I sighed at the thought of what I might be able to do with the helmet and the gauntlets. The energy shield would enable a one-handed fighting style, and I needed practice with weapons other than my longsword. My lightning mace could be used for purposes other than summoning, but its usefulness as a primary weapon was limited. I scanned the area for a one-handed item I might be able to use in concert with the gauntlets but was interrupted when Captain Cross walked toward us.
“You folks done stealing from the dead?” He gestured at the Dax initiate. “Well?”
“Sorry, sir,” I said. “We were just curious about what--”
“I’m pulling your leg, Squire Lyons,” he said with a dismissive wave. “These folk aren’t going to be using their gear anymore, and I doubt the imprisoned Star Spear and his initiates will be needing it either.” The captain stepped a little closer to Elle and me, and then he dropped his voice to a whisper. “Treyin imprisoned those Dax, but I doubt they’ll live through the week. She’ll find some reason to have them executed, I’m sure of it. She was always a ruthless woman, and time hasn’t changed her a bit.”
As though noticing the captain was speaking about her, Treyin strolled over to him. She was menacing in a whole different way while wearing her ancient armor, and I could feel her emotional manipulation rippling from her in waves.
“Have your people finished picking apart the corpses?” she asked.
Captain Cross scowled at the woman before addressing the crew. “Time to make a move. Let’s finish up and head back to our quarters. We’ll decide what to do from there.”
I looked down at the Dax gauntlet and helmet lying at my feet.
“You can take them,” Elle said after noticing me. “I won’t put them through the system. Any non-Triumvirate equipment needs approval, and I can’t be bothered jumping through the administerial hoops.”
“You’re not doing a great job at keeping up your prim and proper front, you know,” I said with a smile.
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “I think the Stalwart is rubbing off on me.”
I chuckled. “That goes for us both.” I pressed a button on the side of the helmet, and it retracted to a headset much like the one I was wearing now. Then I fixed the gauntlets to my rear magnetons. I would have to modify the two items a bit so they weren’t recognizably Dax.
“But you’ll need to do me a favor,” Elle said as the crew loaded the giant robots with equipment. “Take as many Grunt claws as you can carry. I have a few ideas I want to show Casey, and I’ll need some off-the-books Dust.”
“Ideas?” I asked.
“I noticed some things while you were fighting, and I have a surprise I want to show you. It will take some time to perfect, but I think Casey has the skill to bring it to fruition.” Elle’s dark eyes sparkled, and I wondered what she was planning.
I could barely wait to find out, so I took my belt knife and sliced the claws from ten of the dog-like lizards. I gathered thirty in total, and they barely fit into my belt pouch.
The crew was still loading equipment, so I figured I’d grab as much gear as I could carry. They’d left behind items that were either not valuable or lower than Knight class, so I needed to find the latter. I didn’t have time to inspect the items, so I planned on grabbing as many as I could fit on my breastplate’s magnetons and attach to my prot-belt. It would take a little time to search the bodies since not all Grendel items were enchanted or powerful, and then I would have to check for damage.
I rolled an Elite’s corpse over and searched for undamaged equipment. It was only wearing chest armor, and the plating was torn in the center. Disappointed, I found a group of Warriors the knights had left untouched. I knelt beside one of the corpses, peeled apart its fingers, and grabbed its serrated sword. The entire squad was wielding the same weapon type with identical runes, and the only lizard-man with different items was the sergeant. I approached his corpse and found a pair of gauntlets, a plasma rifle, and a collection of three knives.
After taking these items, I couldn’t carry much more on my person, so I searched for jewelry. I found an Elite sergeant with a totemic necklace, and I unclipped it.
Because Grendel gear wasn’t meant to be used without inspection from an RTF point clerk, I would have to pay Elle to register all the equipment I wanted to use. Those I didn’t want to use, I could avoid paying the registration fee since I could sell them for KPs. I didn’t really know which items I would sell and which I would keep, but I could make up my mind when there was more time.
