Stellar Fusion, page 15
part #1 of Infinite Spark Series
A faint image entered Cutter’s mind, blank, white. He shouted, Scissors!
Even though Bennett and Atana led the pack, the pairs checked every intersection. Walking backwards, Tanner checked their six, his SIs outstretched, their igniters glowing. Paper!
An eerie wave of realization crashed through Cutter, tugging at his legs, threatening to topple the foundation he’d based his life on. His eyes squeezed shut for a moment as he pushed the thoughts out.
Josie’s teeth gritted, becoming irritated with the uncontrollable cacophony tearing apart her focus. Seriously, you two, couldn’t you do something calm and constructive to practice? The frustration on her face concerned Panton.
Cutter spun around. Like what? This is constructive.
I don’t know, maybe… Josie didn’t finish her statement before thousands of disheartened voices vociferated through their receivers. Their knees gave out, taking them down to the stained floor. Josie’s stomach clenched, nearly making her sick.
Atana didn’t even flinch. “Sorry, I was drifting.”
Bennett peered up at her when she hurried away from them. With a shake of his head, he lifted himself from his kneeling position on the floor and ran to catch up. Is that what you hear, in your mind?
I should get a little way ahead of all of you. If I stay out about twenty meters, I won’t interfere with your communication anymore.
How do you sleep at night? Bennett twisted his neck, his fingers digging in.
I don’t, not really.
Right, trouble sleeping. He bobbed his head. Atana, I’m really sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to hassle you.
It’s fine. She shrugged off his apology, not wanting to exacerbate an already intense and uncomfortable situation with him. She had broken Rule Number One: never get involved. A piece of her, missing for over a decade, before she’d belonged to UP, had been found, and it was throwing wrenches into Command’s finely tuned emotional control engine.
No, it’s really not. I compromised you. Brushing me off suggests you’re upset.
I am not compromised, Bennett. We just don’t have time for this right now. I need you to focus.
His steps slowed. How do I help her? He glanced back at his team. She’s a shepherd, like all of us. I don’t want her to try to do it all on her own. Why is she so determined to do so, if we’re all right here? He pondered, forgetting about the receiver. She is so headstrong and so damned… He couldn’t help but peruse her every curving inch. His heart pounded. Gorgeous.
Atana froze, rotating on the balls of her feet. Backtracking, she confronted him quietly. You are the compromised one. None of this makes any sense. Why the hell did they send me up here with, of all the shepherds, you?
The team stopped at a distance, seeing their leaders’ obvious discontent with one another.
I’m here because they believe what I saw and experienced would give us an advantage, not to watch over you. Her jaw flexed in irritation.
She cornered him against the chilled, damp, rounded steel wall. Her eyes cut into his, icicles piercing the soft earth on the first day of spring. You know the rules—no emotions, no relationships, only rational and impartial decisions. You have serum for this. And yet, I saw you do not have enough for this trip. Not that it seems to matter with you. You’re still a mustang on the inside: untamed and uncontrollable. I don’t think serum works for you. I don’t think it ever has.
Her skin, the familiar sweet spice, warmed the air around him, teasing the receptors in Bennett’s nose. How did you know?
Because of what I am, she gruffly replied. It’s not like you hide it well.
“I can explain.” Not giving a second thought to her words, he impulsively reached an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. She was an addiction to which there was no medical cure. He holstered his SI, slipping his other hand behind her shoulders.
“Bennett,” she said calmly. It wasn’t that she was perfect or that she wasn’t attracted to anyone, but she could control herself when she needed to. There are billions of lives relying on us. She holstered her own SIs. Wedging her hands in between them, she placed them on his chest, pushing.
His grip on her loosened. Okay, yes, you caught me. I’ve never felt this way before so I’m probably terrible at hiding it. I can’t help it. I’m so… He paused, seriously considering the effects of his words. You’re right. The serum hasn’t been working.
He wiped his face with one of his palms, trying to rub the stress away and awaken his mind from its dreamland.
