Aly, without thinking, unbuckled and launched herself to the helm. Instead of finding refuge in the chair, she slid back toward her father at the center of the bridge.
She clawed toward the Argo’s flight controls, and with her dad’s help, he flung her upward into the seat. With her head spinning, she ran her hands over the console and brought the Argo back to equilibrium.
She gave a hand to her dad and pulled him up. Petit unbuckled himself and walked over to them. They all peered through the viewport.
The Seeker ship hovered over them like a condor about to feast on its prey.
Chapter 14
The two ships were so close Kevin imagined the Seekers would be able to see the whites of his eyes. He put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. I’ve failed her. Alyssa gazed up at him, and a tear ran down her cheek.
“I’m sorry.” He hugged her tightly as if it would protect her from the inevitable.
“Look!”
Petit pointed. Another vessel rounded the planet’s orbit. The cigar-shaped beast loomed over the Seeker ship.
The weapon ship! It fired on its running mate, unloading its arsenal upon it.
Kevin squeezed Alyssa’s shoulder, more than he’d meant. “My god, they did it!”
“I’m receiving a commlink,” Petit said from the systems station. He piped it through the speakers.
“Argo, are you all right?” It was Jason.
“You couldn’t have come at a better time.” A grin beamed across Alyssa’s face.
“Stand by, we’ll do what we can to take care of them for you.”
The Seeker ship veered away from the Argo and turned toward the weapon ship. The two goliaths went toe to toe, firing their mighty batteries of weaponry upon each other.
Kevin replaced Alyssa at the helm. He toggled in a course and maneuvered the Argo out of the area, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.
*
Seeker Weapon Ship
Jason, along with everyone else, watched on from the monitors at the workstations before them, holding on to anything within reach while the ship rocked and rolled.
“We’re severely out-gunned.” Althaus’s hands jumped up and down the console.
“Continue firing,” Marquez ordered.
Jason looked around the chamber at the explosives all rigged and ready to detonate. “If they keep this up, we won’t need to use these.”
“Idiots!” Everyone turned to Nash, who was brimming with fury. “They’ll destroy this ship!”
Another blast hit them hard. They all sprawled to the deck, and the lights flickered out.
The blast of a weapon and an agonizing yell echoed around the chamber. Jason pulled himself up when the light returned. There between he and the workstations, Private Utkin lay in a heap with a scorch mark on his chest. Nash broke free and ran over to a spare workstation.
Jason darted toward him, but before he got close, his friend pointed his weapon at him. He had one eye on his console and another on Jason. “Move any closer, Cassidy, and I’ll pull the trigger.”
Everyone else gathered themselves from the deck and eyed him warily. Another blast reverberated beneath them.
“I’m saving your lives as much as I am this ship,” Nash said frantically.
An ominous hum filled the chamber, and the sphere flashed orange.
“What are you doing?” Jason tiptoed ever nearer to him.
“He’s distributing the energy from the sphere to the weapon emitter.” Kione stared at an adjacent console. “But you haven’t even tested it yet!”
Nash smiled sadistically. “No time like the present.”
The conduits throbbed with the power from the six-million-year-old artifact. Everyone watched the external monitors on the consoles.
In a brilliant burst of light, a bright-blue beam launched toward the Seeker ship. But instead of the explosion they’d all expected… There was nothing.
Jason narrowed his eyes with bewilderment. “Well, that was underwhelming.”
The Seeker ship then throbbed and trembled. It became smaller with each passing second. From the size of four carriers, it turned into something no bigger than a cruisier.
“It’s as if it’s disassembling,” Marquez said.
Within moments it was as small as a transport pod, until it appeared as little more than vapors floating in the vacuum of space. It was gone.
Silence filled the chamber as everyone tried to understand what they’d just witnessed. The smile returned to Nash’s face along with a smug satisfaction.
Jason inched closer toward him as delicately as he could without being shot. “What happened?”
Nash clutched his weapon. “What the Seekers had hoped. Torpedoes. Tritonium warheads. Like pop guns to a child.” He pointed at the sphere. “This is true firepower. And now we’ve harnessed it.”
An alert klaxon blared around them. Nash peered down at the readings. His smile once again faded.
“Something the matter?” Tai said, coming up beside Jason.
“The ship…we took too many hits.”
“The ship’s reactor has failed,” Kione said. “We have only minutes before it blows.”
“That’s it.” Althaus studied Kione’s station. “It’s time to go!”
“No. No one is going anywhere. Especially not you.” Nash’s eyes pierced Jason’s. “I should have done this when I first saw you on Orion V. How could I have been so blind?”
He pushed his weapon forward. His arms shook, and his fingers twitched. It seemed he was fighting a battle with himself.
“You can’t pull the trigger, can you?” Jason walked to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Marquez bound toward Nash and bundle him down as if he were a linebacker from the Hyper Bowl winning Holden City Pioneers. The two tumbled to the deck.
But Nash still had the gun. A volley of blasts launched from it, sending everyone ducking for cover. Marquez knocked it from him and tried to lock him down. But Nash was too quick and regained his feet, finding his weapon. He pointed it at Marquez who raised his hands in defeat.
