Gamma Nine (Book One) (28 page)

Locke confirmed
with everyone on the reactor room’s floor, waiting for everyone to
give him the green light before he confirmed his own readiness.
Before he did, he opened a channel to Captain Gray on-board the
Hyperion. “Willis?” he asked.

“Yes Gabriel?”
Gray answered almost immediately.

“Take the
Hyperion and run now. If this plan goes to hell you might have a
chance to save your ship.”

“I will not. We
are staying here until you are back on-board the Hyperion or until
we meet in the afterlife.” Gray cut the link before Locke could
object to Gray’s decision.

Locke just
grinned at his old friend’s misplaced honour as he told the AIE
that everyone was ready.

“Good. Then, as
they say, let’s get this party started?” the AIE replied to Locke’s
confirmation, giggling like a teenage boy seeing female anatomy for
the very first time.

Xander started
off the synchronized manoeuvre of saving everyone’s life in close
proximity to the Fateful Moment, and on-board the dying vessel. He
ripped the sealed junction box from the reactor room’s wall, metal
tearing like paper as the stocky Titan wielded his ancestral
strength. Xander tossed what was left of the mangled junction box
away, giving Pyoter the opportunity to play his part.

The giant Titan
yanked the main power feeds from their sockets as he braced himself
against the room’s thick wall with his armoured boots. Cables as
thick as unarmoured humans came loose in a sickening sound of
hardened steel and insulating materials shredding. Pyoter held a
cable under each arm, regaining his footing as his muscled burned
from the exertion. He breathed out as Rivers handled the next
step.

Rivers and
Roger cut the main line feeding coolant into the reactor room with
their mounted cutting tools. Coolant erupted from the bleeding
cable, forcing Rivers and his little metal friend to retreat from
the platforms bowels. The glacial liquid seeped out onto the
reactor room’s floor, pooling into a lake of freezing fluid that
was slowly growing in size as the coolant tanks emptied their
contents at high pressure. Rivers moved quickly, picking up the
slower automaton in one swift movement. He climbed up onto the
platform as he yelled at Pyoter over the radio. “Do it now!”

Pyoter
connected the shredded power cables, using a hand held blowtorch to
melt the outer casings of the cables together. It caused the entire
vessel to shake violently in protest. The jerry-rigged cables
forced the reactors to feed power into each other, causing the
storm inside the reactor room to flare with new, and more violent
colours. Red emergency lights lit up the reactor room, giving the
entire interior of the room an almost hell-like hue. Pyoter
carefully placed the melted cables on the floor in front of him,
motioning to Xander to follow him up to the platform.

Xander smiled
at the giant Titan’s unnecessary gentleness. Man-handling the power
cables now would matter little in the grander scheme of the AIE’s
master plan. But the contrast reminded Xander exactly how deceptive
Pyoter was to outsiders. He shook his head to clear his focus as he
ran behind his friend the giant, focusing on the current situation
instead of daydreaming like some child. Both Titans joined Rivers
on the platform, Pyoter helped Nathan to stand as all four of them
watched Artemis take hit after hit from the violent lightning.

Locke and
Christian synched their part perfectly. Pulling and then rolling
the ejection plugs away at exactly the same time from each reactor.
The ejection plugs were rounded blast-like doors, made from thicker
metal than the rest of the reactor room. Once these were removed
the reactor room would be open to the void, the plugs were the only
thing between artificial atmosphere and the crushing cold of the
void on the other side of the vessel’s hull. The ejection plugs
were used to vent the reactors during maintenance, replacing the
plasma inside once every fifty years. Now, however, they were used
to render the Fateful Moment nothing but a drifting husk.

Locke and
Christian dived aside the moment the plugs rolled into their
corresponding mounts. Both of them held onto the closest thing they
could locate, gripping tight as the reactor room’s content was
sucked out in the blackness of space. The torrent of escaping
atmosphere and rattling tools lasted only for a second before
Artemis needed to act out his part.

