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

by James Prosser

  “Alice will be glad to see you again, Melaina,” Lee said, holding both hands to Melaina’s palms. Do any of you need medical help? I brought Doctor Demsiri and he’s just dying to try out the new sickbay.”

  “We’re alright, Lee,” Melaina replied. “Most of us anyway. The people in the hold need attention, though. They’ve been through hell.”

  “I heard about your ship, Connor. I’m sorry about your crew,” said Captain Pearce. “The Demons are still searching the wreckage. If they’re out there, we’ll find them.”

  “Thanks, Lee,” replied Connor, changing the subject. “I heard you caught Holcombe. I’d like to see him.”

  “I think we can do that. I’ve brought a few other people who want to question him as well,” Lee replied, stepping from the portal to let his medical teams in. “I think one of them wants to see you.”

  “I ain’t in the mood to see anyone right now,” Connor replied, taking Melaina’s hand and moving away from the airlock. “Just get these people some help and get us outta here.”

  “Not even time for an old friend?”

  Lee moved over to confer with the surgical team and allowed another man to step through the airlock. He was tall and dressed in a conservative gray version of the Alliance uniform. He had no rank insignia, but a scar ran along his face. He looked to Connor without smiling. After a moment, he looked to Melaina and bowed his head slightly.

  “Doctor Petros,” Jack Cole said. “It’s good to finally meet you in person.”

  “You leave her the hell outta this, Jack,” Connor said, stepping over to place himself between the two. “If you wanna talk, we can talk. Let’s go find someplace—”

  “Connor, stop,” Melaina said, pushing him back. “Jack and I have already met. He’s the one who told me about your little … secret.”

  Jakes looked back at Cole, who shrugged. As Connor stepped closer to talk, another voice joined the conversation. Alice Bennett had followed the medical team and was coming over to see Melaina. She was dressed in an identical white uniform with commanders’ insignia at her collar. The two women hugged and began to talk as Jakes moved Cole away. He leaned in close, lowering his voice to avoid being heard over the women.

  “How much of my, uh, secret, did you tell her, Jack?”

  “Enough to know your name, Jon, and that you aren’t really a pirate,” Cole replied. “I left out the good stuff like graduation night.”

  “You had no right,” Connor said, grabbing the other man’s lapels. “She didn’t need to know about any of that.”

  “Jon, she’s stronger than you think, and she needed to know.”

  “I needed to know what?”

  Melaina had come closer to the two men, still clutching Alice by the hand. She was smiling, but it was a strange smile, as if she had a secret of her own she wanted to share but couldn’t. The two women separated and Melaina took Connor’s hand instead. He smiled back at his lover as she kissed him on his scarred cheek.

  “Nothin’ important, darlin’,” Jakes said. “Just talkin’ to my old friend about our graduation night.”

  “You can stop with the accent, Connor,” Melaina said, whispering in his ear. “I know where you graduated from.”

  The two looked at each other for a moment before another presence caused them to turn. Bric was standing in the corridor, watching the medical personnel from Resolute cross into the freighter. He looked scared to see the white uniforms. Melaina motioned for the boy to step closer. He walked past the military people quickly, anxious to get away and to the company of even tenuous friends.

  “Jack Cole, meet Bric,” Melaina said. “He’s Holcombe’s son.”

  “Adopted,” Bric said quickly, with an embarrassed look.

  Several thing occurred at once as Bric stepped close. Alice Bennett let out a scream as she looked to the newcomer. As Lee Pearce ran to her side, she fainted into Connor’s arms. Bric stepped back, bumping into one of the medical teams, knocking equipment to the deck. Lee reached Alice and took her from Connor’s grasp. Melaina stepped to Bric and grabbed his arm, stopping the boy from falling further and causing more chaos.

  “What the hell was that?” Connor asked, looking to Lee for an explanation.

  “I don’t know,” Lee said, trying to fan Alice with one hand while holding her up with the other. “She hasn’t been feeling too well. I’ll get her back to our quarters.”

  Melaina let Bric loose and stepped to Lee, trying to help him with Alice. As the trio stepped away, Connor noticed Jack standing perfectly still, watching the whole scene with the same dispassion he would read a situation report. He could tell the man was analyzing everything as Lee carried Alice from the ship and back to Resolute. Melaina waved to Jakes and followed, still worried about her friend.

  “What did you see, Jack?” Connor asked, stepping close to the man. I’ve seen that look before. It ain’t ever good.”

  “It’s nothing you need to worry about, Jon,” Cole said, snapping his attention away from watching Bric and back to Connor. “Shall we go see Holcombe? I think we can bring the boy with us as well. Let him see his daddy.”

