Adam levelled off the shuttle high in the atmosphere and eased back the throttle to cruising speed.
"Hey, what are we waiting for? They got jets you know."
Adam didn't respond. Instead, he continued to work across the console checking each system in order.
Eddy tried to peer over the seat in front of him to get a look at what was happening. His restrained wrist stopped him from standing at no more than a low crouch, not enough to see any more than when he was sitting.
"Come on, what are you doing?"
"We hit that APC pretty hard. I’d rather find out if we took any damage here than halfway back to the station."
"Well uncuff me then. It'll be a lot quicker if we’re both doing something." Eddy shook his restrained arm, causing the handcuffs to rattle loudly against the chair frame.
"Not a chance. Now be a good prisoner and shut the fuck up!"
Adam worked a couple more minutes in silence checking each system. His main concern was that they punctured the hull and were leaking oxygen, but the environmental diagnostic was all clear, and eventually he was convinced they would be okay.
"All right, we’re good to go. Doesn't look like we took any real damage, though we won't know for sure without visually inspecting the outer hull. You still want to volunteer to help? I could dangle you out the hatch by your legs."
"Just get us out of here."
Adam grinned to himself as he hit the throttle into the full power position without giving any warning to his prisoner. For the next several minutes, they were both just passengers as the shuttle broke through the last of the atmosphere and settled in a low orbit on autopilot. He was an experienced pilot, but this was only the third time in his life that he piloted a ship all the way through an atmosphere. It was far more complicated than just docking at one of the stations, so he had no problem letting the autopilot do the tricky stuff.
Adam was just in the process of setting the final destination into the computer when the shuttle’s communication system burst into life. There was a loud crack of static followed by a very serious sounding voice.
"Civilian shuttle, this is the heavy cruiser Blazing Sword. You are in restricted space. Identify yourself immediately or you will be fired upon."
"Damn it! I was hoping to avoid them," Adam muttered just loud enough for Eddy to hear.
"Heavy Cruiser this is Adam Carter piloting the civilian shuttle, authorisation code 0 9 7 5 K L BLACK."
Adam leaned over the console to try to get a better look out the front window. At first, he couldn't see anything, then, after gently rotating the shuttle a few degrees, the large, black ship came into view. Its silhouetted shape looked like a tall skyscraper lying on its side. It was almost exactly in line with their escape trajectory, only in a much higher orbit. Probably tracking us the moment we left the ground. He thought to himself.
"Civilian shuttle, we have no record of you being given authorisation to pass beyond the blockade. Maintain your current orbit. An inspection team has been dispatched to your position."
"Confirmed," Adam replied reluctantly, before slumping back into his seat.
It took about twenty minutes for the small transport ship to reach the shuttle, then a further thirty minutes to dock and get a proper seal on the hatch. There had been a lot more damage to the outer hull than Adam realised. To take away some of the stress from the damaged docking latches, the military ship had to use a series of magnetic grappling cables to latch onto the shuttle and hold it tight.
Eventually the small light above the hatch flashed green and Adam released the latch. The hatch immediately burst open revealing two armed marines. One was crouched down right at the front of the short tube that now joined the two ships. The second was floating upside down above him. Both had their rifles drawn, ready for whatever danger may be inside.
Adam slowly floated back from the open hatch, his hands clearly visible and empty by his side. Despite his bulky combat armour, the first marine gracefully floated into the cramped shuttle, took a quick look around, then floated back out.
Adam could hear voices coming from the other ship, but they were not quite loud enough to make out what they were saying. He was just about to move back to the hatch to see what was happening when someone new floated in. An officer this time.
He righted himself to a standing posture, though he was still floating just above the deck and adjusted the black and grey jacket of his uniform back to its correct position.
He looked over the scruffy man cuffed to the chair, then turned his attention to Adam.
"I am Lieutenant Barkly. You are Adam Carter, correct?"
Adam replied with a nod, causing the Lieutenant to look up from the data pad he was holding to see his reaction.
"Please put your right hand on the scanner to confirm your identity."
The Lieutenant turned the data pad in his hand and held it out in front of him. Adam placed his hand flat on the screen for a second, until a soft buzz signalled him to remove it. After a quick inspection of the screen, the Lieutenant continued his questioning.
"According to our records, you are employed by Armanty Security and are contracted by the government of Capital for law enforcement work." He paused and looked back down at the pad, forcing Adam to answer out loud.
"Correct."
"Yet there is no record of you or your employer being given authorisation to pass beyond the Earth blockade." He glanced up to watch Adam’s reaction before continuing.
"What were you doing on Earth?"
Adam gestured towards the man cuffed to the chair behind the Lieutenant.
"Pursuing a criminal. I have been tracking him for over a month, and I wasn't going to wait a week for the right paperwork to clear and risk losing him."
The officer nodded, almost in agreement, then turned and went through the same hand print identification with Eddy.
