The Soldier: Escape Vector

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I strive, but it is difficult. The tool, the thrall, desires my goals. Thus, I can work with his mind. This wouldn’t be possible without his consent.”

  Am I staining my soul allowing the ka to possess him? How else can I stop the Rhunes? Is there anything of Skar left in him?

  “You are a proud…Ultra. I almost said man.”

  “I’m a man,” Cade said, “a man with a few genetic modifications. How far is the ship from here?”

  With a hooded gaze, Skar looked up at the ceiling and then at a bulkhead. He trembled and turned to Cade suddenly, waving a hand through the air so faint images appeared.

  Cade leaned forward, seeing underwater counter-missiles and mines detonate. Each explosion caused water to ripple and shudder. Attacking torpedoes crumbled. More shredded into pieces. Far in the distance, the second wave of torpedoes bored in on the hidden base.

  The images vanished. Skar leered, saying, “We’re almost out of time. Come! Now is the moment for us to strike.” The fighting thrall burst into a sprint.

  Cade shouted and followed him. The other five did the same.

  Now began the final race to the starship. Skar ran like the wind, a demon of vengeance, with the blunderbuss in his calloused hands. Cade lowered his head and sprinted, flying through corridors until they reached stairs. The team bounded up them, bursting into a huge hangar bay. In that moment, Cade believed more of what the Nagan ka had told him. The Rhunes had never built the massive underwater base. Surely, they’d discovered it, using it. Before them in the hangar bay rested a vast spaceship. It was the size of a battleship. There were ramps leading up to vast doors. Rhunes filed onto the ship, doing so as the animals must have filed onto Noah’s ark just before the rains began.

  “There!” Skar said in his strangely altered voice.

  Cade followed the direction of the pointing finger. A tall gaunt Rhune in a black robe burst out from an arch and into the hangar bay, pushing a floating pad before him. On the pad lay a woman with dark hair. Behind them trailed an obviously weary Dr. Halifax.

  “Death to the interlopers!” shouted Skar. The fighting thrall dashed at the target, covering ground faster than the others behind him.

  Cade marveled at Skar’s pace, struggling to close the distance between them. As yet, no one else seemed to have noticed them. That could not last. Then, all the Rhunes on the ramps seemed to stop at once. Like machines, they turned, one after another. Some pointed at them. In a surreal display, Rhunes from the ramps began to float up into the air. They floated in upright positions, a few raising their hands and pointing their index fingers as if to fire rays.

  Give him cover! Cade slid to a stop, dropped onto one knee and raised the Lupus 19 Energy Gun. He gripped his shooting hand with the other, steadying his aim. He led the nearest floater and touched the trigger. A line of energy speared from the gun and struck the head of the targeted Rhune. The head blossomed under the ray, sprouting bone and blood. The Rhune crumpled in the air, but he did not plummet. He floated in the same direction, oblivious to anything because he was dead.

  The flying Rhunes as a group looked at Cade. That’s right. I’m the one killing you. Watch this. He fired again, killing another floater.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the five-thrall team dash past him, racing after Skar.

  Cade snarled with his lips pulled back in a rictus to expose his teeth. He targeted with lethal precision, the ancient cyborg gun spitting tremendous firepower. One Rhune after another died.

  I can do this all day. But it was not to be. Cade fired again, and the line hit an invisible shield. Damn. He tried a different target, and the same thing happened. Shit! Time for Plan B. The soldier jumped up and raced after the five-man thrall team. At least I can die with fellow soldiers.

  Many tens of thousands of Rhunes must have perished to the virus, but with all of them trying to board the great space vessel, there had to be at least a thousand left. More than a hundred floated closer—

  A command rang throughout the hangar bay. The Rhunes floating to the attack immediately switched direction, heading back for the starship. Were torpedoes with nuclear warheads closing in on the last base? Did they only have seconds left?

  Skar had almost reached the Rhune pushing Velia. Halifax had dropped farther behind, making a show of following, but clearly ready to bolt for freedom.

  As Skar neared them, the thrall leveled the blunderbuss. It exploded with a roar, sending a hail of broken glass and shot. The Rhune had released the floating gurney, raised his hands, and it appeared the broken shards and shot stopped in the air.

