by S D Tanner
Her hand was still trembling inside his. “Frightened.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“You’re going to kill me.”
No living creature wanted to die, so fearing death didn’t make Lolo human. “What about the sleepers on the Prognatus, Lolo. They’re all dead. Do you care about that?”
Pulling her hand from his, she straightened as if indignant. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I told you what I knew. I don’t know why you’ve suddenly decided I’m your enemy.”
Everything she said could be true, but it might not be. Was she human or flea? Short of having Robert take her apart he couldn’t be sure. Even if Robert did open her up the metamorphosis might be so complete that she would look human. If intent was what made anyone human then she might be one.
In the past few days he’d been responsible for destroying two Arks and losing a million lives. Could he take one more? Maybe he could, but not today. Lolo might be flea, or she could be human. Regardless of what she was, if used in the right way, she might be an asset.
Stepping away from her, he said, “You’ll stay in here until we know what you are.”
Tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks. In a voice that was barely above a whisper, she replied, “Thank you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Life After Death
Everyone had left the Bridge, leaving him alone to contemplate the truth. Ash was being put back into a pod for repair. Hoping to learn more, Judge was talking to Lolo. Only seven Defensors had survived on the Extrema, causing him to wonder what had happened to the others. Flak and Hawk had landed the shuttle in the docking bay and were checking the other ships.
He needed to know what they had to work with. Earth was six months away. Thanks to the fleas they weren’t human anymore, which could be a blessing or a curse depending on what he did next. He clenched his robotic fist, an anger simmering inside him. Being kidnapped after his death, and modified to work as a slave to a master he didn’t remember, was a betrayal no man deserved.
With an advanced spaceship and a dome full of technology they could keep going forward, but he had a ship full of sleepers. According to Jessica, although they’d been dead for three hundred years, the sleepers hadn’t been on the Extrema for that long. He could wake them and find out what they knew, but the ship had no passenger manifest. They didn’t know who was sleeping inside the pods. Lolo had said they were government leaders and rejects, but he didn’t trust anything she’d told him.
It was like playing chess without all the pieces. His enemy had swiped the most powerful ones on the board and all he had were pawns. Regardless of who the sleepers were, he had to find a home for them. Maybe his commitment to saving them was only the protocols hardwired into one half of his brain, but he didn’t think so. Every member of his squad had died in action. It meant they were trained to defend, which was why Lunar had used them to protect the ships. Taking care of the sleepers came as naturally to him as breathing.
Beneath his pragmatic thinking was a feeling, one he couldn’t quite grasp. It was a sense of disappointment. How had the world changed so much from the one he remembered? In his time, life had been simple. Get a job, find a wife and then build a life. He might not have been the best of men, but he hadn’t been the worst either. By putting his life at risk he’d lost it. That should have been the end of his story. Dead and buried, he should have been mourned by the ones who loved him best. He was disappointed, but not about his death. Although he didn’t remember his first self well, he’d been prepared to lay down his life for the right reasons.
A deep voice echoed through his mind. “The only two guarantees in life are death and taxes.”
His father had been a smart man with a dumb job. If he could talk to him now he would complain bitterly. Every man deserved his death. Dying was the unspoken pact of being alive. No one should outlive their children. All good things come to an end. He’d based his life on these truisms. They were old-fashioned sayings for a good reason. He shouldn’t be forced to live beyond everything he understood and knew to be true.
Sitting alone in the command chair, he studied the screen that now only showed the vast emptiness of space. The remains of the Prognatus had drifted away, just as he should have when he’d died. He should be lying silent in his grave, but he was smoke in the wind, not quite dead or truly alive. They were untethered with no fixed future, or even a reason to continue a life that wasn’t one. He was a man with a past, long dead, and a future that had no end. Forced to live in the present he contemplated his options. Go forward and colonize a planet, or return to Earth and take revenge against an unknown enemy.
He closed his eyes, then they jolted open again. Out of the mouth of children comes the truth. She might have died hundreds of years earlier, but Daisy made his decision for him.
With her pigtails flying and her eyes shining with joy, he heard her voice as if it were only yesterday.
“Don’t leave me, Daddy.”
When everything is lost, even your death, the only place you can go is home.
Lockdown
DEAD FORCE
BOOK 2
SD TANNER
CHAPTER ONE: Double the Trouble
“Supply ship connected. Pressurizing complete.”
Jessica’s honey-coated voice soothed his jangled nerves. Like a man walking on a tightrope above a raging rapid, every step he took was slow and deliberate. Under his calm exterior was molten anger that he would have released had he known where to send it. Survivors guilt was an expression of grief, but he’d gone the other way. He wasn’t remorseful about killing a million sleepers, all he felt was an endless edginess only Jessica’s voice could calm.
Where he was wired for action, Judge appeared to have flatlined. Blank, brown eyes stared back at him from across the docking bay where they were waiting for the supply ship. Judge’s expression never changed, and he was detached from everything, as if he no longer cared what happened to him. None of his squad had been happy to learn everyone they’d ever loved was dead including themselves. They should have been buried in long abandoned graveyards, but instead they were stuck in space unsure what to do next.
