“Doc, this is Jason Blaze. I’m on the Golden Arrow. Your horned pal’s riding with us. Long story, don’t ask. You must find an escape pod and eject.”
“Roger, Jason.” Adrian expected Captain Hunt to fly to his rescue as usual, but this time something went wrong. “Tell me what’s going on. Who’s the traitor?”
“Cordova, the head of ASF intelligence, was behind all this,” Jason explained. “He’s done a lot of damage. All ASF ops are compromised. That’s why we requisitioned a civvie ship.”
“Tell me more about Cordova,” Adrian prompted, cutting the door while talking. “I need to understand the situation to make informed decisions.”
“Cordova was working for the Biozi. Turns out Takamori was an old comrade of his, and Cordova used their friendship to convince the Earthists he was on their side. He enrolled Sun Jin—an Earthist sympathizer—to build an interstellar transmitter. He also hacked an ASF relay in a neighboring system and erased the data about this relay from the databanks. Using the transmitter and the relay, he established communication with the Biozi.”
“I see. Why did he kill Jin?”
“Jin was building a converter for the transmitter, but he grew suspicious, and Cordova silenced him. Cordova tried to send the gravimetric data to the bugs without the converter, but that was taking too long and the Remembrance detected the signal. But Cordova had a backup plan. He freed Takamori and convinced him that you could lead him to Earth through the Rhizome. He must have read that in one of your reports.”
The noise of the firefight intensified. Adrian kept cutting a circular hole in the door.
“Cordova must have uploaded the gravimetric data into Takamori’s implants,” Adrian supposed. “The plan was to send Takamori into a Biozi trap so they could capture him and extract the data. Ophelia and me were the cherry on the cake. But how did the Taar’kuun know about this system?”
“One of their stealthy probes must have followed a smuggler ship all the way to this system. Varez’s people discovered it recently.”
Adrian shook his head. “This plan has Raak’naar written all over it. I recognize his style. I knew he didn’t die at the Battle of Chloris. He wasn’t on the base ship we destroyed.”
He finished cutting a hole large enough for Ophelia to slip through.
A loud noise made him jump. He turned to the barricade and saw only a mess of twisted nanoalloy. Something huge, like the mandible of a giant insect, slashed through everything, metal and flesh alike. Taar’kuun biosynthetic organisms were shredding the ship from the inside.
The surviving defenders screamed and dashed away from the monstrosity, but they were doomed. Two Taar’kuun troopers leaped at them, their tails lashing like whips. Each tail carried a stinger secreting corrosive and toxic substances. In a couple of seconds, the fight was over.
Adrian and Ophelia sprinted away from the troopers toward the nearest escape pod. Fortunately, it was operational. Adrian pushed Ophelia inside, gently but firmly. Then he punched a button to close the door and initiate the eject sequence.
“Father, what are you doing?”
“I’ll take another pod, Ophie. First, I must make sure this ship is destroyed.”
He heard Ophelia pounding the door with her fist, shouting to him, then the pod ejected with a whoosh, and there was an instant of silence.
It didn’t last. The sound of boots pounding on metal drew close. Adrian rushed toward the bridge.
“Jason, recover the escape pod that just ejected,” he called. “Ophelia is in there. I’m still on the ship. I must prevent the Taar’kuun from getting their claws on Takamori and the gravimetric data.”
“We’re not leaving you on that ship,” Jason said with determination.
“I’ll activate the self-destruct and eject. Take care of my daughter. Her safety is top priority.”
Adrian reached the bridge. As the door slid open, something lashed at his legs. He tripped, but a biosynthetic limb wrapped itself around his neck and prevented him from falling.
Two orange eyes stared at him. The tips of the Taar’kuun’s cephalic appendages gave off a crimson light. The insignia on the trooper’s helmet indicated he was the leader of the strike team, a senior officer with a rank equivalent to captain.
“Where is the genetic construct you call Ophelia?” the Taar’kuun hissed.
“Go to hell,” Adrian whizzed, clenching the limb to ease the pressure on his windpipe.
The pressure eased for a second, but the feeling of relief didn’t last.
A sharp pain in the back made Adrian scream. It was as if a burning blade had stabbed him. Adrian realized his torturer had thrust the sting of his other bionic tail into his spinal column.
“I know enough about human anatomy to make your agony last for a long time,” the captain screeched. “I won’t repeat again. Where. Is. Ophelia.”
