Delta Fringe Series Boxset: Books 1-3

by Heather Lee Dyer

  “You’re used to doing full shifts in the autopsy room, right?”

  I step back. “Yes, of course. Sometimes twelve or fourteen hours at a time. Why?”

  “Well you only need to do four I think.” He looks at the digital readout beneath his skin. His implant is round, and the red numbers show brightly under his pale skin.

  “You need me to do an autopsy? Now?”

  He snaps the bag open. “No. You are the autopsy. Or rather the body.”

  I take another step back but run up against the freezer doors. “Are you trying to tell me I’m going to be hiding in here among the dead?”

  “You’re not afraid of them are you?” He presses his lips together to keep from laughing.

  “This is your idea? You know it’s much colder in the freezer than in the autopsy rooms, right? What if I freeze to death in here before whoever boards us is done doing their inspections?”

  He stares at me, all signs of humor gone. “That’s why I made sure your dad knew to be ready.”

  “Seriously? You think he knew this was how you were going to hide me?”

  Red just looks at me.

  “Great.” I shove my hands in my pockets. “Did you guys talk about this idea when I wasn’t around? What else did he say?”

  “Nope. This was the first time we’ve talked in many years.” He holds his hands up, offering me the bag.

  I snatch the bag out of his hands. “All right tell me your whole plan, then.”

  “Simple. You hide in here quietly, without moving, pretending to be dead, while the galactic troops search the entire ship. Again.”

  “And what if they check the manifest with the number of bodies? Or open my bag?”

  “The manifest has an extra female on it.” He winks at me. “And do you really think the spoiled galactic soldiers would actually touch a dead body?”

  I chew on the inside of my cheek, as I look around at all the bodies. Each one represents a miner who died in the attack to cover up a secret experiment. “Dad knows your plan because of the number of bodies you told him you had.” I state flatly. “He already had your manifest.”

  “Yep. I hoped he would push aside any hatred in order to trust me to take care of you.”

  I study Red’s face. He’s easier to read now that I know him better, and maybe because he’s not keeping himself in check as much around me.

  “And you hope he understood I’ll be most likely frozen to death before I get to Delta.” I pin him with a glare. I understand this is our only option. I just don’t like it.

  He just stands there and looks apologetic. At least he’s not lying to me.

  I point to the bodies nearest me. “The other bags already have a layer of frost. Mine will look new.”

  He holds up his other hand. In it is a small metal device. “I’ve got it covered. It’s a fogger. It’ll make yours look like it came in with the others.”

  I narrow my eyes at him again and slip off my pack. I’m going to get some serious wrinkles if I keep glaring at people. “And why do you have that? Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

  He shrugs. “Maybe. The less you know the better.” His annoying grin is back. I grind my teeth.

  “What about my pack? I can’t let them find this. I’ve got a lot of research on the galactic commander and the attacks.” And the copy of the data drive.

  “I’ll put it in with your body. Common practice for bodies we’re bringing back to distant family.” He points at the body nearest me. There’s a bulge at the foot of the bag. “Personal effects to give to the families.”

  “How efficient.” I shiver.

  His implant beeps, and he looks down. “They’re almost here, we need to do this now, Brenna.” His voice is softer and not as arrogant when he continues. “You’ll be all right doing this? I’ll do my best to make sure they aren’t on the ship long. And remember your dad is at the other end of this trip. He can resuscitate you in case things go bad.” His expression darkens.

  They even factored in my actual death. My heart races. “Are you sure this is the only way? Won’t the galactic security just meet us at Delta station and find me there?” I sound whiney even to myself.

  “I think once we get you back to Delta, your dad and Derek will have the rest of the information encrypted. Then we’ll know what we’re up against.”

  “We?”

  “Well you kind of got me involved now.” He spreads his hands wide.

  I cringe. “Sorry about that. I’ve been so focused on figuring out what’s going on here I didn’t think about the impact to your business.”

  “I’ve survived worse.” He takes the bag out of my hands and walks toward the far corner of the freezer.

  “You have? Why? If you’re just a businessman, how else could you have caused trouble with the galactic security?”

  “What, you think you’re the only one to mess with the Sol forces?” He laughs and points to an empty bunk.

  I look down and watch as he carefully lays out the body bag. They’re larger than the ones we use — most of our dead don’t have personal effects to bring back to anyone. I look around at the other bodies. Most of them have their name and designations tucked underneath the body. Good, someone would have to touch each body in order to read the nametag. I step close to one and pull the tag out and read that this was one of their mining medics. I frown and turn to Red. “What about Markov? They took him aboard one of the troop ships. How are we going to get him back?” A chill runs through me as the freezing cold starts getting through my thick clothes.

  “I’ve already got a team in place to extract him. He saw everything we saw, so I need to make sure the galactic troops don’t interrogate him.” Red motions for me to lie down.

  I shove my pack to the bottom of the bag. “Team? Extract? Exactly who are you Red to have such people? And Markov is my friend, not just someone to keep quiet.” I clench my fists as the questions tumble out.

