Resolution (Stryker Team Book 4)

by Frank Carey

  Nova looked over at Glean. "You want me to explain?"

  "No. Captain, Nova and I are private investigators. We specialize in bail jumpers and asset recovery. We're currently working for a client who has a beef with a Tralaskan named Colonel Peter Ventana..."

  "My ex-fiancé. He's dead," Kalana said quietly. It wasn't lost on the two skip-tracers when Trent and Murph quietly put distance between themselves and the captain.

  "Our condolences," Nova quickly added. "The client wants the colonel either returned to Weckus, Glean's home world alive, or in the event of the colonel's demise, a deep DNA scan of the body."

  "His body is aboard the Cube..."

  "We know. We kinda broke in and took a scan of his body..." Glean said as he kept watch on the captain's reaction. "Where do you keep weapons in that getup?"

  Kalana used her nanorobots to form a blaster on her right wrist.

  "Oh," Glean replied with a weak smile. "Anyway, the second part of the contract is to return a freighter filled with weapons. It's parked near here. Don't know what condition it's in, but it's definitely here."

  "I see." Kalana absorbed the blaster, much to the relief of Glean. She looked at the car's position indicator, and using her internal computer's translation routines, saw they were almost to their level. "Mersa! Nana, get down here. We're about to arrive."

  The sergeant and the private landed in the middle of the car just as it came to a stop. "Bubble gum and lawn mowers. Please watch your step when you leave," Trent noted as the doors opened.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The team stepped out into the corridor prepared for battle. They found an empty, half-lit hallway. "Marcus, any threats?" Kalana asked.

  The GELF private held up his palm and panned it around the area. "Clear, ma'am. We're alone."

  "Good," she replied as she returned to organic form. "You and Nana revert to organic, but keep an eye out for any visitors. I want everyone at alert status. Trent, have you figured out where we're going?"

  "Yes, ma'am. Straight ahead to the first stairwell, then down. The core is five levels below us at the center of the complex.

  "Trent, rig the door with some explosives. I think we should leave our friends upstairs a gift basket. Marcus, give him a hand. Mersa, get us moving when they're finished," Kalana ordered

  "Aye, Captain!" the replied.

  Shortly, they got underway. "You heard the elf! Marcus on point! Nana, bring up the rear! Move it, people!" Mersa ordered.

  "You know, I think she's kinda cute," Glean whispered to his partner. She cuffed him.

  The team found the nearest stairwell, then headed downwards. As they walked, Kalana tried to get to know their guests.

  "So, Nova, you and Murph know each other?"

  The Minotaur looked up at the synthetic girl. She smiled back. "Yeah, we go way back."

  "How far back?" Glean asked.

  "Ma'am."

  "Yes, Murph?"

  "I think I've figured out what happened here."

  "Go on."

  "According to these notes, the device generates a field which is tuned to the selka's epsilon field frequency. It is supposed to free the selkas' consciousness and send it into a nearby universe while using their organic bodies as an energy source for the portal generator."

  "So, what went wrong?"

  "Someone typed in the wrong instruction code sequence. Instead of moving to another universe, the consciousnesses were trapped in a loop. They were fine as long as they didn't enter a corporeal body, but if they entered one and got kicked out, they looped back to this facility. Unfortunately, they need bodies to manipulate their environment."

  "And we fix this by...?"

  "Inputting the correct code, then activating the transport sequence. Once the sequence is complete, every selka consciousness in this universe will be moved to the destination universe instantly."

  "What about us?" Glean asked.

  "We should be unaffected."

  "Should be..." A mechanical arm shot out from ceiling vent and grabbed at Nova. Before it could connect, Glean pushed out of its reach, then pulled his weapon and blew it to hell, all in one fluid motion.

  "Beware the vents," Kalana yelled as she went stryker and formed a wicked looking pulse blaster on her right arm and aimed it at the vent. Nothing more came from the vent except for a runnel of purple oil.

  Mersa scanned the area, including the ceiling. "Ma'am, I’m not picking up anything!" She picked up a piece of arm and scanned it. "Not even this piece."