Jay screamed as
he held on to the reactors. He used all of Artemis’ strength to
step backward and heave both reactors out of their cradles. In one
powerful move both reactors broke free of their restraints, sliding
on their mountings as Artemis pulled them towards the venting holes
the ejection plugs had opened. The reactors hissed as the heat
generated from their coolant shortage radiated from their shells.
They locked into place the moment they connected to their ejection
ports, hissing louder as the reactors strained against the hungry
void.

The bleeding
atmosphere stopped suddenly and the AIE, still connected to all of
the ship systems, used what power there was left within the vessel
to activate the reactor’s maintenance cycle.

In a torrent of
bright blue light, the reactors bled their life blood into the
void. The plasma, rapidly cooling in the icy void, flowed like
arteries inside an organic body. It was as if the plasma was
reaching for some invisible hand, hoping that it could be pulled to
safety. Onlookers on-board the Hyperion called it a beautiful
dance, something very few people ever saw during their short lives.
The bright plasma stretched out for miles before it finally stopped
glowing, freezing solid in the void to form vast crystalized trees
of sparkling sapphire. They drifted next to the Fateful Moment,
like fireworks marking a celebration, the dormant plasma caused
cheers to erupt on-board both vessels.

The Wolves
laughed and patted each other on the shoulders, realizing that they
had escaped certain death. Nathan cringed as Pyoter slapped him on
the shoulder, the giant obviously forgetting that Nathan was still
in tremendous pain.

Locke shook
Christians hand and nodded in respect at the rookie Titan as they
moved to join the rest of the Wolves on the platform.

Nobody spoke as
they all turned to see Jay and Artemis stomp out of the darkness
the reactor deaths had caused, Artemis’ external lights lighting up
the reactor room as it moved closer to the platform. Jay could be
heard cheering inside the machines cockpit as he moved Artemis.

He reached the
edge of the platform and tilted Artemis’ head upwards to look at
the six Titans staring down at him. One by one the Wolves honoured
the Lancer, raising a closed fist to their chest, a sign of utter
respect from one hero to another.

Victory was
always soured by the deaths of good men and women.

Gray sat in his
command chair, his elbows rested on the dormant controls he had
expertly used to manoeuvre his beloved ship only hours earlier. His
thoughts dwelled on all of the things that had transpired in the
last few hours.

Less than half
of the Lancers had returned from the Fateful Moment alive, most
losing their lives during combat, a few perishing during the
closing moments of the fight, missing victory by mere seconds.

The damned AIE
had opened the Fateful Moment to the void minutes after the
reactors had fallen silent, flushing anything hostile into the cold
blackness without warning.

A few Lancers
close to escape hatches were blown out with the few remaining
monsters, unable to find a handhold in time or dying before they
knew what was happening to them. Two brave Lancers had died from
asphyxiation as they sacrificed themselves to
secure the manual locking mechanism of the cargo dock that held the
precious Maiden of Flame. These two Lancers risked their lives to
keep everyone else on the dock from being flushed into the freezing
dark.

The universe was a lesser place every time a brave hero died,
and Gray felt the loss of such heroes more than others. He knew
that Sabian would be distraught at the losses as well, knowing the
man behind the scarred face bled for his elite Lancers.

Gray’s steepled fingers rested against his chin as he looked
at his people on the bridge. Everywhere officers mulled about,
moving from console to console, compiling their reports Remy would
read through later, deciding which section of the Hyperion needed
to do better or which ones should be lauded for their exemplary
service.

Gray thought of Remy as he saw her, his mind forcing his eyes
to linger on her hunched form for longer than would be deemed
appropriate. She was still standing over the command table in the
centre of the bridge, coordinating the retrieval of information and
anything useful from the Fateful Moment's memory banks and cargo
bays. Her eyes were bloodshot from holding back her emotions, her
jaws clenched tight as she tried to hide what she felt underneath
the surface. Gray just wanted to embrace her, and take that pain
away, but he could not, not now. His ship and his crew needed him.
When the mulling eventually stopped he would have to give them all
direction.

