The center of the ship yawned wide to reveal a moderately-sized hangar. As they dropped down, work crews rushed the monster with spray guns attached to tanks filled with a quick-drying foam that forms a rock-hard bond around whatever is sprayed. “Hold your position,” the same voice as before ordered.
The made quick work of restraining the beast, loading it onto a hoverbus, and dropping a Ti-tan’lium cage over the top of it. Once the chains were cut, they were ordered to land, power down and prepare to be boarded. Orders with which they complied.
Once the Bucket was grounded and wound down, Khai lowered the ramp and a team of scientists escorted by armed guards, all in biosuits, stormed the ship sweeping the area with a scanning device with which Khai was not familiar. They moved through the cargo hold quickly and into the main hold when a scientist yelled, “Subject located!”
The whole team rushed in, Khai in tow, to see them hefting Kay off the bed and onto a hover stretcher. “Get her to quarantine—now!” the lead scientist barked. “I want blood work, scans and x-rays on my desk by the time I get there!”
Khai felt a tingle of trepidation as they carted her unconscious form off into the bowels of the ship. “What about my other wounded?” Khai asked at length.
“We have emergency response teams waiting,” he said curtly. “Once we clear the ship of contaminants, they will take care of your injured.”
“What about Kay?” Khai inquired. “Where is she going?”
“I’m not at liberty to say at this time,” he responded quickly, spun on his heel and stormed off.
“Hey!” Khai called after him. “You cut her up or dissect her or whatever, I’ll do the same you. Got it?”
The scrawny scientist stopped, but didn’t turn to face Khai. He visibly, even from the back, swallowed hard and then kept walking.
A few minutes later, the sweep was complete and the medics came aboard to take Dah and Puar to the infirmary where they would be treated properly for their wounds. That left Khai, Brawl and Brix.
“Stay here, guys,” Khai said, exiting the ship. “I don’t want to stir the pot any more than I’m about to.”
“What you got up your sleeve?” Brawl asked.
“Mischief, I reckon,” Khai chided with a devilish grin.
“I reckon,” Brawl echoed softly as he went back to the main hold.
“What was that about?” Brix asked as Brawl plopped down on the couch and activated the Net’Vyyd.
“I reckon the good General is going to make sure that none of his team is left behind…”
Khai stormed down the corridor toward the lift. Being who he was, nobody dared stand in his way—especially with the look he carried on his face. Even the lift doors seemed afraid of him as they swiftly parted to admit him. After footage of ripping Lieutenant Danyarr literally in half on the upper floors of the Hall of Justice leaked, people looked at him in a new light and Khai had regretted it ever since.
He smoldered the whole lift ride to the bridge. When the doors parted for him again, he stormed the bridge. “Who’s the master of this vessel?”
“I am,” a slender, yet fit woman stood from the center chair. She had the soft, rounded features of a child’s doll, blonde hair pulled back into a bun without a single stray hair over gray eyes that screamed wisdom beyond her years and bore a perfectly straight smile that she flashed as she rounded the chair. She extended her hand to Khai, he took it so disarmed by her beauty that he couldn’t muster the anger he once had. “Captain Delarr at your service, General. How may I assist you today?”
“I need some information from you,” he said, recovering from his stupor. It wasn’t that he was attracted to her, but more surprised to see such a lovely lady in command of million tons of starship. It was refreshing.
“Certainly,” she said, flashing that disarming smile again.
“Where are they taking Kay?”
“To the DCW,” she answered without hesitation. Khai’s dumbfound expression betrayed his surprise. “I apologize for Doctor Ghrail’s tightlipped style. He’s great with viruses, terrible with people. Furthermore, Prime Minister Puar has personally given me a direct order to give whatever information or help you need, even as far as taking command of the ship, though I would appreciate it if wouldn’t do the last one.”
“Hm,” Khai grunted with amusement. “Well, rest assured, I won’t take your ship.”
“That is a relief,” she remarked with satisfaction. “What else do you have for me?”
“Kay’s brothers are aboard Oh Bee Three,” Khai began to explain. “If—”
“Give us a few minutes; we’ll pick them up on our way out.”
“And my ship is waiting in hover mode over Seryys City,” Khai started. “I’d like—”
“We’ll pick her up as we leave.”
“Where’s our final destination?”
“In orbit around Seryys Four,” she hid nothing from him. “If the F’Rosians do have our coordinates, it’s likely they’ll approach Seryys first before her outlying sisters. With any luck, we should have something for you information-wise about these Reapers mutating and the Roamers, and hopefully a cure for poor Kay.”
“When will we be in orbit of Seryys Four?”
“Within the hour, I’m sure you’re eager to get back to your wife.”
“You have no idea,” Khai said with a grin.
“You’d be surprised,” she replied. For a moment, her happy disposition disappeared as she seemed to travel to a distant land and almost immediately returned with her smile.
