“Didn’t…. no time… to call,” he wheezed and pressed a hand against his chest. He coughed, blood spewing from his mouth.
Shit. I didn’t know how to help him, or even if I could.
“How do I contact them?” I asked. “Why can’t Thompson take the artifacts and go? Didn’t they have a sub of their own to get them here?”
Answer: There were too many artifacts. Still, why the whole damn station?
“Gave you the number,” he whispered.
The card. Dammit. “It’s in my quarters. No way I’m getting there.” I’d been lucky enough to get here relatively undeterred.
Dr. Hill’s eyes shut, and he listed off a string of numbers. I burned them into memory, repeating each one after he said it, and again when the string restarted.
“This is… our war…” he sputtered.
“Yeah, I know. My parents started it.”
He shook his head and winced. “TAO—”
“Are a bunch of idiots with their heads stuck up where the sun don’t shine,” came Valerie’s arrogant, shrill voice.
My stomach churned.
She stood in the doorway. “Kind of like the Brig of SeaSatellite5, if you ask me.”
“This isn’t how it was supposed to go,” I said, standing. “Think about this, Valerie.”
She stepped into the room, her hand raised above her, a fireball growing in her palm. “It’s exactly how things were supposed to go, Trevor. Except you’re supposed to be standing here with me, not beside the enemy.”
The fireball danced in her palm, no bigger than a grape. She lifted her hand to her mouth and blew the fireball off like a kid might a dead dandelion head. The fireball hurried from her hand and raced past me at lightning speed to Dr. Hill’s chest. A new scar on his body. Dr. Hill grunted but didn’t shout.
“Valerie, stop!” I searched her eyes for reason, for anything resembling understanding or the Valerie I used to know. Her loyalty, her defining feature, remained intact—just for all the wrong individuals. There wasn’t a way to reason with Valerie. Except maybe with her own life.
“He’ll destroy the station,” I said. “You know that, right? It won’t matter what you do here, who you torture to make yourself feel useful to him. He’ll destroy the station first, then you.”
“Not with everyone still on it,” she argued. “Trust me, Trevor.”
“He will. He doesn’t care. If he can’t find a way to get all of the artifacts off, he’ll sink us all before you and his other lackeys can do anything to stop him. How do you expect anyone to find the station when they don’t know where we are, or when the cloak’s up? Or do you not care at all about what happens to me, to your friends?”
Valerie faltered for a single moment, a second so minute, I almost missed it. Her diamond-strength confidence had been obliterated by two simple questions.
“Our only mission is the artifacts. The station is safe,” she said. “Unlike you.”
She charged me, yanking me roughly into a standing position. Her strength scared me into not reacting. This power, hidden for so long. And the fire. The torture. What other surprises did Valerie have? Who was the real Valerie?
She tugged me to the door, stopping to glance at Dr. Hill. “Toodles, Doctor. Stay alive, will you? We’re not done.” So cavalier. Did this cold, uncaring Valerie torture Chelsea, too?
My fist flew toward Valerie before I could think better of it. She deflected my punch without effort and slammed her elbow into my gut, pinning me to the wall.
“I meant what I said before,” she hissed. “We’re friends, Trevor. Despite you being on the wrong side of this, I don’t want to see you killed. That I do mean for real.” She leveled me with a look. “Don’t make me regret it.”
Chelsea
alerie left thirty minutes ago. The disaster the room had become in the meantime evidenced my escape attempts, despite my lack of progress in doing so. My guitar case rested mangled on the bed, an unfortunate piece of collateral damage. For some reason, I’d thought I could punch through Valerie’s melted metal doors with my supposedly abnormal strength. I couldn’t. I’d wrapped my fists in impromptu bandages to stop my knuckles from bleeding, not pausing to weep over the loss of my favorite cardigan to the cause.
Next up, the towel rack from the bathroom. I ripped it off the wall, lifted the privacy screen on the door, and slammed the metal pole through the glass. It echoed like a high-pitched clap of thunder, and glass scattered everywhere.
