Micky San Marino walked past, feeling much better than when he had first arrived at the sickbay.
Aaron and Yanmei brought Sue in first, and Kim moved the curtain that had been shoved aside to give the unconscious werewolf some privacy. The weretigers put Sue into the Pod-doc and removed the stretcher while Plato worked his technological magic on her. When she was finished, Kimber helped her out while Aaron and Yanmei carried Timmons in. When he had been reprogrammed, Aaron looked at Yanmei and pointed to the open Pod-doc.
“You first,” Aaron said.
Yanmei tried to get Aaron to go next, but he refused.
“Let it go,” Joseph said softly to the weretigers.
Petricia followed suit by urging Joseph to go before her.
“Let it go.” Petricia repeated his words.
“I’m not sure I like this game,” Joseph admitted before caving in. “Thank you, my love. I will go first so that I can lift you in should you become ill.”
Joseph bowed slightly, and Petricia tipped her head in reply.
“Will you lift me in?” Yanmei asked.
“Fine, I’ll go first,” Aaron said, giving Joseph the hairy eyeball.
“Out of my way! Werewolf coming through. If y’all are going to dilly-dally, I’m gonna get this knocked out. My television isn’t going to watch itself,” Christina declared.
“Why are you talking like that?” Terry asked.
Christina waved him away as she stripped on the run and swan-dived into the Pod-doc. The lid closed.
“I’ll go next.” Aaron shrugged out of his clothes and stood behind the curtain.
Terry and Char studied the group in the corridor, family and friends all. Ramses and Auburn were in line behind the others, and Cory was by her husband’s side.
“I guess you’re immune,” TH told his daughter.
“That’s what I hear. Good genes or something like that.” She nodded, but didn’t move. Her knuckles were white from squeezing Ramses’ hand.
“It’ll be all right. Ted has defeated this thing. We’ll rest up and be on our way—go save the universe, and all that.” Terry cupped Cory’s face in one hand as Merrit draped an arm over the colonel’s other shoulder.
“It’s what we do,” Cory replied softly. “Because there isn’t anyone else to do it in this whole universe, is there, Dad?”
Terry looked both ways to confirm that only his inner circle was there. “I’ve talked with General Reynolds, and there are a number of teams out here, doing what we’re doing—exporting justice—but they are only the size of our tac teams. The general wouldn’t tell me where they are, but know that we’re not alone.”
Cory smiled and threw her head back, sending her hair behind her wolf ears. “That’s nice to know.”
“Shhh. Don’t tell anyone.” Terry smiled as he followed Char down the corridor on their way to deposit Shonna and Merrit in their room.
Cory watched her parents carrying their friends.
“What the hell was up with that ‘All hail Ted’ bullshit?” Cory heard her father ask.
“Language!” Ramses shouted over his shoulder. “Dammit, TH, you’re killing me. Next time I’ll bet against you, because you suck at not swearing!”
CHAPTER NINE
Felicity didn’t want to let go, even though Ted kept trying to pull away.
“Are you in a hurry to get away from me?” Felicity asked ominously.
Ted relaxed. “I have work to do. I’ve lost two days because of the attack on the nanocytes. I want you to be able to talk with your children,” Ted argued.
“We want to talk with our children,” Felicity clarified.
Ted waved dismissively at his wife.
She pulled his face to hers and kissed him much longer than he was comfortable with.
Marcie started to laugh, since Ted looked like a child trying to escape his grandmother’s embrace. She slapped Ted on the back, and he bumped his forehead against Felicity’s. They each held a hand to their heads.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it down earlier, Mother. Kae was pretty weak,” Marcie said.
Kaeden stood behind his wife, looking refreshed after an extra day recovering. Once he’d eaten his fill his recovery had been miraculous, as were that of the others. They had decided to get together and wish Felicity well as she returned to Keeg Station.
“Don’t you take him into any of your battles, Terry Henry Walton!” Felicity shook her finger at the colonel. “And no swearing! You’re a bad influence on the kids.”
