Nebula Nights: Love Among The Stars

by Melisse Aires

“I hope you’re right. I’ll get to the bridge and prepare those on the ship for what’s to come. You get down to the staging area, and make sure they are ready. I’m tempted to put Zaren in command of the mission, but I’ll leave that to your discretion, Commander.”

  Maddux nodded, and left the room. With purpose in every stride, he walked the halls between the conference room and the staging area on deck 8. He knew the importance of this mission. He also knew that the highest ranking officer going on this mission was Kala. She was expected to stand in her position, regardless of her own emotional state. He had faith in her. He only hoped she had the same faith in herself.

  When he entered the staging area, Cyrin was already running through pre-flight sequences. Zaren, Kala, Henessa, and Merx were reviewing basic armament equipment again. Sira and Keydra were reviewing the mission goals. Everyone turned to him, and focused when he began to speak.

  “Quick reminder. We are going down there to disrupt their process here. You have eight charges that need to be placed in the exact locations we discussed. Relocation will not pull you out of here. Once the charges are placed you all must make it back to the shuttle together. If you do not, there is nothing we can do to help you. Get in, place the charges and get out. We will set them off once we’re all together again.” Everyone acknowledged the orders. “Good. Move out.”

  Kala turned to everyone going to the surface with her. “I want to be on the surface in minutes.” She followed everyone onto the shuttle, but before it closed she turned to Maddux. ~Thank you for the confidence. I will do my job, Commander. I have the listening stone. There are other telepaths who also hold one. Please, make sure they have it handy, in case we need it. We’ll see you when we’re back.~

  She lifted her weapon, and stepped in the shuttle enough to allow it to close. She then joined the rest of her team. She took her seat at the front of the shuttle. Cyrin knew the unique abilities of the small ship thanks to Kei who took the time to train her in every aspect. Kala watched Cyrin run through the initial scan deflection program, then through the steps of identifying the eight targets on her own scanner. Once Kala noticed it come up she transmitted the locations to the handhelds each of them carried. “We have a job to do. Once we take out the base below, everyone needs to hustle back to the ship. There are seven of us, but I don’t want anyone going off on their own. Sira, that means you too.”

  “Understood, Commander,” Zaren spoke up with confidence.

  “Kala, do you have a specific team set-up in mind?” Henessa counted out charges to everyone, holding two on her own hip.

  Kala made eye contact with everyone as she responded, “Yes. Tol , Sar and Tan are together. Rixx, Lan and Fal are with me. Two teams, four charges each.”

  The engineer found himself questioning Kala’s choice. “You’re not concerned that a working relationship with a mate may hinder the mission?” Merx looked at Kala who clearly had confidence in her decision.

  “No, Merx. The two of you knew the mission before you got on this shuttle. Who else will make sure the other will get back here in one piece?”

  Henessa shot her mate a warning glance before she responded to Kala, “Anyone will. That’s what we’ve trained for, but I do understand your point.”

  Henessa began to remind everyone how the charges worked. She identified exactly how to attach it within seconds, and set the anti-detection shield when the charge was in place. She walked step-by-step through the process for everyone to assure it was fully understood.

  “Preparing to set down.” Cyrin informed. “I’m setting the cloak. You’ll each need your codes to enter the shuttle.” As she placed the shuttle down gently. “I’m setting the timer now. The battery won’t hold the cloak beyond twenty minutes. The timer will alert us when we have five minutes to get back here to avoid detection.” She then set the console into a lockdown mode, turned, and grabbed her own weapon.

  “How far are we from the base?” Kala asked. She cringed hearing the answer before Cyrin spoke it.

  Cyrin prepped her weapon as she answered, “We’re not. We’re in the middle of a training field, about three lengths from the hospital.”

  Kala knew they didn’t have the time to debate this, “Fine, let’s see what kind of cover we can find.”

  She stood up, and was the first to exit the shuttle. She was instantly relieved to see that the Enpassant had moved into position over the holding location on the base.

