Jason pulled at the controls and pumped the vessel’s thrusters. At least that was what he was attempting to do. The craft vibrated more and he let the moon’s gravity take over. In an instant everything became calm. “Hey, I think I’m getting used to this,” he said with some confidence. His mind returned to the job at hand while tiny pinpricks of light appeared ahead of them.
On the scanners, Nash’s ship and the weapon ship remained in a geostationary orbit just as before. He pointed toward their target, and both Tyler and Marquez gazed at it.
“The weapon ship’s still in its construction dock.” Jason plotted a course, while on the holographic display before him, a line emanated from the giant vessel. “It appears they’re going fishing. This is the tractor field that dragged me inside their hangar deck the last time.”
“How long have we got?” Marquez asked him.
“I’d say only a few minutes before it latches on. You two better get out of here.”
They nodded, and Jason studied the graphical representation of the tractor field as they edged ever closer. The plan was going off without a hitch.
Seeker Weapon Ship
Nash stood on the hangar deck, narrowing his eyes at the holographic display near the door while the tractor field locked on to the wayward transport. It’d been several hours since they’d lost contact after he’d sent it to the planet’s surface for a new batch. It’d become obvious Cassidy used the transport to escape his incarceration. Nash knew him all too well. Cassidy had become a nuisance who should’ve died on Orion V. Instead, he’d let his old friend get away. Not once but twice. He wouldn’t allow him to interfere with his plans again. He’d have to kill him.
But you can’t kill him!
That voice. The one that lingered within. Most of the time he was able to suppress it, but every so often, the shadow of his former self made its presence known. He pushed it farther inside him.
The tractor field pulled the transport inside the hangar deck. The craft slowed, descended, and landed before him. His soldiers marched out and lined each side of the hull. Nash couldn’t afford to be surprised by one of Cassidy’s tricks.
“Open the airlock!” he ordered them.
A soldier opened it with the manual override while the others stood by it with their weapons raised. Nash walked up to the airlock and peered inside.
It was empty. Except for a lone figure facing away from him, sitting at the helm.
“Cassidy, I don’t know what you’re playing at, but it’s time to come out.”
When Cassidy didn’t answer, Nash took one of his soldier’s guns and ambled inside. He crept toward the pilot’s chair and spun it around.
But it wasn’t Cassidy. It was one of his soldiers.
Nash poked at his chest armor, but it didn’t budge. He grabbed each side of the helmet and pulled it off.
He lurched backward in shock. Instead of a face, he found a clock staring back at him. It activated began to count down.
10… 9… 8…
Cassidy!
Nash hurried toward the airlock and burst out onto the hangar deck, throwing his hands in the air. “Move! Everyone out!”
He ran ahead of his soldiers to the door and a bright light flashed behind him. A powerful shockwave threw him to the bulkhead of the outer corridor.
With a thump, his body numbed with searing pain as shrapnel rained down on him.
The lights flickered out, and his eyelids closed.
I told you, you couldn’t kill him!
Forty-One
Transport Pod Maybelle
“Latching on, now!”
Tyler gently maneuvered the Maybelle and connected the small pod to the outer hull of the weapon ship, while Marquez stood behind him, watching his handiwork.
“The scanners have detected a reverberation,” he said, checking the monitor. “Looks like the bomb went off as planned.”
Jason prodded at the terminal by the airlock. It flashed green and he opened it, revealing the obsidian black hull of the weapon ship. “Let’s get cutting,” he said to Althaus and Higgs.
The pair stepped up with their laser cutters and burned into the hull. Jason bit his bottom lip, hoping Nash wasn’t on the hangar deck when the bomb exploded. It was part of the plan that most rankled him. But if they were any chance of getting aboard without being noticed, they’d had no other choice.
Jason assumed the Seekers would detect them on their scanners so decided to use the hijacked transport as a diversion. With Aly’s help, they fashioned an airtight walkway between the transport and the Maybelle’s dorsal maintenance hatch so it was able to ride beneath the larger alien vessel undetected. To the Seeker’s scanners, it would’ve looked like only one ship.
He evacuated through the walkway then decoupled the two vessels, just before the weapon ship’s tractor field took effect. The Maybelle used its momentum to move past the field unchecked so it could latch on to their target undetected. All the while it ensured the Seekers had their attention on their own transport before creating a nice little explosion on their hangar deck.
Jason turned to the clang of lasered hull plating falling into the corridor of the weapon ship. “All right, let’s go.”
He placed on his helmet along with everyone else, and led the way with alarm klaxons blaring around them. As per the plan, Jason, Tyler, Althaus, and Corporal Higgs were the first ones up when they reached the central elevator.
Marquez offered Jason a hand. “Good luck.”
“See you soon.”
Seeker Weapon Ship
The elevator came to a halt and Jason stepped out with Tyler by his side and Althaus and Higgs in tow. A team of four Seeker soldiers hurried toward them with their weapons at the ready.
“Just stay cool,” Jason whispered, motioning the others to the side of the corridor. They brushed by them as if they weren’t even there. Their disguises had worked.
