The horde surrounded Glaw and the others.
Glaw’s flaming torch died. “I’m out of ideas,” Glaw said as he stabbed a bonehead through its empty eye socket. “We’re lunch.”
The doors slid open. Sacerdos beckoned them in. They jumped through the doors as they slammed close on a bonehead.
Glaw marveled at the pristine white room. It was the size of the largest spaceship hangar he’d ever seen. But instead of spaceships, it contained hundreds of rows of glass cylinders. Each cylinder contained a human suspended in a glowing blue liquid.
Some seemed to be asleep. Many had open eyes and pawed at the glass. As their eyes met Glaw’s, they mouthed a plea for help.
Glaw looked away in shame.
“Myf?” Glaw shouted.
“Here!”
Glaw found Myf stood in front of a glass cylinder. Inside, a woman pawed at the glass.
“You know here?”
Sacerdos approached. “This is the human slave of Sol Morlok,” he said. “Her name is--”
“Gaia,” Myf said and wiped her wet eyes with her sleeve. “My mother.”
CHAPTER 76 - GAIA
“Myf,” Glaw growled, “stand aside.”
Myf, just in time, quickly stepped away from the glass cylinder holding her mother. Glaw ripped a computer console off a wall and hurled it at the cylinder. Shards of shattered glass sprayed the room as glowing blue liquid burst out across the floor.
Gaia tumbled forward and flopped lifelessly into Glaw’s arms. He punched a button in a wall. A steel bed slid out of the wall.
Glaw gently set her down and carefully wiped a blue jelly substance out of her eyes.
“She’s breathing,” he said quietly and stood back for Myf.
Gaia opened her eyes.
Myf fought back her tears and leaned over Gaia. She wiped Gaia’s face clean of the gel.
“She’s normal looking,” Glaw says. “For a human.”
“If she’s not mutated,” Myf said, “we can take her with us.”
Glaw shrugged. “Maybe.”
Myf glared at Glaw.
“OK, fine,” Glaw said. “We’ll think of something.”
Myf stroked her mother’s head. “Mama, it’s me, Myf.”
Gaia’s eyes slowly focused on Myf.
Glaw watched the doors as he listened to the violent hammering on the far side.
“Those doors won’t hold forever,” he said.
“I need a minute,” Myf snapped.
Glaw glanced at Gaia. “You got all the time you need, Myf,” he said quietly and gently patted her shoulder.
“Myf?” Gaia rasped and coughed.
“Yes, Mama, it’s me.”
“But how?”
“I never gave up.”
“You had to win, huh?”
“Raced the wind until I found you again, Mama.”
Myf wiped her face on the back of her sleeve.
“There’s so much I want to say to you, Myf.”
“Me too, Mama.”
“But there’s so little time.”
“No, Mama, we’ll get you out of here.”
Gia shook her head. “You’re beautiful Myf. I’m so proud of--”
Gaia’s head snapped back. Her entire body convulsed violently.
“No, Mama! Stay with me.”
Fyre ran over to Gaia and plunged a syringe full of blue gel into Gaia’s neck.
“What the hell?” Myf yelled and shoved Fyre away.
“I’m saving her,” Fyre said. “Look.”
Gaia’s convulsions subsided.
“It’s a cure?”
“A temporary reprieve. A cryo-stasis gel that will halt the progress of the mutation. Alas, it won’t reverse it.”
“Will she wake up?”
“We have to keep her under until a cure can be developed.”
Dax came over. With slumped shoulders, and a haunted look, he appeared to Fyre like a defeated man.
“A cure for what exactly?”
“It’s a long story,” Fyre said.
“Try the sixty second highlights,” Glaw said as the doors shuddered.
Dax’s eyes bore deep into Fyre. She suppressed a shiver.
“Dax, I know you blame me for your wife’s death,” Fyre said, “but if you--”
“Before I pass judgment,” Dax said, “I need to know what murdered my wife.”
Fyre nodded. “Very well.”
“Hold up,” Glaw said. “How can we believe a word this Vanguard says?”
