Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  The Saint Bernard floated in zero g at the rendezvous coordinates, waiting to be scooped. All drives and Icarus generators were shut down. “So we can’t be spotted from Earth or tracked by other ships,” Stu explained to Yvette, where the pirates could overhear.

  Colonel Dahlstrom ordered, “Wait in the crash position until Sanctuary arrives.”

  Stu and Yvette took positions on either side of the unconscious Kaguya, ready to intervene if her monitors dipped or a pirate took an interest in her.

  The Chinese soldiers refused to strap in, roaming the ship instead. When gravity kicks in, they’re in for a surprise.

  When the adrenaline wore off, Stu drifted off into an unintentional nap.

  Xiang shook him awake. “You are one of their pilots. What is taking so long?”

  How long have I been out? Feeling guilty, Stu checked to make sure the women were safe. “Above my pay grade, sir. Commander Zeiss has a reason for everything.”

  “Call them on the radio,” Xiang suggested.

  “They won’t let me onto the bridge. That level is on lockdown.”

  Xiang called for his men, and two of them showed up glowering. The threat was clear as he motioned Stu toward the cockpit door. “Have them patch you through to Sanctuary and tell us what’s happening.”

  Stu complied.

  A few moments later, Zeiss spoke over the intercom. “Mr. Llewellyn, we’re a little busy with a medical emergency. To clear the medical stasis bay for you, we started Herk’s surgery. We have over a dozen medical professionals trying to save him. Even Laura and Kelley are doing lab work and blood draws. Joan says she only saw two of the heavy new suits left in the landing bay for unloading.”

  She only saw two ranged weapons on her scouting run to the Saint Bernard. “I think I saw two other lighter models that could do the job in a pinch. Have her look again.”

  Zeiss replied, “I’ll call her, but she’s all alone at that end of the biosphere. It’s likely to be a few more hours until the rest of us are ready.”

  When Stu removed his finger from the intercom Send button, Xiang asked the pirate next to him, “Who is Joan?”

  “Thirteen-year-old girl. She fell in a swimming pool on her first mission and almost died. It’s where we got that helmet to analyze.”

  Xiang smiled. “That works for us. Tell your Zeiss we have an urgent medical issue of our own and need to land so you can use the regeneration pods.”

  “No,” Stu said, stalling. “Z would need to hear the medical emergency declaration from the nurse, and she can’t lie.”

  Xiang pulled out his pistol and fired point-blank into Yvette stomach. “She won’t be lying now.” Clutching her midriff, Yvette wailed and tried to hold the vital fluids in. “It’s a slow, painful death. She should last hours, but I’ll pick another victim in sixty minutes if my demands are not met or if you tell your people what has happened. If you persuade the colonel to open the door to the cockpit, however, I will let you patch her wound and administer pain killers.”

  In moments, Sanctuary signaled their approach. “Forty minutes. Brace for impact.”

  The crew on the bridge abandoned their posts to save Yvette. While Lieutenant Xiang took possession of Saint Bernard’s upper deck, Stu and the Dahlstroms cut open the nurse’s suit and sedated her. Oleander, the one with the most experience at rescue triage, glued and sprayed the area. “God, there’s no exit wound. I’m sealing this all inside her.”

  Before the medicine kicked in, Yvette passed the huge syringe of knockout drugs to Oleander.

  Stu blocked the pirates’ view of the handoff as he collected bloody garments. “A pod will save her, or the surgeons will. Either way, we need to strip her down to her skivvies carefully. Put her on a stretcher so she’s ready to go.”

  Colonel Dahlstrom climbed back into the cockpit to argue with Xiang. “Impact means I need my landing gear deployed. I can’t do that unless all the hatches between levels are locked.”

  “Very well. I will remain here on the bridge with two members of your crew. My men hold the only airlock. The rest of the crew will be confined to the center level. Confiscate all communication devices. Will that be secure?”

  A pirate next to Xiang replied, “That is how NERO transports prisoners. The inner doors to the missing escape pods won’t open unless we flush all the air into space to equalize the pressure. No one on the center floor is going anywhere.”