  Connor looked to the boy, seeing him uncomfortably watching the Resolute personnel clean up. He waved Bric over, and together they moved through the group and into the battleship. Cole led the way, even though Jakes was familiar with the brig of the other ship. They passed crisply uniformed people moving about their jobs with efficiency. Connor marveled at the changes from the last time he had been aboard. It seemed the Alliance was doing well enough without him.

  They moved through the maze of corridors until they reached the brig. Two guards with sidearms saluted Cole as they approached. Bric flinched as one held his hand to the pistol at his side. Connor had unconsciously reached for his own weapon, forgetting he was still dressed in a gray slave jumpsuit. Cole pressed his palm to the panel and the door slid open, admitting the trio into the soundproof brig. Two more guards were stationed inside with weapons. Again, Cole stepped past as if they weren’t there. Jakes watched as the man placed his palm on another panel and waited while the system verified his genotype. The door hissed open and admitted them. Connor let Bric step past as they entered the long corridor lined with barred cells on either side. There were creatures in each cell, some lounging and some pacing the floor. At the end was a door. Cole produced a small device and pointed it at the door. The panel slid up into the ceiling, revealing a room with a single occupant inside.

  Albert Holcombe sat on a low cot, brushing lint from his deep red robes. Jakes could see where the material had been torn and burnt by fire, but Holcombe wore it like a king. He looked up as the three men approached. His eyes went from Cole to Jakes and finally to Bric. He gave the boy a long look before turning his attention back to Connor. As Jakes stepped close to the energy field separating Holcombe from the outside world, Jakes reflected on the situation. Holcombe stood and moved to stand within a hand’s length from the field and smiled. He had a bruise growing along the right side of his face, but the pain did not seem to bother him.

  “Jon,” Holcombe said in his honeyed tone. “Or is it Connor? You never really made a choice, did you?”

  “I made that choice a long time ago, tubby,” Jakes replied with a grin. “You know who I am.”

  “I do, my dear boy. Do you?”

  “Let’s cut the crap, Albert,” Jakes said, stepping close enough to feel the energy field crackling against his skin. “Why do you want me to be Jon Sandoval so badly? What’s in it for you?”

  “For me? Just the knowledge that one of our kind has been returned to the fold. There are so few of us left.”

  “There ain’t no us or them, Holcombe,” Jakes spat. “There’s just the human race.”

  “And some of us are winning that race, Jon,” Holcombe said, turning his back and walking back to the cot.

  “Yeah, you look like a winner right about now,” Jakes said, pointing to the energy field. “You’re a real fat fish in a very small
bowl.”

  “I suppose that is one way to look at it, my boy,” Holcombe replied with a smile. He spread his arms wide, indicating the cell. “Of course, you see I am not sharing this cell with anyone. Even locked away, I am still held separate from the rabble.”

  The energy field sizzled for a moment and then snapped off. Jakes was startled to see the faint orange glow disappear and turned to Cole to see him holding the small remote up. There was a moment when Jakes thought Cole would offer him the device, but it vanished back into Cole’s uniform as quickly as he had produced it. Before Connor could step into the cell, however, Bric leapt past them.

  Holcombe let out a scream as the boy placed his hands to either side of his head. The boy drew in a long breath as he felt the weight of his father’s memories enter his. Holcombe’s eyes rolled up into his head, his voice petering off into silence. Jakes moved to pull the Bric away, but Cole grabbed his arms, restraining him from touching the boy. The moment stretched into long seconds as Holcombe seemed to be drying up. Bric’s eyes swelled and his face pinched up in an expression of pain. Finally, the boy released his father, letting the man fall to the floor. Bric stumbled back into the cell, collapsing onto the cot and lying still. Connor pulled away and crouched to Holcombe, feeling the man for a pulse. He was relieved when he felt the steady but weak flow of blood.

  “What did you do?” Cole asked Bric in a steady tone.

  “I … I had to know,” the boy panted. “He never would have told you anything you wanted to know. He never told me the truth about where I came from either. He told me he loved me like a father, and that was a lie. He only ever loved his money and power.”

  “Kid, what did you do to him?” Jakes asked, standing up and moving closer to the boy.

  “I drew it all from him,” Bric said, looking up with wide eyes to see Jakes for the first time with his father’s eyes. “He was jealous of you, Jon.”

  “Jealous of me?” Connor asked. “He had everything and I ain’t even got a ship anymore. What did he have to be jealous of?”

  “That’s just it,” Bric said, closing his big eyes and laying his head back down, a wave of exhaustion visible over his entire body. “You have more than you know. He had nothing, really. The only thing he really had was me, and he thought I was just an asset. The whole story about his son was another lie. He never had children.”

