Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) (3 page)

“Yes, Dad,” Evangeline sighed in defeat. She did not like unanswered questions. What made it more difficult was that answers from her parents had never been hard to obtain. “But I want to know what you’ve found out when you get back. Okay?”

He gave her a wide smile, impressed at the maturity beyond her years. “There’s one thing I want you to do for me.” He walked out of his office and returned with his briefcase. He set it on the desk, opened it, and pulled out an envelope. He held it out to her and she saw her name on it. “I want you to hold onto this letter until I get home.”

Getting a hand-written letter was rare among the citizens of Olympus. Digital correspondence had taken over the written word long ago. Perhaps that was one of the endearing aspects of her father. She loved his fascination with old paper books you had to turn by hand instead of the auto-pan function of her tablet.

“What’s in it?” she asked as excitement crept into her face.

“You’ll have to wait to find out. You’ll know when it’s time to read it,” he said with a distinct sadness in his voice. “Now, I need to help your mom finish packing our gear and equipment, or we’re going to miss our transport off-world.”

He got up from his chair; she followed his lead and stretched as she arose from the sofa. He took her in his arms and embraced her. He held onto her long after she was done hugging him in return. “I love you, little star,” he said with a tear in his eye. Seeing her dad cry was a common occurrence, but she had no idea it would have been the last time.

THREE

Evangeline’s attention returned from her memories as her HUD refreshed with new information.

“DESCEND INTO OPENING AND INVESTIGATE. WEAPONS FREE. ENGAGE AT YOUR DISCRETION.”

She hated the vague orders from Graham. They may as well have said,
go into that room and check it out. Oh, and by the way, there may be people waiting to kill you, so go ahead, and be ready to defend yourself, or just go ahead and kill everyone if you feel like it
.

The disposable nature of her existence was one part of the military that got under her skin. Millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, years of training and in the end, she still felt like cannon fodder. If she had a better option, she never would have enlisted. It was either a life in the corps or a life in the LTZ. She had chosen the option where she understood, to a degree, what to expect from the world around her.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time!” she grumbled into her headset. “Our mission is to investigate this sinkhole.”

“Captain, are you serious? We fly all this way to check out a hole in the ground on some rock in space?” It was Corporal Paul Harper. He was young, the newest member of the team and the undisputed ‘voice’ of the squad. Always saying what everyone else was thinking. Training could never disconnect the constant stream of unfiltered verbal diarrhea that spewed out of his mouth. “Why not just send down a drone or something?”

Harper’s analysis was over-simplified, naïve and, as usual, accurate.

“Because,” Weston growled, “a drone can be fooled.” Lt. Eric Weston was second in command. He was older than Evangeline, but she out-ranked him because of his lack of ambition towards advancement. He was a simple man. Content to serve in whatever capacity asked of him. “Drone sensors can be tricked easier than you, dummy. And that’s not saying much. Martian said we investigate, so we investigate. Now, stow it, soldier.”

Weston was the only one, aside from Evangeline, that Harper did not sass back to no matter what they said. Perhaps it was the scar across his face that he refused to have fixed. Perhaps it was his quiet stare without saying a word. It made you feel like he was deciding to whether to fix someone a sandwich or step on his or her throat.

“Exactly, Harper,” Evangeline sighed into her headset. “So, we’re going to go down there and investigate. Olympus thinks it’s important enough for an eyes-on mission, so that’s what we’re going to do. Is everybody ready? Sound off,” she ordered.

The five other members of the team spoke into her ears. “Weston, ready.” “Lennox, ready.” “Dunbar, ready.” “Hicks, ready.” “Harper, ready, willing, and able.” Everyone chuckled.
Typical Harper
, Evangeline grinned to herself,
always needed to put in one last remark
.

Sam Lennox, Tishia Dunbar, and Riley Hicks were quiet. They never said much, even for soldiers on alert. Beyond what was in their files when they transferred to her unit, Evangeline knew little about them. What she did know was they were good soldiers nearing the end to their tours of duty.

Hicks had made it into the TRTV program with the lowest score on record. Despite his low scores, he was a skilled technician. He was brilliant when it came to getting past security systems and demolitions.