Her brows furrowed. Why now? Our mission is at stake because of you! We don’t have time for this!
Bennett grabbed her upper arms. “There’s no way I could have known you were going to trigger a change in me like this. Besides, who was the man you were with last night, and this morning, Mr. Perimeter Guard, Azure?” he asked, becoming irritated with her hypocritical attitude. “You’ve been awful close to him.” He threw a finger the direction of the Hatoga fields. “And not uncomfortable with it, yet you were uncomfortable with the team standing around you an hour ago.”
Atana broke free of his grip. He’s a friend from a long time ago, before all this. And I didn’t want to give away I was telepathic before the time was right.
Bennett’s serum had been losing its effect on him. In his increasingly emotional state, he snapped.
Oh, so it’s okay for you to break the rules but no one else? You think you’re above the rest of us? He shoved Atana into the center of the hallway.
She slid back in a split lunge on the dirty floor, her glaring eyes illuminating. No. She grunted, standing and squaring her shoulders. I’m just different, not like you.
Because you’re telepathic? Is that it? Or because you’re an R4? God, always with you Independents. He spun a circle, palms slapping against his forehead.
It was thirteen years ago. You don’t understand. You can’t understand!
I’m trying to! But instead of seeing it, you just rip my heart out instead and go after grumpy gray guy? How is that equal? How is that to code?
How is you kissing me to code, Bennett? Her eyes flared.
She lunged at him. He shifted swiftly out of her path. They scuffled, at nearly equal strength, each trying to throw punches and knock the other down. They fought in sync too well, blocking everything the other attacked with. Atana went for a drop, but Bennett twisted, landing and pinning her to the floor, caging her in with his arms and legs.
“Stop! Please, stop fighting me!” he hoarsely demanded. “I’m sorry!”
His tight, unforgiving, grasp made her furious. She pushed angrily against the man over her, having allowed herself to be taken down by him.
Her scrutinizing, aqua eyes were no longer a deterrent. His opened wide, taking in every photon reflecting off her contours.
Your team is watching, Jameson. You need to focus.
He closed his eyes, trying to shut her out, until her aroma invaded his straw walls. His fists relaxed, smoothing out the leather they had wadded up, his hands forming themselves gently around her shoulders.
“Y’all aren’t seeing anything, right?” Josie asked, gazing down the hall.
Nope, Tanner replied, staring directly at their entangled leaders on the floor.
Oh, definitely not good, Cutter remarked, spinning around to guard their backs.
Tanner’s laptop screeched harshly. He flipped it open. Guys!
Cutter leaned over to see what had caught his attention.
Bennett’s face drooped to the side of Atana’s neck. “I’m sorry, I can’t control it anymore.”
His heart raced, realizing he had decided to admit the truth. When her clawed fingers relaxed against his chest, he let out a breath, relieved to know she didn’t truly want to hurt him. I want to protect you, he admitted. I care for you. I know it’s not right.
The radiant, blue rings in her eyes thinned, filling with the darkness from the center. The scrunch in her brows lifted, flustered. Her scent morphed into something he couldn’t identify, and it called to him like a siren.
“Bennett, I’m not human.”
He froze. His palms moistened. His breath was locked inside lungs on strike.
Not human? What? It wasn’t that the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, with all of the anomalous characteristics she possessed. He just hadn’t stared it in the face before.
In realizing what he must have seen in her, she thought of Azure, knowing Bennett couldn’t see her thoughts. She didn’t want to hurt Azure. But she didn’t want to hurt Bennett either.
Cutter broke the silence. “We got company!”
Atana and Bennett squinted down the hallway at the team. Atana’s gaze snapped to the man on all fours hovering over her. She squeezed her eyes shut. This is getting too complicated.
“Hold it together, Jameson. I need you.” Placing her feet up against the wall, she pushed hard. Sliding out from underneath him and rolling backwards, boots over her head, she planted her hands, pushing herself into the air and up onto her feet.