“But they’re old,” Terry countered, earning him a withering look from Kimber and Marcie. “Son of a glitch. Icehole. Mortar forker. I’ve never sworn in my life! Everyone simply mishears me!”
Felicity put her hands on her hips and gave TH her best disbelieving mother’s look. Freed from her grasp, Ted bolted. His wife watched him go.
“Now look what you made me do!”
Marcie took the opportunity to give her mother a hug. Sue and Timmons slapped hands as they passed the group.
“Everyone’s getting all shmoopy on us. Fuck off!” Timmons called with a big smile.
“That’s what you get for saving his life,” Sue said.
“Timmons at his finest,” Char replied.
The small group stood in the hangar bay outside a standard Federation shuttle. The two stretchers had been broken down and were stored beneath the seats, so there was a good amount of empty space. Four men waved from the inside as Sue and Timmons took their seats.
They were ready to return to their home. Felicity was too, but she wanted to take her family and friends with her.
“Don’t make me kick you out of Seymour Heine’s again.” She shook a warning finger at him.
Terry ignored her jibe. “Plato has transferred the information to Dionysus, so you can inoculate everyone on board the station.”
Felicity frowned, but nodded. “That was some nasty business. I hope it dies here.”
“Me, too. I can’t imagine what would happen if that were unleashed upon someone like Nathan or General Reynolds.”
Felicity waved good-bye and entered the shuttle, then the ramp closed and the hangar bay doors opened. The shuttle lifted off the deck using its gravitic thrusters and accelerated smoothly through the energy field into space.
“About that time?” Char asked.
“Yeah. We have a war to fight. We’re on our way to hell to take on the demons.”
***
“It seems like we were just here, but that was a long time ago,” Kae suggested as he studied the woodgrain of the captain’s conference table.
“Almost a whole lifetime ago.” Marcie stood behind her husband and leaned over him just enough so he could rest his head against her. Shonna and Merrit also had seats at the table. They didn’t need them, they said, but Terry wouldn’t have it any other way.
He stood behind Char after she sat.
“It’s time to take the fight to the enemy. They are coming through the tear, and we need to stop that. We have to get back on track and focus on the mission. Kaeden, are you ready to conduct the ground-level reconnaissance?”
“Ready to recce, Colonel,” Kae replied.
Marcie looked uncomfortable. “I can take it if Kae’s not ready,” she suggested, but there was no force behind her words.
Terry looked from one to the other. “I would like to put you in the sky to extract Kae’s team if things go south while doing a little recon of your own, but okay. Kimber gets the airborne gig and you’ll join Kae’s team. Also, Shonna and Merrit, suit up. You’ll round out the four mechs. We need a solid group of people who can see creatures who draw power from the Etheric. Kae will lead the team, and you three will spy out what he cannot.
“Joseph, you and Petricia will be in the drop ship with Kimber, just in case there’s an opportunity to get inside one of the creatures’ heads. The rest of us will be in the combat information center—the CIC space—with a three-dimensional map so we can start planning the attac
k. We need numbers and locations of the creatures, and the location of the tear. No preconceived notions—I don’t know if it looks like a slit, a doorway, or a black freaking hole, but I expect it’ll have a distinct energy signature. Hell, we may be able to see it from space.”
“I’ve never worked for you before, Kae, but I have been under you a few times,” Marcie whispered. Everyone heard, because there wasn’t a single person in the room who wasn’t enhanced in one way or another.
Char snickered and looked away.
“He’s the mech team leader, so he’s in charge. It’s how we task organize. I don’t see the issue.” Terry was confused.
“Dad!” Kae fought valiantly to avoid making eye contact with anyone, and Marcie smiled behind him.
Terry looked to Char for support, so she made a circle with her forefinger and thumb and stabbed into it with the pointer finger of her other hand. After the third time, Terry grabbed her hand.
