by Susan Kelley
Molly’s thoughts turned to the samples waiting in the ship’s lab. “I know what you mean. I want to learn everything too though I’ve narrowed it to the fields of biology and medicine.”
“That’s still a broad subject.”
“It is. The possibilities are infinite. Somewhere out there is the cure for cancer, muscle diseases, maybe even old age.” Molly stopped. She’d never spoken of her dreams and passions to someone else as if they were more than wishes. Why did she share them with this man? Perhaps because his dream to learn everything was as fanciful as hers.
“I think all those things are out there, too. Don’t stop searching.” Mak stood up and offered her his hand. He pulled her easily to her feet though she knew she wasn’t a slim girl. “He’s waking up.”
She hadn’t heard anything but in the starlight she saw the fingers of the creature twitching. “How did you know?”
“I heard the change in his breathing. Go back to the ship. I’ll stay nearby until he can stand up.”
Molly realized she still held onto Mak’s hand. She let go and walked through the silvery grass to the light of the ship’s open door. She looked back once. Mak stood as a dark silhouette against the star-spangled sky. Why did she speak so openly and easily of her dreams with a Recon Marine? Why did she feel so at ease with him on such short acquaintance? What kind of man was this genetic creation?
Chapter Four
Mak read through the messaging addresses he’d found on the device taken from the Julian lab. He pointed one out to Pender. “They sent regular messages during their days of operation to the Martin space station. Set our course for there and pull up any specs you can find on the old space platform.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll inform the doctors where we’re going.” Mak took his time walking the short distance to the lab, wondering about the interlude with Dr. Drant out on the prairie. He hadn’t had a woman listen to him so intently…ever. Not even when he and Acacia had spent nearly every minute together had they talked of dreams, or what they each wanted. The beautiful, peaceful night had led him to sharing inner thoughts he’d never voiced out loud before. And to have a lovely, intelligent woman like Dr. Drant speak of feelings so similar to his, for her to think him worthy of sharing her dreams, touched him. Damn, he’d been touched. A year ago he wouldn’t have even known the term for that feeling of connection between two people.
Perhaps it had meant nothing to her. Civilians talked freely with each other in ways soldiers never did. What did he know of the emotions hidden in a woman’s soft gaze? But she had held onto his hand, a simple gesture that probably held little meaning to her.
Dr. Loren was speaking as Mak entered the lab. “The hair shows severe nutrient deficiencies, Molly. Just a guess about the age, but I think he’s in his early forties or so. The bone samples we took from the cadavers in the lab should tell us with more accuracy.”
“Maybe we should leave some food for them,” Dr. Shear said. “These poor things haven’t the means to take care of themselves.”
“Feed them?” Corporal Box sneered. “We should have killed every one of those freaks.”
The arguments weren’t unfamiliar to Mak, including Box’s prejudices against any genetic manipulations. Box certainly included the Recon Marines in his distaste. Mak didn’t care how much Box hated him as long as he followed orders.
“We’re not going to feed them,” Mak said as he entered. “They’ve survived this long on their own. Providing food would only confuse them and probably make them sick. And there’s no need to kill them, Box. There’s five males left, and they’ll die soon enough without the chance to reproduce.”
Dr. Drant looked up from the microscope she’d been using. Something sad and warm shone in her eyes. “The lieutenant is right. They’ve been mistreated enough. The most mercy we can offer them is to leave them alone.”
Mak didn’t need her opinion to back up his orders, but he liked it. “Pender and I found a possible second site. He’s plotting a course unless one of you have discovered another clue that would indicate where another lab is located.”
“How did you figure it out?” Dr. Shear asked.
“From the data collector left behind on their communications station. Twenty minutes then.” Mak rejoined Pender on the bridge, not waiting or caring for the doctors’ input of the flight plan.
Pender had the course ready for Mak’s approval. “Forty hours of flight time, sir.”
Mak checked the outside sensors. The lab humanoids had crept close to the ship since Mak had come inside. “Turn on the low altitude burn engines, Pender, scare them away. Otherwise take off might injure them.”
“Yes, sir.”
They watched on the scanners as the humanoids scrambled away. “Take us out of atmosphere.”
Pender worked the engines to provide a smooth climb that shouldn’t disturb the scientists. Once clear of atmospheric pull, Mak set the ship on auto flight. The onboard intelligence would set the best speed for optimal fuel expenditure. He heard the doctor approaching as he finished up.
“Lieutenant, could I have a private moment with you?”
Mak couldn’t help but think of their time alone on the slope. Had it touched her also? “How about the break room?”
Dr. Drant led the way, making it impossible for him to ignore the sway of her hips and the strength in her legs. She was a field scientist, used to the rigors of working on uncivilized planets. Once inside the room, she closed the door behind them.
“Lieutenant, I’m sure you’re an excellent military commander and have led many excursions into battle, but this is a scientific endeavor. I have always been in charge of my own exploration units.”
“Until this one.”
“Including this one.”
“General Drant gave me my orders, doctor.”
