by Darren Beyer
PATHOGEN PROTOCOL
Book two: Anghazi Series
Darren D. Beyer
Pathogen Protocol
Darren D. Beyer
Copyright © 2018 by Darren D. Beyer. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons either living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written permission is strictly prohibited.
The author greatly appreciates you making the time to read this book. If you enjoy it, please let others know by telling your friends, and/or writing a review wherever you bought it.
Cover artwork by Stephen Youll.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Eridani System
Chapter 2 Helios, Eridani System
Chapter 3: In Orbit, Eridani
Chapter 4: Eridani
Chapter 5: Helios, Eridani System
Chapter 6: Orbiting Eridani
Chapter 7: Eridani
Chapter 8: Helios, Eridani System
Chapter 9: Eridani
Chapter 10: Helios, Eridani System
Chapter 11: Eridani
Chapter 12: Eridani
Chapter 13: Helios, Eridani System
Chapter 14: Eridani
Chapter 15: Helios, Eridani System
Chapter 16: Eridani
Chapter 17: Eridani System
Chapter 18: Sol System, Near Saturn
Chapter 19: Ouriscen, Tau Gruis System
Chapter 20: Eridani
Chapter 21: Eridani
Chapter 22: Ouriscen Station
Chapter 23: Eridani
Chapter 24: Eridani
Chapter 25: Ouricscen Station
Chapter 26: Eridani
Chapter 27: Ouricscen Station
Chapter 28: Eridani
Chapter 29: Eridani
Chapter 30: Ouricscen
Chapter 31: Ouricscen
Chapter 32: Earth
Chapter 33: Location Unknown
Chapter 34: Eridani
Chapter 35: Eridani
Chapter 36: Location Unknown
Chapter 37: Eridani
Chapter 38: Location Unknown
Chapter 39: Eridani
Chapter 40: Location Unknown
Chapter 41: Eridani
Chapter 42: Location Unknown
Chapter 43: Eridani
Chapter 44: Iota Ceti
Chapter 45: Eridani
Chapter 46: Iota Ceti
Chapter 47: Eridani
Chapter 48: Iota Ceti
Chapter 49: Sol System, Near Saturn
Chapter 50: Iota Ceti System
Chapter 51: Eridani
Chapter 52: Eridani
Chapter 53: Casimir Bridge Entry Point, Eridani System
Chapter 54: Eridani System
Chapter 55: New Reyk Station, Orbiting Eridani
Chapter 56: Extended Orbit, Eridani
Chapter 57: New Reyk Station
Chapter 58: New Reyk Station
Chapter 59: New Reyk Station
Chapter 60: New Reyk Station
Chapter 61: Deep Space
Space is like the ocean. We pursue its secrets, heedless of the dangers lurking within its depths.
Chapter 1: Eridani System
Mandi brought her hand to the shuttle window and touched it gently. For decades, she’d imagined this moment—everything she would say, how she’d pour out her resentment over having been abandoned so long ago. But now that the moment had arrived, all she had were tears.
The shuttle came to rest, and the passengers stepped off. It was as though all the sights, all the wonderment, all the people around them were gone, and only Mandi and the tall, white- haired African woman remained.
The woman approached. Her eyes glistened. “Daughter.” She grasped Mandi’s hands.
Mandi put her arms around her mother, and they both broke into sobs. They held each other tightly for a long time. When they finally pulled away, in perfect unison they wiped their eyes on their sleeves.
Her mother laughed through her tears. “You could not be any other woman’s child.”
Mandi glanced over her shoulder at the giant portal through which her shuttle had just passed. The iris had nearly closed, and only a narrow view of swirling pink atmosphere outside remained. As it rotated shut, Mandi turned back to her mother.
“I know this sounds obvious, but I think my life has changed.”
“Oh, Mandisa, you have no idea.”
“We have a lot of work to do.” The words came from behind the surgical mask of the man leaning over Erik, inspecting his head and neck.
Erik had heard those exact words before. We have a lot of work to do. A lot of work. Gregory Andrews had spoken them weeks before, as Erik had fought for his life on a hospital ship orbiting Eridani, the world held by the Applied Interstellar Corporation—AIC. Erik couldn’t remember the explosion that had thrown him backward and sent shrapnel cutting through him; but he did remember that the invasion had been a success.
The masked man lifted Erik’s left arm and ran his fingers across Erik’s tattoo. A light burning and tingling followed his touch. Instinctually, Erik tried to pull his arm away, but it wouldn’t move. Fear filled his heart—suddenly he knew who the masked man was.
The man unceremoniously dropped Erik’s arm. “Karis, can the eye be repaired?”
A woman replied from behind Erik’s head, her tone clinical. “The injury is class three. Greater than eighty percent probability of regaining full use.”
“And the other damage?” The man scanned Erik’s body.
“All repairable.”
“Get him ready.”
“He needs more time.” Karis glided into Erik’s view, her expression neutral over her surgical mask. “Regen therapy taxes the human body under even modest conditions. With this level of damage… I don’t know that he will survive.”
