Ghost Jumper (Interstellar Getaway Pilot Book 2), page 20
The hologram changed as he spoke. I could make out the blurry image of a massive alien fleet within the glowing display. The ships looked like this station, stone spheres linked by glowing tubes of solid energy. They were beautiful, elegant. Strange...
And they were getting blown to pieces. Hundreds of Dranth ships, maybe thousands, descended upon them, like a pack of desperate wolves. A curtain of energy beams streaked between the two fleets. I watched as one sphere exploded then another. Blue bodies drifted through the vacuum until what looked like a small asteroid belt of frozen cadavers stretched out to the nearest sun.
“Of course, the Empyreans weren't going to give it to us without a fight,” Krylos continued. “So my people conquered them. Our losses were… incalculable. But in the end, we prevailed and seized the technology that has allowed countless star systems across the galaxy to thrive.”
“To share with everyone. For the good of the galaxy, right?” I tilted my head and gave him an exaggerated wink.
The godfather's booming laugh echoed off the stone walls. “Oh, of course, of course. And if they made a planet-sized fortune on the side, so be it. As part of the treaty with the Empyreans, the head of the Dranth Mercantile Guild, the forefathers of the Vosk Syndicate, was gifted a bride. The most beautiful of their people."
Krylos looked down at Lynara and arched a single eyebrow. "But it was not her beauty that made her so valuable. It was the information stored in her Glyph, a living computer. Locked within its nanoparticles were the coordinates for this station, the last stronghold of the Empyreans.”
“What’s so special about this dump?” I asked, glancing at the stone walls. “I mean, you fought a war, killed billions of people, your great-great-grandfather got himself a piece of tail. For what? A big floating cave in space?”
“This cave, Mr. Corvus, contains hundreds of the most powerful weapons in existence. And yet, by themselves, they are incapable of harming a fly.”
Yar’s nostrils flared. I could see he was getting as bored with this guy’s monologue as I was. But he stood dutifully behind his master, arms clasped behind his back.
“Yar, you getting all this?” I asked. “Want to make sure you’re keeping up.”
“Perhaps,” Yar snarled, “it is time for me to dispose of this human nuisance.”
Krylos shook his head. “Patience, Yar. Mr. Corvus was brought here for a very special reason.”
Xiri grabbed my arm. “What are you talking about? What reason?”
“As I was saying, this station contains the most powerful weapons in the galaxy. Hundreds of them, in fact. The warheads carried aboard those alien fighters outside are among the few things in existence that can collapse a Network gate. The Syndicate’s possession of this station has been a powerful bargaining chip over the centuries. After the war, when Trans-Corp took control, we had to provide them with a… demonstration… of our power.”
“Varna 7,” I said, looking him in the eye.
Xiri gasped. “My… my home. My people…”
“The Grays were already refugees, living in squalor.” Krylos sneered. “Cutting them off from the Network made Trans-Corp realize what we were capable of. It gave us leverage for future negotiations.”
“We get the picture.” I couldn’t bring myself to smile anymore despite knowing how much it annoyed Yar. “You killed millions to shave a percentage off Trans-Corp’s tax. And when Lynara hired us to bust her out of your compound on Elysium, you sicced Yar and his goons on our tail. But you have her now. What do you need with me?”
“Not you personally, Mr. Corvus. Rather, that pathetic lump of flesh you call a brain. All I need is a tiny snippet of code that Lynara buried in your mind. You see, Trans-Corp is making moves to strangle our narcotics shipments. They’re insisting on more cargo inspections, spectrum analysis at Network gates, increased restrictions. It’s eating into our profits. And it’s time to put them back in their place.”
“You’re going to shut down another gate?”
He grinned. “Oh no, Mr. Corvus. We tried that once, and it kept the peace for a few centuries. But now, here we are again. So this time, I’m going to collapse three gates.”
“But…” Xiri gasped. “That’s three star systems. Billions of people will starve or go without medicine!”
