Legacy (First Colony Book 3)

by Ken Lozito

  Lenora blew out a frustrated breath and shook her head. “I want my dig site back.”

  “Yeah, well I want my wife back. We should tell the Vemus to stay away because they’re inconveniencing our lives,” Noah said.

  Lenora crossed her arms in front of her and looked away from him. For a few moments, neither said anything.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just . . .” Lenora said and then growled in frustration. “How can you be so calm?”

  Noah’s eyes widened. “Calm! Trust me, I’m not calm. I’m just trying to focus on my work.”

  “That would be nice.” Lenora rolled her eyes. “I have a hundred thousand people here interfering with my work. Can you tell them to go away?”

  “A hundred! I thought they capped it at fifty thousand,” Noah said.

  “No, we’ve got a hundred now. One of the major bunkers failed. The area was unsuitable because of seismic activity or some such. Those people were moved here,” Lenora said.

  “It’s only temporary—” Noah began, and Lenora glared at him.

  “Don’t give me that. And it’s not the people being here . . . Well, maybe it is, but it’s just . . .” Lenora’s voice trailed off.

  Noah looked at her. Lenora was like a big sister to him. She’d taken him under her wing when they’d first woken up after being in stasis for two hundred years. But he’d never seen her so agitated. She usually had a tighter rein on her emotions. She was a born leader. Once set upon a task, just get out of her way. It was no wonder she and Connor had had some of the most heated arguments he’d ever seen. In some respects, they were two sides of the same coin, but in others they were polar opposites.

  “I can’t even figure out where the aliens that built this place went. They’re all gone. No remains, nothing. Nothing but these structures to even say they existed, and if the same thing happens to us . . .” Lenora said, her voice becoming thick.

  Noah’s instinct was to give her a hug and tell her that everything would be alright, but he knew that wasn’t something Lenora wanted. “There really is no sign of what happened to the aliens that built this place?” Noah asked instead.

  “Nothing but theories. We don’t even know what they looked like. We know they manipulated the genetics of some of the species that live here now and that they were quite advanced in some ways and primitive in others,” Lenora said.

  “So they didn’t get on a spaceship and fly away from here?”

  “There’s no evidence of them being able to fly in the atmosphere, much less in outer space,” Lenora answered and pressed her lips together. “Do you think they’re alright?” she asked and gestured upward.

  Noah swallowed hard. “Right now they are. They haven’t engaged the Vemus yet.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Well, for one, we would have heard about it. Dark-Star status is a protocol that essentially hides the fact that we have a lunar base. It’s part of Connor’s overall strategy,” Noah said.

  Lenora looked away. “Connor,” she muttered as if the name were a blessing and a curse. Noah heard a tinge of longing in it. “But he wouldn’t order that protocol unless they had found the Vemus.”

  “He wouldn’t have done it unless he was absolutely sure,” Noah agreed.

  Lenora’s shoulders drew upward and he watched her body stiffen. “Damn it.”

  This time Noah did give in to his instincts. He rose out of his chair and hugged Lenora. She was trembling, and after a moment she clung to him, burying her face in his chest. Noah didn’t say anything, and after a minute she let him go, quickly wiping her eyes.

  “He was never really here. Once we learned about the threat coming from Earth seven years ago, he stopped being here. He threw himself into his work, building the CDF. Then he lost Wil and Kasey . . . and that message from his son. This fight has been more personal for him than it’s been for anyone else. I’m worried about him. I’m worried he’s going to throw his life away to balance all the loss as if he had no other choice but to sacrifice himself,” Lenora said.

  Noah’s mouth hung open. For as long as he’d known her, she’d never spoken to him about Connor.

  “Connor would trade his life for a chance to stop the Vemus from coming here,” Noah said.

  Lenora shook her head. “I’m sure he thinks he would. It’s what he’ll convince himself he’s doing. But you didn’t see him before he left for Phoenix Station. He wants to die. He thinks that if he sacrifices himself, it will make up for all his regrets,” Lenora said.

