Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2)

by Jessica Gunn

  Her stare sent a freezing chill down my spine. “We don’t have a Return Piece,” she said through gritted teeth as I applied the pad and tied it. She yelped when I pulled it tight. “I’ll survive this, but I won’t survive the Atlanteans if we can’t get home. You won’t, either.”

  We’d probably be considered traitors and left for dead, not that it mattered if they planned to eventually kill the SeaSat5 crew anyway. I’d rather die than let them be in danger again. “Then let’s find a Return Piece, okay?”

  She nodded. “We thought it might have been a crane, correct? What are the odds it’s still in the room with the station?”

  I hadn’t thought of that, and I didn’t remember seeing one when we were in there before. But the lights were so bright and the adrenaline so high. “We should go back.”

  “Not until we clear the rest of the rooms first,” Sophia said.

  “Chelsea!” Josh had gone on ahead while I patched up Sophia. Now he yelled into his radio piece. “Get in here. Now.”

  His insistence, the edge in his voice, made my muscles tense and a black pit form deep in my chest. Whatever he found wasn’t going to be good.

  Sophia and I made our way down the corridor in the direction they went until TAO soldiers waved us on. They directed us into a holding room where some of the science staff stood on the far wall. Josh kneeled on the ground to my right, stooped over someone on the floor. He performed vigorous compressions, bending down to give breath every few seconds. The person beneath him didn’t respond.

  Someone said my name, a voice I hadn’t heard in years, but my attention zeroed in on what was happening before me, who Josh was trying to revive. Compression after compression, breath after breath, and the person didn’t move. I felt helpless as Josh’s attempts became futile with every passing moment. I swallowed hard and knelt on the person’s other side.

  “Wake up,” I whispered to him.

  “They said he just went down during the attack,” Josh informed me. “Said they’ve been questioning him for months now. Something about a… a memory device?” Josh dove down to give Captain Marks another breath, even while his own ran ragged. “They said he collapsed when we came through.”

  Obviously. But if we could get him out of here, Captain Marks would be fine. The torture would stop and it’d all be over. I survived the Altern Device, and so had Trevor…. but we’d only used it once.

  He’d be fine. He had to be fine. He was the Captain for God’s sake.

  I reached out and grabbed his hand. What were they using his memory to search for? SeaSatellite5 was here. They had the station and they knew where I was. What more could they possibly have needed?

  He’d be fine. No one would die today.

  Except people already had.

  Captain Marks’s eyes shot open and he coughed and coughed and coughed. Josh fell back onto his ass and wiped his sweat-covered upper lip. I reached a hand behind my captain’s head and helped him sit up. When he looked at me, it was with wide, wild eyes, which startled me given all the composure he’d shown during the hijacking. Panic spiked in my system, setting my veins on fire. What else was wrong?

  “Chelsea?” he asked.

  Nothing. Nothing else was wrong. I wouldn’t allow it. “Captain.”

  “What…?”

  I shook my head. “No time. I’ll bring you right to the Infirmary.” My fingers itched up to my radio. “Captain Marks found. Delivering to Infirmary. Code red.”

  Hopefully some of the medical staff would be there. Either way, he needed help. And rest.

  “I don’t understand,” Captain Marks said.

  My expression softened. “I know. But there’s no time. Trevor and I are here with help. We’re going to get everyone home.”

  I could almost see his thoughts churning as confusion and terror danced on his features. Finally he settled on a look of determination. “You have the Comm.”

  I grinned. “Already do. Devins is pissed.”

  He chuckled at the thought.

  ’d been so focused on getting all the needed systems up and running again, I almost missed the best news since learning Chelsea made it out of bullet-wound surgery two years ago. They found Captain Marks. He was dubbed a code red, but he was found. I silently thanked any and every higher power up there for it.

  Seconds later, Chelsea and Sophia appeared with the last of the crew in tow. I gave the signal for Johnston to put up the shield. We had everyone, with no SeaSat5 casualties. Two TAO soldiers didn’t make it, lost in the initial firefight.

