First Colony: Books 1 - 3

by Ken Lozito

  “You’re nothing but a disease,” Connor sneered.

  How could a disease achieve anything resembling sentience?

  “They used to believe as you do. They thought to stop us, but we are the same.”

  “What are you?” Connor asked.

  “We’re humans who’ve taken an evolutionary leap,” the Vemus collective replied.

  Connor shook his head. “That’s impossible. You can’t be human.”

  New network connections became available to Connor through his combat suit’s system. Then a data dump began to download to his suit computer.

  “Why have you come here?” Connor asked.

  The Vemus collective didn’t respond. Instead, words began to appear on his heads-up display.

  ::Biological imperative.::

  A series of images flashed on Connor’s internal heads-up display—mission briefings to research subheadings for things Connor had never heard of before.

  “It won’t succeed. There are bombs planted all over this ship,” Connor said.

  “We have the measure of your weapons. They will not stop us,” the Vemus collective said, once again speaking aloud.

  Connor glanced at the AR-71 in his hands and let it fall to the ground. Reaching behind his back, he moved to the side, next to one of the exoskeletal cords. Another ripple moved through the floor toward him, and he slammed into the cord. He braced himself against it and the shuddering movement beneath his feet stopped.

  “You could just leave. You came all this way and for what? There aren’t very many people here,” Connor said as he moved away from the cord.

  “Humanity is the imperative,” the Vemus collective replied.

  Connor swallowed as an image appeared on his heads-up display showing an NA Alliance soldier with his weapon pointed straight at him. The name Col. Gates appeared on the HUD overlay.

  Connor’s eyes widened. “What’s this?”

  Memories blazed through Connor’s mind like wildfire. The image was from his last Earth mission. Everyone who’d been witness to it was dead, or so he’d thought. The Ghosts were gone, and there was only one other person who’d been standing in front of him.

  “RJ!” Connor hissed. His eyes widened as he realized that buried within the Vemus collective was the leader of the Syndicate—a powerful group that operated above governments. They’d wanted to control everything and establish dominion over all people. The Vemus organism must have given them the opportunity.

  The horde of Vemus soldiers behind him seemed to move all at once.

  “You cannot harm us, and you will never leave this place,” the Vemus collective said. “Your weapons are not strong enough to stop us, nor will you ever kill us—”

  “I just did,” Connor said quietly, holding up the cylinder that was attached to the canister on his back. Four large-bore penetrators were still deployed from one end, each dripping with thick amber-colored liquid. Connor watched the blackened area around the spot he’d shoved the injector into spread rapidly. The New Earth virus, coupled with the nanobots, spread away from Connor like a black wave. The Vemus soldiers still attached to the collective started convulsing violently, and the soldier nearest him fell to the ground, unmoving. Connor turned toward the giant mass and watched with grim satisfaction as it seemed to sag into itself. He heard the fleeting, high-pitched whistles of the Vemus stretch into an elongated tone that soon faded to nothing.

  “General?” Captain Randle groaned.

  Connor spun toward the call. The cords that had held Captain Randle had slipped off of him, and the CDF captain was trying to claw his way out of the murky liquid. As Connor ran over to Randle, his feet were sloshing through the exoskeletal surface. He barely made it to the captain before his legs could hardly move through the stuff.

  “I’m here,” Connor said.

  Captain Randle turned toward him. “My comlink is online. The other team—”

  “I know,” Connor said.

  The Vemus exoskeletal walls weakened, going from a hardened surface to a liquid form. A large section sloshed to the ground, upsetting the rest, and the glowing orbs within went dark.

  The only lighting came from their combat suits.

  “What happened? Did it work?” Captain Randle asked.

  Connor stopped trying to struggle against the thick, viscous liquid and simply stood there. He looked over at Captain Randle and saw that his combat suit had been severely damaged by the Vemus exoskeletal sludge.

  “It worked,” Connor said and glanced at the timer for the bombs the assault teams from Lunar Base had planted.