Carefully stepping over it, I peered outside. No one. For someone they deemed important, they sure didn’t seem too keen on watching me. Or maybe Valerie assumed I’d never get out. Well, Valerie didn’t know the first damn thing about me, and that bitch would pay.
I reached through the hole, searching for the keycard reader. There had to be some sort of alarm button. I knew they didn’t kill the entire crew because doing so didn’t seem smart on their part. Then again, I hadn’t seen anyone other than Trevor and Freddy since returning from the outpost. Maybe they did kill everyone.
Bastard. Trevor took the No. 2 spot on my ever-growing “punch in the face” list. I thought I’d grown out of such childish ways of thinking. Guess not. Suddenly, dealing with job-hunting and skirting Lexi’s boyfriend-stealing attempts didn’t seem so annoying anymore.
This wasn’t working. All my fingers brushed was wall. I retreated back into the room. “What next?”
Desk. Both of our desks were the right height. I grabbed mine, wanting to vomit at the sight of Valerie’s. If I could move my desk across the room, maybe I could gain enough height to reach the card reader. I glanced up at the ceiling. Or climb up through the vent.
Something on Valerie’s desk pinged, heralding the stupidity of the vent idea. The beep rang throughout the quiet room before her tablet screen flared to life.
What the hell?
I crossed the few paces to her tablet and leaned in closer. An icon at the bottom danced and shook every few seconds. Mega Rush 2. Someone was legitimately playing the game right now? In the middle of a freaking hijacking?
Curiosity propelled me into Valerie’s desk chair before frustration could convince me otherwise. I needed to know who was this bored in the midst of guns and fireballs. I clicked the icon to bring up the game. Valerie wasn’t a player this time around, but she must have been in Trevor’s first version because she had a user profile and inbox set up.
1 New Message bounced on the main menu screen.
Two taps of the mouse had her in-game inbox front and center. It was a message from Emma Rose, Chief Engineer I, according to her signature. Frilly-ass name if you asked me. I opened it.
Chelsea,
The following are instructions to reconnect the Communications Buoy and contact Admiral Eliot Dennett. No one knows about our situation or are likely to find out. Be quick. I can’t keep them occupied for long.
Emma
Trap. Absolutely a trap. Valerie’s tablet happened to get a message for a game Trevor made while I’m stuck in here alone? Absolute. Freaking. Trap.
I backed away from her desk. Clearly no one outside the station knew about our situation. But there had to be check-ins, and if we missed them, help would come. Dr. Hill’s archaeology team was already on their way anyway, and, if they were as involved as he was, they’d know what to do.
Who’d sent me the message, Valerie or Trevor? Could I trust one over the other at this point? My heart said yes while my brain scolded my heart for allowing myself to fall for Trevor in the first place.
Was Emma Rose even a real person?
Valerie had loaded a staff directory onto my tablet on my first day. I pulled my tablet out of the drawer next to my bed and opened up the directory. Sure enough, Emma Rose was an Engineer listed as working under Trevor and Dave. Maybe someone knew I had some autonomy. Maybe they knew I’d get a chance.
I sat in Valerie’s desk chair and opened the attachment from Emma. Her instructions weren’t complicated. According to Emma, Val
erie’s tablet had already been hooked into the communications system. Emma had designed a way to hack into the system, get to the Bridge’s controls of the communications buoy, and reconnect it to outside transmissions. Emma said she was holding the door open for all of this to happen for as long as she could from another location, one directly hooked into the buoy. I followed Emma’s directions, and when the buoy connected, I called what appeared to be Admiral Dennett’s personal line.
“Sir,” I said before a video screen popped up and the webcam light turned on. “Admiral?”
His screen flashed and an older man in military dress uniform appeared. “Who is this? How did you get this number?”
“An engineer gave it to me,” I said. “I’m an intern on SeaSatellite5. My name is Chelsea Danning.”
His brow furrowed. He didn’t believe me and likely wouldn’t. Who would help SeaSatellite5 if he didn’t? “The archaeologist we brought on?”
I nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“An engineer had this number?”
