“How do they feel?” Moses said.
After he’d opened and closed them a couple more times, Seb said, “Cold.”
“They’re metal.”
“They’re what?!”
A look at Seb through his detached onyx glare and Moses said, “When you came back from Solsans, they were like two bags of stones. Your bones were so destroyed, we had no way of repairing them. And if we did, they would have been as fragile as porcelain. So we rebuilt them. We remade the bones with steel.”
Again, Seb stared at his hands, testing their movement by flexing his fingers while he listened to Moses.
“We also fused your skin with a synthetic material to prevent it from tearing. We removed all the feeling from the back of your hands. You should be able to punch through walls now with those things. You won’t feel any pain, and your skin won’t show a single blemish. We’re turning you into a superhero, Seb.”
Seb stopped walking and glared at Moses. “Superheroes fight for good, Moses. Not credits.”
When Moses didn’t respond, Seb touched the tips of his thumbs against the tips of his fingers. He worked up and down his hands several times to be sure. “But you’ve kept the feeling in my fingers and palms.”
“Of course.”
“My hands feel much heavier. I assumed it was because my arms were sore rather than the weight of my fists.”
“Your muscles will learn to accommodate them. Soon, it won’t feel any different.”
The conversation dropped off and Seb continued to focus on his cold fists. He looked down into the next arena to see two beings fighting hand to hand. They were mismatched in size. It would have been like Sparks fighting Moses. But from what Seb could see, and the flurry of punches he noticed in the brief moment he passed the arena, the smaller one had the beating of the larger one. Never judge a book and all that.
“I thought you were going to kill Reyes,” Moses said.
“You didn’t want that?”
“What kind of monster do you think I am?”
Seb chose not to respond.
While staring ahead with a deep scowl, Moses sighed. “Anyway, it was good practice for Reyes too. She needs to learn how to handle mechs. We’re training her up so she might be of some use to us. Although I’m not confident she will be. I only took her on because I knew her dad.”
“Knew?”
“He’s dead now. He was a great Marine. He asked me to take her in and look after her. It was his dying wish.”
“And that’s how you look after people? You put their lives in danger in fighting arenas? You keep a promise to a dying friend by throwing his daughter into the flames.”
Moses stopped dead, looked at Seb, and cocked his eyebrow. “Firstly, you think too highly of yourself. You’re not the flames. And secondly, what would you have me do? Follow your lead by taking her into an unnecessary war and maybe get her killed in the process?”
Seb threw his hands up at Moses. “Unnecessary? What are you talking about, you moron? Did you see what the Countess did to the people of Solsans?”
Moses bared his teeth. The wide stretch of glistening white would take Seb’s head clean off with one bite. The low growl in his voice damn near shook the walls. “Careful, Seb. I still run this place.”
But Seb didn’t care. Screw him. “You wouldn’t be calling that war unnecessary if the slum dwellers in Caloon paid us.”
For the next few seconds, Moses stared at Seb. He didn’t deny the accusation. Finally, he said, “I’m still not happy about what you did. You went against my orders.”
“And I’d do it again.”
“If you do, don’t expect the same leniency from me.”
At that moment, two Shadow Order soldiers walked up the corridor. The snap of their heels did enough to pull Moses and Seb’s attention away from one another as they looked at them. The soldiers seemed to pick up on the tense atmosphere. They both dropped their eyes to the ground and scuttled past the pair.
They hadn’t gone far past them when Seb said, “I don’t care about your threats. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
A raised eyebrow and Moses shrugged. “You’d kill Gurt again?”
Seb’s heart raced and his lungs tightened as if his grief flooded into them. His voice wavered. “I didn’t ask him to come back for me.”
“No, Seb, you didn’t. But he did. Gurt had honour. If you understood that, you would have seen you didn’t give him a choice. He had to come back for you. It’s what any soldier worth their salt would have done. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.”
“Like you know about honour. You’re a whore to the highest bidder.”
“Thin ice, Seb. Very thin ice.”
Although Seb opened his mouth to reply, Moses cut him off. “We have a mission planned for you.”
The aches from Solsans suddenly returned. They pulled on Seb’s body, reminding him of his fatigue. “So soon?”
“It wouldn’t have been soon if you’d returned when you were supposed to. We’d planned to give you a couple of days R and R.”
Moses moved off again and Seb fell into stride with him. “How many more missions do I need to do for the Shadow Order?”
A deep booming laugh, it ran both ways along the corridor before Moses stopped again. “You’ve only done one job. Besides, what would you be doing otherwise? Fighting for small amounts of money in pits in the middle of nowhere? Don’t pretend you have something better to do.”
Seb balled his fists again and glared at the huge shark-like creature. “Finding something better than this isn’t hard. Don’t flatter yourself.”
After a shake of his head, Moses said, “Go and find the others and meet me in thirty minutes in the briefing room.” Before Seb could say anything else, the brute spun on his heel and walked away.
Still with an argument in him, Seb fought against his urge to run after Moses. Who did he think he was bossing him around like that? Although, in reality, what could he do at that moment? Refuse and he’d be back in prison.
