Fractured Era: Legacy Code Bundle (Books 1-3) (Fractured Era Series)

by Kalquist, Autumn

  “So if they were hidden there…” Tadeo’s chest expanded, and a high sensation, excitement, ran through him. “They wouldn’t have been triggered yet. We need to remove every one of those inserts.”

  Lanar stood up. “We can, but one problem. We have to use welding gear to get them out.”

  “Was welding gear used to install each one?”

  “Yes.”

  Tadeo paused, thinking. It had to be done. If they’d used welding gear to install it, and the Zenith hadn’t activated, they had to be able to get them out again. But if the explosives were in the core, who had put them there?

  Tadeo narrowed his eyes at Lanar and studied him for a moment. “We’re coming in with you.”

  Lanar led them a few doors down, into a large changing area lined with three radiation protection suits.

  Lanar pointed along the far wall to another door. “We have extras in storage. Wes and Cind, show them how to gear up.”

  Tadeo looked at the other two power core workers as they led his guards to storage. One man, one woman. The woman, Cind, was even older than Lanar, with a serious expression and wary eyes. And Wes, slightly younger than Lanar with the same scars crisscrossing his face and arms, looked even more nervous than Cind and Lanar.

  These were the kind of subs who worked years to prove their worth and loyalty before gaining access to an area as sensitive as the power core. If he’d met them under any other circumstance, he’d have taken them for the most loyal of colonists. If they were terrorists, they’d done a good job hiding it from everyone. But so had Tatiana.

  Unless his mother knew what Tatiana was. Unless his mother had sent explosives to her for this very purpose.

  Tadeo clenched his jaw tight. His mother had nothing to do with this plot. She wouldn’t put an entire ship in danger. She wouldn’t put him in danger like this.

  “Lanar—how many power core workers are there?”

  “Sixteen. Normally just three at night.”

  Tadeo nodded. So these three could be loyal. They’d have to question the rest.

  Lanar began to pull one of the bulky suits over his maintenance suit.

  “That one should fit you,” Lanar said, gesturing to the suit on the hook beside it. “Belonged to one of ours who just came down with the sickness.”

  Tadeo stepped into the bulky suit. “Space gear,” he said, half to himself. He’d never worn space gear, never had to. The suit weighed at least thirty pounds. A few plump liquid oxygen packs lined the collar.

  “Modified space gear for the radiation in there. Those packs will feed oxygen continually into your helmet for up to twelve hours in the core sector.” Lanar pointed. “Helmet’s shatterproof. Impermeable. The air gets toxic. And you don’t want to leave your work belt or the comcuff on. The suit won’t go on right. You can attach the helio and your shift card to the loops here,” he said, pointing to the waist.

  “How do you communicate in the power core? Isn’t it too loud?”

  “There are local comms in the helmets. They activate when you speak,” he said. “Everyone with a suit will hear you.”

  Tadeo reluctantly pulled off his work belt, comcuff, and pulse gun and placed them on the metal bench. He’d have to leave one of the guards to watch the guns.

  He finished zipping up his suit as his guard and the other workers came out of storage, fully geared up in the thick padded anti-radiation suits. They hadn’t yet put on the helmets.

  Kiva held everyone’s work belt and holsters in her arms, and she and Omar came over to Tadeo.

  “Lieutenant, can we have a word?” Kiva asked.

  Tadeo stepped off to the side, and everyone pretended not to be watching or listening.

  “The man,” Omar said, his voice a rough whisper. “He’s nervous—sweating. We gotta keep an eye on him.”

  “Alright,” Tadeo said, forcing himself not to look in Wes’s direction. “I’ll watch him. Kiva, stay behind and guard the guns.”

  “But—”

  “I trust you to do it. And comm Chief. Tell him we’re searching the power cell inserts. And then I want you to comm me through the helmet comm the second Chief says the president and board are away.”

  Tadeo pulled his helmet over his head and secured it to his suit. Everyone else did the same, and Tadeo led his squad, only three strong now, including Omar, into the corridor. The subs followed.

  “Can you all hear me?” Tadeo asked.

  A chorus of “Yes, sirs” came back at him.