After bringing the Star Splitter into the hangar and picking up Kay’s brothers from OB Three, the Weathered left orbit and headed out to space. Once clear of Seryys, the ship was swallowed by a dark void and spat out in the space around Seryys IV. The orange glow of the desert planet filled the bridge as Seryys IV spun lazily ahead. Khai’s heart pounded with anticipation. He had no idea how she was, or how she’d faired since he left for Alpha Centauri. Delarr turned to regard Khai. She could see the excitement on his face. “Go on!” she said both cheerfully and sadly at the same… something Khai thought impossible until that moment. “Nothing’s going to happen in the next few hours. I’ll call you the minute we learn anything new.”
Without a word, Khai nearly ran for the lift. His ship was waiting for him when he arrived at the hangar. Puar, Brawl and Brix were there to send him off.
“Don’t go wandering off,” Khai said. “I won’t be gone long.”
“We’ll be right here, Khai,” Puar assured him.
“What about you, Brawl?” Khai regarded “You got your money. Where you headed?”
“I reckon running with you is way funner than anything I had planned,” he responded. “Maybe I’ll stick around just to see what shenanigans you get yourselves into.”
Khai stepped into his ship through the hatch and powered everything up.
“I have to say that I am glad I’m no longer sharing a processor with Amber,” Joon remarked as her systems began to boot up.
“Well thanks for being such a good sport about it,” Khai said while checking a few readouts.
“As if I had a choice,” Joon rebuked.
“True, but you still took it in stride. Are we ready to go?”
“Yes, all systems green.”
“Good. Let’s go, I got a hot date.”
Khai pulled the Splitter straight up through the hangar doors and rose above the Weathered. He then punched the throttle and soared for orbit, eagerly, anxiously waiting to be in the comforting aura of his loving wife. The Splitter bucked as the ship entered the atmosphere and the artificial gravity kicked off. The hospital loomed up on the horizon in front of a multi-colored sunset and his speaker crackled to life.
“Welcome, Star Splitter. Captain Delaar called ahead and we’ve a got a pad cleared off for you. Stay on your present course.”
“Acknowledged,” Khai called back.
An empty landing pad lit up with blinking lights. Khai swung
around and lowered the ship down on its landing skids. Once the ship settled, Khai powered everything down and made his way to the hatch. A few people he didn’t recognize met him. Instinctively, his hand gravitated to his gun.
“General Khail?” a man in a fine suit said, stepping forward extending his hand. “My name is Brad’Lee Breall, the new administrator of this facility. It’s nice to meet you.”
Khai took his hand and shook it with a firm grip that made him grunt softly. “How’s my wife?”
“I’ll let my colleague take over there,” Breall said. “I’m good with numbers, not medicine.”
“Your wife is doing remarkably well!” an older gentleman in a lab coat stepped forward. “We have removed her IVs and catheters and she has come out of her coma. Her—”
“She’s awake?” Khai could not hide his excitement.
With a warm smile that betrayed no irritation at the interruption, the doctor replied, “Yes, she’s awake and well. She’s been asking about you for two days now. But no one could tell her where you were.”
“Please take me to her,” Khai said quietly.
He led Khai on a winding road of corridors and doors and elevators and came to a secured door where two armed guards stood, arms folded and looking mean. One of them was big enough to possibly give Brix a run for his money. When the doctor waved his badge in front of a scanner, the guards stepped aside and the doors parted.
“We’ve stepped up security since our last… incident.”
“I appreciate that,” Khai said, watching the doors slide closed behind them.
The corridor was dimly lit for the comfort of the patients who were trying sleep and there was little chatter from the nurses as they busied themselves with their daily tasks. “Here we are,” the doctor said waving a hand to the door. The room Brindee currently occupied was not the same from the last time he saw her.
“Thank you, doctor,” Khai said.
“It was my pleasure, and please, stay as long as you like,” he said with a warm smile.
Khai gave him a cordial nod and paused at the door. It had been a while since he felt butterflies, but the occasion more than warranted it. The door hissed aside and there she was! His breath was stolen from his lungs as if seeing her for the first time again in that watering hole on the Vyysarri colony. She was sitting watching the net’vyyd and sipping on—he guessed it—blood.
It took only a second to register that the door had opened and she looked his direction expecting to see another nurse or doctor to check on her. Imagine her surprise when she saw her husband standing in that doorway.
“Khai!” she half whispered, half cried.
Wordlessly, he rushed the bed and took her up in a lasting embrace. Though he would never admit it, tears trickled down his face.
“Easy, honey,” she said.
“Oh! Sorry!”
“It’s okay,” she said warmly “Just still a little sore.”
“Doctors said you’ll make a full recovery,” he said.
“So I’ve been told,” she remarked. “But I was also told that that recovery wouldn’t have been possible if my knight in shining armor hadn’t come to my rescue. Two Kil’Jah assassins and I didn’t even get a scratch.”
“Well, they always come in twos,” Khai said trying to minimize his efforts. “Besides, you’re my everything. I almost lost you once, I won’t make that mistake again, I promise.”
“I love you,” she said in response.
“I love you, too,” Khai reciprocated.
