by Marc Stevens
“ANTI-MATTER OUT!”
He let one fly and boosted away. The whole room seemed to buck under our feet and we were all sent crashing into the ceiling and then dumped onto the floor or a piece of machinery. I wasn’t sure what Klutch saw in the tube but was thinking maybe Justice should take away his toys for being a bad boy. We were attempting to regain our footing in case another Prule tried to make good on the voice’s declaration of sterilization. It was a mistake. The whole ship shook, knocking us to the deck. I was sprawled out on top of Tria and she grabbed me in an embrace. It was comforting but left me wondering ‘What the hell?’ I decided that Klutch was not satisfied with my earlier attempt to blow us all up and must have been trying to one up me.
“Klutch! Cease fire!”
I thought I heard a retort of some kind over the ringing in my ears. Then we were sent flying by back to back bone-jarring impacts. This time I knew it had nothing to do with Klutch because his big ass was sitting on my helmet. I rolled him off none too gently.
“Commander, I only fired one round!”
I wasn’t sure what to think about the crazy big secondaries. I was looking around for Coonts but he was nowhere in sight. I saw Tria was a few feet away and she was digging in the debris and body parts. She pulled the Operative upright from the surreal mess we were crawling through.
“COONTS ARE YOU INJURED?”
“Commander! I am up here!”
I looked up in time to see the little Grawl come flopping down off of a large piece of machinery.
“Commander, I must caution you on releasing anti-matter in such close proximity to our positions. The probability of serious injury is high!”
I frowned because I always get the blame whenever shit blows up in our faces. The point wasn’t worth arguing because my past record for such destructive behavior spoke for itself. I was going to plead my innocence and tell them about shooting the Prule with the nanite weapon but was interrupted when the voice of the real guilty party came over our group comms.
“Commander! Your telemetry indicates all armor suits have serious battle damage and are less than optimal for combat operations. I also note all strike team members have abrasions, contusions and trauma. I have closed with your position but wreckage is blocking access to your location. I recommend immediate evacuation.”
I don’t think I have ever welcomed the sound of Justice’s voice more than I did right at the moment.
“How did you find us? Our comms went dead when we entered the upper decks.”
I detected your anti-matter detonation. It was necessary to disable the ships primary weapons before I could close with your estimated position. My attempts to re-establish communications with you resulted in the alien ship shearing in half.”
That explained our rough ride. The only way Justice could do that was with the Legacy’s main weapons. He was making surgical strikes dangerously close to our location.
“Justice, we still have unfinished business. We were attacked by Prule Hunters and more may be present near our location.”
“The six large heat signatures I detected while you were investigating the ship pursued you when you disappeared from my sensors. They are no longer emanating traceable emissions and I detect no heat signatures near your location. I do however detect a much larger heat source that is also the terminus of the unidentified power current flowing throughout the remains of the ship. The heat is radiating from a bulkhead located nine-hundred and sixty feet aft of your position.”
We slowly got to our feet and looked each other over. All of our armor suits were a mess. My needle gun was missing and the three barrels of my minigun were bent. I didn’t have a clue what fate befell my shotgun because I lost it right after the battle started. I was surprised to see the Operative was actually in fair shape. She was fortunate she did suffer the same treatment as Tria. It was debatable whether or not the Chaalt armor would have saved her life.
44
We were never given the chance to discover what was beyond this room. Now I wondered what the mysterious source of the weird static discharge would turn out to be. But first things first.
“Justice, contact the Sig through our buoy relay and tell them we need this sector isolated from outside interference.”
Sael didn’t like it and was very vocal in her protest.
“Nathan, you should alert my people to what we have discovered. They will dispatch a containment team to secure this area and the surrounding system. They have the experience when it comes to these matters, the Sig do not!”
“Nice speech, Sael. In the event I put you in charge, you can exercise that option. Since I am not likely to do that, we are going to do it my way.”
“Message relayed, Commander!”
I looked Sael square in the eyes. “If you choose to signal your people against my orders it will be the last time your will ever do it in our company.”
The look on her face said the thought had crossed her mind. She nodded and turned away. Coonts tapped me on the back and presented me with my gore-covered shotgun. I smiled and banged it on piece of machinery clearing the barrels.
“Justice, do you have a hard lock on our location?”
“Yes, Commander. I am also detecting a moderate quantity of highly contaminated atmosphere leaking from your location. Do to the nature of the combat damage on Tria’s battle armor I recommend she be evacuated to the Legacy. I can start immediate repairs to restore the full protective capabilities of her armor.”
I turned to Tria but the defiant look on her face said “OH HELL NO!” on so many different levels that I was sure broaching the subject would turn out to be futile. I had to at least try because not inquiring might turn out to be a pitfall as well. Maybe if I asked politely as a favor to me.
“Tria, woul—”
“NO!”
That was good enough for me and it was time to move on. “Klutch, take the lead, let’s go!”
I stepped behind Klutch as he took off wading through the carnage. Tria attempted to go next, but I took her by the arm and pulled her behind me. I trudged forward and she followed without comment. Coonts lined up behind her and then the Operative. The mess on the deck finally thinned out and movement became much easier. Coonts called to me.