Ashamed he had let himself fall, I need you echoed in his mind, calming the violent spasms inside his ribs. He picked himself up.
Atana yelled at the crew, waving them their direction. We’re almost to the central hub. You’ve got your assignments. Bennett and I will take care of this. Go!
Chapter 34
SPLIT WIDE OPEN.
Atana and Bennett ran through the halls, veering off a different direction than the team in hopes of distracting the beasts barreling after them. The Warruks’ steps pulsed through the floor like an earthquake. Bright orange streaks illuminated the halls. Atana and Bennett both whipped an SI back and took the Warruks down. Turning a corner, their insides cringed, feeling the inevitable.
They saw the flash of metal, the Linoans swift and silent. Atana hadn’t felt them under her feet, their steps too light. Their fists, more inclined. Bennett aptly ducked and lunged at one, his shoulder burying in its gut, throwing it back. One shot, and it was down.
Atana blocked the swing with a forearm, but the blade grazed her left cheek, the metal so sharp she didn’t feel its affect until her face tensed and the skin peeled open. Ramming her SI into the Linoan’s gut, she squeezed the trigger. It hopped and fell, charred and smoking. Teams of four. Two more Bennett.
Copy. He backed up against her in the middle of an open area with several adjoining hallways. This is a sway junction isn’t it? I think I saw it on the map.
Yes. A blip of grey and blue darted from one hall to another. Atana smiled. She thought momentarily about the collectors and Lavrion. Sway processing would likely be where he was, but which junction on what level? Her eyes unfocussed for a moment. Sahara. He had said it, and Azure too. It was her name, then. And if that was the case then Lavrion wasn’t lying. He’d made her hesitate. The cheekbones she’d stared at every morning in the bathroom mirror reflected in the doorway of her apartment that unfortunate day. Oh, stars! I have to find him!
Sahara? Bennett glanced back at her, perturbed. Find who?
My… She looked up as the shadows shifted, but not in time to stop the vicious heel flying at her side. She blocked, but her stomach cramped up from her recent healing of Kios. The steel, razor sharp, sliced through her leather layers, splitting her skin below her ribs. She cried out as the force threw her against the wall, her head slamming into metal.
Bennett had a second’s more time and swung around, catching the slender black-dotted ankle in his callused palms. With a thrust of a foot, he broke the standing leg of the Linoan. It tried to retaliate and drop a fist onto Bennett’s thigh. Knocking a knee into its face, Bennett heard a crack. The Linoan slumped to the floor.
He spun and took a shot at the Linoan hunting Atana.
With a grunt she collapsed sideways onto the floor. Get up, “Katana,” she muttered, the pain leaching up her side, squeezing the breath from her lungs and coherent thought from her mind. “Must fulfill…” sword of Command.
Bennett couldn’t make heads or tails, watching her trembling legs make a poor attempt to set her upright. He saw the hand wrapped around her side and lunged at her. But a heavy grunting weight quickly stole his footing, his body caving with the snarling force, and his world began to fade. He barely felt the floor when he hit, the wind knocked out of him.
Atana whined, her consciousness slipping, fighting to stay awake when she heard the air leave Bennett’s lungs. The sinking in her gut told her she wasn’t going to get to scope the commanding crew from the shadows because the shadows had found her.
Sensei. She thought back to her first day, learning meditation. Her only hope now, was the one thing Saema had advised against. But she was not so out-of-training. She had practiced Sensei’s lessons every night before succumbing to the memory-visions. It was the only way she’d kept her desire for vengeance under control, her job, and her sanity.
With the amount of blood she could feel seeping through her fingers, she knew she had to find that sliver-thin rope of existence and shut herself down if she hoped to survive. Sensei, it hurts. Please, help me.
I know, a voice whispered. It is only a signal in your brain. Control your breaths, slow your thoughts. Be deliberate. Focus on the thing you want most. Shut everything else down, and you will survive.
. . .