  Red smiles and runs his hands up and down my arms to warm me. “That’s a conversation for a different day. But your friend will be safe. Just as you will be. Now, you’ll be able to handle this, right?” He asks again.

  I nod once and sit down.

  “You were raised in one of the deepest and most intricate mines ever built. And yet you were never afraid down in the deep dark. So you’ve got that going for you. And you’re used to the cold from working with both your mom and Dad with autopsies. Right?”

  “Yes.” I tug my jacket snug. “And my clothes have built-in radiant fibers so the cold doesn’t bother me while I take care of the bodies.” I look around at all the miners waiting in frozen silence for my dad and his team.

  “I was counting on that too. Your parents taught you well.” Red helps me lay down, and he starts with the zipper at my feet. “Just think of this as the time when you and your friend got trapped — the one with the jet black hair — what was his name?”

  “Zion.” I smile. “How do you know about him? He was my best friend.”

  “Your mother had me helping look for you two when you wandered too close to one of the old digs and got trapped.”

  The memories come flooding in. Zion and I were trapped almost a whole day behind the collapsed tunnel. We kept each other from freaking out by telling stupid stories. Mine were mostly about flying in space, seeing the stars. Zion wanted to be a scientist. Any kind of scientist. He wanted to do it all. We got through that day, unable to move, trapped by tons of Mars clay, our oxygen running low, and in freezing temperatures. We kept calm and survived. That’s what Red’s asking of me now.

  “Yes,” I choke out. “I can do this. You just get that stupid commander off your ship and me out of this bag as soon as you can.” I lie down inside the thick body bag.

  Red tucks my thick curls underneath my head so they don’t get stuck in the zipper. He slowly zips the zipper up but stops at my chin. “I almost forgot. Here.” He pulls something small out of one of his pockets and unwraps it. He places it in
my mouth. “Warming lozenge. Will keep your throat from drying out in the cold.”

  “Thanks, Red.”

  “Just stay as still as you can once you hear them in here. I promise you’ll be all right. Conserve your energy. These bags are not airtight so you won’t suffocate. Okay, Brenna?”

  My nerves are on fire, and my whole body just wants to jump up out of this bag and run. But I calm myself and focus on Red’s eyes. “Let’s do this.”

  He zips up the rest of the bag over my head, locking me into darkness. I adjust my arms and legs into the most comfortable positions as I can. My feet touch my bag putting me at ease that at least I have my stuff with me. And the data drive. I hear a faint hiss and go completely still knowing Red is using the fogging machine on my bag. I can’t take the chance of moving or rubbing any of it off. I have to look like every other corpse in here.

  I hear Red’s muffled voice. “They’ve attached to our ship, Brenna. I’m going to go meet our galactic commander.” I can hear the bitterness despite the thick bag between us. “Just stay still and trust me, Brenna. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  And then my world goes quiet. Dead quiet really, since I’m the only living thing in this freezer.

  At first I try to just do calming mental exercises, but they just reminds me that I’m zipped up in a body bag in a giant freezer on a morgue ship about to be boarded by a creepy galactic commander.

  So I switch to going over everything I’ve read and learned about the attacks in my head. The attacks didn’t start with Delta. But we got involved because one of our security crew tried to make money on selling data he discovered from the ill-fated Tempest captain. In fact we might’ve not even known about this conspiracy with the new mining tech if it weren’t for Sergeant Scott’s greediness. If all this started way back when my mom was alive, then someone has been trying to perfect this anti-grav mining technique for quite a while.

  And trying to keep it secret.

  But it seems there are too many loose ends and too many people involved. There’s got to be more to all this than just an invention. There’s always been new tech that people are against. I can understand why the miners would be upset about this new mining system. With an AI doing the drilling there wouldn’t be a need to build habitats inside the mines. No need for the hundreds of workers it takes now to dig through an asteroid. Just the machine and a few people to run it, maybe even from a ship in space. Then they just haul out the rocks.

  But these people are doing their experiments in working mines. And it’s the mines and miners being attacked. If it were the miners upset at the tech, they wouldn’t attack their own. Who would they attack? Ash Corp? They’re too big of a conglomerate, where would they start? And if Ash Corp is partnering with the galactic command, why use private couriers?

  Maybe I’m reading more into this whole galactic partner thing than exists. It could be a group of people, say one faction of pirates, just decided to steal this tech, had certain galactic commanders on their side, and then things just got out of hand? I shiver at the thought of the galactic commanders allowing something like this to get out of control. It had to be something big for them to take that chance. More than just creds.

  Through my self-chatter I hear a noise.

  They’re here. Now.

  I shiver.

  I start noticing the cold seeping in through the metal below me and the frigid air above. I will myself not to shiver and not to move. I can feel the heat fibers in my clothing increase in response to my body’s lowering temperature. But the fibers are only capable of heating up to a certain point. The designers of this clothing wouldn’t want their customer’s skin getting burnt while the rest of their body gets frost bite. The parts of my body that are not covered by clothing are starting to feel frozen already. My face especially feels a bit frost bitten. I tuck my hands carefully under my thighs to keep them warmer.