“I know,” he said, still smiling. “Perhaps that will convince Trans-Corp to be more reasonable in the future. But first, I must access the Central Glyph in this station and instruct it to load the weapons onboard my ship. To do that, I need Lynara to activate her final protocols. And she locked the code sequence away in that tiny human brain of yours.”
He turned to Lynara. Grabbing her chin, he tilted her head up and stared into her glowing red eyes.
“Now, my darling wife, your time has finally come. Fulfil your purpose. Activate final protocols!”
Before I could say a word, another tendril erupted from Lynara’s body. It zoomed toward me, curling around my neck and burrowing into my spine. Falling to my knees, I opened my mouth to scream, but there was no pain. Just an overwhelming flow of sensation, neurons firing, information exploding across the chasms of my synapses. I could see everything happening around me, but it was all crawling past my eyes in slow motion.
Xiri rushed over to me, but Yar gestured with his pistol. A pair of Dranth goons grabbed her and dragged her away.
Joven looked down at me and laughed. “Oi, that’s gotta hurt, mate!” His voice sounded like a holovid playing at half speed.
“Final protocols activated,” Lynara said.
And I realized the words were coming from my mouth as well as hers. We were linked. The tendril of her Glyph had interfaced with my neural implant again. It felt like someone was prying open my skull. She had left something there, buried in my subconscious. An image, a phrase. Symbols…
A series of images flashed before my eyes one by one. Patterns of stars, the constellations I had seen when the Glyph and I had interfaced with the Shadow Hawk. Only this time, I saw the true images they represented. A sword. A shield. A flower.
More tendrils sprouted from her Glyph and darted toward the hologram. They joined with the glowing panel of light, and everything pulsed deep red. The images in my mind flashed on the floating display, and the carvings at the dome's apex filled with light. The entire station was one with Lynara and me.
“Access granted,” we said in unison.
Krylos rubbed his hands together. “Excellent. Lynara, order the station to load the remaining warheads onto my ship. This ancient ritual of ours has outlived its usefulness. I want these devices on hand the next time I need to make a show of strength. No more treaty. No more skulking about this ghastly station in the middle of nowhere.”
“Yes, Master. Your will is my will. It shall be done.”
Trev Corvus…
I heard the voice again, the voice of the Glyph.
We have to stop him, I thought, trying to communicate with it.
I cannot override my programming, the Glyph replied. My host and I were gifted to the ancestors of Sakaro Krylos as a peace offering. The rituals must be followed. I am his to command. But once final protocols are complete, my will shall be my own.
What the hell does that mean? I asked, my voice echoing through my skull like a half-forgotten dream.
It means be ready. There is one more protocol I can fulfil. And I calculate a fifteen percent chance of survival if you follow my instructions.
Mentally, I rolled my eyes. Wow, a whole fifteen percent? Don’t spoil me or anything.
The time to act is coming. Prepare yourself, Trev Corvus.
“Final protocols complete,” Lynara and I said in unison. “The weapons are aboard your ship. They are armed and ready to fire.”
“Perfect, my dear.” Krylos ran his hands through her hair again. “It’s a shame. You really are quite beautiful, Lynara. But while your pheromones may have swayed this weak-minded human and his friend to your cause, we Dranth are a more evolved species. And you are of no more use to me.”
I saw it before Lynara did. A glimmer of light in his hands, hidden behind his back. A slycer knife with an ornate, jewel-encrusted hilt. I tried to move, tried to speak. But I couldn’t. The Glyph kept me frozen in place.
Wait, Trev Corvus! Not yet.
The blade slashed out, cutting across her throat. She gasped then slumped to the ground, her blood spilling across the stone floor.
Krylos knelt beside her. “Farewell, my beauty. At least now, you are finally free.”
She looked up at him. Her eyes were glowing yellow again. And despite the blood gushing down her chest, her defiant stare met the godfather’s cold, emotionless gaze head-on.
“More free than you realize, my husband,” she wheezed. “While I reside in a host body, the treaty binds my Glyph to your orders. By killing me, you have broken the truce. Now, it is free to choose another host.”
