The Adventures of Connor Jakes: Masks (The War for Terra Book 1)

by James Prosser

  “It’s clear, but the panel’s dead,” Parker said, returning to the airlock door. “Shouldn’t be too much of a problem to open it.”

  “Right, I’ll call Tuxor and get the twins down here,” Jakes said, stepping to a nearby comms station.

  “Thing is, I checked the panel,” the small man said. “It’s been locked from this side.”

  Jakes paused before tapping the key. If the panel had been locked from the outside, whoever locked it should still be on the ship. A shiver of fear ran down his spine as he called the amphibian and told him what to do. Tuxor could handle most anything in a pinch, but he would feel safer when the big alien was nearby, with Mendel and his big gun.

  “So, you ready?” Parker announced, stepping from the airlock. “You might want to stand back. I set the timer for thirty but it was an older clock.”

  “What?” Jakes asked, stepping closer to the smaller man. “What did you do?”

  “I set the charge to blow out the lock,” Parker replied. “Small shaped charge should be just enough to pop the door.”

  “You’re going to blow an airlock door?” Jakes said, exasperation making his voice higher. “You stupid…”

  “Wait!”

  A voice echoed down the hallway leading to the airlock. Mendel whirled around, leveling his rifle at the sound.

  “Don’t! You’ll kill us all!”

  A man, portly and dressed in long red robes was waddling quickly towards the trio. He was waving his arms wildly, trying to get the attention of the three men. Jakes had already drawn his pistol and held it ready to fire. Parker was edging slowly from the airlock door, not bothering to pull his own gun.

  “You have to stop!” the man shouted. “You’ll let them in!”

  “Stand down and you will not be shot!” Mendel shouted, activating the energizer on the big gun. The sound filled the enclosed corridor with a high whine. “Captain?”

  “You have to stop this,” the fat man said. “The creature killed the rest of the crew. It will kill us too.”

  “Stand still and you will be kept safe,” Jakes ordered the man. “Identify yourself.”

  “I haven’t got time, you stupid man,” the fat man said. “You have to stop the—”

  The explosion knocked Jakes sideways into the hallway. The last thing he saw was Parker’s eyes gleaming as he stared into the firestorm of metal and plasma filling the airlock.

  4

  “In our rush to reach the stars and join the monsters we would find there, we sometimes forgot we could be beasts too.”

  Banu Rao

  The Life of a Hero (unpublished autobiography)

  “Captain Jakes?”

  Connor heard the mellow tone of Tuxor’s voice through the ringing in his ear. He reached a hand to his face while blinking away the light. His fingertips were red with blood when he focused. Behind, the overhead lights of the yacht’s corridor seemed to drill into his skull. As he rubbed his fingers, feeling cold stickiness of drying blood and not warmth, Tuxor’s wide head entered his view from above.

  “Captain Jakes?” Tuxor said as he leaned closer. “Are you alright?’

  “Of all the questions people ask when you’re lying on the floor after an explosion, that’s the stupidest,” Jakes replied, shaking his head and instantly regretting the action. “Where’s Parker?”

  “Mister Triga entered the station just after the explosion,” Tuxor replied, helping Jakes as he tried to sit up. “I have been here with you and Mister Holcombe. He has been most … informative.”

  “Holcombe?” Jakes asked, holding his head as he looked around. “Who the hell is Holcombe?”

  A new voice entered Jakes’ perception: “The gentleman who owns this ship, Captain. Quentin Wilhelm Holcombe. I am so pleased to meet you … but not under these circumstances.”

  As Jakes turned his head to see the man, Holcombe knelt down on thick legs. He was the fattest human Jakes had ever seen. A wide smile broke across the man’s face, causing his chins to bobble slightly under a short red goatee. Thinning hair the color of rusty nails topped the man’s rounded head, accenting the deep red of his robes. He carried a small strip of fabric covered in blood.