“I may not be able to shoot Cassidy, but there’s nothing stopping me from killing you.” His hand steadied, and he squeezed at the trigger.
A blast fired.
Marquez’s eyes closed, but he didn’t fall. He reopened his eyes and stared across at Jason who had the smoking gun in his hands.
Jason’s hands shook. What have I done?
He looked across at Nash who had a scorch mark directly through his chest. His knees buckled and he fell to the deck. Jason hurried to his side and held him upward. He coughed up blood, and it dripped down his face. Gone was the air of superiority that had been so prevalent.
He was the Nash he remembered again. “You know what you said on Orion V?” he said to Jason.
“What?”
“That you were sorry for letting me go instead of you.”
“Yeah?”
“I forgive you.” The grin returned, and Nash’s head fell backward. It was as if he’d died all over again. This time at my hand…
Jason had come to Frontier’s Reach in the hope of discovering the truth about his friend’s death. Instead, it was he who’d ultimately killed him a second time.
“She’s been hit!”
Jason turned to his brother’s voice ringing around the chamber. Over at the adjacent workstations, the others huddled over a fallen body. He rushed over. There lying on the deck was Doctor Tai.
Captain Marquez rushed toward her kneeled down, trying to comfort her while applying pressure to the wound on her right leg. Jason assumed she’d been hit when Nash and Marquez had tussled over the gun.
Damnit!
“How…does…it…look…?” she asked Marquez, gritting her teeth at the end of every word.
“A glancing blow. We’ll get you back to the Argo and patched up in no time.”
The ship boomed around them once again. The screech of metal bending and splitting echoed throughout the
chamber.
“We have to leave now!” Althaus, like an old revolutionary soldier, charged toward the central elevator.
Tyler put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “If we don’t go, we’ll die here with him.”
Jason stared over at his friend. Everything around him seemed to slow down. Kione, Higgs, and Burns lifted Tai into their arms and hurried over to the elevator while Marquez and Tyler bolted over to far side of the chamber to grab Private Utkin’s body.
An almighty bang erupted, bringing Jason back to normality. The ship groaned, and the deck began to tear. Metal burst upward, splitting the chamber into two, forming a gigantic chasm.
Through the sparks, Jason eyed the other side. Tyler and Marquez stared back at him. There was no way they’d be able to jump it without falling to their deaths.
“It’s okay!” Marquez yelled, as calmly as possible. “You get down to the hangar deck. We’ll find a way to the Maybelle and meet you on the Argo!”
Jason hesitated. There was genuine fear in his brother’s eyes.
“Let’s go!”
Jason turned to Althaus, who was equally anxious with the sight of Tyler across the gulf. Regardless, he motioned Jason toward him.
The ceiling caved in, and beams fell. Marquez and Tyler made a run for it. Jason in turn hurried for the elevator. When he stepped inside, it came to life and descended through the heart of the weapon ship, which steadily broke apart around them.
At the hangar deck, the Julieanne was where he’d left it when he’d first fled. He took the controls and commenced a very abbreviated pre-flight check. Althaus stood to the rear of his seat, while Kione and the Marines helped lay down the barely conscious Doctor Tai.
“Where’s Nicolas?” she asked groggily.
“Don’t worry,” Kione told her. “He won’t be far behind.”
Jason powered up the transport pod and whisked it from the deck. He maneuvered through the long labyrinth, ducking and weaving around all the falling debris.
Over the final hurdle, the Julieanne burst forth from the weapon ship just before the aperture fell in on itself.
Jason inspected the scanners. A small blip was on the move. “There they are. The Maybelle.” Thank God! “They’re following us.”
There was a flash. Everyone shielded their eyes. The weapon ship exploded into a giant ball of fire.
“Hold on, everybody!” Jason knew the shock wave of the blast would be only moments away.
Boom! The Julieanne lurched forward. Jason did his best to keep her level. He pushed the thrusters to overdrive and grabbed on tight.
Then just as soon as the shaking started, it dispersed. The shockwave dissipated. Jason wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Is everybody okay?”
They all nodded.
Tai was delirious. “Nicolas!”
On the scanners, the board was clear of everything but the Argo. The weapon ship. The Maybelle. They were gone. Jason turned to Althaus, but no words came out.
He peered back through the viewport where the weapon ship had once been. Somewhere out there, Tyler’s body now floated amongst the stars along with the memories of Benjamin and Janice Cassidy.
I’ve lost two brothers.
Chapter 15
Cargo Ship Argo
Jason watched Kevin through the observation screen wave a medical scanner over Tai’s wound while she lay on the bed in the infirmary. She was conscious, but a lot more sedate than when she’d returned from the weapon ship.
Jason went in, but Kevin cut him off at the pass. “I’ve given her some medication to help her sleep.”
“I’ll be quick.”
Kevin considered the request and nodded. “Don’t take too long.”
Jason walked to her side and took a seat. There was agony in her eyes. An agony he now knew wasn’t from the wound. When they’d got back from their mission, Kione told him she and Captain Marquez had once been married. Which explained a lot. She was going through hell on the outside and the inside.
“Any luck?” Tai whispered.