“Commander, I have a theory on the nature of the machinery in this chamber. While it might be speculation on my part, I believe I will be proven correct.”
“I am all ears, Coonts. Let’s hear it.”
“All of the devices in this chamber are captured power sources the Prule were attempting to take back to their home galaxy for reverse engineering.”
That statement gave me pause and we slowed to inspect one of the large pieces of machinery. I didn’t have a clue what I was looking, at but I was thinking Coonts might be right. I thought back to the data the Overseer related to us. According to the intel, all outbound resources were being transported out of the galaxy on Prule supercarriers. This ship was immense but nowhere near the reported size of a supercarrier. Until we could thoroughly investigate the ship, it would only lead to more questions than answers. I waved Klutch on and we moved out once more. We came to an area void of machinery and could see a huge ribbed bulkhead with an equally large hatch on it. Klutch stopped in front of the door and rapped his armored fist on it.
“Commander, this door may be several feet thick. I don’t know what they are hiding, but they must place great value on it.”
If the Prule had something valuable enough to hide it in a giant vault, then I wanted whatever it might be. The infrared setting in my visor showed the wall glowing orange with heat. The exterior of the bulkhead was reading two-hundred degrees. Now I was wondering if this was a generator room of some kind. The only way to find out was to open the door, and we just happened to have skeleton keys that usually opened all locked doors we encountered. Klutch lead us back a safe distance and raised his beam weapon. Sael ducked behind one of the pieces of equipment, but not before commenting.
“You would think that my generosity with my people’s military and industrial tech would have rewarded me with a similar weapon.”
Coonts, as a rule, was always the quickest on the draw when it came to verbal sparring. He was a silver-tongued devil that got his say whether you liked it or not. This time was no exception and I was actually pleased with his retort.
“You would think shedding our blood in service to your people would have rewarded us with transporter tech!”
That netted him a sour look from the Operative. Klutch decided we had talked enough and hit the giant door low on its left side with a beam shot. Molten metal blasted outward like a fountain, but the door held tight. Klutch looked back at me and nodded toward the door. Tria, Coonts and I lined up with him and raised our arms. The Operative disappeared, seeking shelter and safety.
Klutch yelled, “FIRE”
The blast blew door fragments in all directions. We could now see a hole with bright light shining back at us. It was big enough we could crawl through. As we got closer to the door, we could see that it was more than four feet thick. The edges of the molten hole rapidly quit glowing, but my sensors still detected a torrent of two-hundred and sixty-degree heat jetting from the hole. Klutch leaned down and looked inside and then turned back to us with a frown. He got down on all fours and started crawling through. We quickly lined up behind him and followed. Exiting the hole next to Klutch, I could see why he frowned: in front of us was a shimmering pale green wall spanning the width of the room. On the other side was a gigantic globe sitting on several metal supports. It was twenty-five feet wide and almost a sixty-feet tall. I wanted to laugh because it was glowing brightly and kind of resembled a light bulb. It had a metal dome hanging over it that had large, rope-like cables extending all the way to the ceiling more than two-hundred feet above us.
I was going to step forward to take a closer look when the blaring voices yelled out in hundreds of dialects.
“STOP! IT IS FORBIDDEN FOR BIOLOGICAL VERMIN TO PERVADE THE DOMAIN OF YOUR MASTERS. ALL SPECIES OF THE ANCIENT ENEMY WILL BE SINGLED OUT FOR ERADICATION. THE WORLDS YOU INFEST WILL BE STERILIZED FOR ETERNITY.
I wasn’t sure, but I thought the voices were coming from the glowing globe. I wasn’t about to take crap from what appeared to be an oversized lightbulb.
“We noticed you already tried that. How is that working out for you?”
My crew and the Operative gave me incredulous looks for mouthing off in the Scrun dialect. I was just covering my ass and the planet of my birth, in case the freakin’ lightbulb had the ability to back up the threats. It was almost funny, right up until its supports started lengthening into legs and it stood up. Justice decided it was time to give me a no-shitter.
“Commander, after carefully studying your observations and findings, I now conclude you are speaking to a Prule Hivemind. You should exercise great caution in what you choose to say or reveal to it.”
Thanks Justice! It would have been nice if you could have said something ten minutes ago!
We opened fire with our beam weapons, but they only made the green barrier field flare and turn opaque. The barrier was a starship-quality shield system. If our heaviest weapons could not penetrate it, we were in trouble up to our eyeballs. Shields were designed to stop incoming fire, but not outgoing. We decided it might be better to go elsewhere and discuss tactics. Coonts and the Operative turned and headed toward the hole in the door. Tria and I grabbed Klutch by the back of his armor and started dragging him with us as he kept firing away at the shield.
“Klutch! We need to get back to the Legacy. Take the lead NOW!”
