New Frontiers- The Complete Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  “So why the hell didn’t we jump straight to the bridge?” Councilor Markov demanded. “We could have skipped that firefight in the corridor and Audrey might still be alive!”

  “You’d have been trapped in an open room with no cover, where any shots fired could have damaged sensitive equipment that we need to get out of here,” Ben replied. “Ch-va-la knew what he was doing.”

  Markov grunted and looked away.

  “You’d better hurry and get to Esther before she finishes whatever she’s trying to do.”

  A sharp screech interrupted them. Catalina spun around, trying to figure out where it had come from. Another screech. This time it was followed by a distant boom.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “A hull breach,” Alexander said quietly.

  Catalina blinked. “We’re under attack?”

  Screeech!

  Boom!

  “There,” Remo pointed to one side of the circular holoscreen running around the room. A cluster of larger and nearer harvesters were firing on them with fat red beams of light.

  “We’re in trouble,” Desiree said.

  Ch-va-la began chattering in a gasping voice, gesturing wildly to the holo display.

  “Doesn’t this thing have some kind of shields?” Alexander demanded.

  “It has to,” Remo replied. “How else could it get us through the wormhole?”

  Screeech! Screech! B-boom!

  “Then activate them, damn it!” Alexander roared.

  “I’m working on it!” Ben said. “Do something useful, and go find Esther!”

  “You mean go get lost,” Alexander said. “This ship is a lot bigger than the Liberty, and that was already enormous. How are we supposed to know where she is?”

  “I’ll guide you from here.”

  “With the comms offline?”

  Before Ben could answer, the dim red light in the room flickered and died, plunging them into absolute darkness. Each of their helmets glowed blue-white, illuminating their faces and spreading a ghostly glow through the room. Remo, Alexander, and Desiree flicked on their suits’ headlamps, and streams of light cut swaths through the room, illuminating clouds of alien dust, the particles dancing down like snowflakes.

  “Comms are back online now,” Ben said.

  Alexander regarded him with a frown. “With the power offline, doesn’t that mean that portal-jamming field is down, too?”

  Ben nodded gravely, his face awash in the light of Alexander’s headlamps.

  “Maybe that was her plan? Open a portal and toss a bomb into the bridge,” Catalina suggested. She spun in a quick circle, looking for exactly that, but her helmet lamps weren’t on, so she couldn’t see if there was anything rolling around on the bridge with them.

  “Grays don’t have weapons,” Ben said.

  “The hell they don’t—what about those ray guns of theirs?” Remo asked.

  “Those are welding torches,” Ben said. “The Grays were a peaceful race.”

  A distant boom shivered through the deck.

  “Then how are they shooting us?” Alexander asked.

  “Mining beams,” Ben said.

  Remo barked a laugh. “I don’t care if you call them feather dusters, they’ll still burn our asses off.”

  Ben shrugged. “They don’t use explosives—not in my experience at least, so that means we’re safe as long as a few of you stay behind to guard Ch-va-la and me.”

  “What about those other ships?” Alexander asked. “Can’t they open portals to send reinforcements aboard?”

  Ben appeared to consider that. “They could...” Another hull breach rumbled through the deck.

  “But?”

  “I think the Entity is afraid of us. We cured three and killed all the Grays on board. She’d rather destroy the ship than risk more of her people. That means the cure we used will die with us.”

  “So will she,” Alexander said.

  “I don’t think she—it—cares. The Entity isn’t any one person. It’s all of them.”

  “If the power’s out, how do we still have gravity?” Remo asked.

  Ben turned and directed the question to Ch-va-la. The alien muttered something unintelligible.

  “He says artificial gravity and life support run on their own dedicated power supply, independent of the ship’s non-critical systems.”

  Remo snorted. “I guess it would be asking too much for them to have powered emergency lighting from that power supply.”

  Ben shrugged. “Who’s staying and who’s going?”

