“Too far for phase-shifting. We’ll need to call up an interchange wormhole, Captain,” she said.
Captain Perkins’ face appeared in a center feed up on the wrap-around display. Jason gestured for Stone to hold off in implementing any orders.
“What the hell’s going on, Perkins?”
“We’ve been ordered into the Dacci System, Captain. I’m sorry, sir … we’re here to appre—”
Jason cut him off, “Apprehend me … take me in to custody. Yes, Admiral Stark has informed that he would be making that order. But hold on … hold that thought,” Jason said, and glanced back to Seaman Gordon. “Two things … first … hail Captain Logenes on the Taurus and ensure General Reynolds is not on the bridge. Second, I want all Star Watch captains to join in on this conversation.”
It took several minutes, but one by one their faces appeared on new feed segments around the wrap-around display. Added to Perkins’ feed, the next to appear was Captain Grimes of the Gemini, who looked uncomfortable—even worried. Next to appear was Captain Granger, the Caldurian skipper of the Aquarius. Next, was Captain McNeil, skipper of the Virgo. One by one, eleven Star Watch captains appeared above, on the open video-comms channel. Finally, after the last captain’s face appeared, all feeds were visibly on display, three hundred-and-sixty degrees around the Parcical’s bridge. Jason slowly turned his head and made eye contact with each officer. More than one shifted some under Jason’s scrutiny.
Captain Grimes broke the silence. “Captain … I just want to say—”
“Hold on, Captain Grimes,” Jason said, and turned back to Captain Perkins. Out of the whole lot of those in command, Perkins was his least favorite. But he had been his XO and he’d worked under his father too, ten years earlier. Other than himself, he was the most senior officer there.
“You’ve come to take me into custody … is that correct, Captain Perkins?”
“Those are my … our … orders, Captain Reynolds.”
“That’s not what I asked you.” Jason noticed Perkins was also scanning the faces around him, in his own three-sixty display.
Ricket and Billy entered the bridge behind Jason. “There’s no way I was going to miss this, Cap,” Billy said—a full-length unlit stogie in his mouth. He then moved close to Orion and leaned back against her console. Ricket continued over to an open panel at the front of the bridge and sat down.
Bristol entered the bridge and hesitated, noting the officers’ faces on display around the perimeter of the compartment. “This isn’t creepy … not at all,” he smirked.
Jason wasn’t surprised by everyone’s need to be a part of this event. It was a pivotal moment in their lives, he knew. He noticed Mollie, at some point, had also entered the bridge and was, with arms crossed over her chest, looking back at him. She too looked worried. Jason waited, knowing one more would soon enter the bridge. Ten seconds later, Dira arrived and moved in close, taking a spot right next to him. She defiantly looked around at the video feeds—at the faces of all those she’d served with for so many years.
Apparently, a new line had been drawn in the sand here in the Dacci System. Jason wondered who among them would dare cross over it? And who would stand firm with Admiral Stark, and with the new fleet Omni—his brother, Brian? The truth was, Jason was tired. Did he still care enough to deal with all the bullshit anymore? Perhaps it was time to leave it behind. Take Dira far away from here—retreat into a quieter life—somewhere. Perhaps it was time for someone else to take the lead.
He thought about it a moment, but knew for certain that someone could not be Brian. The recent years dedicated to avoiding another war, like the one with the Craing, would be undone in a matter of days. Brian lived for power: certainly, for the overall power of Earth to prevail, but mostly for personal power. Brian would evolve into a conqueror of worlds—of entire interstellar systems—by partnering with Lord Zintar Shakrim, or, even worse, Rom Dasticon. What was he thinking? How could he be so naïve—trusting those who’d been their dire enemy a mere five years before? He had to completely accept that there was no greater threat to the Alliance—to humanity—than Rom Dasticon. Hell, wasn’t Boomer risking her life at this very moment to ensure Dasticon never … ever … entered this realm? Jason felt a wave of guilt for even contemplating quitting.
