by Joshua James
Eli nodded at Quinn. “Fly us over there. Whoever it is, he’s probably dead already.”
The Boomerang banked at a dangerous angle and shot off across the barren landscape. It skimmed mountains and cavernous crevices, burning up the miles. The Boomerang could move when she wanted to.
Over Tim’s objections, Eli directed Quinn to make several passes to check the surrounding terrain and look for anything that looked suspicious. When he was satisfied, they landed.
Eli pivoted his chair around and stood. “Jood, you’re in charge here. Waylon, Tim, let’s go check out this signal.”
Tim jumped up and headed for the galley to grab his medical kit. Waylon and Eli headed straight for the aft ramp.
“This is a crock of bull,” Waylon spat as Eli lowered the ramp a short time later. “And where the hell is that bastard? He’s the goddamn reason we’re here.”
“I’m here,” Tim said caustically as he arrived with a huge medical kit that was almost as tall as he was. “Let’s go.”
“Damn, you gonna bring it back in that thing?” Waylon said.
“If I have to,” Tim snapped. “Now let’s move.”
Before the ramp had even hit the rocky surface, Tim had jumped off the end and started moving in the direction of the signal, lugging the huge medical kit with him.
“Slow up, Doc,” Eli said. Even with the awkward kit, the doctor was hustling ahead. “I want a perimeter sweep.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tim said without slowing.
Waylon chuckled. “I can shoot him right now in the back,” he said. “Make it look like an accident.”
“How are you going to make shooting him in the back look like an accident?”
Waylon shrugged. He pointed his laser pistol at Tim’s receding form. “Oops.”
“Clever,” Eli said.
Tim rushed over a slight ridge and they could only see the top of his head. His voice crackled over the radio. “It’s a female. What a mess!”
Eli and Waylon warily approached. “Look at how the ridge forms a perfect depression here,” Eli said.
“If I wanted to start trouble, this is where I’d do it,” Waylon said, slipping over the ridge and keeping his eyes on the lip around them as he approached Tim. “Hey sawbones, let’s hurry the hell—Damn.”
Waylon was staring down at Tim, who was on his knees.
Eli followed, still watching the ridge, then came up short when he arrived next to Waylon.
Blood was everywhere. The woman was lying in a pool of it. She was facedown with wet hair matted to her head. He could see huge gashes in her skull where something had hit her repeatedly. Eli followed a trail of blood up and over the ridge on the opposite side from where they’d entered it. She’d crawled here.
“I have to take her back aboard,” Tim said. “I have to resuscitate.”
“This is crazy,” Waylon said. “She’s dead.”
Tim snapped his head around. “She’s alive. And we’re taking her back to the ship.”
Waylon turned to Eli. “This is bullshit. She’s not going to live.” He’d stepped forward to block Tim’s path back to the ship.
Tim swiveled around. “Get out of my way, you damn asshole! This is a medical emergency.”
Eli didn’t necessarily disagree with either man. As much as he hated Tim, if the woman could be saved they should do it at this point. They’d come this far. On the other hand, he couldn’t disagree with Waylon. The woman looked dead.
“Can’t you stabilize her here?” Eli asked. “Then we can see—”
He froze. He watched a red dot slide across the ground and settle on the bloody broken body of the woman. Then a second dot joined it. Then they both worked their way up the body and settled on Tim, who was completely oblivious.
Eli glanced at Waylon who was already beginning to crouch and point his pistol at the top of the ridge.
Now Eli saw them. Two tiny metallic stumps with red eyes.
They were killbots, or some version of them. The Squadrons loved to use them everywhere they went. They were too small to see from above and their energy signature was too low to register on scans, so the Boomerang’s flyovers did no good. The tiny rovers with their caterpillar treads were perfect for this terrain, just as their high-intensity lasers were perfect for slicing up human skin.
Eli was suddenly very cognizant of the fact that the rover ‘stumps,’ as the mounted lasers were known, had popped up on the side of the ridge where the bloody trail of the woman led. He had a good idea what gave her all those injuries.
