by Finn Gray
“What is happening?” Gwen shouted over the din.
“I think I broke it,” Teddy said.
The columns encircling the pool began to sputter. Crackles of energy burst forth.
“What do we do?” Smoke shouted.
A metallic shriek drowned out Teddy’s reply. He looked up and his eyes went wide.
“Move!” He shoved the two pilots away and then scrambled backward. He barely made it before a chunk of the dome came crashing down on the spot where he had lain a moment before.
“The whole place is going to come down!” Gwen dodged another chunk of flying debris.
Teddy could not have agreed more. “Let’s get the hells out of here!”
The trio sprang to their feet and began to run. Their movements seemed to be in slow motion as the intense blue light continued to flicker.
Up above, the shriek of buckling metal intensified. Teddy dodged to the side as a bolt the size of his forearm crashed to the ground.
They mounted the metal stairs that led up to the observation deck. The entire structure shook with their every step as the mounts that held it in place were torn free from the wall. They reached the top just as the stairs tore free and fell away.
“Help! I’m slipping!”
Teddy turned to see Smoke dangling from the edge of the deck. He dove headfirst and managed to catch the young pilot by the wrist.
“Got you!”
And then Teddy began to slide forward. He reached out for something to grab onto, tried to dig the toes of his boots into the surface of the observation deck, but could find no purchase there.
“Teddy, don’t let me fall!”
“Not much I can do,” Teddy grunted as he continued to slide forward. For a flash he considered letting go of Smoke. What was the point in both of them dying?
I couldn’t live with myself if I let him go.
And then strong hands seized his ankles.
“Going somewhere?” Gwen asked.
“Thank the gods. I thought you’d run ahead of us.”
“Not intentionally. You’re just slow.” She grunted with the effort of holding on to Teddy. “Can you hurry this up?”
Teddy poured every ounce of his remaining strength into pulling Smoke up. Pain burst along both arms until he thought they might be pulled from their sockets.
Above them, the dome continued to come apart with loud screams of tearing metal.
“I can’t hold on much longer,” Gwen gasped.
“There’s a bottle of Diurnan whisky in it for you if you do,” Teddy said.
“As long as I don’t have to share it with you.”
At long last, Smoke hauled himself over the ledge and lay on the deck, gasping for breath.
“No time for that,” Teddy panted, swaying to his feet. “We’re running out of time.”
They half ran, half stumbled through the living quarters. They had just emerged on the other side when every light, every panel, everything power-operated came on at once.
Teddy blinked his eyes against the sudden flash of bright light. The corridor was filled with the sound of a human voice speaking in a bizarre language. Teddy could not understand the words, but the tone and cadence was familiar. It sounded like a warning.
And then the lights went out again. Suddenly in darkness save for the beams of their headlamps, the pilots stumbled and went down in a heap. They had just made it back to their feet when the power surged again.
“That thing we activated,” Teddy said, running along the corridor. “It must be sending power surges through the facility.”
“Can this old bucket handle that?” Smoke huffed.
No sooner had he posed the question then a light fixture exploded above them. Moments later, the lights went out.
“This is bullshit. We’re going to kill ourselves trying to escape.” Gwen said as they descended the stairs that would take them down to the tunnel that would lead them back to the hangar.
Again the lights came on and they froze. The passageway below was rapidly filling up with water.
“I can’t believe there’s still water here,” Teddy marveled.
“Yeah, how lucky!” Sarcasm dripped from Gwen’s every word.
In the distance something rumbled and the entire facility shook. Teddy instinctively glanced up at the ceiling, expecting it to come down on their heads at any second.
“I say we go for it.” He took two steps and dove headfirst into the water. He knew right away that he had made a mistake. Swimming in a flight suit. What was he thinking?
“Teddy, get back here!” Gwen shouted. “You’re going to get electrocuted!”
Blue sparks crackled from the ceiling where light fixtures had once been. Another rumble, and the ceiling began to shake. Teddy turned to swim back.
The lights went out.
In the sweeping beam of his headlamp he saw Gwen and Smoke reaching for him. An arc of blue energy swept across the ceiling.
I’m going to get fried, Teddy thought.
And then he felt himself being hauled up onto the steps. With no time to waste, they scrambled up the steps as the ceiling behind them collapsed.
“For a minute there I thought blackened Teddy Bear was on the menu tonight,” Smoke said.
“You guys bailed me out,” Teddy said. “But who’s going to bail us out? We’re trapped.”
As they reached the top of the stairs, a distant boom rang out. The shock wave threw them off their feet. And then an explosion sent shards of hot metal flying through the air. Teddy flattened himself against the deck and prayed.
Moments later, Gwen spoke up.
“Guys, do you see what I see?”
Teddy looked up to see a gaping hole in the wall up ahead. And beyond it.
“Our Mongoose! Let’s go!”
They began to run, leaping over fallen debris, struggling to keep their bearings and their balance as the pulses of light continued to flash. From deep within the bowels of the facility came the sound of an explosion. Seconds later, another. How much longer could this place hold together?