“I understand,” Fyre said and called over the priest.
“Sacerdos Enid, our high priest can see into any soul. He will tell you if I am lying,” she said.
Sacerdos nodded.
“As our home world dies, so too our race,” Fyre said. “Our females are barren. There are no children on Vanguard. Nor will there be. Through genetic manipulation our scientists sought to resolve this. We sought to create a hybrid between Vanguards and humans. But what we created--”
“Monsters,” Dax said. “You kidnapped thousands of humans for these experiments?”
She lowered her head.
Dax threw himself at Fyre. He gripped her neck between both hands. Forcing her onto her knees. Choking her.
“Genocide,” he shouted, but saw in her eyes her shame.
She wanted his punishment. Not for her complicity. But for her failure to stop the experiments. But he needed someone to blame. And he was over blaming himself.
Glaw pulled him away. Dax spat at Fyre’s feet. He turned to the hundreds of rows of cryo-tubes.
“I opposed this,” Fyre said. “I brought you all together to rebel against this travesty.”
“Liar,” Dax said. “You lured us here. We’re trapped for your next experiments.”
“I need your help to end this,” Fyre said.
Sacerdos caught Dax’s eye. “She speaks the truth, Zen Dax.”
Dax sighed.
He indicated the rows of cryo-tubes. “Can they be saved?”
Fyre stood shakily and tapped at a computer screen.
“Computer, report status of current human crop subjects,” she said.
A deep male voice emitted from the screen. “Two thousand four hundred subjects mutated adversely and and scheduled for termination.”
“Murdered,” Dax said.
“Seven thousand six hundred subjects are uninfected. Of those, four thousand have not yet been tested.”
“Estimate numbers of subjects tested that may mutate adversely,” Fyre said.
“Of those subjects given the virus, two thousand contain the potential to adversely transform.”
“Positive hybrid transformations?” Fyre asked.
“Zero positive hybrid transformations.”
Fyre turned to Dax. “The experiment failed. My people are doomed. Seven thousand crew and passengers of Hermes are as yet uninfected. If we revive them they may continue to lead happy, healthy and long lives.”
“Or they may mutate into boneheads,” Glaw said.
Myf glared at him
“What?” growled Glaw. “I don’t dress this all up in fancy science speak, but it’s the truth ain’t it?”
“So who makes the call?” Myf said.
“We put it to the vote,” Bron said. “I vote free them now.”
“Me too,” said Codi.
“Free them,” said Myf and glared at Glaw.
He shrugged. “Yeah, whatever, but the first sign of them boneheads going cannibal on my tushy and I end them. All of them.”
“Dax?” Myf asked.
“If we can free all these people,” Dax said to Fyre and Sacerdos, “then maybe I won’t kill you both. But maybe we don’t need to abandon the infected if we keep them all in cryo-stasis. Transport them all off-world. Get them under the care of USF doctors. Revive them safely back on Earth and--”
“Sol Morlok’s legions are surrounding us as we waste time discussing this,” Fyre said. “They will destroy us all.”
“She’s right,” Glaw said. “We need to move fast. If they can’t run, they can’t come.”
“So we release everyone from the cryo-tubes,” Dax said. “Evacuate all those who can walk unaided. Leave behind the rest?”
He felt nauseated hearing himself suggest abandoning thousands.
No one said anything. When the silence became unbearable he realized he was the only dissenter.
“Any objections?” Dax asked.
“Set free the infected? We could be unleashing an army of boneheads on Vanguard,” Glaw said.
“I’m not going to cry over a few dead Vanguard,” Dax said. “Are you?”
Glaw shrugged.
“Then do it,” Dax said. “Save the uninfected.”
Fyre instructed the computer to revive the humans in their cryo-tubes.
“One thing you ain’t thought of,” Glaw said.
“Only one?” Dax asked and sighed.
“Buddy, we got ourselves surrounded by elite Vanguard legions. We got no weapons. No ships.”
“I’ve had better days,” Dax said. “I need a Q-NET link to contact Valiant.”