  A weird color blossomed from Skar. The shards and shot shards suddenly continued as before, as if they hadn’t briefly lost their momentum. The mass shredded the tall Rhune, blowing chunks of flesh and blood from his body. He collapsed, flopping like a landed fish, and then finally settled into death.

  Skar pitched aside the blunderbuss and it bounced across the deck. He stopped, half turned and motioned the five thralls toward the floating Velia.

  They must have known what he meant, as the thrall team raced for her, grabbed the floating gurney, turned it and pushed it back toward Skar.

  The ka-possessed fighting thrall raised his long knotted muscular arms in the air. Like that, he approached the great starship.

  A running Halifax reached the five thralls. The small doctor shouted and pointed toward a distant annex.

  A loud voice bellowed from the starship—

  Before Cade could distinguish the voice, or understand what it said, or reach the five-man thrall team, a terrific explosion disrupted everything. Three more explosions followed immediately. The hangar bay deck under Cade’s feet shifted and shook, knocking him and many others down. Two more blasts shook the base yet again. Then water hosed into the hangar bay from half a dozen locations.

  The torpedoes hit. The Eagle-Dukes did it. Are more coming? Cade scrambled to his feet, to fall again from yet another terrific shock. Crawl you idiot. Get some distance. He did just that, looking back.

  Skar must have run to the others. The possessed thrall checked Velia, touching her. She sat bolt upright on the floating pad. Did Skar speak to her?

  A dozen amazingly bright beams slashed from the ship at them.

  Cade jerked away from the brightness, concentrated on his own predicament and climbed yet again to his feet. More tremors shook the deck plates. He stumbled forward. Water flowed in many areas, and other leaks sprung into existence. The sea was going to flood in and drown them all.

  The great open hatches to the starship closed with several booms. Not all the Rhunes had made it aboard yet. Many clamored for admittance, some as they hovered and banged on the doors with their fists. Like those in Noah’s era who had failed to get a berth in time, they were locked out, doomed to die. The great starship began to thrum with sound.

  It’s going to take off. Time’s almost up. Cade ran, unsure of where he was running to. He looked around and saw Halifax and two thralls helping a dazed Velia walk. Skar must have saved them from the rays, and it killed him, maybe the ka, too. I can’t believe it. The thing kept its word. The others raced toward a distant annex, having distance on him. Did Skar tell them where to find the scout? Right! Cade turned and chased after them, hoping the others knew where to find the Descartes.

  The next few minutes were mad chaos: flooding spraying water, explosions, heaving deck plates and the slow lifting of the great Rhune vessel, the Jinse Tao or Golden Way.

  Cade ran through the giant flooding hangar bay. I’m like an ant, I’m so damned small. The starship was like a giant human foot threatening to crush him. It rose higher, sliding sideways. The soldier would have fired the energy gun at it, but the gun was too pitiful to damage the great ship. He staggered through ankle-deep flowing water, the water rapidly rising. In the distance, he saw the parked Descartes. It was whole, on its four landing struts. Halifax was already scrambling aboard. The mayhem, the flooding waters—

  Bright light s
hined down, the area of light growing.

  Cade looked up and saw sun and sky as the base’s mighty hangar-bay doors opened. The Jinse Tao floated upward toward freedom. Red streaks fell like meteors from the sky. Maybe they were guided meteors, or kinetic orbital weapons, the so-called “rods from God.” Laser lines speared up from the starship, striking the red streaks, obliterating them.

  Cade snarled. The water had climbed up to his thighs, slowing him, making it nearly impossible to continue for the Descartes.

  The scout began to float upward, clearing the water as the struts retracted.

  I’m over here. Come on, look at me. Cade waved his arms. Would Halifax stop to pick him up as he’d done on Avalon IV?

  A new wave of torpedo explosions rocked what remained of the hidden base. Everything shook again. Yet more water poured into the hangar bay. Metal flew everywhere, some pieces clanging off the air-drifting scout, many skipping over water.