Now StarDome was under threat by the Sahhrain, whose new fleet of advanced warships was commissioned by none other than his brother, and supported by Admiral Stark. Jason needed to know which Star Watch men and women officers would have his back—possibly even go to war with him—right here and right now. Yes, most definitely, a line in the sand had been drawn.
Everyone’s attention was back on Captain Perkins. “As I started to say, Captain, my orders were clear. To make haste, enter the Dacci System, and implore you to return to the Sol System … Liberty Station … accompanied by Star Watch. If you chose not to comply, I was to take decisive action and take you into custody.”
“That’s fine, Captain Perkins. I now know what your orders were. So, again, what are your intentions?”
“Personally … I have no intentions of following those orders. I cannot speak for the other officers here, though.”
Jason nodded, studying the faces of the other officers up on their respective feeds. Each Star Watch captain was either smiling or nodding, or both. He should not have doubted the loyalty of these fine officers. The relief he was feeling must have shown on his face.
“You had doubts, Captain?” Captain Grimes asked. “After all we’ve been through together? After what you’ve sacrificed for every one of us?”
“I didn’t want to presume anything. You all have your own careers to consider.”
Captain McNeil said, “We’re with you, Captain. That also goes for you being the one true Omni of the fleet, as well.”
Excitedly, Orion interrupted, “Captain! StarDome has incoming. No less than five hundred high-yield nukes inbound.”
Chapter 46
“Look, I understand you wanting to do this yourself,” Leon said, “but all I’m asking is that you let me come down there with you. If what your friend … Drom … said is true, that those rock burrower things are going to attack, you’ll need someone there to give you cover so you can complete the course. Remember, Boomer, I have your father to answer to. Something happens to you and I’m toast.”
Boomer only half-listened to Leon ramble on as she made some last-minute setting adjustments to her HUD. Every so often, she glanced down into the black void, where the third obstacle was situated.
“What he’s saying makes sense, Boomer,” Hanna said. “Let him watch your back.”
“Fine. But you’ll have to stay off the course itself. Everything is pressure sensitive down there. You add your weight onto a rock that’s supposed to hold only one person—like me—then all we’ve done could be compromised.”
“I’m coming, too,” Drom said, emerging from the Stellar, looking amazingly handsome and self-confident in Boomer’s eyes.
“Let me take a look down there first. Get a lay of the land,” Boomer said, as she disengaged her battle suit and Hanna handed her enhancement shield to her. Once it was in place, she gave the group a curt nod. “Here goes nothing!” Like before, she used her shield to produce low-level distortion waves that illuminated the stone steps leading downward.
“Don’t forget … you have NanoCom, Boomer,” Leon said, tapping his ear.
She nodded and descended the steps into darkness.
She sensed more than saw movement in front of her. Then she heard the almost imperceptible sounds of tiny motors, actuators, and servos and could see the hovering viewing droid, illuminated in the soft glow of her shield’s violet distortion waves. It too was descending, keeping pace with her. Apparently, whoever was watching wanted a close-up view of her face. Perhaps scanning for signs of fear? Well, he wasn’t going to see any today. She had to remember to ignore the mechanical annoyance—one misstep, or lapse in concentration, and she could become nothin
g more than a puff of pink mist, as Drom had put it earlier.
The blackness beyond the steps was so absolute she needed to increase the power output of her shield. Suddenly, the subterranean world began to take on form and shape. She was about midway down a long, narrow stairway when, below her, she saw the third obstacle. It seemed almost identical to the ones she’d contended with up above and on Clorvious Noles. Narrower, it was approximately twenty feet wide by two hundred feet long. Various flat rock platforms, of different sizes and shapes, awaited her.
Boomer continued down steps that appeared to lead directly to the start of the course. Now that she was closer to the bottom, she could see that there indeed was sufficient space around the course for the others to stand on.
She hailed Leon. “You and Drom can come down, but no others. Stay off the course and keep quiet.”