“Come on, Nick,” Elle said.
I glanced up at the point clerk and noticed the crew had left already. I wrapped the totemic necklace around my neck and hurried after Elle. With all the equipment loaded onto my magnetons, I felt like I weighed more than the Stalwart and every step forward took a monumental effort.
When we caught up to the others, I shadowed Captain Cross to avoid a confrontation with Olav. Elle walked alongside me as we looped through the fortress’ winding corridors. We passed Grendel corpses, destroyed warsuits, broken turrets, and other mounted weapons. Most were melee weapons of some kind, with only a few cannons used for targeting lower-level Grendels. The extent of damage inside the fortress made me question how the Den Ark would have prepared for the next Grendel gateway without the enchanters’ assistance.
After twenty minutes, we came to the Watchtower. The room was being cleaned, and all corpses had been removed. The enchanters were working with Ecomese technicians to fix the computer consoles, and the squires were waiting behind them.
“Good to see you still alive,” Neville said to me.
“I’m happy to be alive,” I replied.
“You find that nasty rodent?” Richard asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “It made my abilities stronger, and then the portal leveled up again.”
“Oh shit,” Nathan said. “Is that where you got the gauntlet from?” He spun me around and then examined the Dax item on my back.
“Uhh . . . not exactly . . . ” I caught eyes with Joseph Roman, and he grinned at me. I was expecting him to scowl, but then I remembered I had earned his respect. The old enchanter’s expression made me long for my own father, and I blinked back some tears.
The enchanters added the final touches to the runes around the computer consoles, and then we all traveled through the power plant and into the city. The place was even more deserted than before, and I figured most of the citizens had been evacuated elsewhere on the Ark.
While we walked, I told the squires what had happened since I’d left them in the Watchtower. They were all surprised to hear about the Nagas, and even more surprised that we got out alive.
By the time we reached the elevator and squeezed inside it, I was fighting to keep my eyes open. Everyone else must have been feeling similarly because there was complete silence except for a few stifled yawns. While the compartment descended, I slid my back down the wall and planted my ass on the floor. My chin dropped to my chest a dozen times, and I caught a few microseconds of sleep before the elevator stopped. After exiting, we gathered around Captain Cross so he could address us.
“Get yourselves cleaned up and we’ll meet in the main chamber in thirty minutes,” he said.
We entered the room leading to our lodgings where we were greeted by a group of Ecomese attendants. Our new attendant was a youthful man with a constant smile, and I thought of Alin. She had died in service to her people, and I never got the chance to know her very well. She had been a competent commander of the enforcers and a formidable warrior while controlling the warsuit.
When we arrived at our lodgings, the squires and I exchanged our weapons and armor for clean uniforms. I placed the Grendel items I’d acquired from the Watchtower at the foot of my bed. They were caked with crimson blood, and I wondered who it might have belonged to. Maybe an initiate?
The sight of the crimson stain on the serrated sword brought old questions to my mind, questions the Academy stifled with its conditioning.
Why do the Grendels come through the portals? Why do they target humankind?
I had asked my tutors those questions many times, and they responded with vague answers. I was told the lizards were mindless beasts bent on destruction and invasion. My battles with them thus far confirmed their ferocity, but I still wondered if there might not be deeper motives at play. At least I was free from the Academy now, since such musings would have been subjected to therapy sessions that would make me forget them. The Academy suppressed any attempt at assigning human qualities to our lizard enemies because it would make killing them more difficult.
As far as I knew, no one truly knew the Grendels’ rationale for invading our world, and we might never know. Attempts at communicating with them failed since their brain structures were so vastly different to humans.
Maybe I would find out the answer one day.
“Ready to go?” Neville’s question cut my musings short, and I gave him a nod.
I exited the room with the other squires, and we took our places behind the knights in the main chamber. They had changed into their black uniforms, and they were all sporting medkits on various body parts. I figured Flanagan and Leith would need a stint in the Stalwart’s regeneration chamber after their injuries today.