Streaks of pain ran up either side of Seb’s face from where he’d clenched his jaw for the entire conversation. A shake of his head and he walked towards the canteen. Since he’d come back to the Shadow Order’s complex, he’d avoided the place. It wouldn’t be the same in there without Gurt giving him a hard time.
CHAPTER 3
The second Seb walked into the canteen, he found SA, Sparks, and Bruke. He sat with them and ate a well-earned meal of snork pie and walabi root chips before he led them to the briefing room as Moses had requested.
Seb entered the cold room first and baulked at Moses’ steely glare.
A flash of his sharp teeth, Moses spoke in a deep growl. “You’re late.”
Taken over with faux surprise, Seb suppressed his smile as he pressed a hand against his chest and said, “I’m sorry.” A glance at the clock on the wall and he smiled again. “I thought you said to see you in forty-five minutes.”
Silence for a moment as Moses tilted his head to one side. Hard to read the black stare he levelled on him, Seb waited until the shark eventually spoke. “I said thirty.”
While holding his glare, Seb flashed another facetious smile at the beast. “Terribly sorry, old chap. My mistake. It must be all those ferocious teeth in your mouth. They make it hard to hear you sometimes.” He lowered his voice and spoke as if sharing a secret with the Shadow Order’s leader. “But they are ever so scary, so it makes the sacrifice worthwhile, eh?”
Near silence fell over the small room as Seb led the others down to the seats at the front. Although he felt Moses continue to stare at him, he didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking back.
When they’d settled, Seb watched Moses open his mouth. He cut him off just before he could speak. “It’s a bit cold in here. Can someone turn the air conditioning down?”
A deep breath swelled Moses’ already broad chest and he let the silence hang again. He then pulled a three-dimensional image from a computer
and projected it in front of the team. A large red globe spinning on its axis appeared, showing them its flame red surface.
“Looks nice,” Seb said as he screwed his face up at the seemingly hostile planet. “We’ve got our first Shadow Order holiday there, have we? Do they have a booze cruise?”
SA and Sparks remained impassive to Seb’s goading of their leader. Bruke, on the other hand, tensed in his seat, his back straightening a little more than before. Although Seb felt his scaled friend look at him, he ignored his attention.
“This is the planet Carstic,” Moses said. He sped up the spinning image with a bat of one of his large hands. “It’s a hostile environment where you have to wear radiation suits outside. Any time in their atmosphere without one and you’ll be covered in tumours within ten minutes then die soon after.”
“Sounds like Blackpool Pleasure Beach,” Seb said.
Everyone turned to look at him, the reference to an old seaside resort on Earth clearly lost on them. Seb only knew it by reputation. They say the apocalypse hit there long before it swept across the rest of the planet.
“What matters,” Moses said with a hard exhale that slumped his broad shoulders, “is it’s a rough place to visit.”
The clap of Seb’s hands snapped through the room when he brought them together and squealed. “How wonderful.” Before Moses could speak, he added, “And you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever brought cancer back from a holiday before.”
Even Bruke ignored him this time.
“There’s a mining colony on this planet,” Moses said. “Its walls are lined with lead, which keeps the radiation out.”
Moses raised his hand at the image of Carstic, his fingers pinched together. He then opened his pinch wide, zooming in on the planet. It showed a large structure with a huge shutter door at the front. It looked like some sort of hangar in the middle of the hostile terrain. It jutted from the ground and seemed large enough for ships to land inside.
“So why are we going there?” Seb said.
Moses stared at Seb as if trying to work out if he was winding him up. After a few seconds, he sighed. “A parasite has got into the colony. It’s wiped everyone out.”
“What were they mining for?” Sparks asked.
“A natural gas called ruthane. It’s such a powerful fuel you can run ships on it at a tenth of their normal running cost.”
Already magnified through her glasses, Sparks’ purple eyes spread even wider. “So it’s highly explosive?”
“Yep.”
Seb watched his small friend turn pale before he asked Moses, “So no blasters?”
Another spreading of his pinched fingers allowed Moses to take them farther into the colony. They went through the hangar past several ships and tanks parked up inside, and dived down into an underground section. Among other things, it had a toilet block, a shower block, and rooms with beds in.
“There are three areas to the colony,” Moses said. “They should all be sealed off from one another. The first section is where the people slept. There are gas readings on the screens before you enter each area, so you’ll know when you get there, but we believe each section is still sealed. You should be able to use your weapons in the first two areas without any problems.”
“What’s in the second section?” Sparks said.
A wave of his hand and Moses took them deeper into the complex. “This is the recreational area. They have a sports hall, games room, and canteen down there. The third section is where they pull the ruthane from the ground. That’s a blaster-free zone. Let a shot off down there and you’ll turn the entire planet into a flaming ball.”
Although Sparks didn’t say anything, she stiffened in her seat next to Seb.
“So we’re going there to …?” Seb said.
“Eradicate the parasites and clean the place up. We need to get a new community down there capturing the ruthane. The people who own this planet will pay a lot of money to get their supply back.”
“Ruthane’s that valuable, is it?” Seb said.
Moses offered a monotone reply. “Obviously. You think we’d be going to this shit hole if it wasn’t?”