“I’m sure you can understand that my father is being overprotective. This is a science mission first and foremost.”
“I don’t understand what overprotective means. And the general described this as a covert military mission first and foremost.”
“My father wouldn’t use my team in that way.”
“He instructed me to allow you to gather as much data as you could without placing yourself in danger.”
“To allow me?” She put her hands on her hips, her voice getting quieter, yet somehow she seemed to be shouting. The same trick the general had.
Mak knew he’d said something wrong though he’d tried to be diplomatic. After all, he was just passing on the general’s orders. “Didn’t you get everything you needed on Julian?”
“Yes.”
“Were you not in charge of the scientists?”
“Yes.”
“And I was in charge of security and the overall mission. A mission I altered when you said you needed more samples, Dr. Drant.”
“Molly.”
“Pardon?”
“Call me Molly.”
“I’m not sure that would be…proper.”
“After seeing the way you came down on the corporal for not following orders, I’m rather certain I can’t talk you into disobedience to my father in any way.”
“The general’s orders make complete sense.”
“Did he order you not to call me by my first name?”
“No. Molly.”
She smiled for some reason. “Then, Mak, you and I need to work together on this mission so I get what I want and you can follow your orders.”
His name sounded different when she said it. Somehow personal. “I thought that’s what we did on Julian.”
She laughed, the sound tightening his insides. “I guess we did. But it would help if you asked me to do things your way instead of ordering me like you do Kory and Andy.”
“We can try that.” Mak thought the look in her eyes was satisfaction. Had he just lost an argument? It hadn’t seemed like a disagreement, but he felt he’d conceded something. “I expect instant obedience to any orders I give
.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mak had learned of sarcasm from Acacia, but he detected nothing mean behind Molly’s grin. “Forty hours until the Martin space station.”
“I have lots of work to do before then. Thank you for having this discussion, Mak.” She strode by him, the scent of the sunny grasslands still clinging to her.
Mak stood still for a few moments, replaying their conversation. Had he lost command of some part of the mission? And did he care if he’d lost it to Dr. Molly Drant?
****
Molly sat at the dining table with Hector and Helen, none of them interested in the food in front of them. They’d finished most of the tests and examinations of the samples from Julian. Their horrible findings led Molly to question the sanity of the people who had conducted the experiments.
The lab specimens had all been modified in their early adult life when they’d been fed or injected with massive amounts of testosterone and pituitary hormones to encourage unusual size and strength. They could only guess at the physical abuse heaped upon the poor subjects. They imagined emotional and social crimes against the men had matched or exceeded the physical.
The scars on the brains indicated attempts to isolate certain sections of their minds and had destroyed others. But the clumsy surgery had damaged greater parts than they’d surely intended. After a close look at what they’d done, Molly was amazed any of the men managed to survive on their own like the five they’d seen. And as Mak had guessed, it appeared the dead men in the cages had been left to starve. The five survivors must have somehow freed themselves.
“Why do you think they took their voices?” Hector pushed aside the sandwich on his plate; even his ponderous appetite couldn’t overcome what they’d discovered.
“Probably so the scientists couldn’t hear their victims’ cries of terror.” Helen sighed. “They must have performed the surgeries in that room, the ones in the cages witnessing what was going to happen to them.”
“I’ve never seen such cruelty in any modern culture.” Molly’s stomach churned. She could no longer think of the pathetic creature Mak had stood watch over as anything but a horribly tortured man. “They worked on them for years. How could any human do that to another?”
Helen sat up straighter and pulled her tablet in front of her. She tapped the screen and brought up a time line. “We placed the age of these men at around forty-five, give or take a year or two at most. They probably would have picked young men in prime health, perhaps not yet done growing to have achieved the size they did. The Recon Marines are nearing their thirtieth anniversary. It’s possible this program predates the epigenetics program or ran concurrent to it.” She typed in some notes.
“They probably figured out early on that these boys would never be the super soldiers they wanted,” Hector said. “The testosterone alone would have made them very aggressive and difficult to control.”
“That might have led to the brain surgeries,” Molly guessed. “They tried to regain control. And with all that testosterone, their subjects wouldn’t have worked well together. They probably attacked each other at every chance like the five that are left.”
“What do you mean?” Hector asked.
“That’s why Mak stayed with the one he stunned until he woke up. He guessed the others would attack and kill it.”
Helen smiled. “Mak?”
“Yes?” Mak stood in the doorway, his silent entrance startling them all.
Molly felt her face heating though she couldn’t remember the last time a man had made her blush. She wasn’t sure why she did now. “We were discussing our findings. I shared with my colleagues what you said about the others attacking the unconscious one.”
Mak went to the cooling unit and took out a packaged sandwich. He looked at the exit door and then the table, clearly considering escape.
“Please join us.” Molly considered his discomfort fair payback for making her blush.
After a long moment of indecision, Mak took a seat beside her. “We’ll be circling the station in one hour. I’ll run full sensor scans before we land. From what Pender and I learned, it’s an abandoned military outpost, having been used as a refueling and cargo exchange base when this quadrant was first being explored.”
