Stellar Fusion, page 11
part #1 of Infinite Spark Series
Atana saw the confusion on the sergeants’ faces and interjected, “For right now, we are concentrating on getting the information Home Station requires about what is up here and trying to return in one piece. I need to talk with Saema more about the best routes to the locations we tagged in Tanner’s maps first.”
Saema’s eyes twitched toward the back of the hut. “I will bring in a few of our perimeter guards to help.”
“This is a recon mission first and foremost,” Bennett reminded his team. “Do not engage unless innocents are at risk.”
“Dismissed,” Atana said quietly.
With the team in the bunk room, leaving Bennett, Atana, and Saema, Bennett broke the silence. “So what is the plan? You keep leaving me out.”
Atana threw him a pained glance.
A set of blue eyes peeked in the front opening. “Ma, I couldn’t get him. He’s in Sector Seventy-nine,” he paused, catching Atana’s gaze on him. “Scrubbing.”
Saema waved at a seat. The thick-striped male quickly sat as requested. “This is Kylo, one of our most experienced guards.”
The blue eyes glanced at the Earthlings. “Bennett and Sa…” Saema cleared her throat. Kylo paused, snorting at her. “Sergeant Atana. I hear you want help navigating our network. I can send each of you out with a guide at sleep-cycle.”
“That would be most helpful. Thank you,” Atana replied.
“Our team works in pairs,” Bennett stated. “I want to see them stay that way.”
Kylo hesitated. “I will discuss this with our lead guard.” I’m sure whatever you want you’ll get. His eyes settled on Atana with a sneer. “We will find you after last meal.”
He stood promptly and left.
Atana’s face scrunched, confused and wary. Whatever we want? They have so little to give. Looking to Saema, she just wanted it all to be over. Maybe they are upset because we made a mess when we came on board? Scrubbing implies…
“I apologize,” Saema said with a sigh. “Kylo is effective but a member of the Verros, a group that believes we were saved from extinction by being enslaved, a sort of salvation on the backs of the Suanoa.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Bennett remarked.
She nodded. “For some, it is how they cope so they may continue. After Kylo’s mate passed, he joined them. He protects because, to him, this is his home.”
Chapter 26
ON EDGE, the team twitched at every slight sound.
“I don’t like this,” Bennett said as he sat talking with Atana in the bunk room that night. “We walked in here too easily, have been given a lot.”
“By those who have so little, I know. I don’t like it either. But if there’s a chance they can teach us how to find our way around without getting caught…”
“Again, too convenient.”
“Guys,” Tanner called from the doorway. The team leapt out of their beds, boots still on, SIs in their hands. Atana was the first to step out beside the blond sergeant to find a ring of shadowed figures congregating around the opening to the hut.
The posture of the circle was that of a pack of hunkered, starving wolves.
“I am Tohsa. Come with us,” one of the guards said as they walked away. The team filed in behind in their designated pairs. Out into the hallway, Tohsa continued quietly. “Below us are the gravitational maintenance rooms and the drainage systems for the fields.”
He took them down the stairs and directed around with a hand as they meandered through to the other end.
“To either side you will find hydro-facilities that pump the filtered water overhead for the rain.” When they’d climbed the stairs again, he pointed to the pipes. “There are a lot of open spaces around the plumbing systems with no structured access, but every sector has them marked. Above are the light and ventilation systems. There are maintenance closets and chambers you can use to hide in when transitioning between levels. Like this one.” He pointed to a set of etched triangles on a wall panel. “To make moving between levels fast, if you are being chased.”
“You want wander ship free, get information, put our innocents in harm,” one of the guards growled. “You must earn right.”
“Jeniah, not now,” Tohsa scolded. “He is not as good with English. We go through many long-cycles of training to be guards and to learn the different languages.”
“What do they teach you on blue planet?” Jeniah interrupted. “How to be spoiled?”
