Across Our Stars: Victor

by A. Payne

  Maintenance check… That’s a first, she thought. His professional demeanor prompted her to do the same despite the hollow ache it caused. We were never ever this stiff and formal with each other even before the dating began. “Of course.”

  Zoe shrugged off her tactical coat and offered her right arm out for his inspection. He palpated tenderly along the nerves beneath her synthetic skin.

  “How’s that feel? Any discomfort?” he asked.

  Victor’s touch was no different than the very first day they’d met in his examination room. He lit her skin on fire, covered her in goosebumps, made her weak in the knees, and every other known cliché associated with love. Deep down, she had become absolutely terrified that she’d only ever have physical contact with him again in a professional capacity. That Elizabeth and Saskia were right.

  “No. Everything’s been tip-top since you fixed my wrist the last time.” After an impromptu massage that had led to the start of their physical relationship.

  Satisfied, he released her cybernetic limb. Her overactive and hopeful imagination felt him caress the back of her hand ever so gently before ending contact. “You give them hell, Z–” The conflict showed on his features. Maybe he wouldn’t say it, but what she wanted more than anything at that moment was to hear her first name from his lips. Not a title. Not her surname. Zoe. “Take care down there, Zoe.”

  With her wish granted, Zoe darted in and stole one last kiss, slow, intoxicating, and absolutely unprofessional, while their fellow marines prepared for battle. She took pleasure in the dazed look on Victor’s face when she leaned back to gaze up at him.

  “Hey Raines, time to buckle up!” Daniels called over.

  “I have to report in. Good luck with Hamish. We’ll take out that signal, no matter what it takes.”

  Victor’s fragile smile provided minute reassurance. Saskia and Fairchild were wrong. Radha was wrong. And that was all that mattered.

  “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  ***

  “Are you nervous?” Daniels asked.

  “No.” The shuttle ride offered the chance to clear her thoughts. She had to force herself to shake Victor from her mind, knowing that even the minutest distraction could be deadly. I can’t afford to make another mistake.

  “You’ll be fine.” Daniels rubbed her shoulder beneath his heavy hand. “Go in hard on your last mission with us.”

  “All due respect, sir, but I figured you’d be glad to be rid of me,” Zoe admitted frankly.

  Daniels’ mouth curved up in a half-smile. It was an expression Zoe rarely received from the hard-faced officer.

  “A few years back when I was still new to being an officer, I had a young kid under me with a brand new set of arms. Put every quid he’d received with his recruitment bonus toward them. Hell, I still remember the model. The P-69 LeadBuster. Supposedly impervious to every modern-day round.”

  “I’m guessing not so much…” Zoe’s voice trailed as her mind envisioned the worst outcome.

  “Yeah. He got killed. Ran into a hot zone and that was the last we saw of him alive. We were up against a cell of terrorists from the ASR with armor-shredding rounds.” He paused. “Like the one that almost took out del Toro. Stupid but brave thing to do.”

  “The doctor can handle himself,” Zoe said while keeping her gaze directed to the rifle sitting across her lap. “So the kid with the arms. You think he did it because of the upgrades?”

  “I think so. Yeah. I’ve seen a lot of recruits dive into battle thinking their upgrades will win them the fight.

  “Well if it makes you feel better, I didn’t ask for mine.”

  “I know.” Daniels leaned his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for misjudging you, Raines.”

  “I’m sorry for hitting you in the balls.”

  “Nah. I deserved it. Del Toro made sure I knew it, too.”

  He’s the one who told me to go for the low blow. She wisely kept that secret to herself.

  Zoe shifted on the cold metal bench. Davis, Abernathy, and Chang occupied the seats in the rear of the shuttle. Their newest addition, Creswell, sat between O’Malley and Jefferson. Fairchild sat alone, enduring a self-imposed alienation ever since she and Zoe had argued over Victor’s public behavior. The woman gazed out the window in silence.

  Elizabeth hasn’t been the same since Sassy… since that bitch turned on us, Zoe realized. Guilt lanced through her briefly. Throughout all of the drama since their return from Elora, she’d neglected to realize her friend was hurting.

