Flint could almost see the deadly virus amid a cloud of dust as it traveled through the ducts and into the open air of the colony. He grabbed a second can and repeated the process for good measure. He was so enthralled with what he’d done, he forgot about the angry mob of enemies attempting to break down the door.
Flint spotted what he’d been looking for. A panel sat in the wall behind the fan units, and he kicked at it, bending a corner. With his gloved hands, he pried the metal off the wall and crawled into the opening. The blueprints showed the walls to be a meter or so thick, and hollow. He grabbed the panel through the vent and propped it back in place, hoping no one would notice where he’d gone if they appraised the room.
The sound of the door hitting the floor banged across the room, and Flint knew it was time to get climbing. He’d done the task and hoped Charles had as well. Worst case, he died here, being ripped to shreds by the fuming Watchers. He didn’t want that to happen.
Flint tossed the fake Watcher’s mask off his face, seeing much more clearly. He flipped the night vision on and found there was a way to scale up the inside of the exterior wall. Metal rods supported it inside, and he could use them like ladder rungs. Each support rod was a meter apart from the next, and it was a stretch to get to them, but he managed.
Flint stopped after clambering up the third rung. “If anyone is listening, I need an extraction. I’ll be coming out the west exhaust vents on the top of the outpost. Five minutes!”
Flint was surprised to hear Ace’s voice carry back to him. “We’ll be there.”
“Is Charles done?” Flint asked, nervous for the answer.
“He’s almost finished.”
The line went dead, and Flint wondered why it had taken Charles so long. He didn’t have time to consider that as the Watchers started banging the walls with the butts of their guns. He could see them through the metal grates built into the inside wall, and that was all the motivation he needed to keep climbing.
Each rung took a lot of effort to climb in the confined space, but he started to make good time. Flint looked up once and saw he was nowhere near the ceiling of the outpost. But the Watchers hadn’t found his escape hole yet, and he counted his blessings as he kept moving upward. Always upward. Either the rungs were more spread out the higher he went or he was just exhausted by the time he risked glancing up again.
He was close. His hand found purchase on a rod near the top of the wall, and he moved his boot to the next rung as he pulled himself up. The EVA boot slipped, and Flint felt gravity take over as his body hung there, his hand firmly gripping the rod. With the last of his energy, he swung his other hand up to the rung and pulled, avoiding the deadly fall to the bottom of the wall. His heart beat faster than ever, and his HUD flashed red with his vitals in disarray.
Flint took a moment to center his breathing. He was so close, and Ace would be here soon. He had to keep moving. He grabbed hold of the last rung and hauled his dead weight up, only to have the pack around his waist catch on a piece of metal jutting from the exterior wall. The pack sliced in half, and the last remaining canister fell from his position, clanging against the walls loudly until it found the ground. Flint heard the hiss as it released the virus within.
The Watchers had evidently heard the racket, because they were soon peering inside the wall from below. Flint cursed as one fired up at him. He hurried now, moving from the wall to the ceiling. He crawled along it, which was much easier than climbing the rungs, and saw one of the massive exhaust tubes leading out to the moon’s atmosphere.
There was a blue containment field around it, and Flint pulled the torch strapped to his leg off his suit. As the noises of the enemies trying to fit their huge bodies into the narrow wall space echoed to him, he started to cut an opening in the exhaust vent that would lead him outside, and hopefully to freedom.
Charles
The android raced toward the wall. He had one purpose at that moment, and that was to help the humans he knew as friends. At that second, their names and faces eluded his foggy memory, but it didn’t matter. He knew what needed to be done.
The wall stood like a monolith against the dark space beyond, the gray dusty stone of the moon’s surface mirroring the ugliness of the outpost’s barrier. Each was dark, choppy, and crudely formed. The android approached it; from a distance, you wouldn’t even be able to make out the tiny figure against the immense backdrop that was the outpost. The wall was comprised of various metal sheets, old parts jutting out, giving him ample climbing material. The vent he sought was thirty meters up, and he scaled it quickly, not pausing for any reason.
Soon he was at the vent that pushed smoke and dirty air through. He was covered in the hazy exhaust, but it didn’t matter. He could see well enough to climb into the vent. If he released the canister here, it would only pour outside, affecting no one. He knew the opposite vent was lined beside this one, so once his whole body was lying horizontal, smoke billowing over it, he turned to the right and set the device on the vent’s edge. A hole opened as the lasers cut into it; a blue field sealed it shut.
The android opened the pack strapped to him and pulled out one of the canisters, which only a few minutes ago would have been impossible. He forgot this as quickly as he thought it, and pressed the canister’s activation button before pushing it through the small containment field. The canister hissed on the other side, releasing the virus into the air vents. The task was completed.
The android felt validation for a job well done, and considered staying put. It was safe in the vent, and his task was finished. A second later, he found himself crawling back out, down the wall. The soles of his EVA boots hit the surface and he ran once again, feeling pressed for time, but unsure why.
He approached the ship and entered, sealing it shut once again. He was greeted by a grinning boy.