  “I’ll stay,” Remo said.

  “Me, too,” Desiree added.

  “I’m going,” Markov said, his head lamps flicking on as he finally figured out how to use them.

  “I’ll go, too,” Alexander added.

  Catalina glanced around the shadowy bridge and said, “Likewise.” She’d feel safer with Alexander around.

  Ben turned to Ch-va-la. “Can you help us get there?”

  The alien stepped to one side of the group and opened a portal to some other part of the ship.

  “We’ll still need a guide,” Markov said.

  Jessica nodded. “Tell me how to get to her and I’ll lead them.”

  Ch-va-la chattered at her for a handful of seconds.

  “Got it,” she said. “Ready?” she asked, turning to them. Alexander and Markov nodded, and all three of them started for the portal.

  Catalina blinked. “Wait! How do I turn on my headlamps?”

  “Activate headlamps,” Alexander said.

  Catalina tried that. It worked. “I should have thought of that,” she said.

  “There’s a lot going on,” Alexander replied. “You’re distracted.”

  The portal flashed as Jessica and Markov stepped through. Alexander stopped at the threshold and turned to regard her. “You should stay here.”

  “And let that thing kill you? Not a chance.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Alexander replied. “I was in the Navy. I’m trained to fight. You aren’t.”

  Catalina shook her head. “You’re wasting time. We can’t let Markov go after her alone.”

  Alexander frowned. “Stay behind me, then.”

  “Sure,” Catalina lied.

  Alexander looked unconvinced, but there was no time to argue.

  He stepped through the portal. It flashed bright as the sun, and she walked into the light.

  CHAPTER 26

  Ben’s voice crackled to them over the comms. “Everyone switch to this channel. No need to use external speakers anymore.”

  Catalina surprised herself by managing to select the right options from her HUD without any help from Alexander.

  Jessica led the way with Markov close on her heels. It wasn’t even a minute before they reached a dead end. If there was a door there, it wouldn’t open for them, and Ch-va-la wasn’t there to assist.

  “We’ll have to blow it open,” Jessica said.

  “No problem,” Markov replied, already taking aim with his cannons. “Stand back.”

  “Wait!” Alexander said. “You can’t use cannons to blow open a door. The rounds could ricochet and hit one of us. Let me do it. Everyone step back.”

  Jessica and the others backed away from the end of the corridor, and even Alexander backed up by a dozen paces or so. Once he was in position, rocket pods slid up out of his suit’s shoulders, and Catalina held her breath.

  Two rockets jetted out with a noisy krrsshh, trailing thin white exhaust plumes. They hit the end of the corridor with a deafening bang! and a burst of light.

  As the smoke cleared, Catalina saw that there was now a ragged hole in the previously sealed end of the corridor.

  “Let’s go,” Alexander said. Markov went clanking ahead at full speed, not bothering with silent running.

  Catalina walked up beside Alexander, passing Jessica along the way. The little girl made no move to follow. Her job was done.

  “Esther’s dead ahead,” Alexander said, po
inting.

  Pling. Catalina remembered her sonar. She’d grown so used to it that she’d begun to tune out the sound and ignore those racing green waves of light. Now she focused on them once more. She couldn’t see the light penetrate the smoke swirling in the ragged hole Alexander had blown, but she did see a fuzzy green silhouette appear in the distance.

  “Stay behind me,” Alexander said, setting out at a cautious pace, his exosuit whispering as he crept down the corridor.

  Catalina crept along behind him.

  Pling. The fuzzy green silhouette reappeared a few feet over from where it had been, and a long, chilling scream reverberated over the comms.

  Markov!

  Alexander froze in the smoke-clouded hole he’d blasted. He held up a closed fist, and she stopped behind him.

  Catalina waited, her heart thudding in her chest.

  “Markov?” she tried, whispering over the comms.

  But there was no reply.

  “He’s down,” Alexander whispered back.

