“Should I override, sir?”
“No, leave it there. I don’t want to give anything away, to the humans or those they are going to meet.”
“Yes, sir. I have the files on the refinery, sir. It is a known location for one of the local gangs, relatively minor in their activities, mostly indentured individuals forced to work as miners to extract what little of value they can from the planetoid. They use the refinery but only infrequently. Sir, I would surmise that the humans are being led there to either be forced to provide the gang with resources or be killed for their gear.”
“I agree, lieutenant.”
The officer didn’t seem concerned by the lack of empathy that Obragon Vax showed; the Domum of Manor Vax was not known for being terribly emotional, after all.
“And sir, protocol dictates that I point out that we cannot monitor them within the refinery. Our software is stopped at the docking port. Even our priority surveillance tag on the humans will not connect with the refinery network unless we give it an override.”
“Yes, lieutenant, I am aware of that. Do not override.”
“Yes, sir.”
The commander and his officer watched the short discussion that the humans had with the Jascalian before two of their number left the docking room with it. The other three remained standing in a cluster a few meters away from the door to the idle carriage.
“They seem to have a knack for finding trouble. I want to see how they handle it.”
Automated log update.
Subjects have proceeded to a sample of the Devourer organism.
Actions taken by the subjects did not lead them to the park where several of the organisms are present. The unexpected deviation was created by a tangent source of information that approached the subjects in their explorations.
Verification of the Devourer organism as present along this course of action has negated the need for interference.
Analysis of the situation takes into account scans of the refinery marked in file. Structure interior and occupants details gathered over the Puzzle Box network and concludes that the threat of violence reaches positive status.
Mission parameters are confirmed within safety margins should the subjects manifest latent capabilities. At this stage, the threat level is not above the mission requirements.
Monitoring continues.
* *
“Spill it, Ormond.”
He had been concentrating on the route they were being led along and so didn’t quite register Lekiso’s mental tone over the private comm channel. When he glanced at the display inside his vision, he saw that she was on a subchannel, utterly closed between the two of them.
“What’s on your tits, luv?” he asked, still trying to keep his attention on the route, checking side passages and counting steps quietly inside his head.
I should not have said that, I do not think she will get the colloquialism.
So far, the Jascalian had led them away from the big room they had docked in, along a passageway that had then turned a few times before going up some stairs. Then there had been some more turns.
From what he remembered of the outside, this structure was big enough to have some serious leg room.
When Lekiso answered him she clearly ahd not appreciated his question.
“There’s no way you are just some homeless bum. Not with your attitude and training. Come on, Ormond, a man on the street, doesn’t just pick up those kinds of skills, I don’t care how dangerous the streets you come from are.”
Ormond just flicked a glance her way and ignored her.
From bad to worse, we are going to keep rubbing each other up the wrong way unless we do something about it.
She scowled for a moment and seemed to rethink her approach.
“Okay, try it like this. We are five humans very far from home with only each other to rely on, right?” Lekiso didn’t wait for him to answer.
“Any military setup knows that the members of a team need to be able to rely on each other. They need to trust each other closer than any family in life or death situations.”
“Hunh, you think we can trust this lot we bin saddled with, then?”
“I do. You’ve been observing them for as long as I have. You probably have even better judgment than I do. You tell me, are any of them deadweight?” She wasn’t looking at him, but he could feel the question burning into his conscience.
It had been a long time since he had worked with anyone, never mind a whole team of people.
But the skills and experience were there.
“Naw, okay. They seem to be a good lot, the bunch of ’em. Not sure about the combat situations I’d put them in, but they could handle their own in a tight spot, ’cept for Marc, of course. We couldn’t leave him with a rough kid, let alone a soldier.”
They had just gone up two flights of steps, putting them three levels above where the magnetic carriage had dropped them off.
Lekiso continued: “So if we are going to get through this, we need to pool our resources, use every advantage we have. I plan to have a talk about some more of the backgrounds the other three have when we get another quiet moment that these damn memory implants don’t drive us unconscious with.
“But in the meantime, you and me, we are heading into what may be a really tough situation. And we need to know what we can both do, right?”
He couldn’t really argue with that logic.
She was still talking fairly typical officer one-on-one stuff, but the reason they taught it was because it made sense.
Time to stick out me hand.
“Yeah, ok. So, I’ve been somewhat reticent to give you all my credentials, okay. Don’t take offense, but I’ve gotten used to keeping myself to myself. But yeah, I’ve got experience, been in the good old army, been in the SAS too, then the SRS, and then out under the wing of the Secret Service for queen and country too.”
Ormond heard Lekiso take an indrawn breath in surprise.