  “There may be a bomb in the power core.” Tadeo looked directly at Wes, then Cind to see how they reacted to his words. They both looked very afraid. Tadeo cleared his throat. “Specifically, there may be explosives hidden within the power core inserts on the outer layer of the hull. We have one hundred power core inserts to search. We’re looking for a clear plasstex container filled with a black powder mixed with white crystals. Each of my guards will work with one worker as we search. A welding tool must be used to remove the inserts, but we have to be extremely cautious. Heating the explosives could cause them to detonate. I’m hoping we find nothing… but if we do find something, leave it right where it is. We have to call Chief Petroff. This entire ship could blow if we fuck this up.”

  Another chorus of “Yes, sirs” rang through his helmet, weaker this time. Faces filled with fear stared back at him from behind glasstex headgear. His guards fought to contain it, but this time, hiding it was impossible. Wes looked gray beneath his helmet, sweat beading on his brow.

  Adrenaline coursed through Tadeo, making his pulse speed up. He gestured to Lanar. “We’re ready to go in.”

  Lanar scanned his card, and the thick metal doors creaked open, slow and heavy. Heat rushed out at them as they stepped onto the core platform, and the doors closed behind them. The hum was deafening in this massive space.

  Tadeo had never been allowed in here. Not with the threat of accelerating power core sickness.

  Lume bars ran the length of the walls and ceiling, illuminating the space. He had to strain his neck to look up to the top of the power core. The metal curved away from them, the only hint that if he could see the entire thing at once he’d be seeing a giant metal globe. Like a helio whose glow no one would ever see. The plasma inside must look like a sun. It contained enough energy to last for hundreds of years—until the fleet reached New Earth. Unless someone blew a hole through the metal. If a bomb was here, it would definitely blow apart this entire ship.

  Huge, dented machines ran along the wall closest to the platform they stood on, creating the hum heard throughout the sublevels. Tadeo could feel the blistering heat emanating off them even through his suit. Why had he always thought the heat came from the core itself? Thick wires the width of both Tadeo’s legs ran from the generators up to sections of the power core.

  Lanar and his team went to the side of the space and came back with handheld lasers.

  The comm crackled in Tadeo’s helmet.

  “The cold sector is midway up,” Lanar said. “We have to climb ladders and work from the scaffolding. Are you sure you want your guards up there, Lieutenant Raines? The core cycles every few minutes. It can get rough up on the corewalks. Everything vibrates, things slip. We’ll be high up, and if you fall, you won’t survive it. We’ve lost people, and they were experienced.”

  Tadeo walked closer to the power core. Scaffolding ran along the entire globe and disappeared over the ledge to the levels below this one, so workers could tend to the entire core.

  “We’re coming up,” Tadeo said. “I’ll follow Wes. Omar, you go with Lanar. Finnegan,” he gestured to one of his last two guards. “Stay down here by the doors. The other follows Cind. And everyone, be careful.”

  Lanar led them to the ledge and fired off a list of numbers to his crew. They replied in the affirmative.

  Lanar pointed upward. “The cold section is twenty feet up and spans one hundred inserts. Each of us will take a third.” Lanar began to climb a ladder, and Omar followed. Cind led t
he other guard down the line.

  Wes averted his eyes, not meeting Tadeo’s gaze as he led him down the line to a ladder in the opposite direction.

  He hooked his welding tool to a loop on his belt and started up the ladder. Tadeo waited a moment, then followed after him, his heart pounding. He’d climbed several rungs when he felt a rumble beneath his gloves.

  The comm crackled. “Hang on,” came Lanar’s voice. “Cycle coming.”

  Wes halted above him, and Tadeo clutched the rungs more tightly. The rumble became a strong vibration as the magnetic field cycled within the core. He hung on for a moment more, not moving, and his body shook with the ladder. Tadeo looked down the curving body of the core, illuminated by lume bars the whole way. The view of the drop snatched his breath away. They were near the bottom portion of the globe, but it still went down at least a hundred feet. Lanar hadn’t been kidding. A drop like that would kill a man.

