Eclipse (Bright Horizons Book 2)

by Wilson Harp

“Where is Jeffries?” he yelled to the others.

  “He ran in and took the other Otina,” Singh said. “Once the firing started, he ran past us and down the corridor.”

  Alex looked back in the room. Both of the Otina that had been assaulted by the humans were stirring. Alex snapped off a couple of quick shots and ended the threat they might pose. This mission had no room for prisoners.

  His shots drew the attention of the Otina hiding behind the door on the other side. They started firing at him and he ducked back behind cover.

  There was the sound of more fire and then silence. He waited a few seconds and then heard Jeffries.

  “Clear here, Gunny,” the lieutenant said.

  Alex looked around the door and saw Jeffries standing over the dead Otina. He had slipped around the corridor and taken them from the flank.

  Alex motioned the others to follow him.

  “Good job, Jeffries,” he said as they crossed the room. Jeffries had already figured out how to use the Otina weapons. It took just a second to show Hu, Singh, and Hopkins how to use the weapons and then they were running down the hallway to find Grieg and his team.

  As they neared the control room, Alex could tell that something had gone wrong. Two Otina were dead near the door, but smoke and the crackling sounds of busted equipment came from the room itself.

  Curtis was standing near the doorway with Liao. Grieg was kneeling in the room where Alex could see two of the humans down.

  “What happened?” Alex asked as they approached.

  “The patrol took us in the flank,” Curtis said. “We got them, but they shot up the control room something bad.”

  Alex looked at the situation and gritted his teeth. Liao and Grieg avoided looking at Curtis as he spoke. Grieg was wrapping part of a torn jacket around Adams’s arm. Fleischer wasn’t moving.

  The pattern of shots indicated that both Adams and Fleischer were hit with friendly fire. Curtis was moving his Otina weapon uncomfortably.

  Alex knew they would have a difficult conversation later, but now they had to prepare for the supply ship.

  “Do we have access to the security system?” Alex asked.

  Grieg stood and pointed to something inside the control room.

  “Four of the consoles were hit with fire,” he said. “I don’t know how much access we have.”

  Alex stepped past Liao and Curtis and looked in the room. Several of the monitors and systems had been destroyed. One was sparking heavily and didn’t look like it could be repaired. That was assuming any of them would know how to repair it.

  “Let’s get Adams and Fleischer to the barracks,” Alex said. “Captain, give Lieutenant Jeffries your weapon and help Grieg, Hu, and Singh move the wounded.”

  Grieg gave Alex a tight smile and a small nod. Even when you know that a friend has been killed on the battlefield, it’s better to think of them as wounded until after the job is over.

  Grieg picked up Fleischer’s shoulders while Singh moved to take the unmoving Norwegian’s feet. Alex knew that Grieg would try to keep from looking at Fleischer’s face for as long as he could.

  Adams was helped to his feet as Hu and Curtis escorted him down the corridor behind those carrying Fleischer.

  Alex looked at Liao and Hopkins. “You two have the best experience with computers, try and give me some control in this base,” he said.

  Liao and Hopkins both started working on the consoles that were undamaged. Alex tried to figure out how he might be able to get the partially destroyed console repaired. He had some training in mechanical repair, so he thought he might be able to figure it out.

  After a few seconds he realized that he was like a prodigious three year old who was a master of Legos being asked to repair a microchip board.

  “Do you guys have anything?” Alex asked.

  Liao shook his head. “This is just the life support and sensor array. I can see the supply ship coming in, by the way.”

  “It looks like this is just the incoming communications station,” Hopkins said.

  Alex looked at the damaged control stations. Outgoing communication and security systems were all gone. They would have to hope that the supply ship had some system that they could use to send a signal to Earth forces. He looked around the control room.

  The pattern of shots told him what happened. Grieg and Curtis had gone in and attacked the Otina in the room. One of the Otina technicians had hit the alarm before he was incapacitated. The other humans were heading into the room when the Otina patrol saw them from the hallway and started firing.