  Catalina saw the green silhouette move again, and this time it got smaller, moving farther away.

  “How did she take him out so fast?”

  Alexander shook his head. He waited a few more beats.

  Pling. Esther’s silhouette reappeared, now even further away.

  Alexander raised his arm in another gesture, but this time Catalina couldn’t intuit its meaning.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Cover the door. I’m going to go take a look.”

  Like hell, she thought. She waited for him to go on ahead, disappearing through the ragged opening, and then she followed quietly behind him.

  “I thought I told you to cover the door,” he said.

  “How...”

  “Top right of the HUD. The transparent circle.”

  Catalina spied a circle with a bright green dot and two yellow ones in it. She didn’t understand how to read it, but she assumed the green dot had to be Alexander. It was inching slowly toward the top of the circle where one of the yellow dots was.

  Catalina studied the room beyond the door. Dead ahead was a giant glossy black sphere with a catwalk crossing out to it. A domed ceiling soared high above that sphere. Alexander crept across the catwalk, his headlamps revealing that the catwalk was broken in the middle, leaving a shadowy gap over an uncertain abyss. The edges of the catwalk were blackened, as if from a fire—or a welding torch, Catalina thought. Councilor Markov was nowhere to be seen, but it was a good bet that he was lying at the bottom somewhere.

  As Catalina followed Alexander across the catwalk to the spherical structure in the center of the room, she realized that Esther had to be hiding behind it, doing who knew what. Alexander reached the gap, and the catwalk groaned under his weight.

  Catalina froze and peered over the railing. Bad idea. It was at least a dozen floors down. Her headlamps barely illuminated the bottom. “Alex, be careful,” she said. “It’s a long way down.”

  “Don’t worry,” he replied.

  Suddenly the catwalk bounced up and down like a springboard, and she looked up to see Alexander land on the other side of the gap with a boom.

  “Stay there. I’m going to get Esther,” he said.

  Catalina wanted to object, but she saw how the two sides of the catwalk were bent where Alexander had jumped and landed, and she was afraid it would collapse if she jumped across, too.

  “Ben?” Catalina tried.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “We’re in pursuit. Councilor Markov is dead.”

  Ben didn’t reply immediately. Then he said, “Be careful.”

  A redundant suggestion if ever there was one. What else would they be?

  Alexander came on the comms next. “Ben, she’s cut a hole into the central structure—some kind of sphere. I’m standing in front of it, and radiation readings are spiking. My suit should be able to take it, but I don’t know for how long. I assume this is the ship’s reactor, and she compromised the radiation shielding by cutting into it like that. Any idea what she’s doing?”

  Ben took another moment to reply. “She’s trying to scuttle the ship! There are three layers of containment. If she cuts through all three of them she’ll blast us back to our constituent atoms.”

  “Understood,” Alexander replied. “I’m following her in.”

  “Hold on. Alexander, according to my calculations you’ve got thirty seconds. After that no amount of radiation treatment will save you.”

  “I’ll be fast. Start the clock,” Alexander said.

  “What?!” Catalina screamed. “Alex, you can’t do that!”

  “If he doesn’t, we’re all going to die,” Ben replied.

  “Keep this channel clear,” Alexander hissed. “I’m going in.”

  “Roger,” Ben replied.

  Catalina stared at the reactor core, wide-eyed and speechless. Without giving it a second thought, she leapt across the gap in the catwalk and landed on the other side. The catwalk behind her gave a shriek of over-fatigued metal and she turned to watch as it fell away, collapsing to the side of the chamber with a reverberating boom, as if to punctuate the fact that they’d just crossed the point of no return.

  CHAPTER 27

  Alexander switched off his headlamps, opting to activate infrared and light amplification instead. There was almost no light to amplify—just a ghostly green glow coming from inside the reactor core. Alexander crept through the hole in the outer circumference of the reactor core.