Moses handed me a beer, and I took it with eagerness, drained it in three long gulps, and then sighed in satisfaction.
“Now we can finally get some R&R,” Nathan said. “No more clearing portals for us.”
“I wouldn’t speak so soon,” Neville said. “Nick said there are portals on the other Arks.”
“They can handle them without our help,” Richard said. “Unless Nick pays them a visit.” The squire winked at me.
“I don’t plan on leaving the Den Ark,” I said. I wouldn’t go anywhere near another portal until I learned how to control my ability.
Once everyone’s glasses were full, we gathered around Captain Cross. I kept a good distance from Olav, but it didn’t stop him from glaring at me.
“You all fought bravely today,” the captain said. “This Ark would have fallen were it not for your valiant efforts.”
“When are we going to address the mutant in the room, Captain?” Olav yelled out.
“Squire Lyons would have posed no threat if we had known of the portal’s existence,” Captain Cross said.
“We can’t keep him around,” the berserker shot back. “Anywhere we go, he’s going to cause problems.”
“He will learn to control his abilities in time,” the captain answered after giving the mohawked knight a stern look.
Olav folded his massive arms over his chest, and I could tell he was getting angrier and angrier. He wasn’t willing to let up, and things would come to a head soon. With only seven days left on this Ark, I would just have to avoid him the whole time.
“I don’t like hiding things from the hierarchy unnecessarily, but we can’t let them find out about the portals on Ecoma,” Captain Cross continued. “They’ll likely sell the information to a kingdom near here. Maybe the Dax, or someone else. Whoever it happens to be will either come here in force, or they’ll drop rune-nukes all over the planet. Grendel gateways are claimed and cleared for a reason.”
I remembered the rune-nuke the Academy starship had dropped on Tyranus after the cadets failed to clear the portal. The Academy captain authorized it because the only knights on the mission were Ludas Barnes’ bodyguards, and they weren’t equipped or skilled enough to deal with a Level Three portal. It was almost universal protocol to obliterate any planet with a Grendel threat too large to contain.
The captain was directly disobeying that implicit order by not informing the higher-ups.
I didn’t care. The Stalwart’s unconventional methods were becoming my own. I worried that all my beliefs would eventually erode under Captain Cross’ command, but maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. The man possessed more honor than anyone I’d met in the RTF, and he’d taught me that being an honorable person didn’t mean always following the rules. To live with honor was the one thing I wouldn’t change about myself, even if I discarded everything else I’d learned at the Academy.
“What’s another secret we have to keep?” Leith said. “If a diviner reads our minds and learns there are Grendels on Ecoma, it’ll just be another person we have to kill.” The slayer cackled, and no one joined him.
Captain Cross cleared his throat. “I plan on bringing you all with me to the other Arks. We’ll help them clear the portals, and then the enchanters will provide any necessary repairs on their runes.”
“Do you think it can be done in seven Caledonian days?” Commander Reynolds asked.
“You’ve been in the bridge too long, Commander,” Flanagan said. “You’ve probably forgotten what a lizard looks like.”
“I fought Grendels today,” she countered, and her face tightened in offense.
“So you saw how good we all are at killing,” Leith said. “Seven days is enough time to close a dozen portals.”
Captain Cross smiled at the banter. “While you’re all dealing with the portals, I have to convince Treyin to give us her implants.”
“Any progress on that front, Captain?” Moses asked. The devices were the primary reason for our mission here on Ecoma. Even after we’d saved the Ark, the prime minister still didn’t want to hand them over.
“Not yet,” the captain answered. “Treyin is proving more difficult than I originally planned. Even after the enchanters repair the runes inside the Watchtower, I doubt she will give us the implants.”
“You should have known as much,” Commander Reynolds said, and I got the impression they’d shared a conversation on the matter.
“Helping the Arks won’t take us more than seven of our days, but obtaining the implants from Treyin might take longer,” Captain Cross said. “If necessary, we may need to find alternative arrangements for Squire Lyons.”