“Yes. Chief Engineer Emma Rose. Sir, the station’s been hijacked. They’ve had us for almost…” I checked my watch. “Eight hours now. I guess no one had time to get the word out.”
His eyebrows disappeared into his receding hairline. “Excuse me?”
“SeaSat5 was hijacked. Sir, I’m not sure how much time I have.”
“By who?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. But they’re like me, they have powers.” I hoped someone had filled him in on me having powers, or he was liable to think me crazy and never send help.
He leaned off-screen and dialed another phone. “Stay on the line.”
I tapped my fingers against the desk while he called someone. I gritted my teeth together, my fingers’ drum solo speeding up. Valerie could teleport in at any second, fiery show and all. “Sir.”
He stopped for a moment and looked into the camera. “Can you stay on the line and give me more information?”
“I don’t have time, and I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been locked in my quarters for most of it.”
“We’ll send help. Can you keep us updated using this channel?”
Emma hadn’t made it seem like she could keep the line open for a while. “I don’t think so.”
The Admiral’s lips pursed together and he stilled for long moments. “Stay safe and hidden. Help is on the way. Do you know the status of Captain Marks or the Commander?”
“No, sir.”
Admiral Dennett grimaced. “Thank you for taking a huge risk in contacting me. A rescue team is being organized right now. What is your current location?”
I wanted to smack my head against the desk for being so unhelpful. “I don’t know. They flipped the station hours ago, after collecting artifacts from the outpost. We’ve been moving ever since. They keep saying something about going to home port, but I don’t know who they are or where that is. They want the artifacts.” And me.
“I’ll have our people here ping your location. We’ll—”
The call disconnected with a vacuum of black enveloping the screen.
I wacked the keyboard. “No!”
Bright lights filled the room. Someone’s hand clamped down hard on my shoulder, their fingers digging into my skin. “Stupid bitch.” Spittle sprayed my face.
We teleported to the Bridge where I was met with the angry lead hijacker. Trevor stood some distance behind him, restrained by one of the other goons, his arms pinned behind him.
“No! Don’t do it, Thompson!” he shouted.
Thompson waved Trevor off. “I need her alive, you know that.” He approached me, reeking of cigarette buds and grime. “I want to know why you called someone on the outside.”
“Did what?” Dammit, Chelsea. Sarcasm was not okay right now.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Who did you contact and how?”
I risked a glance at Trevor. His face contained a mixture of desperation and confusion. It really must have been Engineer Emma Rose. Could he see that’s how she’d contacted me? Did he know she helped me?
“Even I’m not entirely sure,” I said. Honesty seemed like a decent idea.
Thompson’s eyes snapped to Trevor. “Only someone who works on the Bridge or in Engineering could reconnect the buoy. You’re the common denominator, and yet the signal originated from her quarters. Explain.”
Trevor’s eyes met mine, pleading. I didn’t have answers for him. I wasn’t sure I had anything for him anymore. For whatever reason, he deemed me worthy of lying to, which made him little better than Ray in my eyes. Everyone had lied to me. But Trevor lied about this, and his lies had endangered everyone on board as a result.
“She doesn’t know how,” Trevor pleaded. “She didn’t do this.”
“Bullshit,” I said before thinking better of it. “And you don’t get to speak for me.”
Again Trevor’s blue eyes pleaded with mine, begging me to be quiet. Hell no.
“If you didn’t, who did?” Thompson asked.
“Valerie, obviously,” Trevor spat. “She doesn’t trust you, either.” He turned his head at his captor. “Let me go. I’m not going anywhere.”
My head spun with all the accusations. Trevor had thought Valerie was to blame, and the message did go to her computer. But Emma knew I’d be in the room, and I didn’t have a Mega Rush 2 profile. Besides, Valerie hated both Trevor and me, and if Emma knew that, then the whole station did.
“I freaking did it, okay? Okay.” I forced my eyes to level with Thompson’s. “I used a Chief Engineer’s profile to hack into the system from a computer in my quarters, reconnect the damn buoy, and make a call to the outside.”