  “I don’t understand,” Connor said, looking back at Cole. “What’s he talkin’ about?”

  “I think I know, Jon. Let the medics take care of these two. I can explain it all.”

  “Explain what?” Connor said. “I don’t know what the hell is goin’ on.”

  “Let me ask you this, Jon,” Cole said, taking the man by the arm and leading him from the cell. “How much do you know about Richard Sandoval?”

  “He was my father,” Jakes said, stopping to look at Cole. “Why?”

  “Did you ever wonder where he made his money?”

  Finale

  The Aleinhelm Shipyards were gone, washed away into the ravine, never to be recovered. In their place, a natural waterfall formed as the inland sea drained steadily through. Other shipyards raised their production quotas and made up the difference from Aleinhelm without a loss in overall productivity. Stock on the Interstellar Exchange fell, but not by as much as feared. News of a new chairman taking over bolstered confidence in the company and its stock. There were rumors of one of the principal shareholders returning from wherever he had been hidden six years before and appointing new management.

  Bric fidgeted as he rode the lift towards the management offices. The finely-tailored business suit he wore chafed and the torc around his neck felt like a noose. Beside him stood the two new bodyguards appointed to him by the company. One was a massive man with a shaved head and a pistol at the hip of his own suit. The other was much smaller and wore no visible weapons, but had an air of dangerousness about him. All three men were nervous as the lift slowed and the doors opened.

  “Good Morning, Mister President,” said the secretary from behind her massive desk. You have seven meetings scheduled with different members of the board. I’ll have the schedule sent to your desk. Would you like something to drink?”

  The android stood as Bric approached the desk. The twins had allowed each android to reconfigure their own physical parameters. The version greeting him was taller than before and had short brown hair and a distinct red tinge to her skin. They had tried to explain how they had given the mechanical people a small measure of free will, but Bric could not understand. He placed his hand on the identity panel and checked in for the day.

  “She’s still a lot nicer than she was before,” said Parker Trega, fingering a small metal box with a red button on one end. “The twins did a number on them, didn’t they?”

  “Before they left, they reprogrammed the cafeteria menus too,” Eli Mendel replied, straightening the suit he was wearing. “They don’t do indigo burgers anymore. Something about what they’ve been feeding the cattle. I gotta eat mushroom patties again.”

  “Mister President,” interrupted the secretary. “You have a visitor.”

  Bric turned to the glass wall to see the curtains had been pulled. The morning sun was streaming in, but whoever was waiting had been hidden behind the thick fabric. He motioned to Mendel to watch the door as he approached. Parker took the other side and both pulled their weapons. Taking a deep breath, Bric opened the door and walked into the office, expecting anything as both bodyguards rushed in, guns drawn and ready. Instead of gunfire, a loud bark of laughter erupted from Mendel. Bric looked to the sound and saw the big man shaking hands with another, a huge smile splitting his face.

  Connor Jakes, dressed in a more familiar white sleeveless shirt and dark trousers, was clasping hands with his former crewmate. Parker moved closer as well, clapping the man on the back. Jakes winced as the impact pushed him forward. The scars on his face and arms had healed and were no longer visible, but Bric thought the man might have more injuries which would take more time. Connor finished shaking hands and stepped away, moving closer to Bric with a grin on his face.

  “Kid,” Jakes said. “You look good. The suit fits, and so does the title.”

  “Thank you, Connor … or is it Jon?”

  “Connor is fine,” Jakes responded, looking at the carpet for a moment. “I think I made the right choice here. The company is in good hands.”

  “I drew out my father’s memories and experiences. I know what not to do,” Bric replied. “So what do I owe the honor of your visit?”

  Connor looked back at the boy. His smile widened even further as he stepped away and walked to the glass window. Bric walked over to join him, looking out at Eridu not as a ruler but as a caretaker of better things. For a long moment, neither spoke. When Connor finally turned back, his expression was changed. He had a faraway look in his eyes and a grin on his face that told a story all its own.

  “I got this call from Jack and…” Jakes said, letting the implication sink in. “I’m gonna need a new ship…”

  Connor Jakes will return!

  Watch for

  Resolute Alliance

  Coming soon to a Kindle near you.

  About the Author

  James is the author of five books in the Resolute saga. His first book, Resolute Command, has sold over five thousand copies in ten different countries. He lives in Central Florida with his wife and five cats. He is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a degree in Social Science Education. As usual, outside of work, you can find him writing a new novel.

  Follow James at:

  http://resolutebooks.blogspot.com

 

 

 
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