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

by James Prosser

  “The twins suggest we depart immediately. Their adjustment to the howlers was local,” Tuxor explained. “It only affected the units in the house.”

  “So our missing friend is still able to scream?” Jakes asked.

  “I am not sure. They do not know if the other unit was in the house during the programming change.”

  “Then let’s get the hell out of here,” Jakes replied, stepping to the bottom step and towards the water. “But first, I wanna check somethin’.”

  The captain walked to the edge of the water and knelt in the muck. He pressed his hand to the area where the final two howlers had exited. Pressing his hand to the water, he encountered resistance less than a millimeter from the surface. He moved his hand back and forth to define the edges of the walkway before standing and waving the others over.

  “I think what happened here is that someone wanted a good scare,” Jakes explained. “They programmed everything up like some kind of nightmare, complete with monsters who can walk on water and houses on the bayou.”

  “Who would do something like this?” Mendel said, holding his broken rifle up as he tapped a careful toe to the concealed platform. “I mean, this is like Halloween. I thought this place was for aliens?”

  “It is,” Jakes replied, “and since we just happened to find a human who would know about Halloween over here, I intend to ask him a few questions.”

  The four crossed the submerged platform. Parker stopped halfway to marvel at the idea that they were walking on water. Mendel gave him a shove and they continued on to the shore. Connor had taken a moment to get his bearings, turning to look at the old building behind him before pointing back the way they came. The building which had once looked foreboding now stood silent in the swamp. The light which had once beckoned them to safety looked like a single eye looking out into the night. The team continued on while Jakes fitted the small substance back into his ear and pressed the activator.

  “Melaina,” Jakes asked. “You there, precious?”

  It took a long moment before the static on the line told Jakes his plug was broken. The device closed off his eardrum and produced a noise cancelling frequency when needed. Its intended, practical use was for large starship construction inside station enclosures, but Connor had liberated his on a raid for supplies almost a year ago. He had kept the device with the howlers in mind, and was now gratified they worked. Keeping the first one in place, he pushed the other into his ear and called the ship again. This time, there was a squeal of white noise before the voice of his lover crackled in his ear.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Melaina Petros asked, sounding angry.

  “Now Darlin’—”

  “Don’t you darlin’ me, Connor,” Melaina said. “There’s something on the other side of the airlock door shaking us half to death. I can feel the vibrations through our hull. Get back here now before we have to detach.”

  “Damn,” Jakes said quietly. “I’ll be there in a minute, Melaina. Hold tight.”

  Connor turned to the team and explained his conversation, pulling the plug from his ear and stepping knee deep into the muck. The fastest way back to the ship was through the swamp, and he intended to get there quick.

  “It looks like Lefty made it all the way back to the ship without his friends,” Jakes explained. “He’s shaking the hell outta Liberty.”

  “That monster made me break my favorite gun,” Mendel muttered. “I should’ve finished the job when I had him in my sights.”

  “Well, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to get even when we get there,” Parker said, stepping into a deep mud hole. “Dammit, why can’t we ever land somewhere nice?”

  The team slogged through the muck at a quicker pace as Connor worried about Melaina. Her words about family and home had been wearing on his mind. She was a beautiful, brilliant woman, and he knew he loved her more than anyone in a long time. He also knew the secrets he carried and how they would tear her apart if she found out. In any case, he needed to get back to the ship and take care of things before something bad happened.

  A new light peeked through the woods as they approached the entrance to the station. He needed to step up into the clean, opulent corridor. Tuxor stepped quickly, taking a moment to look back at the swamp. Jakes’ heart almost broke to see the alien’s big eyes look back. Tuxor was a swamp creature and deserved to be in the swamp. He had taken a vow to travel with Melaina and Jakes in appreciation of the heroism Connor had shown to free his people from the Ch’Tauk invasion. Connor had offered to return him and release him from the vow, but the big amphibian had only replied that he was having fun. They had converted the lower deck pool on Sweet Liberty into a nutrient rich bog for Tuxor, but it was still a poor substitute for a real swamp.