“Copy that,” he said.
As Boomer reached the bottom of the steps, she heard their footfalls coming down from above. She turned and looked around the underground cavern. One could park a 747 here and still have room to spare. What differentiated the space from other caves she’d been in was the glass-like smoothness of the walls. Several feet deep, the translucent rock surface was beautiful, yet disconcerting at the same time. Non-natural, or external, excavating equipment hadn’t created this place. Nope, this unique cave was the work of indigenous life forms—the rock burrowers. They’d used their acid-like saliva to disintegrate jagged stone, leaving an amazing, heaven-like cathedral in their wake.
Boomer, contemplating the prospect of sudden danger coming from hidden, nearby rock burrowers, next reconsidered—in all likelihood, they were long dead. How else had the ancients built the obstacle down here? Certainly, the acid-spitting bugs had to be long gone. She felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders. Then, breathing in the strong, spicy, sweet smell, she wondered, If the bugs are gone why does it still smell like this here?
“Looking at the scroll … I …”
“I thought you two were going to stay quiet,” Boomer said. She then saw that Gain had made his way down the steps and had joined the group. His usual self-confident demeanor was gone. He glanced away when she looked at him. Perhaps the whole lobster-bee ordeal had stolen some of his cheekiness … She figured he’d get it back … in time.
Drom shrugged. “I never promised to stay quiet. That was Leon. Anyway, I think I have good news for you. From what I’m understanding, this particular obstacle should be right up your alley.”
“Yeah, why’s that?” she asked, watching Leon make his way around the perimeter of the obstacle. He was wearing his combat suit and carrying a multi-gun. Drom now was standing close by, only ten feet behind her.
“You see the walls on both sides?”
Boomer nodded, taking in two parallel six-foot-high walls, running along the sides.
“Also, do you see familiar holes, bored into their surface?”
She nodded again. Although this time the holes appeared larger, not symmetrically placed, and there were far fewer of them than on the previous obstacle.
“Why did you say this was right up my alley?”
“Look down. See the small raised blocks of stone? You only step on those. Landing on anything else will terminate the obstacle, and probably your life.”
“But there’s only a few of them. The distance between them …”
Another voice pierced the darkness, “Is really, really far.”
Boomer spun around, finding Rogna standing next to Drom. Her head was tilted—emphasizing her disbelief in Boomer’s ability to succeed. Tempted to send the lot of them back up the steps, she shook it off—using a baskile technique, instead—to calm her mind.
With Drom’s information, she could make out the obstacle and what was needed from her: a myriad of gymnastics moves—requiring all the skills she’d learned over the past few years.
Boomer let out a long breath and was about to take her first step when she noticed the hovering droid, two hundred feet away. It was slowly circling something—something metallic.
She answered Leon’s NanoCom hail: “Go ahead, Leon.”
“I’m standing at the end of the course and I saw you looking down this way. The viewing droid is preoccupied by a statue … must be one of your won things. Just thought you’d like to know it’s here. Oh … and another thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Look directly above it.”
Boomer raised her eyes upward into the darkness and didn’t see anything. Increasing the power level of her shield, the outline of something substantial came into view—a massive, cube-shaped rock, precariously suspended directly over the last third of the course and over the won effigy. The ancients did not chance it—the wrong challenger, or someone incompetent, attempting to complete the course faced certain death. It also occurred to her, if things go bad, that the hanging rock will, most certainly, flatten her before she would be able to activate her combat suit. This course truly presented her a do-or-die challenge.
“Okay … I’m starting. No more talking. Everyone just remain still.” Boomer traced an imaginary path down the course that lay before her. Drom was right about one thing: This challenge did fit perfectly with her skill-set and what she’d been born to do. The first rock block was twenty feet away, off to the right. She opted to cartwheel into the air, using her enhancement shield to elevate her both up and forward. No sooner had she left the ground, spinning legs-over-head, than two ten-foot-long spiked shafts shot out from opposing walls. One missed her legs by inches, the other her head. The cartwheel maneuver had saved her life. Landing upon the small, six-inch-square rock, she wobbled, but still managed to keep her balance.
