“Rewind,” she said.
The holograph returned and skipped backwards.
“Stop,” she said. “Replay.”
“I know we’ve not always seen eye-to-eye on everything,” he said, “but I’m hoping one day we will, and everything will be revealed and... forgiven.”
What are you telling me, Alex?
“Stop,” she said. “Replay that section.”
“...I know we’ve not always seen eye-to-eye--”
“Freeze frame,” she said. “Eye to eye? Is it that simple? Hiding in plain sight? Zoom focus on Alex’s eyes.”
Alex’s holograph enlarged until only his face was visible.
“Zoom more,” she said.
His eyes, the size of footballs, hovered in the air before her. The strain he’d been under was as clear as day for her to see now. The whites of his eyes were like pock-marked moons savaged by meteors of despair.
She stepped forward and studied each tiny exploded blood vessel and dark fleck. She thought of her and Alex as kids studying in awe the trillions of star formations across a milky white galaxy. One blood vessel seemed like a halo around his right pupil.
“Zoom, right eye, upper quadrant,” she said, “next to the pupil.”
As the PEC zoomed in on Alex’s eye, she held her breath. A pattern began to form in the eye.
“It’s like a maze... or a... message,” she whispered to herself and stood. “Maximum magnification.”
Alex’s eye filled the room. Inside the halo, sat a small dot, like a moon orbiting the dark sun of his pupil.
“Freeze frame,” she said. She reached out and touched the dot.
“Zoom here,” she said. “Maximum magnification.”
PEC slowly zoomed in on the dark moon, revealing a shiny, bumpy pattern, almost metallic.
“Zoom faster,” she said.
Finally, PEC revealed an alien landscape.
“Copy and Extract,” she said.
A three dimensional globe rose up from Alex’s shrinking eye. The surface of the globe was etched with markings she didn’t understand.
“A code?” she whispered. “What’s so damned important to hide, you’ve gone to this extreme?”
She sighed.
“PEC, apply code-breaker,” she said. “My eyes only.”
She sat back down to watch the globe spin as if in orbit. Faster than her eyes could keep pace, areas of the globe flashed with various color formations and just as quickly vanished.
She sat unmoving in darkness. She held her breath.
A shrill ring-tone sounded out across her quarters. She jolted.
A small green light winked at her from her desk and a voice whispered from hidden speakers.
“You have a call from Kraannex corp, CEO Coda Raze, Oksana,” said P.E.C. in a male voice with a neutral tone.
She let a harsh, bitter laugh escape her lips. She wiped her wet eyes on the sleeve of her uniform.
“Accept,” she said flatly.
In the center of the room a holograph of a slim, attractive woman appeared. Coda wore a white suit that Oksana knew cost more than she earned in a year. She wore silver hair slicked back it seemed to accentuate her angular features. At least, that was the impression Oksana knew Coda wanted to make. But the truth was deeper, more brutal.
Oksana reminded herself Coda wore her hair in that harsh style just in case she ever got caught up in a brawl. There’d be little to grab hold of. Not that Coda ever get herself caught up in anything that vulgar. She was too clever for that.
Not that Coda was against violence. Far from it. She just had other people to do her dirty work.
Coda adopted an elegant posture and sauntered up and down a tiger pelt. Probably the last of its species and dispatched personally, Oksana mused.
By her own bare hands.
Coda Raze strutted like a victor displaying her kill. She always seemed to demand an audience to appreciate her finer qualities.
“Why do you always sit in the dark, Oksana?” the woman said.
“So the enemy can’t see me,” Oksana said and sighed.
“I’m not your enemy, I’m your mother.”
“I see you reverted back to using your maiden name.”
“I waited a suitably respectful period.”
“Dad’s name was never good enough for you.”
“For God’s sake, Oksana, your father’s been dead for over two years now. It’s time you...”
Coda took a deep breath and swept her long fingers through her hair. Oksana noticed her mother’s wedding ring had also vanished from sight.
“How quickly we forget,” she whispered to herself.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, mother. What do you want?”
“I didn’t call you to fight.”
“Then what?”
Coda Raze took a deep breath. “Next week will be one year since your fiancé...”
She could never say the word. Maybe, Oksana mused, Coda had never fully accepted Alex’s death. Certainly not her part in it. Not her culpability.
“Oksana, you are expected back on Earth for the memorial.”
Oksana shook her head. “I may be en-route...”
“To where?”
“That’s classified.”
“Don’t come the mysterious XO with me, Oksana. I know you failed to get that promotion you expected to get.”
“How do you know?”
“My security clearance is probably higher than yours, Oksana. I told you not to nail your colors to that loser Hannibal Grint. If you had listened to me, by now you’d have your own specialist unit at Fleet headquarters. You’d be nightly wined and dined by the most eligible bachelors in the system. And I’d get to see my only child in person for once.”
All good reasons to stay away. “I have plans. Dreams. Ambitions. And none of them include being your pet attack dog. And certainly not entering a politically convenient and loveless marriage that aligns with your ambitions, Coda.”