  “Captain, I remember the last time we were here,” Mendel said to Jakes. “You stunk for a week. I think I know why now. Melaina’s gonna kill us for this.”

  “Relax, Eli,” Jakes replied with a grin. “You still smell better than Rhino.”

  The group had a moment to smile as they wiped the remaining swamp from their clothing. Jakes had to admit they did smell ripe from the rotting swamp and wood dust they were covered in. They might have to improve housekeeping on their ship in the future. With most of the Corsairs gone, they needed to make the ship more of a home for whoever decided to join them. A stray thought drifted through his mind.

  His mother’s voice bubbled up from the past. “An attractive home attracts attractive people. You want to be with attractive people, don’t you, Jon?”

  Jakes stamped the memory down. He had nearly forgotten the sound of his mother’s voice, by choice, and its sudden emergence made him angry. It was not the time to dredge up those memories. Looking around at the dirty crew he was moving with, a grin crossed his face. It had no mirth in the corners of his mouth and only made him look more dangerous.

  “Let’s go, Corsairs,” Jakes said with purpose. “The howlers are knocking and it’s time to knock back.”

  “Hell yeah!” Parker replied, pulling both pistols from their holsters. “I’ve been waitin’ to blow more of those sons of—”

  “No!” Jakes said, stepping closer to the little man. “No explosives. If you so much as scratch the paint on Sweet Liberty with one of your explosives, I will lock you in an airlock with one of them howlers and leave. You got that?”

  Parker nodded and braced himself. The team turned back to the control center and moved down the hall, wary of any sound. Exiting the corridor, in the control room Jakes noticed additional destruction. Mendel took Parker to the other doorway to check the status of the howler they had blown up earlier. When they returned, their faces were grim.

  “It’s gone, boss,” Parker said. “I swear it should have been splattered all over the walls, but it’s not. There’s a leg and some torn clothing, but that’s all. I don’t like this.”

  Tuxor had begun to open the canisters containing the twins, but Jakes stopped him. If they were going to save the ship, they needed to move now. He plugged his ears and motioned for the others to do the same. Deaf to the world, the team checked their weapons and moved out. Mendel still carried the wreckage of his rifle, but had pulled a second, smaller weapon from his back. Tuxor had retrieved the handled tube and now held it high. Jakes placed his hand on the door to the room and pressed the control.

  The corridor outside was quiet. There was a strange vibration moving through the deck. As they approached the airlock, Jakes realized it was coming through the umbilical. He realized the howlers must be on Holcombe’s ship. By the strength of the vibrations, Jakes felt there must be more than Lefty and the one they had left outside the control room. He checked the charge on his gun and moved into the adjoining hallway.

  The umbilical connecting Holcombe’s ship to the station looked as if something had scraped the floor with a rake. The vibrations were becoming stronger as they exited the ruined door and into the other yacht. Parker and Mendel fanned out, swiveling left and right t
o cover the room. Jakes waited until he felt the vibrations lessen, and then, retracing the route they had taken earlier, he moved swiftly into the ship. Glancing behind, he could see Parker collecting small items, stuffing them into his pockets while still covering the area. Connor wondered what the little man was stealing from the yacht even as he became more concerned with Melaina.

  A final turn took them into the corridor outside the airlock. Jakes could smell the odor of the swamp very clearly now. As bad as he and the team smelled, the howlers reeked of the mud and decay. They had probably been programmed with the odor to enhance their fearsome qualities. He signaled to Mendel to circle around and approach from the other side. The big man took Parker with him, both seeming eager to engage the creatures in battle. The danger of the plan was the crossfire. If the two Corsairs weren’t careful, they would just as likely kill Jakes and Tuxor.

  There were four of the howlers outside the airlock. All of them were facing the doorway and blasting their screams. Jakes could see the one they had damaged before, the one he was calling Lefty. Another was on the floor, missing one leg entirely and the other held on by wires and the shreds of clothing. Two more were standing with their arms raised claw-like in the flickering overhead light. Jakes could see cracks in the airlock seal on this side of the door. He didn’t know if the howlers could understand what an explosive decompression could do, but he doubted it. They were created for one purpose and one purpose only: to elicit fear in living creatures.

