The Genesis Sequence Books 6-10

by Mackenzie Morris

  "You said you can't feel your hand? On the arm that got shot?"

  No matter how hard Rav tried to flex his arm or clench his fist, there was nothing. "Nothing. I can't move my fingers."

  "Well, that's concerning. Left or right?"

  "Right. I need both hands to fly."

  "I know. It was a laser, right? It should have at least partially cauterized the wound. I'm more worried about the cut on your head. Vance, is it bad?"

  "Nah. Just bloody." Vance filled a syringe in the light from the consoles then injected the contents into Rav's arm. "You're really good at this, Ben."

  "I've been a nurse for years. Plus, I was almost a doctor. I hope I would be good at this."

  "Are you going to go back and finish medical school?"

  "Now isn't the time for this, Vance. Just keep applying pressure to Rav's head."

  Rav began to panic. "I can't fly like this. I can't even feel my hand."

  "Still? That's not good. Vance, is there anything you can do? You might have to fly the Galaxy Glider."

  Vance kept his hands pressing down against the gash on the back of Rav's head. "I can't fly this thing, mate. Wait. I think I can help him."

  "How?"

  He patted his hand against the the pocket of his jeans. "I still have the gravity flower your uncle gave us in prison." He glanced down at Rav as he shook his head. "Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why are you so stupid, Rav? Why?"

  Was it really that difficult to understand? "You heard what he said about you."

  "So? They're just words, mate. I've heard much worse."

  Ben sighed over the speaker. "We all heard it over here too. Rav, thank you for standing up for people like me and Vance. I didn't know you cared about our issue."

  "About people issues? I will always care about people."

  "I meant-"

  Rav cut him off. "I know what you meant. Being ostracized, discriminated against, and attacked for being who you are is a people issue. I don't sit back and let someone be abused just because they're different than me. I don't play that way. I'm sorry that I made the plan harder, but I lost my temper and I had to do something."

  "You have our gratitude, Rav Tillman. Not many people would stand up for us like that. I owe you a drink after the war is over."

  "I'd like that. It's a date."

  Ben giggled. "Oh, Rav, you're such a tease!"

  Vance stood up and hissed. "Oh, shit."

  "What? Vance, what's wrong?" Ben asked.

  "I cut my hand."

  "So?"

  "I can't work on him until I get myself patched up. I think I might have bled on him."

  Ben repeated the question. "What's the problem?"

  "The virus, Ben! It's transmittable through blood. I might have just infected Rav."

  Rav looked up at him, trying to pick himself up from the floor of the Galaxy Glider. "You did what? Did you bleed on me? Vance!"

  Vance dumped the contents of the first aid kit out on the consoles and frantically started wrapping gauze around his blood-smeared palm. "I'm working on it, mate. I cut my hand on the Galaxy Glider hull. I didn't even notice until now. I'm bandaging it up now."

  Did he hear him correctly? "You gave me your deadly nanobot virus? Are you serious?"

  "You might not have it. We'll have to do a test tomorrow to see if the nanobots are multiplying. It will take that long for them to begin spreading through your system." Vance ripped the gauze with his teeth then taped it down securely. "There. That should be good. Now hold still and let me work on this wound. I can't fly this ship and neither can Nemo. I'm going to see if I can make a salve from this gravity flower to help heal up that hole in your arm."

  "Will it bring the feeling back into my hand?" Rav asked. There was only one thing he needed to care about at that point. The virus possibility would be dealt with in time. If they did not get off of the moon before the soldiers returned with reinforcements, they would all be dead. "I don't care about the pain. I'll work with it, but I can't fly if it's numb."

  "I'm gonna try, mate. I learned a lot from my time on Star-World Zero Alpha. The Azimandian engineers have come up with some incredible life-saving treatments that involve these gravity flowers. I saw some where they were able to reconnect nerves and blood vessels. Nemo, could you hand me a bottle of water, please?"

  Nemo dug around on the floor until he held up a bottle. "Okay."

  After a few minutes, Ben came back on the speaker. "Vance, how is that gravity flower serum coming?"

