He could see more of the fleet-wide orders now that he was in. The order had come from an individual called Argos, and was a priority level-one order. Something was afoot, that was for sure. He pulled a file for this Argos persona, but the amount of log-triggering and alarms linked to the file was overwhelming. Fortunately he managed to cancel every single one of them and access the file, but it had been close, far too close for comfort.
He exhaled deeply, relieved. He was thrilled at having managed to get into the file in spite of all the safeguards, but mystified at the rationale. He looked at the picture of that Argos. He was humanoid, something Spiros had not expected. A human giving orders to Zarlacks? Really? But there was something about his face, even though he couldn’t place it. Somehow it seemed familiar. Time was running out. Now that the file about Argos was stored into his neuronal file banks, he moved towards the big prize.
The encryption algorithm protecting the Gatos Nebula file was stronger than anything he had experienced before on previous hacking sessions on enemy technology. That could mean only one thing: whatever was in this file was highly secret; of invaluable worth. The internal timer he’d set at nine minutes when he started the hack was almost done. Only one minute and forty-seven seconds remained. The booby traps that he’d defused around the Argos file had been nothing compared to the ones he was disarming in real time, to make sure his intrusion to the Gatos Nebula file remained undetected.
He didn’t register that he was quickly getting drained by using his brain so heavily. Sixty seconds left. A warning came on his mental HUD: ships powering hyperdrive engines. All available shuttles had left the station. All ships that had been docked on the station were already maneuvering away from it. Forty seconds. Even if the fleet was running late on pre-checks before entering hyperspace, Spiros knew that he was almost out of time.
He quickly entered the advanced settings of his brain tech and over-clocked the processing power by two hundred percent. That was definitely a gamble, but he had no other choice. He needed to be able to access this file now! His timer reached zero and blinked red within his mental projection. Over-clocked, he kept pushing. He felt the temperature in the lower part of his skull rise. All sorts of warnings popped on his mental projected HUD, but he kept going as fast as he could.
The decryption algorithm was now at ninety-eight percent completion. When the information arrived that the ship’s hyperspace engines were ready for jump, he redirected every ounce of processing power to the decryption task. On top of the heat rising within his skull, his brain started to pound with pain, but he pushed through. His HUD warned of impending neuronal damage. The next second the file was finally decrypted and he saved it within his internal data banks. At almost the exact same time, the enemy ships entered hyperspace.
The disconnection was brutal to say the least. Spiros felt something like a spark within his brain. His tech shut down almost instantly.
“Dammit!” he shouted out loud, immediately biting his lips afterwards.
Even though most Zarlacks had left the station, the volume at which he had expressed his frustration had been too high. He quickly looked at his life-sign detector but he didn’t need to. He could already hear some heavy footsteps coming his way. He cursed his recklessness, disconnecting the cable from the terminal and implant, and quickly jumped back to his feet. But he felt impossibly light-headed, no doubt another side effect from over-clocking his tech. He shook his head to try and get his mind clear of it, but as he did so the door of the armory suddenly opened and a tall Zarlack came in—guns blazing.
Panicked, he ducked behind the console. Sparks flew around him. The jolt of adrenaline from extreme fear kicked in, his mind racing. He was no sharp shooter, but now was not a good time to die. He had to survive and access that file. He had to regain control of the station. But first he needed to deal with this beast trying to blow his head off, preferably before it tried to call for reinforcements.
Suddenly an idea crossed his mind, encouraged by another laser impact near his scalp. He grabbed the life-signs detector and inversed the polarity of the power source, sweat pouring down his face. It got very hot fast and emitted an increasingly painful, high-pitched sound. In one fluid motion Spiros slid to the floor next to the console, throwing the melting detector towards the Zarlack. The creature reacted on instinct, shooting wildly towards the incoming object. He hit the detector where it lay, less than three feet away from him. It exploded with a fiery green flash that sent red-hot power fluid boiling across the Zarlack’s face. The resulting screech of agonizing pain he unleashed was unbearable. Spiros lurched out of cover, lined up the sights of his pistol and fired three shots in rapid succession. The first two missed, but the third one went straight into the Zarlack’s eye socket. The screaming stopped instantly. With a loud thud, his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.
Spiros’ heart was pounding so fast in his chest—he feared a heart attack right then and there. He kneeled on the ground, trying to catch his breath. But he could no longer wait. Without the detector he had no idea what other confrontations he might expect, and he could not risk another conflict in the open. Risky or not, he decided that his only option was to climb up a ventilation shaft. He would crawl out of here, or die trying. So he moved the crate he had been hiding behind earlier, carefully climbed it, removed the paneling from the top of the wall and entered the shaft, carefully replacing the paneling.
I’m too old for this, he thought, crawling awkwardly forward.
About ten minutes in, he heard a noise coming from under him and decided to stop moving. He could hear the heavy breathing of yet another Zarlack nearby. His body froze, but he could feel something going wrong. He felt his leg starting to tremble, slowly and mostly inside what once was his gluteus maximus, now mostly enhanced with nano-powered circuitry. Now was not the time for a malfunction! But he could feel the trembling grow. He knew from experience, soon he would lose control of his augmented leg and that could be the end of him! Without hesitating, he grabbed a small knife from one of his pockets and jammed it where he knew the control wiring met his remaining old muscle nerves. The resulting pain was excruciating but he managed not to scream, though his head started ringing and his vision started to blur. He felt the oncoming rush of darkness. There was nothing he could do to prevent it now. He lost consciousness.