For the next section, far more holes were visible on the side walls. Hmm, she thought, a simple cartwheel maneuver here won’t cut it. She mentally tried to come up with a different plan—to reach the next elevated stone—thirty feet away and higher up by ten feet or so. No matter how she tried to envision it, she knew she’d surely be skewered along the way.
“I know I told you all to be quiet … but any ideas?” she asked.
No one said anything. Eventually, Drom said, “Sorry, Boomer. Even the scroll doesn’t seem to provide us with any clues.”
Boomer continued examining her options. As time ticked by, she was becoming less and less confident of her odds of success. That, and the stupid viewing droid kept hovering in her path—darting around erratically.
“Want me to shoot it down?” Leon asked from the darkness. She considered his option but then began to watch it more closely. “It’s like it’s trying to tell me something.”
“Maybe it wants you to jump on it,” Rogna said.
“No … that’s not it,” Boomer said, sounding distracted.
A smile crossed Boomer’s lips. Would that work? she thought.
The little droid kept repeating the same movement, over and over again. Boomer turned and found Drom. “Do you see that?”
He shook his head, looking confused. He watched the viewing droid’s repetitive movements for another minute and then, also smiling, said, “It wouldn’t be easy … but … yeah … it could work.”
The little droid moved up and down and then zigzagged from one side of the course to the other—continuing until it reached the end. Three times, spears shot from the walls and clanged off of the droid’s metallic surfaces. As if on an endless loop, it circled back and started over from the same position just beyond where Boomer was situated.
Boomer was well aware the viewing droid was, most likely, the property of Lord Zintar Shakrim. That or perhaps the black clad Sahhrain warrior. Based on the family crest she’d seen, there was clearly a family connection between those two. She was almost positive he was Zintar’s blood … maybe his son. But it all still came down to Zintar. Her mind flashed back, to the immense combat-suit-clad warrior on the battlefield dunes of Harpaign. Zintar … no, he was her one true enemy, yet right now he, or that smaller version of himself, seemed
to be helping her complete the course. Helping her retrieve the won effigy. And why shouldn’t he? It would serve both of their interests to retrieve it from this place. Or did it?
“Why not just let the effigy be destroyed?” Rogna asked as if it was the most obvious question in the world. “Let that big stone fall … flatten the thing.”
“I thought of that, too,” Drom said. “Remember … it’s made of Glist, an incredibly hard material, so I’m not entirely sure it even could get flattened. Might be difficult to recover, but not beyond the capabilities of someone with the right resources.”
“So it’s back to me finishing up here … either that or die trying,” Boomer said.
Rogna said, “Anyone notice that the smell’s getting stronger?”
Chapter 47
“Missiles away, Lord Shakrim,” Brakken said, excitement evident in his voice. “Three minutes until impact.”
Zintar heard him but his attention was not on the missiles, nor on the impending doom of StarDome. Instead, he watched the grouping, close to a dozen warships, converging hundreds of thousands of miles away from there.
He hefted his large frame from the chair and moved to the railing—his eyes never wavering away from the small cluster of ships.
“Zoom in.”
The modest-sized fleet, Star Watch, now filled the split-screen display. Those sleek, distinctive-looking, Caldurian designed vessels would soon be under his complete control. The truth was, he’d gladly trade all the warships in his own, newly amassed, fleet for just one of those highly advanced vessels, with their amazing capability to move around the galaxy. The prospect of commanding all twelve ships—including the Parcical, the most advanced ship of them all, but missing from this assemblage—had captivated his imagination for years. Finally, it now seemed, the time had arrived. The convergence of recent events, and his impeccable planning—manipulating and coercing both friend and foe alike—had brought him to this moment.
Boomer (Star Watch Book 3) Page 25