Tim looked at Eli expectantly, waiting for him to finish his thought.
“Hey, smartass,” Waylon said calmly.
“What?” Tim snapped.
“Duck!” he screamed as he fired at the ridge.
Eleven
Waylon’s shot hit the first stump right between the red dots. Sparks flew from the top of it as it fell backward like a target at some old-fashioned shooting gallery.
The second one swiveled to target Waylon, but before it could fire, Eli had his own pistol out. He fired from the hip and missed, hitting the rocky lip right in front of it. But he did just enough to jostle it and put it off its shot. A thick ray of energy ripped into the dirt at Waylon’s feet, scorching it black and sending him diving clear.
Eli’s second shot was true and he watched as the stump blew open in sparks and fell backwards.
“Move, Tim, damn you, move!” Eli screamed.
Tim had spun around and looked stupidly back up to the ridge, but he stubbornly refused to budge from the woman’s side.
Eli rushed forward and tackled Tim to the ground just as a third stump appeared on the edge of the ridge.
He felt the heat blast just over his shoulder as a dark hole opened up in the dirt just where Tim had been crouching over the woman.
Out of the corner of his eye, Eli saw the stump explode as Waylon expertly came out of his roll and tagged it with a single shot.
“There are more coming!” Waylon shouted.
At the same time, the first two came rushing up to the ridge, their treads up in the air for a moment, before they slid over the ridge and started down the other side toward them. Eli had no idea what they had planned with their mounted lasers destroyed. Maybe they had some other weapon Eli didn’t know about? Or maybe they were just going to run them over? He wasn’t waiting around to find out. He yanked Tim to his feet and started dragging him away.
“Let’s go!”
“Wait!” he shouted back.
Eli looked at him like he was insane. “What the hell are you—"
Tim elbowed Eli right in the throat.
Eli dropped him and staggered back, hands to his throat, trying to breath.
Tim spun around and ran back to the woman. He swooped her up in his arms, blood splattering up all over him. At that moment, Eli saw yet another of the stumps appear over the ridge directly across from Tim.
Tim must have seen it too, because he started to back up slowly.
A red dot raced across the rocky ground toward Tim. He spun around.
He stopped short when he found Eli pointing his pistol right at his face. A look of sheer terror descended over Tim’s features as Eli allowed himself a tight smile and pulled the trigger.
His shot flew right over Tim’s shoulder and hit the stump dead center just as it tried to fire. It fell backward, sending a wild laser shot harmlessly up in the sky.
Waylon shot another that popped up. “This is fun and all,” he said, “But we can’t keep this up!”
Just then, the air above Eli rippled and he felt warm energy tickle the back of his neck. He turned to see the Boomerang hovering right over them, the main ramp still down.
The far side of the ridge exploded as the Boomerang fired one of her lasers.
Truth be told, he would have preferred for the shot to be aimed a bit farther down the ridge so they weren’t covered in rock and dirt from the blast, but when your ship shows up to save your a
ss, beggars can’t be choosers.
“You guys need a ride?” River’s voice crackled in Eli’s earpiece.
“I love you, River,” Waylon shouted as he bounded onto the ramp then turned around and scanned for more of the killbots. “You know that right?”
Eli raced up after Waylon, then turned around and covered for Tim who ran up the ramp last with the bloody body held tight in both arms.
“Go, River!” Eli shouted as soon as Tim was in.
The Boomerang rapidly ascended as Eli and Waylon rode the ramp back up into the floor of the ship. By the time it sealed, Tim was already out of sight, headed for the galley.
“Go help him,” Eli said to Waylon.
He grumbled about a “dead body for scrap” but he sprinted ahead.
In the galley, Tim stooped over the table where the crew had just finished eating breakfast. Blood saturated his shirt sleeves up to the shoulder. He floundered in gore, fighting with an invisible enemy. Waylon’s bulk and Jood’s thinner frame blocked Eli’s view of what they were doing.