22
Tar’Lock looked at Ryonna across the shuttle, watching her blue knuckles on the throttle. They were going somewhere in what was once Nevada to find the man that Nina had identified as her handler. All they had was a name and an address. Paul Trichson: a name with a deceptively empty file. Ryonna had not spoken a word for quite a while when Tar’Lock decided to break the silence.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Ryonna spat, clearly a little on edge.
“If you say so.”
“I’m sorry, Tar’Lock, I’m just preoccupied. We’ll need to be careful when we land. This person could be extremely dangerous. And we need him alive.”
“Somehow I doubt he is half as dangerous as you can be. As for him staying alive, perhaps you’ll want to remind yourself of that, in the heat of things? Your habits do seem fierier than mine.”
She cast him a warm smile and he smiled back. Of course Tar’Lock was correct. Ryonna knew full well she had a temper, and that it sometimes got the best of her. She laughed inwardly at the juxtaposition. She was definitely not used to making friends easily, yet it kept on happening... Both Chase and Tar’Lock had been so helpful in her quest to save her son, and she was extremely grateful. She was interrupted in her train of thoughts.
“Do you have a plan?” asked Tar’Lock, cautiously.
“Not really. We need to find this Trichson character and make him talk, see if he is behind all this. Or maybe he’s just another pawn, working for yet another shadow we’ll have to cast light upon. What’s certain is, we need to find who is behind these attacks and make them stop. For the time being not much info has bl
ed to the public. But if these attacks continue, the Earthlings might wonder if the alliance they made was the right choice.”
“I think the Alliance has good values, better than Obsidian. But that isn’t difficult, I guess.”
“The Obsidian are conquerors. They take everything they want by force, and destroy whomever stands in their path. What worries me is the fact that they’re acting as the pawns of the Zarlacks, though. If a force as powerful as Obsidian could be enslaved so quickly, then the Zarlacks are a real threat. I think my people came to the same conclusion, and that’s why they are joining the Alliance.”
“From what I understood from our briefing with General Adams, I thought most criminals left Earth. I guess I’m wondering why this is all happening.”
“Well, the Olympians gave everyone a choice between two paths. But that doesn’t mean everyone followed directions. I’m sure some people decided to make their own choices, bend the rules. As for why: Earth has seen a tremendous amount of change in a short time. That can be scary! People tend to do irrational things when they are afraid.”
“I guess. Looks like we are approaching the coordinates given to us.”
“So we are. Commencing landing procedures.”
The shuttle landed on top of a building, nor far from where this Trichson lived. They exited the shuttle and proceeded down through the building and through the streets towards their target building. A quick look at mailboxes in the entrance corridor told them that Paul Trichson lived on the seventh floor. They took the elevator and soon arrived in front of their target’s flat.
“Now what?” said Tar’Lock.
Ryonna clicked the doorbell.
“Is that wise?” inquired Tar’Lock.
Nothing happened. She swore she saw some light change in the peephole. She rang again. A deafening explosion rocked the hall. A hole had been blasted through the door, and sent them scrambling to the ground for cover. She whispered over at Tar’Lock, “Are you okay?”
“Better than you, apparently,” Tar’Lock hissed, pointing a finger at her abdomen.
She’d been grazed by whatever had blasted a hole in the door. A bit of blood was flowing from the wound, but her armor had taken the brunt of it.
“I’m fine. This is superficial. Stay down and I’ll deal with this.”
“Be careful.”
She took her blaster, set it to stun and kicked the door open. It broke easily. She took cover behind the wall.
“Wait...” said Tar’Lock.
“What is it?”
“I’m faster than you. Let me do a visual check.”
She nodded.
Tar’Lock quickly passed in front of the open door in a split second.
“I don’t see anyone.”
That was all Ryonna needed to know. She entered the flat with her weapon at the ready. She quickly scanned the main room and moved to the next. As she stepped to the next room she tripped on an invisible wire at foot level and heard a barely audible click. Tar’Lock didn’t hesitate an instant. At full speed he charged towards Ryonna, pushing her out of the way of an exploding grenade just in the nick of time.
A second later a tall man leaned carefully into the room from a far doorway, with a shotgun pointed right at Ryonna. She’d lost her grip on her blaster during the explosion, momentarily stunned. But before he could fire the weapon pointed at her head, it was snagged from his hands by Tar’Lock. Ryonna located her blaster nearby, jumped to get a clear shot and fired freely at the man. His face was all surprise and pain as he hit the ground with a loud thud.
“That was close,” said Tar’Lock.
“Too close. Thanks for the assist back there.”
“I must admit I did not like that clicking noise. The rest was pure instinct.”