Adrian opened his mouth, but the only sound he could produce was a scream. He had a low pain threshold and always feared torture. At that moment, he would’ve done anything to put an end to his suffering.
Anything but betray his daughter or the Alliance.
“I…aargh…I need a…”
The blazing orange eyes drew closer. “What are you saying, human? I can’t hear you.”
“I…need…a test subject,” Adrian whispered.
“What?” The Taar’kuun was now so close Adrian could detail every scale on his face through his transparent visor. “What’s this nonsense?”
The secret compartment implanted in Adrian’s arm opened, and he thrust the laser syringe into the Taar’kuun’s neck. “Happy Retroforming!”
Adrian had learned to recognize the Taar’kuun with Jotnar genes by the patterns in their irises.
The captain’s eyes widened as the retrovirus Adrian had injected began spreading throughout his body. Pain subsided as the tails went limp. Adrian drew the officer’s sidearm and glanced around. Four troopers surrounded him, pointing their plasma rifles in his direction, but didn’t fire. Their orders were obviously to capture him alive.
A dark shape dashed in the background. Two troopers screeched and turned around, purple blood spurting from the gashes on their backs.
Adrian used the captain’s body as a shield and fired at the other two troopers. They dodged, and not being a good shot, he missed. The troopers still didn’t fire, but their tails lunged at him.
Two fiery blades flashed, and the severed tails rained upon the floor. Takamori appeared out of nowhere and pressed his attack, wielding two plasma daggers. He was so fast Adrian saw only bright lines slicing everything in their path.
More troopers arrived and joined the melee. Takamori and Nine fought side by side, one with plasma daggers, the other with bionic claws. They’d never met, but they immediately recognized one another as a fellow warrior.
The onboard AI warned that the ship was getting dangerously close to the Rhizome. The bridge’s main holo-screen also showed the Taar’kuun dreadnought and its escort ships, their main thrusters blazing as they accelerated in pursuit.
“Where is Ophelia?” Adrian shouted to Jason, as the channel with the Golden Arrow was still open.
“We couldn’t recover her escape pod,” Jason replied. “It’s headed toward the…what do you call them? Those glowing things… Space trees? They completely distort gravimetric topography.”
Takamori and Nine finished off the last troopers, whose dismembered corpses littered the bridge. Purple blood ran in rivulets, making the floor slippery.
“Takamori, set the self-destruct,” Adrian said. “And don’t obsess over my PA. Cordova played us all. He’s the traitor. I’ll explain later, just trust me.”
The Earthist nodded and dashed to the captain’s console.
Adrian turned to Nine. “How did you get on board?”
“The Golden Arrow is docked to the Earthist transport,” Jason explained in Nine’s stead. “We’re waiting for you. Hurry, dammit!”
The onboard AI started the cou
ntdown to self-destruct. Adrian and Takamori rushed toward the airlock that would lead them to the Golden Arrow, and Nine followed them, carrying the Taar’kuun captain on his shoulder.
“You’re not taking that thing with us,” Takamori protested, frowning at Nine and pointing at the unconscious Taar’kuun.
“Jotnar brother,” Nine growled in response.
“Military asset,” Adrian clarified, and Takamori backed off.
Adrian ran through the open airlock and to the Golden Arrow’s cockpit. There, Jason, Varez, and two smugglers were busy preparing the ship for jump. The Earthist ship was already moving away.
“Where’s Ophelia?” he asked.
“Don’t worry, we’re going after her,” Jason replied without taking his eyes off the control panel.
“Open a channel with her escape pod,” Adrian demanded.
“Hey, we’re a bit busy here,” Varez snapped at him. “Trying to save your life and all that.”
“Bad news—we can’t jump,” Jason said. “For starters, the black hole drive’s still charging. We can’t speed up the charge cycle any further. Second, this space forest thing messes up spacetime topography. We need to get away from it.”
“More bad news—the cockroaches have us surrounded,” Varez added. “The Meg is headed straight toward us with an escort of eight ships.” He lifted his eyes and glared at Jason. “What’s wrong with me? Why did I let you requisition my Goldie?”
“Why? ‘Cuz you’re now a model Alliance citizen,” Jason bit back. “You want amnesty for your crimes? You’ll have to work hard to earn it.” To Adrian, he added, “Ophelia’s pod is accelerating toward the wormhole. At its present speed, we won’t be able to intercept it. I’m opening a channel.”
