Hunter Killer: Legacy Earth 7, page 18
“I’m assuming you decided to take it upon yourself to try and hack their systems while we were planet side?” Lance asked.
“Am I that obvious?” Lincoln replied with a sheepish smile.
“I noticed your eyes doing their processing thing more than once when we were down there. What were you able to pick up?”
“More information than I can process.” Lincoln chuckled. “We’ll have to run it through a firewall and upload it into the ship’s systems to decipher everything I’ve copied.”
“Aren’t you worried they’ll notice copies of their files were made?” Mattias asked.
“It’ll be hard to investigate when they’ve vaporized all the evidence,” Valdivia said.
Lance rubbed his eyes. The toll of a multiple-hour cardio and strength workout along with a fight to the death drained the captain. Their door opened and he was the first to step out.
“Get that information downloaded, then everyone get some sleep,” Lance ordered. “I’m going to see the doc then take a nice, long nap.”
Valdivia ran out of the craft and jogged after him. She got into the elevator with him and pressed the button for the medical deck.
“I know what you’re going to say,” Lance broke the several-second-long silence.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Valdivia replied.
“You were thinking it,” he countered, looking her way.
“Can you blame me?”
“I can’t, but don’t worry, I’m dealing with it.”
“And by dealing with it, do you mean actually dealing with it or just pushing it deeper under the surface until it bubbles up again?”
“A bit of both, I guess.” Lance said as the doors opened. “But I’m not going to let it affect the mission.”
“But it already did. It caused you to break cover before anyone else was ready and kick off a fight we could’ve avoided.”
“That fight was unavoidable, Val,” Lance said as he stepped out of the elevator. “They would’ve killed us the first chance they got. I just beat them to the punch.”
Valdivia followed him. They walked over to the medical center. As the doors opened, Lance let out a groan. Jarod stood next to Doctor Crestbow. He turned to look at the soldier and waved.
“Aren’t you a scientist?” Lance asked. “Shouldn’t you be in engineering, not in the medical bay?”
“He also has some interesting insight on xenovirology,” Crestbow replied. “So I asked him up here to fill in the gaps in our system. What have you done to yourself this time?”
“I just spent the last three hours weighing over five hundred pounds, I took a fall and got in a fist fight,” Lance replied.
“Of course you did,” the doctor cut in.
“So I just need a checkup to make sure I’m not about to hemorrhage somewhere, throw a clot or have a disk ruptured.”
“Take a seat,” the doctor said, motioning toward a bed.
Following the doctor’s instructions, Lance took a seat. Jarod started to ramble about xenovirology and how the Gladius wasn’t nearly as well-equipped to conduct research as the station Lance allowed to be blown up.
The captain shot a stern look at the scientist, as did Valdivia. Crestbow approached Lance, tablet in one hand, sensor in the other. Waving the sensor over Lance’s body, he got several readings from the soldier.
Placing the tablet for analysis, he grabbed a blood extractor, pulled up Lance’s sleeve and drew a vial painlessly from his arm. The captain looked at the vial, then back at the doctor.
“Was that really necessary?” he asked.
“It is. I need to analyze your blood for viruses and toxins that neutralized your upgrades,” Jarod said.
“You most certainly will not,” Lance scoffed as he grabbed the gun with his blood. “I don’t know you; I don’t trust you, and the last person that I didn’t fully trust who got close to me reverted me to a normal human. If you want to know what happened, you can make a formal request to command when we return to Alcazar space.”
Jarod threw Lance a look as if he didn’t believe his audacity. Valdivia stepped forward as Lance pulled the gun with his blood in it away from his physician.
“Is there a problem with that?” she asked, staring Jarod down.
“No problem,” the scientist replied.
Lance looked at Crestbow.
“Were you really going to give my tests over to him without running it by me first?”
Crestbow fell silent. Lance shook his head and slid off the table.
“Jarod, I’ve already told you not to leave the crew deck. Do I need to make it just quarters? I really don’t want to have to pull a Sabo, but I will if need be.”
Lance walked over to the pad that held his scan and tucked it under his arm.
“I have to say, I’m a little disappointed in you, doc.”
“I am too,” Valdivia added.
They both walked toward the medical room’s exit. Stopping, Lance turned to Jarod and pointed down the hallway. Jarod stood at his console, continuing to work.
“Ah-hem!” Lance cleared his throat, getting the scientist’s attention. “It wasn’t a suggestion. Get moving!”
Rolling his eyes, Jarod shook his head and walked out of the room before heading to the elevator.
“You may have had unrestricted access on human ships and space stations, but this is a SOAT vessel. Neither you nor your team have any access to the equipment or information on this craft,” Lance scolded.
“She’s not SOAT, or a human; she doesn’t have any clearance, but you’re letting her roam around the ship all she wants,” Jarod countered as they stepped into the elevator.
“She’s proven herself trustworthy and she’s got special clearance from the Alcazar and humanity with her talents and skillsets,” Lance countered, pressing the button for the crew quarters floor. “Then again, if you want to argue the point, she’s more than capable of defending herself.”