  Curtis had panicked and started pressing the fire button on the Otina weapon as he turned toward the doorway. He hit the button nine times. Two of the blasts had hit Fleischer, one had winged Adams, and the other six had destroyed most of the control stations.

  Each of the Otina in the hallway had been hit with two blasts each, fairly high. Grieg had taken his time and double tapped each of his enemy. He aimed high as the other humans took cover below his fire alley.

  Alex knew that there would have to be an investigation once they got back. He had seen his share of friendly fire cases during the Indian War, and had even testified in three hearings. No one liked to deal with them, but when men died because of panic or poor training, it was in everyone’s best interest that they be handled professionally.

  But first they had to get home. And that was what Alex was going to deal with right now.

  “Gunny,” Hopkins said. Alex realized he had zoned out for a second.

  “Yeah, Hopkins, what is it?”

  “Where does that door lead?”

  Alex walked over to Hopkins and looked to where he was pointing.

  When Alex had scouted out the small compound, he had never been able to get into the control room. He was sure there wasn’t another room behind the angle of the wall, but there was a door tucked away, just out of view of the hallway.

  Alex motioned Hopkins and Liao to move into defense positions. He readied his Otina weapon and pushed the button to open the door.

  The door slid open and Alex saw a small room. There was a table in the center of the room and a single computer console on the far side. Cabinets lined both right and left walls.

  Alex lowered his weapon and moved into the room. He opened one of the cabinets and looked at the equipment inside.

  “It’s a med facility,” Alex said. “It has another computer station in here, maybe we can communicate with that one.”

  “We are receiving a message, Ramirez,” Liao said. “It looks like the supply ship is coming in.

  “Ok, Hopkins, go let Curtis know that the ship is incoming. Liao, check out the computer in the med bay and see what you can figure out. I’m going to go get the aliens ready.”

  Hopkins dashed ahead of Alex and Liao moved into the med bay. Alex went down the hallway until he came to the door to the holding cell. Manny was on the other side of the door. Levin was leaning against him.

  Alex keyed in the override code and the mosar field dropped.

  Manny helped Levin to step through the doorway and Alex pulled him clear of the opening.

  “I take it you were successful, Alex?”

  “We were—“

  Alex jumped back as the energy field snapped back into place.

  Manny’s eyes were wide as he took another step back.

  “That was only a couple of seconds, Alex. What happened?”

  “I’m not sure, Manny. The alarm has been set off. I guess the override code still works, but only for a shorter time. Go get Davison, when I lower it again, you will have to jump through. Let’s not take any chances.”

  Manny nodded and went to gather the other Pelod.

  “Levin, are you okay? Still with us?” Alex asked the alien he supported.

  The Pelod nodded, but he just couldn’t seem to speak. Alex knew they just had days to get them medical treatment.

  Manny carried Davison as he approached the doorway again. Alex punched in the code and
Manny literally jumped through the doorway. It was a good five seconds before the energy field was re-established, but after weeks of the field being down for right at twenty seconds each time, five seconds seemed very short.

  “Come on, Manny,” Alex said. “Our ship should be here soon.”

  Chapter 13

  Alex supported Levin as he followed Manny. The large Iltia’cor carried Davison as gently as he could.

  The barracks room held the rest of the humans, except for Grieg and Liao. The door that opened into a short hallway to the hangar stood open. The Otina bodies had been tossed on the side of the room away from the hangar door. Fleischer’s body was lying near the far door. Someone had removed his jacket and draped it over his upper body in order to cover his face.

  Adams was sitting in a corner talking with Curtis, who looked like he was going to be ill. The Captain was pale and shaking.

  “Hopkins, where is Grieg?” Alex asked as he helped Levin sit down on a bed.

  “He went into the hangar to scout,” Jeffries said.

