Too Old To Die, page 12
All of them paled in comparison to whatever August injected him with. The moment it entered his veins, his whole body felt like it caught fire. He screamed, thrashed around wildly, swore he’d die at any moment. This is what it feels like. The end of everything coming on in a single, lingering second.
The world cleared. Cries of agony became a distant distraction. Gareth stood in an open field. Grass swayed around him. Clouds raced by overhead. He didn’t feel the breeze, only experienced it visually. Tactical experiences didn’t have meaning. They became peripheral. They existed, but had no impact.
What is going on?
“Hi.” Zoe appeared in front of him. Not the image of her he saw when they spoke. The woman. She extended her hand. He took it. They stared into each other’s eyes. The same blue he remembered from before. Red hair cut short, caught in the wind. “It’s almost over, Garry. Just another few moments.”
“Before we die?” Gareth asked. “Is that what we’re waiting for?”
“No.” Zoe shook her head. “You’re mending. I don’t know what he gave you, how it worked, but cutting off the pain receptors is allowing your body to acclimate. But it’s painful. I’ve had to counter the agony to keep you from losing yourself. You might’ve died otherwise. From sensory overload.”
“That’s a thing?” Gareth looked around. “What is this place? How are we here?”
“Distraction,” Zoe replied, “cutting you off put you somewhere else. Into a shared imagined space. One were we can be together for a brief moment. Until it finishes and you return. Doctor Keppler seems to be a genius. Do you remember who he is yet? Have you figured it out?”
“No, I have no idea.”
“You never did remember when we talked about scientists. Doctor Augustus Keppler came up with the remedies used by our military for the last twenty years. The rapid healing serums that saved so many lives. One of his first breakthroughs before he left public life behind, disappearing.”
“Why did he do that?” Gareth asked. “If he was such a genius, why not continue to contribute to the cause?”
“I don’t know. The database never said. I don’t recall a single media article or science journal entry from him or about him after that day. A real mystery. But since biology wasn’t my field, I didn’t think much of it at the time. After all, I had other problems to solve. I guess we know what he worked on.”
“Isn’t this just the serum he used on the soldiers?”
“You must remember it didn’t hurt. Made you sleepy, yes. But it never caused excruciating pain.”
“So what the hell did he inject me with?”
“Something experimental. It must be what he went into hiding to develop. Perhaps a rapid response serum to mend wounds even faster. Though I’m not sure why the military would not have funded such a project. It seems like something they would need. Something they’d desperately pursue. Even providing test subjects.”
“You seem pretty calm!” The screams in the distance grew louder. Gareth recognized his own voice, hoarse from shouting. “What is it doing to me?”
“Your injury is mending. At a rapid rate. Though I suspect it might leave a scar. I suppose that’s something I can’t know for sure. It’s almost done. Your heart rate is returning to normal. Muscular structure, body chemistry, even your brain functions. It’s like you had five hours of uninterrupted sleep as well. Listen.”
Gareth cocked his head. The sounds of his cries shifted to heavy breathing. “I… is it returning to normal?”
“So soon.” Zoe touched his face.
“I…” Gareth looked in her eyes again. “I miss you.”
“I’m always with you.”
“I think you know what I mean.”
Zoe nodded. Her smile turned sad. “It’s time.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“To wake up,” Zoe replied. She took a step back.
“No! I… I don’t want to leave this. I’m good. We can figure it out. Right? Please! Don’t…”
“Open your eyes, darling. You can’t stay like this for long. Not when there’s someone right there with you… someone about to give you…”
Gareth gasped, sitting up from the table as another hypo hissed. This one injected straight into his bicep. A cooling sensation raced down his arm then warmed a moment later. The pain in his shoulder was gone, replaced by a tender numbness. He looked around, frantic… until he caught sight of Doctor Keppler.
“What the fuck did you inject in me? What did you do?”
“I saved your life,” Keppler replied. “And it worked. One hundred percent. Your wound must be feeling better since you’re using that arm to lean on right now. Yes! That’s step one. Five to go!”
“Five what? You aren’t answering my questions!”
“My dear Commander Weston… I know you’re curious. And you have every right to be. That injury was bad and now you probably barely feel it. But you and I have a much bigger problem than your little experience. The fact is we’ve got Veldon on my doorstep. They’re flying around, attacking our planet.”
“Yes, I thought they might be coming here.” Gareth narrowed his eyes. “What’re you doing out here?”
“Working on something which will change everything. I can’t imagine the Veldon care about it since I’ve been creating it for human consumption only. Again, this is a waste of our time. We have to get out of here. Now.” Keppler gestured behind him. “There’s a ship down there, remember?”
“What’s that going to do?”
“It’s the best money can buy. I’m hoping with your training and know-how, we can escape this disaster.” Keppler moved away. He grabbed a box from his work bench, thrusting it into a satchel. Then he took up a position behind a trolley with three crates. “Shall we get moving?” A loud crash upstairs drew their attention. “As in now!”
“We can’t just leave.” Gareth slipped off the table. Nothing hurt anymore. Not his knees, his shoulder, his side, nor the place he landed. Even the soreness from his hike the day before seemed to be alleviated. “There are civilians out there. People who need our help. Your neighbors for that matter.”
