by Mark Wandrey
“Hello, Dakkar. You may call me Dr. Faust.” The voice was, like the dragon, in a universal Union language. Sato guessed it was because they saw tons of aliens.
“Hello, Doctor,” Dakkar replied, pulsing colors. There was an unusually long pause.
Sato cocked his head and looked through the porthole, the only place Faust was visible. It was dark inside his mobility flyer, unlike Dakkar, who liked lots of windows so he could see out, and sunlight on his skin. The doctor finally responded.
“Are you ready?”
“Of course,” Dakkar said.
“Please climb onto the table.”
Dakkar’s tank moved next to the table, and he slithered out, causing water to run onto the floor. Meanwhile the dragon was filling several trays on wheels with all manner of instruments, including a see-through plastic box holding what looked like a jumble of threads. Sato imagined this was a Wrogul pinplant. He knew they were more involved, because parts of the Wroguls’ brains were in their arms.
“You will need to leave,” Faust said to him. Sato frowned. “It is difficult to sanitize with you here. Our physiology is different. I assure you, he is in good tentacles.”
“I’ll be fine,” Dakkar said. “See you soon!”
Sato nodded and got up. “I’ll be right outside.” The dragon moved behind him and closed the door.
He stood to the side of the door and waited. Something was digging at the back of his brain. He’d almost suggested canceling the procedure. But why? He knew his instincts had saved his ass many times as a proctor; that was one of the things Minerva had liked about him, and a necessary trait for the job. No details came to mind, so he opened a new file in his Mesh.
The pinplants on steroids known as Mesh were incredible. A billion times more storage and co-processing than pinplants. Light years ahead technologically. They were so powerful, they were borderline ridiculous. He could store five complete copies of the GalNet and have room for every ship design he’d ever made for the Winged Hussars.
In the new file, he began designing the support flyer for Dakkar. With a little luck in the crappy shop on Vestoon, and help from the miniature manufactory he had, he might be able to build a prototype before they got to Azure in a little over a week. It would be a nice going away present for Dakkar.
He’d been standing and working for fifteen minutes when Rick suddenly came on.
When Sato burst out the front door, the Oogar bellowed at him, then cringed and held his jaw. Sato took no notice of the purple ursine, instead scanning the street. He found what he wanted, and a few seconds later, he’d broken into and hotwired the flyer, and its turbines were spinning up.
Sato launched the flyer into the air; its bladed turbines made horrible sounds. They hadn’t been maintaining the magnetic bearings. He prayed it would hold together as he finished climbing and transitioned to horizontal flight far too fast. The vehicle’s top speed was 350 kph. He used his slicer glove on the control interface, and the air speed indicator passed 450 kph. The machine shook like an off-balance washing machine.
Three minutes later, he came up on the coordinates Rick had given him. The Æsir was shielding behind a now ruined cargo transport. The kidnappers were firing a heavy laser at him.
As the shooting had stopped, Sato set the now-smoking flyer down next to Rick, who was standing and watching the other ship take off.
“What the hell happened?” Rick asked. “Why would one Wrogul kidnap another?”
Sato shook his head. “No idea. Everything was fine, then you called. Dr. Faust made me wait outside. I didn’t hear a struggle or anything.”
“Dr. Faust?” Rick asked over the screaming engines of the kidnappers’ ship.
“The Wrogul went by that name.”
“Faust?” Rick asked again. “The guy in the legend who made a pact with the devil?”
“That’s where I’ve heard it before,” Sato said, then shrugged. “I’m Japanese, I didn’t read a lot of German stuff.” The ship was climbing now, and they were running toward Vestoon, which was grounded nearby.
“You should look at this,” Rick said, and sent Sato an image file. “I got this when they first came out the back.”
It was a movie replaying what Rick had seen. Dakkar was awake and fine, clinging to Dr. Faust’s flyer. As they moved, he looked back at the door they’d just left, and for a single frame, Sato could see Dakkar’s eyes. They didn’t have the familiar blue bar-shaped pupils. Now they were W-shaped, and red.
He looked up at the ship, now about a kilometer up, when it suddenly crackled with lightning and vanished. He stumbled and fell to his knees, eyes wide in utter astonishment. Three seconds later, a thunderous boooom echoed from air filling the vacuum the ship’s disappearance had left.
“What the fuck was that?” Rick asked. “Did it just explode?”
