to Liam, “What the hell is that?”

  Liam didn’t have time to answer. The device suddenly stopped spinning and projected a green beam of light on the wall, which changed from a single dot into a line, which finally expanded out into a large doorway. Through the holographic green haze, Liam could see a white hallway on the other side. The crew shared looks until finally Saturn motioned for Liam to investigate.

  Liam stepped out into the center aisle and approached the sphere with caution. From up close he could see that the image projected out from the sphere wasn’t an image at all. It wasn’t like any holographic projection he’d ever seen. Liam drew his blade and waved it in front of the green projection, half expecting the metal to be cut in two. The projection bounced off the metal as he ran it through, but the blade wasn’t damaged at all. He looked to his crew and shrugged his shoulders.

  It was possible that the device was some sort of x-ray that penetrated the wall so he could see through to the other side. While a device like that would certainly have its uses, Liam had a nagging feeling it was more than that. He gave the projection a wide berth and walked up to the wall a meter from the edge of the emerald image. It was too real to be a simple representation worked up by a machine. Liam inched closer to the light, clenched his teeth together, and waved his hand through. It was warm to the touch, giving his hand a slight tingling sensation.

  Liam stepped closer to the hole and put his fingers up to where the wall would have been. It went straight through, the only resistance a growing numbness in the tips of his fingers. He gazed through the bright green light to his crew, who stood aghast. With his arm still outstretched through the thick wall Liam said, “I guess we found the entrance.”

  14

  Liam gazed through the projection into the facility. He swallowed hard and then walked up to the barrier and put his hand through to the other side. Cautiously he stepped through the wall. On the other side, he patted himself down to make sure he was still in one piece. Everything seemed in order. He turned around and saw a much darker room on the other side. He could hardly make out Saturn and Nix as they approached the barrier, looking quizzically at the light before testing it with their hands.

  Ju-Long took a different approach. Apparently unconcerned with the light, he confidently approached the doorway and crossed the barrier to the other side, looking bored in the process. Seeing Ju-Long also make it unharmed, Saturn and Nix slowly made their way across, joining Liam inside the research facility.

  Saturn’s jaw hung open involuntarily, mesmerized by the strange technology. She asked Nix, “Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

  Nix shook his head. “Never. But, if the stories about this place are true, then we’re in for a few surprises.”

  “Surprises I can handle,” Ju-Long said, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s get on with it.”

  “Showoff,” Saturn jeered.

  Ju-Long looked like he was about to give an angry retort but thought better of it. Instead, he said confidently, “I’m a people pleaser Saturn. It’s a curse really. I guess it’s a good thing so many people like me.”

  Saturn rolled her eyes.

  Liam sheathed his blade and retrieved his crescent-shaped energy weapon from its holster. He noticed that the hallway had white walls that were made from some type of smooth polymer that was neither stone nor metal. Up ahead a few meters the hallway came to a ‘T.’ Liam didn’t feel good about splitting up in there; if the facility was large they may never find each other again. He would have to make a choice and stand by it.

  “Follow me,” he told the crew, taking off down the corridor to the right.

  There were no doors along the smooth hallway, only glowing orbs floating every few meters and casting bright light into every crevice. The corridor wound to the left until they reached a dead end. Liam placed a hand on the wall out of curiosity. It was cool to the touch, but didn’t give way like the projection at the entrance.

  “Now what?” Saturn asked.

  Liam scanned the floor and the ceiling looking for anything besides the glossy white surfaces. He mused, “They wouldn’t put in a hallway to nowhere.”

  Liam backed away from the wall, joining the rest of the crew equidistant from each wall. Purple light shot out of the corners of the floor and ceiling and the rumbling sound of gears rattled beneath them. Soon, the hallway was left behind as the floor gave way and the platform on which they stood descended, spiraling down past hundreds of flashing lights and seemingly accelerating the deeper they went.

  It took everything Liam had to retain his balance and he found himself grabbing hold of Nix and Saturn to remain upright. Together, they held on until the platform began to slow as though repelled by magnetism. The platform came to a halt at the bottom of a curved shaft that reminded Liam of the spires on Garuda, only underground and without the rough trappings of the desert towers. The walls around them were smooth and seemingly carved from the bedrock. In front of him stood a large white door in steep contrast to the rest of the shaft. Its smooth façade reflected what low light filled the chute.

  Ju-Long looked green in the face and held his stomach, r
emarking, “Now I’m glad I didn’t have lunch.”