Lennox, a man, and Dunbar, a woman, grew up in the LTZ together. Cousins who were neighboring farmers or something like that. She guessed they just wanted a better life than the LTZ had to offer. They worked hard, obeyed orders, and never seemed to sleep. They were good soldiers to have on guard duty.

“Alright, let’s make our way to the precipice,” Evangeline ordered. The squad fanned out so they were standing side by side and began to walk toward the edge of the sinkhole. Harper could be heard singing under his breath ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’ over the channel and the entire team chuckled at the way he could relieve the tension in the air. The sun-bleached rock formations looked like sandstone versions of the Earth’s polar glaciers and, according to her atmospheric analysis, it was even colder than the polar continent in winter.

When they reached the edge, Evangeline launched a sensor beacon down into the sinkhole. It scanned the walls as it fell and relayed the data to Evangeline’s topographic map. The dimensions were far too consistent to be a natural sinkhole.

When the beacon reached the bottom, the final scan showed a large hangar door set into the side of the chasm wall, large enough for a small shuttle if it could descend through the opening on the surface. The scans confirmed her suspicions as to why they travelled to that particular lifeless rock in space. There was someone down here. Who they were, and what they were doing there, remained a mystery.

Evangeline encoded a visual burst to the Chiron.

“PREPARING TO DESCEND INTO SINKHOLE. SCANS CONFIRM IT WAS ARTIFICIALLY CONSTRUCTED.
”

Graham sat at his large wooden desk. His quarters aboard the Centaur class cruiser were decadent by military standards. However, as an ambitious man with hopes of one day obtaining the position of Mars at Olympus, he indulged in a few fineries. Even among the Spartan requirements of military service. If he were right about the intelligence that led to their mission, he would be off the Chiron with a promotion before it reached Earth’s orbit.

Evangeline’s HUD flashed a short message.

“GOOD HUNTING.”

FOUR

Evangeline stared down the wall face. “Well, it’s not like a freefall from a drop ship, but it should still be fun,” she said to herself. The hangar door was below and to her right. She launched herself off the edge with a boost from her engines and started falling toward the center of the chasm. The rest of the team followed her lead and maneuvered into a semi-circle facing the hangar door below.

The descent to the bottom took an agonizing ninety seconds. The six pairs of engines loosened the dust and small chunks of rock from the walls as they dropped further into the gaping hole. Swirls of rust-colored clouds blasted past Evangeline’s cockpit and up above the surface. She imagined it looking like the blowhole of a stone whale from the surface. The team touched down at the bottom, shut off their engines, and activated their searchlights.

Small bits of debris rained down causing their lights to bounce back against Evangeline’s eyes. The canopy glass darkened in response to her pupil’s dilation. Once the dust settled, and Evangeline could see to the sidewalls of the sinkhole, she discovered that the floor was smooth, constructed from the indigenous rock, as if carved to its existing condition. There were still charred areas from rocket engines burning the rock during take-off. Across the bottom of the chasm was a pair of hanger doors. It was obvious, from the clunky fabrication, that they were ancient.

It looked like someone placed them against the wall of the sinkhole and pushed inward as if it was made of clay. The seam between the rock wall and the door was flawless. Evangeline doubted a piece of paper would be able to slide between them. The massive doors, twenty feet wide and ten feet high, looked old, beaten, and neglected. The only illumination at the bottom of the chasm came from their searchlights.

“There doesn’t seem to be any power down here, Captain.” Weston spoke into her headset. “Dunbar, do you detect any power signatures running to those doors?”

“Scanning…” Dunbar’s voice broke across the channel. “If there are, they’re negligible. It must be an abandoned station of some kind, maybe a mine. I’m not reading anything.”

Evangeline used the instruments on her HUD to zoom in on the doors. “Weston, do those look like winch-holds where the doors meet?” She flashed her spotlight at a point between the doors. “Maybe that’s how they got in and out.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Weston grunted. “It’s worth a try, anyway. Lennox, Harper. Get down there and attach your winches. Stand on either side of the doorway and get those doors open.”

“Roger, that.” Harper and Lennox said in unison. The two TRTV’s lumbered into the doorway at a snail’s pace. It was a tight fit. There was little clearance overhead. The two soldiers had to hunch down a little to make their way down the short passage. Once they got to the doors they tried to attach their hooks to the winch-holds, but they could not make any headway.