He finally turned away and judging by the way his suit was venting, he was pretty pissed off. That is when I started hearing a whining noise that was gaining in intensity. We glanced over our shoulders and saw that not all of the machine’s metallic appendages were legs. One of them was, in fact, a large-barreled weapon with a spike sticking out the end, and it was glowing brighter by the second.
“COMMANDER! YOU MUST EVACUATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY! The current that once flowed throughout the remains of the ship, is now flowing back to its source. I am detecting a massive power spike coming from your location!”
The Operative and Coonts disappeared through the hole. I was trying my best to shove Tria through behind them while Klutch was doing the same to me.
Justice’s voice boomed out over our group comms. “TAKE COVER NOW!”
We were assaulted by the earsplitting sound of a jackhammer directly over our heads. The shock and vibration bounced us about the floor. There was a blinding flash behind us that was followed by an explosion that drove Klutch into me with such force I was blown through the hole in the door and into my sprawled crewmates. I was seeing double and shook my head several times to clear my vision. When I could see clearly, I realized I was staring into Sael Nalen’s faceplate. I had no idea how I ended up on top of her.
“Are you enjoying yourself primate!? Get off me!”
I rolled over and found Tria pulling Coonts to his feet.
“KLUTCH!”
I heard a groan. “Over here, Commander.”
He was spread-eagled half buried in debris on the other side of the Operative. The back side of his armor looked like the front of Tria’s. He rolled over and slowly sat up.
“I would be fine if it were not for my helmet colliding with the rear of your armor.”
I could now dismiss the thought he had been putting his boot to my ass. I looked back at the hole in the door. Gore, dirt and debris were flying into it. Whatever happened caused explosive decompression on the other side of the door. The remaining atmosphere on our side quickly depleted and all was still once more. We were fortunate to still have gravity or we would be swimming in an ocean of gore.
Klutch crawled back to the opening in the door and peeked through. He gave me a wave of his arm and I crawled in behind him. The once brightly lit room was now a dim, shadowy chamber. The first thing we noticed was the shield was down and the Hivemind was in a heap. The metal dome and cables were collapsed on top of it. I looked to the ceiling high above us and saw three large ragged holes blown downward through the overhead and the Legacy’s bright search lights flashing around the exterior of the holes. The huge round junction where the Hivemind’s cables terminated was destroyed and glowing a bright orange that was slowly fading. The rest of my team was now through the hole and cautiously approaching the huge Hivemind. They had their beam weapons up and ready. The large weapon and two of the metal monster’s legs were shattered, splayed pieces of scrap.
Justice commed a warning to us. “Commander, the Hivemind is still emanating heat and energy. While it may appear to be gravely wounded, I recommend you keep your distance.”
Klutch and I decided we would remedy that situation and raised our weapons once more.
The Operative yelled out. “NO NATHAN!
We turned and stared at her in disbelief.
“Please Nathan, let me call my people and take the Hivemind back to our Prule research center. The knowledge we could gain from this creature is priceless!”
Then Justice surprised the crap out of me. “Commander, I concur with the Operative. To destroy the Hivemind would be the loss of valuable information on thousands of subjugated races and possibly locations of other Hivemind lifeboats.
“Lifeboats?”
“Yes, it was the closest human word to describe this vessel. The Hivemind’s supercarrier was destroyed by Guardian forces and this vessel escaped the wreckage. It was pursued under intense fire but managed to blind jump to this location. Its damaged power source went critical and had to be ejected before it detonated. It has been trapped here for more than two hundred and seventy years.”
“How the hell would you know that?”
“The Hivemind was attempting to subvert my systems from the minute we arrived at this location. When that failed, it tried coercion. It said it would spare your lives if I submitted to it. My rail cannon strikes destr
oyed its power conduits and its ability to manipulate the ship. It knew I could defeat it and destroy its existence, and it has offered me amnesty if I shelter it from further harm.”
To say we were stunned by this revelation would be an understatement.
“Justice, please tell me you did not attempt to absorb that thing.”
“No Commander, I was well aware of the machine’s deceitful intentions. I did, however, let a measured amount of information download into the data device I designed to contain the Chaalt predatory programs.”
“WHAT?!”
“The Overseer was confident the anti-intrusion programs from his former reality are more than capable of containing any Prule infectious attacks. When the Hivemind determined it had been tricked, it attempted to corrupt the information we gained, but it only managed to delete or encrypt a small portion of the data. The Overseer shut down its access and closed off all firewalls. Xul is in the process of building an isolation chamber from our supply of artifacts. Once completed, the data cube will be sequestered in the brig.”
Tria, Klutch and I were speechless at what had been taking place while we were getting put through a ringer. Coonts, on the other hand, had a smile on his face, and for the life of me I could not figure out why.
“Commander, Justice and the Operative are correct. The information could lead us to hidden Prule facilities or possibly reveal the coordinates of other worlds that were subjugated.”
My small human mind was just now comprehending the possible benefits of what I was hearing. Klutch looked like he just ate a spoiled sea snake. He took matters into his own hands and threw his arm up and blew one of the Hiveminds legs to shrapnel, sending the machine crashing into the wall.
