Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (8 page)

She was about to explode with anger as Serge looked at her and asked, “What is it, my love?”

“The Enclave got to Ariel. Manny found out about it, but too late. He saved her from getting killed, but he didn’t make it to her in time to stop the attack. They’re not sure if she’s going to survive. We have to go to Telos right now.” Serge was instantly fully awake; he stood without saying a word and began to get dressed. He knew if Ariel died that this would be his wife’s breaking point, and it would be all out war against Natora and his Enclave.

“I’m so sorry, Nina, I will have the speeder ready to leave in two minutes. She will make it. She is a fighter just like every other Marcos I know.” He moved to embrace her and she leaned into his chest. She held back tears as her husband comforted her, but she couldn’t get her mind off her cousin.

“Natora will pay for this if I have to pull the trigger myself, Serge.” Nina remarked in a voice a little bit louder than conversational. He was thankful they had been employing a jamming field. He decided to give her space to just let it all out. After she went on about it for a few more minutes while she was dressing, Serge came into the room with Frost. The snow wolf immediately sensed his master’s sadness and began to gently nudge Nina’s leg with her muzzle. She then put her head in her master’s lap. Serge smiled at their faithful pet as Nina absently pet her.

“When you are ready, my love, we will leave. It might be wise to refrain from threats against our military leader once we leave the house, though.” With that they were on their way to Telos to see if Ariel would survive and protect her if she did.

______

In a sector of the Milky Way Galaxy unknown to the Coalition, the secret Jarlevian envoy was gathering a large amount of intelligence on the Barrafoss and the Rodajhan. It seemed as if everything that had been shown to the approved delegation was accurate, and this alliance of non-humans really did hate humanity as much as Jarlevians did. One important fact they had found out was that these aliens never seemed to attack other aliens. They only attacked humans, which meant that Jarlevia was not being lied to or set up. The Barrafoss envoy on Jarlevia had come to a similar conclusion, but the Jarlevian High Council suspected they already knew how much the Jarlevians hated humans or they would not have contacted them. As the unofficial envoy prepared to return to Jarlevia, and the official delegation was enjoying their time among like-minded aliens, the High Council had decided they would put the matter to a vote in a week’s time.

“This could be exactly what Jarlevia needs.” Thansar exclaimed as the High Council imagined their fleet taking another run at Earth with an additional four powerful fleets at their side. “Imagine the arrogant humans with nowhere to run as the alliance destroys their outer colonies. Imagine their resource worlds being used to serve our cause. Then, imagine their corrupt Core and cowardly leaders begging for their lives as we show them no mercy. There will not be enough tricks in the galaxy for Colonel Marcos and Admiral Bliney to save them this time.” Thansar allowed himself a smile at the thought of Marcos and Bliney dead before him and their precious Coalition in ruins before the might of superior beings.

The first thing they hoped to do with their new alliance, should they accept, was take down a few human worlds together. They would see how well they worked together. If everything went smoothly, another push for Earth would be something they hoped they could talk their allies into. It just made sense. There were very few human worlds in either the Jarlevian Sector or the Syndicate Sector that could stand against them. They knew that none of those worlds would go on the offensive. Earth’s cluster of worlds on the other hand were no strangers to war, in the past ten years alone, they had pushed the Pack advance all the way back to their sector, and had defeated a large invasion from Jarlevia. They had powerful ships and intelligent leaders. They were not afraid of a fight. They were the most dangerous cluster of humanity in the galaxy, even if they didn’t know it. It would be prudent for the alliance to come together to rid the galaxy of this distant threat before it found them. After Earth had been taken care of, they would be free to eliminate the rest of humanity at their leisure. As long as there were humans in the galaxy, they would always be a threat simply because they multiplied faster than any of the other races in the galaxy.

According to the historians of Jarlevia, it had been almost twenty thousand years since they had arrived in the Milky Way Galaxy from the Kalephi galaxy. Twenty-seven known sentient species had been encountered since space travel had been invented on their planet almost two thousand years before the exodus. The Jarlevians were surprised to see how many human worlds were in the galaxy. There were literally hundreds of them. Several of the other sentient species did not like the threat the humans represented and banded together to eradicate them. After destroying nearly fifty human worlds, the rest of the humans began to band together and went on the attack. Within a hundred years of the first attack on a human world, the numerous powerful human armies controlled two full sectors of the galaxy and were well on their way to controlling a third. The humans had subjugated any non-human species that they found. It was as if the ill-advised tactics of alien species long since defeated had given them license to go on a centuries-long crusade. Eventually, they would have subjugated the galaxy. Any sentient species that wasn’t human was in danger. Non-humans had started the war, but humanity had vowed to finish it.

The fighting between humans and non-humans in the third sector went on for hundreds of years. The rulers of Jarlevia predicted the humans would eventually rule that sector as well. They had a choice, they could go to the last sector that was not yet ruled by humanity, or they could leave the Kalephi Galaxy altogether. They devised a plan to leave the Kalephi Galaxy that would eventually settle them in the largely uninhabited Milky Way Galaxy. The trip would take over a year to make. Once they arrived, they would be the dominant race technologically, and they wouldn’t have to worry about war for a long time. Unfortunately, humanity was losing the war in the last sector and some of the humans had the same idea the Jarlevians did. Ten years after arriving in the Milky Way, the Jarlevian long-range sensors picked up ships entering the galaxy. The Jarlevians were shocked to discover they were ships filled with humans. They did everything they could to find and destroy as many of the human ships as possible. It was just too big a galaxy to search, and they knew they would one day have to deal with the threat of humanity again.