They scrambled through the hole in the wall and out into the hangar. Teddy was relieved to see that it hadn’t collapsed yet. The explosions were coming closer and they made a mad dash across the hangar deck to the waiting ship.
Teddy had left the engines hot and he had the craft hovering as soon as the bay doors were closed. He pivoted the craft in what felt like slow motion. He hit the thrusters as a gout of blue flame burst through the hangar wall.
“It’s coming down!” Gwen shouted.
The last explosion had done the job. The Mongoose shot forward toward the ever-shrinking gap between the meteorite and falling dome.
Teddy went buster, calling on every last ounce of the Mongoose’s speed. There was no point in holding back. If they did not make it through, they’d die anyway.
“Oh… my… Gods!” Gwen shouted.
Teddy let out an adrenaline-fueled roar as they shot toward probable death.
Another explosion and the world turned to blue flame.
Chapter 29
Facility C, Soria
They found themselves standing inside a large bay. Rory noticed a tractor, a backhoe, and a front-end loader parked to their left. The sight brought back pleasant memories and the sting of profound loss. The lighting was a sickly yellow, faint and flickering. It gave everyone and everything a jaundiced, sickly appearance.
“It’s kind of creepy in here. We didn’t just walk into a horror vid, did we?” Cassidy looked up at the lights.
Their rescuer glanced up and gave an apologetic shrug.
“We were hit by a series of earthquakes. Lots of things aren’t working properly right now, but we don’t have sufficient staff to see to it all. My name is Luthien, by the way. I’m a scientist.” They introduced themselves as they followed him down a narrow corridor.
“I’m just glad I got to you before the raptors did. That’s what I nicknamed the dinos that chased you. They
remind me of birds.”
Rory couldn’t remember a flock of birds ever trying to kill and eat him, but he kept his silence. After all, Luthien had just saved their lives.
“You’re all marines?” Luthien asked.
“Not me,” Oates said. “Not anymore.”
“Once a marine, always a marine,” Trent said.
Oates replied with a few choice muttered curses. Apparently, he had a few unresolved issues relating to his service. Luthien merely smiled and kept walking.
They came to a t-junction. To the left, the passageway was blocked by stacks of crates.
Luthien saw them looking at the makeshift barricade. “The security doors in this section have failed. We’ve been forced to seal the entire area off.”
“What are you trying to keep out? Dinosaurs?” Cassidy asked.
He turned and fixed her with a grave expression. “Exactly.”
“Couldn’t you just lock the doors manually?” she asked.
“Some of them are intelligent. They might not be able to pick the locks but they’re clever enough to try smashing through a door. It’s safer this way. More obstacles for them to get past.”
“Where did they come from?” Trent asked.
Luthien ran a hand over his smooth scalp. “That’s difficult to explain.”
Rory found himself growing more anxious as they moved deeper into the facility. Luthien hadn’t asked them to surrender their weapons. That could mean a few things. The simplest explanation was that Luthien and whoever else resided at this facility were loyal Aquarians and felt they had nothing to fear. Perhaps he was just happy to have some marines here who could help fight off the dinosaurs. Or maybe he was leading them into a trap that their weapons could not get them out of.
“Does this place have a name?” Trent asked, looking around, though there was nothing to see in the corridor, save for the occasional locked door. None of the doors bore a name, only a number.
“This is called Facility C.”
“Where are A and B?” Rory asked.
“That’s classified. So classified, in fact, that none of us are one hundred percent certain they exist.”
“Military or civilian?” Trent pressed.
“We’re all civilians. Scientists. Government funded and managed, of course.” Luthien hesitated. “How much do you know about what’s going on out there? We’ve been monitoring transmissions, trying to keep abreast of things.”
Trent gave him a quick summary of what they knew about what was happening in the outside world. Luthien added a few details. Of most interest to Rory was the fact that the Aquarian fleet’s surviving battlecruisers, along with a large civilian fleet, had escaped to parts unknown.
Rory and Oates exchanged relieved glances at the news. Hopefully, that meant that Jemma and Becca were safe and sound. If that was the case, Rory thought, it had been worth it, even if it did mean he would never see her again. That was a bitter pill to swallow.
“Have you been in touch with anyone from the government?” Trent asked cautiously.
“Almost no one knows we exist, and we’re fairly certain all our contacts are dead. Protocol dictates that we wait for them to reach out to us in case of emergency and we haven’t heard from any of them.” He paused, shook his head. “We discussed sending out a distress call, but that would be like lighting a beacon for the Memnons to follow.”
“How do you know we aren’t Memnons?” Trent asked.
“I don’t. I disobeyed orders by going after you. I just couldn’t let you die.”
“We aren’t Memnons,” Cassidy said hotly. “They did their damndest to kill us. We’re lucky to be alive.”
Luthien nodded but kept his silence. They reached a heavy door with a keypad and optical scanner. He tapped in a code and held his eye to the scanner. Green lights flashed but the door did not open.
“You were ordered to stand down,” a voice said.
“Well, I made a different call,” Luthien said. "Are you going to let us in or do my new friends have to blast the door?”