“We are like you, Jeniah,” Atana retorted, eyeing him suspiciously. “Our purpose is to ensure the safety of all Earthlings.”
Tohsa let out a grunt, and the guards disappeared in an instant, leaving the team completely exposed to the hallway.
“Now what?” Panton whispered, his arm wrapping around Josie as he checked their perimeter.
Cutter’s voice was hoarse. “Six o’clock!”
Panton swung an elbow back with his SI in hand, releasing a careless shot and found himself engaged in a fist-fight with several guards that dragged him off into the darkness. Josie hustled after him, releasing a shot to her right, frantically calling out his name.
Two guards dropped in front of Cutter and Tanner, leaning out to kick their chests. Both sergeants deflected and engaged.
At the same moment, four popped out of the shadows around Atana and Bennett, who spun around, back-to-back, SIs outstretched, igniters glowing. Their radial vent chambers illuminated the four stunned faces. But the guards didn’t back down. They were swiftly on them, ducking to avoid the flames barreling overhead.
Bennett and Atana returned the onslaught with skill. They each took down one of their attackers before hearing vibrations come from every guard, a faint blue light pulsing in their pockets.
“Hide,” the guards whispered. “Linoans spotted.”
The hallways emptied, except for Atana and Bennett, who ran back the direction their team had been fighting.
“Atana.” Bennett urged her toward a marked space. But she had other things on her mind.
Sliding open the panel, she shoved him inside and placed a finger over her lips. Closing it, she continued her search. Cutter hid in the ceiling trusses. She could see his striated steel eyes glance at hers as he hoisted Tanner up beside him. A few paces more and she saw Josie’s green e-rifle igniter fade out through a vent screen in the distance.
A shadow approached her, with a familiar set of glowing eyes. She grabbed Kylo and slung him around a corner. Linoans, she whispered as she pressed him against the wall. Kylo stared at her in shock. Drawing her SIs, she took a silent but deep breath to wind herself down, to make sure she was on target. She listened.
I see what he sees now.
Who? She looked up at him.
Kylo just smiled and tapped her SI, pointing to his sternum. Shoot here, most likely kill shot but only if necessary. He pushed her behind him, beneath the stairwell and looked up. Clear. Wait.
She readied her fingers over the triggers. So you are not him?
Huh? Wait, you don’t remember?
I was in a crash.
A crash? He turned to look back at her, and two Linoans peeked around the corner. Kylo spun to shield Atana as she took the shots. Two bodies slumped to the floor. The light in his eyes grew as he hovered over her, out of breath, his body having tensed, waiting for their blades to slice into him. There will be at least two more.
Atana dropped her arms and shifted around Kylo.
Trying to get us killed? she asked, throwing him a glare.
No. I just had to know.
Glancing out, she grunted and barged into the hallway, SIs up and glowing. As each shadow became distinguishable, she took them down. Flaming, aqua heat burst from the radial vent slots of her right SI, a ball of fury taking down one Linoan. Then her left vented, right, and left again. Her team peeked out of their hiding holes to witness her fury. Two more somewhere.
Bennett lunged out of the shadows, knocking one sideways to her right. It swiped at him. He promptly leaned back, avoiding the swinging heel, and took a shot through his thigh holster, taking the red and black assailant to the floor, permanently. Air moved behind him, from the right to the left.
Her hand rammed forward, her hooked blade burrowing into the Linoans chest as she ducked, allowing its swinging fist and the dual blades to find only empty space. She snagged a rib and tore through its dense marrow effortlessly. The Linoan crumpled.
Kylo appeared, sprinting their direction. “Are you okay?”
“Why do you care?” Bennett barked, placing a hand on Atana’s low back and scanning her eyes.
She looked down. Kylo, hide. He disappeared.
“How much ammo you have left?” she asked Bennett, pulling him around to guard her backside.
“Plenty. Why?”
Crouching down in the middle of the hallway, she replied. “Warruks.”