That night was the best night’s sleep Khai had had since the night before he watched his wife’s ship crash into a building, shot down by an agent of the Resistance. His wife of three years slept soundly next to him the hospital bed. Their hearts beating as one, breathing as one. She had it all wrong, Khai mused, she saved him. Before she came along, all could he think of was dying on his feet before he grew too old and feeble to care for himself. Now, he couldn’t wait to grow old with Brindee, maybe have children. They had talked it over before, but they were always hesitant to bring a Seryysan/Vyysarri half breed into a world that had only marginally accepted reintegration of the two races. Khai wanted so badly to give her everything she ever wanted. Maybe, he thought, after all this was done it was time to retire, buy a bigger ship and spend a few years traveling the galaxy… or—maybe it was an overwhelming sense of duty or a chemical imbalance in his brain that made him go straight back to the military—he could find an exploration commission on another Seryysan/Vyysarri-crewed ship, one that allowed families, and raise one there. Either way, he knew that it wouldn’t be possible—or at the very least probable—to raise a half breed on Seryys—not in his lifetime anyway.
The call came all too quickly. Groggily, Khai reached for his com unit. “Khail,” he answered.
“Hey, buddy,” Puar’s voice came over the small device. “We’ve got some information for you.”
“Lay it on me,” he said, sliding out of bed and prompting Brindee to groan disapprovingly.
Chapter Eleven
“The Reapers, for all intents and purposes, have sunburns.” The speaker got some pretty incredulous looks. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. When you or I get a sunburn, our bodies allocate white blood cells to the affected areas to help in the healing process which lowers our immune systems. That’s why, in a lot of cases, people end up getting sick when they have a sunburn that’s bad enough. Think about it, these animals have lived tens of thousands of years underground—long enough to evolve to the point of not needing eyes. Now they come out into the sun and their light-sensitive skin can’t handle it. So their equivalent white blood cells are working overtime to fight these burns and their immune systems are crashing.
“We found a virus—a dormant virus—that was undetected the first time we examined these creatures when they were initially discovered. This virus is what’s causing them to mutate and create the issue with what General Khail’s team has coined as the Roamers. The virus, once inside a Seryysan, causes complete systemic failure of the nervous system. For all intents and purposes, they’re dead. However, the brainstem and lower brain functions remain active keeping them mobile and still dangerous. Once they go through this transformation, they become carriers and can transmit the virus through a bite or exposure to their blood through an open wound, or an open mouth, or eye… I think you get it.”
The elderly scientist stood at the center of Puar’s office, scrutinizing eyes drilled holes into him and he seemed to shrink a little.
“What of Miss Kayward’s condition?” Prime Minister Puar asked.
“I’m happy to say she’ll make a full recovery. Making the vaccination was the easy part. The only caveat is that the vaccine won’t work on people who have already gone through the transformation. Those that have…” he trailed off with a helpless shrug.
“So what’s our plan of attack?” Dah asked.
“What do you mean?” Admiral Ryynaall asked.
“To get rid of these Roamers,” Dah clarified. “We know we can track the Reapers from orbit, but these Roamers have no body heat to track. Their temperature changes to that of their current environment. I suppose we could try tracking by movement.”
“What cities have been affected so far?”
“Tanbarder, Seryys City and Jewel of Oasis are the three cities that are a total loss that we know off, but Klomehaven isn’t far from Seryys City and there are too many cities to count that could be under siege and we wouldn’t even know.”
“We need to send out a system-wide message on the net’vyyd to warn people about this new threat. Send a message to every city’s local government to report their status. Also, we need to start mass-producing this vaccine right now.”
“Efforts to duplicate the vaccine are already under way,” the scientist announced. “Shipping should start as early as tomorrow.”
“Good work, doctor,” the Prime Minister said. “You may go.”
He nodded cordially and t
ook his leave.
“That doesn’t help with getting rid of the Roamer problem,” Dah insisted.
“Well, Jewel is a complete loss,” Khai said. “Nothing there lives; the Roamers and that crazed hunter saw to that quite well. You could glass it from orbit.”
“That represents quite a loss of resources,” Prime Minister Puar said. “But it would eradicate the problem quite handedly. Though, that doesn’t help Seryys City and Tanbarder.”
“One city at a time, Prime Minster,” Khai offered. “There are other ways.”
“I’ll give it some thought.”
“Fair enough.”
“How about planetary defense?” Prime Minister Puar asked. “How are we progressing?”
Ryynaall stepped forward clearing his thought. His cool confidence was a convincing cover for the uncertainty he felt beneath the surface, Khai had seen it a million times before.
“More than half of the ships in the navy have been outfitted with the cloak field generators supplied by Captain Dah’s brother and repainted black. Within two days’ time, we should have the rest ready to go. The Defense Grid is fully operational and ready to for use. It has also been fitted with four—one for each quarter—of the stealthing tech, painted black and positioned around the sun at an angle so that you would only see the station in front of the sun if you approached it from the north or south poles.
“Thanks to Admiral Sibrex’s help, we have made all fifty of the Founder ships operational. They will be our front line of defense when the F’Rosian fleet arrives. Their superior firepower and shields will provide a buffer from the rest of the fleet which will be waiting on the dark side of Seryys to spring an ambush.”
The Seryys Chronicles: Steel Alliance Page 15
