by Terry Mixon
The president sipped his drink without speaking. Queen took that as a hint to keep speaking.
“Frankly, those three don’t worry me nearly as much as Cabot and her group. They could be anywhere and want anything. We know nothing about them.”
Blankenship sighed. “A secret society of humans with ties to aliens. It’s like something out of a science fiction novel. I can hardly imagine a group that has been active since the Middle Ages.”
The president frowned. “Maybe this is more like a Dan Brown novel than science fiction.”
Queen would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so ridiculously dire. “That’s the rub. Their organization has been active since around the time the Vikings found North America. They could have people anywhere in the country or be insinuated into anything.
“They could have someone in the Secret Service right out in the hall. They could have put taps into the NSA when it formed. They could literally have people anywhere and we have no way of knowing who to trust.”
“Trust only the people you have to,” the president said as he set his half-finished drink down on the side table. “Put them through every bit of testing you can. We can only let paranoia make us so crazy.
“You’re the man on point, Josh. I need you to get us a ship of our own before the Chinese find out about this. Or one of those gate things. Find someone in the secret society and make them talk. We can’t be in the game unless we get a seat at the table. Make it happen.”
Queen tossed his drink back and set his glass beside the president’s. “You can count on me, sir.”
Chapter Two
Jess Cook craned her neck to stare out from the lifter’s window as it passed over the immense buildings below them. Monumental snowdrifts covered everything, except that wasn’t snow. It was the planet’s frozen atmosphere. Not just the humidity in the air, but the gas itself, chilled into powder.
This far out beyond Pluto’s orbit, the sun wasn’t more than a bright star in the sky. It didn’t provide any warmth worth mentioning. Or any illumination. Only the lifter’s spotlights allowed them to see anything.
The view using Freedom Express’s telescopes was a lot brighter, but it had technology to enhance the ambient light. Her Mark One eyeballs thought of this world’s normal light level as Stygian blackness.
“I’m going to pick one of the buildings for a closer pass,” Black Jack McCarthy said from the pilot’s seat. The ex-Marine lieutenant colonel had really taken to the small craft.
No surprise there. He’d been a very talented pilot in atmosphere and he’d been studying hard to learn how to use all their spacecraft. The co-pilot was the regular pilot and she was watching his actions closely.
Jess knew that he wanted to get all the proficiency he could and then learn to fly the abandoned small craft they’d found scatted around the solar system. Particularly the Asharim fighters in the French base.
“Is there a place to land on one?” she asked.
“Maybe. Some of the roofs seem flat enough, but we won’t know what’s under the snow until I melt it off.”
“How are you going to do that?”
He grinned. “I’m going to hover over one and dial the thrusters up. The heat and blast will clear us a spot.”
She shook her head. “It’ll also make for a really icy place to put our feet. Do you want me to slip and fall off one of those things?”
“No, but I’m a pilot. I just deliver the packages. Still, if you slip, the snow looks deep enough to save you.”
“I’d rather not find out,” she grumbled. “Make the blast long enough and the ice will convert to gas. It won’t be completely safe, but that’s better than risking a cracked helmet.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “That one ahead looks good. It’s taller than the ones around it, so we won’t have to worry about dodging any unforeseen obstructions in the flight path.”
“Make it happen, Colonel.”
He smiled a little. “I’m just one of the boys, now. Call me John.”
“Maybe I should’ve called you Black Jack. How did you get the call sign, anyway?”
“I’m really good at cards. Hang on. I’m going to hold us steady over the widest area on the roof.”
The lifter came in slowly and stopped a dozen meters up from the snow. The exhaust blasted snow everywhere, blinding her.
“I have the radar altimeter keeping us at a good height above the deck,” McCarthy said.
The white fog around them slowly thinned and Jess found that she could see the actual roof. Part of it looked like some kind of landing area.
“Over there to the right,” she said. “Is that a landing pad?”
“Might be. Let’s clear it off and see.”
The large slab of thicker material had a bright white circle that would hold the lifter easily. The small cross in the center made it look like a target.
“Well, unless they were asking for an orbital strike, this is indeed a landing pad,” McCarthy said. “We need to be careful putting weight on it, though. We have no idea what its limits are or how much they might’ve weakened.”
He moved the lifter over the probable landing pad and slowly settled down, never letting off the thrust completely until it demonstrated that it was up to the task of supporting them. Only then did he shut the thrusters down.
“Okay, we’re down,” he said. “Now what?”
“We see if we can find a way in and determine who used to live here,” Jess said as she unstrapped.
“Good luck. This planet is too damned big to search in a meaningful way. Christ, it’s about the same size as Earth and covered by a single goddamned megacity. We won’t even be able to examine the orbital in the near future because it’s so massive.”
That was true enough. The cylinder in orbit around the frozen world had an interior the size of Manhattan. Even with the quantum tunnel to bring people in from Earth, there just weren’t enough bodies in the company to search it closely.
They had teams looking for the life support and power controls, but they might take months to find. Or years.