  "Almost done. Oh, and I gave Rav some morphine."

  Ben became serious again. "How much?"

  "Enough."

  "Vance!"

  "Not enough to kill him. Don't freak out."

  "I know how you are with drugs."

  Vance only grumbled something under his breath in response. He turned back around with a plastic spoon filled with a purple glittering goo. "All right, Rav. This might hurt, but we'll see if we can get some feeling back into your arm. Hold still and bite down on my jacket. Sorry, mate."

  Chapter 4

  Lucas jumped out of Sandra's ship before it had landed on Odyssia's bleak surface. The anti-gravity boosters of his exosuit cushioned his landing. The moment the boots of his black and silver exosuit hit the dust-covered grey sand, the Geiger counter began crackling with the elevated radiation levels. From behind the visor of his helmet that kept his faded blue bangs pressed against his face, Lucas glanced around at the thick clouds of irradiated dust that choked out the sunlight, leaving the entire planet surface drenched in a dull brown and grey fuzziness.

  After the engines died down when the ship landed behind him, he heard more footsteps joining him and a familiar voice.

  The eight-feet-tall blue-skinned Biromian in the black bodysuit came up to him and placed his arm around Lucas's back. "It's not too late to turn back, pet. You don't have to do this. Derek and I can handle this on our own, I'm sure."

  "No, you can't. You need me and my exosuit. I'm going and that's final." He looked around for the cyborg. "Where is Derek, anyway?"

  "Sandra is downloading a message from Camille onto his hard drive. It should be enough for us to get through the outer levels of security if we get caught. Most of the citizens and the military still view Camille as being the rightful heir to the presidency down here and to CyrinoTech itself. If they find out their beloved Camille Cyrino is still alive, they should let us through."

  Lucas crossed his arms and glared at the alien. "That's the worst plan I've ever heard. How are they going to believe it's actually her? They think she's dead."

  "It's a hologram. If that doesn't work, we will call her so she can speak directly to the guards herself. Don't you worry your pretty human face about it, pet. We're getting into Odyssia one way or another. Ah, there he is now. The man of the hour. Get up here, Derek."

  The cyborg's face plates blinked from yellow to red, then to green as he ran up to Lucas's side and took his arm. He nodded his head then pointed to the ventilation shaft in the middle of a red crater that had long ago been nailed shut with decaying wooden boards and long rusty spikes.

  Dallis shifted the large canvas bag on his shoulders that held their supplies for the days they were to spend underground in the abandoned elevator shafts near the reactors, waiting on the signal to set the final steps of the plan in motion. He held out his massive hand. "Well, ladies first."

  Lucas gave a half-hearted laugh as he jumped over to the battered wooden planks. With ease, he ripped them away from the rusted grate and tossed them back behind them into the sand dunes. He swiped his hand over the control panel of his suit to activate his anti-gravity boosters again before stomping his left foot down against the metal. With a burst of air and sparking blue energy, the grate bent violently and fell away into the darkness leading down into the underground city.

  "Nice moves, pet." Dallis chuckled then peered over the edge into the pitch black tunnel. "Hey, Derek, you got a light in all those computer parts? We're
gonna need something to find our way."

  As the two of them sorted everything out, Lucas took one last look at the crowd of people who had gathered at the top of the ramp on the ship. They waved at him, but he only felt more and more uneasy about the entire mission. It wasn't the certain death that bothered him. It was the lack of resistance they were facing. Not three hours ago, Rav had shot and killed the president of Odyssia and Vance had killed a number of their soldiers. There had been plenty of witnesses. Why had no one called it in and reported it? Shouldn't the entire planet, including the surface, be crawling with soldiers?

  "What are you waiting for, Lucas?" Dallis patted his back. "Getting cold feet?"

  "No . . . it's just . . . something doesn't feel right. I thought for sure that we would be fighting to even get this far. But there's nothing."