  Liam was the first to move from his spot on the platform, and when he did the white door opened quickly, retracting up into the ceiling. Beyond the doorway was a hallway similar to the one they’d just left, only this one had several offshoots branching out every so often. He tightened the grip on his weapon and told the crew, “Keep cool, weapons ready.”

  When the rest of the crew had their weapons drawn he said “Let’s go,” and started through the doorway.

  The hallway was wider than any of the offshoots, leading Liam to believe it was the main corridor. If the Ansarans made any sense in their construction of the place, the central hallway should lead to some sort of hub or control center. The passage went on far longer than Liam expected, making him start to doubt any such logic on the part of the Ansarans. Eventually, they came to a large hexagonal door reinforced with painted blue metal crossbars.

  The door didn’t open when Liam approached. He searched around the frame with his hands looking for a control panel but found none. Liam turned to the crew and shrugged, open to suggestions.

  Ju-Long stepped forward impatiently, charging his energy weapon and creating a ball of lightning between the two tips of the crescent-shaped device. He told the crew, “You might want to stand back.”

  He loosed the bolt of energy at the center of the vertical seam in the door. For a moment it seemed to work, but the energy was soon reflected back at Ju-Long, hitting him square in his chest. He toppled to the ground and convulsed there briefly before he stopped moving.

  “Ju-Long!” Liam cried, joining him at his side and checking his pulse.

  Liam heard a rumbling sound and the hexagonal door slid open on a track, apparently too heavy to move aside quickly.

  “Is he dead?” Saturn asked.

  Liam removed his hand from Ju-Long’s neck and said, “His pulse is weak. Let’s get him inside. The quicker we can leave this place the better.”

  Nix helped Liam drag Ju-Long through the wide entryway and into the room, lit only by several holographic projections hovering over the workstations, their green glow flooding the walls with faint images of Narra and various rooms in the facility. Saturn made her way to the nearest console and was able to illuminate the room with the glowing ceiling globes.

  It appeared to be a base of operations but it was smaller than Liam had expected. There were six workstations, each monitoring different laboratories with one focused on the Dinari village. They must have been in a security station of some kind.

  “Help me prop him up,” Liam said.

  Nix helped drag Ju-Long by his forearm and propped him up against one of the workstations. When Ju-Long was in place Nix bent over and held his knees, panting loudly. “How heavy is he?”

  “Too heavy to carry. Let’s hope he wakes up soon, otherwise getting out of here is going to be difficult.”

  Saturn began scanning through the various camera angles, changing the projections at her workstation to countless rooms in the facility. Finally, she said, “This place really is deserted. Some of the labs have some damage, but nothing compared to the living quarters topside. Except this one here.”

  Saturn pointed to the image and Liam joined her at her side. She was pointing at a lab with half a dozen large broken cylinders. Glass covered the ground amid a pool of green liquid. Tiny blackened figures littered the ground, too burned for their blood to mix with the liquid that covered the floor. Bits of white foam hung from the remains of the glass cylinders, probably part of a fire suppression system.

  Liam squinted at the hologram trying to discern what the figures on the ground were. Were they animals? Liam said, “Try to scan their records, see if you can find out what they were working on. Nix, let’s take a look around. Maybe we can find a medical kit somewhere.”

  Nix nodded and started searching around the workstations. The security station was small, but there was a door near the back that caught Liam’s interest. It might have been an armory or supply room. There was a panel next to the door with a green sensor pad. Liam didn’t have time to mess around with Ansaran security measures. He approached the sensor and slammed his energy weapon into the pad, crushing the metal housing and shattering the glass. The green light dissipated, turning to red before fading to black. The door opened a few centimeters at the bottom, just enough to get a hand underneath.

  “Hey Nix, over here.”

  Nix halted his search and made his way over to the doorway. He smiled and said, “That’s one way to do it.”

  “Help me open it.”

  Liam and Nix placed their hands under the door and lifted with every bit of strength they had. The door was heavy but began to give way, sliding up slowly. When the door was raised just above their heads Liam saw a flash of blue before something strong pushed past him and Nix, knocking them to the ground. By the time they’d made it to their feet Saturn had her energy weapon charged and held up to the Ansaran’s chest, a ball of energy swirling violently mere centimeters from the alien’s skin. The Ansaran leaned back against one of the workstations, eyes scanning for an exit.