  “My suit is going offline. You should leave me behind. You might be able to get away,” Captain Randle said.

  “Like hell I will,” Connor replied.

  “But General,” Captain Randle protested.

  “We’re about to die. You can use my first name, Wayne,” Connor said.

  “Well, don’t stay on my account, Connor,” Wayne said.

  “You’re not that pretty,” Connor replied. He doubted he could crawl out of there anyway.

  Wayne snorted. “I’m no Lenora Bishop, but I do like what I see when I look in the mirror.”

  Connor shook his head. “You would,” he said, and his throat thickened. He closed his eyes, not wanting to watch the timer anymore. Instead, he pictured Lenora’s beautiful face and long auburn hair with the rays of the sun casting her silhouette in shining brilliance. He wished he could be with her right now. He’d gladly live the rest of his life apologizing for the fool he was.

  He slipped beneath the liquid surface of the Vemus exoskeleton as the New Earth virus broke it down, and he looked over at Wayne’s darkened suit. The damage must have killed his power.

  “Wayne!” Connor called.

  There was no response, and Connor tried to wave to get his attention, but Wayne didn’t move at all. His body just sank in the murky sea of liquefied Vemus exoskeletal material. He screamed to Wayne and there was no response. Wayne was gone. His vision blurred. This was it. He was going to die . . . alone. He felt a wave of panic seize his chest. Connor gasped for breath and glared at the sight around him. He was surrounded by the dark bodies of dead Vemus soldiers, sinking into their watery grave. They’d once been people and he hoped they were at peace.

  Connor cringed inwardly as a flash of regret blazed through his thoughts, and he didn’t try to stop them. Instead, he let all his regrets have their due. The darkness closed in all around him and he felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness. He didn’t want to die here. He flailed his arms, trying to work his way through the murky liquid, but nothing worked. He just continued to sink among the still forms of the Vemus soldiers. Connor swallowed and glanced at the timer. Squeezing his eyes shut, he finally surrendered to the inevitable.

  37

  Colonel Hayes leaned back and closed his eyes. A cool breeze blew through the open doors of the mobile Command Center at Sierra’s CDF encampment on New Earth. As the tension melted away, he sagged into his chair and his breathing became deep and regular with the allure of sleep. He’d found himself leaning over, succumbing to some much-needed sleep three times already, and by the fourth, he just gave in. There’d hardly been a moment’s peace in the two months since the Vemus Alpha ship had been destroyed. Fragments of the ship had bombarded the lunar surface, and the careful cleanup operations he’d been overseeing for the past few months were starting to catch up with him. He’d slept when he could sneak it in, and he felt himself drifting away now. Would anyone notice if he just rested his head on his desk? Perhaps he could just lie down on the floor.

  A woman’s voice cut through his slumber like a cleaver, and an instant headache came over him, snapping him awake. Nathan winced, hearing her walk into his office. He cracked an eye open and glanced at the doorway.

  “We do have a bed you can sleep in,” Savannah said.

  “I know, but if I take the time to go there, I’ll just wake myself up,” Nathan said softly.

  Savannah
snorted. “So, you don’t want to join me for my four-month checkup with Dr. Quinn?”

  Nathan’s eyes snapped open, startled. “I thought that was tomorrow,” he said and quickly stood up.

  “It is tomorrow,” Savannah said.

  Keeping the days straight had become increasingly difficult when he hadn’t had a day off in so long that he couldn’t remember the last one. “I don’t know how Ashley does it.”

  “Her appointment as governor is temporary. She’ll serve out the remainder of Tobias’s term, but she’ll always be a doctor at heart,” Savannah said.

  Nathan arched his back and stretched. He glanced at the small swelling of Savannah’s midsection and smiled. She was only just now starting to show her pregnancy. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?”

  Savannah arched a brow. “What? Is it suddenly five hundred years ago?”