  Too pissed at her for the comments against Victor. Too childish to speak to her first. Zoe sighed and turned her attention to the window.

  “We’re entering the planet’s atmosphere,” their pilot shouted over one shoulder. He flicked a few buttons on the dash above his head and glanced back. His fresh-faced enthusiasm didn’t lighten Zoe’s spirits, but she made a valiant attempt to put on her brave face. “Get ready to haul ass out there. I’ll trail you to provide gun support.”

  It wasn’t the same without Rogers or Lopez. Zoe mourned their respective losses. The former would return to the Jemison within a year after his recovery, physical therapy, and adjustment to his cybernetic leg was complete. Lopez was gone forever.

  “Raines, you know the drill. Get a gun on that door and cover our drop. Matthews, I’m told you’d like the honors of going down first.”

  “Yes.”

  The first thing Zoe noticed was that Lieutenant Matthews didn’t carry a firearm. Several sharpened, cauterizing blades lined a belt at her hips instead of the traditional handgun most medics favored. Even Fairchild preferred a lightweight pistol in contrast to Zoe’s fondness for the sniper rifle. After a decade of wielding the heavy thing, it was no less a part of Zoe than her bionic arm.

  Excitement lanced through her along with a palpable rush of excitement. Zoe and many of the other marines had speculated for months about the ship’s youngest doctor and whether she held combat training.

  Apparently she did, and it was impressive enough to take a knife to a gunfight.

  Zoe leaned out the shuttle door with her rifle at her shoulder. One by one the rest of her team leapt the five foot drop to the ground. Doctor Matthews landed like a cat, without a sound. The others followed her with less grace. Zoe unclipped her safety line and made the drop last. Her feet hit the pavement with a thud.

  Their target was in the outer limits of a bustling city. The humans, reluctant to share a planet with the water-bound Elorans, had cultivated and terraformed a rough piece of rock into a green paradise.

  Then they killed it anew with their industry. During the descent, the squad’s shuttle had passed a great manufacturing plant that belched clouds of dark smoke into the air.

  In the lead, Matthews darted in and out of cover as they made their approach to the building. DNAturals Laboratories was spelled out in large letters across the brick front.

  “Holy shit, she’s fast,” someone muttered.

  The doctor darted up behind a roving security guard, and the man hit the ground before he ever realized he was in danger. Matthews jabbed a tranq against his throat and then securely tied him like a cattle rancher from Tallulah roping a steer.

  Zoe fired at a second guard when he rounded one of the outer structures. A dart utilizing the same tranquilizing agent embedded in his skin. He fell without raising an alarm.

  “Alpha leader, this is Bravo. The facility rear is clear.”

  “Copy that, Bravo. Alpha moving in,” Daniels relayed in a low voice over the comm. “Masks on, everyone.”

  Their commander pulled a sphere from his belt and activated the small device. After a silent count to three, he opened the door a fraction and rolled it inside. Trailing wisps of smoke immediately began to leak out. Daniels waited five more seconds before bursting through the door.

  “Get down! Anyone who remains standing after this warning will be put down,” Daniels roared into the smok
ing office. The facility’s lobby had already dissolved into panic, but through the fog, half a dozen unarmed civilians could be seen sprawled on the floor in search of fresh, untainted air.

  With her mask firmly in place, Zoe glanced over the interior. “Down!” she called to a receptionist who seemed divided between lying down or standing again. The woman quickly threw herself belly down on the floor, choking and sobbing all the while.

  “Keep your hands where we can see them, arms out in front of you, palms up. Chang and Williams, secure them all.”

  “On it, sir!”

  The squad stormed the room and spread out while the two marines bound and secured the harmless civilians. They proceeded forward with caution.

  “Located a map detailing the fire escape route. Data uploaded to our links,” Creswell stated. “Building is three floors with two sublevels.

  “Which way to the server?”

  “Signal is originating below us, sir,” Creswell announced.

  “You know, for once, I’d like to find all the bad crap on the top floor. Or in the pretty courtyard,” Davis muttered in complaint.

