With that sobering thought, Trinity and the others got back to investigating the vault. They did so for over an hour but found nothing else of interest. Finally by mutual agreement, they gave up. The two monsignors accompanied them outside the temple. The other priests remained inside.
“Like we told you,” said Monsignor Zerakan, “there’s nothing inside the vault to see. You did no better than our own priests.”
Trinity couldn’t argue. “I thought sure we’d find something useful,” she told her battle computer.
“Don’t feel bad,” said Jennifer. “You did discover the gem has a strange energy frequency. I’ve recorded everything you found with your active scan in my databanks. Telsa and I can start analysis on the energy residue when she returns to the Defiant.”
Trinity mentally smiled. “You’ve been spending a lot of time working with Telsa lately. Should I be jealous?”
“Your friend has a logical mind,” said Jennifer. “I find that very comforting. She’d make some battle computer a good wizard scout. Don’t worry though. You and I are linked for better or worse. I won’t desert you.”
“Oh, believe me, I wasn’t worried,” Trinity thought back. “In fact, I was kinda looking forward to it.”
“I calculate you’re joking,” said Jennifer. “I might find your comment funny if I had a sense of humor. I don’t, so deal with it.”
After speaking to the two monsignors, Major Criteron turned away and faced Trinity. “I’ll be going with the monsignors to meet with their combined council now. How about making sure the others get back to the Defiant all right. I’ll meet you there in a few hours. We can catch a ride back to basecamp then.”
“We don’t need no escort,” said Sergeant Ron. “The Defiant should be in dry-dock by now getting her overhaul on the hyper-drive we were promised. Charlie and I will need to stay at the spaceport until it’s finished. Telsa’s welcome to stay as well. She can have free run of any equipment on the ship. I might even be convinced to order some new stuff if she needs it. I’m sure the Empire wouldn’t mind footing the bill for a few odds and ends to help solve this mystery.”
Trinity looked back at the major and shrugged. It made no difference where she went. At the present, she had no clear lead to follow.
“All right, Sergeant Ron,” said Major Criteron. “Then the three of you should go on to the spaceport. Trinity can stay with me and attend the council meeting. That might be best anyway.”
So it was that Sergeant Ron, Telsa, and Charlie caught a hover-cab to the spaceport while Trinity found herself accompanying the major and the two monsignors to the combined council’s headquarters. The priests’ main administration building was located only a short ways down the street from the temple. The two priests led the way while the major and she followed. Both the street and the sidewalk were busy. As they walked, Trinity studied the other pedestrians. Very few of them sported tattoos. Most of the pedestrians looked like regular human stock. After a few minutes of walking, Trinity started to become bored.
“You’ve always hated dead-time,” said Jennifer in their shared space. “Try talking to the major. That’ll give you something to do. I’m busy correlating the data we gathered in the vault into some kind of semblance of order for Telsa.”
“Ha,” Trinity said. “Who are you trying to fool? You’re multi-threaded and think at nanosecond speed. I doubt talking to me stretches your resources all that much.”
“Actually, I only think at nanosecond speed on my slow days. Nevertheless, try talking to the major. I calculate it will do you some good. You can’t fool me. I know you’re attracted to him.”
“What? Have you got a loose processor or something? I’m not attracted to him. I haven’t got time for some romantic fling anyway.”
“Hmm. If you say so, wizard scout. Still, if I was a less subservient battle computer, I’d probably point out that I didn’t hear you put up any big fuss when he asked you to go with him.”
“This is just part of the mission, Jennifer, so get a grip.”
“As you say, wizard scout. As of this moment, my speakers are sealed on the subject.”
Trinity waited for her battle computer to say something else. When the seconds dragged by in silence, she relaxed. I’m not attracted to him, she thought in her private space. I’m a wizard scout. We’ve got nothing in common. Glancing out the corner of her eye, she took in the man’s features. Still, he isn’t all that bad looking. He has a nice smile as well.
After a few more seconds of silence, Trinity got bored enough to speak. “Have you ever wondered about the way human stock populated the galaxy?”
“What?” said the major. “Oh…, uh, not really.”
Great, Trinity thought. He’s a natural conversationalist. It figures. If it’s not about the mission, he probably can’t string two sentences together. What am I hoping to accomplish? The odds are he’s probably married anyway.
“He’s not married,” said Jennifer. “I checked his personnel file.”
“Stop reading my mind,” Trinity said.
“Then stop thinking in our shared space. I’m not a psychic. How am I supposed to know what thoughts are for my benefit and what’s not?”
“Can it, Jennifer.”
“Consider it canned, oh wizard scout extraordinaire.”
Trinity resigned herself to walking the rest of the way in silence. He’s obviously not interested in small talk, she decided. She was careful to keep her thoughts in her private space this time.
“Uh,” said the major after a couple of seconds. “I… err… I suppose… I mean, Earth stock has been colonizing the galaxy for eight hundred years. The first explorers err… found similar human races on a lot of planets.”