Ryonna hated to admit it but she had clearly underestimated her foe. She had acted rashly. If it hadn’t been for Tar’Lock’s super speed and keen reflexes, she could have been hurt or even killed. She snorted in frustration, removing shrapnel embedded in her body armor.
They got up and dropped the unconscious man on a nearby chair. Ryonna changed a setting on her blaster and fired at the man. An energy lasso encircled both his arms and the chair. With a second shot, she bound his legs. A few minutes later he awoke and panicked, with crackling blue energy restraining his every movement. The more he fought, the tighter and more painful the pulsating grip became.
Ryonna walked towards her prisoner and got down on one knee, so she could look him straight in the eyes. He avoided her eyes, instead scanning his surroundings, trying to see if there was anything he could do. Seeing there was nothing to be done, exasperated and clearly in pain, he finally looked back at Ryonna. She hadn’t said a word yet.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Why did you attack us?”
“Have you been in front of a mirror lately?”
“Is it standard procedure for pathetic creatures like you to shoot what you don’t know?”
“Pretty much,” said the man arrogantly.
Ryonna snapped her fingers in front of him and that clearly startled the man. She knew right there he would break easily, much easier than the poor soul he’d brainwashed to destroy the EAD Hope.
“Let’s be clear: I don’t want to lose any more time. Your little stunts have immensely reduced my patience already, which isn’t that great on the best of days. You hired a woman named Nina to blow up a ship in orbit… Why?”
“Go fuck your—”
Ryonna didn’t wait. She anchored one leg on the chair and swung her right fist at the man’s face before he could finish his sentence.
Blood splattered against the wall from the force of the punch, which nearly knocked him unconscious.
“Let’s try this again?” Ryonna proposed with a growl.
He spat three teeth to the ground.
“Or what?” said the man, with very little confidence in his voice, his head still buzzing from the punch.
“Believe me… You don’t want to know what I’m capable of doing to you.”
Tar’Lock took one step and added, “You’d better talk. I’ve seen her pissed before; I have no doubt she’ll rip your arms out of your sockets if you don’t start talking.”
He cast a look at Tar’Lock, then a warier eye at Ryonna.
“Very well,” said Ryonna, before raising her hand again.
“Alright, alright, let’s calm the fuck down.”
“Talk! Now!”
“I was hired to do a job. They gave me a lot of money.”
“Money has been abolished, what good is it for?”
“Well, for one thing there’s still a black market in place. Just because the Alliance came to Earth doesn’t mean everyone wants this no-money crap way of living, thank you very much! And perhaps if we kill enough of you, you may decide we’re not worth the effort and get the hell out of our world. So let’s just call it an investment in our future.”
“At the moment, yours looks bleak,” Ryonna warned, losing patience.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t bet on my chances either. Nonetheless, if you let me live I will tell you all I know.”
“Who hired you?”
“I don’t know.”
Ryonna growled.
“I swear. I got paid a huge amount of bitcoins on the shadow net. I got enough of them to buy myself a small country. So when they told me to find a way to blow up the ship, I just used my computer skills to locate someone who had lost somebody close. Last time ships were battling in orbit, we lost a good number of souls down here… So I knew I could find somebody with a grudge, who might jump at the chance to do the job for me. With a little digging I was able to find someone who already worked on the orbital shipyard, and I saw the opportunity to earn my treasure. I should never have met that bitch here though. That was a rookie mistake. It’s the first time I did something like this.”
“How do you get in contact with whomever hired you?”
“I don’t. They told me this was a one-
time thing. They insisted I have no way of contacting them in order to protect themselves. So they created a thread on a seemingly abandoned forum on shadow net, and then deleted the thread shortly after.”
“If that’s all you can give us, you’d better give me a good reason not to kill you.”
“Don’t kill me! I told you everything I know!” said the man, with clear panic in his voice.
“Then think. And think fast.”
“I suppose there must be enough information on my laptop’s browser cache for you to try and run a trace to locate whomever did this on the shadow net. Plus, since they gave me that laptop, perhaps they left other info on it. I didn’t manage to access all of its storage.”
Ryonna looked at Tar’Lock. “Do you understand what he’s saying? Should I throw him out the window?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… no! Take my laptop. It’s in the next room on my bed. It’s the only thing I can offer you. If I knew who my contact was, believe me I would tell you!”
His face was dripping blood as he spoke.
“Something doesn’t add up. How come you had the place booby trapped?”
“That was part of my orders. I was to make sure that if someone came looking, I’d try and eliminate them. The shotgun, grenade and laptop, as well as plans on how to install the booby trap, were all enclosed in a package of instructions I received. I almost blew myself up installing the thing. I’m a computer geek, not a terrorist.”
“Seems to me you’re part of the movement.”
“While I don’t agree with their methods, I must admit they have a point.”
“Which is?”
“Since the Alliance came to Earth, our lives have been changed so fast we didn’t even get time to realize what was happening. Some of us feel like we lost our freedom. And I for one preferred my life the way it was before. Sure the system was rotten and unfair sometimes, but it was ours, it was our reality. How arrogant is this Alliance—coming to our world and suddenly telling us we’re inferior, that we must change our ways? Fuck that! Our way of life was ours to decide!”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 69