  Murph took the piece from the sergeant and ran a laser over it which produced a thin stream of smoke. "Sergeant, try it now," he said.

  "Now I'm reading it." She looked at it and saw a blemish running the length of the piece. "Stealth coating?" she asked Murph.

  "Yes. Some kind of extremely thin layer is blocking the scan," he replied as she dropped the piece into her pack.

  "Let's keep moving," Kalana said, "but keep your eyes peeled. It may have had friends. Nice shooting, Glean. Ever think of changing jobs?"

  "Thanks, but no. I love my current line of work. You okay?" He asked his partner.

  She nodded, but gave him an odd look.

  They continued to the core while watching walls, floor, and ceiling for threats. Nova caught up with Glean and whispered, "You just saved my life!"

  He shrugged. "I don't like possessed robots getting fresh with my friend."

  She blushed. "Thanks."

  He smiled, which belied that the thought of losing her terrified him, and he didn’t know why. "You're welcome."

  Up to this point, the hallway was a featureless corridor except for the occasional vent. Now, they encountered doors on either side of the hallway. They switched from watching corners to watching corners and checking rooms. Kalana looked in one of the rooms and signaled the team to stop. "An academic's office," she noted as she walked up to a piece of black slate-like material hanging on the wall. She picked up a white stick off the floor and ran it over the surface, leaving behind a white streak. The board was covered with symbols drawn in white. "We're in a research facility: academics, scientists, engineers, and theoreticians. Careful people. People who don't input the wrong symbol string by mistake, especially when they were about to send the planet's population to another dimension. Murph, anything in the notebook about how the wrong sequence got input?"

  "No, ma'am," he replied. "Just that the wrong sequence was input."

  "Damn, I hate to split up the team. Murph, can you and Nova get into the unused network?"

  "Sure," they replied.

  "We need more information about this device. I'm interested in how the hell someone could botch something this important."

  "Anything else, Captain?" Murph asked

  "Yeah. Does the notebook contain the correct sequence?"

  "Hunch, Captain?" Mersa asked.

  "Intuition. We elves share a number of characteristics with our human and draco sisters including women's intuition."

  "Ah."

  "We're in," Nova said.

  "But you're here," Kalana noted.

  "They can spin-off daemons--clones--to either run the suit or do the search."

  "Can you do that, Sarge?"

  "Yep. Alue and AIs can; immortals can't."

  "Are you gloating, Sergeant Trent?" Kalana asked.

  "No, ma'am. Just pointing out the obvious."

  "Nova, are you and Murph able to come with us and search the network at the same time?"

  "Yep. Easy-peasy...Captain."

  "Mersa, let's get going."

  CHAPTER NINE

  Aboard the LWS Barkno in orbit around Norash...

  Major Williamson glared at the view screen as a tactical display of conditions on the planet formed while a lieutenant broke down the data. Hamish Alduin, head of the intelligence team and Kalana's husband, or bond mate as the elves call them, stood at his side, his tail was moving about like a snake on a hot road.

  "A short time ago, the Confederation Scou
t Ship Eurus under command of Captain Glean Nortis, a Weck skip tracer, and his partner, Nova, an AI, was shot down near Captain Grenor and Stryker Team One. ST1 rescued the occupants of the ship, but were met by a contingent of selka wearing a variety of robotic forms. The team was taken to a nearby location. Shortly after they entered a massive structure, the location was attacked by another contingent of selka. We have not heard from the team since.”

  "Have we tried calling them?"

  "Yes, sir. All comm frequencies are being jammed."

  "Scans?"

  "Blocked by the buildings."

  "Visuals?"

  "A large number of selkas are present in and around the structure."

  Williamson looked over at Hamish. "Have your people been able to find anything?"

  The tail stopped and formed a question mark. "Nothing on the data front, sir, and frankly, it's driving me to distraction. There's an alloy buried just below the surface which is blocking our scans. The only way we're going to get more information is to send another team down."

  "Dammit. Computer, connect me with Dr. Gloria Aymar-Taggart at the Cube. Priority one."