“Time is a luxury neither he nor I have at our disposal. If he’s not ready, then he is of no use to me.”
Karis slid a medical lamp above Erik’s face. The white light bored through his good eye, and beeps and tones and the whir of fans assailed his ears.
“Erik, we’re going to put you into A-R-T—Accelerated Regen Therapy,” Karis said. “Do you know what that is?”
Erik gave a grunt.
“We’ll give you a mild sedative, but we can’t put you out. You must be awake to let us know what you feel, to help guide the regenerative process. Otherwise, in your condition, we could cause irreparable harm—even death. Do you understand?”
Erik managed a nod.
Karis reached into a holo panel and issued commands, and Erik felt a warmth run through his arm as his senses numbed slightly. Nurses appeared in his periphery, bringing equipment and connecting sensors and leads to his body.
“We’re ready.” Karis strapped his arms and legs to his gurney. “This will be… less than comfortable.”
The devices were engaged. Whether the humming came from the equipment or from deep within Erik’s head, he couldn’t say. The sound grew in intensity—at first quiet, then louder, then deafening.
Erik screamed.
“Don’t do this to me.”
Mandi’s last words to him. Grae would never forget. She’d said them before leaving with Jans and Sophia, bound for Helios.
They weighed heavily on Grae’s mind as he crept along the road between the spaceport and the city of New Reykjavik. Had he kissed her, or she him? Had it been both?
<
br /> He touched his lips with his tongue. He would never have expected it from the young reporter he’d rescued from Earth.
Smoke rose from the brush ahead. That would be the advanced skimmer, a hybrid aircraft and spacecraft, in which Mandi and Sophia had originally crash-landed. The hull of the craft was more or less intact, but its left wing bent upward at an unnatural angle, and its tail had buckled from the force of the crash. The skimmer would never fly again.
As he worked his way to the right side of the ship, the acrid smoke burned Grae’s throat and eyes. He passed the discarded hatch door lying on its side in the brush. Although he was meters from the skimmer, the open hatch allowed him to see that the cockpit was empty.
Breaking cover, he sprinted to the opening and slid inside. He worked his way to between the pilot and copilot seats, and removed the floor mat to reveal a panel on the floor. A simple finger latch brought it open to show a screen protected by a clear safety cover. He flipped up the cover and entered a numeric code. A five-minute timer appeared and began counting down.
Grae hastily left the stricken craft. Pushing through the scrub, he moved farther along the spaceport road to where a half- crushed cargo van sat sideways in the middle of the road. Three bodies in tactical gear lay splayed on the ground—the three he had taken down with his sniper rifle from a perch near the spaceport’s control tower. The chest of one had been split open from side to side—that had been Grae’s first shot, and his aim had been slightly off—but the other two shots were clean.
One soldier was just about his size, and using the van for cover, Grae relieved the dead man of his clothing, assault rifle, and equipment. As he put in the comm’s earpiece, confused communications came through from both military and contract soldiers. The chatter indicated that drop troops had set down less than a klick north of the spaceport and were preparing to secure it.
A set of binocs lay on the ground near the fallen soldiers, and Grae was relieved to find them still operational. He climbed to the top of the damaged van and scanned the direction from which the assault would come. At first, the binocs revealed nothing but the leafy green Eridanian foliage on the low hills beyond the end of the spaceport runway. But then troops came into view—Coalition Walkers. Soldiers encased in plasteel suits of thick armor, bristling with advanced weaponry.
Turning a hundred and eighty degrees, Grae looked toward the city of New Reykjavik and the massive AIC Tower that dominated it. He saw few signs of life—no lights, no moving vehicles. He turned his attention to the top of one of the six columns that made up the tower, and zoomed in. The silhouette of the tip of a helo’s tail rotor broke the line of the edge of the roof.
He lowered the binocs. All he needed to do was cross a kilometer of open ground, work his way through a city infested with enemy invaders, climb forty floors to the roof of the powerless AIC Tower, hotwire a corporate helo, and fly it past the largest interplanetary invasion force ever assembled.
Behind him, the skimmer self-destructed, and he instinctively ducked. Looking back toward AIC Tower, Grae smiled to himself.
“Piece of cake.”
Chapter 2 Helios, Eridani System
The main tunnel leading from the central bay of the Anghazi’s core seemed to go on forever. Along the arched ceiling, piping and conduit, made from the same white material as the carts, ran as far as Mandi could see, contrasting against the charcoal-gray, organic-looking surfaces of the Anghazi. Every few meters, a long LED cast pure white light in all directions.
The place was abuzz with activity. People wearing uniforms in multiple shades of gray walked with purpose. Off-white electric carts sped past, pulling trailers filled with boxes and crates, their tires hissing against the rough floor.
Suddenly, Mandi was pulled to one side by her arm. A cart narrowly missed hitting her.
“Careful,” her mother said. “Everyone is in a tizzy and not completely paying attention.
Dauntless destroyed the Eridani side of the Casimir bridge, and scattered the incoming Coalition fleet.”
“I was there. Remember?”