  A thrill raced through him as the vibration ceased. He took a deep breath, tasting the odd metallic bite of the packaged oxygen.

  “It’s over,” Lanar said. “A few more minutes before it comes around again. Get in place. Deactivate your laser in between cycles. We don’t want to risk setting an explosion off if there really is a bomb in here.”

  They continued their climb and reached the corewalk Wes had been heading for. Tadeo stepped onto the thin metal platform. Railings lined either side of it, and there was only room for Wes and him to stand side by side. He glanced around and saw Omar with Lanar on a corewalk to his right and Cind and Finnegan to his left.

  This close to the core, Tadeo could see the power cell inserts. The long rectangles ran in even rows beside the corewalk. Rings of metal protruded from each rectangle, clearly grips to help pull the inserts out.

  “Remove them,” Lanar said over the com, “but don’t bother welding them shut again. We’ll come back around to reinstall them after we’ve lived another day. I want comm silence except to tell us when you’ve cleared an insert.”

  Wes unhooked his welding tool from his suit and held it up, activating it. The blue light of the laser reflected off his helmet, obscuring his expression.

  Tadeo’s muscles tensed as Wes ran the laser along the rectangle, each movement painstakingly slow, until the edges of the insert turned a bright orange. He tugged at the grip. Almost immediately, orange faded to dull black, the metal cooling, and Wes lifted the power cell insert up and out, while Tadeo held his breath. He activated his helio and leaned in to look at it. It looked just like the new one had in Dritan’s cubic—glowing yellow strips coated the entire metal rectangle.

  “Insert number one. Clear,” Lanar said.

  “Insert thirty-four clear,” Wes said. He slid it back into place, and they moved two steps to the right to work on the next one.

  “Insert sixty-seven clear,” Cind said.

  Sweat dripped down Tadeo’s forehead, and the salty sting of it ran into his eyes, but he couldn’t wipe them. Wes started the process again on the next insert, and Tadeo’s stomach twisted with each careful movement of the laser.

  “Insert sixty-eight clear.”

  “Insert two clear.”

  Lanar and Cind reported, their words on top of each other.

  Wes pulled out the next cell, and Tadeo held his breath again. Yellow strips. No explosives.

  “Insert thirty-five. Clear,” Wes said as he slid the insert back into place.

  Wes began running the laser along thirty-six and pulled it out. Yellow strips. “Insert thirty-six. Clear.”

  More reports flooded in. No bomb. That was at least nine now of one hundred. All clear.

  Tadeo stepped up to thirty-seven behind Wes, heart pumping, his mind clear. The adrenaline surging through his veins made him feel more alive than he’d felt in long time. He was doing something for the fleet. Something worthwhile.

  But maybe he was wrong about all of this. Maybe the explosives were somewhere else. Command level. The galley. Medlevel. Regardless, the president and board would be off the ship until he and the guard could remove the threat.

  The comm crackled, and a loud voice came through. “Lieutenant Raines. It’s Kiva.”

  “Report,” Tadeo said.

  “The command level families are loaded up in the transport. Chief says he’ll be heading our way soon with more squads. He’ll be here in thirty minutes.”

  “Good. Thank you, Sergeant. I need comm silence until they arrive.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Wes completed the next insert. Clear. They were all clear. Had Tadeo truly been wrong about the threat? About everything?

  Wes started on the next insert, carefully heating up all four edges.

  “Cycle coming through in a few seconds,” Lanar said into the comm. “Stop what you’re doing.”

  Wes kept going with the laser, not heeding Lanar’s words.

  “He said stop,” Tadeo warned.

  Vibrations coursed through the corewalk, and everything shook. Tadeo gripped the handrail, struggling to hold on as the core shuddered beside them, and the flimsy metal platform moved beneath his feet.

  Wes’s laser shifted and sliced across the rectangle. Through the insert.

  Tadeo’s pulse quickened to a dull roar in his ears.

  Wes deactivated the welding tool, and it clattered to the platform as the shaking ceased. Tadeo kept one hand on the handrail and reached out with the other gloved hand to grab Wes’s sleeve.

  “What the fuck did you do?”