“No,” Sato said. “It jumped into hyperspace.”
“That’s not possible,” Rick said. “Is it?”
“No,” Sato agreed. “Not only can’t you do that in an atmosphere, but that ship was way too small to have hyperspace shunts.”
He remained on his knees for a long time, staring at the spot where his friend had disappeared. Eventually Rick got him up and moving before the authorities showed up to ask difficult questions.
“What do we do now?” Rick asked as they climbed into Vestoon.
“I have no idea,” Sato admitted. “None at all.”
# # # # #
About Mark Wandrey
Living life as a full time RV traveler with his wife Joy, Mark Wandrey is a bestselling author who has been creating new worlds since he was old enough to write. A three-time Dragon Award finalist, Mark has written dozens of books and short stories, and is working on more all the time. A prolific world builder, he created the wildly popular Four Horsemen Universe, as well as the Earth Song series, and Turning Point, a zombie apocalypse series. His favorite medium is Military Sci-fi but he’s always up to a new challenge.
Find his books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Wandrey/e/B00914T11A/.
Sign up on his mailing list and get free stuff and updates! http://www.worldmaker.us/news-flash-sign-up-page/
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The following is an
Excerpt from Book One of the Salvage Title Trilogy:
Salvage Title
___________________
Kevin Steverson
Now Available from Theogony Books
eBook, Paperback, and Audio
Excerpt from “Salvage Title:”
A steady beeping brought Harmon back to the present. Clip’s program had succeeded in unlocking the container. “Right on!” Clip exclaimed. He was always using expressions hundreds or more years out of style. “Let’s see what we have; I hope this one isn’t empty, too.” Last month they’d come across a smaller vault, but it had been empty.
Harmon stepped up and wedged his hands into the small opening the door had made when it disengaged the locks. There wasn’t enough power in the small cells Clip used to open it any further. He put his weight into it, and the door opened enough for them to get inside. Before they went in, Harmon placed a piece of pipe in the doorway so it couldn’t close and lock on them, baking them alive before anyone realized they were missing.
Daylight shone in through the doorway, and they both froze in place; the weapons vault was full. In it were two racks of rifles, stacked on top of each other. One held twenty magnetic kinetic rifles, and the other held some type of laser rifle. There was a rack of pistols of various types. There were three cases of flechette grenades and one of thermite. There were cases of ammunition and power clips for the rifles and pistols, and all the weapons looked to be in good shape, even if they were of a strange design and clearly not made in this system. Harmon couldn’t tell what system they had been made in, but he could tell what they were.
There were three upright containers on one side and three more against the back wall that looked like lockers. Five of the containers were not locked, so Clip opened them. The first three each held two sets of light battle armor that looked like it was designed for a humanoid race with four arms. The helmets looked like the ones Harmon had worn at the academy, but they were a little long in the face. The next container held a heavy battle suit—one that could be sealed against vacuum. It was also designed for a being with four arms. All the armor showed signs of wear, with scuffed helmets. The fifth container held shelves with three sizes of power cells on them. The largest power cells—four of them—were big enough to run a mech.
Harmon tried to force the handle open on the last container, thinking it may have gotten stuck over time, but it was locked and all he did was hurt his hand. The vault seemed like it had been closed for years.
Clip laughed and said, “That won’t work. It’s not age or metal fatigue keeping the door closed. Look at this stuff. It may be old, but it has been sealed in for years. It’s all in great shape.”
“Well, work some of your tech magic then, ‘Puter Boy,” Harmon said, shaking out his hand.
Clip pulled out a small laser pen and went to work on the container. It took another ten minutes, but finally he was through to the locking mechanism. It didn’t take long after that to get it open.
Inside, there were two items—an eight-inch cube on a shelf that looked like a hard drive or a computer and the large power cell it was connected to. Harmon reached for it, but Clip grabbed his arm.
“Don’t! Let me check it before you move it. It’s hooked up to that power cell for a reason. I want to know why.”
Harmon shrugged. “Okay, but I don’t see any lights; it has probably been dead for years.”
Clip took a sensor reader out of his kit, one of the many tools he had improved. He checked the cell and the device. There was a faint amount of power running to it that barely registered on his screen. There were several ports on the back along with the slot where the power cell was hooked in. He checked to make sure the connections were tight, he then carried the two devices to the hovercraft.