  “Good, I’ll join him.” Alex started down the hallway when Grieg stepped through the mosar field.

  “You look awful, Grieg. What happened?” Alex asked as the tall Norwegian came near.

  Grieg started coughing and wheezing. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe they have adjusted their mosar fields. I felt warm going through it and it feels like smoke in my lungs.”

  Alex helped him into the barracks room and sat him down.

  Grieg shook his head and squinted.

  “Something wrong with your eyes?” Alex asked.

  “Just fuzzy. Nothing awful. Maybe the air in the hangar has something in it.”

  “Did you get a good look?”

  “Yes, there isn’t a control panel for the mosar field on the other side of the door. It must be activated from the control room. Maybe the Otina on the ship can control it,” Grieg said.

  “With that field in place, we can’t take any of the weapons or other equipment into the hangar. We will have to ambush them inside here,” Alex said.

  “Yes, and if they can’t drop the mosar field from the ship, then they might leave and we will miss our chance.” Grieg looked over at Curtis and frowned as he said the last few words.

  Alex closed his eyes and focused. It always seemed that the impossible answer was just out of sight and if he could just think hard enough, he could find it.

  “What else did you see,” he asked Grieg.

  “There is a small cabinet with a couple of pressure masks and oxygen tanks,” Grieg said.

  “That sounds good. You and I will suit up and wait for the Otina to land and come off the ship. When they do, we will rush them and get on board. They will have repressurized the hangar before they exit, so the others can charge them once we start the attack.”

  Grieg nodded. “That sounds like a good plan. How much time do we have?”

  “Excuse me. Gunny?” Curtis said.

  Alex hadn’t seen the Captain slip up to him. No one had mentioned what had happened in the control room, but Curtis knew. He knew and he was broken by it. Alex had seen it before.

  “Do you think… I mean, I think I should be one of the ones to take that risk.”

  Alex shot a quick glance at Grieg. The tough special forces soldier gave Alex a single, curt nod.

  “I think that is an excellent idea, Captain. You and Grieg probably need to go get ready now.”

  Curtis smiled and stood. When his eyes fell across Fleischer’s body, his smile faltered and he quickly looked away.

  “Come, Captain, let’s get ready,” Grieg said.

  Alex watched them go. He knew that Grieg was professional and was giving Curtis a chance to redeem his actions.

  “Gunny!” Hopkins called.

  Alex looked around and saw Hopkins motioning to him. Liao was standing in the doorway practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

  Alex hurried over to them.

  “What is it?”

  “I can get access to their main communications system. I don’t think we can transmit voice, but I think we can send text communication,” Liao said.

  “Show me,” Alex said as he headed down the hall.

  “Should I stay here?” asked Hopkins.

  “Yes, if the ship comes, I’ll rush back,” Alex shouted over his shoulder.

  Alex hurried to catch up with Liao who had run on ahead.

  The Chinese soldier stood by the console as Alex entered the small medical facility.

  “Here is where we can access the communication system,” Liao said as Alex sat down. “We don’t appear to have a way to transmit voice, but this clearly looks like a way for text to go out.”

  Alex watched the screen as Liao went through what he had discovered in the few minutes he had access to the Otina station.

  “So we type in our message, and then do what?” Alex asked.

  “If we click this here, it will broadcast,” Liao said.

  “In general?”

  “I believe so. This is how we can chose to send a message to someplace specific. I believe if you leave it open, anyone can pick it up.”

  “We can use it like a distress signal.”

  “Yes, but the Otina might be the only ones listening into this frequency,” Liao said.

  “Can you adjust the frequency?”

  “Yes, it is right here.”

  Liao showed Alex the screen that had a strange series of figures, but it was clear that they were settings and numbers for transmission.

  “Excellent. I have no idea how to read that, but I think you are correct. That looks right.”

  The sound of shouts made both men turn their heads.

  “The ship!” Liao said as he rushed for the door.

  Alex jumped up from the seat in front of the console and chased after Liao.

