But the letters flew by too quickly. It stopped at a symbol that had two vertical lines with a dot between. The elevator door closed, and instead of descending, the car shot upwards.
Crap. Jason had to get off the ship before the Seekers and Nash discovered him missing in the brig. He tried to swipe at the terminal again, but the elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened. He stepped out onto a circular catwalk and grabbed the outer railing.
Wow. Jason peered beneath him at a great complex over a hundred meters in diameter. At its heart on a large pedestal sat the sphere. Six giant conduits protruded from the relic and ran along the deck, beyond the bulkheads of the chamber. From everything Kione had claimed, Jason supposed the Seekers were using it to channel the power from the sphere to somewhere else on the ship. Perhaps to a weapon emitter.
Around the sphere were several workstations manned by Seekers. But they weren’t as threatening as the others he’d seen. Their armor was less bulky and their helmets less pronounced. They were also unarmed. Seeker engineers?
There were, however, plenty of their brethren patrolling the chamber, appearing as menacing as ever, with their curved rifles at the ready. Jason had seen enough—it was time to go.
He walked into the elevator and waved his hand over the terminal. He did it a little slower this time and watched the symbols fly past. It scrolled all the way to the end. The backward S. He pulled back his hand, and the doors closed.
After a quick journey, he reached the familiar surroundings of the hangar deck. Its size awed him as it had the first time.
The Julieanne sat off into the distance. It was so small and pathetic compared to the larger Seeker crafts around it. Now what the hell do I do? If he made a beeline for the pod, he’d be found out.
Instead Jason walked toward one of the Seeker vessels. Inside were significant differences to a standard commonwealth craft. In place of a viewport at the front of the cockpit, there was a holographic screen wrapped around the pilot’s seat. On each side of the seat were unusual conical-shaped controls. And behind, instead of chairs, half-meter-long shafts protruded from the ceiling.
He inspected the helm. The same alien text was present. Not exactly English Standard.
Footsteps marched toward the craft. Crap! They’ve found me! A group of twenty soldiers, armed to the teeth, streamed up the ramp through the rear airlock.
Now I’m boned. One brushed past Jason and took a seat at the controls while the others put their hands around a ceiling shaft each. A click accompanied each one. Handholds?
Not wanting to appear any more suspicious than he already did, Jason did the same with the handhold above him. His glove magnetized to it, and the soles of his boots did the same to the deck plating.
The airlock at the rear of the ship closed, and the pilot powered up the craft. It gently lifted from the deck and headed toward the hangar deck exit.
*
Cargo Ship Argo
Conrad peered through the viewport at Psi-Aion below. His thoughts were only for Tyler. He and the others had been on the surface for over nine hours now. An entire night. The sun would soon rise.
He’d hoped it was just a simple matter of them having mechanical issues with the Maybelle, but with the lack of communications, he knew better. Something was wrong. Very wrong. And it had been ever since the kid had come back to the Argo asking for Tyler’s help. Conrad gritted his teeth.
If there was anyone who would get them embroiled in a conflict with an alien species while throwing them light-years away from their home, it had to be the eldest of the Cassidy kids.
Rycroft and Alyssa strode onto the bridge. While Conrad had re-strapped all the cargo below deck, the Rycrofts, with the help of Professor Petit, had concocted a plan to take the Argo through the atmosphere. He wasn’t optimistic, but he cared greatly for Tyler and would do whatever he could to save him.
Alyssa walked over to him at the systems station. “Has there been any sign of Jason?”
Conrad shook his head. “For the hundredth time, no.”
She shot him a nasty glare. “There are people on this ship who still care for him.”
“That’s not fair. I care like everyone else. It’ll be difficult to replace the Julieanne. They stopped making those pods years ago.”
Alyssa stormed off to the operations station. Conrad smiled. That was a good one. He turned to Rycroft who was getting comfortable at the helm. “Is everything ready?”
Rycroft ran his hands over the controls. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Alyssa walked to the helm. She pointed at her father’s monitor. “I wouldn’t advise dropping below this margin. If we do, we’re toast.”
While the pair continued to go over their plan, Conrad took another look at the scanners. He did a double take. A blip rounded the moon.
“I have something,” he said.
Alyssa rushed over to him. “Jason?” she assumed gleefully.
The object moved toward Psi-Aion. Its outline became clearer. “That’s not the Julieanne.”
Alyssa’s demeanor deflated. “If it’s not the pod, what is it?”
“Seekers.” Conrad shook his head. “It matches the size and configuration of the ship they sent down to Orion V.”
“What do you think they want?”
“The kid alerted them to our presence here. They may be coming to finish us off.”
“We weren’t seen as a threat back at Orion V.”
“They might think otherwise now.”
Rycroft nodded. “It’s not worth the risk. We’ll have to call off our expedition to the surface until they’ve passed by. I’ll take us to the opposite side of the planet. With any luck, they shouldn’t detect us.”
While Conrad found the girl annoying on occasion, she was dead right. With what they’d seen of the Seekers at Orion V, as long as no one was hostile toward them, they took little notice of anyone else. Jason had only gone to them in a small pod.