He had no clue which direction though, not yet anyways. Gray
was patiently waiting for Locke and the Wolves to return to the
Hyperion before he could decide their next move.

The Maiden was
refuelling in the docking bay of the Hyperion while the bridge fell
into organized chaos, dropping off the last of the wounded Lancers
deemed safe by medical teams scanning the wounded for the Beast’s
infection. The Maiden would depart as soon as her tanks were filled
and Gunn would bring the Wolves back to the safety of the Hyperion.
Gray was anxious when he thought of the thing Gabriel would bring
back with them, and wanted to tell Locke to throw that monstrosity
out of the airlock before the Maiden even landed on his ship.

But a deal was
a deal, and that was probably why Locke had decided to remain
behind with his Wolves. He wanted to oversee the AIE’s transfer
personally, leaving nothing up to chance. Locke had only spoken to
Gray briefly while the Maiden prepared for its final journey back
to the Fateful Moment. He had told Gray to order the engineers to
prepare the recovery tanks for their return, relaying his squad’s
status to Gray and Sabian before going silent. Whatever Gabriel was
doing on the Fateful Moment, it was something more important than
tending to his squad’s wounds.

Gray let out a
breath that he was holding, relieved as his mind focused on what
was at least one positive thing from the recent crap-storm.

Zero Titan
casualties. Only one Wolf was seriously wounded and already being
healed by his miraculous suit and the machines in his blood, he
would require the most time in recovery. The others were all in
relatively good shape, and would require only a short time in the
recovery tanks, and only a few hours with the engineers to repair
damage to their prized suits.

That was at
least something to hold on to while those in charge, including
Gray, tried to make sense of what had happened.

With an
exhausted smile on his old face, Gray stood up from his command
chair and raised his voice. “Remy?” he yelled over the chaotic
bridge, not waiting for her reply before continuing. “Get all of
these stragglers back to their posts. That is enough pussy-footing
for one day.” Gray pointed at an officer running nearby. “You, get
me Gunn on the radio, we need to go fetch Captain Locke and his
Titans from that dead hulk. I am sick of looking at that ugly
ship!”

Remy nodded at
Gray’s orders and returned a tired smile of her own before barking
orders at the officers around the command table.

The poor
officer Gray had pointed his meaty finger at scrambled to get to
his console, tripping and colliding with other crew members trying
to get back to their own respective seats. He finally reached his
console, sweating from the short but difficult human obstacle
course he had to traverse to get to his console. He grabbed his
radio headset and within a few seconds of unheard exchanges with
crew on the other side of the radio connection he reached Gunn. He
held up his hand and gave Gray the sign that the radio connection
above his command chair was now open.

Gray nodded at
the communications officer, silently thanking him before speaking
to Gunn briefly. He pressed the ship-wide radio system as he
cleared his throat, intending to let everyone on-board hear his
powerful voice.

Everyone on the
Hyperion’s bridge fell silent as they heard Gray’s voice again. One
by one they quieted down to hear what their captain was going to
say.

Gray was going
to keep it short, but he needed to say something before fear
started creeping into the minds of his crew. He had to steel their
resolve first, and then the orders would come once Locke was back
on-board.

Little did he
know that fear was going to be the least of his problems as the
secrets of the recent treachery unfolded before everyone’s
eyes.

“It would not
say anything further until it was on the Hyperion safely,” Locke
said, resting his hands on the command table.

The Wolves had
gathered on the bridge of the Hyperion once they had set foot back
on their home ship. Everyone was there except for Nathan. He was
taken to the recovery tanks on the Wolves’ return. Nathan had
protested, but Locke would have none of it, ordering him to go to
engineering, leaving no room for Nathan to object to the order.
Order was the wrong word. Locke almost threatened him before Nathan
surrendered to the engineering crews waiting to fulfil their own
orders. By the time everyone else was on the bridge Nathan had
already been removed from his suit layers and the engineers had
interred him in his personal recovery tank. A drug induced coma
would keep him still and let the recovery tank repair and heal any
damage to his body, internal or external.