Price of Freedom

by Craig Martelle

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself. This place is pure vanilla, but it can’t be. It’s a freaking space station with a room full of those super-powered Etheric generators. Why would they need that much power if they don’t have anything here that uses it?”

  “Isn’t that the question, TH? I think we’re looking for the wrong things. We need to look for the power to generate that imagery. Imagine, if you will, if everything was a holographic projection,” Joseph suggested.

  “Like on Star Trek?” Terry was skeptical.

  “Not like that. The humanoids who worked here were real, but the environment in which they worked was projected. You’ve seen Ted working with the Pod-doc—just like that. Interactive holographic technology for an entire station! That’s why there are no decorations here. Everything was virtual.” Joseph was excited about his theory.

  No one could prove him wrong.

  “Then what are these for?” Terry held out a handful of crystals.

  “Parts for the projectors?”

  Terry started to search the nooks and crannies, and on an empty desk he found what they were looking for hiding in plain sight. He pointed to a glass-like band that made up the edge of the desktop. That same material made a crisscross pattern on the ceiling. He left the logistics space and went into the main atrium. What he hadn’t seen before was the most common thing—even the top of the railing was made of the material.

  “I’m heading down to see if Ted can bring this baby to life! After he gets the air handlers going again, of course, and opens the doors. And where are the bathrooms?” Terry bellowed over his shoulder as he strode toward the stairwell.

  ***

  The panel had no power, so they couldn’t cycle the airlock. “How in the hell did they get in?” Christina snarled.

  “The power was on when they arrived. Not so much for us.” Kimber studied the airlock, walking her fingers counterclockwise around it, looking for a manual override. “Smedley, if I were this airlock, where would I hide my manual override?”

  “I don’t think of you as an airlock, Major Kimber.”

  “Thank you, I guess?” She continued her search. “Is there anything you can tell us to help get us from here to there?”

  Kim pointed through the small porthole into the ship.

  “From nyah to over nyah,” she reiterated.

  “Why are you talking like that?” Christina asked.

  “Because I don’t know what else to do.” Kim stepped back and then launched a front kick against the hatch, but it didn’t budge.

  Christina brushed past Kim to take a look. “What’s this?” In the center of the hatch was a recessed fitting. Christina jammed her fingers into it. “Right or left?”

  “Righty-tighty, lefty-loosy? Let’s try left.”

  Christina grunted with the effort. She braced herself and leaned into it.

  “Maybe right?” Kim suggested.

  Christina changed hands, and the fitting responded by turning half a revolution before locking. She pushed on the hatch but it wouldn’t budge, so she wedged her axe head into the space and pried. The hatch popped, and she stumbled backward until Kim caught her.

  Christina wore a smile. “And we’re in.”

  They pushed through the first and then the second to get into the station. They found the transverse corridor that circled that station and the one that ran straight ahead.

  “Are you sensing anything?” Kim asked.

  Christina took a moment to consider. “No, but it’s weird. There’s a big black hole right there.” She pointed toward the main part of the space station.

  Kim picked two warriors. “Set up a blocking position here. The rest of you, with us.” Christina had already gone ahead, the beam from her flashlight bobbing as she moved. Bundin followed the two women and the rest of the warriors fell in behind, unable to get past the Podder filling the corridor.

  The War Axe

  “Any other access points?” Micky asked, drumming his fingers. The bridge was quiet as the ship held its stationary position. Sensors continued to report nothing unusual—besides the complete blackout within the station.

  Not even Etheric energy could get through.

  “I don’t like it. Not one bit,” the captain grumbled.

  The Space Station

  Terry lumbered down the stairs. He felt heavier than usual, but didn’t think it was a change in the artificial gravity. He thought they were running out of air far more quickly, almost as if it were being pumped into space.

  TH was breathing better by the time he reached the bottom stair. He nodded to Char, who stood with her arms crossed as she watched both Ted and Ankh working on one of the power supplies. Terry keyed his comm device.

  “Take it easy up there. I expect that we’re running out of air, and I think you may be first.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Joseph said softly. “We’re on our way down to join you, where together we’ll let Ted work his magic.”

  Terry looked at the bits and pieces on the deck. “Let’s call it magic, because I’m not seeing engineering genius down here.”

  Ted huffed, but continued to work.

  “They’re removing four of the power supplies before bringing the system back online,” Char said.

  “So we wait.”

  ***

  Christina examined the bulkhead blocking the corridor, but she couldn’t tell if it had recently dropped into place or if it had been there all along. The station was dust-free; almost sterile in its cleanliness.

  “This place bugs me,” she told Kimber.

  “You’re not the only one.” Kim pointed her light around the edges of the barrier. “No panels, no switches, no manual overrides. This looks like an emergency bulkhead. Has there been an atmospheric breach inside the station?”

  “Couldn’t be. We would have detected that. Since it’s blocked off from sensors, I suspect that the team went in and tripped an alarm. This looks more like intruder defense.”

  “Who are the intruders—us, or them?” Kim asked.

  “I suspect it’s them,” Bundin offered. His tentacle arms held two flashlights as he studied the bulkhead from behind the team’s leaders. Technology wasn’t his thing, though, so he wasn’t able to offer any insight.

  “Bring that torch up here!” Kim called.

  “Let’s see if they can do something from the other side.” Christina raised her axe and started beating on the bulkhead in a syncopated rhythm.

  Kim covered her ears as Christina went to town.

  ***

  Dokken heard it first and barked, then trotted down the corridor. Kae and Marcie were on the stairs not far from it, so they turned and headed that way, slowly. The oxygen was diminishing quickly. Too quickly.

  Kae lifted the comm device to his mouth. “Putting hoods up and going to supplemental air. Tell Ted to hurry the fuck up.”

  Once their hoods were on and shipsuits sealed, they both gulped air hungrily. When their hearts stopped pounding, they continued down the corridor to where they could hear the pounding. Kae beat on the bulkhead with the butt of his flashlight. The pounding from the other side stopped.

  Kae stopped. He took a deep breath and removed his hood so he could put his ear to the metal.

  “Don’t do that! You’re wasting air.”

  Kae nodded and pulled his hood back into place. The suit refilled with air from the small tank embedded below the collar.

  “I couldn’t hear anything. This thing must be pretty thick, but we have a few hours. Surely Ted can get things working by then.”

  ***

  Ted and Ankh were the last ones to put on their hoods as they labored to finish their task. Shortly after connecting to the shipsuit’s air, Ted declared victory with a fist pump and handed one of the power units to Terry and a second one to Char.

  “This is what Nathan had to have?” Terry asked, hefting the unit’s weight. He thought it was relatively light for something that could power a gate drive. “When�
��s the power coming back on in the station?”

  “Never?” Ted ventured. “This system requires the units in series, which creates a different effect than if they were in parallel. The fiber connections had to be severed to free the units, and we can’t repair them with the tools we have. Time to go.”

  Ted carried another unit and Ankh proudly hoisted the last, happy that he could carry it himself. He stopped when he saw the steps and looked at the device, and then back at the steps. Terry held out his hand, and Ankh put the unit into it.

  “We can’t leave, Ted. We’re blocked in. You need to turn the power back on so we can get out of here.” Char stopped Ted from leaving by placing her hand against his chest.

  “No can do. It’s broken now. I can remove more units if you want, but four will take care of everything we need. We don’t even have to go to the planet now.” Ted smiled at his revelation.

  “Of course we won’t be going to the planet, because we can’t leave the station!” Char’s patience was gone.

  Terry turned and started climbing the stairs.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Sheri’s Pride

  Sue growled and snapped, tossing her head, and the men fell over themselves as they backed away. Timmons punched random people as he worked his way closer to his mate. He was angry.

  “Are they all like that?” one man asked, the whites of his eyes showing in his terror.

  Timmons stared him down before declaring, “You didn’t know? They are all like that!”

  Like the wind blowing a field of grain, the men sat down, mouths agape as understanding dawned on them.

  Timmons jumped onto the table beside Sue and wrapped her shaggy gray mane in his hand as he gazed upon the hushed crowd.

  Sue’s shipsuit had been destroyed when she changed into Were form without undressing first. Timmons looked at the shreds, but he was glad that the men were calm once again. He smiled at Sue before turning his attention back to the crowd.

  “This is what happens when you piss off a woman! Did you think we were teaching you to treat them with respect for their safety? It was for yours!” Timmons shouted. Sue looked up, cocking her werewolf head and giving him the canine equivalent of the hairy eyeball. She turned back to the crowd and chuckled as she saw their looks of awe and wonder.

  Timmons and Sue climbed off the table. “Get the fuck out of our way!” He waved in the general direction he wanted cleared. “When we come back, you better have yourselves unfucked and ready to join humanity. If we have to give you another warning, we might just as well vent this ship to space and start over. Dumbasses!”

  The path cleared to the front of the room and then to the side door through which they’d entered a very long fifteen minutes ago. One man stood up as they passed.

  “Fuck off!” Timmons barked.

  The man bowed and then another, until the entire room was bowing to the gray werewolf bitch as she happily trotted out.

  The Space Station

  “RAISE THE BULKHEAD!” Christina yelled.

  Bundin backed away from the door. “Too much noise for me,” he mumbled as he rested the corner of his shell on the deck to make it easier for the two warriors with oxyacetylene torches to get past.

  “They can’t hear you. I think by pounding they’re telling us that they can’t open the door. Bundin was right. This was to trap them within.” Kimber backed away to give the men with torches room. “After the Alchon mission, I swore never to board another ship without torches to cut our way out. Kaeden said he did as well, but I guess he forgot on this mission. I doubt he’ll forget again.”

  Christina nodded and stepped back. The warriors, one woman and one man, moved forward, conferred on where to start cutting, and lit their torches. They were going to cut a small hatch through which the others could climb out. They expected the bulkhead to be thick.

  They weren’t disappointed.

  “This is going to take a while,” the man reported as he held the torch on a single spot and watched it burn deeper and deeper into the metal.

  ***

  “We have someone on the other side of the bulkhead.”

  Terry met Joseph and Petricia coming down the stairs. Joseph was carrying an unconscious Dokken.

  “No!” Terry cried. The German Shepherd was still alive, but barely. TH handed the power supplies to Petricia and he took the dog. “Get ready with tape.”

  Standard combat load for the Bad Company’s Direct Action Branch included duct tape, just in case something was moving that wasn’t supposed to, and penetrating oil for things that weren’t moving that were supposed to.

  Joseph dug into his combat pack, pulled out the wrap, and nodded, just once.

  Terry popped his hood just enough to shove Dokken’s snout inside. Joseph wrapped the tape around it and the dog’s head. It took multiple wraps before the hood partially reinflated.

  “You’re going to burn through air pretty fast like that,” Char told him while petting Dokken.

  “Is there any other choice?” Terry asked.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Come on, buddy. Deep breaths.” Terry stood awkwardly, trying to keep Dokken steady while their faces were taped together. The dog started to thrash about as oxygen flooded back into his system. “I’ve got you. Calm down!”

  I got sleepy and this is what I wake up to? Dokken asked tiredly.

  “No air, big fella, so here we are.”

  My mouth seems to be taped shut.

  “Had to do the best we could to get an airtight seal. You were dying.” Terry coughed back a tear. He could handle people in distress, but not the dog.

  Hold on. I can move a little. Dokken worked his jaw a little before his tongue darted between parted dog lips.

  “He licked my mouth!” Terry exclaimed. “Ack! I can’t wipe it off.”

  Terry made faces as he twisted his mouth away from the dog’s nose, which was barely a finger’s breadth away.

  Suck it up, cupcake, Dokken told him. Terry stopped his contortions and crossed his eyes to see Dokken’s face.

  Char slapped her husband on the back and gave the others the thumbs up. “They’re good!”

  She pointed upward, and Terry waddled as he carried the big dog. Both their heads were twisted at unnatural angles as Terry tried to limit the escaping air by keeping the tape tight across the opening, but it wasn’t working very well.

  The group walked slowly up the stairs. Despite Char’s attempt at humor, she knew that Terry and Dokken would run out of air first.

  ***

  “I think I hear something,” Kae said as he mashed the bubble of his hood against the metal of the bulkhead. He moved around as he tested where it was loudest. “Right here.”

  He smiled and waved Marcie over.

  “What if they’re placing explosives?” Marcie said, crossing her arms and looking down her nose at her husband.

  “It doesn’t sound like that. Listen!” He pressed his bubble against the bulkhead again as the others approached.

  Marcie looked at the Terry-Dokken creature and understood instantly what they’d had to do. She hurried to them to gently pet Dokken’s side.

  “What’s he doing?” Terry asked.

  “Trying to figure out what they’re doing over there. I hear something.”

  “I wouldn’t stand there,” Joseph said. Marcie pointed to the vampire and nodded.

  Kae was waving at them when the first blast of molten metal launched through the new hole. The stream went through his bubble helmet and over his head.

  “OW!” Kae screamed as he dove away at a speed only the enhanced could manage. Kaeden rolled on the deck in agony, a bright white scar across the top of his head. His helmet was ruined. He started to gasp for air.

  Tape materialized in two different people’s hands and soon, the helmet was repaired. Kae’s nanocytes were already at work repairing the damage. He sat up against the wall and turned his head sideways to see through an area not covered by tape. />
  Marcie’s look of concern evaporated. “Dumbass!”

  “How was I supposed to know?”

  “Because everyone told you!” Marcie pulled him to his feet and tipped her chin toward the glowing line on the bulkhead. “What do you say we give them some space?”

  Kae nodded agreement and walked away with his head held high.

  Terry could see that the healing was well underway. “You look ridiculous.”

  Kae stopped and looked at his dad. He held up his hands and looked to the others for support, but none of them—not his mother, his wife or his friends— would back him up.

  “But he has a dog attached to his face!”

  “I don’t see it,” Char replied. The others shook their heads.

  Ted tapped his foot impatiently. “Would they hurry up!” he grumped.

  Char slapped him across the arm.

  “Ow!”

  “We wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for you!” she shot back, and a purple glow flashed from her eyes. Ted looked away and grumbled to himself.

  Petricia held up the two power sources.

  “It’s my fault,” a small voice said from behind.

  Everyone turned to face the Crenellian as a shower of sparks and metal splashed on the deck behind them. The group moved toward the interior of the station before they returned their attention to Ankh.

  “It’s my fault,” the Crenellian repeated. He stood tall, his face emotionless. “I broke the first connection, and once that was done and we couldn’t fix it we removed the power sources. That was Ted’s idea, because he knew we were in trouble when the power dropped. I don’t mean in trouble with you, but with the station. This is a living station. The Etheric power coursed through its veins and gave it the sustenance that it used to support life and the planet.”

  “How do you know that?” Terry asked, shuffling around to look at Ankh past the side of Dokken’s head. Char lent a hand to support the weight of the German Shepherd.

  My view isn’t great either, Dokken complained. Terry wouldn’t look at him.

  “We accessed a stream of data before the power dropped. It was magnificent! We should bring the station back to life. It could be an incredible resource for the Federation,” Ankh replied.