The orbital had power, thankfully. The lights were on minimal settings and the incredible quantum gate for spaceships worked. Unfortunately, the departed tenants had turned off the life support systems. It was like an Arctic cold inside the damned place.
The teams working inside it were in heavy cold weather gear, much to Doctor Michael Crockett’s annoyance. The archaeologist wasn’t used to working in such trying conditions and he wasn’t shy about telling anyone who’d listen.
“We can only do what we can,” Jess said. “You’ll keep an ear on us?”
The ex-Marine nodded. “The suit radios are good for quite a ways, but if you don’t hear from me every few minutes, I want you to turn around and come back. No matter what interesting baubles you’ve found.”
She smiled. “Yes, Mother. We’re going to be careful. Don’t come after us if we drop off for a little while. Give us an hour and head back to orbit for more help if you can’t get ahold of us for longer than that.”
“They covered this kind of thing in the Marines. We don’t leave people behind. They also taught me to never give an order I know won’t be obeyed.”
She stood and put her hands on her hips. “If we’re not responding, one more person isn’t going to make a difference. We’ll need a full team for extraction. If you two don’t go get them, they won’t know where to find us.”
He scowled. “You’re annoying when you’re right.”
“So I hear. Don’t worry. We’ll be very careful.”
Jess marshaled the team and they exited through the airlock and onto the roof. The surface was still coated with a crust of ice and the footing was treacherous. They all took care moving because a smashed helmet meant death.
Once she’d assured her footing, she stared up. The number of stars she could see was incredible. Vacuum did that.
There was a single level entrance off to left. Wide doors o
f what looked like glass reflected the light streaming from the lifter.
No, they wouldn’t be glass in this environment. Glass would never survive the intense cold. It had to be something else.
“This wasn’t designed for vacuum,” Ray Proudfoot said. The chief engineer of Liberty Station—their original ship—pointed at the handles. “These are for use in a shirtsleeves environment. There aren’t even two sets of doors.”
They did look as though one could just pull them open. “Vacuum would make the air inside open the doors,” she agreed. “That makes sense. No one would build a world-spanning city on a planet this far out of a system.”
“How the hell did it get out here?” Everett Anderson asked.
He was in charge of the tactical team Harry had insisted she bring along. As if there were anything more hostile than the environment on this ice ball.
“There’s no telling,” she said. “If the orbital station is any indication, the Asharim had something to do with it. I’m at a loss as to how or why.”
She reached out and tugged on the door gently. It didn’t move. She put a little more force into it and it rocked. It was frozen closed.
Ray lent her a hand and they popped it open.
The interior of the building was pitch black, but their helmet lights lit the way in. More frozen atmosphere covered the floor a few centimeters deep.
“Uh oh,” Ray said. “That doesn’t bode well.”
His light had picked out a huddled form covered in frost and snow. A distinctly humanoid form.
“This isn’t the first dead human we’ve found,” Jess said sadly.
“Not the body,” the engineer said softly. “The wall beside it.”
She raised her eyes and stared at the sign. It welcomed them to Youngstown Emergency Trauma Center and pointed the way to the emergency room. In English.
* * * * *
Clayton Rogers woke with a stiff back. The stone floor inside the cave was the most uncomfortable surface he’d ever slept on. At least they’d let him and his companions sleep without restraints.
That had really pissed the CIA operative off. Agent Ulysses wanted them tied up hand and foot. Clayton had no idea where the man thought he and his people would get off to. They were all trapped on an alien world with an army of some kind camped only a few kilometers away.
Without a way to control the quantum gateway deep inside the cave, they wouldn’t be going anywhere soon. Since they’d brought the powerless controller from the other side along with them, odds were very good that no one would be able to come after them, either. They’d have to save themselves.
The special operations troops had made an early morning approach to the encampment they’d spotted yesterday. The people looked human enough, based on the descriptions that they’d brought back, but primitive. Maybe Revolutionary War tech levels.
As to whom they were fighting, no one could guess. Heavy-worlders were his personal guess. That seemed as if it would be a very short fight, though.
They were human enough to pass in society, but the Asharim had genetically modified them to be able to live in a three gravity environment. The poor bastards had been military slaves to the powerful aliens.
A sailor came back with Penny Cash in tow. She’d just gone out to use the concealed latrine the men had dug.
She thanked the man and sat down across from Clayton. The third member of their abortive escape attempt, Mick Bird, was consulting with the Navy commander. His extensive outdoor skills might be critical in this situation.
“The army hasn’t moved,” Penny said. “That’s what they tell me, anyway. It seems as though they might have been there for a while.”
“That seems odd,” Clayton said. “I know armies used to stay in one place over long winters, but why now? It seems warm enough to me.”
She shrugged. “Damned if I know. Maybe they’re waiting for their opponents to do something spectacularly stupid. Or maybe they’re in hiding.”