  "Working..."

  "Go for Gloria."

  "This is Major Williamson. How goes your interviews with our selka guests?"

  "I was able to convince them to cooperate by giving them synthetic bodies to inhabit. Once they're in a body, they're trapped inside until the body is destroyed, in which case they return to Norash where they look for another body."

  "So, they can't move from body to body unless the first one is destroyed, releasing them?"

  "That sums it up. They don't die, they just move."

  "Any idea what they are planning to do?"

  "Actually, they were all happy to tell me. They plan on taking over the synths and equipment Colonel Ventana brought them, then using their new bodies to destroy every selka on the planet. This will be followed by the victors moving out into space to kill every corporeal they can find. In a word, they're nutty as a fruitcake, Major."

  "I thought they couldn't die."

  "Peter seems to have found something that can kill them in mass."

  "A weapon of mass destruction for ghosts?"

  "That pretty much sums it up."

  "Anything else, Doctor?"

  "No, sir. That's all I have for now."

  "Keep me posted if you find out anything else. Williamson out. Lieutenant!"

  "Sir!" Keep a comm line open to the surface. I want to speak with Captain Grenor the moment she comes up for air. Meanwhile, I want Sensors Section to lock onto the signatures of her and the other strykers. I need to know what's going on down there."

  "Aye, Aye, sir!" the lieutenant replied. He saluted, then left the room.

  "Hamish, try not to worry. Kalana and her team are good at what they do."

  "Have you met my wife, Major? I'm worried about what she'll do if the selka piss her off."

  ###

  Kalana and her team stopped and examined a large, metal door at the center of the 35th floor. A large, complex lock pad adorned its center. "Mersa. Trent. Open it," the captain ordered. As the two got to work, Kalana walked over to talk with the AIs. "How is the search going?"

  Murph looked down at her. "Sabotage," he said.

  "Definitely," Nova concurred. "A video log from the control room shows someone walking in and killing the staff before manually entering the wrong sequence."

  "Was it random?" Kalana asked.

  "No. We matched it against a database and found that the correct sequence would kill the selka, but not send them on to the new verse. Instead, it would kill them all outright," Murph added.

  "Then what happened? Why this limbo gig?"

  "Typo. The perp input the wrong last symbol," Nova said.

  "And the sequence in the notebook?"

  "It's the correct sequence to commit genocide," Murph replied.

  "Can you two find the correct sequence to send the Selka to the correct verse?"

  "Yes," Nova said.

  "We think so, ma'am," Murph corrected. "It will take time. There's a lot of data in here."

  "Get to it and keep me posted. Marcus"

  "Captain!"

  "I want you and Nana..."

  The building rumbled.

  "I want you and Nana to mine the doorways leading to the stairs. Maybe our friends can be fooled a second time. While you're at it, see if you can get a scanner lock on our friends."

  "Ma'am!"

  Kalana walked up to Mersa. "How's it going?"

  "Almost there, Captain."

  "Good. Something just lit off the explosives we left at the elevators."

  "Got it, ma'am."

  Kalana joined Glean. "I bet you didn't think your day would turn out quite this way, did you?"

  "Nope. Lost my ship and almost got killed. Nope, didn't see that coming. Captain?"

  "Yes?"

  "What's your story, you and the twins?"

  "Their story is classified. Mine, on the other hand, involves injecting a batch of mutant nanorobots after being thrown over a cliff by an assassin. Just another day in the life of a Space Marine." She gave him a smile which didn’t help at all.

  "Oh. Can I ask you something else?"

  "Sure."

  "Is Mersa dating anyone?"

  Before she could answer, Nana called out, "Ma'am. Hostile force three stories above us and working their way down the far stairwell. ETA three minutes.

  "Weapons up!" the captain ordered as she went to stryker mode. Murph! Nova! I need you back here. Now!"