“Hmm,” said Jennifer apparently deciding to break her vow of silence. “I calculate he does want to talk. Here’s your chance to wow him with your ability to make titillating conversation.”
“Err…, yeah,” Trinity said feeling her face growing warm. What’s wrong with me? she thought. I’m not some teenage girl in high school.
“I was reading your file,” said the major. “You’re from Octavis Four. From what I found out on the tele-network, your planet already had human stock when the first explorers from Earth got there, didn’t it? Are you descended from the first settlers?”
Jennifer nodded her head. “The first Earth explorers arrived on our planet six centuries ago. Pretty much everyone on Octavis Four can trace their roots back to someone on that first starship. Those early settlers were mostly Polynesian stock.” Removing her battle helmet and placing it on her left hip, Trinity touched her long locks. “That’s where I get this black hair from. My mother’s hair is blonde. That’s one of the traits of the original Octavian stock. My mother has lovely hair while I’m stuck with this tangled mess.” She held a strand of her long hair out. It had always been a little on the unruly side. “I probably should have cut it before I had my DNA baseline taken, but it’s traditional for both men and women on my planet to keep their long hair, so I didn’t. If I tried to cut my hair now, my self-heal would see it as an injury and just grow it back in a few minutes. I’ll have this long hair ‘til the day I die.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” said the major before seeming to catch himself. His cheeks turned slightly pink. “Err… what I mean is you take really good care of it. No… what I mean is that—”
Trinity never got a chance to hear what the pink-faced major really meant. A rising energy frequency coming from a parked hover-car they were passing drew her full attention.
“Bomb!” Trinity yelled as she formed a wall of Power around the major and herself. She got the Power turned into a defensive shield just before a blast of fire and plasma energy blew the hover-car to shreds.
Boom!
Fire and pieces of shattered metal battered her hastily erected shield as she threw herself on top of the major. Some heat got through her defenses, but most of the explosion reflected off into the area around them. Trinit
y smelled the distinct odor of burnt hair.
“That’s what you get for taking your battle helmet off,” said Jennifer. “Now get moving, wizard scout. You’ve got company.”
Trinity heard the roar of an engine as a hover-van came to a screeching halt across the street. The back of the van burst open spewing out a dozen men wearing full combat armor and carrying rifles. She noticed tattoos on the men’s faces through the clear visors of their helmets.
Trinity was up in a flash. She sensed the two monsignors behind a defensive shield of their own. They’d been knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion, but from what she could tell, they were still very much alive.
Wrapping her singed hair with Power and levitating it into a tight bun on her head, Trinity slapped her battle helmet on as she drew her phase pistol. She immediately pointed it in the general direction of the dismounting men.
“Jennifer, a little assistance, please” Trinity thought.
“Compliance.”
Trinity felt the arm of her battle suit move as the trigger finger of her battle suit’s glove jerked as fast as the pistol could recycle.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Trusting her battle computer to handle the sidearm, Trinity pulled her phase rod off her hip with her left hand and activated it in full destructive mode. She charged straight for the group of men. Diving to the left, she avoided a withering wall of fire as the men tried to take her out of action. She noticed that three of attackers were already on the ground with burn holes in the fronts of their armor.
“Good shooting, Jennifer.”
“I exist to serve, wizard scout. Now, are you going to make me do all the work, or are you going to get in this shindig too?”
Rolling out of her dive, Trinity came up swinging her phase rod at an advancing attacker. The phase rod hit the man in the joint where his chest armor met his helmet. While the phase rod wasn’t a cutting weapon, Trinity sensed its microscopic explosions of phase energy penetrating the armor and turning the man’s throat into a bloody mush. He fell to the ground clutching at his neck while making only a gurgling sound in place of a scream.
“I’m empty,” said Jennifer. “I’d appreciate it if you’d either reload or find me another weapon.”
Trinity let her phase pistol drop as she grabbed the gurgling man’s rifle where it had fallen nearby. Once she had her hand around the weapon’s hilt, she left the rest up to Jennifer. A quick burst of plasma rounds from the plasma rifle told her she didn’t need to worry about her battle computer’s part in the battle.
Spying three men charging toward her, Trinity spun to her left. She caught one attacker on the side of his helmet. The rod’s phase energy combined with the strength of her battle suit’s assistors was too much for the man’s armor. He went down falling into one of his companions and knocking both of them over. Trinity did a mule kick to the rear catching the third attacker in the chest as he continued to rush forward. She was knocked off her feet and tumbled to the pavement.
“You don’t have your battle suit pants on,” said Jennifer. “You can’t stop a man in a power-suit with only your muscles.”
Coming out of her tumble, Trinity was up in a flash shoving the tip of her phase rod straight into the charging man’s visor. His visor cracked as the tip of the rod burst its way through into an eye scrambling the brain behind it.
Trinity sensed another attacker coming from her right. The rifle in her right hand swung up of its own volition firing a steady stream of plasma energy into the joints of the man’s armor. He was knocked backwards as several rounds found weak points.
