Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1)

by Kristoff Chimes

  A ball of static appeared in the center of his room.

  “Transmission failure,” the PEC said.

  “On this end?”

  “Failure to receive.”

  “Put me through to Admiral Finnean.”

  A minute later the static ball resolved into the holograph of Finnean.

  “Wondered when you’d be in touch, Grint.”

  “Debriefing took a while...”

  Finnean seemed weary. Hannibal half expected Finnean to launch into one of his animated lectures, but he remained impassive. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.

  “And?”

  “Seems the Vanguards are behind the kidnap of the Hermes’ passengers and crew.”

  Finnean remained expressionless.

  “For the purpose of?”

  “Mass experimentation for the design of a human Vanguard hybrid.”

  Finnean didn’t so much as blink.

  Hannibal felt his beard itch.

  But you know all this, already, don’t you, Finnean?

  “What do you want us to do with the surviving passengers?” Hannibal asked.

  “Drop them off at Fort Armstrong,” Finnean said. “Anything else?”

  Hannibal hesitated. Finnean’s eyes narrowed.

  “No, Admiral, that’s all.”

  Finnean sucked in a sharp breath and nodded. “Call me when you arrive at Fort Armstrong. And re-engage your light-speed drive limiters, before Nightwing blasts my trillion dollars into spacedust. Finnean out.”

  Finnean dissolved into a static ball.

  Hannibal stared into the bottom of a whiskey glass and then hurled it across the room. He caught his fragmented reflection in the shattered splinters and looked away. “Put me through to the bridge.”

  “Bridge comms, Captain.”

  “Plot a course for Mars.”

  CHAPTER 99 - FEED YOUR DOG

  Dax wearily entered his quarters. He slumped into a chair and waited for the familiar patter of paws. After a few seconds he called out.

  “Max?”

  The lack of a lazy bark sent a shiver of tension down his spine. He reached into a desk drawer and took out his spare plasma pistol. His door slid open. Max sprinted inside and leapt up at Dax.

  He hugged the dog. “Been on an adventure, Max?” he said. “Me too.”

  Dax realized someone stood in his doorway. He glanced up at Blok.

  “I got you to thank for looking after Max?”

  “You left him all alone?”

  “I got waylaid.”

  “Why do you even have a dog if it’s such an afterthought?”

  “Max is my son’s dog. His best friend,” Dax said. “And I intend to reunite them as soon as I can.”

  “About that... there’s someone you need to speak with.”

  “Who?”

  “Not here,” she said and placed an index finger to her lips.

  “Give me five minutes to freshen up.”

  He took a fast shower. As soon as the water stopped pummeling his aching muscles, he felt the instant dryer jets remove all surface moisture. He smeared a seven-day bacteria shield toothpaste over his teeth.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed a meal. Calculating Valiant’s location as three days out from Mars, he thought about taking a pill to kick-start his suppressed metabolism so he could eat some real food. But figured it could wait. Instead, he popped another pill to stop his vitals crashing from starvation.

  Inside five minutes he dressed in a spare uniform and re-joined Blok. She was sat in the chair he had vacated. Max was trying to get her good side with his usual tricks. Sat on his hind legs and resting both paws in her lap.

  Strangely, or perhaps not, from the little he knew of her, she ignored Max and seemed distant, as if lost in thought.

  “Don’t fall for his tricks,” Dax said. “He’ll have you pampering him all day long.”

  She stood abruptly and Max fell back. He recovered quickly and giving Dax a sideways look. Max remained at Blok’s side.

  “How come you’re looking after Max?” Dax asked.

  She avoided his eyes. “Animal welfare check.”

  That felt like a lie to him. “I didn’t know you liked animals.”

  “I now myself well enough to know my lifestyle is unfair on them.”

  She turned and left. Max pricked up his ears as he watched Blok leave. He glanced forlornly at Dax.

  “Traitor,” Dax hissed at Max.

  Max turned and hurried after Blok. Dax followed them.

  “Where to, Blok?”

  She ignored him.