“Moving right along.” The chuckling in the room died down, but Kaeden’s face remained red. Terry moved his head until he could see Christina with both eyes. “I want you with me. The challenge we’ll face is to plan a major attack with a bunch of minor skirmishes. I’m curious if Pricolici Christina might be the best way we can engage these things in the wild, and I want you to think how we can manage that.”
“You want me to hunt them all down by myself? I’m your huckleberry!”
Kae nodded knowingly. “My favorite movie.” He held his thumb over his head so Christina could see it from her spot against the wall.
“I am sorry, Colonel Walton,” Bundin interjected. “I doubt I’ll be much help running around a forest. I believe that I might be better off guarding any prisoners while keeping our drop ship safe. I can fire four blasters simultaneously with a great deal of accuracy.”
“Excellent points, Bundin. Your commitment to rear-area security is greatly appreciated, and we bow to your four-eyed abilities.”
Terry smiled at the Podder as he started to pace again.
“Bundin shows what I was so ham-handedly trying to put together—everyone to their strengths. If a dog were judged on its ability to climb a tree, it would forever be considered a moron.”
Dokken yipped.
“Exactly.” Terry wasn’t sure if Dokken was agreeing or disagreeing. “Skipper, can the War Axe pinpoint a target on the planet’s surface using the main weapons?”
Micky rolled his head as he thought about the answer. “If you’re thinking about using the ship as close air support, you can forget it. I don’t think I can express how far away from the target you would need to be to guarantee your safety. Angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, right?”
Terry nodded. “Of course, like a light shining off a mirror, but we’re talking about refraction here—how the atmosphere could deflect the inbound plasma.”
“The atmosphere is in a constant state of flux. We can improve our chances if we are in a geosynchronous orbit directly over the target, but I would still encourage you to be as far away as possible, as in not even on the planet if we fire the mains at a dimensional tear.”
“I can buy that, but what does reflection have to do with it?”
“Nothing at all. I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.”
“Is that you, Smedley? Have you hijacked the captain?”
Keeg Station
When the gate formed on the side of the War Axe away from the station the ship accelerated across the event horizon, shimmered for a moment, and was gone.
“I guess that’s that,” Sue said.
Felicity strolled over to stand beside the blonde werewolf.
“Do you know what the last words Ted said to me before we came back to the station were?” Felicity asked.
Sue thought for a moment, then shrugged.
“Not a damn thing. He couldn’t wait to get back to his lab!”
Sue pulled Felicity to her until they bumped shoulders. “That’s the Ted I know.”
“Here we are, a wife and her husband’s ex, watching my man go away.”
“You’ve worked wonders with him. He’s almost good boyfriend material now, but I’m taken.” Sue snorted and looked down. “Timmons is almost good boyfriend material, too. They both have their moments, don’t they?”
“That they do, my friend. I think it’s time to make a personal appearance on Sheri’s Pride.”
“I don’t want to, but I know it’s the right thing to do. Maybe we can take that medical technician. What’s her name?”
“Rowan. And Chris was the nice man that Timmons beat up.”
“Isn’t that pleasant? They seemed to be getting along well. Too bad they ate at that Seppukarian place. I did not envy the bots cleaning up the projectile vomit,” Felicity drawled.
“Chalk that up under ‘Worst first dates ever.’ I wonder if she did that on purpose?”
“We’ll never know. Tell Timmons to saddle up our ride. We’ve got places to go and people to see.”
Benitus Gravity Well
“Ship systems normal. No contacts,” K’Thrall reported remotely from the CIC. Micky sat in the captain’s chair on the raised dais on the bridge, looking at the empty systems officer position.
He remained torn about manning the CIC, since he was old school. A captain’s place was on the bridge.
“Clear. You can remove your hoods now,” Micky directed. He slipped his over his head and let it retract the rest of the way into the pouch at the back of his collar. “Smedley, bring up a tactical display.”