“They must be heading down to the hangar deck,” Tyler assumed. “They may not know we’re aboard—”
“Yet,” Althaus said, finishing his nephew’s sentence.
“Right, let’s keep going.” Jason did his best to remember his way back to the brig. He stepped around one final corner to the door he’d escaped from. But instead of the one guard who’d been there earlier, there were now four. “He must’ve beefed up security since I left.”
“Any ideas?” Tyler asked.
“I’ve got a shock grenade.” Higgs revealed the handheld spherical explosive. “We roll one of these babies down there, it’ll take the four of them out easily.”
“I was hoping to do this quietly. We set that off and we’ll be found out.” Jason glanced down at his weapon. “How good of a shot do you think you can be with these things?” he asked the others.
“They’re tricky at first, but they don’t kick like our rifles do,” Higgs said of his experience down on Psi-Aion. “Just give me a target, and I’ll hit it.”
“I haven’t even fired one yet.” Althaus gripped the weapon tightly. “But I’d be a damn sight better at it than you.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.” Jason let the insult fly and pointed behind them. “Tyler, I want you to cover this corridor. Althaus, take this end, and Higgs, take the other. You’ll both need to eliminate the two soldiers facing the door.”
“What about the other two?” Althaus asked.
“I’ll deal with them.”
“This sounds like an idiotic plan.”
“Yep, pretty much. We ready?”
After Higgs rounded back to the other end of the adjoining corridor, they were all in place. Jason walked toward the brig and the guards instantly noticed him, but as before his disguise appeared to be working.
He stood in front of the guards at the door, but they wouldn’t budge. “Sorry, guys, I don’t remember what the secret password is?”
The perplexed soldiers stared at each other. Behind Jason, the other two guards fell from the bursts of a pair of well-placed shots f
rom Althaus and Higgs.
Nice work, guys.
Before the two Seekers in front of him could react, Jason unholstered his sidearm and shot one at point-blank range. The other was quicker to take aim with his own weapon, but Jason knocked the gun from his hands.
The guard barreled into Jason, knocking him to the deck with a thump. A fist pounded into his head, cracking his black visor open like an egg. Preparing for another clobber, Jason looked away, just in time to see a bolt of energy from Althaus’s gun send the Seeker sailing into the wall.
“Jesus, kid, I thought I packed a punch.” Althaus ran toward him and heaved him up from the deck.
With Tyler and Higgs joining them, Jason peered through the damaged helmet at the door terminal and waved his hand over it. It opened with ease, and he led the others inside. He then dropped his shoulders at his discovery.
“Hell!”
Tyler came up beside him and glanced at all the empty cells. “Where’s Kione?”
Nicolas stepped onto the catwalk first, it’s sheer size amazing him. Susan and the Marines joined him, observing the massive chamber Jason Cassidy told them about.
“Have you seen anything like it?” he said to Susan.
“It’s a sight, that’s for sure.”
The chamber made the sphere appear so insignificant. But Nicolas knew it was anything but. The conduits leading from it was no doubt producing an unholy amount of power, while the Seekers surrounding it at their workstations were obviously doing their best to harness it. The engineers were hard at work, while the soldiers did their patrols around them.
Nicolas spotted a ladder chute to the bottom level of the chamber near them. “Let’s go. Ling, Utkin, stay up here. If we get into any trouble, cover us.”
Nicolas led Susan down. On the lower deck, everything seemed even bigger, if that were possible. Though he’d already seen the sphere on Orion V, for whatever reason it seemed much more impressive a second time.
“I shudder to think what energy runs through these conduits,” Susan said, indicating the large tubular veins.
“I...” Nicolas stopped when a small vibration buzzed on his wrist. The commband under his suit alerted him to an incoming commlink. “It’s the others.”
Susan followed him to a quiet corner.
“This is Marquez. Go ahead.”
“We’ve reached the brig,” Jason said over the comm. “Kione’s not here. Have you—”
The transmission ended abruptly. Nicolas pushed in the commband. “It’s gone dead.”
A commotion sounded in the direction of the sphere and a group of soldiers appeared from inside it.
Then Kione appeared in their arms and unconscious. Dozens of cables protruded from his body, linked to a machine that Nicolas could only assume was some form of medical equipment.
“Kione!” Susan shrieked, though luckily no one else heard her.
Nicolas grabbed her, stopping her from trying to play the hero. “Now’s not the time.” He directed her toward the ladder chute. “We have to find out what happened to the others.”
“I lost the commlink.”
Jason prodded at his commband while everyone else did the same. He walked out into the corridor and looked to his right and then to his left.
Footsteps echoed around him.
At the end of the corridor, a dozen soldiers appeared and a small path formed between them. Nash emerged, hobbling past them. His friend’s face had gashes and bruises all over it, and his armored suit had been cracked and burned.
“I’ve blocked your comms, Cassidy.” The calm, collected nature of Nash’s voice was gone. There was now a bitterness laced throughout. “In all these years, you haven’t changed, have you?”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, considering some of my recent history,” Jason yelled back at him.