“You up?” He asked.
Judge snorted sharply. “Apparently.”
He flicked his head at Joker, Rok, Ash and four troopers they’d met on the Extrema. “Play dumb.”
The door to the docking bay slid open, revealing a long wide corridor. Although the Extrema was large, the supply ship was at least a tenth of its size. He supposed it made sense, the ship was carrying everything three arks needed to support the sleepers and squids. Instead of docking, the supply ship had attached a long pipe to the doors, linking the two vessels by a snake-like tube.
Standing in a straight line across the open mouth of the tube from the supply ship, his squad of seven men had their hands resting on EMC-8 carbines or KLAW heavy machine guns. Any moment now, a squid, a man, or something entirely new to them, would walk into the docking bay. Every face was blank, as if they didn’t care what was approaching them, but a nervous jittery energy was coursing through him.
It would have been easy to raise his gun and shoot the first thing he saw coming through the tube. What did he have to lose that hadn’t already been taken from him? His family had died a long time ago. Had Lisa married again? Who had walked Daisy down the aisle? His still addled brain couldn’t quite grasp the little girl in his memory had already lived her life and was long dead. Although he didn’t feel guilty for being alive when she wasn’t, an endless rage kept sweeping through him like the rhythmic pulse of a tide against a shore.
He and Jessica had agreed the squad would behave as if their protocols were still intact, it was the only way they might learn what the aliens were. At first, he assumed the hissing he could hear was from the tube attached to their ship. There was something threatening about the sound, reminding him of a pit filled
with coiled snakes, each one softly warning the others to stay away. Soon the hissing was joined by the sound of footsteps from inside the tube. Tension in his neck hitched up another notch, and his trigger finger itched to see some action. The only thing stopping him from firing was the need to know who had robbed him of his death.
A human face came into view and then another, until twenty people were making their way toward the door. Some were dressed in brilliant blue jumpsuits and others wore the same design in red. They advanced toward them with the steady beat of a drum, although not one of them was looking at him or the squad. When they finally reached them, both sides stood looking at one another. At first, he wondered if they were human, but then a hissing sound rippled between them.
“Defensor, stand aside.”
The speaker’s voice lacked modulation, as if the words carried no meaning. Other than to move to the side, the order didn’t need a reply. The men wearing the red jumpsuits followed those dressed in blue, almost like obedient mules. As the first one passed him, his eyes flicked sideways as if he knew they were no longer under control. When he narrowed his eyes at the man, he looked away and blankly stared ahead. A second man dressed in red walked past him, nearly making him recoil in shock. He was identical to the first in every way, right down to having two different colored eyes. When a third twin walked past him, he looked across at Judge, hoping to catch his eye. For the first time since finding out they’d been dead for three hundred years, Judge gave him a familiar cynical smirk.
Clones. The men in the red jumpsuits were clones. It seemed there was a hierarchy amongst the aliens. Each man and woman dressed in the brilliant blue jumpsuits had unique faces, just like most humans should. The ones wearing red were trailing behind them like obedient slaves, every man a replica of the last. As the group reached the door to the corridor that would take them onto the ship, one of the men dressed in blue turned toward them. “Defensors, follow.”
As he turned to follow the aliens, Rok collided with his shoulder, whispering so quietly he barely heard him. “Really wanna shoot that asshole.”
“Play dumb.”
Rok growled softly like a dog warning its master. He appreciated his frustration, but all he had were more questions. Were the creatures dressed in red jumpsuits aliens or cloned humans? Had the ones wearing blue been incubated on ships like the arks? Were the squids doing more than using the humans for food? Had they somehow absorbed human DNA until they were a hybrid between the two? All he knew was his questions wouldn’t be answered willingly, of that he was sure. Silently agreeing with Rok, his trigger finger itched as he walked along the corridor behind the clones. Winding their way across the ship, the blue-suited aliens continued to hiss at one another. It was probably a form of communication, and he wondered if the clones used the same language.
Catching up with the clone nearest to him, they both stood at the bottom of a stairwell while the blue-suited aliens filed up the steps. The clone was staring ahead, his face slack and expressionless. He couldn’t work out if the man was bored, or if someone had forgotten to clone him a brain.
Nudging him gently, hoping to catch his attention, he whispered, “Who are you?”
His words seemed to wake the man from his daydream, and he turned to look at him. Judging by the smooth skin and mismatched blue and brown eyes, he guessed the man was barely out of his teens. He was young and fit, reminding him of a newly recruited trooper.
“What’s your name?”
The man blinked slowly as if he were mulling over his question, but his empty expression didn’t change, nor did he seem to have an answer.
Thinking perhaps the man hadn’t understood his question, he patted his chest plate. “I’m Tag.”
After following the movement of his hand against his chest, the man looked away seemingly disinterested. The line of people tramping up the stairs had reached the next level, and it was his turn to climb the steps.
Judge followed him onto the stairs. “Dumb in all ways.”