  When Alex ran into the barracks, he saw Manny watching the fight down the short hallway. Alex smiled at his friend and turned to see Liao run through the mosar field separating the hangar from the rest of the compound.

  Curtis suddenly appeared in front of the glowing energy field. He was pushing and grappling with an Otina. The alien seemed frantic. It clawed at Curtis’s hands as the Captain shoved it right into the mosar field.

  Alex stopped cold as he watched the Otina disappear into the field. The Captain stepped away from the doorway.

  “That is the fourth one he has killed that way, Alex,” Manny said.

  Alex knew that the Iltia’cor wasn’t a warrior, but he had always taken death with a sense of stoicism. This time, Manny sounded hurt and sad at what had happened.

  Jeffries and Singh both walked back through the field and stopped in front of Alex.

  “Gunny, I don’t know if Curtis should be in charge anymore,” Jeffries said.

  “I agree with the Lieutenant,” added Singh. “Grieg allowed him to take charge of the ship, but he executed those Otina. We could have thrown them in the holding cell.”

  “I’ll talk with him,” Alex said. “Lieutenant Jeffries, I would suggest that you prepare yourself to take command.”

  Singh rubbed his eyes and Jeffries twisted his shoulder around while Alex spoke.

  “Are you guys okay?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah, just felt warm going through the field,” Singh said. “My eyes started burning and my lungs have felt heavy since then.”

  “Same here,” Jeffries added. “And I felt a pop in my shoulder.”

  “Must be something in the field,” Alex said. “Maybe they added an extra bonus to affect humans.”

  “I don’t know,” Jeffries said. “I could… feel it, maybe? That’s about the closest I can say, I could feel it when I went through. When I came back, I expected to feel the field again, but I didn’t. When I came back through it was just like going through a mosar field like before.”

  “How many fields have you gone through?”

  “About six during the war,” Jeffries said.

  �
�Six? I didn’t know you were a ground pounder.” Alex said.

  “I wasn’t, I was a load support specialist, but I got put into an engineering team. We had to go through breach drills. I went through the fields in training.”

  Alex nodded. “Odd. Is everyone having the same symptoms?”

  “Seems like it,” Singh said.

  “Liao thinks he may have figured out a way to send a signal using the computer here. Let Hopkins look at the controls on that boat and see if he can lower this mosar field. We need to get the aliens on board and take off as soon as possible,” Alex told Singh.

  “Want me to go get Captain Curtis?” Jeffries asked.

  “Yeah, you get Captain Curtis and Grieg. Listen to Grieg’s advice when you inform the captain of your belief that he isn’t capable of command anymore. I am going with Liao back to the med bay to see if we can’t get a signal out.”

  Alex left Jeffries with a very uncomfortable assignment, but he knew that the Lieutenant would do the job in a careful manner. Jeffries had a good head on his shoulder and a winning way with people. He wasn’t one to constantly point out what couldn’t be done, which was refreshing for someone like Alex who was always thinking of the challenges before him.

  Alex looked over at Manny as he was leaving the barracks. The large alien looked upset and bewildered.

  Alex took two steps out of the room and stopped. He went back to the doorway of the barracks.

  “Manny,” Alex said. “Would you mind coming to the med bay with me? You can read a little of the Otina language, right?”

  Manny shook his head. “Not much, Alex. I never studied it and have only seen a few pieces of their writing.”

  “Come on anyway, if you can get us even another piece of information, that will be helpful.”

  Manny looked down at Davison. The Pelod wasn’t moving.

  “I don’t know if I should leave the Pelod,” Manny said.

  Alex understood. Manny had been able to keep his mind together by giving himself a mission. While the humans were trying to escape, Manny was trying to keep the Pelod alive.

  “We’ll take them with us,” Alex said. He stepped over to Levin and helped the alien to his feet.

  Manny picked up Davison and the four of them started the trip down to the med bay.