  A wave of water swept Cade off his feet, carrying him swiftly as he floated on his back. Keep your head up. Don’t panic. He saw a thrall in the open hatch of the Descartes. It was Ram. He threw a snaking line that seemed to take forever as it sailed toward him. You have one chance. Don’t screw it up. Here it comes. From his back, Cade reached up, clutching the rope as a wave propelled him toward a swirling whirlpool. His fingers tightened around the rope, and the scout lifted. Cade’s grip slipped! No. Please. He clutched manically, the raging water threatening to drag him away. He held on, and Ram pulled hand-over-hand, dragging Cade upright, although the raging waters swirled at his thighs. The water tugged him, and the rope rose—the waters swirled at his ankles—Cade swung free. I can do the rest. He began shimmying up the rope like a simian beast as mayhem raged all around him. The Descartes began sliding toward the open bay door.

  Just a little longer—Cade thought about the underwater base—stay in one piece a little longer. He kept climbing, forcing his weary limbs to do their part for his continued existence.

  Chapter Thirty

  Cade looked up as he climbed the rope, nearing one of the scout’s stubby wings. Ram was behind the wing in the hatch, anchoring him. Explosions swept the hangar bay even as the Descartes rose through the great bay doors into open air. The ocean around the underwater base seethed with motion, caused no doubt by the nuclear explosions.

  Did radiation soak him? Or were these supposedly “clean” detonations?

  Cade clutched the rope as a sudden bout of weakness swept through him. He rested as the Descartes moved forward, sliding above the churning waters. The scout’s movement was causing the rope to swing, making climbing more difficult.

  The soldier leaned a cheek against the rough rope. If radiation poisoning was weakening him—

  That’s not it. No. I’ve felt this before. Cade looked up. Evil, I’m sensing evil…Purple Nagan ka evil. Damnit. The ancient bauble survived. Skar must have passed it on before he died.

  The soldier ground his teeth. So. The ka had lied to him. The bauble wasn’t cracked. Yes! He remembered Velia sitting up sharply on the floating gurney. Had that happened because Skar pressed the evil device into her hands? Would the Nagan ka attempt to suborn everyone aboard the Descartes? Of course, that would be its plan. That meant—

  “It’s not happening while I’m alive,” Cade muttered.

  The soldier started climbing again, hauling himself upward one centimeter at a time. He found it harder climbing over the wing as the scout was still sliding forward. How long did he have before the scout attempted to head for space?

  Cade looked up but couldn’t see the Rhune starship anywhere in the sky.

  “Cade!” Ram shouted from the hatch. “You have to hurry. We’re going to rush the starship any second.”

  Using the rope, keeping hold of it, he climbed to his feet on the wing and walked toward Ram waiting just inside the hatch. Did he see a shine to the fighting thrall’s eyes? Could Skar have pressed the bauble into Ram’s hands? Why did the Nagan ka want him alive?

  “Just a little farther,” Ram shouted.

  Cade hesitated to cross the final distance.

  Ram yanked on the rope, causing Cade to stumble forward, as he still gripped the rope. The thrall skipped back, making room. Cade tripped over the hatch threshold to fall inside the corridor.

  “Good,” Ram said. “Now get up.”

  From the deck, Cade looked up. He saw a flintlock pistol aimed at him. Ram’s eyes definitely shone.

  “No tricks, Soldier,” Ram said, or the Nagan ka said through Ram. “You’re the best receptacle I’ve seen in ages. You will carry me.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Ram opened his mouth, laughing. He motioned with the flintlock. “Up, up. Get on your feet.”

  Cade frowned. The flintlock pistol: something was wrong with it. Right, the hammer hadn’t been pulled back into place. That meant the flint wouldn’t strike down against the frizzen. Had the Nagan ka made a mistake? Did it think the flintlock was like a regular sidearm? Maybe the ka was weary from its recent and no doubt vast expenditure of energy.

  “What it is?” Ram said. “I see cunning in your eyes. Make the wrong move and I’ll blow a hole in you.”

  “I understand,” Cade said, looking down as he climbed to his feet.

  “Put your hands behind your back and turn around,” Ram said. “I’m going to tie your wrists together. Then we’re going to see Velia.”

  Cade straightened, put his hands behind his back and started to turn. “Why Velia?” he asked.

  “Never you mind,” Ram said, “and don’t move.”