"Samuel Edwards– wanted for smuggling prohibited narcotics, suspected of being involved in the hijacking of four cargo ships in the past two years, no prior convictions." He read out from the small screen then turned back to Adam.
"That’s a lot of trouble for one low-life smuggler."
"Hey," Eddy started, then stopped himself.
"I never leave a job half finished." Adam replied, hoping there weren't going to be any follow-up questions.
The officer looked down at his pad then once around the small cabin again.
"This shuttle is meant for short trips between stations orbiting the same planet. How far are you going in it?"
"Altir Station. We will get on a transport from there back to Capital." Adam readjusted his floating position so he wasn't moving around so much.
"You’re crazy just bringing it this far," the Lieutenant replied, tucking the data pad into his belt.
Adam shrugged off the comment and followed the officer to the open hatch.
"Next time follow the correct procedure, it may mean the difference between being blown up or not."
"Will do," Adam replied as the Lieutenant launched himself back through the retractable docking tube.
Chapter 2
Jo glanced up at the clock on the wall behind the doctor's desk. It had been three-and-a-half hours. She tried to hide a yawn by rubbing her top lip with the back of her hand.
"Okay Jo, just one more test. Take a look at this card and tell me what you see."
The middle-aged man sitting across the desk from her held up a small white card with a splattering of black ink on it.
She knew how this game worked. It was the exact same test she went through when she enlisted two years ago. The trick was to give the answer that they were expecting. Not what was actually going through her head.
"It's a person, someone wearing a mask."
The doctor stared at her for an uncomfortably long period of time then scribbled something down in his note book.
"Someone hiding behind a mask, is that what you see?"
Jo shifted her weight in the chair sligh
tly and crossed her arms.
"That's not what I said. I said someone wearing a mask."
"You seem defensive. Is what I said any different?"
"Yes," she snapped back. "You’re putting words into my mouth."
He quickly made another note, then placed the card back on the stack and moved it to the side of his desk.
"Well, I think that we are done here. I will have my final report ready for your C.O. by the end of the day."
He closed the notebook and placed both hands together on top of it.
"I won’t make you wait nervously for the results though," he added with a grin, which showed off his yellow-stained teeth.
"I'm going to recommend that you be cleared for active duty – with the condition that you return for a follow-up session in three months’ time. The injuries you suffered in the accident were quite severe. I'm concerned that this could lead to complications later on, psychological issues I mean. Physically, your body has healed surprisingly fast considering the height of the fall."
Jo slid forward to the edge of her chair; she was desperate to stand up and walk around. After sitting there for so long her legs and back were aching.
"I will let you get back to your room now. I'm sure there are plenty of things you will want to organise for your release."
"When will I be released?"
The doctor paused and thought for a second.
"I expect it will be tomorrow morning, mid-afternoon at the latest," he replied casually as he flicked through some of the files on his desk and avoided eye contact.
The corner of her mouth turned up in disappointment that she wasn't leaving today, but she knew complaining about it wasn't going to change anything. Her legs almost buckled beneath her as she stood, forcing her to hold onto the back of the chair for the first couple of steps. By the time she covered the short distance to the door, the numbness had mostly disappeared and she could walk normally.
"Good luck" he called out as she reached for the door controls.
She gave the doctor a polite smile that disappeared from her face the second she stepped through the doorway into the corridor.
Her room was in the long-term recovery ward in the largest hospital on Capital Station. It was closer to a hotel than a hospital. There was a single bed at one end, a small round table with two chairs in the middle, and a small kitchen area at the other end. There was a tiny, but adequate, bathroom through a side door.
It had been her home for the past three months, yet it looked as bare and sterile as the day she moved in. Occasionally, when wandering the hallways, she noticed that other patients nearby had decorated their rooms with personal items. Photos hung on the walls and some even brought their own furniture. They also had constant visitors. This was probably the most annoying thing, not because no one had been to see her the whole time that she’d been there, but because of the noise – people laughing and shouting, and kids running up and down the corridor.
She adjusted the waist on her baggy hospital pants and sat down on the side of her bed. Knowing it was only one more day that she had to wait before she could leave, made it all the more frustrating. She had waited months for this moment, yet it still seemed out of reach.
Leaning over to one side, she picked up the small white remote control from the bedside table and hit the power button. A large portion of the wall on the opposite side of the room to the bed flashed into life. The multipurpose screen could be used for watching television, used as a computer, or used to simulate a window to the outside. By selecting anyone of the thousands of cameras placed all around the station, even rooms buried deep in the middle of the station could simulate ground or high-rise building views.
Using the remote, Jo flicked through the menu and brought up her personal calendar. Cadet graduation day; it wasn't by accident she thought to herself, that she was finally being released from hospital now. Now that all the other cadets were graduating and about to be posted to different locations around the system. For weeks now, she had been able to walk around freely without any pain, yet she was never allowed to leave the hospital. Despite being a civilian hospital, the military seemed to have a large amount of influence.