  “Well, technically it’s a little over four hundred and twenty, but since we spent two hundred of those years in . . .” Nathan’s voice trailed off and he raised his hands in front of his chest. “I was just asking.”

  Savannah stepped closer to him. “Does it really matter if it’s one or the other?”

  Nathan smiled. “No,” he said.

  “Good answer,” Savannah purred and kissed him.

  They left the mobile Command Center and he told Lieutenant LaCroix to continue monitoring the teams they had out in the field.

  They stepped outside and Nathan’s eyes widened. He was still waking up and his brain wasn’t quite functioning yet.

  “What is it?” Savannah asked.

  “If today is your appointment, that means we should also be getting the results for the survivors,” Nathan said.

  “Colonel Quinn is already there,” Savannah said.

  Promoting Sean Quinn to colonel was something Nathan had pushed for recently. Sean had been doing the job since Connor had put him in charge of the CDF ground forces. Being the war hero of Sanctuary, he had a loyal following that starkly rebuffed anyone who questioned Sean’s decision to blow up Sierra. Nathan had reviewed the reports and also supported Sean’s decision. Given the overwhelming enemy fighting force they were facing at the time, it was the best choice to ensure their survival. It had taken CDF forces weeks to hunt down all the remaining Vemus that had made it to New Earth. Once the Vemus collective had been destroyed, they seemed to lose some of their fighting capabilities, including their highly adaptive fighting abilities. Scientists were still theorizing about how the Vemus connection worked. They wanted to collect samples for study, which Nathan had steadfastly refused. All Vemus and remnants of equipment modified by the Vemus were to be destroyed. No exceptions. Nathan was the most senior officer of the Colonial Defense Force, so the decision was made by him. On the one hand, he understood the scientists wanting to know exactly what had happened on Earth to spawn the Vemus, but on the other hand, the colony had just miraculously survived something that had claimed billions of lives, so why tempt fate? He wasn’t convinced there was a real benefit to studying the Vemus, and some stones were better left unturned.

  Nathan and Savannah took an ATV to the CDF secure location outside the encampment a hundred kilometers from where Sierra had been. With the threat of the Vemus lessening as the days passed, colonists were being transported from the bunkers to the encampments near the decimated cities. The “clean” nature of the fusion bombs used to destroy the cities allowed for immediate reconstruction, and temporary housing had already been established for the surviving colonists. They were starting over, but the colony had paid a terrible price for the privilege. Nathan suspected that some of the new structures would incorporate a way to reverently honor the sacrifice of all those who had died in the war against the Vemus.

  They went through the security checkpoints to enter the CDF base and drove to a secluded, heavily guarded warehouse. The driver of the ATV stopped near the entrance and Nathan and Savannah climbed out.

  Standing outside the warehouse was a short, muscular CDF captain Nathan had come to know recently.

  “Colonel,” Captain Diaz said and saluted Nathan and Savannah. While Savannah’s pregnancy had prevented her from service aboard Phoenix Station, she was still part of the CDF and a ranking officer, the same as Nathan.

  Standing next to Captain Diaz was an older Asian man.

  “Captain,” Nathan said and turned to the other man. “Dr. Kim. Thank you for your discretion in this matter.”

  “I only hope that after all this time we get some good news,” Dr. Kim replied.

  Dr. Kim had been with Connor’s assault team and had stayed behind on a combat shuttle. During the battle, when the CDF bombs were about to detonate, Dr. Kim had flown the combat shuttle away from the Vemus Alpha. He’d waited as long as he could, but Connor and his team hadn’t returned.