  “I am sorry I wasn’t able to greet you at the door, um, but my … uh … son and I have a safe room down in the hold and we ... um … were … um … hiding, you see. When we saw on the monitors that you were human, of course, we … um … tried to stop you from getting to the … um … station, but … um … our door locks were … um … jammed … and, well…”

  “Alright, alright, Mister Holcombe,” Jakes said, allowing Tuxor to help him to his feet. “I get it. I think we got bigger problems, though.”

  “Oh, certainly, yes,” Holcombe replied, levering himself up with great difficulty. “Your men have entered the station and … um … well, my crew entered the station and … um … well…”

  “I think I can guess the rest,” Jakes said, reaching out to help the man to his feet. The fat man was grunting with effort; beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. “I … been on that station before. If they’re lucky, what’s over there will kill them before I get to them.”

  “Uh … Captain … I don’t mean to tell you how to … um … well, run things, but … um…”

  “Then don’t,” Jakes said, turning towards the blasted airlock door. “You’re safer not telling me anything. Tuxor, grab the twins and let’s go. Mister Holcombe, you said you had a son? Get him and get to the other airlock. My ship is docked there and you’ll find someone there to take care of you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go kill someone.”

  “Um … Captain … um…”

  “Jakes,” Connor replied, brushing off his utility vest and checking his gun. “Connor Jakes. Captain of the Sweet Liberty.”

  “Connor Jakes… ” Holcombe said, suddenly turning very pale and pulling the bloodstained rag into the sleeve of his robes. “But you’re supposed to be…”

  “A pirate? Yeah,” Jakes responded with a smile. “I get that a lot. Tuxor, come on.”

  As Jakes stepped closer to the blown hatch, he glanced over to the fat man. Holcombe seemed to be trembling slightly, but not with fear. If Connor had to guess, he would swear the man looked angry. He assumed it had something to do with the damage to his ship and continued on into the airlock. Tuxor retrieved the two canisters and followed close behind.

  Jakes stepped into the corridor of Terpsichore’s Central Docking hub. The metal walls were streaked with soot from the explosion. Jakes thought he saw traces of a dark red-brown under the smoke damage. He had been in space long enough to recognize blood splatter when he saw it. He pulled his pistol from the holster and flipped the safety off. Tuxor grasped the long tube tighter in his lower arm as he lifted the canisters into the hallway.

  “Do your ears again, Tuxor,” Jakes warned the big alien. “If we run across what I saw last time, you’ll need to be deaf.”

  The amphibian set the canisters down and went through the procedure of filling his ears again. Jakes pulled a small vial from his vest and popped the top off with his thumb. Placing his pistol back at his hip, he reached back into the vial and pulled out a bit of thick blue paste. He rolled the substance between two fingers before raising it to his right ear, and winced a little as he slipped the gummy bit inside. He repeated the procedure for the other side, making a face as the substance expanded and filled his ear canal. As it expanded into place, Jakes began to hear breathing in his ear.

  “Bonnie?” Jakes said, not able to hear his own voice. “Raise your mic, I’m getting heavy breathin’. It ain’t the kind I like, either.”

  “Sorry, boss.” Bonnie’s voice crackled as it came over the microscopic speaker embedded in the goo he had placed in his ear. “I read an explosion. Parker?”

  “Yep,” Jakes responded. “Little wiggler blew out the station airlock. I’m taking Tuxor and the twins in after the two idiots. They better hope they find that thing before I do.”

  “Why�
�s that, boss?”

  “It’ll kill ‘em quicker than I will,” Jakes said with a grin. “Get Melaina on the line. I’ve got guests coming on board.”

  “Guests?” Bonnie asked. “You found someone?”

  “More or less,” Jakes explained. “Some fat guy and his son are comin’ your way.”

  “Connor?” Melaina’s voice sounded over the speaker. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, precious,” Jakes said, signaling to Tuxor to move forward down the corridor. “Just keep the door open and ready in case I need to get outta here quick. Parker and Mendel might be back with me. Might not, too. In any case, we found survivors and they’re headin’ your way.”

  “Survivors?”

  “Fat guy and his kid. Everyone else is salsa over here,” Jakes replied. “We’re headin’ for the control room now.”