Lennox’s voice came on the channel. “Captain, we’re unable to get our hooks into place. The armatures can’t maneuver in this tight space. Requesting permission for EVA.” Evangeline did not like having her team members perform anything outside of their vehicles. An EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), common to space walks and other duties performed outside of a ship floating between worlds, was no big deal unless you were in an unknown situation with no reinforcements and the chance of a lethal encounter.

“Are you certain you can’t get your hooks in place with the armature?” she asked.

Harper answered her question. “No, ma’am. It’s snugger than a St. Bernard in a cat door down here. These winch-holds were just not made for such masculine equipment.” Evangeline could not suppress her grin; it was lucky for her position of authority that grins did not transmit over audio.

“Can it, Harper. Lennox, permission granted. Get those doors open. And, Harper, keep the colorful commentary to yourself next time, got it?” Evangeline said with a slight chuckle.

“Roger, that, Captain.” both Lennox and Harper replied in unison. Lennox’s TRTV began to hum inside the cockpit. Part of why Evangeline hated EVA’s so much was how long it took to cycle through the neural connection from the TRTV. She watched Lennox’s seat began to descend down through the floor of the cockpit.

When it reached the bottom, mechanisms spun and unwound themselves from his back and the base of his helmet, revealing illuminated ports along his spine and neck. The dots of light along his back reminded her of the first time her husband had seen her since the procedure. The memory of his reaction churned in her stomach. She did not want to think about it and pushed the thoughts into the back of her mind with the rest of her pain.

In a flash, the jacks penetrating the neural-interface ports retracted and the open ports were sealed shut. Once disconnected from his vehicle he stood up from his seat and stretched. He performed a quick check on the seal between his helmet and flight suit before he moved toward the front of his own TRTV, taking the hook from the armature. He walked toward the doors and attached his hook to the winch-hold, then did the same on Harper’s side.

Lennox used the console on his forearm to activate the winch once he secured the hooks into place. Harper activated his own winch, from inside his TRTV, at Lennox’s signal. The hangar doors inched open with the squealing sound of metal scraping against metal. The doors opened about five feet before they would not move any farther. The wires attached to the hooks started to strain.

“Stop!” Lennox shouted at Harper. “The lines are going to snap! Captain, this is as wide as these doors will open.”

Evangeline responded to Lennox’s assessment. “Lennox, go inside and see if there is something blocking the doors.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lennox replied touching his fingers to the faceplate of his helmet. He took his side arm from its holster and began to walk between the massive doors. Even at 6’2”, he looked small next to the TRTV’s and the huge metal doors. Lennox turned on the lights on sides of his helmet to help him navigate. He poked his head through the opening and looked around the hangar interior.

At first glance, the inner hangar looked like it had been cleaned just before their arrival. It was empty, stark and devoid of anything except a thin layer of dust that has settled to the floor. Upon closer inspection, the hanger showed signs as if a fire had scorched it. He saw dark burn marks in the corners and in the door tracks.

As he examined the doors, he found the problem. “Captain, there are large beams blocking the door tracks. Just like my grandpa used to prevent people from opening our windows back home. It’s cheap security. I also see cables connected to what looks like a hand-winch. I’ll see if I can move the beams out of the way.”

“Roger that, Lennox,” Evangeline replied. “Signal Harper to resume winching when you’re finished.” The vulnerability of her team member was making her uneasy. She wondered if there could be another way in and out of this facility. If there was, those beams could have been set and forgotten. If not, there may be danger inside yet to reveal itself.

She could hear Lennox grunt with the strain of turning the hand-winch. The cables that ran from the hand-winch to the security beams tightened and strained as the beam lifted up out of the door tracks. “Okay, Harper. Activate your winch.” he said with heavy breath.

“You got it, buddy!” Harper replied, and the winch cables tightened as the hangar doors started to move apart at a slow gait. “That’s right, baby! Open wide for Daddy!”

Evangeline closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to three to prevent her from yelling at Harper. However, Weston intervened first. “Harper, get serious! Any more flack and you’ll be singing soprano for the rest of your life.”

The silence over the channel was palatable. The only sounds over the channel were a quiet ‘Yes, sir,’ from Harper followed by the muted chuckles from everyone else.