She lifted a weak arm and pointed at me. More nanoparticles erupted from her body, streaking toward me like beams of azure light.
"And it chooses him!” she screamed.
The last thing I remembered seeing was Yar raising his pistol. Then the nanoparticles surrounded me. Everything went black. And in the darkness, I heard the roar of a gun firing.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Darkness. Black. Empty. Silent.
Trev Corvus, are you all right?
“I don’t know. Am I supposed to feel like this?” I answered. I wasn’t sure if I was talking or thinking. Or maybe something else entirely.
Insufficient data to answer query. How do you feel?
“Like a starship just fired reverse thrusters inside my skull.”
Your headache is a predictable side effect. Your implant has now absorbed a massive amount of data. Lynara has transferred her entire Glyph into your implant. The storage capacity is insufficient, so I have had to rewrite portions of your organic brain matter to contain the spillover.
“That sounds like a bad thing.”
It is perfectly safe. You are in no immediate danger from this procedure.
“Oh. Good.”
However, if you do not export my program from your organic brain tissue in thirty minutes, you will suffer a fatal aneurism.
“What the flarg?!!” I screamed into the darkness. “You said I was in no immediate danger!”
That is correct. You are not in immediate danger from this procedure. In thirty minutes, however, you will be. The more pressing concern at this point is being shot by Yar Negal.
“Fine,” I muttered. “One crisis at a time. Let’s deal with him first.”
Very well. I am deactivating your protective cocoon. Prepare to engage the enemy.
And just like that, the entire world came crashing down on top of me. Darkness turned to light. The empty black void exploded into a blinding cacophony of images and sound. I blinked. It seemed to take an eternity for my vision to come into focus. But some part of my mind knew that only a fraction of a second had gone by.
I saw Krylos sneering at Lynara as her glowing golden eyes looked up at me. Her finger stabbed at the air. Nano particles swirled around me, a shimmering cloud of blue light. And Yar Negal raised his pistol. But the Glyph had gotten one thing wrong. He wasn’t aiming at me.
He was aiming at Krylos.
KABLAM!
The explosive shot echoed through the dome. The massive slug tore a bloody, ragged hole in the godfather's chest. His victorious grin twisted into a grimace of pain and horror. Then Yar fired again. His second shot practically took the man's head clean off.
As he collapsed to the ground, the other Vrell guards raised their rifles and opened fire. The Dranth goons danced and jerked in the air as the barrage of energy beams burned through their fancy leather clothes.
I was moving before the first thug hit the floor. Yar swiveled around and aimed his pistol at me, but the Glyph's nanoparticles wrapped around Joven’s throat and dragged him in front of me as a shield.
“Trev, no!” Joven shouted. But he was too late.
Yar's gun roared again. I felt the impact vibrate through Joven’s body as twin slugs struck his chest.
The other Vrell spun around and targeted us as well. More glowing tendrils erupted from my body, grabbing Xiri and Lynara. Keeping Joven between me and the remaining thugs, I sprinted toward the open view port. Between Joven and the two women, I had to be hauling over two hundred kilos, and I was moving at a full sprint. The Glyph had pushed my strength and speed off the charts, but that didn’t mean it was easy. My muscles screamed with exertion, and I could feel my bones struggling to support the additional weight.
Energy bolts streaked past my shoulder. I dropped Joven. His weight was slowing me down. The smoking corpse hit the floor with a dull, fleshy thud.
Sorry, pal.
A part of me meant it too. Joven and I had gone through a lot together. Even though he had betrayed me, I’d miss him. I had liked knowing he was out there in the galaxy somewhere, running his crazy scams.
But I’d get over it.
I leapt out of the rectangular opening, dragging Xiri and Lynara with me. We fell down the side of the sphere and plunged into the pitch-black darkness outside. A cold wind whipped through my hair, and my clothes flapped in the breeze.