“Hold it!” Tim bellowed. “Tighten that clamp! Tighter! Good. Give me that paddle, Jood. God damn it! Now! Yes!”
Eli observed the doctor working over something unseen and terrible. For a moment, he admired the black determination distorting the young man’s features. Eli had never seen him so bent on anything.
The next minute, Tim straightened up. His shoulders slumped and his blood-saturated arms dropped to his sides. “That’s the best we can do. We got the bleeding stopped, and her heart rate is stable.” He shot a sidelong glance at the other two. “Thanks. You both did great.”
Jood turned away with his usual flat tone. “We have three units of universal blood in storage, Doctor. I suggest we start the infusion now. Her volume is too low to sustain her current oxygen demand.”
Tim nodded. “Go ahead and start it.”
Waylon wrinkled his nose at the table. “Whoever left her here did their work, that’s for sure.” He looked up and saw Eli standing there. “Tell me we’re not gonna make this into another distraction.”
“No, we’re not.”
Before Eli could say more, Quinn spoke up behind him. “Thank you, Dad. You did the right thing picking up that stranger.”
He turned to face her, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. “If you want to be on this ship, you conduct yourself as my pilot, not my conscience. I’m not here to do ‘the right thing’, and neither are you—and that goes for your boyfriend, too.”
She burst out laughing. “Come on, Dad. I can’t do that. I’m a pilot in the Squadrons. I’m not one of your crew.”
“Then get the hell off my ship!” he thundered. “You’re one of my crew and acting accordingly, or you’re not. There is no in-between. If you’re a pilot in the Squadrons, then you don’t have any business here. Go back to Earth where you belong!”
Quinn looked crestfallen. Eli instantly regretted his outburst. But not his words. Nothing was more dangerous than a conscience out here.
He closed his eyes and took a moment to compose himself. “Please go back to your station and lay in a course for Epsilon Outpost,” he said evenly. “Let me know when we’re in communications range.”
Quinn’s eyes grew big. “But what about those things headed for Earth? Your message didn’t—”
“We’ll tell Epsilon about it and leave it to them. I’m tired of spending my time and money to worry about Earth.” Eli didn’t give her a chance to talk back. “Do you have a problem with that, Lieutenant?”
He waited only long enough to see Quinn shut her mouth with a click as her countenance went blank. She was too much of a soldier not to obey a direct order. He walked off to his quarters and shut the door before he dialed the combination into his wall safe.
The metal case sat inside, exactly where he’d left it. As long as he still had that and the Boomerang, he could pull their asses out of the fire.
Twelve
17 Hours Until Annihilation
River clomped into the galley. “We’re clear of the Gamma Belt.”
Waylon covered his eyes. “Thank heaven for that.”
Eli pointed at the stranger sprawled on the table. “Revive her.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Tim said. “She’s still weak from...”
“Understood,” Eli said. “Revive her.”
Tim bit his lip and bent over the stranger.
The Boomerang didn’t have much in the way of medical facilities, but it seemed that Tim brought a considerable amount of expertise with him. In the four hours since she’d come on board, Tim had managed the minor miracle of making the woman look halfway normal—nothing like the half-dead rag that she’d come in looking like.
The only other explanation was that the woman wasn’t as bad off as she’d appeared when they had first encountered her. Eli didn’t believe that for a second. When it came to his area of expertise, Tim was, well, an expert. It galled Eli to admit that.
Curly brown hair hovered around the woman’s head in a short, bouncy bob. Clear smooth skin spread over strong, distinct cheekbones. She was still pale, but Eli could easily imagine her flushed with vibrant life. Her lips curved in a nice shape.
Tim pressed his SubQ injector to the stranger’s neck and pulled the trigger. He barely stepped away before she rocketed off the table, sitting bolt upright. She gasped for breath and her eyes shot open. She screamed and stared all around her, not seeing anything.
Tim moved in and laid his hand on her arm. “You’re okay. You’re on board the scout vessel Boomerang. You’re safe. No one will hurt you.”