Adrian’s vision blurred as the prelude to a panic attack. “Ophie! Can you hear me?”
“Yes, father.” Her voice was surprisingly serene. “I’m so sorry. You have to let me go once again. I know it’s hard for both of us, but I must follow my own destiny.”
“Ophie, we’ll talk about this later. Just stop your pod and wait for us, okay?”
“The Oneiroi are talking to me. I can hear them in a state of lucid dreaming. The Taar’kuun have been waging war against them for hundreds of millennia, destroying their creations. The Rhizome was the Oneiroi’s gift to the future sentient beings, a safe and efficient way of traveling through the universe, under one condition: this network couldn’t be used for war or conquest. To the TGS, that was unacceptable.”
“This is all very interesting, Ophie, but please—”
“Don’t try to change my mind, father. You know I’ll always love you, but I need to do this. We’ll meet again. I promise.”
The signal was lost. Powerless, Adrian watched the escape pod racing toward the wormhole, taking his daughter away from him.
“The dreadnaught is in range, locking on us!” Varez shouted.
The branches of the Rhizome glowed brighter, releasing countless dots of light. These dots moved toward the bioships in eerie choreography, forming complex helicoidal shapes. The spectacle was as beautiful as it was peaceful, yet the Taar’kuun replied in their usual way. Streams of plasma bolts and defense bots met the glowing dots.
“Should we arm blasters?” Varez asked anxiously.
“No, certainly not,” Adrian replied. “Shut down all systems.”
“But—”
“Just shut down everything if you want to live!”
Jason pulled the emergency lever to manually shut down all systems, except life support. Swarms of glowing dots rushed past the Golden Arrow, ignoring it.
They seemed attracted to the Taar’kuun ship’s thrusters. They flitted around them like space insects, their movements so fast and unpredictable no plasma bolt could touch them. Then they darted to the exhausts and disappeared.
Nothing happened for another second.
“What the—” Varez started, but didn’t have time to utter another word.
Space filled with light. Adrian shut his eyes and instinctively raised his hands to shield his face.
When he opened them, the dreadnaught was no more. Its rear half had disintegrated, and the forward half was spinning toward empty space, leaving a trail of bioplasma in its wake. Of the escort ships and space fighters, there was little left, only a shimmering cloud of debris.
The other Taar’kuun ships beat a hasty retreat. The battle was over.
Alliance citizens would sleep well that night. Raak’naar’s plan to obtain the gravimetric map to Neo had failed, and they were safe from the Taar’kuun armada. For now.
*****
Ophelia opened her eyes. A white cloud drifted in the blue sky. She felt the warmth of the sun on her skin, the gentle touch of the breeze, the scent of plants and earth.
A woman’s wrinkled face came into view. Sunlight shone through her white hair. She offered Ophelia a friendly smile. “Welcome, child.”
Ophelia tried to get up, but vertigo seized her, and she had to remain supine.
“Don’t worry, it’ll pass,” the woman said, sliding something smooth under her head. “Just rest for a minute.”
Ophelia felt the blades of grass against her palms and realized she was lying in a field. Her escape pod silhouetted against the blue sky.
Other faces appeared as people of different ages gathered around her. They stared at her with interest.
“Where am I?” she slurred.
The elderly woman’s smile grew broader. “You really don’t know?”
“Earth? That’s impossible.”
The woman nodded. “Yes, dear. This is Earth.”
Ophelia staggered to her feet, as quickly as her subsiding dizziness allowed. She stood in the middle of a field bordered by patches of woodland.
“But… I’ve been to Earth. It’s under Taar’kuun control.”
“Earth never fell to the invaders,” boomed a tall male with a salt-and-pepper beard. “Humanity suffered a heavy blow, but the Terrans remain undefeated.”
As Ophelia’s eyes adjusted to the daylight, she made out strange shapes in the sky. At first she’d mistaken them for plane trails, but she quickly realized what those objects were.
“The Rhizome,” she breathed. “The Rhizome is protecting Earth.”
“Our ancestors foresaw the Taar’kuun invasion,” the man with the salt-and-pepper beard said. “We’ve been fighting the invaders for generations, with the help of our ethereal allies. They warned us of your arrival. Welcome to the Terran resistance!”
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Survival Strategy Page 24