“Of course. I’ve heard all about your time on the ship—with Grae.” Her mother let slip a knowing smile, and Mandi felt the heat of embarrassment rise to her cheeks. “It will take some time for the fleet to regroup, so Jans is sending Dauntless to make a run back to Eridani.”
“To bring people back here?” Mandi’s voice carried a hopeful tone.
“No, to take them there. Dauntless is delivering critical people, supplies, and equipment to help with the resistance.”
Mandi stopped suddenly, and her mother took a few more steps before turning back to see why her daughter wasn’t with her.
Mandi creased her forehead. “Tech Standard is the largest supplier of military equipment and contractors. Surely Jans doesn’t believe that a small resistance force can win against everything TSI and the Coalition fleet can throw at them.”
Taking a deep breath, Mandi’s mother walked back to her. “Win? No. Their purpose is not to win.” She sighed. “As with that horrid network virus he let loose, it is just to give us more time.”
“Time for what?”
“To find a way out that doesn’t involve handing over all of this.” Her mother gestured to the walls and ceiling. “That doesn’t involve letting Gregory Andrews get ahold of it all.” She cocked her head and looked into Mandi’s eyes. “He will be all right. He is the best AIC has.”
“Who?”
“Oh, daughter, you are not so good at hiding your emotions.” Her mother smiled. “Come, let us get you situated.”
If not for the fact that one had gray hair and the other dark black, anyone watching the two women walking side by side down the endless tunnel could have mistaken them for sisters. As it was, they drew more than a few looks—even some knowing smiles.
Eventually Mandi’s mother guided her into a side passage and led her to a large circular chamber. A raised platform stood at its center, around which four poles projected upward, out of sight. Both the platform and poles were in the familiar off-white.
“What is this?”
Mandi’s mother stepped into the chamber, turned to face her, and pointed up. Mandi took a few tentative steps forward and cocked her head back. Her jaw dropped. She was looking upward through the open center of one of the enormous spires she’d seen during the descent from orbit. Like the rest of the complex, its sides were made of the organic gray Anghazi material, and in the dull light, Mandi couldn’t see its top. The poles extended from the platform up the spire, passing through holes in a series of manmade donut- shaped platforms. Along one of the poles, a smaller platform sped downward, carrying a middle- aged couple who held on to its railing.
Just before it reached the bottom, it slowed rapidly. When it came to a complete stop, the man and woman onboard opened a gate, stepped off, and walked briskly toward the passage leading to the main tunnel. The man hurried by, oblivious, but the woman briefly looked up as she passed.
“Hello Gisela,” she called out to Mandi’s mother. She stopped and looked back at mother and daughter, her face painted with confusion. Then her eyes grew wide with recognition, and she smiled. “I’ve got to go. We’ll catch up later.”
“Of course.” Mandi’s mother grinned.
The woman gave a single nod toward Mandi before speeding off.
“Does everyone know who I am?”
“This is a big day for us all.” Mandi’s mother ushered her toward the closest white elevator. “We all gave up a lot… we all sacrificed so much. Seldom do any of us get our sacrifices back.”
She stepped onto the elevator, and after Mandi tentatively followed, her mother closed and latched the gate.
“Level nineteen.”
Mandi braced herself as the elevator shot upward. Levels sped by in a blur, and in mere seconds they approached a platform high above the floor. With how quickly the elevator slowed, she knew she should have felt a momentary weightlessness, or at least a lower g, but
she felt hardly any sensation of movement at all. As her mother opened the gate and stepped off, Mandi stared down at the elevator floor.
“It’s the Anghazi,” her mother said. “Gravitational control is just one of her many wonders.”
Along the wall, a dozen or more doors were arranged at even intervals. Mandi’s mother entered a code into the keypad next to one of them, and the door slid to the side, revealing Mandi’s new quarters. A bed, dresser, desk, and chairs, all in the same off-white, created a muted contrast with the Anghazi’s mottled gray walls. Only the rotating blue AIC logo on the desktop holo screen added any color to the drab room.
“I know it doesn’t look like much.” Mandi’s mother placed her hand on Mandi’s shoulder. “But with a few touches, it will brighten right up.” She stepped inside and turned up the lighting.
As Mandi followed, she placed her hand on the wall. Suddenly her vision flashed white, as if a camera lamp had been momentarily pointed straight into her eyes. In the center of the residual effect, a circular symbol appeared, highlights of red and blue glowing along its edges. But before she could make out its details, the episode was over, and her vision returned.
Her mother was now across the room, looking at Mandi through eyes narrowed in concern. “Mandisa, did you hear me?”
Chapter 3: In Orbit, Eridani
The painkillers did little to assuage the agony caused by Erik’s fresh nerves as the muscles and flesh regenerated around them. Constant flashes burned into his newly growing retina, creating torment even his considerable willpower could not keep at bay. The only thing keeping him from crossing over the edge into insanity was the thought of getting back to the Eridani system to once again get Mikel and the Nkosi woman in his sights. And the soldier, AIC’s operative. Erik would uncover his identity and do everything in his power to capture him. The suffering Erik would inflict would make his current misery look like a paper cut.