The stranger’s gaze skipped from one face to the next. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
Tim put his injector away. “Can you tell us your name? Do you know why you were dumped in the Gamma Belt?”
“That’s obvious, isn’t it?” Waylon offered. “Someone wanted her to die there. Stupid question.”
“Will you shut it?” Tim snapped over his shoulder. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Eli stepped between the two men. He positioned his body to separate them from each other, and concentrated his attention on the stranger. “I’m Eli Bryce. You’re on board my ship. Who are you?”
Her deep brown eyes met his. She blinked. She really was pretty, in a feminine sort of way. For a moment, she looked like an open book, emotion written across her face. But in the next instant, her face closed up like a box. She erected a barricade against him and compressed her lips. Her eyes went blank. She shifted her gaze an inch away to look over his shoulder.
Eli snorted and shook his head. Of course she wouldn’t appreciate being saved from certain death. Of course the next person who set foot on this ship would throw the slightest attempt at compassion back in his face.
He rounded on River. “What’s the closest system?”
River thought for a second. “Regulus is right on our way.”
“Perfect. There’s a frontier station there. Alter course to stop by Regulus Delta,” Eli said.
Quinn rushed into the galley to block his path. “You can’t abandon her there! No one would ever find her.”
“You’re exaggerating,” Eli said. Although probably not by much, he thought. “Besides, ask her if she cares. See what she says.”
“Regulus Delta is an automated station,” Tim said. “It could be years before someone arrives.”
“They’re designed for these kinds of situations,” Eli said. “She’ll have plenty of water and nutrient supplements while she waits.”
Quinn cast a glance at the stranger, who sat bolt upright and stared straight ahead like a prisoner of war. Quinn whirled around and laid her hand on Eli’s chest to stop him from walking out of the room. “Please, Dad. At least take her to Epsilon, where she can arrange transport somewhere else. It’ll take you longer to dump her somewhere than just keep going!”
Technically that was true, but he wanted this unappreciative castaway off his ship as soon
as possible. “We’re not running a shuttle service for strays.”
Waylon spoke up from across the table. “Besides, she won’t be able to arrange transport. She has no way to pay for it. I say we drop her off and be done with it.”
Tim chopped his hand through the air angrily. “Why don’t you save fuel and shoot her right now and be done with it?”
“Fair point,” Waylon said.
“Savages,” Tim said, shaking his head.
“Please, Dad,” Quinn repeated, her voice softer. “Just take her to Epsilon Outpost. Is that asking too much?”
Eli glanced up and caught Waylon watching him. The big man wore an incredulous sneer like he couldn’t believe Eli was falling for this nonsense.
Very deliberately, Eli looked down at Quinn. “Yes,” he said. “It is too much to ask.”
Without another word, Eli stepped around his daughter and headed for the door. He could hear Tim spluttering something behind him. Eli could picture the doctor’s pinched face, full of fury, and it brought a smile to his own.
He’d just put his foot across the threshold when a piercing scream shattered his mind.
Thirteen
Eli whipped around to witness a scene of indescribable chaos tearing the galley apart. Quinn staggered backward and hit the wall. She clasped her head in both hands, screaming in agony. She writhed back and forth and blood dripped from her nose.
The stranger slammed down flat on the table, convulsing in spasms. Her arms locked at her sides, and her legs kicked and trembled out of control. Her eyes rolled up in their sockets, and blood-tinged foam boiled between her clenched teeth.
Tim dove for her. He grabbed her by the shoulders, but the minute he touched her, an invisible force hurled him back. He smashed into the kitchen counter. His head snapped back and smacked the post holding up the cupboards. His skull left a blood splotch behind him and he flopped to the floor, senseless.
Jood dove for the SubQ injector. He flipped open Tim’s medkit and seized an ampoule of something. He crammed it into the gun, but when he tried to approach the stranger, her eyes snapped open. She aimed a kick at Jood and hit him in the chest. He stumbled back and almost lost his hold on the injector.