  The doors creak open, and what to me feels like a warm breeze rolls in. I have to stop myself from exhaling in relief. I know it’s not really a warm breeze, but the corridor air is way above freezing and feels good.

  Then the doors are slammed shut, and my reprieve is over as voices can be heard as several people walk down the aisles. I take several good breaths before I hear them coming down my row, then I return to shallow breathing. Although their voices are muted through the bag and my freezing ears aren’t working exceptionally well, I’m pretty sure one of the voices I hear is Commander Guram and the other is Red.

  I can’t be certain but it sounds like there are several other troops walking parallel on the other side of me. My heart races, and no amount of meditation helps me slow it down. I can’t help fear that they will discover me.

  Their footsteps don’t sound like they’re stopping at each and every body. I allow myself a little bit of hope. Maybe they’re just counting bodies to match the manifest. Maybe the commander is just looking for anything out of the ordinary. Thank goodness Red thought to fog the bag. Hopefully my body heat, what’s left of it, doesn’t melt it off.

  And then they stop walking. Right next to me. Red! What are you doing? Half a ship’s worth of freezer space, and you’re stopping here?

  Maybe the commander saw something. I try holding my breath as long as I can before I have to resort to shallow breathing again. My fingers and face hurt so badly from the cold, it’s all I can do not to move in order to get some blood and warmth back.

  My mind is getting sluggish, and I’m having trouble staying awake. I know I need to stay awake since I can’t take the chance of twitching in my sleep.

  I’m trying to remember why I’m here hiding from the commander. Because he’s creepy? Because he knows too much? Or too little? I know there’s a good reason I’m here, so I stay still and awake.

  I can feel the cold seep through my thick curly hair. It’s working its way into my scalp, freezing my whole head. I wonder idly if I’ll get frostbite on my nose. Or ears?

  I hear bits of conversation, and I sense that I want them to go away. Should I tell them to leave? No, that doesn’t seem right. The miner/not miner said to wait here and my dad would get me. That’s right, I’m waiting here for my dad. My mind aches to give into the lull of sleep. It’ll end the pain of the cold.

  Sharp voices nearby startle me. My heart races clearing my mind for a few seconds as I hear the commander and Red yelling at each other. Their voices seem to be getting farther away, or maybe sleep is overcoming me. I’m not sure which. Either way I won’t have to hear the commander again.

  No, Bren you need to stay awake! I bite the inside of my mouth and taste the tangy blood trickle down my throat. Good. Stay awake a bit longer. I strain to hear if anyone is near me. The arguing seems farther away. Yes, toward the door now. I relax my jaw.

  A sudden crash on the other side of me just about has me jumping out of the body bag. There’s still someone here.

  Hoping whoever it was didn’t see me move, I quiet my breathing as much as I can while still trying to stay awake. The quick shot of adrenaline courses through my body.

  I hear Red’s voice yelling and coming toward me fast. He’s right next to me now, and I can hear him berating someone for desecrating his dead friends. The trooper sounds remorseful and hurries off with Red following him swearing and cussing up a storm.

  Relief runs cold through me, but the fact I can’t sense anyone else nearby finally relaxes me a bit. I’m still fuzzy in the head, and now that I’ve relaxed and the adrenaline is leaving, I can feel my consciousness fading as well. None of my body parts work; they’re too frozen. So I listen to the voices recede and give in to the warmth of sleep, slowly sinking into darkness.

  15

  Thawing Out

  I wake up to a sharp pain in my chest. My mind is still groggy, and I try to open my eyes. Several faces look down on me, and I can’t stop my body from shivering. For some reason, they’re all cheering.

  And then I look to my left and see my dad there, and I see the machin
e I’m hooked up to. I try to sit up, but many hands push me back down. I catch my dad’s gaze, but I’m having trouble focusing. I narrow my eyes to concentrate better. “Did you just shock me? Dad?” My voice sounds scratchy and a bit drunk.

  “Yes, Bren. You’re all right now. You were in the cold a little too long, and your heart stopped.” He glares. Not at me, but past me.

  I flop my head the other way and see Red and Derek standing against the wall.

  “Hey,” is all I can think of saying.

  Derek comes over to my side and takes one of my hands. I can see he’s holding it, but I can’t feel it. Enjoy the numbness because next is pins and needles.

  “How are you feeling, Bren?” He leans down close to me so I can focus on his face.

  I look down at my body covered in a heating blanket and then look back at Derek. “Cold.”

  He laughs. “That’s understandable.”

  “Bren, you’re all right now, but this was cutting it too close.” Dad’s voice grates with anger.

  “It was the only way, Dad. Red got me here, didn’t he?” I turn and smile at Red. He looks nervous, not at all like the confident asteroid owning tycoon I experienced earlier. “And the commander didn’t find me, right?” My eyes are tracking much better, and I can see Red is relieved to have something positive to offer.

  “Yes, he didn’t feel at all comfortable around all those dead bodies.” Red grins and gives me a wink.

  “And Markov? Were you able to get him away from the troops?”

  Red makes a face. “Sort of.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We were able to get him away from the galactic troops in the confusion, but he’s still with one of our private couriers. They can’t come back this way to drop him off. He’s headed inward.”