Marathon: The Complete Series (Books 1-9) (Complete Series Box Sets), page 42
part #1 of Marathon Series
Eckhart waved at Rixby. “Can you communicate with them?”
She took a few more waddling steps toward the breach, but before she could say anything, another Sorix stepped out from behind the first.
Before anyone could move, two more appeared behind the second one, and in half a second, more and more materialized out of nowhere. The first few that showed their faces hopped into the breach.
They didn’t waddle like Rixby. They bounced on springing little legs and squeaked in high-pitched beeps and peeps. They sprang toward Rixby, and more Sorix entered through the breach. More and more pounced onto the floor and pressed in behind their comrades.
In a matter of seconds, dozens of them crowded the bridge, with more coming in all the time. Eckhart tried to back away, but that only seemed to encourage them. Hundreds of them flooded the area between the Marathon and the windows beyond. They all pushed forward to get inside the bridge.
They surrounded Rixby, peeping in a seething tide of noise. They ringed Eckhart, staring up at him with their large eyes. Their beeps became so insistent and so many of them beeped at once that he couldn’t distinguish one voice from the next.
“What the hell is this?” he yelled over at Rixby.
“It’s an invasion!” Bing backed toward the door, but more Sorix cut him off. They packed around everyone until no one could move.
“Get them out of here!” Eckhart yelled, but no one could do anything about them. There must have been five hundred Sorix jammed into the bridge, with at least a thousand outside waiting to get in.
“They’re frightened!” Rixby called over the noise. “They want us to protect them.”
“Protect them!” Eckhart yelled back. “We can’t even protect yourselves.”
“They’re afraid of something.” Rixby bent her antennae toward the Sorix, trying to hear them.
“Can you hurry this up?” Eckhart demanded. “We’re supposed to be salvaging ship parts, not hosting a damn—”
“They want us to do something about…” Now it was Rixby’s turn to squeak. “They’re afraid of Ilke!”
Eckhart, Akkek, and Bing all yelled at the same time. “Ilke! Where is she?”
“She’s out on the street. She’s rampaging through the city. She’s killing Sorix by the dozen. They’re terrified of her. They want us to stop her.”
“Wonderful,” Eckhart sneered. “That doesn’t narrow down where she is.”
“Now will you let me go with you?” Akkek asked. “I can find her in seconds.”
“No!” he bellowed. “Stay here….and Rixby, tell them to stay here, too. For God’s sake, don’t let them follow us.”
“How are you going to find her without Akkek or them?” Bing asked.
“Don’t ask questions. Get yourselves armed and we’ll—”
“Don’t you mean ‘yourself’?” Bing asked. “If Rixby and Akkek stay here, it will just be you and me.”
Eckhart paused. “Fine. You can come.”
Akkek pumped her fist. “Yes!”
“Can you not be so enthusiastic about it? If anything happens to you, we’re all screwed.”
She shrugged. “You were managing pretty well before I came along.”
“Don’t forget Innyria,” Rixby added. “He could go with you.”
“I don’t want him out there when he just recovered from an injury like that.” Eckhart pointed at Rixby. “Tell them we’ll stop Ilke, but only if they stay here.”
“They don’t want to go,” Rixby replied. “They say you’ll be able to find her by following the laser shots.”
Eckhart didn’t ask any more questions. He waded through the Sorix to the bridge door. Bing ducked through first. Eckhart stood guard to stop the Sorix from overrunning the rest of the ship, but true to their word, they didn’t try.
Eckhart and Bing vaulted down the stairs to the cargo hold and attacked the weapons locker in a hurry. Eckhart loaded himself with every gun he could lay his hands on, but even as he checked and loaded them and stuffed his pockets with rockets, he knew it would never be enough.
Ilke’s lasers could fire faster than any weapon in the Marathon’s arsenal. Her lasers could cut a person in half. She was only one woman, but he and Bing didn’t stand a chance against even one Mozari.