What could they be up to?
Chapter 6
Psi-Aion
Tyler’s eyes drooped. He hadn’t slept. How could I? He’d stood at the cave entrance for the rest of the night, looking through the bars at the landscape beyond.
No one else got any shut-eye either. Captain Marquez and Doctor Tai rested against the cave wall, quietly chatting, while the Marines had scattered, remaining as alert as possible.
The sun was almost up. Tyler hadn’t seen many sunrises. It was an occupational impossibility as captain of a cargo ship. He would have enjoyed the experience if it weren’t for their confinement.
From the village, a group of the natives headed toward them.
Tyler alerted the others. “We’ve got company.”
Everyone stood. At the head of the group of natives was the leader who’d initially captured them out near the Maybelle.
“Tolar Geri Vokar!” he said to them in a deep voice.
The cell opened, and the guards rounded them up, once again roping their hands behind their backs.
“We’re not Geri Vokar,” Marquez tried to tell them. “Can you understand? Not Geri Vokar!”
His words fell on deaf ears, and they were led down from their detention back to the center of the village. The elder was waiting for them along with every other native.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Tai said. In front of the large tree stump, six wooden posts had been dug into the ground. At the base of each post was a stack of wood. “They’re going to burn us at the stake!”
Tyler remembered being told tales of women back on Earth centuries earlier, being burned because people believed they were witches. The stories had given him nightmares.
Marquez broke free of his captor and stepped toward the elder. “You must listen to us,” he said calmly. “We are not Geri Vokar.”
The elder’s eyes narrowed. He nodded to one of his guards. In an instant, with the butt of a spear, Marquez was on his ass.
“Nicolas!” Tai yelled.
The guard dragged him to a post and tied him to it, wrapping the rope around his body. He struggled but couldn’t break free. Behind them, the natives bore down on them with their torches lit.
Tyler had never thought about dying. But if he were to guess which way he’d go, it would never have been like the witches of a quaint Massachusetts town.
*
Seeker Craft
The massive globe that was Psi-Aion approached quickly. While standing behind the pilot, Jason kept a close eye on the controls.
The Seeker craft entered orbit. Jason could only wonder for what purpose. Was it because he’d come calling on their door and Nash wanted to ensure no one else came searching for him? If it were the case, he hoped the Argo had already hightailed it.
The craft pushed beyond Psi-Aion’s orbit and made a beeline for the atmosphere. We’re going to land on the planet…
The Seeker helmsman maneuvered the smaller ship down. The deck plating reverberated. Jason sniggered to himself. Even an advanced species, with advanced spacecraft, still had trouble making smooth drops through the atmosphere of a planet.
Through the cloud, large swathes of green stretched out to the horizon. Amazing. Jason’s stomach churned while they pulled up and straightened out.
The helmsman found a clearing in the tree line where a massive cliff face overlooked the great forest. Jason did a double take. Beneath it were small wooden structures. And people?
*
Psi-Aion
Boom!
Nicolas joined everyone else in the village gazing up into the sky. A craft zoomed overhead, appearing like a black vulture ready to pounce on its prey.
The Seekers!
Panic took hold of the villagers. They grabbed their loved ones and scrambled. Even the elder moved quickly for someone of his age.
“Vakar!” they all yelled at the top of their lungs.
Within moments, they’d all fled, leaving the six of them to fend for themselves.
Nicolas gazed over at Tyler whose ropes hadn’t quite been secured. He wrenched his body forward and twisted out of them. Tyler loosened Nicolas’s knots, and between the pair of them, they had everyone free in a matter of minutes.
“What do you think the Seekers want?” Higgs asked, throwing his ropes to the ground.
Nicolas remembered the drawings they’d seen in the cave the night before. They were coming down for only one reason.
“Fresh meat.”
*
Cargo Ship Argo
An alert sounded from the operations station. It was the last thing Kevin wanted to hear while steering the Argo toward the opposite side of the planet.
“Something?” he asked Althaus.
His colleague nodded. “Just as we moved into scanning darkness and lost contact with the Seeker craft, there was a change in their trajectory.”
“Were they coming after us?”
“No. They were heading down to the surface.”
“Where?”
“By the looks of it, toward the region our pod landed.”
“They must be going after our people.”
“It’s time we got down there.” Althaus had a steely glint in his eyes.
Kevin didn’t expect that. “I thought—”
“Tyler’s down there. If Alyssa said we’re ready to go, that’s good enough for me.”
Kevin smiled and turned back to the helm. He activated the intercom. “Bridge to engine room.”
“Engine Room,” came the voice of his daughter.
“We’re going down.”
“Roger that.”
Kevin switched off the intercom and pushed in the commands on his console. It’d been some time since he’d landed a craft of the Argo’s size. He hoped he still had the right stuff. As long as we make it through the atmosphere without blowing up.
Chapter 7
Psi-Aion
A Seeker prowled toward Susan with his weapon raised. With the refuge of a large tree nearby, she pushed with what little energy she had left and threw herself behind it.