  It was Dr. Kim who’d detected the active combat suit signals from among the wreckage of the Vemus Alpha. CDF rescue operations had recovered nearly sixty CDF soldiers from the wreckage, including General Gates. Some of the CDF soldiers had been encased in the Vemus exoskeletal material and were in a state of being absorbed into the Vemus collective when the toxin had been released. There was nothing they could do for those soldiers. They weren’t quite dead, but they weren’t fully alive either. They were a biological contagion and had to be destroyed, so when the survivors had been discovered, Nathan had ordered it kept secret. The families of those soldiers already believed their loved ones were dead, and to reveal what had really happened to them would have been cruel. But for Connor’s body it was different. His combat suit was perfectly intact, with only some minor damage, but the suit itself had been directly exposed to the Vemus collective. Nexstar combat suits were designed to keep their wearers alive through the harshest conditions. When exposed to a prolonged harsh environment, it would administer medicine that reduced the consumption of life support. The best way to achieve this was to put the wearer of the suit into a temporary coma.

  Nathan had had Connor’s body quarantined and made the knowledge of his survival confidential. Only a select few knew the CDF general was alive, but whether he was free of the Vemus was another matter entirely. They’d kept Connor in a medical coma while in quarantine. Ashley Quinn had injected nanobots into his system to evaluate Connor’s cellular structure. They needed to know whether his suit’s exposure to the Vemus had left him infected. The evaluation had taken weeks, and today they would find out whether they would lose one more friend to the Vemus.

  They went through another security checkpoint. Even the CDF soldiers serving in this facility weren’t aware that their commanding officer was being held in quarantine, fully sedated.

  Dr. Quinn stood at the medical capsule, speaking with her son.

  “You know him. If we wake him up and he suspects he’s been infected, he’ll take matters into his own hands,” Sean said.

  Ashley glanced at Nathan as he and Savannah walked into the room, navigating among the monitoring equipment that was connected to the capsule. Captain Diaz and Dr. Kim followed them inside. They were the only people who knew Connor was alive.

  “Today is the day,” Nathan said.

  Ashley looked at Savannah and gave her a warm smile. Then she turned back to Nathan. “I was just explaining to Sean that no matter what these results show us, there’s no way to know for sure whether Connor’s exposure to the Vemus will have lasting effects, or even latent effects.”

  “And I was saying that when we do wake Connor up, we’d better be sure of the results or he might do something rash,” Sean said.

  “He’s right,” Diaz said.

  “So what are you suggesting?” Nathan asked.

  “That we don’t make any snap decisions once we get the results,” Ashley replied.

  “I think it’s time we find out the results of the test,” Nathan said.

  When they’d decided to run the full spectrum of tests, with the nanobots essentially examining every part of Connor’s
body, they’d used a lockout protocol that required all six of them to be present to get the results.

  Ashley went to the capsule and opened the console. She inputted her own authentication and stepped aside so the rest of them could do the same. Nathan went last, but before he inputted his credentials, he whispered a silent prayer that the results would be positive.

  Connor felt a jolt and then something tugged him from a bottomless sleep. He became aware of the deep void he’d been in and felt as if he were being pushed through a doorway to the frigid outdoors. He felt a tingling pain in his hands and feet. There was something hard in his throat and he heard the sound of muffled voices speaking. Connor tried to cough as his throat muscles worked to expel the hard rod from his mouth. Then he felt the tube in his throat slowly being pulled out. He winced and coughed weakly, spitting out a foul-tasting liquid as someone helped roll him to his side.

  “Just take it easy for a moment. You’ve been in a medically induced coma.”

  He recognized Ashley’s voice and did as she said. Connor lay on his side and took a few breaths.

  “Where am I?” Connor asked, his voice sounding hoarse.

  “You’re on New Earth,” Ashley said.

  Connor opened his eyes and blinked several times before his vision began to clear. The bed began to lift him into a sitting position so he was more upright and that helped clear his head. He looked around and saw Ashley standing near him. He glanced behind her and saw Sean, Nathan, and Savannah. There was a clearing of the throat to his left and he saw Dr. Kim standing there, smiling.

  “Either you’re all dead or I’m alive,” Connor said.

  Ashley smiled at him. “You’re alive,” she said.

  Sean gave him a measured look. There was a hardness to his gaze that Connor recognized as something that came with the burden of command.