Without turning, he muttered, “Maybe they don’t speak English.”
“Maybe they don’t have a brain.”
That could have been said of any fresh recruit, and on first sighting it was always hard to believe they would eventually become hardened soldiers. Perhaps the clones were brainwashed, or maybe they didn’t trust the Defensors. The group had reached the wide arterial corridor that ran the length of the ship. Five of the aliens dressed in royal blue moved along the corridor with five clones. The other five aliens and remaining clones turned toward the corridor that led to the domes.
Making eye contact with Judge, he flicked his head at the group heading toward the domes. Judge said nothing, but he nodded at Ash, Joker and his two troopers, indicating they should follow him. Jessica was watching them from the Bridge and, if it all went to hell then Flak and Hawk would fire up a shuttle for a fast extract, but he didn’t think it would come to that. The aliens weren’t armed, and the clones appeared clueless.
He, Rok and two troopers followed their ten guests along the arterial corridor until they entered the locker room leading to the chamber. If they did anything to the sleepers, then his trigger finger would do more than itch. Although he didn’t feel guilty about killing a million sleepers, he wouldn’t allow another one to die without a fight.
The chamber was cool and silent, with only a faint hum from the pods for company. Although he didn’t remember doing it, Jessica had shown him footage of the virus they’d released on the Extrema. Once infected, the fleas had tumbled to the base of the chamber where he and the squad had killed them. Jessica had then teleported their corpses into space, turning the chamber into the oasis of peace it should always have been.
One of the aliens in blue tapped the control panel on a pod, making it slide open with a faint hiss. Leaning into the pod, the human-looking alien pulled the person out by the throat. Although the alien’s mouth looked human, what came out of it didn’t. A long length of red, ropey flesh slithered through its parted lips. It reminded him of a tentacle, making clear their transformation to human was only cosmetic. The thin tongue pierced the woman’s closed lips until first her neck bulged and then her chest pushed outward. Although the woman’s eyes remained closed, her fingers stretched and stiffened, as if she could feel the pain even under deep sedation. Seeing a vulnerable sleeper attacked was more than he could stand.
The five clones were standing along the edge of the platform, partially blocking the blue-suited aliens who had clustered around the woman’s pod as if they were waiting for their turn. If he started a fight now, then the other sleepers would be in the line of fire. Could he sacrifice the many to save only the one? The woman’s already pale face was turning a light shade of blue. He was watching her die and his rage hitched up another notch. Although he didn’t remember much about himself, he didn’t think he was the kind of guy who could watch someone being murdered without trying to save them.
Raising his gun, he aimed it at the alien sucking the life out of the sleeping woman. “Back off, asshole.”
Four heads turned at the sound of his voice. Where the five clones continued staring blankly ahead, the four aliens dressed in blue narrowed their eyes at him. The one attacking the woman was so caught up in whatever it was doing to her that it didn’t appear to hear him. A hissing sound filled his ears, and it wasn’t coming from the pods. The four aliens were eyeing him with mild interest as if he were a monkey doing something amusing.
Pressing against the trigger on his gun, he held his fire. If he could get the aliens to leave, then the sleepers wouldn’t be caught in their crossfire. “Get the fuck away from her!”
The alien bending over the woman was in his gunsight, all he had to do was apply a fraction more pressure on the trigger and it was dead meat. “I’m not telling you again.”
When the alien didn’t move, he pulled the trigger. Just as the bullet left the chamber, the four aliens opened their mouths, letting out a stre
am of yellow liquid at him. The clone between him and the aliens blocked half his body, so that the spray of liquid hit the man’s chest, cutting through it like a laser scalpel. More fluid passed through the newly created hole in the clone’s gut, landing on his armor and turning it soft and gooey. With the metal and plastic melting into his hip and thigh, a searing pain finally registered, and all hope of protecting the sleepers was lost.
“Fire! Fire! Fire!”
CHAPTER TWO: Double the Fun
Judge’s voice cut across the pain blinding his brain. “Acid!”
He didn’t even have time to ask Judge what was happening inside the dome. Rok had opened fire, turning himself into a bullet-spitting machine, and the two troopers were adding their gunfire to his own. More streams of sticky yellow fluid were streaking across the pods. As the acid flew toward them, droplets were landing on the pods causing them to stream smoke. Firing continuously, dark clouds puffed from their guns and the air was turning a murky gray. He couldn’t be sure, but he suspected the aliens weren’t surrounding the woman’s pod anymore, not that it mattered. Droplets of acid had landed on her body, making it sizzle as a cloud of gray oozed from her injuries. He’d started a fight hoping to save her, but she was going to die no matter what he did. Two of the clones slipped from the platform and plummeted to the base of the chamber.
“Pull back!”
They were standing in a line on the platform, meaning if one failed to moved then they would all be held up. When his order wasn’t followed, he quickly glanced behind him. One of the troopers had dropped to his knees and was clutching his face. A second after he saw him, the man’s wretched howls reached his ears.
“Trooper! Jump!”
Rok flicked his head in his direction. “Are you trying to kill him?”