“It worked for your father and I. So you have plans?” said Coda, stifling her mocking laughter. “Oksana, what do you have exactly? A life hiding away with nothing, but a dead-end career aboard a floating sardine can.”
“It’s my life,” Oksana snapped. She felt her coffee cup tremble in her hands. “My right to choose how I live it.”
“Fortunately, I’ve rectified that.”
Oksana felt a cold shiver down her spine.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Fleet back-channels indicate within seventy two hours you’ll receive your orders for reassignment to Fleet headquarters. How does Corporate Liaison in charge of procurement sound?”
The coffee cup shattered in Oksana’s hands. “You bitch!”
Coda waved dismissively and jangled a priceless Vanguardian pearl bracelet.
“I save my daughter’s life and that’s the gratitude I receive.”
“Nice bracelet.”
“Thank you,” Coda said, visibly relieved at Oksana’s apparent acceptance of the news.
“Vanguardian?” Oksana asked.
“Indeed,” Coda said and admired her slim, elegant wrist. “A distinguished admirer.”
“Sleeping with the enemy, now?”
Coda’s eyes narrowed. “Start packing, Oksana. I expect you by my side within seventy two hours.”
The Holo-feed cut out.
Oksana stared at her shaking hands. She looked away in disgust and caught her own reflection in the pool of black coffee on the floor.
A ripple dead center of the pool spread out to the edges and bounced back to the center of the puddle. A constant hum of static white noise nibbled at her consciousness. It sounded like a thousand distant voices chanting...
“PEC cut the Holo-feed.”
“All channels closed, Oksana.”
The white noise increased.
“Damn it, PEC, then what’s that feedback noise?”
“I detect no anomalies, Oksana. Commenc
ing diagnostics.”
The white noise seemed less random. As if it had a pattern. No, not a pattern. A rhythm. “It sounds like multiple channels feeding back simultaneously, PEC.”
“Analyzing, Oksana. Zero detection...”
She stood up “It’s a kind of music. Singing. A choir. Can’t you hear it?”
“My receptors detect nothing, Oksana.”
The center of the room flickered and a shadow materialized before her. It turned and smiled.
“Hello, Oksana. You look well.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. She pulled it away and gasped, “PEC cease archive Holo-footage.”
“There is no Holo-footage in play, Oksana.”
“Then who or what am I looking at?”
“You are alone, Oksana,” PEC said.
Alex reached out with one hand.
Oksana took a step back.
“Oksana, don’t be afraid.”
“Alex?”
He nodded.
“This is not... You can’t be,” she stuttered as tears flooded down her cheeks. “I buried you. You can’t be here.”
“I’d like to show you something, Oksana.”
“What?”
“Something you badly need.”
She took his hand and he led her out through the door and along Valiant’s corridors until they came to the observation deck on the bow. Her mind raced with questions. But she felt unable to ask a single one of Alex. Such was the turmoil of emotion that buffeted her.
The bow’s observation deck was empty. Except for the shadow of a man with his back to her. He stared up through the reinforced glass dome at the stars.
He cocked his head as if hearing her approach. He turned towards her and stepped into the starlight. His pale blue skin shimmered in the starlight. His eyes bore into her like twin dwarf stars on the verge of supernova.
He was taller than most humans. Poised with taunt muscles yearning against the black metallic body armor emblazoned across the chest with an elite Vanguard House symbol she didn’t recognize.
He held himself with an arrogant tilt. Handsome with high cheek bones and full lips that spoke wordlessly of many easy conquests in love. A scar on one cheek offered her a hint at his courage in battle. But his pale blue skin, and bio-luminous blue eyes, betrayed his race and his deeds like none other.
Her stomach turned violently. She swallowed hard and forced down the bile.
“You’re Vanguard!” she gasped and moved one hand towards the gun holster on her hip.
“My name is Sol Morlok,” he said and waited as the meaning of his name resonated with her.
“Of the high counsel of Vanguard?”
“The same.”
“How did you get by Valiant’s security?”
“I am not on board Valiant,” he said.
“What?”
“We share a psychic link across the galaxy.”
She turned to Alex. “And so you’re only in my mind, too? You’re not real, Alex?”
“I am real, Oksana,” Alex said.
“But I held your body in my arms,” she said. “You’re dead.”
Alex said nothing.
She shook her head and turned back to Sol Morlok. “How is this possible?”
“There is a great deal about my race, that you humans are blissfully ignorant of,” Sol said.
She took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out. “What do you want?” she asked.
“I want to make you an offer,” Sol said.
“What can a Vanguard possibly offer me?”
“Your own warship command.”
She felt her eyes pop wide. Her throat rapidly grew dry and ached as she let the possibilities of his words gestate. She glanced over to Alex for a sign of affirmation, just as she had always done since childhood.
His face forced a taunt and weary smile, and just as he had always done he nodded to her.
She fought against the easy familiar feelings of trust. If Alex was truly alive, how could he be trying to convince her to collude with the Vanguard?
“Alex,” she said. “I know Morlok is forcing you to trick me.”
Alex shook his head.
Oksana shut her eyes tight. She slapped her own face and shook her head. When I open my eyes, you’ll be gone. And I’ll have my mind back.