  She projected to her team. ~Maddux is providing the show, let’s move in.~

  She quickly walked the short distance between the shuttle, and the wall of the hospital facility. Her back pressed against the wall while she waited for her people to join her. She checked her handheld scanner, and looked at Henessa. ~We have fifteen minutes to be back here. Four of the charges are in for the back side, and far interior of the hospital. Those are yours. The Enpassant has that sector covered, drawing attention from any action you might take. I’ll take this side. Lean on Keydra to play with the optical spectrum as much as you can.~

  Henessa projected back to Kala. ~Consider it done. See you back here in fifteen.~ She, Merx, and Keydra slid down the back of the wall, and disappeared around the corner.

  Kala led her team through a side door into the hospital. It opened into a stairwell, and she huddled in the corner to wait on Zaren, Sira, and Cyrin. When they stood next to her she projected to all of them. ~There is an amalgamation in process. We can disrupt it, but we do so at the cost of the mission. Let’s set the charges first, then if we can save a few inside, we’ll do it.”

  Zaren nodded in acknowledgement, and lifted his fire arm. The others followed, and together they moved up the stairs to the top floor, avoiding the main traffic concentrations along the way. Zaren peeked out a window, and saw the security measures being taken to preserve the medical records. He whispered to Kala, “We have to blow the core of the computer facility to set off the primary chain reaction. We won’t do this without taking lives. The security is far too many.”

  Kala cringed inwardly before an idea came to her. “Not true. I can subdue them. Many at once, but I’ll need protection while I do it.”

  Cyrin looked away in frustration, and then returned her eyes to the Commander. “Kala, no matter what we do, people are going to die on this mission. Ours or theirs, someone will die. Even if you knock them out telepathically, you’re leaving them in this hospital to die with the explosion.”

  Kala looked back at Cyrin. “No, that’s not the case. You’re going to communicate with the computer system, and instruct the Cybernetic version of a relocation machine to move all non android beings out of the hospital to a safe distance away.”

  Frustrated, and nearly out of a whisper, Cyrin snapped, “You want me to what?!”

  “Show us those incredible computer skills you enjoy bragging about.” Sira smirked, “She’ll need all of the systems to be routed together to make that work with so many people. That’s where I’ll come in. And yes, I’ve been studying what we know about Cybernetic technology since we started this mission. Well, when I wasn’t trying to figure that machine out.”

  Kala stared at her, astonished. “Sira, do you ever sleep?”

  Sira shrugged and readied her weapon.

  Kala had to fight back a smile, to keep her mind on the mission. Briefly she telepathically checked in with Henessa and filled her in on the plan. Henessa understood the goal and agreed to arrange a similar approach.

  Kala took a deep breath as she glanced at her team. “We don’t have much time.”

  She opened the door and entered the floor, gaining attention quickly. Kala focused on, and connected with as many minds as she could. Each mind connected to was forced to sleep. Successively, as her people moved about the floor, Kala repeated the process with every waking, non Xenonian mind she could reach. Within moments of her touching their minds, they were unconscious, but alive.

  “I’ve got the first charge placed.” Zaren spoke to her, and turned to Cyrin who was wor
king the master controls with her uniquely electrical personal touch. “She’s busy with the commands and I believe Sira is adjusting the main chips, however if I’m reading this correctly,” He pointed to a monitor, “we’re about to get a lot more company. I’ll help to hold off what I can, but you may be over exerting yourself before you know it.”

  Kala said nothing, only reached for the oncoming minds, and started to help them find a coma-like sleep quickly. She ignored the pain that was growing in her head, and pushed passed the wall of exhaustion that was threatening her. She lifted her weapon and stepped away from the control section.

  “We need to protect them while they work. I’ve done as many as I can right at this moment. The rest are up to Henessa. “

  Zaren stood next to Kala and prepared for what was about to enter the floor through the same door they’d slipped through minutes prior. Both of them held their weapons trained on the doorway, focused and prepared.

  Kala had an idea, and turned to Zaren. “You can bend metal right?”