  They arrived outside the double doors of the senior officers’ living quarters. Two marine sentries stood guard outside.

  “Lieutenant Blok and Commander Dax to see Colonel Rage,” she said.

  They stood aide and the doors slid open.

  Blok strode in stiffly, followed by Max at her side. Dax cautiously followed.

  Rage looked up from his desk.

  “You wanted to see me, Colonel?” Dax asked.

  “Dax, your bloody-minded persistence has worn down Captain Grint. And its going to get us all killed,” Rage said. “Unless I help you.”

  “How can you help me, Colonel?”

  Rage drew a plasma pistol from his hip holster and placed it on the desk before him.

  “By giving you two choices,” Rage said. “And depending on which one you choose, you may just get to leave here alive.”

  CHAPTER 100 - RAGE’S PLAN

  “I’m listening, Colonel,” Dax said and watched his trigger finger.

  “XO, tell me your plan to rescue your son.”

  Dax shrugged. “I lead a small handpicked team. Valiant hides a shuttlecraft behind asteroids. We bait the combined Mars Defense Force Fleet with Valiant. As they give chase, my team approaches Nexus in the shuttle--”

  “And Nightwing decloaks, blowing you and Nexis all to hell.”

  “They’d do that to a ship of their own people?”

  “You don’t know the Vanguards like I do.”

  “So what do you suggest, Colonel?”

  “What do you understand by spacetime?”

  “Only what space fleet academy taught.”

  “Take a planet such as Mars or Earth. They orbit the sun, correct?”

  Dax stifled a yawn. He didn’t need a science lesson.

  “One orbital cycle around its sun is a year,” Dax said. “One complete cycle around its own axis a day. I remember my fifth grade education, Colonel.”

  “What is less commonly known is that each of those planets orbits in a spiral,” Rage said. “Meaning, on completion of a daily and yearly orbit, the planet does not return to its original location. It has effectively moved through space, never to return to any previous location. Each moment in time has its own unique Spacetime coordinates.”

  “I understand, but how does that benefit my plan?”

  “I’m coming to that, XO. But first answer me this: Are you aware of the phenomena known as warp-ghosts?”

  “I am...”

  “You’ve experienced it?”

  Dax felt uncomfortable. He raced his mind to see where this was going. He said nothing.

  “Don’t be coy, XO, I know you have. I’ve see the signs.”

  Dax thought of his failed attempts to change history. He burned with regret.

  “It’s a temporary phenomenon that wears off,” Dax said. “I fail to see how any of this is relevant to the matter in hand.”

  “You are a warp-ghost, XO. That is to say, the phenomena has permanently changed your genetic code. It is therefore possible for you to travel backwards along the spacetime line. You simply need to learn how to control it.”

  “What makes you think so?”

  “I also possess the ability.”

  Dax swallowed hard. “You can control it?”

  “Control? No. Manipulate it, yes.”

  “How?”

  Rage smiled, but it didn’t r
each his eyes.

  “Completed your investigation into the sabotage of Valiant? Got answers to the question of who and why?”

  Dax knew he hadn’t the time. His spy-satellites hadn’t yet reported back.

  “Investigation is ongoing,” Dax said “But it’s a reasonable assumption that Valiant, as flagship of the fleet, is a vital component to maintain galactic peace. Elements of the Vanguard High Council are suspects.”

  “Maybe. But that’s not the reason Valiant was targeted.”

  “Then why?”

  Valiant was targeted to destroy the USF’s warp-ghost capability.”

  “Capability?” Dax asked. “You make it sound like it’s a USF weapon.”

  “In a manner of speaking that’s exactly what it is.”

  “But you implied it’s a random and rare phenomena that cannot be replicated under any meaningful--”

  “It can,” Rage said. “It has. And will again.”

  Rage reached into a drawer and placed a small silver sphere on the desk. It hovered without any apparent aid.

  “With the help of this.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a ghost-warp activation and navigation field generator. We’re still working on a snappy acronym.”

  “How’s it work?”