Only two people could stop her: Dallas and Akkek.
5
Dallas paused at a street corner and angled his helmet from one direction to another.
“Can you pick up anything?” Alice husked next to him.
“No Mozari life signs, but I pick up plenty of alien life.”
“Mozari are aliens, big guy,” Alice growled. “How do we find her if you can’t detect her life signs?”
“She’s too far away for me to detect any life signs, but I can hear something.”
“I can hear something, too, genius,” Alice muttered. “Don’t be a smartass.”
“Do you hear that?”
Alice froze and cocked her head to one side. “What is that? It sounds like screaming.”
Dallas glanced up at the sky. “Hold onto me.”
He didn’t wait to get her permission. He put his arm around Alice’s middle and jumped.
He soared up at speed and landed on the roof of a nearby building. He still wasn’t as high as the Marathon and several skyscrapers still flanked his position, but it was high enough.
“Shit on a stick!” Alice hissed. “What the holy Christ is she doing?”
Dallas gazed into the distance. A faint flash of light erupted out of a remote part of the city. A halo of laser light sprayed from behind a cluster of warehouses. It formed a glowing dome, but he couldn’t see whatever was on the ground making it. He didn’t need to see it.
“We need to get over there fast.”
“Too bad we don’t have a ship,” Alice remarked.
He turned his back to her. “Climb on.”
He bent over and Alice clambered onto his back. Her many pounders banged against his armor, but he didn’t care. He hooked one beefy arm behind her back and clamped her on.
He activated his jet thrusters from his helmet and they blasted from the soles of his feet. The propulsion jets burst into the roof on which he stood and he lifted into the air.
He soared over the city getting closer to the site. “Land a few blocks away,” Alice yelled into his ear. “We don’t want her to see us coming.”
“She already knows we’re coming,” Dallas called back.
“How?”
Dallas didn’t answer. He knew Ilke far too well to think she wouldn’t anticipate him coming after her. Eckhart wouldn’t send anyone else on his crew to apprehend her. She was too dangerous.
Dallas descended seven blocks from the spot where Ilke’s lasers had sprayed from behind the buildings. The screaming noise sounded louder here. He hated to find out what she was doing over there.
He touched down and Alice slipped off his back. She rearranged her weapons, and the two friends advanced one block at a time.
Dallas paused at every corner and extended his periscope to scan the area. It rose from the top of his helmet so he didn’t have to show himself to see what was going on.
He and Alice reached the final block. The deafening noise echoed off the walls. Dallas had to turn down his audio receptors to compensate.
“What is she doing?” Alice hissed.
Dallas extended his periscope again and his nerves prickled at what he saw. “Jesus Christ!”
“What?” Alice adjusted her grip on her pounder and took a step forward, but Dallas pulled her back.
“There are native aliens out there.”
“What’s she doing to them?”
“She’s toying with them.”
Alice inched toward the corner and moved one of her eye sockets to the edge. She sucked her breath through her mask and immediately dodged out of sight.
Dallas swiveled his periscope back and forth, taking in the whole horrific scene. Ilke hovered at the head of a blind intersection. Several streets joined up at the intersection with dead ends blocked in by brick walls.
Dozens of tiny aliens crowded in the alley ends and cowered against the walls. Dallas’ helmet couldn’t access the Marathon’s records, but his operating system still contained enough residual information to identify the Sorix.
Their combined peeps and beeps joined into a scream that chilled Dallas’ heart. Ilke spun in a sphere of outward firing lasers. She bombarded the walls with hundreds of shots, but she didn’t hit any of the Sorix.
“She’s sick!” Alice rasped. “She’s murderous.”
“She isn’t killing any of them—not anymore.” Dallas scanned the surrounding streets. Ilke had left plenty of dead Sorix all over town, but she wasn’t cutting down these aliens. Why?