  “Once we overwhelm the two people who come to assist us from Sanctuary, the alien ship will be ours. Just to be sure there are no problems, confiscate Llewellyn’s spacesuit. I’ve heard he fancies himself a hero.”

  ****

  Being swallowed by the mother ship was now old hat for Stu. When Mira broadcast the two-minute warning, he knew two things. First, the impact would happen early. Mira always did that sort of thing in her tests to throw people off. Second, Joan was making her final sweep Out-of-Body. Stu spoke to the air. “Tell your mom to hit Xiang during the bounce and kill the lights. I’ll distract the others.” He shoved the Mori family sword through the bridge hatch’s wheel so that his enemy couldn’t surprise him from behind.

  Stu watched the ship’s docking through the clear wall panel of a missing escape pod.

  With admirable skill, Colonel Dahlstrom rotated the airlock door to line up with the large, gold hangar doors on the interior of the landing bay. Saint Bernard had perhaps a meter of clearance on all sides as it lowered through the lens. Stu had never brushed this close to the hull before. He grabbed the release handle and braced.

  As expected, Mira goosed the velocity at the last instant, jarring teeth and knocking over everyone who wasn’t strapped in. The NERO lights went out at the same time as the landing bay’s illumination. But Gravity Boy was never afraid of the dark.

  Because the bay was pressurized, Stu was able to pop the escape pod panel and dive outside. A security alarm sounded inside the NERO vessel. The two-story drop didn’t hurt in the landing bay’s microgravity, but he bounced twice before collapsing in a heap. No one saw that.

  When he heard someone rattling at the hatch behind him, he sprinted for the hangar door on impulse and promptly tripped over the NERO landing gear. He slid into the gold foil face first. “Open,” he said, gripping his nose.

  The Magi door folded aside, and he attached two sets of sticky straps in the darkness, just like he did when he was supposed to be sleeping in Olympus when Dad was working a shift.

  As he leapt into the downward-spiraling hallway, the overhead light came on, spotlighting him for the Chinese pirates. Enemy helmet lights peered in his direction. Their eyes met through the glass beside the NERO airlock door. He braced himself against the outer curve of the hall. His record was eighteen seconds to the decontamination door. “Zero g,” he ordered. The minimal weight eased.

  Stu waited until the airlock light turned green before he launched. The stutter of a gauss rifle on full automatic rattled behind him, firing through the open airlock door. The overhead light continued to follow him, as did the sparks of the ricochets. Ouch. Didn’t think about that. He pushed harder off the wall at the next landing. This run wouldn’t break his record, but hopefully it would be fast enough to evade the rifle’s targeting computers.

  The three armed men leapfrogged after him at an even pace with practiced skill.

  A high-pitched whine filled the air before him, and not a healthy one. The machine in question sounded sick, out of phase, and on the verge of blowing every fuse it had.

  Panting hard, Stu waited at the decontamination door until he heard the overhead speakers. “Warning: no weapons are permitted beyond this point.” The alert repeated in three languages as Stu pried open the secret passage to the elevator shaft. There was no elevator car present, so he grabbed one of the superconductor panels instead.

  A head poked around the curve.

  A little closer. Stand in front of that lead backstop. “Hasta la vista!” Stu shouted as he jumped down the shaft to safety. In freefal
l, he gripped the meter-long panel in front of him like a surfboard.

  He heard the decontamination room’s door slide open and the chatter of multiple gauss guns. Then the hall above him lit up like a flash bulb as the synchrotron generator fired. The hard part had been to arrange the ambush so the focused radiation blast wouldn’t harm anything vital in Sanctuary or on the NERO ship. It just gets rid of visitors who don’t follow the charter.

  Against all odds, someone staggered through the shaft entrance with a roar. He must have been crouched behind the other two.

  Stu did not want to meet someone who only got pissed off by that much radiation. “I think we found the Override guy.” He pushed off from the shaft wall again.

  Tracking the sound, the berserk pirate launched himself downward. “I kill you with my bare hands.”

  Holy crap! He could catch me. Stu increased the pace until he knew the speed could break bones. Then he saw the twinkle of stars from the biosphere. The command saucer was gone from the end of the shaft. On the bright side, crew and the surgeons were completely safe. On the downside, there was no way to brake in time. He could only adjust his angle slightly to clear the edge of the water tower’s pipe.