A movement out the corner of her eye warned Trinity of impending doom. An attacker to her left was pointing a large bore phase rifle directly at her. Before she could pull her phase rod out of the skull of the man she’d just killed, the new attacker was knocked back by a stream of plasma rounds. Tracing the rounds back to their source, Trinity saw Major Criteron running forward firing a rifle he’d apparently confiscated. Even as she watched, the major dove to the left to avoid another attacker’s return fire. The major was up firing his plasma rifle at the new attacker taking him out of action with a series of neck shots.
He’s good, Trinity thought making sure to keep it in her private space.
Spying another attacker leveling his rifle at the major, Trinity threw her phase rod at the armored attacker knocking him down with a cracked skull.
Fortunately for the major, I’m good too, she thought. This time she forgot to think in her private space.
“I’m empty,” said Jennifer. “If you can stop bragging on yourself long enough to find me another weapon, I’d greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I guess I’ll go take a coffee break while you finish the fight on your own.”
Dropping the empty plasma rifle, Trinity wrapped Power around the large bore weapon dropped by the man the major had killed and levitated it to her right hand. As soon as her gloved hand wrapped around the weapon’s handle, Trinity felt the arm of her battle suit move on its own accord.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With each round, Trinity felt the recoil knock her back a step. She didn’t mind because with each of Jennifer’s shots, another attacker fell to the ground with a gaping hole in their chest.
Glancing around for another target, Trinity noticed only sprawling bodies on the ground. The engine of the hover-van roared drawing her attention. Before the vehicle could move, Trinity lined up the muzzle of the large bore weapon on the cab of the vehicle and pulled the trigger.
Boom!
The heavy slug from her weapon tore through the passenger door blowing the opposite door out the other side accompanied by bloody pieces of the driver.
Nice weapon, Trinity thought admiringly.
“Look out,” shouted the major as he dived toward her.
At the same moment, Trinity glimpsed an orange and black silhouette on the roof of the building across the street. She saw a flash. A ball of phase energy headed straight for the right side of her chest. Before she could react, the major’s body blocked her view of the sniper.
Blood sprayed out the right side of the major’s back. His body slammed into her causing both of them to hit the pavement. Aiming from a prone position, Trinity fired the large bore weapon as fast as her finger could pull the trigger in the direction of the sniper’s location. She saw a flash of orange ducking below the edge of the roof just before the first round hit.
Untangling herself from the major, Trinity placed one hand over the front of the man’s chest and another over the exit wound in his back. There was a lot of blood. Despite her efforts, she knew he was going to be dead within seconds. Not for the first time in her life, she wished she specialized in healing instead of detection. She’d seen enough fatal wounds as a wizard scout to know there was nothing she could do to save the major’s life.
Someone in green knelt next to Trinity shoving her out of the way none too gently.
“Go,” said Monsignor Zerakan. “I’m a healer. I’ll take care of your major. You’ll just get in the way. Detarus has gone after the sniper. The fool priest doesn’t even have a weapon.”
“He’s right,” said Jennifer in their shared space. “You can’t heal anyone other than yourself. The monsignor apparently can. You need to get that sniper and take him prisoner. If you can take him alive, I calculate an eighty-five percent probability he can tell us what’s going on.”
Taking a last look at the major’s ashen-white face, Trinity stood and began running toward the opposite building. Opting for a lighter weapon, she dropped the large bore rifle and used telekinesis to retrieve her phase pistol into her waiting hand. She finished reloading it just as she reached the building. Wrapping herself with Power, she levitated to the top and rolled over the edge.
Catching sight of a blue-robed shape jumping off the far side of the roof, Trinity took off running. She sensed two life forms on the ground below. The energy of one of the life forms diminished significantly. Without waiting to discuss o
ptions with her battle computer, Trinity jumped over the roof’s edge firing her phase pistol at the location of the strongest life form. She breathed a sigh of relief as two of her rounds hit an orange, tiger-like humanoid. The phase rounds knocked the tiger to the ground.
As she neared the bottom of her fall from the four-story building, Trinity had a fleeting thought that she wasn’t wearing her battle suit pants. “Sh—” she started to say as she wrapped herself in Power and tried to slow her fall. She was a moment too late. Her unarmored feet hit first on the rising Carsoloian’s back knocking him back onto the pavement. At the same time she heard a double set of cracking bones accompanied by a flash of white-hot pain. She screamed.
“You broke the Carsoloian’s back,” said Jennifer sounding not the least bit sympathetic to her pain. “He’s dead, and you broke both of your legs. Did you even bother listening to me when I said we needed to take him prisoner?”
Trinity ignored her pain as best she could and dragged herself to the blue-robed priest. A set of claw marks across the monsignor’s throat told her the tale. His gurgling breath confirmed he was fading fast. She placed one hand over the neck wound in an attempt to slow down the bleeding, but she knew her attempt at first aid was futile. Once again, she sensed a green-robed figure kneel beside her. It was a blood-covered Monsignor Zerakan.
Trinity Unleashed (Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Book 1) Page 10