“You never quit.”
“You always knew me well.”
“I know you reckoned yourself as something of a messiah, but even messiahs eventually die.”
More footsteps approached from the opposite direction and another group of soldiers converged at the other end of the corridor.
“Any grand plans to get out of this one?” Althaus asked appearing behind Jason with Tyler at his side.
Jason didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve this time, but thought he might be able to stretch out the inevitable. “Higgs, you still got that shock grenade on you?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“Pass it here.”
Higgs handed it to Jason inconspicuously behind his back.
“When I say go, I want you three to jump into the brig,” Jason instructed them.
Tyler clasped his shoulder. “What are—”
“Just do it.”
Tyler’s went to say something, but closed his mouth and nodded instead. “Nash, what would you do to us if we were to surrender?” Jason asked.
His old friend chuckled. “We are long past that, Cassidy.”
“So, you wouldn’t turn me into one of these monstrosities? You’ve got to tell me how the Seekers do it? How do they turn them? How did they turn you?”
“Enough!”
“Could you at least spare them? My brother. Hell, even my uncle. Kill me and let them go on their way.”
Nash didn’t answer and simply stared at him.
“Well, I guess you’ve made your mind up then?”
Nash directed his soldiers with a forward motion, and their weapons took aim. “Goodbye, Cassidy.”
Forty-Two
“Now!”
Jason lobbed the grenade down the opposite corridor and dived with Tyler, Althaus, and Higgs into the brig. The explosion reverberated under the deck plating while Jason landed with a thud on Althaus’s back.
As smoke billowed from the blast outside the door, they all picked themselves up and ran down the small passageway between a row of cells to find cover. Jason hoped he’d taken out the soldiers at one end of the corridor but knew Nash and the other squad would be on their way shortly. While the odds were still in the Seekers’ favor, they could now at least defend themselves from a stronger position.
“You okay?” he asked Tyler.
Tyler nodded to the affirmative, though there was little doubt his brother’s heart was racing. The smoke cleared from the door, and on cue, the Seekers came blazing through. The green energy bolts from their weapons cut a swath through the air, clearing a path for them to enter the brig.
Jason aimed and fired, taking a pair of the soldiers out. The others got their shots in, too, but there were too many rushing toward them to make significant gains.
Tyler discharged a volley of blasts around the corner but got quickly pinned down. “Any other ideas?”
Althaus and Higgs struggled to get a shot away from their position too as their assailants continued to stream through. Jason fired, knocking another one down.
“My box of tricks might finally be empty.” Jason pondered another course of action and motioned everyone else backward behind an alternative passageway, while generating covering fire alongside Higgs. Behind was nothing but an enclosed bulkhead. They were hemmed in with no escape.
Jason raised his weapon and awaited the final assault. “Sorry, guys.”
The seconds passed.
Then a few more.
Jason eyed his brother and then Althaus. “Where are they?” He poked his head around the corner where the Seekers had turned their attention in the other direction. They fired back toward the entrance at an incoming ambush.
“Let’s go!” Jason stood and raised his weapon.
Tyler, Althaus, and Higgs joined him, blazing away at the Seekers now on the run.
A grenade exploded outside the door and the bulkhead collapsed inward, pushing the remaining soldiers into retreat. Through the smoke, like a knight in shining armor, Captain Marquez and the others pressed toward them. In all the carnage, Nash was somehow still on his feet. But he was scrambling as his soldiers fell around him.
/> While another Seeker fell in the crossfire, Jason took aim at the final holdout beside Nash. He hit him in the leg and then finished him off with a shot through the chest. Nash looked one way and then the other, defenseless, but standing firm. Marquez and his team held their fire while Jason walked toward him.
“It’s over, Nash,” Jason said to him, taking aim at his friend.
“Over? We haven’t even begun.” Nash’s arrogance reappeared. “What do you think you’re going to achieve here? This vessel is still standing.” His burned face produced a sadistic grin. “If I were you, I’d be more worried about your ship.”
A flurry of emotions swirled inside Jason. He didn’t know which one to react to first. He rushed toward him and let his fist do the talking, hurling a right hook at Nash’s jaw. His former crewmate fell to the deck on his ass.
Everyone else stood in shock and a hush emanated around the brig.
“Come on, let’s finish what we came here to do,” Jason said, leading them to the door.
Cargo Ship Argo
An alert sounded at the operations station and Aly watched a blip appear on the scanners from the far side of Psi-Aion’s moon.
“We’ve got a bogey,” she said to her dad. “It matches the configuration of the Seeker mothership from Orion V.”
Jason and the others had pissed the Seekers off, but without a direct commlink, they wouldn’t know whether their plan was succeeding or not.
“What’s their ETA?” he asked her.
“Eight minutes.” Aly shook her head in disbelief. “It’s unbelievable how that thing moves.” Her clammy hands ran over the console. “How are we supposed to go up against that?”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got Professor Petit down in our cargo bay. If there’s anyone who’ll help us defeat them, it’ll be him.”
Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1) Page 20