  Noah’s brows pulled together. “That’s not true—”

  “Yes, it is. He blames himself for not being there for his son. He blames himself for not being able to save Wil and Kasey and all the other soldiers who’ve died fighting the Vemus. He refuses to see the fruits of all his efforts and only focuses on what was lost,” Lenora said.

  “I thought he was doing better. Didn’t you speak to him?”

  “I did. He seemed like he started to listen, but I’m not sure. You know him; he can teach a boulder about being stubborn,” Lenora said.

  “Yeah, but—”

  “If he really thought he was going to live, don’t you think he’d be here fighting or coordinating the attack instead of being on Phoenix Station?” Lenora asked.

  “You don’t understand just how fast things can change up there. He’s right where he needs to be,” Noah said.

  “Which just happens to be the perfect place for him to perform his heroic sacrifice,” Lenora said bitterly.

  Noah sighed, becoming irritated. “He may carry all that guilt, as you say. You’re probably right about that, but what you don’t see is that he wants to protect you.”

  Lenora snorted. “Don’t you dare say he’s doing this for me.”

  “It’s part of it, whether you want to admit it or not,” Noah replied.

  Lenora stomped away from him. “If he wanted to protect me, he should have stayed.”

  Noah’s shoulders slumped. “Come on, Lenora. That’s not fair.”

  “No, it’s not, and neither is him throwing his life away. Neither is it fair that your wife is holed up on Lunar Base. Nor is it fair that people had to leave their homes so they can hide because otherwise they might die. None of this is fair!” Lenora shouted and stalked out.

  Noah took a deep breath and couldn’t stop his mind from racing. They were both right, and that worried him more than making Lenora see reason.

  He powered off his workstation and went outside. There were makeshift roads worn by all the traffic—be it people on foot or vehicles moving equipment. Work crews were hustling about, relocating into the ruins and off the surface. They needed to mask their presence here as much as possible, but as Noah looked around at all the temporary tents and buildings, he didn’t see how that was going to be possible.

  Noah glanced around, looking for Lenora, but she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he heard a high-pitched, piggish voice giving orders while coming closer to him. Noah started walking away but he heard the shrill voice calling after him and turned around.

  “Captain Gibson, what can I do for you?” Noah asked.

  Captain Raeburn Gibson was a tall man with unusually long arms and torso. His thin dark hair was cropped and his glassy eyes were framed too close together, giving him the appearance of someone who was constantly glaring, although in Raeburn’s case that might be true.

  “Captain Barker, my PM has informed me that we’re behind schedule with the power converter,” Gibson said.

  Gibson was part of Field Operations and Security and not part of the CDF, so Noah didn’t have to report anything to him. Though their ranks were similar, Gibson was in charge of security, but he’d taken it upon himself to meddle in other work that didn’t concern him. He was just supposed to keep the peace and run evacuation drills. Noah was convinced that Gibson had been assigned to Sanctuary just to get him out of the hair of whoever sent him here. He had no idea who, but he was sure that was the reason.

  Gibson
cleared his throat. “Aren’t you supposed to be working on that this morning?”

  Noah frowned and shook his head. “This doesn’t really concern you.”

  Gibson’s sidekick was an imposing man named Barnes. If Gibson was the brains, then Barnes was the muscle. Barnes glared at Noah, and the rest of the security detail waited to take their cue from him. They were all armed with shock sticks.

  “You’re mistaken, Captain,” Gibson insisted.

  “Really,” Noah replied. “You’re not part of the CDF, and Field Ops doesn’t have any authority over what I do with my time.”

  Gibson nodded and pursed his fat lips together as if agreeing with what Noah had said. “Ordinarily you’d be right, but in this state of emergency, Field Operations and Security is granted special authority. Sanctuary is a civilian installation and anyone within its boundaries, including CDF soldiers, are under my jurisdiction,” Gibson said.