“Do you expect trouble?” Hector asked.
Mak did the funny thing with his eyebrow. “Standard safety procedures for approaching a possible enemy base, doctor.”
Molly thought she’d figured out when he raised his eyebrow in that adorable quirk. She tried an experiment. “You suspect we might run into something dangerous?”
Up went his eyebrow at her silly question. “Yes.”
“Do you want to know our findings from Julian, lieutenant?” Helen offered her tablet to him.
Mak stared at it, something Molly thought was sadness in his dark eyes. He stood up, taking his food with him. “I know everything I need to about that place. I’ll inform you when we’re about to land.” He left as silently as he’d entered.
Helen pulled her tablet back. “I bet he could tell us stories about the things we can only guess from our physical findings. Even if their creators used less physical torture on their subjects, I’m sure the Recon Marines suffered plenty of emotional and mental torture at their masters’ hands.”
“Damage like that can never be fixed,” Hector said.
Molly thought of a man compassionate enough to stand guard over an unconscious, dangerous freak. A man who dreamed of learning everything about everything as she did. “Only someone incredibly strong could survive that. Like fine steel melded into something unbreakable.”
****
Something about the spinning station raised the hairs on Mak’s neck. He knew to trust his instincts. They’d flown around it twice, scanning every level of the ten-story structure. The second level from the top was for ship docking. One old derelict ship sat in a bay but the rest of the space was empty. The landing lights responded to the standard military signals, opening a door to welcome them.
Nothing living showed on the scanner though power still operated on all the levels. Most military bases like this one would have barracks on the floors right below the docks and below those would house work areas and perhaps officers’ quarters. It made little sense for the power to still be on. A careless oversight when the base was evacuated quickly?
Pender flew the ship into the bay with a casual perfection. “Same formation as on the planet, sir?”
Mak waited until the ship settled onto the platform. Outside scanners still showed no movements or signs of life. He would have preferred to explore the entire base by himself but that would take hours. The doctors might spot indications of lab work if any was performed here. Julian might have communicated with this station about supplies and nothing else. If they couldn’t find anything, they would be at a dead end.
“I want you on rear guard, Pender. I’ll keep Corporal Box in front with me.” Mak left unspoken that he didn’t trust Box and wanted to keep an eye on him. “We’ll be searching through any communications equipment we find. You and I will explore the control tower on the top floor after we escort the doctors through the sublevels.” The top floor would have all the scanners used when the station was active, the actual brains of the spinning platform. “Gravity is normal and air quality acceptable. Arm up, Pender. I’ll make sure the doctors are ready to go.”
Molly had her team prepared, all of them armed with backpacks and other bags in their hands. Corporal Box waited with them, spreading his glare between Mak and the doctors. Mak didn’t need the man to like him, only to follow orders.
“No one can go off on their own,” Mak ordered. “Stay in one group. If you see something that needs a longer examination, we’ll all stop.”
“Is there someone here?” Molly asked.
“Nothing living. Corporal, you’re with me.” Mak led them to the door. He kept his rifle slung on his back, leaving his hands free to open doors. He handed the AI unit to Box. “Keep an eye on
the scanners.”
Molly slipped in between Mak and Box, her familiar footsteps trying to distract him. He led them down the first flight of metal stairs, the air stale and smelling of rust. Mak used the override code the general had given him to unlock the door into the residential levels. It slid open, a rush of warmer air greeting them. Mak scented old sweat and spoiled food. Lights came on with a wave of his hand over a panel. They stood in an eating and socializing area with two halls leading off from both sides.
“The hall is a circle if this is a standard design. Everyone wait here and I’ll check. It’s a waste of time for us all to walk around.” Mak took off at a jog, finding the rooms empty with beds stripped. Fifty double occupancy rooms on this level. They found the same abandoned rooms on the next level. After returning from his quick check of that floor, Mak led them down the next set of stairs. The feeling of apprehension came over him again.
The locks gave way before his codes and the lights answered, throwing harsh brightness over a wide-open area that looked like a training room. Equipment for obstacle courses, strength training and other exercise devices lay scattered and broken.
Molly walked over to a metal press bar, bent at the middle. “What could do this?”
“Someone strong.” Mak couldn’t have bent the metal, but some of his fellow Recon Marines had such strength. The spacious room offered no clues. They traipsed down the next set of stairs but Mak bade them stay in the stairwell until he called them. The lights came up and for a moment Mak closed his eyes, glad the others weren’t with him. Cells, not quite cages, lined every wall. The bars were as thick as Mak’s wrists and solid walls separated the side of each pen. “You can come in.”
Box led them in, doing his job as guard. The doctors murmured quiet curses that matched Mak’s thoughts. At least no bodies filled these cells. Mak took a slow tour of the room. Tables like in a conference room sat at one end of the middle space. Perhaps the subjects had eaten their meals or had lessons of some sort. Taller tables like in a doctor’s examining room crowded the center but at least they weren’t operating tables.