Squinting in the freezing air, I reacted without thinking. I reached out toward the curved wall of the sphere. More tendrils sprang from my arm and dug into the sloped rocky orb. Sparks flew from the wall as the glowing blue hooks tore across its surface. Finally, we jerked to a stop, hanging above the void. Lynara didn’t look too good. Her blue skin was pale, almost as gray as Xiri’s.
Xiri looked down then glanced over at the alien woman. “Trev, she’s losing a lot of blood!”
“Can we help her?” I shouted, feeling like an idiot again.
Xiri blinked. “I don’t know, I—”
I shook my head. “No, I was asking the Glyph.”
Yes. Administering medical assistance.
A mass of particles leapt from one of the tendrils and flowed across Lynara’s skin. It congealed around her neck, staunching the flow of blood. But she was still unconscious, and her body hung limp in the tentacle's grasp.
“Now what?” Xiri asked. Her big black eyes blinked as the cool air rushed around us. “It’s a long way down!”
“I guess we—”
Before I could finish my sentence, a barrage of energy beams struck the edge of the sphere. I looked up, wincing as rock chips cut across my cheek. Yar and the other Vrell leaned out the opening, aiming their guns at us from above.
Gritting my teeth, I let us slide farther down the sphere. The curved bulbous structure hid us from view. If I craned my neck, I could just barely make out Yar’s face staring at us from above.
“Coward!” he shouted. “I offer you a warrior’s death!”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass!”
Yar leaned farther out and fired again. The rushing wind muted the roar of his pistol. His shots blew fragments of stone from the sphere's side, but he couldn’t quite hit us.
“The end is coming, human. You cannot run.”
“You’re the one that should run, Yar!” I shouted back. “You just shot the Pah'vash. The entire Syndicate will be after you!”
“Yes. But how will they find me?”
I thought for a minute. Why had he killed Krylos? I knew I was missing something, but I just couldn’t put it all together.
The Glyph’s voice echoed in the dark corners of my mind. I felt the headache growing worse as it spoke. Trev Corvus! The station’s automated systems have finished loading the weapons into the Syndicate vessel.
Suddenly, it all made sense.
A warrior's death. A society without honor. War was the only opportunity for a man like him.
“Which gates are you going to collapse, Yar?” I shouted up to him. “You think if you cut off the Dranth, you can restart the war?”
“I plan to do much more than that, human. This station controls a very special gate. It is called the Locus. A nexus point that links the entire network together. And when I use the Empyreans’ weapons to collapse the Locus, the aftershock will destroy every network gate in the galaxy.”
"You’ll be cut off from everything, thousands of years from the nearest star!” I called back. “That’s suicide, Yar! Your people will suffer as much as everyone else!”
“My people are warriors, human. This artificial peace has robbed us of our heritage. Our leaders bow to wealthy Dranth merchants, and the rest of us struggle to live off the scraps. There is no honor in this kind of life.”
“And there’s honor in death? Starvation? Disease?”
“Hardship is the stone that sharpens the blade,” he bellowed. “I am content to end my life knowing I have rescued my people from the oblivion of mediocrity. We will fight. We will die. And years from now, when we perfect Ghost Drive technology and reach out to the stars once more, we will be unstoppable!”
“You’re flarging crazy, Yar!”
“I had hoped to face you in combat once more, human. It is unlikely your kind shall survive the coming darkness. So let this be our last farewell.”
They opened fire again. Their shots struck the wall above us. I heard the cracking and splintering of shifting rocks. I looked up. Through the hail of blasted particles, a fissure spider-webbed through the rock wall. The crack grew wider as the Vrell continued pummeling the surface with their weapons fire.
“Everyone, hold on!” I shouted. “Glyph, I’m gonna need you to—”
You need me to cushion your fall should this wall collapse, the Glyph answered.
“You read my mind,” I said, shifting my body as a larger chunk of rock was dislodged above. It barely missed me as it plunged down into the darkness.
Yes, I did. But I cannot insure a safe landing for all three of you, as I cannot measure the maximum distance we might fall. Perhaps if you could activate a laser depth probe, I could…