  Predictably, the pirate followed soon after. The Override gloated for a few moments before they both hit apogee.

  Stu mentally ordered the local gravity to increase to five gs. He fell fast and barely clicked the On button for his hover board in time. The pirate didn’t have such a parachute and hit the brick road at a third of the speed of sound.

  “Featherfall,” Stu ordered just before he splashed down into the swamp water.

  Fortunately, Monty and nine other toughs rose out of the water around him, offering a hand.

  “Why did you stop firing the laser cannon?” Stu asked.

  “He dropped his weapon,” Snowflake replied.

  Accepting a towel, Stu wiped mud from his face. “One pirate survived. He’s with Oleander in the cockpit.”

  Monty shook his head. “Naw. Joan waltzed into Saint Bernard invisible as soon as they left the airlock door open. She’s a good fighter. At worst, he surrenders, and we have to offer him asylum.”

  Stu hobbled over to the Override, just to make sure he was dead. When he saw the face, all trace of victory drained out of him. From his features, the man on the bricks wasn’t ethnic Chinese. The Override could have been Apelu’s knockoff son, Mo’s half-brother. With that speculation, his best friend died all over again. Stu no longer wanted to be a superhero when he grew up. He just wanted to stop the killing. “Mom, please use the robots to haul Yvette to a pod soonest.”

  “Go home and shower, dear. We’ll tie up the loose ends.”

  Chapter 53 – Night Falls

  In the Garden Hollow cafeteria, Laura took a break from the drudgery and tension of the lab. In addition to matching possible blood donations for Herk, she was screening newcomer samples for deadly viruses and recessive genes. A pretty woman in scrubs with luxuriant black hair sat next to her on the bench. At one point, Laura would have killed for Asian features like that. The air smelled like flowers. The woman held out a hand, exerting Empathic influence to make herself more likeable. “If things work out, I figure we’re going to be spending a lot of time with each other. I’m Kelly.”

  “Laura Zeiss Llewellyn,” she said, refusing the hand.

  “I know who you are, princess. We all know.”

  “I’m sorry. Have we met before?”

  Kelly nibbled at a cluster of grapes. “You presented at a few conferences I attended. I think your work is brilliant but find you personally repugnant.”

  “Then why—?”

  “Our boys have become pretty inseparable, and I want to make an effort for their sake. Hell, I actually like Stu. He’s a good influence on Mo—well trained.”

  Laura smiled. “Empaths always like him.” She took another sip of the bitter mockery they called coffee. It was the only brew she was likely to get for the rest of her life, so she might as well learn to adjust. “So what do you hate most about me?”

  “The way you treat your lab assistants. You run them ragged. Mei Lyn had to work sixty hours a week, and you fired her for not getting her job done.”

  The smile vanished. “I work over seventy myself, and I fired her because a disk drive disappeared from a lab she was responsible for.”

  “Maybe the disk wouldn’t have disappeared if you’d been a little nicer. You Moris think you own people.” Kelly squinted when she said the name.

  “I’m not a Mori.”

  “Prove it.” Kelly looked both directions, making certain no one else was listening. “Before we reach the Saturn nexus, we might hear some news from Earth about your old family. All we ask is that you don’t get involved.”

  “We?”

  “Nyx.”

  Stepping over to the sink, Laura stood and rinsed her cup. She poured a second cup to go. Kelly followed. Outside, Laura whispered, “When we entered Sanctuary, we gave up all our old allegiances and nations.”

  “I intend to. Nyx has served its purpose. We’re disbanded now. Every trace of the organization has been obliterated,” Kelly replied. “From now on, we’ll smile and become the good neighbors you need, but you need to keep quiet. You don’t have to lie. Just don’t volunteer anything.”

  “Or what?” I could break you with one hand. Of course, Artemis was on security duty and glowered at her from the entrance to the tunnels.

  “Secret for secret, princess. You almost lost your boy toy after the last exposé. What if I told him more of what you’ve done? Things even your Grandfather would be ashamed of.”