“How do you know?”
She took a long breath. “I can feel the vibrations of their feet through mine.”
Bennett tried to look back at her as he knelt behind, facing the other end of the hall, wondering how she could be so sensitive to such minute details. “How many?”
Closing her eyes, she absorbed the patterns of the waves. “Full set, eight.”
“Shit.”
“Agreed,” she muttered. “Ready?”
“Always.” He grinned, palming his SIs, the igniters warming.
Their large, multicolored forms thundered around the corners. The hall lit up with blue-green and orange fire. The sergeants used the Linoans as a shield from the Warruks assault.
Bennett whipped around and threw Atana to the ground just as a flaming orange ball propelled through their recent position. A set of feet landed at their side, and the walls painted in dark indigo light, the sound of the flaming mass spooling up like a turbo. The last Warruks on Bennett’s end fell. The hall grew silent.
“Nakio? Are you…” Bennett immediately patted Atana down.
“I’m fine.” When she sat up and looked into his golden eyes despite the darkness, she couldn’t help but wonder about him.
The guard beside Atana and Bennett helped them stand.
“I am Rimsan. Are you both okay?” His voice was low and smooth. Cracks of light peeked through jagged lines around the elongated, hexagonal cells of his ridged forehead and obsidian cheeks. Hundreds of long, thin, luminous strands waved behind his back.
They stared at him before Panton broke the silence. “What in God’s name…”
The tall, slender man twisted to his words and let out a nervous laugh. “I’m a Primvera. These are my flumes.” A few of the lappets waved like fingers. “They are a durable extension of my nervous system and send out Kilavi energy because I am a Prime.”
“Rimsan, what do you think you’re doing? You want to get us all killed?” Kylo barked through clenched teeth. “You are supposed to keep cover!”
“I am tired of hiding, like everyone else!” Rimsan growled, his strands spiking momentarily with his frustration. “Except apparently you. I am glad I am not from your sector.” His light vanished as his flumes rolled up like ferns against his back, and he headed into the darkness.
Tohsa wriggled free of the many hands holding him back. “Jeniah!”
“I was following Kylo order. We all was!”
“And I was following…” Tohsa trailed off glancing at the silver sheen of Atana’s eyes. “This is our chance to gain control, for everyone, including Verros.”
“It was a test. They passed,” Kylo said, turning to the team.
“You sent the Linoans?” Josie asked in shock.
“No,” Kylo replied. “But you performed well. You have earned the right to walk free.” He nodded. “We will discuss routes in the early-cycle.”
“Why didn’t you fight?” Josie snapped. “Why, if you are so good, did you hide? Like cowards?”
Kylo whipped around, his eyes brightening beneath narrowed brows.
One of the other guards cut him off. “We don’t have weapons like you. Only a handful of Warruk guns we steal off the dead but cannot carry because they glow. They are hidden for when we need them.”
Josie saw the guard fingering a charred hole through his shirt. I missed? But the scrawny ribs she saw beneath made her instantly regret her outburst.
Another piped up. “Most only have knives unless they are special Kiatna, like Rimsan.” He fingered his crudely hammered shank, the handle wrapped with frayed fabric. “We fight only when necessary, to not draw too much attention.”
“Tohsa, get the scrub crew.” Kylo’s larger shadow waved the guards away. “Eih ahna. Avi mitras.”
Tohsa grumbled, “Eih Mitron,” and walked off with the others.
“You and your team remember how to get back?” Kylo asked.
“Yes.” Bennett snorted and pushed past him, escorting his team back through the halls.
Atana trailed behind, glancing back at Kylo’s glowing eyes in the darkness amidst the bodies. I understand.
Chapter 27
BENNETT GROWLED when they re-entered the container. “I told you we couldn’t trust her!”
Every member of the team buzzed with the recent events, their hands fidgeting over their weapons.
“It was just a test,” Atana replied. “Of faith and capability.”