  He nodded, “At times.”

  “Good. Can you bend that door, just enough that they can’t get through?” Kala looked at him without lowering her weapon.

  He smiled and bowed his head before focusing on the doorway. With intensity in his eyes, Zaren put his full attention on the structure around the door. A deep scrapeing sound was heard. Part of the metal frame turned inward. One side buckled. He blinked away the increasing pain, knowing that Kala had to also be suffering. He refused to allow himself to succumb if his commander wouldn’t.

  Once he was satisfied with the work, Zaren looked over his shoulder at the computer command system. “Have you completed the task?”

  Cyrin looked up with a wicked smile. “I’m all set. There’s a single lift working in that direction. If we can defend it, we can use it.” She grabbed her firearm and walked toward the lift. “You ready, Sira?”

  “One more….” She moved a key code chip from one location to another, and she entered a series of commands. She hopped up and closed the doorway out of the command center. “Done. If my estimates are correct, we’ll need to give the system five minutes to clear the building and it won’t begin the process for another five. That means we have under ten to place the other three charges.”

  The four stepped into the lift, and descended to the next level of interest. As they stepped off, Kala resumed subduing the Cybernetic mind soldiers for as long as it was still possible. When the Cybernetics realized what was going on, they sent Androids after the team. Soon, the covert team was in a fire fight as they placed and set the second and third charge on either end of this floor.

  Zaren felt when Kala connected to him. He looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes, “As you wish, Commander.”

  The two of them stepped into the fray. Together, they worked quickly and with great precision as they had practiced. Within minutes, various android body parts separated from their torsos, and began to stack up. As they did, Cyrin and Sira fired on the parts as they backed into the lift to drop down to the ground floor for the last charge to be set.

  On the way down, Kala checked in with Henessa to find out they had made it back to the shuttle with a survivor. As she was about to provide the status of the other team, the five minute warning went off.

  “We’re running out of time. The other team is back in the shuttle. Let’s set this charge and go.”

  Cyrin looked at her. “No rescues then?”

  Kala shook her head just as the lift door opened, and they were face to face with a wall of Androids. “Maybe we should have thought to take another way down.”

  Sira closed the lift doors. “Now what? We’re not getting out that way and by now there are androids on every floor.”

  Zaren started to look at the walls. “I’d suggest we climb. If we can exit onto the roof, the shuttle can retrieve us.”

  Kala looked at him, and nodded in agreement. “Not a bad idea. Sira, how well can you direct that flame?”

  “With precision if I need to. Why?” Sira started to reach for the hatch, but was just shy of being able to. She felt her feet leave the ground for a moment, and she pushed the hatch open to an empty lift shaft above them. “We’re clear.”

  “Good to hear. Cyrin, go first. Any of the doors open, give them as much of a shock as you can manage. I want Sira to bring up the rear.” Kala shouldered her firearm and prepared to climb. “Sira, when we get part way up the shaft, light this thing on fire.”

  She looked up and Cyrin was already out of the hatch, reaching down for Kala or Zaren. Following Cyrin, and with her help, Kala pulled herself out of the opening, and extended a hand to Zaren. He used his telekinesis to lift himself as he did for Sira initially. Once his head and torso cleared the ceiling of the lift, he used his arms to finish pulling himself out. When he stopped using his psionic skill, he winced at the pain that continued to increase.

  Kala spoke to him in a warning tone, “Entertaining or not, Zaren, no more use of your ability. We’ll be fine.”

  As Cyrin and Zaren started to climb up the ladder on the side of the shaft, Kala took her jacket off, and laid it over the opening. Sira’s eyes met hers, and she nodded, understanding Kala’s intention. Once Zaren had moved a few rungs above Kala’s head she began to climb.

  By the time Cyrin reached the third door, she could hear the Androids starting to pry open the doors. She called down to her teammates. “They will be in here soon.”

  “Got it.” Sira called as she turned and extended her hand toward the lift below.

