by Jessica Gunn
Six, seven, eight. Everything checked out. I grunted. This was easy, way too easy. I’d brought along a stand-in Hummingbird control column, enough to butcher the old system, save what I could, and rewire something temporary. It wasn’t pretty, but all the system had to do was last an hour. Okay, it was more complicated than that. Ten minutes of fiddling later, the system beeped what I decided to take as an agreement. Then the light fizzled out.
I smacked the side of the console. My palm stung. “What’s wrong with you? Just hold a damn charge!”
“Too much duct tape,” Johnston, a fellow TAO engineer, said. “We didn’t have enough time to—”
“No, I don’t think it’s that,” I said. My work might have been a mess, but it wasn’t non-functional. I refused to believe it was. I fished my tablet out of my pack and plugged it into the old console, sifting through line after line of code. A big red flag waved itself at me. “Ah-hah.”
“What?” Johnston asked.
I ignored him, too busy reading the bullshit in front of me. “Sons of bitches.”
“Trevor?”
Holding up my tablet for him to see, I said, “They tried to fix it, to repair Hummingbird. Why, I have no idea, but they tried and they cannibalized the system. It’s near inoperable.”
He read a few lines then turned to give orders to his engineering team. The Atlanteans repaired parts of the system, but their fix tied some of the other station’s systems together, ones that weren’t meant to be synthesized. You could run the Hummingbird shield or communications, life support or weapons. Which meant our original plan of the Bird or Shield worked fine, but everything else…
I tapped my radio speaker button. “Chelsea, we’ve got a problem.”
“Yeah, I see it,” she said back. “I wasn’t sure what it meant at first, but Josh explained some of the code.”
This guy understood a lot, didn’t he?
“Yeah. So, problem,” I said into my radio.
“No,” Chelsea said. “Shield and life support, the plan doesn’t change. Drop communications. We can work this without it.”
“We’ll need weapons.”
“We’ll have to do without,” she said. “If we can get back to our own home-time, we should be fine.” Maybe. All we had were ships and armies, both things that would take time to arrive if we were attacked in our home-time.
“If you say so.” What happened if they got to us before the military sent anyone to defend SeaSatellite5?
“Get to the Bridge,” she said. “I’ll meet you there. Hurry. They messed with more than the main system. It looks like they inputted a virus as part of their repair system.”
I flipped through lines of code on my tablet. That wasn’t exactly what they did. The virus was new. Like last few minutes new. “We’re running out of time. The Atlanteans launched the virus minutes ago.”
“Get to the Bridge so we can get this show on the road.” Her voice was tight, words terse. “I’ll meet you there. Scans say there’re only a few dozen other people on board. It’s hard to say if they’re SeaSat5 crew or not, but we should be able to take them if they’re Atlantean. I’ll meet you on the Bridge.”
Only a few dozen? Too easy. I’d take a quick escape, but the coming victory didn’t sit right. My stomach churned. “Johnston, stay here with your team and keep an eye on the new Bird system. Something’s not right.”
His face grew hard, accepting the same facts. “You going to the Bridge?”
I nodded. “Yes. Work on stabilizing this thing.”
“You can’t go alone. No way,” he said as he stood. “This is stable enough.”
“I can handle myself.” I knew routes and short cuts the Atlanteans couldn’t possibly have worked out.
Johnston reached behind him and slung his gun off his shoulder. “Ever fire an M16 before?”
He really didn’t think I could get to the Bridge on my own. Irritation lit a fire inside of me, big and bright. Yeah, I wasn’t a soldier. I didn’t have powers. But dammit, I wasn’t useless. “Once or twice.”
Johnston held his gun out to me. “Good luck.”