Lance looked at Valdivia before motioning to the scientist. She faced Jarod and crossed her arms.
“Is there something you wished to say to me?” she asked as she tapped her foot.
Jarod fell silent, looked at the ground and shook his head. The elevator door opened, and he stepped out. Lance pressed the floor for engineering.
“That’s what I thought,” she said as the doors shut. “Chadavia would’ve found him very obnoxious.”
“Crestbow’s a good man; I’m betting he just annoyed the doctor into letting him work down there,” Lance added as he opened the data pad.
Flipping through the scans of his own body, he saw there were signs of strain on his muscles, joints and skeletal structure. Nothing appeared permanent. Shutting the pad off, he tucked it under his arm as the doors slid open.
“I heard I missed a heck of a fight!” Dexter exclaimed as he approached the box. “Sorry I couldn’t join in.”
“You wouldn’t have wanted to,” Valdivia chimed in. “The gravity on that last world may have been too much, even for you.”
“And the sand on the first would’ve driven you mad,” Lance added as he shook some of the sand still clinging to him loose. “This is after getting everything as cleared out as we could. And don’t even get me started on the chaffing.”
“That bad?” Dexter asked.
Lance nodded before motioning further into the deck.
“How’s the work coming along?”
“Well, I’d say she’s maybe a day away from finishing up.”
“If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to go get my suit changed back.” Valdivia pointed at the elevator.
“You’re good,” Lance replied with a thumbs-up.
As they separated, both men continued deeper into the engineering deck. Turning into a room left of the engine room, Lance stopped to see Stephanie and Lincoln both hard at work on a computer that took up nearly a quarter of the room.
“I don’t think there’s been a single computer that big in almost six hundred years,” Lance scoffed.
“There hasn’t, and it’ll be slow, but we won’t be detected and since QECs aren’t exactly common, it’ll provide encryption when communicating to any other computer,” Stephanie replied, not looking up from her work.
“And even better, there’s a chance that when we get our orders, I’ll be able to backtrack the signal, piggybacking off this device to find out its origin!” Lincoln added.
“Ah man, I love you guys,” Lance said, crossing his arms.
“I’m your brother… you’re supposed to love me,” Lincoln countered.
26
REST UP
When Lance checked on Mattias, the sniper had already turned his weapons in to the security officers, got cleaned up and passed out on his bunk. Taking what was left of his guns to security resulted in a stern scolding from one of the women in charge on his clear lack of etiquette on gun care.
He attempted to explain the situation, only to be immediately shot down. As he left, he noticed a little bit of pink paint on one of the handrails. Smirking, he pointed it out and ordered them to get their workstation into ship shape.
Making his way to the cockpit, he leaned against Justin’s chair. The pilot worked on locating a destination using Drentlaw’s maps. Lance tapped the back of his chair with his fingertips as he looked at the cartographer.
“Find anything interesting on this system?” he asked.
“TrES-2b has been extensively studied since its discovery in the early two thousands. But because it reflects less than one percent of light that hits it, we weren’t able to find anything new about it,” Drentlaw replied.
“Until now, I take it?” Lance asked.
“Not even now. I couldn’t get probes close enough without being detected by those on the surface,” Drentlaw replied. “Cursory distance scans just confirmed that it’s a planet in transition.”
“Well, you can put down that there’s life on the planet,” the captain said, pointing at the file his map maker was in. “The base of their foot is about as large around as a skyscraper, and their skin is tough enough to withstand weather that can turn a human head into dust from friction alone in a matter of seconds.”
“That’s an oddly specific example,” Justin chimed in, looking up from his chair.
“Not really,” Lance replied with a shake of his head. “How were things up here?”
“They went surprisingly smoothly. We managed to stay hidden, no patrols passed us and Drentlaw over there even managed to get probes on the hulls of the mercenary ships,” Justin said.
“How’d you manage that?” Lance asked.
“I used the starting points for each ship and deployed cloaked beacons to those positions theorizing they’d leave the planet’s surface in the same trajectory of their approach,” Drentlaw explained.
“Turns out, his theory was right. The probes bound with their targets and now we can track where the other ships go,” Justin added. “Given they go anywhere of merit.”
“Did you manage to get one on the transport vessel?” Lance asked.
“Very much no.” The redshirt chuckled. “Ships that size have so many sensors that if a fly were to land on its hull, it’d know. Even a craft this size would be able to detect them. The only reason it worked for smaller crafts is because they don’t have room for the extra tech to detect my trackers.”
“Great, make sure our analysts keep an eye on where each of those three ships end up. I want it cataloged and marked so when we do go loud, we can send teams to take them down.”
“Copy that, Captain,” Drentlaw said.
“They nuked their base back there,” Lance said, looking at his pilot. “I’d say, just to be safe, we make a random jump to get out of the system then work out where to go from there.”
“Yes, sir,” Justin replied before looking up at the captain. “And no offense, but you look like crap. Why don’t you get cleaned up and get some rest?”
“That was the plan. I just needed to make my rounds first,” Lance replied as he turned to walk away.
“Wait a second!” Justin shouted, standing up on his chair and looking over the headrest. “Did you get shorter?”