There was a long silence, then the person on the other end spoke in a sullen voice.
“Have them leave their weapons outside.”
Trent frowned and Oates shook his head.
“What’s the point? These are marines. They could take us apart without weapons.” Luthien paused. “But they won’t. They’re all right.”
“Fine. But if you’re wrong, you’ve killed us all.”
A loud beep and then the door opened.
“What the hells is this?” Oates said as they stepped inside.
The sight before them could not have been any more different from the parts of the facility they had seen so far. It was like a luxury apartment, with thick carpet, leather furniture, and fine art adorning the walls.
“This is our lab. One of them.”
“Lab?” Cassidy echoed.
“Computer lab.” He pointed to an octagonal column of vidscreens. Before each panel stood a workstation with a digital console.
“What do you study here?” Rory asked.
“Nothing since the uprising began. We only have a very small staff. The dinos killed our security team. All four of them.”
Rory frowned. That wasn’t an answer to his question.
“Look,” Luthien said, “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but it really is a long, complicated story, and I’ll make sure you hear it as soon as possible. You can rest here for now. There’s food, drink, and toilet facilities through that door. I need to talk with my people and then we’ll fill you in on everything. I just need to smooth things over a bit.”
He moved to one of the consoles, inserted a comm in his ear, and tapped the screen in front of him. It lit up and a few seconds later he began a quiet conversation. After a minute, he ended the connection and turned to Rory and the others.
“They want to talk with one of you,” he said. “My advice would be to select the most diplomatic. Maybe the least intimidating.”
“That leaves you out,” Oates said to Trent.
Cassidy glared at Luthien “Choose me and I will cut your balls off.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Luthien said, taking a step back. He looked at Rory. “I guess that leaves you. You might want to wash up first.”
Rory did not love the idea of speaking for the entire group. He was a farmer with no advanced levels. Who was he to talk to scientists? He took his time in the facilities, stripping down to his skivvies and scrubbing himself from head to toe. Just the feeling of being clean again, even as he put his dirty clothing back on, gave him a lift.
In the kitchen, he helped himself to an ice cold energy drink. He hadn’t had one of these since he enlisted. The sugary sweet drink made his teeth ache, but he gulped it down, eager for the boost the caffeine and herbs would bring.
To set Luthien’s colleagues at ease, he left his weapons behind, except for his knife. He wasn’t frightened, exactly, but still he could not bring himself to go in completely unarmed.
“He’s right,” Cassidy said when he returned. “You’re easily the least intimidating of us all.”
“He’s much too pretty for his own good,” Trent added.
Oates put a fatherly arm around Rory’s shoulders. “Don’t listen to them, Waring. For what it’s worth, I think you’re butt-ugly.”
He followed Luthien through another secure doorway, then down a well-lit, carpeted hallway. As they walked, Luthien told him a little bit about the facility’s background.
“Facility C was built eighty cycles ago after researchers discovered a previously unknown energy source. And to be clear, it’s not just the source that was previously unknown. It’s also the type of energy. It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen. Of course it had to be classified—top secret stuff. As time went on, the facility was expanded, but measures were taken to keep it hidden from sight. We’re also specially insulated to contain any heat signatures or energy signals. We’ve also preserved enough of the oldest,
tallest trees so that we can’t be seen from above by the naked eye. And the facility itself is made to look like a rocky hill for added camouflage. Not that we get many visitors. Few know about us, even within the government.”
“Why is it such a big secret?”
Luthien gave him a serious look. “After all these years, we still don’t understand what we’ve found here. And it’s so crazy that if word got out, it would cause a firestorm.” He looked up at the ceiling and barked a rueful laugh. “I guess it’s too late for that. If we had known then what we know now, maybe we wouldn’t have worried so much.”
Rory tried to take it all in. He could not imagine what this place could possibly hide that would cause repercussions on such a massive scale. And he still did not understand where the dinosaurs had come from.
“I cannot wait for this to start making sense.”
They came to another door. As Luthien opened it, he turned and said, “Hopefully that will be very soon.”
Chapter 30
The Scarn Nebula
“All right, Ferenchick, do you understand the plan?” Sabre asked as the Mongoose came closer and closer.
“Did you say understand or like?” Ferenchick said.
“Never mind that. The Memnons have almost got you in missile range.”
“Do you think we didn’t already know that?” Recess shouted. “Just hurry it up!”
“Just do it on my mark.” Sabre felt invisible hands squeeze her throat. What if this did not work? The hells with it. They were all dead anyway. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory. She began to count. “Three… Two… One!”
Ferenchick’s Mongoose released its chaff—fragments designed to distract radar guided missiles—and then took his craft into a steep dive down toward the nebula.
At that moment, Sabre released the nuke and turned her craft about.
She watched on RADS as the missile shot toward its target. If her attempt failed, they were out of luck.
The nuke struck the chaff just as the Memnon squad closed in. The blast evaporated the lead wave of Reapers and sent her Mongoose spinning off course. As she fought to regain control, cheers and whoops filled her ears.