  Cade whirled around as Ram stepped closer. The thrall’s shiny eyes widened, and he pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, of course. Ram looked at the pistol. Then, he used his free hand and pulled the hammer back into place.

  Cade grabbed both of Ram’s wrists and yanked, twisting aside. The wide-nosed, stocky thrall stumbled off balance out of the hatch and onto the stubby wing. Ram turned, aimed the flintlock and must have slipped. The hammer drove the flint down against the frizzen with a click. Ram yelled, falling back as the Descartes picked up speed. The pistol discharged and a pellet struck the hull just above the hatch. Ram yelled with horror as he stumbled backward. He dropped onto his stomach, though, landing on the wing and beginning to crawl for the hatch.

  Cade slapped the switch, and the door slid shut.

  For a moment, Ram banged on the outer hatch. The moment passed as the scout shifted position, causing Cade to slam against the inner hatch.

  Then the gravity dampeners came online, settling things.

  Cade whirled around in the short corridor. He still sensed the ancient evil. Ram’s eyes might have gleamed with alien spirit because he’d held the bauble, or the because the ka—

  I have no idea why. He felt the evil. It was still aboard the Descartes. Likely, Velia had the ancient bauble. “Right,” he said, with the determination hardening in him. He wasn’t going to exchange one foul master for another. Cyborg, Rhune or Purple Nagan ka, he would stamp out each.

  Cade started down the corridor, wondering if this wasn’t the moment to strike at the hopefully weakened Nagan ka. It would have expended energy, and the mistake with the flintlock was critical.

  Cade didn’t head for the piloting chamber. He halted in the main corridor, his eyes half-lidded as he tried to sense—that cabin. He reached it and pressed the switch. The hatch slid open and he stepped through.

  He sensed Steed at the last second, the second thrall that had made it onto the Descartes. The thrall had waited against a bulkhead and now drew the blaster from Cade’s waistband.

  Cade twisted around and drove a hard right into Steed’s rock-hard stomach. The thrall grunted, stepped back—and Cade slammed another fist against the gut. Steed brought up the blaster. Cade chopped the wrist. Steed held onto the blaster. Cade roared, shoving against the shorter thrall, slamming him back against the bulkhead. A line of energy sprouted, hitting the opposite bulkhead. Cade ra
mmed his knee up against the man’s groin, but Steed shifted so the knee slammed against a protecting thigh. The thrall brought the blaster around—Cade caught the wrist, beginning to force the weaker hand back.

  Steed screamed hoarsely, his head snapping forward as he bit Cade’s chest. Biting, the thrall is biting me? With a roar of disgust and rage, Cade slammed the blaster-holding hand back against the bulkhead, doing it once, twice, thrice before the fingers opened and the blaster dropped to the floor. Then Cade reached up with both hands, grabbing the chin and the back of the thrall’s head. He twisted and surged down, dragging Steed down with him as he twisted and the thrall resisted, and Cade slowly but surely twisted the head more and more to the side until Steed thrashed and screamed, and the bones of his neck snapped explosively.

  Cade sensed motion beside him as he released the unbreathing thrall. The final move shouldn’t have slain Steed, but it had.

  “You’re marvelous,” Velia said, while aiming the blaster at him. “You’re brutal, amazingly strong and triumphant. Yes, you’ll do just fine, just fine indeed.”

  Cade dragged his head up as he panted, spent by the rope climb, fight with Ram and now the death struggle with Steed. He viewed Velia.

  She wore gray spaceman’s garb with the front zipper halfway down, exposing her wonderful cleavage and tantalizing him with more. Her eyes shined and seemed hollow with dark smudges underneath. There was craziness in her eyes and something more.

  “What are you staring at?” she demanded, with the blaster aimed at Cade’s midsection.

  The soldier shook his head as he climbed to his feet.

  “You don’t think I’ll kill you if I have to?” she asked.

  “Who are you really?”

  Velia frowned. “What kind of question is that?”

  “Do you have the ancient bauble?”

  “Yes. I’m the Purple Nagan ka, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Cade nodded sickly.

  “But I’m not going to stay with her. I’m going to possess you, Cade. You’re superior to anything I’ve seen for ages. Oh, Uldin was greater, but I couldn’t have possessed him.”