Fyre shook her head. “Morlok would have blocked all off-world transmissions,” she said. “No one’s coming to rescue us. Not now. Not ever. We’re alone.”
“Oh yeah,” Glaw said. “Thanks to you we’re drowning in sweet sticky honey up to our eyeballs. So how do we get us and all your people off-planet?”
CHAPTER 77 - WE LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND
“Hannibal, I’ve had my ears chewed off and spat back in my face by Vanguard High-Command,” Admiral Finnean shouted. “What in hell possessed you?”
Hannibal scratched his beard as he paced up and down Valiant’s conference room. He glanced over to the Q-NET holograph of Finnean.
“Judgment call, Admiral.”
“A lack of judgment.”
“I’m still Valiant’s captain,” Hannibal growled. “I’ll call it as I see it out here.”
“For now,” Finnean said and scowled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means your neck is on the chopping block, Hannibal. Along with mine.”
Oksana Blok entered the conference room and ignored Hannibal’s dark scowl. She positioned herself within earshot of the conversation, but far enough from the perimeter of the holographic projection field. Or so she thought.
“Who’s there?” Finnean asked.
Hannibal met Blok’s gaze and shrugged. She raised an eyebrow. Without Dax here, I need her feedback. To hell with Finnean.
“We’re alone,” he said.
“Thought I saw a shadow.”
“That’s just your Vanguard executioner watching out for you,” Hannibal quipped and made Blok smile.
“Yours before mine,” Finnean said. “Remember that, Hannibal.”
“Anything else, Admiral?”
“You don’t get off that easy, Grint. Yes. I hear your boy, Dax, is on Vanguard.”
“Alive?”
“Alive and causing trouble.”
Hannibal felt a thrill. Damn, if Dax doesn’t have more lives than Delilah.
He felt a growing sense of dread. What on Earth is he doing on Vanguard? Does Finnean mean to implicate me?
“What have you to say for yourself, Grint?”
“Oh, he’s my boy now is he?” Hannibal growled. “I warned you about Dax, so--”
“Don’t get any ideas about saving him, Hannibal.”
“Thought never occurred to me.”
“You’re a damn fine liar, Hannibal, but I taught you to lie and don’t forget it. Dax disobeyed the Vanguard directive. He’s on his own.”
“Dax’s demise is a sad loss to Valiant.”
Finnean crunched down on his cigar. “I’m choking on your sincerity, my friend. Swing by Earth-side by Sunday week and I’ll let you beat me in a round of golf.”
“I can’t afford it,” Hannibal said and smirked. “Not after last time.”
“You can’t afford not to, Hannibal. Letting the bigger guy kick our ass is the game we all play. If we are to survive.”
Hannibal nodded at the jovial, but sincere threat. He glanced up at Blok, expecting her to be unable to contain her delight. To his surprise she scowled back at him.
“Just stay away from Vanguard,” Finnean said. “Give Dax’s job to your lieutenant, what’s her name?”
“Blok?”
“Before she bites off your arm for it.”
Oksana rolled her eyes.
“Finnean out.”
His holograph dissolved into static.
Hannibal glanced at Blok. “Congratulations, XO.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure about--”
“Take it, Oksana. It won’t be offered twice.”
She bit her lip.
His beard felt intolerable. He felt the rage blossom. He couldn’t contain it any longer. He thumped his fist against the conference table.
“Don’t look at me like that,” said Hannibal.
“Like what, sir?”
“I can’t believe you of all people disagree with hanging Dax out to dry?” Hannibal asked.
“I’m not his biggest fan, but--”
“We never leave a man behind...”
She shrugged and sighed. “It’s the first thing you taught me, Captain.”
“And most important. But it could finish both our careers.”
“What if we could save his life, and then get Dax to take the fall for our actions?”
“How exactly?”
“Until we find out what he’s got himself and us into, it’s impossible to say, Captain.”
“Indeed, it’s a Pandora’s box. I for one don’t intend to pry off that lid.”
“It’s your call, Captain.”