Even though they arrived at roughly the same time, humanity had multiplied much faster and currently outnumbered the Jarlevians almost twenty to one. Fortunately, most of these human worlds were technologically inferior and could be easily destroyed or subjugated, but not Earth, they had carved out quite a powerful little cluster for themselves. In less than two hundred years, they had expanded from one world to thirty-two worlds with all of their colonies. They also had several resource worlds, not to mention moon-based colonies on eight of those worlds. Research did indicate they had not displaced any sentient species on those worlds, but seeing their expansion was still distressing. They needed to be stopped and the Jarlevian High Council was going to vote to join the alliance only if they promised to help put an end to the threat Earth posed to the rest of the galaxy.

______

On Telos, the emergency response vehicle
carrying Captain Ariel Marcos had just arrived at the med-center. Manny leapt out of the back followed by his men, and were joined by the rest of his detail as their shuttle landed. The medics had been able to stabilize Ariel, but she was in no way out of the woods. She was going to have all the protection he could give her. The medics quickly pushed the hover gurney as Manny called out orders to the protection detail. The ten remaining bodyguards from the hotel were joined by Jason and the eight men that Manny had brought with him. They made a perimeter around the gurney. As it moved, they moved with it. People stared and scurried to get out of the way as the procession made its way inside.

A doctor was waiting for them, and had the portable diagnostic unit in his hand ready to check all of Ariel’s injuries. She had more injuries than he had monitors, but the two that had him really worried were the damaged lung and the internal bleeding. They were going to have to open her up, and stop the bleeding before they could get her into the recovery pod.

“How does it look, Doc?” Manny asked as the doctor began prepping for surgery.

“I’m about to operate to try to stop her internal bleeding. If I can’t, she’ll die. After the operation, we’ll get her into the recovery pod to take care of her other injuries. The wound on the side of her face is too deep for the pod to heal completely, so we’ll have a specialist ready to stitch her up so that you won’t even be able to see the scar. She has to survive first, of course. Are your men going to be here the whole time?”

Manny could see the apprehension in the doctor’s eyes, and hear the anxiety in his voice, but there was nothing he could do about it. “Yeah, sorry, Doc, but this was an assassination attempt and she is still a high value target. I’ll make sure they stay out of your way, but they’re not going anywhere.” Manny said that last line in a tone that told the doctor it was not up for debate. He didn’t have time to argue anyway if he was going to save his patient’s life. He pulled on his gloves, pulled down his visual enhancement unit, and turned up the magnification enough so he could clearly see what he needed to do. His nurse handed him his scalpel, as he looked through his VUE. The first incision was made and the operation had begun. He noticed that Manny’s men had indeed given him a wide berth and soon forgot they were even there as he concentrated fully on saving the life of the battered young lady before him. She had taken a lot of punishment and the medics had done well to even keep her alive. This was not going to be easy.

Manny received a transmission from Nina, as she was getting ready to enter light space. “Hey, Manny, do you have any updates for me?”

“Nothing yet, Nina, she’s in surgery. Going in, the doctor wasn’t sure she would make it. We won’t know anything for a while. She’s a mess. She had more injuries than the doctor had monitors. I have eighteen men guarding her right now, with an additional six on the way. She’ll have two dozen guards, twenty-four seven, until further notice. Jason managed to kill the assassin, but we still don’t know who he was. We have his body and we are hoping that the police can make an ID.”

“Alright, we will be entering light space momentarily. It will be a three-hour journey. We should be at the hospital in three and a half hours.” Nina hated that it was going to take her that long to get to her cousin’s side. She needed to be there now. She needed to hold her and reassure her and do everything a big sister should do. Just like Jesse, she considered Ariel more of a little sister than a cousin.

“I’ll be here, have a safe trip.”

“We will, and thanks. Manny, if you hadn’t gone after her, she would have already been dead.” The transmission ended, and Manny went back to the operating room to keep an eye on Ariel. He didn’t want to accept any thanks. If he had been quicker, this would not have happened. If she lived, he was going to be apologizing, not looking for applause.
If she lived!
He couldn’t bear to think about how Jesse would respond if he lost his cousin. She was more like a little sister to him, and he loved her as much or maybe even more than he loved Nina. She just had to make it. The last six bodyguards arrived, and he stationed them around the operating room. He had taken over almost half of a floor in the med-center, but he didn’t care, she would be kept safe at all costs until she recovered.

Three and a half hours later, Nina and Serge entered the med-center with their twenty-four bodyguards and an additional twelve for Ariel. There were now sixty soldiers on the premises with Manny, Jason, Nina and Serge. Nina immediately found Manny as he stood guard right outside the door of Ariel’s operating room.

“Any word yet, Manny?” Nina asked as she strode through the sterile halls to where he stood guarding the operating room.

“Nothing yet, Nina, the doctor is still operating.”

“We can’t lose her, Manny, I…can’t lose her. What does the doctor need to keep her alive?”

“Just a little space, Nina, he’s doing the best he can. If anyone can keep her alive, he can. He’s the best on Telos.”

“But it’s been so long, Manny, why is it taking so long? I’m going to go see what’s going on.” Nina made a move to brush past Manny, but Serge caught her arm and stopped her in her tracks.

“Nina, you must remain out here. The doctor will let us know what’s going on as soon as he can.” Manny shook his head in agreement as Serge continued. “If you go in there now, you will only be a distraction. I know how much you love Ariel, we all do, just be patient.”

“That’s never been my strong suit, Serge. Do we know who did this yet?”

Manny looked confused, “I thought we had agreed it was the Enclave. Do you suspect someone else?”

“No, I meant do we know who the assassin is? If we find out who he is, we may be able to prove who hired him. I know it’s the Enclave, but I need proof to take them down legally. Either way they are going to pay for this. Manny, I need to get in touch with one of Jesse’s associates, she goes by Ladyhawk. Do you know how I might be able to get in touch with her?