  The only thing keeping us here now was a Return Piece.

  Was that all?

  I allowed myself ten seconds of deep breathing to steady my nerves, then went back to typing madly on my keyboard. Virus aside, they didn’t touch much of the other coding and internal systems. Johnston was already working on getting rid of the virus, which left me basically waiting for marching orders. We couldn’t do anything else unless Chelsea and Sophia found a Return Piece, and even then, I couldn’t do anything to help on that front unless the map in my head decided to behave—both in showing up and not crippling me the moment it did so.

  “Trevor, you have five seconds to get ready,” Chelsea said as she crossed the Bridge to me. Sophia followed closely, holding Chelsea’s hand.

  “What?”

  She reached out and grabbed my arm. A waterfall of blue lights swallowed us whole, blinding me. In an instant we were somewhere new, somewhere outside the station. Instead of looking up at SeaSat5 like before, we observed it from three stories above the highest point. I turned to Chelsea, demanding an answer. Then I realized the room we stood in was filled with consoles. It looked like an oversized version of the inside of a bulldozer, with panels and joysticks layering every inch of the walls. Computers lined the panels, too, but they had see-through screens and holographic displays and laser keyboards. Like something out of a sci-fi flick, advanced even beyond the Altern Device and Germay’s people.

  “Stop ogling her and start figuring her out.” Chelsea pointed out the window. “See that crane? We need it to grip SeaSat5 again, like it did before.”

  I stepped toward the row of panels along the wall with the glass windows that overlooked SeaSat5. Even after three years the sight of her took my breath away. It wasn’t often I had this view from the outside of the station I helped to build. I let only a few moments of pride surface before I surveyed the controls. How did they expect me to know how this all worked?

  They didn’t. But they counted on me to do it anyway. This was my thing, and we knew something like this had to have been involved. I gave the panels a once-over, then looked to Chelsea. “I have no idea where to start. How did you even find this place?

  “Accident,” Chelsea said as she looked down at SeaSat5. “Or on purpose. I haven’t decided yet. But you can see the room from the ground.”

  “Too easy,” Sophia mumbled. “They must not think we can do it.”

  “Or it’s all a trap to keep their hold on the station and add two super soldiers to their ranks,” Chelsea said. “Or they want Trevor and me. They were torturing Captain Marks with a memory device. If Germay wanted a way to the station, it’s possible these guys think the destination on the other side of this Link Piece is worth the risk of us taking it.”

  “What could SeaSat5 possibly lead to that’s that important?” I asked. We thought they wanted SeaSat5 for the Link Piece cache. Could it be that the station linked to something greater?

  “I don’t know,” Chelsea said. “Now’s not the time to ponder it.”

  She was right. I spun and went to work on the systems, but everything was written in Atlantean. “Chelsea, can you help me read this?”

  “Really shouldn’t,” she said. “I’d rather keep an eye on the door. The ease of this rescue is pissing me off.”

  Sophia hurried over. “I’ll translate, you poke buttons. I can read faster than Chelsea, anyway.” My stomach churned again, my insides sloshing about. If Sophia had ab
andoned her defensive post to help me, I must have looked like hell thanks to the plague.

  I wasn’t sure how long we stood there, how long it took us to do it, but eventually I flipped a switch and the crane came to life. Using the joystick, I moved the crane carefully, slowly, until the grips grabbed the station. Then I glanced at Sophia. “Now what? Is the crane a Link Piece?”

  She shook her head and moved to a panel near the wall she previously occupied. A screen above her lit up and she entered in information.

  “What are you doing?”

  “It looks similar to the Altern Device controls. Dr. Hill’s vest cam caught Germay’s motions the entire time. This”—she pointed to the console in front of her—“is the same.” She typed in the coordinates of the berths the Navy had set up for our return, including the date and time of our departure. “All that’s left is the connection.”

  But Sophia’s eyes clouded with doubt. I raised my eyebrows in question. She nodded in response. She thought my mind couldn’t handle another bout with an Altern Device-like machine, given my recent… condition.