  “I understand,” Melaina said, worry tingeing her voice. “Just be careful. It’s Bonnie’s turn to cook tonight, so we’re having eggplant parm.”

  “Sounds great, darlin’,” Jakes said, trying to reassure her with his voice but not knowing if he sounded right. “I gotta concentrate now.”

  Melaina signed off and Jakes focused on the task at hand. He was moving towards the central hub’s control station. Tuxor looked around with a nervous glance. The lights in the corridor were dim with only minimal power being used for life support. The air smelled warm with a coppery flavor Jakes recognized. He pulled his light from the vest and shone it around the hallway.

  There were streaks of blood on the walls here. Jakes made out a handprint that trailed down the wall backwards. There were deep gouges in the wall as well, made by a set of four sharp knives. Jakes remembered his last trip here and rethought the knives. The pattern more closely resembled the claw marks of an animal. Jakes looked back to Tuxor to see the big alien walking backwards behind him. He held the canisters high, with the tube pointed in front of him. Jakes turned and continued towards the control center.

  As Jakes rounded the last corner, the stench of decay became stronger. He glanced down the corridor to see a body slumped against the wall. It was a male human dressed in deep red livery. His left arm was missing below the shoulder and a dried pool of blood surrounded him. As Jakes came closer, training his pistol on the body, he saw another body nearby. The second body was a female Vadne dressed in similar clothing, her body ravaged by something. The tatters of her dark red uniform hung off torn muscle and bone. Her head was intact, but both of her ears had streams of blood crawling down her peach, furred face. The human male had similar burst eardrums and bloody streaks. Jakes turned to Tuxor and pushed aside one of the gummies in his ear.

  “Check the panel,” Jakes ordered. “See if those doors can open on their own. If not, get the twins in there. I’m betting whoever these two were, they were trying to get these doors open too.”

  “Understood,” Tuxor replied, moving closer to the corpse of the male.

  There was blood streaked on the activator panel. Tuxor looked around as he set the two canisters down and finally settled on tearing a small bit of the man’s clothing. He wiped the panel off and tried tapping keys. When nothing happened, he uncorked the canisters and the same double helix pattern emerged and pressed against the controls. Again, the liquid seeped into the cracks of the control surface and disappeared. It took a moment for the panel to light up.

  “The twins say the door is locked from inside and the power has been cut to the opening mechanism,” Tuxor reported. “They are spreading to reroute power around the damage. It will take a few moments.”

  “Is there any sign of life inside?” Jakes asked, examining the body of the felinoid woman closely.

  “The twins have a difficult time with signs of life, but I do not think there is anyone alive in there,” Tuxor replied, staring at the symbols on the display. “I think they have found the lock release and are making a bridge for the current.”

  Jakes looked closely at the remains of the furred woman. Like all Vadne, she was over a meter and a half tall with powerful legs and a feline appearance. As Jakes reckoned, she had probably been beautiful for her species, with soft salmon-colored fur and a pleasant expression. Whatever had attacked her had nearly torn her torso all the way through, leaving viscera and blood sprayed on the walls and floor. Her left arm had also been nearly torn from the socket. It had been a painful way to die.

  Jakes turned his attention back to the human male. By the way his body was positioned, Jakes assumed he had been working on opening the door while the Vadne tried to provide cover. He had a strong jaw and powerful shoulders and looked as if he could handle himself in a fight. Where his arm had attached was a shredded mess. Jakes looked closely at the uniform the man was wearing, looking for identification. Neither of the dead were wearing weapons of any kind. He looked at their positions and tried to reconstruct the event.

  The sealed doors popped behind him. Jakes turned as the door panels split and slowly opened, grinding in their tracks as they parted. He was struck by the strong stench from inside. Again, the odor of decay was strong and musty. The lights in the control room were flickering as Jakes stepped closer. Between flashes from overhead, Jakes could see the room was drenched in blood and body parts. In stark contrast, there was a line of amber fluid streaming across the room, connecting the active control panels to the door controls. The twins began to retract as Jakes stepped in. He had just begun to accept what he was seeing when the sound of gunfire turned him around.