“Don’t be taking it too seriously, now. I’m way out of practice, and this ain’t exactly my own back yard here.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay. Me neither. But that’s quite some extensive background. Want to give me some insight before we arrive at this meeting of ours?” Lekiso asked with some respect leaking in over the channel.
Ormond smiled to himself.
For all of her talk and taking command, she was still relatively green.
Not to the military life, no, he was confident she had been exposed to that in some middle-African child soldier kind of way. It would explain her character. But she was new to all the training, still working her way up in an official military organization.
“Sure thing, boss lady. First: I’m gonna say I am sorry for giving you lip, I really shouldn’t be. The second thing is: let Connor coordinate.”
“Hey? Why him?” She sounded genuinely puzzled.
“‘Cause the big man has run teams before. It’s in his nature. You and me, we get things done, but the big man, he makes sure that the separate pieces all come together like.” Ormond really hoped she went along with it.
He didn’t want to be the one supervising the five of them, way out of his comfort zone.
She wants to be an officer, that’s where all her push comes from. Problem is she aint one yet, which means I should be more understanding and behave less like an ass thinking she is already a know it all bastard senior rank.
Ormond stated his mental exercises again, back to the basics, who would have thought”
“Uh,” Lekiso started, then she smiled. “Damn. Now I sound like Marc. Yeah, Ormond, okay, I’ll go with it.”
“Good, put us back on the main com channel. Let me speak to everyone.”
* *
Connor got a good look around after the Jascalian left.
The carriage rose vertically up from the magnetic hoops into a large docking area with a platform, much like a train station. The passenger carriage that they had ridden in on filled little of the available
space, so Connor could see that the cargo carriages that would come for the refined metals were at least seven times larger.
The platform itself extended four dozen feet back from where the carriage waited, and several carriage lengths to either side. Set on rails that were bolted onto the platform floor were large metal cylinders, each one three times the size of the carriage itself.
Pipes were coming down from the ceiling that looked like they could extend down onto similar valves on top of each cylinder.
Having worked in smelting refineries, Connor could assimilate the knowledge implanted in his head, with the interface to analyze and guide him. It was clear that the cylinders on their rails would be filled with the molten metal refined through the rest of the structure.
They would then move along the tracks to connect with and fill up the cargo carriages, which would rise up into the docking area.
Connor’s scans indicated that the metal tanks were all empty. Each one weighed in at several tons, and they moved on the rails using a magnetic lift, much like the carriages in principle, although Connor could relate better to the magnetic levitation trains and monorails of Earth.
The three humans waited on the platform just outside the carriage; the others had left them through a door to Connor’s right.
Although they did have company.
Connor was just assessing the two Jascalians hanging around the platform when the private channel opened up, and Ormond spoke to him.
“Hey, mate, you listening?”
Connor was coming to understand Ormond’s particular way of starting a conversation.
“Yes, Ormond, what’s up?
“Our boss lady has convinced me that you should be our boss man instead. I think she just wants to get rid of the ribbing I give her, but hey.”
“Ormond!” That was Lekiso.
Now Marc and Meriam were also listening carefully.
“Right, right, okay. Let me get to the point real quick, then, because I have a lot to explain before this goes down.”
That didn’t make Connor feel any better, but then it wasn’t as though he hoped that Ormond would have immediate answers. Obviously, the two of them had come to some kind of understanding.
Which would help reduce the friction in the team.
Team?
Ormond continued on the heels of Connor’s thinking.
“So, we can all just catch up and discuss our own little secrets later, okay? For now, let me get it out in the open. I have been in the military and quite a bit more. Serious black ops kind of shit, okay, but I was still a bum on the streets for more than a year now, so give me a bit to get back on my game, alright?”
Ha! Connor was pleased that he hadn’t been wrong about the European man. It was always nice to get your suspicions confirmed.
Still, now didn’t seem like the right time.
“Okay, sure. So you’re also a lethal weapon like Lekiso. Why tell me now?”
“Well, mate, this whole deal thing was iffy from the get-go, but since we arrived, it’s been getting a whole lot smellier. I’ll know soon depending on our reception, but things could get real messy real quick. And that’s why we need you in charge.”
That surprised the hell out of Connor.
“What?! Why me?”
“See, me and Lekiso, and she makes the point herself, alright? We are like two tactical weapons, soldiers able to take care of ourselves and lead the good fight, right?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Meriam and Marc were looking quite keen to see where the conversation was headed. Connor wasn’t so sure he liked it, though.
“So, when we are in the thick of it, we need someone to be calling the shots, someone who can see the bigger picture and make decisions that we don’t know the options for. It’s simple enough, mate. Strategic officers aren’t on the front lines of a battle because all the action and details would just confuse them. So, you need to be like our command center, right?”
“Yeah, but I’ve lead construction, teams, some rescue, the unions, not military operations!” Connor was surprised, but he also felt something coming together here.