“There’s nothing we can do for them,” Keppler said. “The Veldon attack ships will make short work of us if we try to do anything but get out of here. Even then, it’s up to you to make that a possibility. Don’t waste our lives on some ridiculous heroics. The best we can do for anyone is get to the military, warn them, and get some assistance.”
He’s not entirely wrong. Gareth motioned for him to lead the way. I have to think of something. There must be a way to help those people. Sheila, Franklyn… maybe the best bet is to get a team in here. Others who can throw the Veldon a proper beating. Just him and the doctor, with only a civilian ship, they weren’t going to get far.
“What sort of systems does your vessel have?” Gareth asked. They entered a corridor with jagged walls and ceiling. The floor remained metal though, the only part he seemed to bother modernizing. Who the hell built this for him? Maybe the military did pay for the work. Otherwise, he must’ve blown a fortune on this place.
“All the usual luxuries,” Keppler said. “And a couple of military features. Better sensors, an enhanced FTL drive, shields, defenses, that sort of thing. I might be able to jam some of their scanners if that will help. But you tell me how we get out of here.”
“First off, are they attacking your house? We should detonate those generators. I’m guessing they’ve gathered up there. Though why, I still don’t get. What would even bring them to this region? There aren’t even that many people up here! And certainly nothing worth a military assault. Unless you’re not telling me something.”
“Honestly, only a few people had any idea I moved here.” Keppler shrugged as he continued to shove his trolley along. “So how the Veldon would find out about me? That’s anyone’s guess. Furthermore, why they’d care about my work? Even fewer people know what I worked on specifically.”
“There’s a sick man,” Gareth said, “he’s probably going to die because we can’t get him any help. And his wife. If the Veldon go that way, she can’t defend herself. God knows how many other civilians will suffer over this. And just in our little neighborhood, we’re about to condemn half a dozen to death.”
“Oh. Hm.” Keppler coughed. “Life is rarely fair, don’t you agree?” He glanced over his shoulder. “We’re almost there. I can detonate those generators if you’d like. Overloading them is easy enough since I’ve practically done so plenty of times. I have a shield generator around the house. Our enemies can’t get in easily.”
“That’ll probably make them all the more determined.” Gareth paused as they reached the mouth of the exit. The hangar proved to be much bigger than he anticipated with all the necessary equipment to manage and support a fleet of vehicles. Only one vessel occupied the center space, a shiny luxury yacht straight out of a boutique magazine.
Retractable wings on the sides sat in the outward position though the seams were difficult to see. The low profile, sleek design gave it a form over function appearance. Two thrusters in the back meant it probably had some serious speed behind it. Gareth guessed it had been designed for a small crew and at least six passengers.
“We should probably hurry!” Keppler yelled. He continued shoving the trolley toward the vessel. “I can detonate those generators whenever you want!”
“When we’re aboard.” Gareth looked back down the tunnel. He rolled his left shoulder. The skin around the wound felt odd. Tender, like it was covered in plastic. “Should this feel weird?”
“Of course,” Keppler replied. The ramp in the back of the ship dropped. He struggled to get his trolley aboard. “You have brand-new skin! What did you think it would be like?”
“I don’t know what you gave me!” Gareth nudged the man aside. He grabbed the trolley, forcing it up the ramp. “What the hell do you have in here anyway?”
“My work,” Keppler said. “The most important parts of my research. In short, the reason you’re still alive. I wasn’t about to blow it up, was I?”
“We have a lot to talk about.” Gareth got the thing into the cargo area. “Lash this down if you don’t want your work flopping all over the place back here. Is there a code to start the ship? Anything I should know?”
“It’s ready to go,” Keppler replied. “I left it simple in case I needed to leave in a hurry and couldn’t remember a password. No one can get in here anyway. However, we’ll need to open the entrance. I’ll be up there before we need to launch. Give me the word on when you want to detonate.”
He’s passionate about blowing that shit up. Gareth took a flight of stairs up to a hallway. The cargo area looked regular enough. No frills, nothing aesthetically pleasing. Just metal deck and matching walls. When he stepped into the ship proper, that all changed. Carpet covered the floor, wood panels occupied from the floor to the midway point.
Track lighting kept things moody. He proceeded down twenty yards into a swanky lounge with leather sofas and a full bar. The “Staff Only” door on the opposite wall led to the bridge. Through there, it went back to functionality with better lighting and panels for monitoring various systems.
Gareth entered the bridge, which also surprised him. He had counted on fewer controls, the kind of thing where a civilian used computer assistance for most functions. Instead, it had been rigged military style. That granted access to all maneuvering thrusters and systems, including scans.
He took a seat at the flight controls, flipping on the scanner first. The Veldon vessels appeared as red dots with a full tactical relay beside each. Nine occupants, full power, holding position some eight hundred yards from the house. The ground forces also showed up as smaller blips though with no less tactical info.
Weapons, life signs… wow. He spent some serious money on this. And it wasn’t entirely legal for that matter. The shields had fallen on the house, granting the Veldon access at least to the front area. A three-dimensional view of the house appeared, showing them approaching the basement laboratory entrance. Yeah, they know exactly where to go.