  “Close the door!” Mendel’s booming voice echoed down the hall. “Close the door or we’re all dead!”

  The big man was carrying the smaller form of Parker Trega on one shoulder. In the other hand was his big white rifle. As he ran, he turned and fired a short burst down the hallway behind him. Parker was holding one of his own pistols up, also firing randomly down the hall. The two men were splattered with blood, and Jakes couldn’t tell if it was their own or someone else’s. He stepped aside and let the two into the control room.

  “Close the damn door!” Mendel roared. “It’s coming.”

  As the word faded from Jakes’ ear, a sound boomed down the hallway. He recognized it. It had been in his nightmares for the last few months. The sound pushed at his chest and made his heart thump louder. The creature that had nearly killed him before was coming. Jakes pulled his gun and checked the charge again. Whatever it was, this time he would be ready.

  5

  “Doctor Petros and Jakes? Yeah, I never really got that either.”

  Alice Bennett

  Alliance Today Interview

  Melaina Petros never made it back to the engineering section on Sweet Liberty. Once Connor had told her he was going in with the other men, she returned to the quarters they had shared for the past two years to change. It had been foolish of her to dress up like him. She felt like a little girl who had tried to follow daddy to work and had been left at the door. When he called, though, she’d practically leapt from the bed to answer. After the conversation, she cursed herself for acting like a schoolgirl.

  Her father had owned one of the largest interstellar shipping firms on Earth. He had taught his daughters to be independent and proud of their heritage. Melaina had graduated the top of her class at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and gone on to her doctorate of quantum and interstitial mechanics with the Confederate Institute in Istanbul. When she learned of her posting in Karisia with the government’s top secret research center, she had felt the love of her family and father. After the fall of the Confederacy, she’d hardly had time to grieve before the Ch’Tauk Empire captured her and threw her into a maximum security prison facility. It was her escape and subsequent rescue by a fighter pilot on board a lost cruise ship which had brought her back to the real world.

  Connor Jakes had been on Harpy station at the same time, but they hadn’t met until after their rescue. Initially, she had felt an attraction to the fighter pilot who had aided her, but he had seemed unattainable. Connor had
offered her nothing but danger when she had come on board his ship. In her old life, he was the kind of man she would have crossed the road to avoid. He represented everything her father had tried to protect her from. It had not taken long for her to fall in love with the rogue. She joined with his band of pirates and quickly became the den mother of a group of unruly and over-gunned boys. When they had left the ship, she felt the loss keenly. Connor, for his part, seemed concerned only with his chosen mission and had been unable to comfort her with more than his usual wry smile and jokes.

  As she returned to the airlock to prepare for his mysterious visitors, she began to have regrets about staying with the Sweet Liberty and Jakes. She was feeling the weight of her age now, and harbored maternal instincts she thought she’d never have. She made a mental note to have a talk with Bonnie, the only other woman on board and the closest thing she had to a female friend. Reaching the airlock and opening the door, she realized she was still carrying her weapon at her hip. Shrugging her shoulders, she opened the weapons locker and pulled out the energizers for her own weapon.

  There was a shuddering vibration along the wall and Melaina remembered Conner’s description of the creature he had encountered before. She had tried to get him to wear the restored pressure suit from his last encounter, but he had stubbornly refused. After that, she had suppressed her fear and changed into her version of his costume. Every time she tried to step up and become more than just his kept woman, he managed to make her back down with a smile and a few sweet words. It wasn’t right.

  A hiss of escaping air signaled the opening of the outer airlock door. Melaina straightened her back and readied for the refugees to come aboard. Jakes had not given her much to prepare for. Two survivors. She hoped they did not need medical attention as they had only minimal medical facilities on board and no doctor. Tuxor was good with bandages but he was no substitute for a real doctor. She would need to talk to Connor about recruiting a medic as soon as they could if this was the sort of mission he wanted to pursue.