  Laura mixed honey into the cup. “I think we should foster an atmosphere of polite respect in these formative days of our community.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Kelly smirked.

  Raising the mug, Laura said, “I have to take this coffee to Aunt Mary.” Nyx held Mary in as much reverence as the Brazilians gave Mercy. Maybe that respect would keep them at bay, considering that Mary was living with her now.

  “You know, if you are pregnant, they won’t let you into stasis with the rest of the command crew,” Kelly said, her voice tinged with amusement. “You’ll age normally while your mother stays frozen in the saucer. You could be older than grandma by the time we arrive at the colony world.”

  Laura winced. “I haven’t told her about the baby yet.” Each talent had only a 50 percent chance of transmission to the child. Between her skills, Auckland’s, and Lena Maurier’s, they could handle a male multiple with complete safety. “I want the child to survive the critical first ten weeks and determine the gender before we tell anyone.”

  “Right. Stu shared everything with your other mother already.”

  Which means I have until he returns to break that tidbit to Mira, or she’ll be offended. “Thanks.”

  Laura walked to the farmhouse, intending to check in with Mary, feed the chickens, and head back to the lab. When she spotted her father on the front porch, he seemed to have aged years in the last day.

  “Oh, God. What’s wrong?” Laura put the coffee on the wicker table beside him.

  Conrad set down his computer pad. “Kaguya survived, but she has hysterical blindness. She pushed the Ethics Page too far, and it pushed her back.” Laura hugged him, as much for her comfort as his. “It’s my fault. Being circumspect is not in her nature. She’s more the act first, determine legality later sort, but a few accidental deaths are the least of our problems now.”

  “Who died?” Laura demanded, pulling back.

  “Sif and Onesemo. Everyone but Stu from that team is going to be in a pod or hospitalized.”

  “How?”

  “Details are still sketchy, but I think he only killed one person himself. Between Mo, Kaguya, and Risa, we killed about fifty-five others.”

  Laura collapsed into the empty chair. Stu was going to be devastated. “At least we have a full crew, and Herk is going to make it. I mean, he’s never going to work a
gain, but we take our victories where we can. He’ll live to see the new colony.”

  “Stu will be here in a few minutes. I’ll do the debriefing myself. Mira would be better, but she’s our only qualified pilot at the moment. She’s been dodging searchers and missiles since we retrieved Mary. Don’t worry. Escape is one of our core competencies now. Long term, we’ll train the two pilots from the NERO ship and one of the people from the Antarctic group. Over the next few months, we’ll be flying a slingshot course around the sun to sneak out to the Saturn nexus.”

  “What do you need me to do?”

  “We’ve arranged for the two of you to take a week-long honeymoon. You’ll have Exile Island all to yourselves. No comms, just healing. He’s earned it.”

  She nodded. Then suspicion crept in. “Who suggested no comms?”

  “One of the nurses … Evangeline.”

  She’s Nyx, too. Why are they trying so hard to get rid of me? “What are we hearing from Earth?”

  “Not much. Everyone has been too busy absorbing the new arrivals to wade through all the newscasts.”

  He was evading the question. She grabbed her father’s arm. “Something critical is happening related to the Moris.”

  “Something triggered the Seven Seals. Critical supplies and tasks all over the globe have been disrupted. The new plague sounds nastier than anything Moses called up. Mori is a twisted bastard.”

  Laura stared in shock. When she could speak again, she said, “Commander, as a member of the planning team and a senior member of the security staff, I would like to request two things. First, let me sit in on the debriefing. I can offer insights into Koku as well as calm Stu.”

  He raised an eyebrow at the sudden formality. “Sounds reasonable. And the second?”

  “Arrest Kelly Quinn as a suspected terrorist agent. Don’t let her communicate with anyone. She’s very persuasive, and when she finds out Mo is dead, she’ll have nothing to lose. Have Snowflake keep an eye on the other members of Nyx.”

  “Why?”

  “Nyx foresaw this disaster and asked me to do nothing. I think they wanted me to distract Stu as well. One of us can probably prevent or slow the effects of this disease. As plagues aren’t my specialty, my guess is that Koku let something slip to Stu.”