I did say team, a team can make it through this.
“Sure, mate, and that’s great because you’re kinda used to giving instructions and expecting results. Take a look at Marc and Meriam.”
Connor couldn’t help but look over at the two of them standing close by.
“Mate, they are support if this is a team of experts. Considering that, it’s most likely we are all here because we can fit certain roles and all contribute to a team, see?”
“Okay, I can get that,” Connor replied. “No offense, you two.”
“Uh, none taken?”
“It’s okay. I think I get it,” Meriam said softly, with another smile and this time it seemed less guarded than the times since they woke up.
Connor gave them both a relieved look.
“Okay, Ormond, you want me to coordinate what happens depending on the plan, right?”
“You got it, mate.”
“Connor, it’s important that we have someone who pulls us all in the same direction, especially if we need to work together to get out of trouble.” Lekiso sounded very serious.
“The two of us can fight our way out, but someone has to tell us where to go and where the rest of you will be so that we can meet up properly. We need you to coordinate not just our actions, but everyone’s survival.”
Now that was intimidating.
Sure, he had arranged safety construction as part of a job and looked after workers so that they could get home to their families, but a live-fire scenario had never been his thing. He’d done the pit fighting to earn extra money to pay off his girlfriend’s debts, but that was his life at risk.
This, this was a different ballgame entirely.
They needed the best chance.
He’d been silent on the channel, with a concerned expression, so Meriam spoke to him. “Connor, you’re the one best suited to do this. In this situation, I can add information about the situation and help to protect Marc. You need to be looking over our shoulders and seeing what everything means. Ormond is right. So is Lekiso. Out of all five of us, you are the best suited.”
“Uh, yeah. I think you are too.”
Marc was flustered. Connor could see the small man was letting the anxiety get to him.
That’s when it hit him: they were all lost, not just him.
All of them were very far from home, and the only thing they had to rely on that was familiar at all was each other. He’d served in the military when he was young, a short tour just in and out, but he remembered the necessary teamwork you had with your squad mates, the reliance you had to foster with each other to trust each other with your lives.
Here they were, their lives had been snatched away, and they were only living because they were still breathing. The situation was terrible, but it could get a lot worse, and unless they all worked together, then they really could die without answers, without anyone to know about it, with no chance to get back home.
Connor understood then that he really did need to help them all pull together.
In his own way, Ormond was trying to tell him that they would all listen to him. Connor realized they would work together: uptight Lekiso with her kind nature burdened with serious baggage; Ormond and his emotional pain that put a wall up against everyone so he could push them away; Meriam, the survivor, with the hidden compassion; and Marc, the loner, who just didn’t know what to do with people who could get too close.
They all had their issues, but whatever had brought them here had worked out that they could work together and had planned out how they would support each other.
So be it, he thought. I’ll take care of them.
“Okay, everyone, let’s do this. Share what you are seeing, please.” As they gave him their feeds, he shunted them around to the periphery of his display. Concentrating on the basics, he started to build up a simple set of things h
e needed to know.
“Marc, scan around, and find any working networks and data channels, and monitor their communications if they have any, but don’t break in. Meriam, see if you can scan around and find out how many aliens are out there.”
“Try and get a map for us too,” Lekiso said over a subchannel.
“Thanks.” Connor meant it. Already, she was giving advice, but outside of their main channel so that he didn’t get undermined.
She knew what she was doing.
He said over the public com, “Marc, dig up some data, find a map of this place, and see what you can do with it to show where we are relative to each other.”
“Ormond?” He waited for a reply and asked, “Any advice for the three of us?”
“Glad you asked, mate. Did you get a good look around since we left?”
“Yeah, I did. We have two Jascalians hanging around, and one of them is literally hanging from a bar near the ceiling.” Connor looked at Marc, who seemed eager to say something.
“Uh, they aren’t armed, at least not with anything dangerous, just some tools.”
“Thanks, Marc. Ormond?”
“Yeah, I scanned them as we were leaving. Doesn’t mean that they won’t do anything if this goes down the wrong way, though. They probably know the station systems and technology a lot better than we do.”
“Sure, I get that,” Connor said.
“Good, now, check the exits. Aside from the carriage itself, there was the door we went out of and two more, one off to the far side of the room and one along the other side wall. Exits are also entrances, so any backup those two mechanics get is going to come through there.”
“I see them. So, if things go bad, we make for the gaps between the tanks, gives us cover.”
“You got it, mate.”
“Uh, why not just get back on the carriage?” Marc asked.
“The carriage has only got the one door, but the sides are transparent, and we don’t know how it will take any shots. Also, we don’t want to get in and be whisked away, leaving Ormond and Lekiso to fend for themselves without an exit plan,” Connor replied.
Abductees Page 18