29
Ace
Charles had done it! Ace was thrilled, but he didn’t have time for small talk. He hopped into the cockpit, strapped himself in, and warned Charles to do the same. He didn’t get a response from the android.
It had been well over five minutes since Flint had spoken to him, and Ace hoped everything was all right. He didn’t waste any time. Ace flew directly over the colossal outpost. It was even bigger than he’d originally thought. He raced over its twenty-kilometer width and slowed as he neared the spot where Flint was supposed to be.
Ace nearly turned around for another sweep, when he spotted the tiny figure jumping up and down on the roof of the outpost, waving his arms in the air. It was Flint, and he was alive.
“I have a visual, Flint,” Ace said into the earpiece. He used the common channel, letting the Eureka know what was happening. Ace knew they’d be pacing the bridge in concern, especially given how long the mission had taken.
Ace landed on top of the outpost’s flat boxy roof, near Flint, and waited while the man ran into the airlock on the fighter’s rear corner. When Ace saw the ship was sealed and safe, he lifted off, urging the ship away from the outpost.
Flint emerged at the front to stand beside Charles. He was panting under his facemask. “How many times am I going to have to say thank you, Ace?”
“Depends on how many more times I have to save you from some crazy situation.” Ace grinned and was glad to hear the pilot’s voice behind him. “Is it done?”
“It’s done. How about you, Charles?” Flint asked the android, who didn’t reply.
Ace answered for the shell of Charles. “It’s done. He’ll be okay, just had some fried wiring, I think.” He didn’t want to get into the whole story right now.
Flint fumbled around behind him, dropping an empty sack to the cockpit floor. “This ought to hold them at bay.”
Ace heard the click of a detonator, and their ship shook as the entire hangar exploded below. He hadn’t heard about them blowing up the enemy ships, but it made sense. “New part of the plan?”
“We figured it was as good a way as any to prevent the Watchers from Shifting
to the planet to warn anyone before we arrive. Speaking of Shifting, are you almost there?” Flint asked.
Ace checked his charge and saw it was still full. He raised the Watcher fighter’s altitude, and eventually, the ship let him know it was safe to use the drive. He activated it, using the Eureka’s coordinates, and in a flash, they went from flying away from the moon outpost to appearing beside the huge ship Fairbanks had built.
Step two of their risky mission had been completed, and Ace noted how tired his body was as he headed toward the large vessel.
Wren
“They need some sleep. Can’t you see how fatigued everyone is?” Wren pointed out the obvious, but Flint waved her concern away with a flick of his wrist.
“We’re fine. The longer we delay, the greater the chance of failure,” Flint said.
Wren really did like the man, and she could even appreciate his point of view, but he could act extremely bull-headed when he wanted to.
Barkley pondered this from her captain’s chair on the bridge. “We go on. There’s no choice. I agree, Wren, but we can end this, and quickly. There will be plenty of time to rest when we’re back at the Rift location, at the rendezvous with the Pilgrim. Are we all in agreement?”
The small group nodded. Among them were the four pilots who’d be flying the Watcher vessels to their home world, loaded with virus canisters and a Marine to help release the virus when they landed. Wren knew this was a suicide mission. Somehow Flint and Ace had managed to get away twice now, but she felt they were pressing their luck. Odds told her this was it.
It didn’t make her second-guess her going down with Flint, though. She had to. It was her destiny. All of it: meeting Fairbanks in the first place, going to prison to meet Charles, and then breaking free to get caught up in the whole adventure.
“What’s wrong with Charles?” Wren asked, noticing his eyes were dimming to a pinprick of light.
Ace shifted uncomfortably on his feet.
“Charles, are you all right?” Wren asked. She’d heard about his heroic wall climb on the moon outpost, but this didn’t seem like her friend. It was as if he’d been injured on the mission.
“I am functional, prisoner,” Charles said in a flat voice.
The words stung, and in that second, she was back in the mining prison, watching her friend Mara die on the smelting room floor. “What did you say?”
Ace took over. “Look, something happened to him.”
Wren swung her gaze to the teenage boy, who averted his eyes the second they met.
“What…happened?”
Ace ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair, a lock falling over his left eye before he looked up to meet her stare. “He found out he was programmed.”
“Of course he was. He’s an android. A peculiar one, at that, but he’s still made of metal,” Flint said, as if that was enough explanation.
“Go on, Ace,” Wren urged.
Captain Barkley shouted at them. “We don’t have enough time for this. Ace, spit it out so we can keep going.”
“He…he said Benson programmed him. He’s only three years old. The rest was faked. He was there to bring you out of prison. He also had a program that kicked in on the surface, that wouldn’t let him release the virus.”
Wren’s head was spinning. Benson’s name kept coming up, and she knew if she ever saw the man again, she’d have a few salty words for him. How had he known she’d be there and would need to be rescued? It all came a little clearer as the thoughts settled in her mind.
“It’s a trap,” she whispered.
“What is?” Barkley asked.
“This. All of it. Why has there been no resistance, or very little? Maybe they know we’re coming,” Wren said quietly, and the room was hanging on her every word.