I slung it around my shoulder and thanked him before exiting Engineering. I made quick work of the inner column of stairs, and climbed up three flights before hitting resistance. My back smacked against a wall as I retreated a few feet. I swung around the corner and fired. Only a single Atlantean guard stood in my path. Of all the times we’ve faced opposition on missions, this was the first I’d fired on another person. I squashed the guilt, stashed it away for later, and poked around the corner to fire again. So did the Atlantean guard. Pain sliced through my arm, sharp like a lightning strike. I ignored it as the guard dropped to the ground. I fell back against the wall, gasping for breath through the pain. I’d never killed before. Never been shot before, either.
More gunshots rang out and I couldn’t focus fast enough to see where they came from. I ducked down to the ground, sliding down the wall, unable to think straight. Guns. Death. Bullets.
“Trevor, stand up!”
I lifted my head at Chelsea’s voice. She was in this firestorm? I stood and brought my weapon up, determined to find and fight alongside her. I opened fire on two more Atlantean guards, but they dropped before my bullets hit them, leaving mine to sink into a wall.
Josh came into view, clearing the hallway of the other guards that approached in three clean headshots. Chelsea went the opposite way and Dr. Hill hung back. I stood there, eyes wide.
When Josh finished he came up to me. “You okay?”
I tossed my shoulders back, which sent pain shooting down one arm. I winced. “I’m fine.”
His hand closed around my wounded arm. “You’re shot.”
“It’s fine.” Last thing I wanted was him patching me up.
Josh turned my arm, ignoring my words. “Looks like the bullet went straight through.” He reached into his vest and pulled out a pad with ties. “Let’s get it wrapped to stop the bleeding.”
I tugged my arm out of his grasp and scooped up the pad with my free hand. “I said I’m fine, man.” Even though my arm now burned red hot as my adrenaline spike leveled off.
Stop the pissing contest and wrap your damn arm. Chelsea’s thought slammed into me.
I shot a glance at her. She stood facing away from us, watching our six. Pissing contest. Whatever.
Focus on the mission.
My eyes narrowed. Josh’s did, too. He must have sensed our silent conversation. As frustrating as it was to have Chelsea constantly in my head, it must have been worse for him, not knowing what we said. I wrapped my arm myself and we left.
By the time we’d made it to the Bridge, the scene was chaos. Sophia had dropped off Commander Devins, Helen, Freddy, and some other staff members, and left again. As soon as Chelsea and I stepped onto the Bridge, Freddy ran up to us and wrapped Chelsea in the biggest of bear hugs. She wrapped her arms around him, too, and cried. Freddy looked at me over her shoulder and nodded.
“Good to see you, too,” I said before I rushed to a station and plugged in my tablet. Johnston must have stabilized the shield by now because whenever Sophia left, the code marked the shield turning off and on again. I tapped my radio. “Johnston, can you handle letting Sophia in each time?”
“Yes. Worry about the rest, I got this,” he responded.
Good man. Wish I’d had him as my co-manager two years ago instead of Dave. How different things might have been.
“What’s going on?” Freddy asked.
Chelsea pulled back from Freddy. “We don’t have time to explain.” She slung off her backpack and dug around inside. She pulled out a stack of discs and sifted through them. When she found the NANA one, she offered it to him. “Run this through NANA. You’ll know what to do from there.”
Freddy nodded and retreated to his Navigations and Analytics station. Commander Devins approached me with an expression that said he didn’t know what was going on, didn’t want to know what’s going on, and was too af
raid to ask.
“Commander?”
His gaze fixed on Chelsea. “Is this the help you left to get?”
“They day the station was taken?” I asked him. “Yeah.”
The Commander’s face fell, his eyebrows bunching deeply. “It’s been two years, and we just… they moved us, kept trying to get us to repair and…” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“There’s no time to explain,” Chelsea said. “Please just let Trevor and I call the shots until we’re back home, and I’ll explain then.”
Commander Devins sucked in a slow, patience-seeking breath. The poor guy was coming undone. The normally uptight, follow-the-rules Commander had no playbook for this situation. “I don’t—”
“We haven’t found Captain Marks yet,” I said. “But officially this mission is under our control, final say given by Major Pike, U.S. Army. But we’re calling the shots.”
“If you haven’t found the Captain, I’m in charge,” Devins argued.
