What the hell is that?
The leader pointed to the line of carriages on the tracks. All the soldiers filed into them, taking the ‘thing’ with them.
Conrad shuffled to the other side of the excavator to see if the coast was clear. He grabbed hold of the bucket but instead found a loose wrench sitting on top. It clanged down to the ground at his feet. In the corner of his eye, two soldiers hopped off their carriage and directed the others to go ahead of them.
Christ!
The sound of their footsteps trudged toward him. They knew where he was and were coming for him from either side of the excavator.
Conrad surveyed the bucket of the machine sitting slightly above the ground. He wondered if he’d be able to fit under it.
He slinked beneath, ripping his shirt and grazing his face against the rocky ground. But he made it and slid farther back until he’d come out of the rear of the excavator. The door of the large earthmover was open and the key in the ignition.
If he ran, they’d chase him. Instead, he climbed the excavator’s footholds and took a seat at the controls. He turned the key, and the engine buzzed to life.
The two soldiers rounded the corner to find no one behind the bucket. With the engine fully engaged, they stared up and saw Conrad in the operator’s seat. They raised their weapons but were too late.
Conrad pushed the levers forward, and the bucket extended, knocking them to the ground. As they tried to get up, Conrad tugged another lever and plunged the bucket on their heads. Their helmets cracked, and the pair went tumbling like a sack of potatoes.
He jumped from the excavator and bent down to behold his handiwork. Both bodies were sprawled, faceup. Conrad picked up a rock and held it with one hand while he pulled the helmet off with the other. His mouth opened, agape, and he dropped the rock to the ground.
“What the hell are you?”
Twenty-Five
The antechamber was large, but even Jason realized there would only be so much air for the nine remaining souls buried alive. While Marquez, Tai, and Petit paced back and forth trying to figure a way out, the Marines did their best to move the avalanche of rock that was blocking their exit.
Everyone had already attempted shifting the collapsed boulders, all without any luck, but the stompers, being stubborn, weren’t likely to give up. Even if they budged some out of the way, it would likely cave them in further.
“If we just had a commband,” Tyler said, “then we could contact the Argo.”
“It wouldn’t matter.” Jason shook his head. “We’re surrounded by decium deposits. It jams all wireless communications at this depth.”
“If Conrad survived, he’d be able to get word to them.”
“Maybe. Even if he’s not dead, it’d depend on how long Nash’s ship is hanging around up there. The Argo can’t come out of hiding until they’re gone or they’ll be—”
“Detected. Yeah.”
“We’d run out of air before they have the chance to rescue us.”
Tyler nodded. “Why didn’t he line us up and shoot us?”
Jason tilted his head. “What?”
“Nash. Why didn’t he have his soldiers kill us? From everything we’ve seen so far, he hasn’t wanted any witnesses. He could have shot us like everyone else.”
Tyler was right. Why didn’t he kill us?
Before Jason had another chance to ponder the question, Captain Marquez walked over to him and Tyler.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” he asked Jason.
“Not at all.”
“This will probably be of little solace to you guys, but I wanted to thank you for coming to our aid.”
Jason chuckled. “We made a really good hash of it, didn’t we?”
“They had the numbers on their side. I’m sorry I was a jackass when you first came down here.”
“It’s okay, you weren’t to know.”
A moment of silence ensued before Marquez continued. “I was friends with Captain Pizzeri. We went to the academy together. Seems like a lifetime ago now. Back then, no one would ever have guessed either of us would’ve got a command of our own.”
Jason remembered the former captain of the Raptor fondly. The image if his lifeless body was still seared into his memory. “He was a good skipper.”
“Yes. His death… Well, I remember reading what happened when you went after Tyrell. The service lost a good man.”
“And a few more.” Jason wasn’t in the mood to go to his grave rehashing the past. And it seemed Marquez realized that. He put a hand on Jason’s shoulder.
The cave entrance rumbled. Then again. Some of the rock shifted and everyone stepped away from the boulders rolling toward them.
A small gap emerged.
On the other side, an excavator appeared.
It pushed its way through the heavy curtain of rock and at the controls a familiar face emerged.
“Althaus?” Jason couldn’t have been more surprised at how relieved he was to see the old bastard.
The excavator punched a hole straight through the caved-in entrance and Althaus peered through the cab at everybody. “So, you are alive?”
“Who is that?” Marquez asked Jason.
Jason shook his head. “One son of a bitch I’m happy to see.”
“Don’t get mushy with me, kid, I couldn’t handle it.” Althaus stepped down from the excavator. “While you don’t deserve it, I thought I’d bring you some gifts I picked up along the way.”
Everyone walked around to the back of the digger where atop the storage shelf lay two bodies. Both were wearing the black armor of Nash’s soldiers.
“Are they both dead?” Tai asked.
“They didn’t give me a choice.”
One had their helmet off.
They gathered around the dead being. It had a thick cropped beard, with slightly larger ears than a human and a pronounced forehead. His eyes were small, with dark-brown irises, and his chin was almost square with a chiseled jawline. His skin was olive in complexion, while his hair was jet-black.