Clip then called Rinto’s personal comm from the communicator in the hovercraft. When Rinto answered, Clip looked at Harmon and winked. “Hey boss, we found some stuff worth a hovercraft full of credit…probably two. Can we have it?” he asked.
* * * * *
Get “Salvage Title” now at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H8Q3HBV.
Find out more about Kevin Steverson and “Salvage Title” at: https://chriskennedypublishing.com/imprints-authors/kevin-steverson/.
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The following is an
Excerpt from Book One of the Singularity War:
Warrior: Integration
___________________
David Hallquist
Now Available from Theogony Books
eBook and Paperback
Excerpt from “Warrior: Integration:”
I leap into the pit. As I fall in the low gravity, I run my hands and feet along the rock walls, pushing from one side to another, slowing my descent. I hit the pool below and go under.
I swim up through the greenish chemicals and breach the surface. I can see a human head silhouetted against the circle of light above. Time to go. I slide out of the pool quickly. The pool explodes behind me. Grenade, most likely. The tall geyser of steam and spray collapses as I glide into the darkness of the caves ahead.
They are shooting to kill now.
I glide deeper into the rough tunnels. Light grows dimmer. Soon, I can barely see the rock walls around me. I look back. I can see the light from the tunnel reflected upon the pool. They have not come down yet. They’re cautious; they won’t just rush in. I turn around a bend in the tunnel, and light is lost to absolute darkness.
The darkness means little to me anymore. I can hear them talking as their voices echo off the rock. They are going to send remotes down first. They have also decided to kill me rather than capture me. They figure the docs can study whatever they scrape off the rock walls. That makes my choices simple. I figured I’d have to take out this team anyway.
The remotes are on the way. I can hear the faint whine of micro-turbines. They will be using the sensors on the remotes and their armor, counting on the darkness blinding me. Their sensors against my monster. I wonder which will win.
Everything becomes a kind of gray, blurry haze as my eyes adapt to the deep darkness. I can see the tunnel from sound echoes as I glide down the dark paths. I’m also aware of the remotes spreading out in a search pattern in the tunnel complex.
I’ll never outrun them. I need to hide, but I glow in infra-red. One of the remotes is closing, fast.
I back up against a rock wall, and force the monster to hide me. It’s hard; it wants to fight, but I need to hide first. I feel the numbing cold return as my temperature drops, hiding my heat. I feel the monster come alive, feel it spread through my body and erupt out of my skin. Fibers spread over my skin, covering me completely in fibrous camouflage. They harden, fusing me to the wall, leaving me unable to move. I can’t see, and I can barely breathe. If the remotes find me here, I’m dead.
The remote screams by. I can’t see through the fibers, but it sounds like an LB-24, basically a silver cigar equipped with a small laser.
I can hear the remote hover nearby. Can it see me? It pauses and then circles the area. Somehow, the fibers hide me. It can’t see me, but it knows something is wrong. It drops on the floor to deposit a sensor package and continues on. Likely it signaled the men upstairs about an anomaly. They’ll come and check it out.
The instant I move, the camera will see me. So I wait. I listen to the sounds of the drones moving and water running in the caves. These caves are not as lifeless as I thought; a spider crawls across my face. I’m as still as stone.
Soon, the drones have completed their search pattern and dropped sensors all over the place. I can hear them through the rock, so now I have a mental map of the caves stretching out down here. I wait.
They send the recall, and the drones whine past on the way up. They lower ropes and rappel down the shaft. They pause by the pool, scanni
ng the tunnels and blasting sensor pulses of sound, and likely radar and other scans as well. I wait.
They move carefully down the tunnels. I can feel their every movement through the rock, hear their every word. These men know what they are doing: staying in pairs, staying in constant communication, and checking corners carefully. I wait.
One pair comes up next to me. They pause. One of them has bad breath. I can feel the tension; they know something is wrong. They could shoot me any instant. I wait.
“Let’s make sure.” I hear a deep voice and a switch clicks.
Heat and fire fill the tunnel. I can see red light through the fibers. Roaring fire sucks all the air away, and the fibers seal my nose before I inhale flame. The fibers protect me from the liquid flame that covers everything. I can feel the heat slowly begin to burn through.
It’s time.
* * * * *
Get “Warrior: Integration” now at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0875SPH86
Find out more about David Hallquist and “Warrior: Integration” at: https://chriskennedypublishing.com/
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The following is an
Excerpt from Devil Calls the Tune:
