Gravity Storm: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Shadow Vanguard Book 1)

by Tom Dublin

  Jack gestured for Tc'aarlat and Adina to join him in the doorway. "We need a back-up plan in case they can't get into the system," said. "I'm thinking we could-"

  "We're in!" announced Zeb Lok, throwing his hands into the air.

  Jack's brow knitted. "Already? Are you sure?"

  "Absolutely!" said the scientist, spinning to face the trio. "Solo is incredible!"

  "Don't say that in front of her!" groaned Tc'aarlat.

  Zeb Lok ignored him and continued. "She found a hidden back door into the system in under three seconds, and was inside five seconds later."

  "So, you can delete the program running Storm Vix?" asked Adina.

  The Malatian nodded. "All we have to do is work out which format Yan Mil used for his password, and we-"

  "We can't do it," said Solo, flatly.

  Zeb Lok spun back to face the screen. "What? Why not?"

  Jack, Adina and Tc'aarlat hurried over, eager to hear Solo's answer.

  "The password securing the storm's programming is unhackable."

  "Unhackable?" queried Jack. "That's impossible, isn't it? Surely there's no such thing as 100 per cent digital security?"

  "Ordinarily, that would be true, Captain," said Solo. "However, it appears that Yan Mil has discovered a way to protect his code with a unique form of password, if it can even be called that."

  "I don't get it," admitted Adina. "What do you need to get into the program and cancel the storm."

  "DNA," replied Solo. "The 'password' required for access is a sample of an unknown individual's DNA."

  "Yan Mil's?" suggested Tc'aarlat.

  "I'm afraid we have no way of knowing," said Solo. "Not without a range of samples with which to try."

  Zeb Lok slumped back. "Then, it is impossible," he said. "We can't stop the storm, and now we don't have enough time to evacuate even a third of the city."

  "Not necessarily," said Jack. "Remember what Yan Mil said in his video message..."

  "That he didn't know which of his lab assistants would find his body?" said Tc'aarlat.

  "Not that bit," said Jack. "He said-"

  "Vix is coming!" Adina finished.

  Jack nodded. "He said everyone would remember the name Vix Mil, that hers was the last name the people of Alma Nine would ever hear. He was referring to the storm. That's why he named it after her."

  "It's all about Vix Mil," Adina pointed out. "Everything is about Vix Mil."

  Tc'aarlat's eyes grew wide as he finally caught on. "So, chances are high that the DNA required to access the system will be hers!"

  "Exactly!" cried Jack. He turned to Zeb Lok. "Has she had her Journey Back yet?"

  "No, all funerals were postponed until after Tor Val's had taken place."

  "So where would her body be right now?" asked Adina.

  "In the morgue," said Zeb Lok, jumping up. "All bodies are taken there to be prepared for their Journey Back."

  Tc'aarlat scowled. "The morgue?" he demanded. "A planet this size, and you only have one morgue?"

  "The morgue is twice the size of any government building," Zeb Lok explained. "It's always full, but the staff seem to cope."

  "So, what are we waiting for?" asked Jack, grabbing his coat and sliding his arms into the sleeves. "We can't be certain Vix Mil's DNA will unlock access to her husband's program, but it's worth the gamble."

  "There's just one problem," said Zeb Lok.

  "What?"

  "The morgue is on the other side of town. At least an hour's walk in this weather, and the roads are still closed off."

  Adina sighed. "So, not enough time to get there, find Vix Mil, get a sample of her DNA, and make it back to the lab before the storm hits."

  "Unless," said Tc'aarlat, his eyes alive with excitement. "We take The Pegasus."

  ICS Fortitude, Concealed Rear Hanger

  "I don't care if you are the captain of the Fortitude," insisted Tc'aarlat. "I've got the rapid reflexes needed to control The Pegasus in this vile weather. I'm driving!"

  "It's got nothing to do with being captain!" Jack retorted. "It's about having the experience required to handle a craft such as this! I was trained to fly ships like this in the SAM!"

  Adina leaned forward, thrusting her head between the two plush pilot's seats of The Pegasus. "Can you two leave your ‘manliest among men’ contest until after we've saved everyone in the city?" she demanded.

  Slumping back, she turned to Zeb Lok and added: "Honestly, take anything black and shiny and fill it with buttons and blue LEDs and men get all googly eyed."

  Before either Jack or Tc'aarlat could comment, Solo appeared on the forward screen. "Actually, I'm the one who will be piloting The Pegasus," she pointed out. "The controls in front of you are for use in emergency situations only."

  With that, the sleek spacecraft rose smoothly into the air as the rear cargo doors of the ICS Fortitude slid open to reveal the swirling white nightmare outside.

  The inside of The Pegasus was just as luxurious as the exterior, if not more. Black leather seats sat in rows of two, seating a total of six passengers. The tinted windows doubled as computerized touchscreens, with essential data also projected onto the windshield as a heads up display.

  "This is incredible!" breathed Zeb Lok from beside Adina in the second row of seats. "And your A.I. can control this ship as well?"

  "Actually, Solo isn't a full Artificial Intelligence," Adina replied. "She's an Entity Intelligence, but I think she has hopes of evolving."

  "Don't say things like that!" commented Tc'aarlat over his shoulder. "I don't want to crap myself at the thought of Solo with real power."

  Solo reappeared on the view screen, staring at Tc'aarlat. "I shall do my best not to cause you to lose control of your bowels," she said flatly. "Now, does everybody have their safety belt fastened?"

  A series of clicks followed, accompanied by a barely audible "For fucks' sake!", and then they were off.

  The Pegasus shot out of the rear doors of the cargo hold and swept effortlessly through the streets of the city approximately six feet off the ground.

  To Jack and Tc'aarlat, the gusts of snow whipping past the front windshield resembled a movie special effect of a spacecraft making the jump to warp speed.

  However, while the two men shared their barely concealed excitement with their respective inner children, Mist appeared to find the combination of such high speed and poor visibility disconcerting. Tightening her grip on the back of her master's seat, she tucked her head under her wing and stayed there.

  Zeb Lok studied the interior of The Pegasus in fascination. "What's powering this?" he asked, his eyes wide.

  Solo faded into view on the window beside him. "The Pegasus contains two unique anti-gravity engines developed by a trio of Etheric Empire engineers known as Team BMW."

  "Well, they certainly know their stuff," enthused Zeb Lok. "I don't suppose they have any vacancies, do they?"

  "I shall download your resume from the Weather Control Center's database and ensure it is delivered to them at the earliest opportunity," promised Solo with a smile.

  Ten minutes later, The Pegasus slowed as it arrived at the main entrance of Taron City's only morgue. The side doors hissed open, swinging upwards like the wings of a bird, allowing Jack, Tc'aarlat, Adina and Zeb Lok to climb out.

  Jack looked skywards, but the top of the vast building disappeared among the thick clouds and worsening snow fall above.

  "You weren't wrong about the size of this place," he said to Zeb Lok.

  Tc'aarlat turned back to the car's interior and tapped his leather shoulder pad. But Mist refused to move.

  "Come on," the Yollin urged. "We haven't got all day."

  Mist turned to face away from Tc'aarlat. It was clear she wasn't going to leave the warmth of The Pegasus voluntarily.

  "Suit yourself," said Tc'aarlat, "but if I come across anything tasty to eat in there, I'm not bringing a doggy style back for you."

  "The phrase is 'doggy bag'," corrected J
ack with a small shake of his head. "And what, exactly, do you imagine you'll find that is 'tasty to eat' inside a morgue?"

  Tc'aarlat shrugged. "Depends what ends up in the autopsy bowls set aside for stomach contents," he stated.

  Feeling her own stomach flip, Adina turned and hurried up the steps towards the main door before she was able to hear any more of the Tc'aarlat's suggestions.

  26

  Alma Nine, Taron City, Morgue, 14th Floor, Pathology Lab 9

  Finding the room where Vix Mil's body was being kept proved to be easier than expected. The reception desk in the building's lobby had either been abandoned or hadn't been manned at all that day due to the weather.

  The computer terminal in the small office behind the desk wasn't password protected, so Zeb Lok didn't require Solo's help this time.

  "Got it!" he said, standing up from the chair. He checked the countdown on his communicator. "An hour and five minutes remaining."

  Jack nodded. "Let's go."

  The music piped into the elevator was far too jolly for such somber surroundings, according to Tc'aarlat, and he was still griping about the chosen playlist when they stepped off on the 14th floor.

  A long corridor stretched away in each direction, well-lit but just as deserted as the lobby.

  The group hurried in the direction the signs posted outside the elevator had indicated where the lab they needed would be, knowing they were on the clock and didn't have time to spare.

  Eventually, they reached a laboratory with a large number '9' painted onto the slate grey door and stepped inside.

  A row of five metal benches lined up from one side of the room to the other, four of them occupied by figures lying motionless under soft, white sheets. Behind them, a bank of 12 square steel doors where fitted into the rear wall.

  "Not many people about," Tc'aarlat commented.

  Adina gestured to the corpses lying covered on the tables. "What, these guys don't count?"

  "I meant living people," countered Tc'aarlat. "People you can talk to."

  "Nothing to stop you chatting with these people," said Adina with a slight shrug. "Not sure you'd get much of a response, though."

  "Can't be any worse than the one-sided conversations I used to have with my parents back home," Tc'aarlat said grimly.

  "Got it!" announced Zeb Lok. While Tc'aarlat and Adina had been prowling among the post-autopsied bodies on the tables, he and Jack had been busy searching for Vix Mil's name on one of the pieces of card fixed to the outside of each of the refrigerated storage unit's doors.

  Jack snatched up a scalpel from a table of fierce looking instruments. "OK," he said, gripping the handle. "Let's get a sample, and go."

  Taking a deep breath, Zeb Lok pulled back on the door handle and slid out the long metal shelf inside.

  The drawer was empty.

  "I don't get it," exclaimed Zeb Lok. "This is definitely the lab listed on the computer."

  "Maybe she's in another one of these storage things," suggested Tc'aarlat. Starting at the top left, he began to open each door and slide out both the tray and occupant inside.

  Zeb Lok checked both the face and toe tag of each cadaver, concerned that the slackening of facial muscles after death might make Vix Mil difficult to recognize in her current state.

  But she wasn't there.

  "What now?" questioned Jack. "Do we check the other labs, other floors?"

  "We don't have time," said Zeb Lok, holding up his communicator for the others to see the screen. They were just 42 minutes away from the full force of the storm reaching Taron City.

  "I say we get as many of your team out of the lab as we can, and blast off in the Fortitude," offered Tc'aarlat. "Get out of the atmosphere completely to avoid those little gravity-hugging nanobot bastards."

  "And leave the rest of the city to perish?" demanded Jack.

  "We can't help everyone," Tc'aarlat responded. "We never could."

  "I... I don't know," said Zeb Lok. "My family is here. I can't just abandon them."

  "What do you think, Adina?" Jack asked. He turned when he didn't get a reply and found her rifling through paperwork in a filing cabinet drawer.

  "Adina?"

  "I've found Vix Mil's autopsy report," Adina said, slamming the drawer shut with her shoulder.

  "So, she was here," said Jack.

  Adina nodded, her eyes flicking down one page after another as she speed-read the report.

  "OK...," she said. "Basic stuff - height, weight, eye color... Evidence of early repetitive strain injury in her wrists, deep cut on the index finger of her right hand, and... Cause of death, knife wound to the heart."

  She stopped, sighed, then tossed the paperwork aside. "Yan Mil claimed the body yesterday."

  "But, he never left his apartment," exclaimed Zeb Lok.

  "He clearly did," countered Tc'aarlat. "He must have slipped past you somehow. No wonder you couldn't get a reply from him."

  "He knew someone might work out Vix Mil's DNA was the key to stopping the storm," said Jack. "He's been one step ahead of us all along."

  "Or has he?" asked Zeb Lok, reading the autopsy report Adina had cast aside.

  Jack's brow furrowed. "What is it?"

  Zeb Lok held up a hand while he finished reading the section that had piqued his interest. "Vix Mil came to the laboratory the night she died," he said. "She had made Yan Mil some soup because I'd told her he was so engrossed in his work that he wasn't eating."

  Tc'aarlat blinked. "So...?"

  "She had a cut on her finger where she had slipped slicing vegetables for the soup," said Zeb Lok, his finger stabbing at the mention of the deep gash on the report. "She was wearing a band-aid when we saw her."

  Adina's eyes widened. "So, that knife might still be sitting in her kitchen," she proffered. "With Vix Mil's blood on the blade."

  "Blood containing her DNA," added Tc'aarlat.

  "It's possible," nodded Zeb Lok. "She was attacked on her way home from the lab, so she didn't get chance to clean up - unless she did so before bringing Yan Mil his food."

  Jack was already running for the door. "It's our only hope!" he cried. "Let's go."

  Alma Nine, Taron City, Weather Control Center, Main Entrance

  The Pegasus was battered about by gale force winds blasting every corner of the city as it came into land outside Yan Mil’s house.

  Jack peered out through the front view screen. In the short time he and the others had been inside the morgue, the seemingly endless snowfall had been replaced with torrents of torrential rain.

  By the time they had arrived at the house Yan Mil had shared with his wife, the deep snow drifts had already started to melt away.

  It had taken Zeb Lok little more than two minutes to bypass the home's fingerprint security system, then he and Adina had dashed inside while Tc'aarlat and Jack stayed with the ship.

  A quick search of the kitchen had come up trumps. There, still sitting on one of the work surfaces was a cutting board, discarded pieces of vegetables, and a knife with a smear of blood still on its sharp blade.

  "All of the computers at the Weather Control Center have multi-purpose scanners built in," Zeb Lok had explained once he and Adina had returned to The Pegasus. "We can input just about anything we want into the system with them - nanobots, samples taken from crops, even a vial of rainwater to study what, if any, pollutants it contains."

  "So, it should be able to break down that spot of blood to retrieve Vix Mil's DNA?" Jack had asked.

  "We have to hope so," had been Zeb Lok's reply. "If it doesn't work, Taron City will be hit by the approaching gravity storm, and hit hard."

  The group had witnessed hundreds of people urgently trying to escape the path of Storm Vix by fleeing the city however they could. Cars raced by, privately own spacecraft blasted off from rooftops and backyards.

  And scores of residents without access to transport were making the desperate journey on foot, heads bowed as they battled on through the fierce, unforgi
ving downpour.

  Men, women and children all pulled their coats and jackets tightly around themselves in an effort to stay warm as they made for the outskirts of Taron City in the hope of avoiding the nightmare heading their way.

  "If that bastard Saf Tah had done as we asked and ordered an evacuation, these people could have been loaded onto buses and driven to safety hours ago," Tc'aarlat had snarled.

  Families pushed carts piled high with their belongings, individuals ran for their lives, dodging between and around slower groups, elderly couples plodded along, hand in hand, determined not to give in to fatigue or the brutal, unforgiving weather.

  Adina saw a group of young men push two girls from their bicycles, then ride off - two pedaling, the other pair balanced on the handlebars - leaving the teenagers hurt and shaken in the gutter. She wanted to stop and help them, but Solo had reminded her that time was short and, if they stood any chance of stopping the worst of the storm from striking the fleeing refugees, they had to continue onwards.

  As the strength of the gravity steadily increased, buildings began to crumble. Having already endured two onslaughts, damaged apartment blocks and entire streets of compromised houses finally succumbed to the effects of these repeated gravitational poundings.

  Roofs collapsed, walls tumbled and windows exploded as the once strong and sturdy infrastructure lost its battle with the forces of nature. Cries for help rang out from each and every demolished structure, but there were very few people left to assist in the rescue of those unfortunate victims trapped beneath the rubble.

  What few first responders remained did their best to offer aid, but the pounding rain and hurricane-like winds made the task difficult to the point of being impossible. On more than one occasion, fire and ambulance crews were forced to make the heart-breaking decision as to which of those suffering could and would be rescued, and which would have to be left to perish in the coming hours.

  Finally, they arrived at the entrance of the Weather Control Center. As The Pegasus came in to land, Zeb Lok checked his timer.

  "Fourteen minutes," he said. "Storm Vix is almost here."