She aimed her lasers with deadly accuracy. She slashed deep cuts in the brick walls and surrounding buildings. She pulverized structures and devastated walls, but only the ones without any Sorix either inside them or hiding behind them. She targeted her lasers with pinpoint skill to avoid killing any more Sorix.
Dallas brought his periscope down. “What do you want to do?” Alice whispered. “We have to stop her before she kills them all.”
“She won’t kill them all. She’s doing this to get attention.”
“Attention!” Alice croaked. “You’re joking, right?”
“Stay here, and when you see the fireworks, start shooting.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means start shooting when you see the fireworks.” Dallas turned away.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to give Ilke what she wants. Just stay out of sight until you see—”
“The fireworks. I got it.”
He reignited his jet thrusters, but not to full power. He lifted off the ground just a few inches and soared to his right. He only did it to prevent Ilke from hearing his footsteps, but she probably couldn’t hear them over the noise she was making anyway.
He flew several blocks away and landed behind a different building. He took one more look with his periscope. The situation hadn’t changed. That left Dallas only one option.
He made one last check of his internal systems. His Datrium levels were at maximum. He wouldn’t find a better time to act than now.
He stepped out into the open and tromped up the street. He didn’t try to mask his footsteps now. He exaggerated them, but she still didn’t hear him until he came up right behind her.
The sphere of lasers shooting out from the center blasted all the walls to smithereens. Masses of Sorix huddled at the end of the alley. Her lasers pinned them down and left no way for them to escape. They scurried back and forth against the walls with lasers spraying all around them, but they couldn’t get away.
He got halfway to the intersection before Ilke noticed him. She stopped instantly, and all her lasers died as she came to a standstill.
Her many tentacles slithered around her in sinuous patterns of sensual delight and a peaceful smile spread over her lips. “Dallas! I knew you’d come.”
“Leave them alone, Ilke. You got what you wanted. Now come back to the Marathon.”
“What will you do with me once you get me on board the Marathon, Dallas?” she purred. “Will you take me back into your quarters?”
Dallas tensed. He knew it would come to this. He’d prepared himself for it mentally, but he still couldn’t completely deny the effect she had on him.
A little voice whispered in the back of his mind, She’s trying to trick you. She lured you out here because you’re the only one strong enough to defeat her.
He knew that rationally, but it still didn’t help. She would only run away from the Marathon for one reason: she had to get away from Akkek.
If Ilke wanted to be totally free and never face any reckoning for her treachery, she had to get rid of Dallas. That was the only reason she would put on a show like this. She knew Dallas would come after her. She knew he would take it as his personal responsibility to stop her rampage.
That sinister smile on her beautiful countenance told him all that, but she still made him hesitate. He didn’t extend his assault guns from their slots on his arm prosthetics. He told himself that showing his hand too soon would only spark a preemptive strike from her.
Was that the real reason? Did he hesitate because he still felt something for her…or was that all part of her manipulative, hypnotic effect on him? He couldn’t tell anymore.
The minute she mentioned him taking her into his quarters, he couldn’t get that image out of his head. What would it be like to touch and feel a real woman again? He thought he had forgotten all about that when he lost nearly all of his organic body in exchange for these prosthetics.
Her words exploded it all into his mind as though those thoughts had never left. He could practically smell her as if it was yesterday. Was she doing that to him? Could a few words trigger all those memories?
Alice. He had to remember Alice. She was hiding just a few blocks away. Alice was waiting to attack Ilke to help him subdue her, but Alice wouldn’t attack until she saw that Dallas was ready. Would Dallas ever be ready to fight Ilke? Had he ever been really ready to go all the way and kill her if necessary?
Ilke glided across the pavement, getting closer to him all the time. If he waited much longer, she would touch him, and he didn’t know what he would do if that happened. Would he be able to draw his guns on her at all?
“You missed me, didn’t you, Dallas?” Was she whispering? Was she making any sound at all or did he only imagine it? “I always loved you, Dallas. I never stopped loving you.”