He shook his head. “Our scanners have searched on and around the planet. We’ve even taken another look at the moon. There’s no sign of them anywhere.”
“Why was there no debris?”
“Professor Petit believes the sphere’s destruction aboard the weapon ship vaporized everything in the blast radius. Including the Maybelle.”
“Then they’re gone.” It wasn’t a question. A tear rolled down her cheek and without saying another word, Tai closed her eyes falling into a slumber.
Jason put his head in his hands and glanced over at Kevin who stared back at him.
“What’s her prognosis?” Jason asked him.
“The wound is unlike anything I’ve seen. It may have grazed her instead of hitting her point blank, but it’s caused a paralysis in the leg. Unfortunately, it seems to be spreading.”
“Can’t you do something about that?”
Kevin shook his head. “No. Perhaps with a better medical facility…”
“We’re fifteen years away from Outpost Watchtower.”
“She doesn’t have fifteen years.”
Jason closed his eyes. The image of Tyler on the other side of the chamber and Nash lying dead in his arms haunted him.
“How are you?”
Jason reopened his eyes and glared at Kevin, telling him what a stupid question it was.
“I’m sorry, Jason. You and Tyler, I guess, are like nephews. When your father died, he told Althaus and me to look after the two of you. I feel as if—”
“Don’t,” Jason began. “This wasn’t your fault. If it’s anyone’s, it’s mine. I was the one who asked Tyler to come out here. And now—”
“Take your own advice. You couldn’t have foreseen this. No one could have. And beating yourself up over it…well, you know what track that’ll lead you down.”
Jason did indeed, all too well.
Aly stared at the broken linkage in front of her. Her eyes were still stinging from the tears. And wiping them only made it worse.
To her left, she reached for a new linkage and a laser cutter. She ensured the power was disconnected and cut the old part, throwing it behind her with force.
“Aly.”
She turned. The forlorn figure of Jason stood at the engine room door. He looked like Tyler. Like their father. They had a way of standing straight while leaning to their right. She hauled herself out of the junction and walked over to him. The tears burst out again, and she hugged him.
His reassuring arms coiled around her. She didn’t want it to end but realized she couldn’t hide there forever. She pulled away and stared at Jason’s blank face. She knew his emotions were in there, but he was doing his best to bottle them up.
“Have you seen Petit?” he asked her.
Aly wiped aside her tears once again and tried to remember where the professor had got to. “I think he went down to the cargo bay to get some parts.”
Footsteps approached from the door.
“Did someone call?” Petit arrived with a storage case in each hand.
“Yes, Professor, I’ve been made aware of the Iota Particles you scraped from the Argo’s exhausts. I was wondering if you had any ideas how we might use them to get us home.”
He put the cases on the maintenance console. “I’ve stumbled upon a possibility. However, you must understand if we attempt it, I can’t guarantee success.”
“We don’t have much of a choice. Out here alone for fifteen years in the unknown is hardly something the Argo is up for. Replenishing food, supplies, and fuel will be difficult if not downright impossible. Not to mention if we don’t get Doctor Tai to the proper facilities, she’s going to die.”
Petit steepled his fingers. “While I’m a long way from figuring out how to use the Iota particles to generate a trans-space vortex, there may be a means to force open the corridor we came through.”
“I’m listening.”
Petit brought up a series of scans on t
he console before them. “At the point the vortex closed, there’s still a slight concentration of Iota particles. The study I’ve done on them suggests if we bombard that area with the particles we’ve captured, it might reignite the vortex and hopefully the trans-space corridor.”
“Which would return us to Orion V, where we entered?”
“Theoretically.”
“It’s better than nothing.” Jason turned to Aly. “How long until the necessary systems are up and running to make an attempt?”
“Three hours at the most.”
“Good, let’s do it.”
Jason walked into the Argo’s communal bathroom and stopped in his tracks. There, hunched over one of the washbasins, stood Althaus.
The mirror in front of him was shattered. Jason glanced at Althaus’s fist. It was bleeding. Jesus.
He sidled up beside his uncle and twisted the faucet. A cold spray of water burst out, and he wiped his hands and face. He and Althaus caught a glimpse of each other before turning back to their separate basins.
Jason finished up and grabbed a wash towel. He took one last glance at Althaus and proceeded toward the exit.
“I came to think of him as my own son.”
Althaus spun around. A drip of blood trickled onto the deck beneath him.
Jason stopped. “I knew he was always your favorite.” What a stupid thing to say. It wasn’t the time for their usual back-and-forth banter.
Althaus stepped closer to him. “I’ve never had much in this life.” There was a bitterness in his voice. “And now, because of you, what I had left is gone.”
Jason didn’t argue. Althaus had a fair point. And he couldn’t be bothered fighting about it. Tyler was just as much Althaus’s relative as he was his.
“You’re right,” he said to his angry uncle. He’d seen him pissed off before, but he’d never seen him broken. Jason indicated toward his uncle’s knuckles. “You should get that checked.”
With that, he turned and walked out.
Chapter 16
Dark Side of the Moon: A Gritty Space Opera Adventure (Frontier's Reach Book 3) Page 7