“It’s from the extreme gravity,” Lance replied. “I’m putting zero gravity in my cabin. I’ll get my inch or two back soon enough.”
“Let’s hope so, short stack,” the pilot countered.
“Look who’s talking.” Lance chuckled as he continued to make his way to the elevators.
Stepping in, he selected to go to his cabin. Looking up at the camera, he walked over to it, placed his hand over it and readjusted himself. His skin burned, being rubbed raw. As the elevator doors opened, he stopped to see Valdivia standing in front of his cabin door, her armor pink once more. She stared at him for a few awkward seconds.
“Do I need to leave you alone?” she asked.
Lance’s cheeks warmed as he released himself and dropped his hand from in front of the camera.
“There’s still a foreign insurgency in an allied DMZ,” he replied with a shake of his head.
“A what?” she asked as he opened his cabin doors.
“I still have just a ton of sand in my pants,” he answered.
“I thought you were able to clear it all on the Whisper.”
“We were able to clear the loose stuff that was on us. That’s where being in armor pays off,” Lance said as he leaned into his bathroom and turned on the shower. “Because armor is rated for space, no sand can get in. Without it… let’s just say at this point, a decent portion of my biology is the stuff.”
Valdivia sat at his desk and leaned back in his chair.
“Then go dislodge the sand in you,” she said, motioning to the shower. “I’ll be out here waiting.”
“How’d your suit hold up against TrES’s windstorms?” Lance asked as he stripped down, causing even more sand to fall from him.
“Judging by internal system analysis, my suit’s integrity is at ninety-eight percent,” she replied. “It hardly did anything but scratch most of the paint off.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Lance stepped into the cool shower. “I’m assuming your weapons were as worn down as ours too?”
“That they were,” Valdivia replied. “And man, the inspection didn’t go well.”
“That it did not.” Lance chuckled. “I got enough of an earful from them to last three lifetimes.”
As Lance scrubbed himself down, he noticed a deliberate silence from his other half. Pausing, he leaned toward the door and opened it slightly.
“You know you don’t have to push for me to tell you’re thinking about something,” Lance called out.
“I didn’t say anything!” Valdivia replied.
“You don’t have to. Silence can be more telling than any number of words.”
Another long pause emanated from his cabin. With a sigh, Lance turned off the water. Grabbing a towel, he started to dry himself off before wrapping it around his waist. Walking to the doorway, he crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.
“Is this about what happened in the ravine?”
“Is it really that obvious?”
“I’m not so oblivious that I don’t recognize what happened.”
“This isn’t the first time something like that’s occurred… it’s also not the first time we’ve had this conversation.”
Lance’s eyebrow raised.
“I know, I know, you don’t want to talk to anyone for concern you’ll get discharged for being unfit for duty.”
Valdivia stood, she walked over to him, and took his hand into hers. She gently squeezed it before taking a deep breath.
“But I’m not just anyone,” she said. “And anything you tell me stays with me.”
Lance nodded. Using his free hand, he grabbed hers and nodded. A weight pressed down on him. An ache pulsed through his chest like being squeezed with a vise.
“It was the darkness,” Lance said as he shook his head. “It was… unexplainable. I… I don’t know how to explain it. Before I knew it, I was back in the elevator, facing down Project Ibex and the Reeves all at once…”
Trailing off, the captain pursed his lips. He took several deep breaths as he tried to figure out what to say.
“My body took over before my mind knew what was happening. I was in a meat prison; it wasn’t until I fell that I could control myself again. It’s hard to explain.”
Val gently rubbed his arm.
“I’m not a psychologist, but you’ve been through more than most soldiers do in a lifetime. It’s no surprise that you’re having these flashbacks. And even though I may not be able to analyze you, I’ll always be an ear for you.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. That means a lot.”
Valdivia released his hand. Leaning into the captain, she wrapped her arms around him. Hugging her back, Lance closed his eyes tightly. Her cold suit sent goosebumps over his body as she gently ran her fingertips over his back.
“I wish you could hold me,” Valdivia whispered. “The real me, not this stupid suit.”
“Hey, this stupid suit isn’t too bad,” Lance replied.
“Easy for you to say, you get to actually experience the wider galaxy, feel the wind in your hair, the sand between your toes…”
“My head’s been shaved to stubble since I was twelve. I don’t know what that feels like…” Lance leaned back and looked down into her visor. “And I happen to know for a fact that you don’t have hair.”
“You don’t know that!” Valdivia countered, giving him a playful push.
“Chadavia doesn’t have hair. The Alcazar council member doesn’t have hair. None of any of the other Jarog I’ve seen have hair, so unless your auto immune disorder somehow makes you mammalian, I doubt you have hair too.”
A snicker rose from behind her helmet.
“You’ve got me. I’m all fronds like everyone else.”
She reached around and gave his backside a smack.
“Now you get into something more comfortable, then we can get some sleep.”
“That sounds nice. I’m good to pass out standing upright.”
“You may be tough, but something tells me an unprotected head against a steel floor wouldn’t mix well.”