“Can’t we throw him into orbit?” Olav growled.
I bristled at the berserker’s question, and I felt my frustration almost bubble over. I had the urge to whack him over the head, but I forced it down. Even with Olav’s constant remarks, I imagined the captain would frown upon me striking a superior officer.
“Why don’t we pinch the implants?” Leith offered. “I figure our quest is more important, and if the old girl won’t hand them over . . .” He wriggled his eyebrows.
“I want to avoid that if possible,” Captain Cross said. “But we may have need of your skills later, Leith.”
A siren sounded from the overhead, and the flesh-like walls trembled. My heart clenched in my chest at the sound, and I let out a sigh. The alarm sounded like the one I’d heard only a few hours earlier when the Grendels attacked the Watchtower.
Olav snarled at me. “What have you done now, Lyons?”
Cold sweat beaded on the back of my neck, and I wondered how the portal could have come so soon. It shouldn’t have been here for seven more days.
But I hadn’t felt the sickness that normally accompanied a portal upgrade. It didn’t make any sense.
In an instant, the sirens ceased, and Captain Cross touched his earpiece. “Treyin, seven days passed real quick. Do you have an explanation for--” He paused and listened for a few seconds, and his tight expression loosened. “Alright. I’ll brief the crew. We’ll meet outside the docking stations.”
“What has happened?” Commanded Reynolds asked when the Captain removed his finger from his ear.
“The Gor Ark encountered a problem with a Grendel gateway,” he said to us. “Its level increased around the same time we were fighting the enemies here.” Captain Cross acknowledged me with an intentional nod.
“How is that possible?” Flanagan asked. “Nick’s ability can’t possibly extend all the way there.”
“Apparently it did,” the captain said.
“It must have been the Bloodrat,” I sighed.
Flanagan turned to me, sighed, and ran his hands through his long hair
. “I’m guessing you’re not going to kill another one of those anytime soon?”
“No, sir,” I said.
“The Gor Ark is approximately six hours travel from here. We’ll head there on the Stalwart right away. Try to get some rest on the trip. We have no real information on the portal’s level, and Squire Lyon’s ability doesn’t seem consistent, so we could be facing Nagas again.”
“Can we use the jetpacks this time?” Olav asked. “I even brought them along with us.”
Moses shook his head. “Remember what happened last time?”
“What happened last time?” Richard asked, and the knights mumbled under their breath. Obviously it hadn’t gone to plan, and no one shared the berserker’s desire to use the jetpacks again.
“Never mind,” Olav said. “Stop asking squire questions.”
“The jetpacks are staying in my quarters. I don’t even know why you took them from the armory and brought them onto the Ark,” Captain Cross said as he gave the berserker a stern glare.
“I wanted to have a little fun, Captain. Can you really begrudge me that?”
“Yes, I can,” Captain Cross said. “Now, get prepared for battle. All the crew will be leaving for the Gor Ark, save for Squire Lyons. You can get some rest on the journey.”
“Is it safe for me to remain on the Den Ark, Captain?” I asked. “I don’t know how my powers work, and I might upgrade portals elsewhere on the planet.”
Captain Cross stared at me, and I could tell he was debating what to do.
Then Olav growled like an angry canine. “How do we know anything for certain about this kid? He was assigned to our ship to spy, then he went and told the sorcerer all about the king’s armor. He conveniently destroyed Polgar’s ship, but he wasn’t working for the sorcerer, was he? He was employed by Duke Barnes, and I bet Lyons is still working for the snobby bastard.” With each sentence, the berserker came a step closer to me, and now he was standing half a meter away.
I bunched my hands into fists and breathed deeply through my nose. Everyone was staring at me, as though waiting for me to give an answer to Olav. But I’d already responded as best I could through my actions. These men and women were my crew members, but even those who had seemed to forgive me wore skeptical expressions now.
Space Knight Book 2 Page 22