  “Bravo team,” Daniels spoke into the comm. “Lobby is secure. Alpha team proceeding to the objective in the sublevels. Move in and assist securing the building.”

  The floor immediately beneath them contained empty equipment labs. Shiny new prosthetic parts lined shelves and racks in neat rows. They cleared each space then took the stairs down to the bottom level.

  A lone guard stood watch in front of a door at the end of a long hallway. Matthews offered him the chance to surrender. He wasted it by raising his firearm.

  A second later, she had planted a knife through his sternum. The facility guards were neither heavily armored, nor prepared to defend against military forces. He dropped the gun when he staggered back, and then made a futile attempt to grasp at the weapon protruding from his chest. Upon release of the handle from her hand, the blade had glowed with heat and streaked through the air as a red-hot projectile. It had seared into his body without releasing a drop of blood.

  Davis picked the gun up from the floor before they proceeded into the basement laboratory. Its expansive floor spread for several yards in either direction, filled with sleek, silver, waist-high towers. The impeccable server room housed at least a dozen machines.

  “What the hell… Whoa! Whoa!” A man in a white lab coat threw up his arms and stumbled back from a wide desk near the entrance.

  “Down on the floor,” Zoe ordered, training her gun on the man.

  Creswell holstered his weapon and moved to the impressive computer banks. The touch panels lit up beneath his hands. “Ask him for his password.”

  “You heard the man.” Zoe finished patting down the technician, securing his wrists behind his back. “What’s your login?”

  “I don’t have one, I swear.”

  “You work here and you don’t have codes?”

  “Look, I don’t have the access codes. I’m just a junior technician. I come down every hour to check the temps.”

  “He’s telling the truth.”

  Daniels turned his gaze on the officer beside him. “How do you know?”

  “His body language and his fear are a dead giveaway. He’s terrified. I can smell it,” Matthews replied promptly. “I will take him up with the others and coordinate with Bravo. They should be completing their pass through the upper floors.”

  The doctor hefted the man up as if he weighed little more than a child. He quivered, tripped over his own feet, and only kept his footing thanks to Matthews’ secure hold.

  “Jemison to all teams. You need to find the remote link and disable it, ASAP.” The commodore’s voice came over the comm line with intermittent static.

  “What’s going on, sir?” Daniels asked

  “Hamish is going crazy. They activated some sort of programming and he hauled ass out of Medical. He knocked Jem offline, hell if I know how, and shorted out our engines. Everything is going to shit but it’s worse than anything DuPrie did to us. It’s like… we’re under a cyberattack,” Trevor filled them in.

  “You are,” Creswell corrected him. “I could be wrong, mate, but… I believe he could be hacking it by thought. You’ll never defeat him.”

  “He’s going to vent the entire ship if you don’t do something! Our sedatives aren’t working. Hart and del Toro shot him with over a thousand CCs of the good shit.”

  Daniels paced the room anxiously. For the first time since her arrival to the Jemison, Zoe saw fear in his eyes.

  “Okay… I’m in the main system. Download in progress. Hot damn that’s a lot of info.”

  “I’m looking through your video link now. These are 250 exabyte servers,” Trevor spoke into the communication channel. “Standard for cyberware corps. It’ll take you fifteen minutes to nab that much data on your equipment. We don’t have that kind of time!”

  “If he’s acting out of sorts, that means someone must have control of him remotely. Help me try to find it,” Creswell pleaded.

  Trevor and Creswell laid out a careful plan. They put their heads together and broke down each vital objective into tasks to defeat the threat head-on.

  They failed. No matter how they attacked the signal and attempted to trace it to the origin, it rerouted and wormed to another point in the building.

  Zoe’s palms grew damp as she listened to the back and forth between the techies. Hacking and computer software were beyond her knowledge, but she understood the stakes if they failed. Her friends, her crewmates – everyone aboard the Jemison was in danger. Including Victor. The thought tore her up inside.