  The two AIs shook their heads before Murph joined Marcus who was watching the far stairwell. Meanwhile, Nova joined Nana. Explosions from both stairwells announced the arrival of the selka. As the smoked cleared, mechanical selkas streamed into the corridor, firing slug throwers, lasers, blasters, and other energy weapons at Stryker Team One. "Strykers! We need cover!" Kalana yelled over the din of weapons being discharged in their direction. "Ceiling!"

  While continuing to fire their weapons at the advancing horde, Nana and Marcus jumped up and pulled down sections of the ceiling along with ductwork, piping, and conduits. In moments, Nova and Glean had impromptu barricades to shield them from incoming fire. With Kalana firing from her position near the entryway where she could cover Trent and Mersa as they worked, the five other members of the team let loose with every weapon they had available. Robots exploded as they were hit with blaster rounds, hypervelocity projectiles from rail guns, and laser bursts. Hundreds of bots found their path to the junkyard at the end of the rainbow before the last one crashed into a wall after one of Marcus' rounds vaporized its head.

  The lull in the attack ended when synthetic bodies armed with pulse-blast rifles poured into the ruined hallway.

  "Mersa! Now would be good!" Kalana yelled as 'Depleted Magazine' warnings flashed in her heads-up display.

  The doorway opened. "We're in!" Mersa yelled as she and Trent joined the fray by laying down cover fire as the others jumped into the room containing the core. The last one through the door was Murph, but as he was about to step inside, a round caught him in the shoulder, tearing off his left arm and most of his chest. Nova screamed, forgetting her friend's body was only a container. He continued to fire with his horns, tail, and remaining arm.

  Kalana scanned the door and room and saw that the walls, floor, ceiling and door were lined with adamantine alloy. She had an idea. "Murph!" she yelled over her internal comm, "set self-destruct for three seconds and transfer." Aloud, she ordered. "Mersa, close the door."

  The door slammed shut just as the Minotaur's powercell detonated. A giant explosion shook the room for a moment, then all was quiet.

  "Murphy!" Nova screamed.

  First transforming back to elf, Kalana walked over to the distraught robotic girl and handed her a spare earcomm. Confused, Nova put it in her ear. "Hello?"

  "Hey, Nova. Are you all right?"

  "Murph? Where are you?"

  Kalana pa
tted the back of her head. "Secondary control node embedded in my brain. It's about the size of a grain of sand. It's Murph's home away from home."

  "Murph? You're OK? Really?"

  "Yes, silly. Did you honestly think those amateurs could kill one of our kind?"

  Nova's smile could light a room. "Sorry. I hate violence. It weirds me out."

  "This from a being who destroyed thirty deranged robots before having to reload," Glean whispered to Marcus.

  Nova cuffed him.

  "Anyone hurt or damaged?" Kalana asked.

  Everyone shook their heads.

  "Good. We still have a problem. The only way out of here is through that door, and it's blocked by a large number of angry selka in synthetic bodies." She looked at the device in the center of that room. "Let's see if we can get this this thing working."

  CHAPTER TEN

  Glean was examining the wall when Kalana joined him. "Find something useful?" she asked.

  He turned, startled at the interruption. "How do you move so quietly? You would think I would have heard a butterfly with ears like these." She pulled on one, then let it snap back to vertical.

  "We elves are naturally stealthy. So, what did you find?"

  He pointed to a computer terminal. "Mersa lent me a scanner which I used on this console. Handy little thing." He lovingly turned it over in his hand.

  "And what did it tell you?"

  "Oh. Sorry. It's a lab notebook. Scans show a massive amount of data stored inside." He shook his head.

  "What?" the captain prompted.

  "The Weck and the rest of the confederation have known about the existence of the multiverse for over a century, so we know we can move from one to the next using portals. My question is why kill everyone, then send their ghosts? It seems like a lot of unnecessary melodrama."

  "When did you get so deep? Damn! I wish I had an answer for you. All I know is they are a threat in their current form. If we can move them to another universe, then we solve our problem and theirs."

  "Are you sure we want to move them?"

  She stared at him. "We can't imprison them, and they can't be killed. If we leave them as is and just quarantine the planet, we leave them to suffer endless madness. What do you suggest we do with them?"