She couldn't help but think about the first doctor that looked after her when she arrived. That was about two weeks after it had happened. Where she was before then she had no idea. The whole time she was so heavily medicated, she could have been anywhere.
Doctor Cherkwis was her name as far as Jo could remember. She was around for about a week. Every time Jo was awake and lucid enough she would ask her questions about the accident. Once, when she thought Jo was asleep, she heard her make a comment to one of the nurses. She said that Jo's injuries didn't seem consistent with the accident the way the military had explained it. The next day there was a new doctor looking after her. He barely said two words to her the whole time.
Jo pressed the power button once more then tossed the remote down on the bed. The screen flickered off and returned to a normal white wall. She slowly made the short walk to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror above the small basin. Her blond hair had finally grown just long enough to tuck behind her ears since it was all shaved off. And now completely covered the faint scars that crisscrossed her skull.
She took a tube of clear gel from the top drawer and squeezed some out onto two fingers of her right hand. Slowly, in a circular motion, she rubbed it into her skin on the left side of her face. It was supposed to help strengthen the bones that had been broken. Her jawbone had been broken in several places and still hurt like hell whenever she chewed any slightly hard food.
The bruising that once covered most of her face had gone. The surgeons that rebuilt her left eye socket did a good job of not leaving any visible scars on her face. And her skin was now back to its normal smooth, pale complexion.
***
Despite not sleeping for nearly three days, Adam was finding it difficult to get more than a couple of minutes sleep at a time. The shuttle was only designed for short trips, so there was nowhere to lie down, or even recline the seats back at an angle.
Unlike the larger ships that had a reactor to power the engines and could accelerate constantly to generate gravity, the shuttle had to rely on its limited amount of stored fuel. After going once around the planet to build up speed, followed by a chest-crushing burst of the engines, they were now completely ballistic as they hurtled towards Earth’s moon and the yet unseen Altir Station.
Adams whole body jolted as he woke, the restraining belts of the chair that prevented him from floating around the cabin made it impossible to get comfortable. As he tried to loosen the adjustable clasps so they weren't holding him so tightly to the seat, he realised his fingertips were numb and his palms were sweaty.
"Not now, damn it, not now." He muttered to himself. Not loud enough for anyone but himself to hear. He repeatedly clenched both hands into a fist then relaxed them, while at the same time closing his eyes and taking deep, slow breaths.
Several minutes passed before he finally opened his eyes. The feeling had returned to his fingers but now his entire body was covered with a cold, clammy sweat. He quickly unbuckled the belts and pushed himself off the seat towards the small open area by the hatch, the only part of the cabin where he could stretch out straight and not hit something.
It was more than just getting out of the uncomfortable seat; he needed to do something different, anything at all to take his mind off where he was.
He looked down at Eddy, fast asleep in the chair as if he was on a pleasure cruise. The worst thing was, it almost looked like he had a smile on his face. Adam slowly floated closer to him.
"What do you want?" Eddy said abruptly, eyes still closed.
Adam was silent for a second, and then he answered.
"Maybe it’s time for you to give up some of that information you have about your former crew."
Eddy slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times as they adjusted to the bright cabin lights.
>
"No way! That’s the only thing keeping me alive. Once we’re back on Capital and you can no longer throw me out the airlock, then I’ll tell you what I know."
Adam moved in closer until he was right in front of Eddy's face.
"Maybe I’ll just throw you out the airlock anyway. I found you without any help, didn’t I?"
Eddy swallowed hard; his wide-open eyes focused back on Adam's statue-like gaze. After a couple of tense seconds, a faint smile formed on his face.
"If you had any idea how to find the Captain or any of the more important crew, you wouldn't have come after me, now would you?"
Adam stared at him for a few seconds longer before floating back to his own seat. He knew Eddy wasn't hiding this information out of loyalty to his former crew. At the same time, Adam had no intention of throwing the man out the airlock. It was Eddy's last bargaining chip, and he knew it. He obviously wasn't going to give it up easily.
Chapter 3
Dabir Armanty had just begun looking over some files for a new case when the receptionist quietly knocked on his office door then proceeded to open it and come through before receiving an invitation. Dabir slowly raised his wrinkled, scarred face from the document and glanced up at the well-dressed young woman now two steps into the room.
"Sorry to disturb you, but there are two men in the front office who are asking for you. They wouldn't tell me what it was about, only that it was important that they spoke to you in private."
Dabir closed the folder he was reading and slid it into the top drawer of his imitation wood desk.
"Did they at least give you a name?" he asked as he stood up and buttoned his suit jacket.
"No, nothing. They said that they would only talk to you. Should I get one of the field agents to accompany you?"
Dabir gave a slight grin to himself, though not long enough to change the grizzled look on his face.
Broken Hero: Part 1 (Broken Hero Series) Page 2