Another chill snapped through Seb. “Is there seriously nothing you can do with the AC?”
Silence.
“Okay,” Seb said. “So that’s why we’re going in rather than just turning the entire planet to dust?”
“Obviously,” Moses said again. “Any more inane questions?”
“Actually,” Seb said, “I do have one more.” A look at his team and then back to Moses and Seb leaned towards the large shark-like creature. “Does this planet have anything to do with the Camorons?”
Silence met Seb’s question for a few seconds before Moses finally said, “Yes.”
“What are we, their employees or something? Are you their little pet?”
Tension snapped through the room, and even SA squirmed in her seat this time.
“I ain’t no one’s pet,” Moses said. “You’d do well to remember that. The Camorons pay well. We work for credits. It isn’t any more complicated than that. Now, are you done?”
Before Seb could say anything else, Moses produced a glass case about the size of a shoebox. It had a grub inside about six centimetres long. It looked dead.
“What’s that?” Seb said as he reached forward and tapped on the glass.
The grub exploded to life, launching itself at Seb as if it had been loaded up with ruthane. It hit the glass with a tock and fell back to the bottom of the box, stunned. A few seconds later, it recovered and went at him again as if getting to Seb were its sole purpose. Seb pulled back from the violent thing. The sound of its hard, little body tapped again and again against its glass prison.
“We don’t know where these things have come from, but they’ve taken over Carstic.” Moses put the glass box down, screwed up the image of the planet he’d left floating in mid-air, and brought up some recorded footage on the screen at the front of the room.
Seb squirmed as he looked at what appeared to be a CCTV recording. It wouldn’t be a pleasurable viewing experience, that much seemed obvious. It made it even worse that the footage focused on what looked to be a dad and his daughter. Dryness spread through Seb’s mouth, and although he wanted to look away, he didn’t.
“We’ve slowed this down so you can see what you’re looking at.” Moses drew a line with his thick finger, tracing one of the worm creatures as it flew across the screen at the dad in the shot. The dad had his back turned to the thing. “This is one of the worms. One of the first ones we’ve captured footage of.”
The worm hit the man’s back.
“They move as quickly as a fired bullet,” Moses said, “and cut through flesh like one.”
The man on the screen arched his spine from the impact of the creature and screamed. The little girl next to him couldn’t have been any more than about six years old. She screamed too.
“But it hasn’t killed him?” Seb said.
“No,” Moses replied. “I’m sure he wished it had though.”
A twist of nausea tightened in Seb’s stomach.
The man on the screen roared. Then, a few seconds later—and even through the grainy footage—Seb saw his red eyes when he turned to face the camera.
A hunched frame and with heavy breaths rocking through him, the man then spun on the little girl. He pounced on her and bit into her throat. The small girl twisted and fitted against his attack, her fight kicking through her spasming limbs. She tried to push him back with her small hands, but then the fight left her and she turned floppy.
The man dropped the little girl and she fell limp on the ground. Her blood ran from his chin.
Seb’s breath caught in his throat as he watched the girl lie still. Then another worm flew across the screen and bored into her.
In the blink of an eye, the girl went from seemingly dead to jumping upright. She screamed and hunched over as if looking for someone to attack. A snarl sat on her previously innocent
face. Her eyes burned with the same rage as her dad’s.
“And that’s what we have to fight?” Bruke said, his voice wavering as he watched the footage.
Moses nodded and let out a sombre, “Yep.”
The small girl focused on the camera as if she knew they were being filmed. She bared her teeth before she ran straight at the screen.
Seb jumped back in his seat when she leapt impossibly high, grabbed the front of the camera, and yanked it.
The screen turned black as the connection was severed.
Not even Seb had anything to say, and silence fell on the room.
CHAPTER 4
Seb, SA, Sparks, and Bruke all stared at the now blank screen. Were it not for the sound of Moses’ heavy breathing through his conical, yet stumpy snout, there would have been complete silence in the room.
The cold bite of the air conditioning added to Seb’s discomfort and he nearly asked Moses to turn it down again. Although, he knew the air conditioning served as a distraction for a deeper discomfort within him. No matter how much he squirmed on his chair, he couldn’t wriggle away from the image of the little girl with the blood-red eyes. He’d take that sight to the grave. Even when he blinked, her crimson glare flashed through his mind.
When Moses cleared his throat, Seb snapped out of his thoughts with a jump and looked up at the shark-like creature.
“There have only ever been humans on Carstic,” Moses said. “The place was uninhabited until the Camorons found ruthane. Humans took the job to mine it.”
An ironic laugh and Seb said, “We get all the good jobs, don’t we?”
The same cold, onyx glare fixed on Seb. Devoid of any emotion other than rage, Moses stared down at him in his seat. After a few seconds, he said, “My point is that as long as you stay underground in the complex, you’ll be perfectly safe from radiation. And if a human can withstand it down there with their precious little immune systems, then you others should be okay too.”
Seb looked up at Moses, who flashed a wide grin down at him. For the first time that day, he chose not to react.
Eradication: A Space Opera: Book Four of The Shadow Order Page 2