“That was no fucking test! That was a damned ambush! They’re not even united. How are we supposed to fight with them?”
“Fight? Command never said anything.” Atana looked at him with silent admiration as they filtered into the bunk room again.
“Oh, come on. I know you’re thinking about it because I am too. I just don’t know how to trust these people anymore, or whatever they are. Was that Saema’s plan? Or just Kylo and his personal agenda?
Saema cleared her throat in the middle archway. “It was Kylo, wanting to make sure you could handle the shadows. I don’t think he counted on the Linoans or the Warruks.”
He did not, Atana replied.
Bennett held back his urge to say what he felt: betrayed. His instincts had been right, and inside he was a twisted-up knot because he had ignored them, placing higher value on Atana’s than his own because of Command, because he hadn’t a clue what to make of this place.
He released a sigh through his nose. “We could have died out there, lost good people, people who can help, because of your guard’s reckless endangerment.”
“But you did not,” Saema replied.
“Don’t downplay the element of risk just because you took a chance and came out on top,” Bennett growled. “These are my people. I am responsible for their safety. And I do not take lies and deception lightly!”
“Bennett,” Atana called softly, tugging on his forearm. When he looked down at her, she forced her cheeks to lift. “I agree, but it’s in the past.”
She respected him and his desire to protect his team, but the clock was ticking. They needed to figure out a plan.
“Saema, what your guard has done has earned distrust in our eyes. However, that does not change the needs of your workers or our people. We are two kinds of potential, but together, we can set things on a different course, if you can promise to not pull any more stunts like that. We need our people in the best condition possible to bring the least amount of pain to your crews.”
Saema bobbed her head. “Early next cycle, I will call our lead guard in to work over routes and guard posts so you may know who you can contact for assistance. I do hope your people on Earth can offer us help in return.”
“I hope so too,” Atana replied. “Tanner has some maps on his laptop that we were able to download from the ship’s main system. I would like to discuss them with you then as well.”
Saema bowed. “Rest well. You have earned respect among us.”
She turned and disappeared out the front of the hut.
“Best get some sleep. Tomorrow we check out.” Atana loosely waved a hand at the cots. The crew hesitantly sat on the bunks.
“Why do I get the feeling they run every infiltrate crew like this?” Cutter lifted his shotgun from his shoulder for the first guard shift. “She said earlier that many have tried.”
“It’s because of a prophecy,” Atana stated.
“Prophecy?” Panton asked.
Atana bobbed her head, shifting uncomfortably between her feet. “There’s supposed to be someone from a blue planet destined to save the slaves. The how and why aren’t explained. But this being,” she glanced at Bennett, “is described as looking like,” a hard swallow and she admitted it, “me.”
Crux
Chapter 28
SHE CRIED OUT.
Cutter peered into the shadowed room to find Atana’s arms covering her face. He could hear her heavy breaths. A night terror. He’d had many himself.
“You all right, ma’am?” he whispered, trying not to wake the others, who stirred on their cots.
Atana stepped outside, forcing her nerves to submit to her control. “Yes. Just wish the past would stay there sometimes, you know?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.
He nodded, fingering the grips on his shotgun. More than anyone knows. “Do you want guard shift, again, ma’am?”
“No. Clearing my head.” Surveying the slump in the rigid posture of the man leaning against the door frame, snippets of gunfire and blood flashed like lightning in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, ma’am. Give me a whistle if you need anything.” His flat, gray eyes stared at her, listless.
She tilted her head, curious. His heart rate was lower than most but still strong. He was the tight-laced, tormented tough. She could hear it right through his hardened exterior. “And you as well.”
Her silent footsteps took her out amongst the trees.
Bennett had sprung awake to her cries. Rolling onto his stomach, he’d tried to eavesdrop from the crook of his elbow, their words too quiet for him to understand. Seeing Atana disappear out into the night, he immediately hopped down from his bunk, tracking swiftly behind her.