“We have to go!” Gareth shouted. He initiated the startup sequence, bringing the engines online. “Like… right now!”
“I’m here!” Keppler entered the bridge. “I’ll get the door open.” He worked on the console to his left. “One moment… and…” The ship trembled as the ground shook. A section of the wall moved aside. Dirt cascaded in front of them along with some trees and massive boulders. “Haven’t opened it in a while, as you can see.”
“That the side of a mountain?” Gareth asked. “Doesn’t matter. Detonate the house.”
“Now? I thought you…”
The blips made it to the laboratory. They’d start down the tunnel soon. Once they did, the explosion may not impact them. Fewer of them to mess with the people in the area. Though once Keppler was gone, he couldn’t imagine what the Veldon would do with the area. If we take away their objective, hopefully they leave the people alone.
“Okay, I initiated the sequence.” Keppler turned to him. “You’re not waiting for it to explode, are you?”
“As close as I can,” Gareth said. He watched the scanner as it displayed the power buildup. They had a good thirty seconds before the place turned to dust. Relax. It’ll take at least ten seconds to get here. He double-checked they were ready to go. All systems showed green.
“May I ask why?” Keppler’s eyes bulged. “It doesn’t seem like the best plan to cut it close when we could very easily be buried in rubble. Not to mention…”
“The closer we get,” Gareth said, “the better chance we can use the explosion as a screen to escape. Or at least buy us some time. Hold on.” The generators went critical. He slammed the throttle forward. The ship responded much faster than he anticipated. They lurched forward, rocketing toward the exit.
Even with the speed, sections of the ceiling fell all around them. Massive chunks of stone followed by tons of earth burst inward, filling the space in seconds. Keppler freaked out, grabbing his seat with both hands as he cried out. Before they even made the exit, he closed his eyes, turning his face away.
A proximity alert went off. Gareth ignored it, firing up the shields seconds before they burst through the last bit of debris. The ship rattled as they cut into the sky. He veered hard to the left, dropping low so they skimmed the tops. Scans showed the explosion leveled a good thousand yards in all directions.
“You had some serious generators,” Gareth muttered, “that was one massive explosion.”
“You cut that close!” Keppler pointed at him. “I’ll have you know you very nearly robbed humanity of one of its greatest assets!”
Gareth smirked. “I’m guessing you don’t mean me.”
“I most certainly do not!” Keppler sighed. “Now how do you intend to get us out of here? We both know there are a number of enemy ships in orbit as well as those that we likely left behind. So…”
“At least one of those shuttles went down,” Gareth said. “Too close to the explosion.” Scans showed a blip coming in their direction though it wasn’t moving all that fast. “I think the other one tentatively thinks it saw something. It’s coming our way to investigate. Other than that, I’m not sure what we’re doing yet.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better! You’d better figure this out, Commander Weston!”
“Get on the comms then,” Gareth said. “See if you can get us some damn help. You know. Contribute to the escape attempt.” He muttered, “Zoe, can you interface with this thing? I might need some help.”
“I already have. The Veldon shuttle is on a pursuit course, but they’ll have to pick up the pace if they want to catch up. I’ve got good news and bad news. And since you don’t want to reveal anything about me to Doctor Keppler, I’ll just keep talking. On a positive note, we have real scans. I have details on our situation.
“Which leads to the bad news. The attack fleet around Earth is the largest combat group I’ve ever seen. There are over four hundred ships. Plenty to surround the planet to pound the major cities and operational centers. However, all that said, I have found a hole we might take advantage of if you want to leave.”
“What about comms?”
Keppler grunted. “I’m working on it!”
Zoe said, “I assume you were talking to me. No one’s responding on any channel. The enemy has jammed us up good. The invasion force won’t be facing any sort of opposition if we didn’t get out a request for aid prior to their arrival. And something tells me we did not. I’ll give you a course to get us out of here.”
“Thanks.” Gareth turned to Keppler. “Don’t bother with comms. No one’s answering them. I’ll get us out of here but we have to figure out where we’re going. I’ve been out of action long enough to have no clue where to go for help.” Well, there’s one person I could talk to, but I’m not sure it’ll be easy.
“Whatever it takes,” Keppler said, “just get us out of here in one piece. The information we have is invaluable. And what you have in your body… well, that’s something else entirely. We’ll discuss soon enough. If we can survive.”
“I’ll do my best.” Gareth checked their waypoint. Zoe recommended they remain low for two hundred miles. They’d go for orbit when they reached the middle part of North America. The hole she found wasn’t as big as he would’ve liked. Especially when he saw the sheer number of ships above them.
That’s a massive blockade to break through. “I’ve got an idea,” Gareth said, “plot us a course to Pelland.”
“What the hell is that?” Keppler asked.
“If this ship is as fancy as you say, it’ll be in the database. Just do it. Whatever happens here, we can lay low in that sector. It’s not quite a free port, but it might as well be. All manner of people make it through there. And all of them want to remain anonymous. I think that’s what we’re after right now, yeah?”