She said it with such disdain he felt it like a knife to his heart.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again as she waited for his orders and continued to stare at him.
He tapped his chest insignia and hailed Chief Engineer Gonzalez. Her holograph resolved before him. He sipped his at his neglected cup of coffee.
“Yes, Captain?”
“How quickly can you disable the faster-than-light-speed limiters?”
Her eyes popped wide. “Is this a joke, Captain?”
“Answer the question, damn it, Chief.”
She swallowed hard. “If you don’t mind me asking, where are we planning on going in such a hurry, captain?”
His coffee tasted bitter. He spat it out into the cup.
“Seems we left crew stranded on the Vanguard’s home world, Chief.”
“You’ll be in Vanguard’s orbit before your coffee goes cold, Captain.”
“It’s cold, already, Chief.”
“It’s done, already, Captain.”
He stifled a smile and nodded. “Grint, out.”
He turned to Blok. “Set course for Vanguard, XO.”
“Nightwing will hunt us down like rats, Captain,” Blok said.
“I’m counting on it.”
She saluted crisply. When she turned and almost skipped out of the conference room he felt a dark shadow fall over him. Did she just play me?
He almost felt convinced she not only intended to make Dax a scapegoat, but also intended on somehow seizing Valiant’s captaincy.
“I’m sorry, Oksana,” he called out as she reached the doors.
She turned on her heels. “For what?”
“Dax’s promotion over you. I’m a coward at heart.”
“No, Captain. Were the same. We play the hand we’re dealt.”
When the doors slid shut behind her, he shivered. What is she up to?
CHAPTER 78 - SHEEP
Dax scanned the room for marines. He found Fyre.
“Argyle?”
She shrugged. “It seems no marines made it out of the arena.”
“There goes any assumption we can stand and fight. Blaidd?”
�
�It was chaos back there.”
“Any news of your father?”
Fyre took a sharp breath and avoided his eyes.
Dax placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “He’s a good man. I’m sure he’s--”
She brushed his hand away. “We’re wasting time.
Dax left the others and found space at the foot of a platform. He looked up at the hundred foot ladder and contemplated climbing it. A wave of nausea hit and he vomited at his feet.
Fyre and a tall, bipedal medi-bot who wore a long stethoscope tube dangling around its neck, joined Dax at the foot of the platform.
“This is Doctor ME-DK8,” she said.
Dax ignored the medi-bot. “Do I look like I need medication?”
“What I would prescribe for you is for another time,” she said and smiled. “The doctor has news of your son.”
“Ben?”
“Subject 692,” ME-DK8 said and nervously toyed with his stethoscope, “an early test subject that showed promise--”
Dax felt his hands ball into tight fists.
“Keep on talking like that, Doc,” Dax said, “and see me shove that stethoscope where the sun don’t shine.”
“Zen, please,” Fyre said and touched his shoulder lightly.
He felt the stiffness and pain in his a shoulder ease. He was struck by it being the first time he recalled her using his first name. Dax met her eyes. For a brief moment he longed to swim in those deep blue pools and just forget everything. Maybe in another lifetime, we could...
He caught his mind wandering and snapped out of it. He nodded. “Go ahead, Doc.”
“Subject—I mean, your son, was quarantined and transferred with a small group that showed positive development to the virus.”
“Where is he?”
“On our research station orbiting Mars.”
“We need to go there,” Dax said.
“I agree,” Fyre said. “If the research team succeeded in their mission, it means we can reverse engineer the DNA of the virus. Find a cure.”
Dax heard screams from the far side of the main doors.
“How much time do we have?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Vanguard legions are efficient. All exits will be blocked. Their final action will be to assault the main doors. Minutes, not hours.”
Dax watched as a hundred med-bots ejected the human passengers of Hermes from their cryo-tubes. They hosed them down in floundering groups of naked flesh with thundering jets of water. The humans screamed and crouched, clinging to each other in small groups and turning their naked backs to the jets. The medi-bots walked amongst the shivering humans, handing out orange body suits.
Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1) Page 34