  "My guess is they're locked down tight inside the city. There's no reason for them to send defenses up here in this radiation when everything they need to protect is down inside. My bet is that we will run into resistance once we're a ways down this ventilation shaft here. Surely a place as technologically advanced as Odyssia has motion detectors and cameras set up for just this eventuality. Certainly a pile of thin wooden boards is not their only defense against intruders."

  Ben's soft voice spoke to them over their earpieces. "Is there a problem, gentlemen? We need to watch you three go down into Odyssia before we take off and leave you here. It's not safe for us to stay here much longer."

  "Hey, Ben. We're just getting a plan together right quick."

  "The time for planning should have been before we entered the atmosphere. Forgive my curtness, but I'm having to deal with Rav's emergency as well as see you three off securely. We are meeting up with the new commander of the rebel Flight Force pilots in an hour. If there's nothing else you need, please get moving."

  "It's quiet here, sir." Lucas wiped away the dust that had stuck to his visor as he continued to stare at the hole in the crater. "I fear an ambush."

  "I would be worried if there wasn't an ambush. You have the recording from Camille. You have a number to reach her if the recording doesn't work. And if all else fails, you have weapons. You are authorized to engage and eliminate anyone or anything that becomes a hindrance to the plan. This is the most important part of this entire plan. Without you three overloading those reactors, none of this works. You're not alone in this. Leah, Sandra, and I are only a call away at any time. We're not abandoning you. If you need anything, you call us. One of us will be here at the consoles at all times."

  "Understood, sir. We'll be going now." Lucas motioned to the dark tunnel. "Let's go, Dallis. Come on, Derek. Follow close behind me. I'll go first to find good footings. I need you to shine that light of yours for me. Let's end this war."

  * * *

  Vance sat on the floor of the Galaxy Glider, unafraid to be unrestrained due to Rav's smooth flying. At this angle, he could study Rav's injury while they flew towards Star-World Zero Alpha. He had placed Nemo in his gunner seat to watch the screens for any approaching enemies. Things seemed to be working well enough. Rav had feeling back and was able to fly without much of an issue. With a steady supply of morphine injections and Ben's advice, the pilot was nearly back to his normal self.

  Vance picked up his communicator where the results from the test for the virus were displayed. "Good news, mate. An early scan shows no nanobots in your blood. It's still early, but I don't think I got enough in you to matter."

  "Good. Good. One less thing to worry about." Rav clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Hey, Vance?"

  "What's up, mate?"

  "Are you hiding something from me? You've been so quiet and like you're thinking about stuff. You always tell me things. Why not now? If it's something important to the mission, don't you think I deserve to know?"

  "It's nothing, really. Just holding everything together and making sure the pieces fall where they're supposed to. That's all."

  "What about what Nemo said?"

  "About me dying on Sunday?" Vance tried to laugh and pretend it did not matter. "That's crazy, mate. Why would I know when I'm gonna die? That's impossible."

  "Nemo doesn't make that kind of stuff up. How is he doing, by the way? Nemo? Unbuckle your harness and crawl around here to me, buddy."

  The latches jingled as Nemo unhooked them then crawled over on his hands and knees to kneel beside Rav's chair. He looked up at him with wide green eyes. "Hi."

  "Hey." Rav ran his hand over Nemo's head where the hair was beginning to grow back in prickly patches. "How are you feeling?"

  "Sad."

  "Are you hungry?" Rav asked. "I packed you some snacks in the little red bag below your chair."

  "Sad."

  "Why are you sad? More importantly, why are you giving me only one-word answers?"

  Nemo whimpered before curling up against the wall and screaming at the top of his lungs.

  Rav groaned and rubbed his eyes.

  Vance rushed to the shrieking boy and took him in his arms. "I think he's declining again, Rav."

  "Take care of him, will you? Give him another dose of his medicine."

  "That stuff turns him into a vegetable."

  "It keeps him from screaming and hurting himself."

  "I don't think he-"

  Rav shouted at him. "He's my child, Vance! He's mine. I will do with him what I decide is the best course of action. You don't have a say. You gave up that say years ago. Don't try to get back into his life by being his father. I'm his father. Now, give him his pills or I will find a place to land this ship and beat the crap out of you. No one stands in the way of me taking care of my son, not even you. This is my ship, I am the pilot, and I am Nemo's father. I know you love to be dominant and in control, but you aren't in control here. I am. Learn your place before I'm forced to put you in it."