  The outermost containment layer was hollow. Alexander slunk around the core, keeping a close eye on the rapidly spiking radiation counts while he activated and armed his exosuit’s rockets and cannons in preparation. He wasn’t even going to give Esther a chance to blink.

  As Alexander rounded the core, he began to hear a sharp sizzling noise. Esther was already cutting through the second containment layer.

  The sizzling abruptly stopped, and radiation counts spiked once more.

  She was through.

  Alexander winced. Sweat beaded his brow, inching toward his nose. Radiation levels were already far past lethal. He would just have to trust that his suit could protect him.

  He reached another molten hole in the core, and was just about to charge through to the second containment layer when he felt a wave of heat wash through him. He ducked to one side of the opening and waited. His skin prickled and stung, and smoke shivered off his armor. He counted to five in his head and then poked his head around the corner.

  This time nothing happened. Esther had moved on. He couldn’t let her cut through that last containment layer. Alexander disabled silent running and ran through the opening. Esther came into view, and another wave of heat hit him. Her aim was off and she hit his leg. A searing pain blistered his skin. He gritted his teeth and let her have it, firing both cannons simultaneously.

  The searing pain eased as Esther fell and lost her aim. Residual, stinging echoes of that agony throbbed through his body.

  Alexander walked up to Esther. She lay grinning up at him, leaking blood from a dozen holes in her torso. “You can’t kill me!” she shrieked. “But I can kill you!” A long, rifle-shaped object swung up from the deck, glaring at him with a broad black dish.

  Alexander didn’t even hesitate. He fired again at point blank range, and her body jumped and jittered as if from a seizure. Not taking any chances, he pumped her so full of bullets that she looked like a honeycomb.

  Alexander regarded her corpse with a mixture of disgust and righteous satisfaction. “Guess you spoke too soon.”

  The crackling and clicking sound of a Geiger counter brought Alexander back from that moment of victory, reminding him where he was. He turned and ran back the way he’d come, desperate to get out of the reactor before it was too late.

  * * *

  Catalina stood outside the hole in the outermost layer of the reactor, heedless of the radiation pouring out.

  “Alexander!” she said, screaming at him over the co
mms for the umpteenth time.

  But there was no reply.

  “Why isn’t he answering?” Catalina demanded.

  “The shielding inside the core might be blocking comm signals,” Ben said.

  “Might be?”

  Ben kept silent, not mentioning the other alternative.

  “I’m going in to check on him.”

  “Wait. Give him another minute.”

  “Another minute? How long has it been?”

  “Seventy two seconds.”

  “You said after thirty seconds nothing could save him!” Catalina screamed.

  “Nothing I know of. The Grays have more advanced medicine than we do. Ch-va-la may be able to help him.”

  A blind alien burn victim was going to save Alexander from a painful death by radiation poisoning. “And what about him? Who’s going to save Ch-va-la?”

  Catalina heard something—cl-clank clank, cl-clank clank, cl-clank clank...

  Alexander came running toward her, limping. He almost knocked her over in his hurry to get out of the core, but she stepped aside and he sailed into the catwalk railings instead.

  “You’re hurt!” Catalina said, rushing over to him so she could study his leg. His thigh armor was a lumpy black mess.

  “She’s dead,” Alexander said, gasping for air over the comms. “How long was I in there?”

  “Too long,” Ben replied.

  “So...” Alexander trailed off, and his gaze found hers through their helmets.

  “The Grays will be able to help you,” Catalina said. “Right, Ben?”

  “Right,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. “But first we need to get the power back on and get out of here, or we’re all going to die. There’s a control room on the other side of the reactor chamber. Meet us there.”

  Catalina looked around the spherical chamber, trying to decide what the other side might be.

  “Over there,” Alexander pointed to the catwalk opposite the one they’d already crossed. He limped toward it, and she followed, watching her husband with growing concern.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Besides a few minor burns, not bad—not yet, anyway. I have a few hours before symptoms start to show.”