A three-dimensional representation of the system appeared at the front of the bridge. Eleven planets orbited a G-class star, which was bigger and burned hotter than the Earth’s sun. This extended the hot zone where five inhospitable planets orbited. Two circled within the habitable zone, and four more planets orbited farther out. Eleven planets, but the only one that mattered was Benitus Seven.
“No other ships within the system? Nothing strange going on?” Micky moved from his chair to the middle of the bridge. He stood behind Clifton as they looked at the innocuous planets orbiting a relatively nondescript star.
“There is a space station in orbit around the seventh planet, but it is not generating signals in a way that we can detect.”
“Nice clarification, Smedley. Is that your way of saying that if they are using the Etheric we’re not detecting it?”
“Our sensors can detect shifts in Etheric energy, but we aren’t seeing anything from the station. The lights are on, but it looks like nobody’s home.”
“No ships or satellites in orbit?”
“There are satellites, but they seem to be in a similar state as the space station. I detect no ships, but we’ll have to get much closer before I can confirm my initial findings. At that time, I’ll also be able to scan the planet’s surface for other facilities.”
“Ask Terry Henry if he’d join me on the bridge, please,” Micky requested.
“He’ll be here momentarily,” the general replied.
On cue, the colonel walked through the hatch with his full entourage.
“What do you think we’re looking at, Micky?” Terry asked as he walked over to the captain to study the map.
“A space station and satellites. I’m not amused by the intel we’re getting, TH.”
Terry ground his teeth before forcing himself to stop, and twisted his mouth to ease the tension in his jaw. “Smedley, can you call Nathan for me, please?”
The connection rang through and Nathan replied in a sleepy voice in audio-only mode. “Hello, what?”
“Nathan, Terry Henry Walton here. We’ve arrived in the Benitus System. Did you know there was a space station orbiting the planet?”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Terry! Wake up, Nathan! How advanced are these people?”
“Terry? Oh, Terry. Yes. How are you doing?”
“Holy butt crumbs, Nathan! Did you set us up again? Don’t make me pull the plug on this missio
n.”
“Cool your jets, TH,” Nathan said slowly. “What’s got you so spun up?”
“A space station and satellites in orbit around Benitus Seven.”
“A space station, you say? I didn’t know that. We haven’t been there before. The War Axe is the first Federation ship to visit.”
“We’re going to take it slow, Nathan. I’m not rushing into this. That space station looks alive, but dead. How far have these creatures infiltrated into Beniton society?”
“Those are all questions that you are in a far better position to answer than me. Is there a reason you woke me out of a sound sleep besides the fact that you wanted to vent your spleen?” Nathan said in a cold and hard voice.
“Fuck, Nathan!” Terry lamented.
“Language!” someone said behind Terry.
“Do we have remote drones that we can send into a system to collect data before we show up alone and unafraid?”
“This isn’t Star Wars, Terry. We use real science here. Without the Etheric power source and miniaturized gate technology we can’t put a drone into such remote space, so no, we can’t send a remote drone unless you can make a deal with the Benitons and get that power source! Then, and only then, we’ll see if R2D2 can build us an unmanned scout ship to be your no-risk advance party.”
“You have a way of throwing ice water on a perfectly good tirade,” Terry mumbled.
“Is Ramses there?” Nathan asked. Terry held up his hands in confusion. He didn’t know if Nathan could see him.
“Right here, Mister Lowell,” Ramses called.
Cory started to laugh.
“How am I doing?”
Ramses had his pad in his hand and made an annotation before scrolling. “You’re up two hundred and eighty-four credits.”
“I knew you couldn’t stop yourself, TH. I shake my head in dismay at the misplaced faith your family has in your willpower. You will drag your dying carcass through broken glass to fight an enemy, but you are incapable of stopping yourself from swearing. I suspect there are different parts of the brain involved. I’m going to have to contemplate what to do with all those credits. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! They keep ringing up.”
Price of Freedom Page 8