A weapon blast fired, and she covered her eyes from the expected carnage, but instead of the burst blowing the tree into a splintery mess, it dispersed into it.
Susan looked around trying to find the others. After fleeing into the forest, they’d all got split up. There was still no one else in sight. She peered around the tree and watched her attacker move ever nearer.
“Psst.”
Susan darted her eyes around.
“Down here.”
A hand poked upward through the green brush beneath her. Nicolas! She grabbed hold and slid into a trench beside him. They waited until the Seeker passed by.
“Where are the others?” Susan whispered.
Nicolas shook his head. “I don’t know. I think they’re farther ahead.”
The crack of a Seeker weapon echoed around them. They peered over the top of the trench and saw a native fall from the blast. His attacker approached him and rolled his unconscious body over.
“Seems they have their weapons tuned down.” Nicolas observed. “On Orion V, those things burned holes in our guys. These are only knocking them out.”
“Can’t have dead slaves.” Susan watched the Seekers attach a small device to the neck of the native. “Looks like they’re tagging them.”
More soldiers appeared. Marquez and Susan lowered their heads.
“We can’t stay here for long,” he said to her.
She agreed. “We’ve got to find the others.”
*
Cargo Ship Argo
The Argo bashed and crashed, spiraling down through the atmosphere of Psi-Aion. Kevin grabbed hold of the helm with a vise-like grip.
“Engine room to bridge,” Alyssa called over the ship’s intercom.
“Bridge here. Please tell me you have good news,” he pleaded over the racket of the shuddering bulkheads and clanging console instruments.
“Well, we’re in one piece,” Alyssa said optimistically. “But we’ve lost two of our ventral thrusters. The heat shield hasn’t protected everything.”
“That’s okay, I’ll just make sure I pull up a little earlier than normal.”
Kevin looked at the monitor on his console. The Argo had pushed through the stratosphere and was now entering the troposphere. The turbulence subsided.
“Well done back there,” he praised his daughter. “Give my thanks to Professor Petit.”
“Will do.”
Kevin turned to Althaus. “Have you found the Maybelle?”
“If I can find where the original CDF signal came from, I’ll be able to extrapolate—” His console beeped. “Got it. I’m sending the coordinates to the helm.”
Kevin plotted the course.
*
Psi-Aion
It was a bloodbath. After filing out of the Seeker ship, Jason stayed well behind the main groups of soldiers, watching them cut a swath through the forest.
He bent down to one of the victims before him. Seekers! They were the same beings Althaus had killed on Orion V, and the same ones Jason knocked out on the weapon ship when he’d escaped.
But they’re so primitive. Of the unconscious forms he’d seen on the battlefield, they looked like something from an old historical documentary on early human development. Warpaint covered them, and their weapons were nothing more than wood.
They’re slaves… It all made sense to him now. The aliens of Psi-Aion were being used by the true Seekers to do their bidding. And to be their voice. He thought of his friend and how different Nash now was.
What Kione had seen when he’d probed the mind of the guard on the weapon ship, was him being captured, before being turned into one of them.
Jason spotted a small device attached to the alien’s neck. He tried to pull it off, but it wouldn’t come loose. A control collar? He stood and wondered. Who are the true Seekers if these people are nothing more than their slaves?
In the distance, the bulk of the soldiers disappeared. Only a few we
re still in his eyeline. He hurried off in their direction on a parallel path.
He reached them quicker than he thought. When he closed in, he discovered why. A pair of soldiers were stalking a female with a small child in her arms. Jason stopped by an adjacent tree. The mother stumbled, and one soldier raised his weapon at her.
Jason aimed his, too. He hadn’t fired one of the Seeker contraptions yet, but he figured all weapons had a trigger of some sort. Finding what he thought was it, he stood out from the tree, pointed, and squeezed. A bolt of energy launched from it and struck the Seeker down in his tracks.
The woman with the baby eyed him with shock. She regained her footing and ran in the opposite direction. The other soldier ignored her and turned toward Jason.
Jason ducked behind cover, and a blast pounded into the opposite side of the trunk. He looked down and around. He had no escape. He tilted his head upward and smiled. Or do I?
With whatever he could find for a foothold, he climbed up the tree and latched on to a sturdy low-hanging branch.
The Seeker poked his head around the corner. If it weren’t for the dark visor, Jason could swear he saw a bemused expression beneath it. Not waiting for his attacker to figure it out, he jumped off the branch and flattened the soldier into the ground.
Tyler had a box-office view from his vantage point behind a downed tree. Most of the natives had fled to higher ground, deep into the forest to set up a line of defense.
Some climbed the trees and sat upon branches with bows at the ready, while others crouched along the ground with wooden spears. Across the field were the trio of Marines, keeping out of sight.
In all their numbers, fanned out across the forest floor, the Seekers arrived with their weapons aimed.
“Vakar!” one native yelled.
Dark Side of the Moon: A Gritty Space Opera Adventure (Frontier's Reach Book 3) Page 3