Jason looked up at Althaus, who seemed rather pleased with himself. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
Cargo Ship Argo
As Jason stepped out of the Maybelle’s airlock, Aly nearly squeezed the life out of him in her embrace. “I didn’t know whether you were going to get out alive.”
She blushed for a moment, realizing she was the center of attention, while Tyler appeared behind Jason. She immediately hugged him as well. “It’s good to have you back, too.”
“If it hadn’t been for me, we wouldn’t be here at all,” Althaus grumbled, exiting the pod and passing everyone.
Kevin appeared from the elevator chute and walked toward the group, now comprising the personnel they’d rescued from the surface.
“Captain Marquez, Doctor Tai, and Professor Petit. This is Alyssa and Kevin Rycroft.” Tyler introduced the parties. They also exchanged pleasantries with the four surviving Marines.
“You’re Professor Petit? The Professor Petit?” Aly’s eyes lit up. “Wow, I, um… I’m a big fan.”
“Smooth, Aly, very smooth,” Jason teased her before receiving a playful slap on the arm.
“I’ve read all your works,” Aly continued. “Comes in real handy when you’re trying to keep the Argo in one piece.”
Petit smiled politely.
The Marines broke up the party bringing the two dead Seeker bodies out of the Maybelle on stretchers. Aly jumped backward and shrieked.
“What are they?” she asked with a combination of awe and disgust.
“Thought your dad might like them.” Jason grinned cheekily.
Kevin eyed the Seekers. “You really shouldn’t have.”
Tai stepped forward. “I’m a medical doctor, Mister Rycroft. If I can be of any assistance—”
“I think I’m going to need all the help I can get.” He led the way to the elevator, while the Marines, Marquez, and Tai followed him.
“I assume you kept an eye on them when they departed?” Tyler asked Aly.
She nodded. “Before they left scanning range, the unidentified ship took a parallel course to the planet.”
“There were no signs they detected us?”
“It didn’t appear so.”
“I think Nash’s got bigger fish to fry now,” Jason added.
“Nash?” Aly appeared confused. “Your friend, Nash?”
“Yeah.” Jason did his best to fill her in on everything that had happened on Orion V as they waited for the elevator car to return and take them up to A Deck.
They entered the infirmary and joined the others watching Kevin and Tai through the observation screen. The pair were in the process of removing the armor from one of the Seekers on the bed.
“Wow!” Aly said.
Wow is right.
Kevin turned to Tyler through the screen. “I need them out of here,” he said of the Marines that were crowding him inside the small medical bay. “They’re already dead anyway.”
Without Tyler saying a word, Marquez instructed them out, allowing Tai and Kevin to begin their examination of the Seeker.
“How exactly did Althaus say he killed this…being?” Kevin asked.
“The bucket of an excavator,” Jason told him.
“That would explain it.”
While the examination continued, Jason thought how peaceful and fragile the Seeker appeared. But then he remembered that it was his people who’d decimated the Orion V mining facility and destroyed the Vanguard with a force and power he’d never seen.
“We should do an autopsy.” Everyone looked at Jason with raised eyebrows. “I want to know what makes them tick.”
“Uh,” Tai began, “Outpost Watchtower has much more adequate facilities for a medical examination of that kind. We are going to Watchtower, aren’t we?”
Marquez glanced at Tyler who nodded to the affirmative.
“She’s right, Jason,” Kevin said. “We should leave this to the professionals.”
Jason pointed at Tai. “If there’re any professionals on alien beings, it’s her. What’s there to do? Get a knife and cut him up.”
“There’s a little more to it than that.”
“There won’t be an autopsy, not on the Argo.” Tyler put his foot down. “We’re in far enough with all of this as it is. When we reach Outpost Watchtower, we can hand it over to the authorities.”
Before Jason rebutted him, Althaus’s voice sounded over the ship’s intercom. “Bridge to Tyler.”
“Go ahead.”
“I’ve been doing a sweep of the system with our scanners. There’s something up here the kid might want to see.”
“What is it, Althaus?” Jason asked.
“Iota particles. Lots of them.”
Twenty-Six
Jason was the first to reach the bridge, but he let Tyler enter before him out of courtesy. Marquez and Petit trailed not far behind. Inside, Althaus stood over the operations station checking the scanners.
Jason sidled up beside him. “Well, I’ll be damned. They really are Iota particles.”
“What exactly are these Iota particles?” Marquez asked.
“The answer to a question that’s has been bugging me for four years.”
Professor Petit joined Jason and Althaus to study the scans for himself. “Iota particles were first discovered in Nebula TPA-338.”
Marquez pointed at the monitor. “You’re saying these were detected in the same nebula where Lieutenant Nash supposedly died?”
Petit nodded. “The data from the Raptor was handed to TIAS. While I wasn’t on the team that investigated it, I did see the results.”
“And they were?”
“Unfortunately, because of the particles’ half-life, the Raptor was unable to retrieve a physical specimen. The scientists at TIAS only had their scans to work off. My colleagues were unsure what to make of them. They eventually had to put the project aside for other work.”
“Put in the ‘too hard’ basket then?” Jason did his best not to sound vindictive.