Chelsea stepped forward. “With all due respect, you have no idea what’s going on. I’m glad you’re safe, and I’m beyond happy to finally be able to rescue SeaSatellite5, sir, but kindly step aside. You’ll only have to deal with us for a few more minutes.”
“They can handle it,” Weyland cut in. I hadn’t noticed him tucked at a weapons console until then.
The Commander’s brow wrinkled. “Lieutenant?”
“Not anymore, sir,” Weyland said. “Just know we’re here to save you.”
“Why are you up there?” I asked Weyland.
“Trying something. I know the system’s useless but…” He trailed off and went back to work.
“Weyland’s right, sir.”
Everyone’s heads whipped around to the entrance of the Bridge at the sound of that voice. Deep. Raspy. Familiar.
Traitorous.
etting my backpack onto a chair nonchalantly was the easy part. Sliding my hands into it was harder. My fingers searched for the device I hoped Trevor remembered to pack for me, the one we briefly discussed making because no one knew if Dave could be trusted.
Almost everyone on the Bridge had their weapons pointed at Dave, the betrayer and savior of SeaSatellite5. Without him, we may have never made it back here to save them. Without him, we wouldn’t have been taken at all.
“Step back,” Josh shouted at him. “Stay away from the consoles.” He likely had the barrel of his gun aimed at Dave’s head, and I knew Josh would take the shot if Dave so much as moved an inch. To him, it didn’t matter what Dave knew.
“Don’t,” I told him. “We need his intel. Stand down.”
Josh nodded almost imperceptibly and lowered his gun, but he still stood at the ready. “Just don’t want him rehashing what happened here two years ago.”
Dave took a step, prompting a slew of gun readjustments. He continued as if he hadn’t noticed them. “If I wanted you all dead and the station destroyed, why would I help you get here?”
“To put me and Trevor in one place at the same time,” I spat. Then the Lemurian traitor and his super soldier girlfriend would be dead. “Things are a lot different now, Dave.”
Have it ready? Trevor asked.
My fingers closed around the end of the object I’d been discreetly searching for. I pushed them down around the metal-coated device, searching for the switch. I found and turned it on while pulling the machine out of my bag. I placed it on top of the station in front of me.
“What’s that?” Dave asked, but the way he took a step back said he already knew.
“It puts us at an advantage this time.” I looked to Eric and Weyland. “Keep this nearby every time you move him. If he’s got powers, it’ll cut off his access to them.”
Trevor and I managed to devise a portable power-cutting machine. Basically an EMF field generator. Swap the settings a bit and you could easily disable me, too. We considered it an acceptable risk.
“You’re making terrible mistakes,” Dave said. Almost pleaded, really. His face was stricken, and he stood somewhat hunched, like someone had kicked him in the balls.
“We’ll talk about what you know after,” Trevor said. Back to work.
I nodded and turned back to the lower NANA station I occupied, and got to work. Freddy sat at his main station nearby.
My radio blared to life, causing me to jump out of my seat at the sudden intrusion of noise. Two more senior staff members and a group of scientists were found and being delivered, but still no Captain Marks. What had they done to him? What had he volunteered himself to withstand in his crew’s stead?
“He’s alive,” Dave said.
I glanced at Trevor. Was Dave suddenly telepathic, too? The device should have stopped even that. “Who is?”
Dave shrugged and slinked back further into the chair Josh sat him in. “You’ve found everyone except Captain Marks and a handful of others.”
“Not everyone’s on board,” I said. I felt the need to defend and clarify everything against his words. Dave had screwed us hard the first time. I wasn’t going to let him do it again.
“Commander Devins is over there having an anxiety attack about not being in command. It’s Captain Marks you’re looking for.”
Weyland rose from the weapons station and stepped between us, purposely facing me. “Our mission doesn’t depend on finding the Captain.”