  “Just because you two are having a silent conversation doesn’t mean I don’t hear Trevor’s side of it,” Chelsea snapped from the doorway. “What’s the Altern Device got to do with it?”

  I swallowed hard and Sophia turned to Chelsea. “We know it makes Link Pieces, that’s what they were trying to do with you. This panel over here is similar, but instead of two separate stations, they’re hand scan ports. One of you needs to hook in and use a memory to make a connection. I think TAO’s only scratched the surface of what’s possible for Link Piece travel.”

  It’s probably what they did to Captain Marks, I thought.

  “I’ll do it,” Chelsea said, stepping away from the door.

  “No, I will,” I said.

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Sophia asked me. Of course she was worried.

  “We don’t have another choice,” I said. “You and Chelsea need to be able to send us home. Plus, I have more of a connection to the Navy yard at Pearl anyway.”

  “That is my fear,” Sophia said.

  I walked over to the machine before either of them could argue against it, and slid my hands into the palm readers. A scanner ran up and down the length of my palm and fingers before tiny needles pricked into my hands. I hissed.

  “What?” Chelsea asked.

  “Finger pricks,” was all I could get out before everything in my vision turned to puzzle pieces and blue hues. This was different from the first time, and Sophia was right to be wary. The Waterstar map spread out before me as a puzzle, and beyond it were my memories of Pearl. One in particular.

  I walked the boardwalk along the ocean alone. Alone because Valerie was gone, and she was my usual companion here. Somewhere beyond the eye’s line of sight sat SeaSatellite5, cloaked and waiting for its new crew to return from shore leave after the hijacking, but before setting sail again.

  Pearl, the last place I always visited before drastic change.

  The machine beeped and the needles retreated from my palm. I retracted my hands and looked at them. Bloody dots lined the grooves like a map of my fortune. Some palm reader. “Did it work?”

  “I think so,” Sophia said. “It’s set for our home-time.”

  Didn’t know you missed Valerie so much, Chelsea thought.

  I don’t miss her. I miss simplicity. And it was true.

  Amen.

  “We’re good to go then,” Chelsea said. “To go home.” I could hardly believe it.

  “There’s just one more thing,” Sophia said as she jogged to a massive lever on a side wall. “They grabbed you all out of water, right?”

  Chelsea and I looked to each other than back to Sophia. “Yeah,” I said. “Why?”

  “Is the shield operable?” she asked in return.

  “Yes,” Chelsea answered.

  “Then like conditions will make the Return trip easier, also docking.” Sophia yanked the level down. “They must have planned for that, hence the wobbly station while the room’s dry.”

  “Oh!” Chelsea said. “We’ve got to get to the top of the grip, anyway, right?”

  Sophia smiled, then they each grabbed one of my arms and teleported us up there.

  Water rushed the station beneath us, filling up the tank SeaSatellite5 sat in. It was easy to see now that the room was a tank. Viewing the chamber from the very top of SeaSat5 made that very clear. Sophia, Chelsea, and I stood on the top outside-most portion of SeaSatellite5. I wondered how Chelsea was positively not freaking out right now. We were high, stories and stories from the ground floor without the comfort of solid footing beneath us. If we fell from here we wouldn’t make it. I shook off some water and found a handhold. Chelsea had her mouth pressed to her radio, barking orders to those on the Bridge. She had to shout to be heard over the water torrents.

  “Brace for travel and immediate berthing,” she shouted. “Everyone should grab onto something solid if they can. And keep the damn shield up, no matter what anyone up here says or whatever happens.”

  I was about to hop on and warn about the potential issues with berthing when something utterly solid connected with the back of my legs. I fell forward, sliding down along the wet outer hull of SeaSatellite5. A shout made its way past my lips as I struggled to grab onto something, anything to keep from slipping over the edge. My fingers caught part of the Heli-dome’s outer casing and I hauled myself back up.

  Chelsea and Sophia fought a group of Atlantean soldiers who’d also teleported up here, and they looked to be every bit as strong and cunning as the two of them. One looked like he was bear-hugging Sophia from behind. She bent over and threw him toward me. I backed up and drew my sidearm, raised it and shot. He went down. Three to go.