  Wes turned to meet his gaze, and Tadeo saw his eyes, no longer obscured by the glint of his laser. They looked wild, terrified beneath the plasstex.

  Tadeo’s blood went cold, and he lunged for the insert. Wes blocked him and shoved him backward.

  “What’s happening?” Lanar’s voice.

  Wes shoved Tadeo again, harder, and Tadeo fell back on the corewalk. He grabbed the railing and pulled himself upright, his every sense on full alert, even as the corewalk swung, unstable, beneath them.

  Wes stood a foot away, gloved hands balled into fists, his eyes crazed.

  “What are you doing?” Tadeo said. “Move out of the way!”

  Wes lunged for Tadeo, but Tadeo stumbled back just far enough to avoid him.

  “You killed Tati,” Wes said, his voice shaking. “You should’ve been the one—”

  Tadeo charged him, tackling him to the corewalk.

  “What’s going on?” More voices questioned on the comm, but Tadeo barely heard them as he and Wes wrestled on the swinging walk.

  Wes angled his body low, and managed to wrap his arms around Tadeo’s legs and haul him half over the railing. Tadeo lost his breath as he glimpsed the long fall to the bottom. He darted one arm out to grab at the rail as gravity and Wes tried to throw him to his death.

  “They lie to us.” Wes panted. “I loved her, and you—”

  Tadeo punched Wes’s helmet, and his head snapped back. But he only pushed against Tadeo harder, forcing him farther over the railing.

  He was going to die.

  Tadeo did the only thing he could, the only thing that might give him a shot at survival. He let go of the handrail. And he nearly toppled backward over the edge.

  But with both arms free, he grappled with Wes, and by sheer force of will, managed to shove him sideways onto the corewalk.

  Breathing hard, Tadeo sank back to the walk and wrapped his arms around an off-balance Wes. He heaved him high, forcing him over the rail this time.

  As Wes went over the railing, he yelled, scrambling to grab hold of something. He grasped Tadeo’s arm and managed to hang on.

  Tadeo hesitated for a moment, straining against Wes’s full weight, as the corewalk swung wildly.

  Wes’s eyes were wide, bright. “Soon there’ll be a new order.”

  “Not today.” Tadeo pushed Wes away, forcing him to release his grasp, plunging him to his death.

  As Wes fell, a scream erupted through the comm.

  Tadeo blinked, dazed, as t
he scream reverberated in his ears, drowning out all other communication. Wes, in his white suit, tumbled down, past the corewalks. His body bounced off metal, and snapping sounds traveled through the comm. The screams grew anguished. Then a thud as his body hit the floor. The screaming stopped.

  Silence on the line.

  Only the sound of Tadeo’s own blood pumping, his own rattling breath.

  Only the hum of the power core vibrating through him.

  Voices shouted, all trying to talk at once, and Tadeo whirled to face the power cell insert. He gripped the ring and pulled hard. The insert came free, and Tadeo’s hands shook as he stared down at the interior.

  No yellow strips.

  A clear plasstex container was adhered to the insert. And within it—black powder flecked with white crystals.

  He leaned closer, hoping what he saw was just a trick of the light, but he already knew what he was seeing was real. The plasstex had melted around the outer edge of the container where Wes had cut through the center of the insert.

  The white Zenith crystals were glowing.

  Tadeo gripped the insert, feeling too dizzy to stand, but he somehow managed to stay upright. The crystals were glowing. How many minutes did they have before it blew up?

  The voices finally cut through his fog.

  “What happened to Wes?” Lanar’s voice, booming through the comm.

  “He tried to throw me over the handrail. I threw him over instead,” Tadeo said, not hearing his own voice.

  Then another surge of adrenaline moved through him, knocking the dizziness away. He carefully walked back toward the ladder he’d come up, holding the insert out before him. “I’ve located the bomb. It’s active. I repeat, the bomb has been activated. Get down to the platform and get the main doors open. Evacuate the sublevels now.”

  Tadeo’s voice sounded calm, commanding, like it came from someone else.

  Tadeo tuned out the chorus of panicked voices and focused only on the insert in his hands. He swallowed the metallic taste in his mouth. One step at a time.