  A full arch of flame shot out from her hand toward the jacket Kala left behind. Soon, it was engulfed in her fire, and it slid into the lift’s opening. Before long the interior was engulfed in flames. Sira focused on making it grow until she could feel the heat at the bottom of her feet.

  She called up the line. “Move faster, people, or I’m going to end up a Xenonian pastry.”

  With the sound of the raging fire below them and the creaking of the doors around them, the group climbed faster than they had thought possible. At the fifth and last floor, the arm of an Android reached out, and grabbed Cyrin by the leg. She looked down focused on the arm intently. Ignoring the throbbing of fear in her ears, she charged the arm with every ounce of electricity she could generate. A moment later, the android arm shook violently, and it released her leg before it fell to the fire below. Relieved, she kept climbing.

  Zaren heard the door above open, and he was fast to exit behind Cyrin. They stepped out onto the roof to find several Android teams already there. Cyrin muttered something under her breath.

  “Get behind me Zaren.”

  Knowing he had already over taxed himself, he did as he was instructed, but readied his firearm and aimed. When Cyrin extended her arms to a full width an electrical arc jumped from her hands across the distance between her and the Androids and jolted them. Some Androids short circuited where they stood, while others hit directly by the charge exploded, throwing parts in all directions. Her second electrical bolt bounced from one to the next, and her third took a lot out of her, but she was able to stop the first wave and clear the roof. She whirled around and saw Kala and Sira climbing out of the lift shaft. She stepped forward and stumbled a moment.

  Cursing herself for overdoing it, Cyrin turned to Kala. “We need to go. Now would be good.”

  As Kala pressed the stone to her neck, she reached out to Henessa on the shuttle she used the other hand to unlatch her charge. It was the final charge that needed to be placed. She conveyed their situation to Commander Sar. When she was confident they were on the way, she activated the shield to her charge, dropping it back into the raging inferno below. She could hear the shuttle’s engines behind her, as more Androids poured onto the roof from the main entrance.

  Kala gestured to her people to move toward the back of the roof, then for the first time, she tried to double channel both Cyrin and Zaren. As the psionic power surged through her body, she focused a very intense lightning
bolt through the lead wave of Androids. She waved her hands, and several flew into and knocked over other Androids. While she did this, she listened to the footsteps of her people land on the shuttle’s walking path.

  Stepping backwards as she moved, Kala arched one last bolt of electricity. Once she saw it strike the oncoming enemy wave, she turned toward the edge of the roof and jumped off. She landed safely on the walking path, and rolled inside the shuttle. She released the channeling links and looked up at the faces standing over her. The room blurred, faces merged, and her mind drifted in and out of consciousness.

  She could hear everyone around her murmuring and shifting her. She could feel the shuttle toss her about. She noticed when the shuttle landed with a thud, and slid inside the Enpassant, but everything between and around it was a blur or not there. Finally, she succumbed to her overuse.

  ~*~

  Hours later, Kala woke on her bed, and her eyes sought the presence she felt sitting next to her. “Rouen, how long have you been here? How long have I been out?”

  “You’ve only been unconscious for about six or so hours. Please try not to use your abilities for a while. You may be resilient, but you’re not untouchable.”

  She started to get up, and projected, ~Untouchable wasn’t the word that came to my mind… I’m certainly breakable.~ She groaned once she was in a seated position. “What’s going on with everyone? Where are we?”

  As if from nowhere, a woman’s voice joined in. “Thanks to some fancy flying, the Enpassant avoided some significant damage.” Henessa walked in, and placed her hand on Rouen’s shoulder. “We have our fearless commander to thank for that.” She giggled. “We’re on our way back to meet the first fleet. And, while he’s still able to, Palrion agreed to perform a ceremony that Tangl won’t be pleased about.” Her face lit up as the words came slowly from her mouth. “Tonight, after dinner.”

  Kala smiled warmly with her friend, and moved just well enough to stand, and flop over to give her a hug. As she righted herself on her own feet she smiled broadly. “So, who’s the trusted one?”