  With gritted teeth, Vance dug into the red bag below Nemo's chair to find the bottle of tiny green pills. "How many?"

  "Give him four."

  Vance gently slid the pills between Nemo's quivering lips between the boy's shouting. "Take them, Nemo. Listen to your daddy. They'll keep you from screaming. They'll help you."

  "I'm sorry for getting harsh with you, but I know how you are. Thank you for you help."

  "Yeah, sure." He laid the now silent boy on the floor then turned back to the screens around his gunner chair with the flashing red warning lights. "We've got fighters incoming."

  "Get on those controls and get ready to fire. We can't let them get close with those plasma cannons. I can't go into warp within the confines of this sector without breaking international laws. You'll have to shoot them down."

  Vance dove into his gunner chair and wrapped the thermal tape around his fingers before pulling his gloves on. He grabbed the controls and switched over to the rear-facing middle screen. Three black spheres with blue fin-like wings approached quickly, the formation avoiding a thin asteroid belt and filing in behind the Galaxy Glider. "They're not Azimandian."

  "What? What are they? Elysian?"

  "I can't tell. They're unlike anything I've seen before. They're round."

  "Round?" Rav asked. "Come on, Vance. I need more description than that."

  "They have fins. Like blue spiny fin wings. They're black and they have some sort of glowing stripes on the front near the cockpits. I think they're plasma weapons."

  "Fins? Oh, space. They're Valmoron."

  The soft, pudgy salamander-like things with the claws? "Valmoron? The squishy amphibious aliens? I thought they were generally peaceful."

  "Until they started eating people. Don't forget what happened back on Coal. They found their own people dead in that conference room with us being the last people there. I'm not surprised they joined Azimandia officially."

  "What do you know about Valmoron pilots?" Vance asked.

  "Absolutely nothing. Just shoot at them. Their ships will go down just like any others."

  "Yes, sir. I'm on it. Firing in five seconds." Va
nce gripped the controls tightly in his taped fingers then switched on the missile firing mechanisms as the HUD scanned for a target. As soon as the cross hairs flashed red, he mashed the red buttons with his thumbs, sending the missile firing out of the back of the Galaxy Glider. "Missile out. Readying number two."

  "Did it hit? I didn't hear your consoles confirm it."

  Vance's mouth fell open when the missile collided with the nearest Valmoron fighter, but it glanced off to the right and flew out to explode in the middle of nowhere. "Because they didn't confirm it. Uh, Rav? I don't know what's going on. It bounced."

  "What? You're gonna have to speak up so I can hear you over the engines or talk over your radio."

  "I said it bounced!"

  "What bounced?" Rav asked, sounding panicked.

  "The missile. It hit the Valmoron plane then bounced away into space."

  "Fire again."

  "Yes, sir. Readying second missile. Firing in five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one!" Vance gripped the controls tighter as they heated up, nearly burning his hands through his gloves and the thermal tape, but he held them steady. The vibrations traveled up his arms until the missile sped the short distance to the same front Valmoron ship. Once again, it reflected, leaving the enemy plane untouched. "Uh, Rav?"

  "Let me guess. It bounced."

  "Yep. What do we do?"

  Rav growled. "Try something else. Use your lasers. Surely they'll cut through whatever is reinforcing those fighters."

  "I'll have to change out fuel cores down here. This one's getting abnormally hot really fast. There's-"

  "No time!" Rav sped up and banked to the right just as the Galaxy Glider lunged forward and the alarms went off. "We've been hit. Forget about the lasers. Get Nemo strapped into his chair. This is going to get rough."

  Ripping off his own harness, Vance lunged at Nemo and dragged the semi-conscious boy into the chair beside him. He held Nemo against the center pillar with his knee as he strapped the harness around him, which was easier said than done without any help and with the Galaxy Glider shaking violently. "There! He's in."