  An explosion rocked the corridor and fire enveloped the howler on the ground. Through the smoke, Connor could make out the creature’s remains scattered amongst the feet of the remaining howlers. Lefty had turned towards the far hallway and was shaking its head. The other two began to move towards Parker and Mendel’s position. Jakes took the opportunity to step out into the corridor and fire.

  Nothing happened.

  Jakes pushed the trigger again to no effect. He checked the energizer reading on the side. It read full, but the gun refused to fire. He looked back to the creature as it turned its long gray head towards him. For the briefest moment, Jakes felt a connection between himself and the one-handed howler. Both had a mission and both were in command. Lefty turned fully around to face Jakes across the hallway. He could feel the vibrations of the guns fired by Parker and Mendel beyond, but all he cared about was the beast ahead of him.

  “Well?” Jakes said to the creature, not hearing his own voice.

  In response, Lefty doubled over and let out a massive howl at Jakes. Connor’s legs give way under the pressure wave. He sank to his knees, still holding on to the gun. The pressure made his cracked ribs flare in pain as the creature continued to howl. The scream seemed to last forever, but ended abruptly after a few seconds.

  Jakes threw his gun at the creature, to no effect. He tried to stand on unsteady legs as the howler seemed to be taking a breath, a programming choice made by some technician who’d wanted realism. The howler had no need of breath to scream, but went through the motions anyway. Jakes took a deep breath himself and braced for the next attack. A touch on his shoulder drew his attention up to Tuxor raising the hollow tube that was his only weapon.

  A thin red beam fired from the tip of the weapon, targeting the center of the howler’s forehead. It paused in its breath, waving away the light without understanding. Jakes stepped back as the tube emitted a crackling lance of blue-white energy. It struck the howler’s face and created a cascade of electrical energy that fell around the creature’s shoulders. Its body spasmed as the energy seeped into the exposed parts of the skin.

  A howl escaped the creature’s lips. It was not the terrible cry that shook the walls, but a plaintive scream of understanding. Lefty staggered and fell to its knees, hard. The arcing electrical signals burned his eyes, and they melted down his face in red-hot tears. With a final pop, the mechanical creature fell to the deck and ceased movement, leaving only a deep silence and smoke in its wake.

  Connor was stunned by the force of the creature’s death. He turned to see Tuxor still holding the hollow tube, with a similar look. He had always been told the device was non-lethal to living organisms. To have it kill the robotic creature in such a manner must have been painful for the normally pacifistic Tuxor. Coupled with his violent uprising back in the house, Tuxor seemed to be shaking with grief and anger. Jakes pushed himself from the deck and stepped to his friend, holding his broken ribs with one hand and the edge of the wall with another.

  “Tuxor…” Jakes began.

  The big amphibian waved him off as Connor pulled the plugs from his ears. “Please, Captain Jakes … I did not know that it did that. I will need a few moments.”

  “Okay, Tuxor. Just tell me when you’re ready.”

  “Captain!” Mendel’s voice echoed down the smoky corridor. “These things went down hard. I had to shoot it like ten or twelve times for the big one to go down. The second one got too close. I had to beat it to death with my rifle. I really liked that rifle too.”

  Jakes stepped closer to the remains of Lefty as Mendel appeared from the smoke. He had the remains of his white rifle over one shoulder, holding his ribs with his other hand. The man’s clothing was torn and he appeared to be developing a bruise over one eye. A broad grin spread across his face as he stepped over the body of the dead howler.

  “And now we get to go home, right?”

  “Where’s your partner?” Jakes asked, trying to make out Parker in the smoky corridor. “Is he…”

  “I’m here, Cap’n,” Parker said, stepping into view from behind the bigger man. “I’m just stayin’ out of the line of fire here.”

  “Did you set any charges, Parker?” Jakes asked, stepping closer to the smaller man.