Thompson’s fingers wrapped around his gun, reminding me of Lieutenant Weyland’s exact posture the day I’d first teleported onto SeaSat5. Was Weyland also amongst the trail of liars Trevor had left in his wake?
“To who?” Thompson asked.
Did it matter if he knew? The senior military staff would call the Admiral first if the Captain were compromised. “Admiral Dennett. He can’t rescue us if he doesn’t know what’s going on.”
Trevor shrugged out of his captor’s grasp long enough to pace toward me. “You did what?”
Thompson shot out an arm and tossed Trevor to his captor. “Behave. I don’t care what JoAnne wants. Remember that, kid.”
My fists closed and opened, torn between letting Trevor take the threat and defending him.
A shrill alarm blared to life, the lights on the Bridge dimming to a red hue. My captor’s grip on me tightened the moment it happened.
Thompson cocked his gun. “What the hell is that?” he shouted.
“Let me look,” Trevor said, already trying to inch his way to a station.
My heart sunk as Thompson pointed his gun at Trevor. Liar or not, he didn’t deserve to die.
“Don’t!” I screamed. “Leave him alone!” I kicked and wriggled, trying to get free.
My captor’s grip loosened as he grabbed a gun from his holster and brandished the weapon close to my face. My heartbeat thudded in my ears, coldness freezing me in place. My fingernails dug into his arm.
Thompson waved his gun from Trevor to a Bridge workstation. “Look.” He nodded at Trevor’s captor, who let him go.
Trevor leaned over the station and tapped the keys. The alarm silenced but a scowl marred his face. “What in the hell?”
“What is it?” Thompson demanded.
Trevor collapsed into the chair. “I need Ensign Olivarez. Now. I can’t do this on my own.”
Thompson shifted, gun pointed at me. I slammed my eyelids shut. This is it. This is the end. Teleport. Teleport. Teleport already. What good were these powers if they didn’t work when I needed them most? I thought of Sarah. Of home. Of the Franklin. Of anything but right here and now, where a liar’s words had held my fate too many times over.
“Someone’s disabled the shield,” Trevor spoke quickly. “Water’s rushing the top level. I’m doing what I can to
minimize damage, but I can’t do that and restore the damn shield so it stops.” He looked up at Thompson. “You either need to get some Bridge staff up here, or reverse what you did to Humming Bird and let Chelsea plug the leak. And for god’s sake, control your men.”
My eyelids slid open at my name. “I’m not helping them.”
Trevor’s eyes bore into mine, pleading, hoping. “We’ll all die if you don’t.”
“You’re helping them,” I insisted. “You’re doing whatever they ask.”
“To keep everyone alive.” He rose from his chair. “Please, Chelsea.”
“Don’t bother trying to suss it out, solider,” Thompson said. He pointed at one of his lackeys. “Get the Ensign and Lieutenant Commander ASAP. That’s all you’re getting, Trevor.” Thompson turned to me. “Trouble or not, I’m taking you with us. Even if it’s to the grave.”
Trevor’s eyes narrowed into a glare. “And if they can’t get the breach under control?”
“Better hope your girlfriend changes her mind,” Thompson growled. “I’m not letting this station sink with those artifacts on board.”
I let out a stream of profanities all to the effect of: hell no.
Trevor
ive minutes. That was all it’d taken to convince Thompson that more hands on the Bridge wasn’t going to fix the problem. The station took on water no matter what we did, and the hull breach alarm’s shrill call squawked every time someone shut it off.
They held Chelsea in a corner. She refused to make eye contact with me whenever I tried. I deserved it. I didn’t know what Valerie told her, but she clearly knew enough to know I’d lied. Now Chelsea hated me, and she may be the sole person able to plug the leak long enough to get the shield over the breach and temporarily patch it. But they’d have to fix Humming Bird to do it—and convince Chelsea to cooperate.
“You have to fix what you did to Humming Bird,” I pleaded with Thompson. “Just guard her. She’s not going anywhere.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Chelsea snapped as she tried to wriggle free.
“Enough,” Thompson barked. He stared me down. “I need this ship.”
Gyre (Atlas Link Series Book 1) Page 21