He didn’t move. He scanned her body and didn’t detect any sign that she was preparing to shoot him. Could her lasers cut through his armor? He had never been shot by a Mozari before, and he didn’t want to find out.
Her hair undulated around her petite face in a million strands of living death. Her black eyes glittered with hidden fire and her mesmerizing power made his head spin. She floated to a halt right in front of him. He couldn’t see or think of anything but her.
“You wouldn’t hurt me, Dallas,” she murmured. “You always had a loving heart. You couldn’t drag me back to my death. You couldn’t do that to me. You love me too much. Let me stay here. Go back to the Marathon and tell Eckhart you couldn’t find me. I won’t hurt anyone here. I’ll stay here and live out my life in seclusion. Isn’t it bad enough that I’ll never see my sisters again? I can’t do any harm here. You can leave and tell everyone that you left me here. I’ll be alone for the rest of my life, but at least I’ll be safe.”
He gazed down into her eyes…and her eyes flickered in a barely perceptible shift of her gaze across his helmet. That was nothing he hadn’t seen a thousand times. People couldn’t tell where on his helmet to look to make eye contact with him, because he didn’t have any eyes left.
At that moment, a flying block sailed over the nearest building and Dallas lunged for Ilke. He caught her in his arms and tackled her backward onto the pavement. He pinned her down with all his strength and bowled her over and over to get her as close to the Halfanite block as he could.
His sensors detected where the block was, but he lost sight of it in the mayhem that followed. He could only estimate where it landed, and he whipped Ilke over onto her side with her back facing the block.
She erupted into a spinning ball of exploding lasers. She fired with unbelievable ferocity, but Dallas held onto her. He held tightly enough and closely enough to his body that she couldn’t hit him. Her tentacles twisted and whipped behind his back, shooting away from him.
He tumbled to a stop and tucked his head inside the ball of lasers. He shut down all his auditory and visual sensors just in time for the Halfanite block to detonate behind Ilke’s back.
The blast punched into her so hard it lifted her and Dallas off the ground. He skidded backward, still crushing her in a death grip.
Her lasers died under the impact and, in that moment of reprieve, Alice charged out from her hiding place. She lugged two huge pounders and opened fire with every rocket she had.
Dallas launched to his feet, hauling Ilke’s limp form with him. He turned around to hold Ilke between himself and Alice. Four rockets unleashed from her guns. They corkscrewed across the intersection and converged on Ilke, but Dallas didn’t let her go.
He hunkered behind her and braced his legs into the pavement to take the blast, but when the rockets got within a few feet of smashing her to oblivion, Ilke recovered. Her tentacles lashed forward and her lasers caught the rockets in midair.
They smashed in a brutal explosion that smacked Dallas and Ilke backward. Dallas’ powerful legs left the ground and he hurtled away to slam into one of the few walls Ilke hadn’t yet destroyed.
She struck with unbelievable speed and streaked out of his grip before he could catch her. He vaulted to his feet, but she was already sprinting across the intersection on a dead course for Alice.
Alice stalked into the intersection unloading all her rockets on Ilke, but it wasn’t enough. Ilke’s lasers spewed outward in a solid ball of energy. She rotated over and over, bursting every rocket to nothing.
She soared through the blasts as though they were never there. Her lasers prevented any shrapnel or burning gas from touching her.
Alice backed off a step and scrambled to reload, but Ilke was moving way too fast. Dallas straightened up and slotted out his assault guns. He had to draw Ilke’s lasers back toward himself. That was the only way to save Alice.
He opened fire and rained shots on Ilke’s lasers, but he couldn’t even tell if she could feel them. She didn’t break off her assault against Alice. Ilke would collide with Alice any second now. Dallas couldn’t let that happen.
He activated his jet thrusters to full power and launched for her. He pounded her with his guns, but to no effect. He rocketed across the intersection and prepared himself to fly straight into her lasers. If they could cut through his armor, he would be dead before he ever touched her, which meant that Alice would be dead, too.