  “You told me not to set anything, boss,” Parker said, raising his hands and backing away. “I didn’t set anything, I swear on my mother’s grave.”

  “I wish you had,” Jakes said. “We need to blow this whole place.”

  “Captain?” Tuxor asked.

  “Lefty here was calling these things from all over. I’ll bet there’s a whole lot more of them roaming around. And I don’t intend to leave any of them to kill more people.”

  “Well, if that’s the way you want it,” Parker replied, pulling his small rectangle from a back pocket. “I got this whole place ready to go. I was droppin’ charges as we moved through. I figure it’ll go up like a roman candle and decompress the whole station. Nothin’ left but howlin’ dead guys in space.”

  “I thought you swore on your mother’s grave?” Mendel said, turning to face his partner.

  “I never really liked that woman anyway.”

  10

  “He helped us because he thought he owed us for his freedom. The truth is Connor Jakes was a menace. If he stepped onto a ship, he blew it up. If he talked to a man, he killed him. That is what I know of Connor Jakes.”

  Lee Pearce

  Post Action Debriefing Notes

  “Who the hell are you and why were you on that station?”

  Connor Jakes grabbed Albert Wilhelm Holcombe by the thick velvet folds of his robe and slammed his back against the bulkhead wall. The fat man struggled against the captain, but Jakes’ anger was far more powerful than his bulk. Beads of sweat began to roll down the man’s reddish, balding head, staining the elegant velvet fabric. A dribble of froth formed at the corner of Holcombe’s mouth.

  “Please, Captain Jakes,” Holcombe blubbered. “Please let me down. I don’t know what you want from me!”

  “I want answers, Albert. I want to know why you were on Terpsichore despite the beacon we left there months ago. Who are you and how did you survive the last six years?” Jakes pushed the man into the wall again.

  “We needed supplies … the crew told me the station was abandoned,” Holcombe said. “We had been in hiding for so long our food supplies were running low. I thought Terpsichore would be safe because it wasn’t a human station. We didn’t know…”

  “Connor,” Melai
na interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder and trying to push him away from the sweating fat man. “Let him go. He obviously doesn’t know anything about the station.”

  Jakes had marched back into the ship without a word. Melaina had followed him as he headed straight for the refugee’s quarters. He had overridden the door lock and barged in. Bric was in the bathroom apparently, so Connor had a clear shot at Holcombe. He had hauled the man into the hallway and thrown him against the wall to begin the questioning.

  “I don’t buy it, Melaina,” Jakes began. “Tubby here survived in obvious comfort while billions of humans were sent to slaughter by the Ch’Tauk? That stinks worse than I do right now.”

  “It was coincidence only, Captain Jakes. We were secluded when the invasion occurred ... um ... a private moon ... uh ... away from most human colonies…” Holcombe stuttered.

  “So you just stayed in your palace and let the rest of your kind die?” Jakes said, pressing himself close to the other man.

  “I am a coward, Captain,” Holcombe admitted. “Yes, I hid and watched as the human race fell to the … um ... Ch’Tauk Empire. But it was not my ‘palace’ as you ... uh ... said. I am nobody, a minor functionary. I told you it was a … coincidence.”

  “You don’t look very minor to me,” Jakes said, releasing the fat man and taking a step back. “That outfit must have cost a few credits. You don’t look like you have been starvin’ for food either. Wanna explain that?”

  “Connor, can’t you see he’s telling you the truth?” Melaina said, stepping in between Jakes and Holcombe. “The man has been hiding for who know how long. He’s terrified and you’re not helping. Step back and let him get some rest.”

  “Not until I know who he really is, precious,” Jakes said, carefully moving the woman aside. “Now talk. Who do you work for, Holcombe?”

  “I ... um ... I’m embarrassed to say ... um ... Captain Jakes, I swear to you I am nobody,” Holcombe said, absently straightening his robes. “I work for Recyrc Industries. I am the ... um ... head of market research for a company that ... um ... used to ... recycle alien waste products into ... fertilizer and … um ... foodstuffs.”