  “As I hinted earlier. It pinpoints a spacetime coordinate for any given event. Fitted to a warp-drive of a ship it produces a field that transports those individuals with ghost-warp DNA to the desired moment in time and space as it was documented to exist.”

  “Time travel?”

  Rage nodded.

  “You’re saying we can time travel to avoid the destruction of Nexis.”

  “By a matter of minutes, only. But it should give you and your team enough time to complete your mission.”

  Dax’s mind raced with the possibilities of time travel.

  “Forget it Dax,” Rage said.

  “Forget what?”

  “I don’t need to be a mind-reader to know what you’re thinking.”

  “Which is?”

  “Once an event has transpired, we cannot prevent that event from happening,” Rage said. “But now we have the capability to use past events to our advantage. As we will demonstrate. If you join us...”

  Rage tapped his trigger finger against the trigger of his plasma pistol.

  “So XO, your life or death question is this: do you want my help?”

  CHAPTER 101 - NEXIS

  As Valiant crept through the asteroid belt nearest Mars, Dax ran to a shuttlecraft in the landing bay.

  The back of his left hand trembled. His contact lens scrolled a priority message.

  Your eyes only: Commander Zen Dax.

  Report of Spy drone XDX-7.

  Final destination of saboteur transmission:

  USF Invincible.

  Dax viewed the video footage taken by his spy-drone. Sure enough, a vast sleek gun metal grey USF warship orbited the red planet of Mars. He felt nauseated, but no wiser as to who on Invincible had received the transmission.

  He boarded the shuttle.

  Colonel Rage had refused to give the names of the designated team. Dax’s mind raced with curiosity. It turned out, he didn’t have long to wait. He ran up the troop ramp and found Marine Private Thor waiting for him.

  “You’re a warp-ghost, Private?”

  “So they tell me,” Thor said nonchalantly. “For all the good it did me. This way, Commander.”

  Thor led Dax onto the main deck of the shuttle where he found Valkyrie, Van Cleef and Rage waiting for him.

  “This is it?” Dax said unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.

  “This is a quick grab and go op, Dax,” Rage said. “Besides, the warp-drive field from such a small craft is barely big enough for the five of us.”

  “How do you mean?” Dax asked.

  “Normally, for a controlled ghost-warp we require a much larger warp-drive.”

  The other three looked at each other as if they had a million questions held back secretly in their eyes.

  Dax let it go.

  “Besides,” Rage said, “we need a small craft capable of hiding behind a Mars Trojan.”

  “Which one did you pick?” Dax asked.

  “Shall we get underway?” Rage said and without waiting for a reply he told Thor to seal the outer hatch and for everyone to take their seats.

  Rage strapped himself into the pilot’s chair and fired up the engines. Dax took the co-pilot’s chair. Between the two seats, the sphere of the ghost warp activation unit sat calmly.

  Dax hadn’t planned on being quite this close to it. Rage seemed to notice Dax’s agitation and glanced over his shoulder.

  “We’ll take it nice and easy for our non-marine colleague,” he said and winked.

  As Dax fiddled with the seat belt harness, Rage floored the accelerator.

  The G-force crushed Dax against his seat. Rage forced the shuttle into a vertical climb for the longest thirty seconds of Dax’s life, as he frantically fought with the safety harness.

  Once the shuttle was clear of Valiant, Rage flipped the craft over. He dropped the nose into a steep dive. Dax’s stomach backflipped a dozen times. A few seconds later, Rage pulled the nose up and flattened out behind a minor asteroid.

  “Too rough for you, Dax?” Rage asked.

  With his stomach in his mouth, Dax forced a smile as he swallowed hard. He was glad he’d skipped meals since returning from Vanguard.

  “Have we launched yet?” Dax asked.

  Rage let out a shot gun laugh.

  “Might make a marine of you yet, Dax.”

  Dax glanced over his shoulder at the others. They were all green and grinning.

  “So where are we, Colonel?”

  “Valiant’s navigator Bo Sun just sent me up to date data,” Rage said. “According to him, Mars Trojan 5261 Eureka intersected the orbit of Nexis precisely twenty two minutes ago.”