“Not with all that smoke from the fires. Speaking of which, how will we cook the food that they’re hoping Mick can quietly kill? How do they even know it’s edible? With our luck, we’ll poison ourselves.”
“There are some animals being cleaned at the army camp. The scouts said they look like deer. Maybe they got through here at some point in the past and became part of the biosphere.”
Penny looked back toward the entrance to their chamber. “While we’re alone, we should discuss escape plans. First, are we even going to try?”
“No. All we know about this world is in the cave system here. Such as it is. We saw the dead alien city and the army. We haven’t left this hill and have no clue what awaits us. Let’s not jump out of the frying pan just yet.”
“Then we need to make contact. We’re not going to stay hidden for very long.”
“That’s not our call,” he said dryly. “The men with the guns are in control now.”
That answer didn’t seem to satisfy her. “No disrespect to Commander Krueger, but I don’t like leaving my fate in the hands of others.”
“Believe it or not, I agree with you,” a voice said from the dark tunnel leading toward the entrance. Commander Krueger stepped out of the passage and gave them a nod. “Voices carry in places like this.”
The situation amused Clayton. Of course their plans had been overheard. That’s the way things had been going for them.
“How are your people holding up?” he asked the officer. “This has to be a strain on them.”
Krueger sighed. “It’s sinking in, but we’re special operations. We’ll hold together. I know I wasn’t the only one to lose sleep over the impossibility of our situation last night. I’m worried about Ulysses, too. Worried enough to detail someone to keep an eye on him.”
Clayton nodded. “I hope we can find another way home. Hell, just a way to power the tablet would probably work for us.”
“You said you agreed about not leaving our fate in your hands,” Penny said. “What did you mean?”
“That the mission has changed,” the officer said as he sat on a handy rock. “We can’t get you back to Earth easily, so the new mission is to survive and learn about our new neighbors. If we reach an agreement, will you abide by it?”
Clayton smiled. “I’m a straight dealer, Commander. No matter what Ulysses might have told you. If I make a deal, I stick to it. You just need to be sure the details really mean what you think they do. Technicalities matter.”
“Well, this is pretty straightforward,” Krueger said. “I want you and your people to give me your parole. We all act as a team until we get back to Earth. If we can do that, then I don’t have to guard you like prisoners and Mister Ulysses can go piss up a rope.”
“Colorful and vivid. I agree, but with one caveat. If we can get back safely, you have to let us go.”
The officer shook his head. “I caught you fair and square.”
“After we escaped to another world,” Clayton riposted. “That seems to negate your point.”
Krueger seemed amused rather than offended. “I have control now. That gives me the edge.”
“Then release Penny and Mick. They have nothing to do with the charges against me.”
The other man considered that. “Agreed. They weren’t in my orders anyway. That just leaves you.”
“Excellent. As for myself, if I can manage to do so without endangering any of your people, I reserve the right to depart once we return to Earth. Isn’t that part of your creed as well? Escape and evade?”
Krueger smiled a little. “Once we get back to Earth, you’re welcome to try. We have a deal.”
“What happens now?”
“Breakfast. I’m afraid there are only MREs.”
The sound of rapid footsteps in the tunnel interrupted them. It was Gunnery Sergeant Danvers. He stepped over to Krueger. “We have a problem, sir. A party from the army camp is headed our way. Maybe thirty people.”
“Bring everyone back inside,” the officer ord
ered. “We’ll just have to hope they don’t find us in here.”
Chapter Three
Kathleen Bennett didn’t recall falling asleep, but she woke when the lid to the sarcophagus-like machine slid open above her.
She sat up, trying to remember how she’d ended up inside the thing. Nothing. She remembered seeing it in the room her son Nathan had stuffed her into aboard the alien ship, but not climbing inside. How odd.
After another moment trying to remember, she shrugged and stretched her back. She felt good. Really good. She must have really needed that nap.
Then the full memory of the day’s events caught up with her. The fighting, the terrorists, and the way they’d tortured her.
She looked down at her foot and saw that the bandage was gone. To her astonishment, her missing toe was there.
Feeling as if she were dreaming, she wiggled it. It moved just like all the rest, as if the bastards hadn’t cut it off. How was that even possible?
Well, there’d be time to figure that out soon enough. First, she needed to find her son and see what was happening. They needed to secure control of this ship. It was the Golden Goose and she meant to have its eggs.
She slid out of the device and noticed something else was different. Her clothes didn’t fit properly. Her pants wanted to slide off and her bra was like a clamp around her torso.
A quick look around the strange room located a wall screen that would serve as a mirror. She walked over to it, holding her pants up. What she saw stopped her dead in her tracks.
That wasn’t possible.
Gazing back was a view of herself that she hadn’t seen in far too many decades. She looked like she had in her mid-twenties. The parts of her that life had filled out had slimmed back down, and the parts that age had deflated had ballooned back up.
Yes, this had to be a dream. A nice one, but she needed to wake the hell up.
The sound of the door opening made her turn. Nathan Bennett came in and stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw dropping as his gun came up.