  Noah couldn’t believe it. This idiot thought he could actually strong-arm him. “That’s crap and you know it. If you think you can stroll around here, throwing your weight around, you’re sorely mistaken.”

  Sergeant Barnes took a step toward him, glaring menacingly, but Gibson placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. Much to Noah’s surprise, the large man actually stepped back. What kind of hold did Gibson have on the man to make him so obedient?

  “If I find that you’re bullying these people, I’ll have a squad brought in here so fast you won’t know what hit you,” Noah said.

  Gibson’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Tread carefully. Things won’t always be this way. Change is coming, and you’ll need friends if you want to survive.”

  “Go bother someone else,” Noah replied.

  “Get back to work, Captain Barker. If you don’t get the power converters online, Sanctuary is defenseless,” Gibson said and walked away, leading his team.

  Noah glared at them in disgust. The colony’s finest, but fear made people do stupid things. Some people froze and were unable to take action, while others seized the opportunity to grasp at anything to make themselves feel secure.

  Noah did need to check with the engineering teams working on the power converters. They couldn’t just connect their equipment to the alien power station. They needed a relay to convert the power so it would work with colony equipment, which was easier said than done since the alien power station was prone to overloads and they couldn’t figure out why. Noah glanced up at the sky. He bet Kara could have figured it out.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Captain Walker waited for Specialist Thoran and Lieutenant Chester to return. Sending them back to their shuttle to deploy a comms drone had been the right call. Meanwhile, the Vemus soldiers continued to devote all their attention to the trapped salvage team.

  “Shouldn’t they be back by now?” Corporal Sims asked.

  “Let’s give them a few minutes more,” Jon replied.

  Lieutenant Chester had strongly suggested that they send in a request for backup from Lunar Base, and while Jon was anxious to save his brother, he had to concede Lieutenant Chester’s point. It should only take an hour to return to the shuttle and deploy a drone. Jon glanced at the time on his heads-up display and saw that they were rapidly approaching the hour mark.

  He’d taken the risk that most of the Vemus soldiers were inside the munitions factory area trying to get to the salvage team. Some of the Vemus soldiers continued to slam their fists on the wall, but the bulk of their group waited. Having carefully observed them for the past hour, Jon had the feeling that the Vemus weren’t trying to get into the room where the salvage team was trapped so much as keeping an eye on them.

  Sergeant Lee squatted down next to Jon. “What do you think of the plan?”

  Jon looked over at him. “Once we start, it’s not like we get a do-over. They’ll know we’re here.”

  They’d been running reconnaissance around the area, looking for a safe way to extract the salvage team. Jon had even considered using the weapons on the combat shuttle to poke a few holes in the area nearby. He’d hoped to draw the Vemus soldiers away, but Sergeant Lee pointed out that it was a terrible idea. Blowing more holes in the wreckage of the ship could make this place even more unstable than it already was. When Jon had pressed Lee to go along with the plan, Lee reminded him that if he persisted with it, they ran a greater risk of killing the salvage team rather than saving it. Instead, they’d placed explosive charges in the adjacent tunnels, hoping that it would draw the Vemus away from the salvage team to investigate.

  “Are you sure we can’t try opening a comlink to the salvage team?” Corporal Sims asked.

  “Too risky. The reports from when the Banshee was captured were that the Vemus are able to detect comlink signals, so if we use them, we’ll give away our position,” Jon answered.

  He’d read the reports released by CDF intelligence. They’d disseminated the debriefing from the soldiers involved and sent out useable intelligence throughout the CDF. Jon remembered reading it and thinking it was interesting, but he hadn’t expected to use that knowledge. Combat suit-to-suit communications in close proximity didn’t require a comlink broadcast, so they were safe from the Vemus detecting them for now. The range wasn’t that extensive or else they’d be able to speak with Lieutenant Chester and Specialist Thoran back on the shuttle. Jon wanted to go back to the munitions factory door and look through the window but decided against it. Why tempt fate at this point? They knew what was there. A few combat drones would have come in handy at this point, but they didn’t have any.