“Not at all. The war was over, and the commonwealth was in the process of rebuilding. It was simply not at the top of the Institute’s agenda. And, frankly, from the data I’d seen regarding it, without a physical sample, there was nowhere else to go.”
“Well, now we have the chance to investigate.” Jason stepped to Tyler’s side, who’d taken his seat at the center of the bridge. “It can’t be a coincidence that these particles were discovered when Nash was abducted. Then again, in Frontier’s Reach, not far from here. And finally here at Orion V where Nash has shown up again.”
“What are you suggesting?” Tyler asked.
Marquez seemed to be connecting the same dots. “You think the Iota particles might be a by-product of the Seeker’s ship?”
“Perhaps.” Jason nodded. “We’ve determined one of their ships was in Nebula TPA-338 four years ago. Obviously their vessel was here today, and if they had to travel via Frontier’s Reach to get to Orion V, that would explain why a particle reading was discovered out there.”
“What do you think, Professor?” Marquez asked Petit.
“It’s all speculation at this point. Until we get a closer look at this concentration of Iota particles, we won’t be able to tell.”
All eyes turned to Tyler. Once again, as ship’s captain, the ball was in his court. “You know where the helm is, Jason. Plot a course.”
Althaus took a seat at operations while Jason sat at the helm. It’d been a long time since he’d taken the conn of the Argo. If the ship was anything like he remembered, he’d find riding a bucking bronco an easier proposition.
Jason turned to Althaus. “Can you send those coordinates my way?” His console beeped, and a moment later they appeared on his monitor. He plotted a course and maneuvered the Argo out of Orion V’s orbit. The sky-high view of the mining planet disappeared, and he punched the thrusters to full. It might have been ten years, but it seemed like he’d never left. The touch of buttons, the feel of the lever. It brought back good memories.
In the distance, something appeared before them.
“Slow us down, Jason.”
He did as Tyler ordered, bringing the old cargo ship to a full stop in front of the anomaly ahead of them. No one said a word as they gazed at it in awe. Large spirals of purple and red-colored energy shot from the center of a black aperture.
“It’s…a hole.” Jason had seen nothing like it and wagered nobody else on the bridge had either. It seemed a recurring theme of the day.
“What do you see on the scanners, Conrad?” Tyler asked his uncle. “Something a little more scientific would be helpful.”
Althaus was clearly baffled. “I, uh—”
Jason turned. “Perhaps, Professor Petit, you’d be so good as to look for us?”
Althaus offered him his seat.
Petit smiled in appreciation and sat at the console. “Well, we’ve definitely come to the source of the Iota particles.”
“But what is it exactly?” Marquez asked.
Petit prodded at the controls before him. “Difficult to tell, but from what I can determine with the scanners and the naked eye, we’re observing an energy vortex of some kind. And it’s shrinking.”
“Shrinking?” Tyler said.
“Yes, and quickly.”
“The Iota particles,” Jason said. “They have a half-life. Once they’ve decayed, they’re gone.”
“Just like the vortex,” Petit added.
“So, are you’re saying this vortex was at Nebula TPA-338 and at Frontier’s Reach?” Marquez asked.
“That seems most likely.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t tell us what it is?”
“No, it doesn’t,” Jason said. “But it would seem to confirm that it has something to do with the Seekers’ ships.”
“Is there anything else we can do to make any more determinations?” Tyler asked the professor.
He shrugged. “No offence, but I’m dealing with near obsolete scanners here. Perhaps if we got closer, I could to take more detailed readings.”
Althaus glanced warily at Tyler.
But Jason’s brother had a determined gaze. “Jason. Take us closer. One-eighth thrust. Nice and steady.”
Jason smiled. When he’d walked onto the Argo, he hadn’t known whether Tyler would punch him or hug him. It had grown over the months to be something in between. Their relationship had come so far, and their bond had strengthened to the point that Tyler was now doing everything he could for Jason to solve this mystery.
“Aye, Captain.” He put in the commands, and the rear thrusters fired, setting the cargo ship on its way.
The tendrils of energy burst from the center of the hole and pulsated as if waves smashing down on a beach at high tide. It was the most beautiful sight Jason had ever seen.
The ship shook around them. “I’m getting a lot of disturbance here,” Jason said.
“Are the scanners giving you any more data?” Tyler asked Petit.
The professor’s eyes darted between all the monitors on the operations console, doing his best to take it all in. “I’m detecting huge amounts of energy being generated from the center of the vortex. However—”
Before he finished his sentence, the Argo rocked hard from side to side.
“Jason, full reverse now!” his brother ordered.
The shaking of the ship reverberated throughout the bridge. Jason’s hands wouldn’t move.
“Jason!”
“We’re caught in an energy wake!” Petit said.
Everyone around the bridge grasped hold of something.
“Jason!” Tyler howled at him again.
Jason snapped out of whatever daze he was in and tugged the thrust lever into full reverse.
But it was too late.
“The forward thrusters are firing, but there’s no reverse movement. We’re being pulled in! I’m going to try the port thrusters!” If Jason couldn’t haul the ship away, he might be able to veer her off. “Firing thrusters now!”
Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1) Page 13