  Sophia struggled with another, and I waited for an opening. As soon as he was far enough from her, I shot him, too. He fell to his knees and went to pull a weapon, but she kicked him off the edge of the station. He slid down it, screaming, until water drowned his shouting.

  We turned back to find Chelsea on one of the soldier’s back, arm swung around his throat as she pulled backward. The guy tried to throw her off, but she kept her grip, dangling there too short to reach the ground. The guard finally started to go down as Sophia came to Chelsea’s rescue, but Chelsea snapped the guard’s neck before Sophia actually got there. The snap echoed despite the rushing water. The rawness, the level of uncaring in the act struck me hard. That Chelsea, even if self-defense, could kill so ruthlessly.

  Chelsea went on the offensive with the second guard. She kicked him in the groin and relentlessly attacked him. Sophia stepped in, bringing a ring of water around his throat like a rope, choking him until he passed out. Chelsea pounced on top of him and beat his face.

  For Truman. For Michael. Each word a punch. You sons. Of bitches.

  I ran to her and yanked back on her shoulders. “Chelsea.”

  She kept swinging and punching and beating. But with every single blow, the hull beneath the man fractured. Like she’d hit him with the force of a truck. Blood ran from his mouth, his ears.

  What in the hell?

  “Chelsea,” I shouted. “Chelsea, stop! You’re crushing him!”

  But she kept beating away. For. Michael. For. Truman. Over and over again. Every thought led to a punch and every punch to a blow that sunk the man’s body into the hull, splintering the metal.

  I looked to Sophia who stood there, watching in horror as Chelsea completely lost it. I tugged on her arm. “Sophia, do something.”

  Sophia’s eyes popped wide. “A fourth.”

  “What?” I asked her.

  Sophia shook her head and rushed Chelsea.

  “Chelsea?” Commander Devins said over the radio.

  Sophia came behind her and together we hauled Chelsea off the poor bastard. His face was unrecognizable, a mess of blood and swollen tissue. The rest of his body melded with the hull.

  “It’s time,” Sophia said. “We need to
go. Pull yourself together.”

  Chelsea’s eyes were a wildfire, devastating and unpredictable. She was ripping pissed, adrenaline dripping from her in sweat droplets. She wiped her mouth and nose in one motion with the back of her hand. Her knuckles were torn and bloody. She looked so unlike the Chelsea I used to know, I backed off a few steps. I knew the Atlantean super soldier switch had flipped in them both, but it didn’t explain this. Chelsea had become someone else. Something else entirely.

  Sophia and Chelsea knelt down beside each other, and Chelsea grabbed onto her radio. “Give us a few seconds.”

  I knelt down beside them and grabbed hold of one of the utility ladders, pressing my feet against the rung below it. Chelsea and Sophia closed their eyes and, as they did, I saw the Waterstar map, too. It sprang to life in front of me in the way they must see it every time they traveled through time by Link Piece. Blues and lines and fog and numbers, all of it mixing together into something I still couldn’t comprehend or ever hope to understand.

  My head pounded, a splitting pain shot through my neck and chest. I forced myself not to loosen my grip on the utility ladder. If I let go mid-jump I’d be gone for good.

  The world around us zipped by, straight into something new and familiar. The Hawaiian sun shown bright above us for a few seconds, beating down on my face until something blotted it out. The roar of jets throttled against my eardrums, my nose assaulted by sea-salted air. I thrust my hands to my ears to block out the sound.

  Chelsea and Sophia still knelt beside each other, starring into each other’s eyes as if in a trance. Loose hair from their ponytails blew wildly around them in the wind. Then, like a spinning top running out of power, Chelsea and Sophia fell over, fainting on the metal hull.

  osh was there when I woke up. His calloused fingers stroked my palm and I relished the intimacy of the act. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  My head felt like the crap end of a jackhammer and everything ached, but otherwise I felt fine. “I feel like I drank a handle of tequila pre-powers days.”