  Saturn growled, “Move and inch and I’ll fill you with so much energy your organs will be barbeque.”

  15

  The Ansaran was visibly frightened, gripping the edge of a workstation and leaning back to avoid the heat put off by Saturn’s energy weapon. She was the first Ansaran female Liam had ever seen. He circled the workstation to get a better look at her. She wore a form-fitting outfit that showcased her elegant curves. The tight clothing was the same light blue as her skin, with a pattern of geometric shapes that crept up the side and continued onto her skin as though tattooed there. Her eyes were not large black orbs like the males of her species, but rather were a smaller and more brilliant shade of blue that almost looked manufactured. Her face was not as angular as the males, her modest chin leading up to high cheekbones and small ears that came to a slight point partway up her bald head.

  “What do you want me to do to her?” Saturn asked Liam through gritted teeth.

  Liam dragged a chair up to the workstation and said, “Let her up, we need to have a talk.”

  Saturn gripped the Ansaran’s stretchy clothing and brought her to her feet, quickly pushing her down into the chair. The Ansaran rubbed her collarbone near where Saturn had grabbed her. She continued to look for an escape route but ultimately slumped down in the chair, defeated.

  “If you’re going to kill me, just do it,” she said, distraught.

  Nix took that as a golden opportunity and raised his energy weapon up to her ample chest. Liam put a hand up between the Ansaran and Nix’s weapon and said, “That’s enough.”

  “You don’t know what she is, Liam. You’d be wise to let me kill her now and spare us all the risk.”

  Liam ignored him and came around to the front of the chair, kneeling in front of her. He asked in his kindest voice, “What’s your name?”

  After a moment of hesitation, she replied with a shaky voice, “I’m Astrid, of House Gaya. I don’t know anything, I swear.”

  Liam could hear Saturn scoff. In his experience, if someone led with ‘I don’t know anything,’ they probably knew something. He regarded her blue eyes, which glowed brilliantly even in the bright light of the security station. He asked her, “What happened here? Why did everyone leave?”

  “We received a message from the high council. The projects here were terminated and moved to a new location. We were compromised.”

  “Compromised how?”

  Her eyes started to well up and she mumbled, “The Kraven. They were two days away. We packed up what we could and destroyed the rest.”

  Saturn crossed her arms and said, “Of course. Convenient, isn’t it?”

  “Why have you come?” Astrid asked.

  Nix gripped his weapon tighter and yelled, “We ask the questions.”

  Astrid didn’t seem like much of a threat. Liam looked into her eyes and saw someone truly scared. She was prob
ably a low level scientist, but she still might have known something about the Azure Key.

  “Astrid, have you seen a black box? It would be about this big,” Liam said, gesturing with his hands.

  “I should have known,” Astrid said, wiping her eyes. “You’re here for the Azure Key. Well you’re too late.”

  “Where is it?” Nix asked in his darkest voice.

  “Our job was complete. It was moved long before this Kraven threat.”

  “Where did it go?” Liam asked, his kind tone dissipating.

  “I can’t,” she said, trembling. “They’ll kill me.”

  It didn’t seem like she was lying, but Liam needed to know. He asked again, “Where?”

  Nix took a step closer, his weapon mere centimeters from her chest now. He growled, “Answer the question.”

  Astrid’s long ears pricked, turning slightly in Nix’s direction. She regarded the Dinari with a look of disgust and her frightened tone changed to one of loathing. She taunted, “If you kill me, you’ll never know. You’d be smart to call off your Dinari dog, Outsider. There’s a reason we keep our distance from their kind.”

  Nix let out a guttural snarl that Liam had never heard before. It was an animalistic sound that was uncharacteristic for him despite his reptilian appearance.

  “Nix, give us some space. There will be plenty of time for that later if she doesn’t cooperate.”

  Nix shifted his gaze to Liam. He wasn’t happy, but he lowered his weapon, the spinning ball of energy dissipating into the two tips of the crescent. He said, “Ansarans can’t be trusted. She knows far more than she’s telling. Force is all they understand.”

  Liam ignored him and asked her, “What do you want?”

  “I want off this planet. There’s a planet three days from here. If you deliver me safely, I’ll give you the coordinates of the box.”

  Liam looked to Nix, who seemed to understand.

  “The only planet that close is Taleris. During the war it was the Ansarans’ main shipyard. The twenty-seven moons are known to hide several of the trappings of war. Foundries, weapons silos, and more. She’s leading us into a trap.”