  “I can’t get anywhere close to the command signal,” Cresswell called over, sweat soaking his blonde hair. His fingers flew over the holographic display, but no matter what he tried the screen flashed red. “It’s beyond the scope of my ability.”

  “If you can’t shut it down, we won’t have any choice but to kill him.” Commodore Bishop’s grim voice took over the line. Killing Hamish was the very last thing that any of them wanted.

  Trevor became very quiet. At first, it seemed he had left the communications line entirely. “Pull the power. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only thing left that may work. Knocking out the facility’s power will kill the interlink with the satellite. If there’s someone there controlling my brother, they may lose access for a brief period while reconnecting to the next signal relay.”

  “Over here.” Leaping up, Creswell moved to a large power generator on the opposite wall. With Abernathy’s help, they unsecured the front paneling and began work on the inner lining.

  “What if there’s a backup?” Daniels asked into the line.

  “Let’s hope there isn’t,” Victor replied. The sound of his voice, strong and even, flooded Zoe with relief.

  “Last connection and… got it. Right, let’s see what we have here.” Creswell pulled the shielding panel off. The inner core glowed with pristine white light. Zoe turned her face aside and squinted.

  “Damn it all! That’s a Valkyrie conduit.” Creswell threw the panel aside in frustration. “I don’t know how to deactivate one of these without causing some serious damage, lads. We’ll be better off blowin’ the entire building. It’ll save the Jemison but lose everything here.”

  “We need that data for our fellow marine,” Zoe said.

  “There isn’t enough time to evacuate the lot of you from the facility, Creswell. Find another way to do it. Lockhart, can you walk him through a safe method for powering down the… whatever the hell he called it,” Ethan asked. “We’re on borrowed time. Hamish depressurized the cargo bay.”

  “It’s a Valkyrie conduit. They’re overpriced cubes of white matter,” Trevor said. “They become unstable energy when disrupted. The only safe method for powering it down is to hit the deactivation switch. It’s going to take half an hour to go cold. Minimum.”

  Thirty minutes they no longer had at their disposal. Twenty-five minutes after the Jemison depressur
ized and its 447 inhabitants became cold corpses.

  “I’m sorry, Trevor.”

  A single gunshot echoed over the line. The report of Ethan’s large hand cannon silenced the communication link of all chatter.

  “Shit,” Daniels said, raising one hand to his face.

  “Oh no.” Fairchild’s hands flew over her mouth. Davis moved over and squeezed her shoulder.

  Like everyone else in the room, Zoe waited in strained silence, willing the sick sense of dread to go away. They were too late and now a good man was dead. A man who counted on them all.

  “Shit! He’s not down.” The communications link became filled with panicked shouts and cries of warning from Victor and Trevor.

  Three successive shots followed. Hart screamed for Ethan to run.

  “Take it down, now!” Trevor yelled. The comm line died to static.

  Daniels took aim at the power panel with his gun.

  “Are you feckin’ crazy?” O’Malley yelled. “You shoot that and you blow us all up!”

  “My family is up there!” Abernathy exclaimed. “I can’t… we need to do what we can. I’ve got a little boy up there, and he’s only four. Four bleedin’ years old. I’ll die before I let anything happen to those people.”

  “He’s right. We have to get that power source out somehow,” Daniels argued. “We knew what we were getting into when we came down here, and the way I see it, none of you have a better idea.”

  “That’s true,” Davis agreed. “It’s us or the ship. We have civilians. Our fellow service members have their families on the Jemison on our residential deck. It has to be us.”

  Lose the ship or sacrifice ourselves. Is that all we have? For Zoe the solution seemed so simple.

  “Commander, tell him I’m sorry.”

  “Tell who – Raines, what are you doing?” Daniels tried to snag her but Zoe’s arm was stronger, allowing her to jerk from his hold. She didn’t stop to think or reevaluate her plan. She acted.

  Zoe plunged her right hand into the open power box and closed her fingers around the miniature star. White heat encompassed her fist, but her cybernetic strength dislodged the power source from its setting. The optimistic side of her expected to feel no pain, believing it would scorch through the synthetic nerve endings too quickly for her to feel it.