  “That’s where we’re headed?”

  “We’ll hide behind Eureka’s moon until the last possible moment.” He turned to face Dax. “No point in painting a target on our back until absolutely necessary.”

  “Or ever,” Dax said to himself.

  Through the rear observation windows, Dax watched Valiant pull away and head in the opposite direction. He felt a pang of loneliness.

  “You’ll see her again,” Rage said. “We all will.”

  Dax felt less certain than ever before, and couldn’t quite put a finger on why exactly.

  “Initiating ghost-warp,” Rage said. “Good luck everybody.”

  Rage hit the switch on the silver sphere. It began to rotate. Within a few seconds its speed increased and it began glowing blue.

  Dax felt as if he were dropping through a trap-door in the floor of the shuttlecraft. He gripped the sides of the seat and watched his knuckles turn white. The feeling lasted a few seconds and then faded. He glanced up through the pilot windows.

  The silver circle that was Nexis glided out of the sun. Rage gunned the shuttle out of the shadow of the tiny moon and the shuttle hurtled toward Nexis.

  Without seeming to slow the shuttle’s velocity, Rage swung the shuttle into what seemed like a reckless power-glide. Dax knew for certain they were going to collide disastrously.

  “Nice and easy, huh?” Dax said.

  Rage ignored him.

  Dax threw up his arms in front of his face.

  Their shuttle slammed into the space dock. A sudden thudding sound confirmed contact. Dax strained to listen for any sign of screaming cabin decompression. But only silence permeated the cabin until Thor whooped.

  Rage glanced at the instrument panels. “A good seal confirmed.”

  “Learn that maneuver in marine academy, Colonel?”

  “Learn it?” Rage said with a stern face. “I invented it.”

  He turned to everyone. “Power up your plasmas and be ready to breach in sixty seconds.”

  Valkyrie stared at her instrument
panel and furrowed her brow.

  “What is it, Captain,” Dax asked.

  “I’m reading zero life signs,” she said.

  Thor opened the hatch into a ghoulish green darkness.

  “Remember,” Rage said, “we find Grint’s daughter, Nia and leave. In and out, fast and quiet. No diversions.”

  He jumped into the Nexis and ran to the end of the corridor, where he waited for the others. He signaled Van Cleef all was clear.

  Thor took point and scouted ahead of the group. Rage led the small group, keeping line of sight with Thor.

  Thor held up his fist and Rage stopped.

  “What is it, Thor?” Rage whispered into his helmet comms. “Thought I saw something,” Thor said and shook his head. “Guess it was nothing, Col--”

  Thor screamed. Shots rang out and he fell to the floor.

  CHAPTER 102 – KNOCK, KNOCK

  Rage raced down the corridor, firing his plasma weapon into the darkness around Thor’s convulsing body. He reached Thor and found the man reeling from a wound to his shoulder. He met Rage’s gaze and pointed behind him.

  He gasped, “Boneheads!”

  A shadow fell over Rage.

  The Colonel whipped around. A creature leapt at Rage and knocked them both to the ground. Rage stared up into the rotted, distended eyeballs of a creature dressed in the rags of a grey USF science division uniform.

  It extended its slavering jaws and bit down hard onto the chest plate of Rage’s body armor.

  Rage raised his weapon, and shoved the barrel between its jaws. He squeezed the trigger. Blood splattered across his visor.

  He leapt to his feet and scanned the area for more.

  “All clear,” he said calmly. The others joined him.

  Rage knelt by Thor. “You bit, Private?”

  Thor shook his head. “Good to go, Colonel.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He turned to the others. “Everyone stick close.”

  “Priority is the bridge,” Dax said. “Hack the ship’s surveillance footage and find out what happened here.”

  Rage nodded and led the way to the bridge. On Nexis’s bridge, Rage ordered the doors be sealed behind them as Dax hacked the ship’s systems and searched video footage.

  Van Cleef and Thor stood guard. Van Cleef watched Thor carefully. Sweat poured off the younger marine. His erratic breathing sounded like a steam train about to go off the rails.