In an adjacent hallway, more Linoans appeared, bounding at Bennett and Atana from a neighboring sector. Without thinking, Azure, who had been following at Atana’s silent request, leapt across the hall to attack the flood of fighters. This wasn’t his first rodeo. His scars were proof.
Having been caught in the center several times, he knew exactly how they started their combative formations. One well-placed punch from them was a brutal way to die—split open and bleeding out like a gutted animal.
Azure launched himself at the impending fight. Reaching the first pair, he drew the heavy throwing knives from his belt. Dropping down to his knees, he slid on his back across the dirty floor, directly between, jamming one steel shank into a thigh of each Linoan. He came to an abrupt stop just behind the two.
Whipping forward, he planted his palms on the ground, kicking his feet up into their chests when they turned to face him, knocking them over. He put his feet down, somersaulting backwards. Yanking his blades from their legs, he slit their throats in symmetrical movements with surgical precision.
The next two approached him. He threw the knives at their necks, close enough now to be accurate. When the Linoans froze, he jumped up, ramming his palms at the pommel of the blades, shoving them through spine, before ripping the knives back out the front. In a matter of seconds, he had cut them down. Surveying his work, his jaw muscles flexed in disgust.
The distant sound of her strained voice hollowed the walls of his heart. Warily peeking out into the hallway, he found four Linoans down and a male and female silhouette, both limp and fading into a thundering darkness.
Oh, Diete. No!
He sprinted out after them with everything he had, following two trails of droplets on the floor, laying out dismal but perfect paths. They ran through an engine room, two more gravitational maintenance rooms, and up several flights of stairs. The amount of blood they had lost was building, his heart drowning, his lungs heaving.
Come on, Azure. He growled. You’re losing her!
Nearing an intersection, his pace slowed, frantically inspecting the intermittent splatter patterns for their direction, fearing they might not be alive. Tracking the droplets off to his right, he felt a sudden breeze behind his head and realized his mistake. His body dropped, the lights in his eyes extinguished.
Chapter 35
PELTING his laptop keyboard, Tanner whipped through the propulsion system control panel that was trying to lock him out. Cutter had positioned himself to Tanner’s six, monitoring the massive humming room. Cylindrical generators radiating white light surrounded them, connected together by thick, luminous bundles of cables spread out around a central column.
Tanner stood between two of the three wall screens facing their corresponding power grids, scanning the systems. He typed in a command and hit Enter.
“Son of a…” he subconsciously mumbled.
What? Cutter looked at him, wide-eyed.
Sergeant Atana wrote one line of code for me. It’s downloading everything and giving me access to control half of what’s in here, including the maintenance rooms below. How the hell? Tanner’s fingers froze midair, completely shocked, as he tracked the flood of information.
Shadows shifting. Time to go!
Okay, five more seconds! His fingers pummeled the keys.
Tanner!
Okay, okay. He typed in one last command, clearing the log of his presence before pulling the cords and shoving them in the pouch below the laptop strapped to his front.
The two of them crouched, sneaking around the central hub and out the door opposite of the movement Cutter had detected. They crept down several hallways, reaching a stairwell. Their last stop was plasma engineering.
Ascending behind Cutter, Tanner fumbled. So what do you think of Atana, ‘cuz I can’t wrap my head around it. She saves that boy, Kios. Then she’s fighting in the hall with Bennett. Isn’t that what manics do, the ones that the serum doesn’t work on?
Cutter paused for a moment on the landing of their fifth flight, hearing voices in the hall. He leaned out of sight, his shotgun igniter primed. When the voices were replaced by other, more distant sounds, he shifted cautiously to the edge of the doorway and peered in while Tanner joined him on the opposite side. Yelling, metal clanking, and crackling noise like fireworks erupted from below.
Power systems illuminated white from several stories down, the ceiling in the distance glowing red-orange, the direction they were headed.
What is this, some sort of nuclear fission? Tanner eyed the structures that vaguely represented atom splitters from Earth.
Cutter glanced at their backsides. Is that how they power the ship?
Tanner shook his head. I have to study the download later.