“Why? How?” Flint asked. He was Earth Fleet trained, always ready to dive head-first into any situation and deal with the outcome later. As a doctor and scientist, she was taught to consider outcomes and variables.
“Benson left. Where did he go?” Wren asked, hoping they’d pick up the pieces of the puzzle with her.
“We don’t know,” Lieutenant Collins said from the other side of the room. He was set to pilot one of the ships planetside.
“Where do we assume he went?” Wren asked, growing impatient.
Barkley answered the obvious. “To their world.”
“Why? What did he want to do?” Wren asked.
“To speak with them. He plainly thinks quite highly of himself, so maybe he went to negotiate with the Watchers,” Heather Barkley said.
Wren was impressed with the woman. She was intelligent, and Wren was happy to serve under her. “Correct. It’s been months. He may not have known if we’d ever make it, but if he did get to their world, and things didn’t work out like he planned, he would have told them everything. They could have tortured it out of him. Benson’s smart, but he’s also used to the finer things in life. Once you strip him of that and tie him up for a while, I bet he sings like a songbird.”
Flint’s hands went to his face, and he held them over his cheeks while he let a sigh of air out. “What does this mean?”
“It means they might know about the virus. We could be flying into a trap.” Wren chided herself for not thinking about it sooner. Now they were less than an hour from heading to the planet for part three of their plan.
“Let’s say they are expecting us. They might not be expecting us to waltz in with four of their ships, right?” Ace asked.
“What are you proposing, Ace?” Barkley asked.
“We Shift in using the fighters and leave the Eureka back here,” Ace suggested.
Barkley contemplated this, and while she did, Wren watched Charles, looking for a sign of her friend inside. He hardly seemed there at all.
“If we leave the main fleet back, there’s a chance they won’t spot us. If we try to head just outside their sensor range, we may be found, especially if they’re expecting us. It’s as sound a plan as any,” Flint offered.
“Fine. I agree with this. But I’ll bring the Eureka closer in an hour’s time, if you haven’t made it back by then. We have a backup plan, should you…” Barkley left out the word “fail,” but they all caught on.
“We won’t fail. Right, Wren?” Flint asked, hope gleaming in his eyes. She was headed down with the insufferable, yet handsome and charming man. He winked at her, making it all the worse.
“Here’s hoping.” She didn’t say any more.
It was decided that Rudolph would be taking the other fighter down, along with a hulking Marine escort. She stood proudly as the image on the viewscreen showed the Watchers’ world again. They’d been through this countless times, but repetition was key.
Wren saw the location where they were to drop the virus. It was a metropolis of at least thirty million Watchers. She looked at the map and disassociated the lives from what they were going to do. “It’s either them or us,” she whispered to herself.
Barkley went over the orders again, and when they were done, she tapped the screen off. “I know you don’t need a speech right now, but I want to say a few things.” She stood, walking toward the viewscreen so everyone in the room could see her. “These are invaders. Contrary to the name we’ve given them, they are not watchers. They’re attackers, they’re killers, they’re invaders. They’ve entered our space, and we have no idea just how bad it is on the other side.
“We have to end them here and now, just to give us a fighting chance at peace back home. We’re not doing this because we’re a malicious people. We’re doing this to prevent the destruction of our race. When everything is over, I’ll be able to sleep at night because of these facts. Go to their world, release the virus Dr. Sando has perfected, and get back here so we can go home.
“Even then, it won’t be easy. We may fly into our system and find everyone gone. We’ll still fight until the last one of us is breathing, right?” She waited for a reaction, and Wren decided to go first.
; “Right!” she called, getting the rest of the bridge to chorus in agreement.
“Good. Everyone, it’s time to go and change the future for mankind.” Barkley stood there like a true leader, fear and concern for her people written all over her face, but also a strength they could all feed from.
The room started to empty out, and Charles was following Ace.
Wren caught up to the kid in the hallway a couple minutes later. “Ace, you aren’t seriously still considering bringing Charles, are you?” she asked, trying to keep her voice low enough that the android wouldn’t overhear.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because he’s not himself. What happened out there?” she asked, not having been given the full story on the bridge.
“He found the targeted area on his hardware and had me deactivate the sectors. He’s not dangerous or anything. He’s just… it’s like he’s depressed or something.” Ace looked over her shoulder at the android a few meters away. Wren could feel Charles’ stare on her back.
“Just be careful. We don’t know what else Benson might have done to him,” Wren said.
“I’ll be careful. You too.” Ace was jogging now, anxious to get going on the mission. The kid looked beat, but they all were. Wren hadn’t slept a minute since this had all begun either.
Getting an idea, she banked off to the left, making a detour before going to the hangar. They needed some coffee.
Benson
Benson accepted the offered water bowl. He lifted it with two thin arms, tilting it until the tepid water hit his tongue. The Queen had listened to his tale with apparent interest, not interrupting him once. He hoped his grasp of their language had been enough to translate properly.
The Resistance- The Complete Series Page 47