Something, an unknown force, squeezed my heart and lungs. Weyland was right; we didn’t need Captain Marks to get out of here. But I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t leave any member of his crew behind. Even if we got everyone else back and SeaSatellite5 was safe, losing Captain Marks was unacceptable. I shook my head slowly. “We’ll find him.”
The station rocked sideways, catching everyone off-balance. The world tilted along with the station. However the Atlanteans had us propped up, it wasn’t stable. I caught myself before the motion slammed my face into the floor and pulled myself up. Dave got free and came straight for me. I planted my feet as people shouted all around.
“You need my help,” he said, inches from my face.
I shoved him hard and he stumbled backward before coming for me again. I readied to punch him square in the jaw and said, “We have a plan to get home. Once we’re there, you can explain. Until then, back off.”
Dave towered over me in height, but I wasn’t scared. Josh was big, too. So was Freddy. Most everyone compared to me seemed like a giant, except Trevor and Helen. Dave’s glare ripped through me, but I wasn’t having it this time.
“Fine,” Dave said. “But don’t come to me if you need to know how to get back.”
So he did know how the Atlanteans managed to grab the entire station back then. Shit, Trevor…
“We don’t need him,” Trevor said from across the Bridge. “Go find Sophia and help her look for a way back. We’ve got enough people here to prep the station.”
With Freddy back, that was true. Still, it felt like a job half-done.
I looked from Trevor to Dave and back again, my eyes lingering way too long on the man who was once mine before the station was taken. Before Josh. Before Michael died. Before Thompson screwed the both of us up for good. In this moment, none of it mattered. I didn’t want to leave Trevor alone with Dave, with an uncertain ending to this mission.
Go, Trevor thought. I’ll be fine. He waved his USB drive, which happened to be green. Green meant go. “And grab Josh.”
My head lifted ever so slightly, my jaw setting. Why?
Backup. The SeaSat5 crew and TAO soldiers need to stay here, and I don’t trust anyone else to watch your back.
I couldn’t stop myself from asking, Really?
Trevor nodded. Really. Go.
I wanted to tell him to stop making it so easy to walk away from him, but the words caught in my throat. He’d made it easy for me to walk away, sure, but now I had his blessing regarding Josh? It was strange and silly and stupid, and I was pretty sure he was only mocking me.
Then I understood. He thought Dave had
something up his sleeve. He didn’t think we’d make it out of here alive.
I nodded to Josh and we readied our weapons. His large, warm hand closed around my smaller hand and he squeezed once. Our eyes met only briefly, his golden brown gaze completely overwhelming me like the first breath of fresh air when you thought you’d drown for good. Everything, all of it—adrenaline, anxiety, hope, fear, power—was too much, and before I let myself cry, I closed my eyes and thought of Sophia.
Everything happening outside the station was way more chaotic than inside. The second Josh and I landed next to Sophia, she shoved me down and into Josh. We fell to the floor in a heap with bullets whizzing by our heads. Josh rolled out from under me and onto his knees, returning fire. His instincts were quicker than mine, his control over his reactions better trained. It took me too many long seconds to swallow down my usual reaction to bullets and concentrate enough to do much of anything. But once those seconds were up, so was I.
I tugged on Sophia’s arm and we moved forward, Josh and the other soldiers’ cover fire at our backs. We pressed onward, foot by foot, as we took out Atlantean soldiers with fists and water and strength until we cleared the corridor.
“This is one of the few we haven’t cleared yet.” Sophia’s breathing was heavy, labored, her brow slick with sweat. Aside from the physical exertion of constant room-clearing and teleporting loads of people, something else wasn’t right with her. As she spun to take out another guard, I caught a glimpse of what that something was. I pulled her back behind Josh’s line of fire and pushed her against a wall.
“What the hell?” she snapped.
“Stay,” I said, hand held to her chest to keep her pinned. I ran my fingers over her side and up her ribcage. “You’re lucky it didn’t knick a lung.” I dug into my vest for a pad wrap like Josh had used on Trevor. Blood ran down her shirt. She’d lost her vest sometime before this. “Sophia, you should have hung back.”