“Get out of my head,” she shouted. “Whatever you are.”
She opened her eyes. Alex was gone. But Sol Morlok remained.
She sighed. “How do I know your offer is true?”
“Vanguard influence cannot be underestimated,” Sol said.
She told herself she knew, or at least suspected that to be true.
“It’s not enough.”
“Name your price.”
“The truth about Alex.”
Sol hesitated. “Agreed.”
“What do you expect of me in return?” she asked.
Sol Morlok swept across the observation deck in one powerful leap. He glided to her feet. He rose up like the birth of a never ending mountain and towered over her.
She held her ground. Her eyes burning with defiance.
His eyes bore deep into her soul with more passion than she imagined she could ever dare to fathom in a thousand years.
“Kill Zen Dax.”
CHAPTER 15 - SICK BAY
Oksana Blok found Zen Dax alone on the stern’s observation deck. Slumped to his knees and shaking uncontrollably, he seemed a shell of a man. A momentary flicker of sympathy flashed through her. Until she reminded herself that this man had killed her career stone dead.
Perhaps, here is my chance to resurrect my career?
As she approached, he looked up with haunted eyes. It was hard to imagine this was the same man who ran rings around the elite Wolves Head Pride on Mars. For up to a year he supposedly neutered the Lupos squadron with devastating guerrilla war tactics. Now, he seemed like a pathetic lost boy.
“You’re a mess, Dax,” she said flatly.
“Did you see them?”
“Who?”
“Never mind.”
Offering a hand, she helped him to his feet. “Captain sent me to fetch you,” she said. “Time to get the Doc to check you out, Dax.”
“There’s no time for that,” he said and began furiously scrolling through a document on his back hand screen.
“Why?” she said. “Got a dinner date.”
He held her gaze for longer than felt comfortable and she surprised herself by flushing hot.
“I’ve got a report to attend to,” he said and staggered away.
“I hate to quote Firestorm Grint,” she said.
He looked over his shoulder at her. She had drawn her side arm and now aimed it squarely at his chest.
His brow creased and he went back to his hand console. His eyes went wide. “I need to see the Captain, right away.”
She shook her head. “When Grint says, ‘Get Dax to Sick Bay by fair or foul’, he means shoot you if you disobey orders.”
Dax stared at her hard and smiled through gritted teeth. “Lead the way, Lieutenant.”
She holstered her weapon.
They headed for Sick Bay. A journey by elevator during which he seemed intent on ignoring her completely. Apparently, only interested in the report on his hand console. As they entered the elevator she tried to catch a glimpse of it, but it was encrypted. No doubt it was decrypting as it scrolled across his contact lens.
She turned away and slapped the button for the Sick Bay level. She felt an almost imperceptible movement at her side. Caught his shifting stance reflected in the mirror walls. It meant only one thing and she silently cursed herself.
She whipped around and jolted to a halt. She stared down the barrel of her own hand gun.
A tightness gripped her shoulders and spread out across her chest as she studied him. His expression had changed from that of a lost boy to the focused, hardened war veteran of his reputation.
“Captain will have your head for this, XO,” she
spat.
“As XO I have priorities that even the Captain must concede to, Lieutenant,” he said calmly. Though she noticed a subtle trembling in his grip. Adrenalin perhaps. Or maybe he was just losing it.
“Captain’s bridge, if you please, Lieutenant,” he said.
She stared at him and refused to move.
“Don’t make me use this, Lieutenant,” he said.
“What’s so damn important you’re risking your career for, Dax?”
“Galactic peace hangs in the balance,” he said as his trigger finger twitched. “And you’ve got three seconds to remember whose side you’re on.”
She let her shoulders relax and half turned to the elevator console. In her peripheral vision she caught his eye-line shift inwardly as if reading more of the encrypted report.
She instantly lashed out with flat stiff fingers, jabbing his gun wrist.
He dropped the weapon.
She brought her other hand up with a powerful slap to his throat. Her third rapid blow aimed to strike the side of his neck. But for a broken man, Dax was damn fast.
He parried her neck punch with a right arm close quarters claw movement that slapped down her attacking arm. His other hand anticipated her response by employing a rapid blocking forearm that instantly hammered down a blow to her cheek.
Stunned, she fell back against the elevator wall. But it was a feint.
As he sprang at her, she brought up a knee and with her steel capped toe kicked out at the inside of his knee. His low arm block took the full force of her momentum. She snapped back her leg fast.
But not fast enough.
The momentary adjustment of her center of gravity balance gave him time to whip up his blocking arm. She took a chance that it was a feint, opening out her guard. She unleashed a ferocious triple punch to his chest, pushing him back. But already he was twisting his body to get under her.
She launched another three jabs. Her third rapid fire punch glanced off its twisting target as he threw his shoulder up into her stomach. With sudden brute strength he forced her feet off the floor.
He barreled her backwards as he trapped her legs together at the knees. He hurled her shoulders into the floor. She felt him adjust his balance for a head stamp.
She grabbed at his waist belt and hauled herself up his body. Twisting violently as she went. She got one knee around his throat and snapped her heel back, choking him.
Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1) Page 8