  A few minutes later their overdue team members made it back to them.

  “Run into any trouble?” Jon asked.

  “No, sir. But we got no response from Lunar Base,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  Jon frowned. “Not even an acknowledgment?”

  “Nothing. We sent out a comms drone and waited for it to get beyond the Vemus jamming signal and return. No response, Captain,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  Jon looked at Specialist Thoran. “What do you think it means?”

  “They should have gotten our transmission. Unless the Vemus can somehow travel at the speed of light and are attacking right now, I think Lunar Base has been ordered to go into communications blackout and couldn’t respond even if they wanted to, Captain,” Specialist Thoran said.

  Jon grimaced. “Dark-Star status. I didn’t even think about that.”

  The other members of the team considered it for a moment.

  “It would explain their lack of response,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  “Yeah, but that means there’s another Vemus attack force out there,” Corporal Sims said.

  “It also means we’re on our own. It’s safe to assume that they got our transmission but weren’t able to respond,” Jon said.

  “Would they send another team anyway, even if they couldn’t respond, sir?” Sergeant Lee asked.

  Jon looked at them all and shook his head. “No. Not with another attack force on its way. The priority is New Earth and keeping Lunar Base’s location a secret.”

  Specialist Thoran’s face became pale. “We have to get out of here.”

  “We’re not leaving without the salvage team,” Jon said firmly. He looked around at all of them. “We can’t leave our people behind. They’d do the same for us, and they might have learned something important.”

  Sergeant Lee nodded grimly.

  Lieutenant Chester nodded as well. “We’re with you, Captain.”

  Jon felt the muscles in his chest loosen. “Thank you. You’re all heroes. Now let’s get this done.”

  Lieutenant Chester snorted. “Let’s just get them so we can get out of here in one piece, sir.”

  “Alright, enough with the pep talks. Lee and I did some recon while you were gone. We’ve placed concussive charges . . .” Jon went over the plan he’d laid out with Sergeant Lee. It didn’t take long to explain since it was relatively simple. Too bad it wasn’t going to be easily executed
.

  “Were you able to bring what I asked you?” Jon asked.

  “We only had one on board,” Lieutenant Chester replied and gestured over to the heavy case he’d been carrying.

  Jon must have been getting tired because he’d completely missed the fact that Lieutenant Chester had brought the case.

  “And the ammunition chest is over there, sir,” Lieutenant Chester said and frowned. “Are you sure you’re alright, Captain?”

  Jon nodded. “I’m fine. I just didn’t see that you had the case. We need to place the heavy turret at the far end of this corridor.”

  He was counting on the Vemus to investigate the concussive blasts, only to walk into the path of their only heavy turret. It should rip them to shreds, giving them time to get the salvage team out of there.

  A violent shudder spread from the floors and down the corridor. Power lines inside the walls began to overload, sending showers of sparks until fire control systems cut them off. At least the safety systems were still operational.

  “That was another impact,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  Jon nodded. “We’ve got no time to waste. Let’s get moving.”

  The five-man rescue team left the area. They’d set up the turret and then observe the Vemus soldiers before executing the plan.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Connor sat in his office aboard Phoenix Station. The cup of coffee Corporal Faulkner had brought sat untouched, having long since gone cold. He’d lost the taste for coffee since his time on the Vigilant when someone had tried to poison him. While he didn’t believe that anyone here would be trying to murder him, he just couldn’t look at a cup of coffee the same way anymore. Perhaps he should try tea, but what he really wanted was something a lot stronger.

  “General,” Dr. Richard Allen said, sitting across from Connor. “I realize the timing of this news is delicate, but with all that’s been happening, I wasn’t sure when a good time to disclose the information would be.”

  Connor drew in a breath and sighed. “And you’re certain this is accurate?”