Gamma Nine (Book One) (29 page)

The rest of the
Wolves would join Nathan as soon as the next course of action was
decided.

“I heard you
made a magnificent speech while we were still in transit. The crew
are still looking at you as if you are their long lost father,”
Locke added as he removed his helmet, smiling at Gray as their eyes
met.

“I may have
said a few memorable things, worthy of legend, but they needed to
hear it.” Gray stepped closer to the command table from his command
chair.

“Any chance we
can hear it?” Rivers asked.

Gray looked at
the older Titan, Rivers did not remove his helmet like his captain,
and so Gray directed his words at the visor reflecting his own face
back at him. “It was not meant for you. None of you need my old
words to steel you against the situation. But I am sure the ship’s
OS recorded the entire thing. You can listen to it later.”

“I will,”
Rivers replied, nodding at Gray to emphasize his words.

Gray did not
return the nod. “Where is that thing now?” he asked.

“On-board the
Maiden, unplugged from everything. Jinx is jamming its wireless
capabilities as well,” Locke replied to Gray’s question.

“Good. What do
we do with it?” Gray asked. He was eager to lock the AIE away.

“I have an
idea. We can secure it in one of the armoury lockers, they are
lined with enough metal plating to block any outgoing or incoming
signals, and there are no connections to any ship systems inside.
We can effectively neutralize it while we decide what to do with
it. That way it is also close to our training section. We can keep
a better eye on it from there.”

“What about
Artemis?” Jay asked from the other side of the table. He was still
not keen on giving up his new best friend.

Locke had asked
Sabian to assign Jay to the Wolves for the duration of their time
on the Hyperion. This honour gave Jay a degree of arrogance,
something that would be squashed soon enough.

“Artemis will
be dismantled into pieces and given to the AIE to keep him company
inside his new cell. He can’t reassemble it inside and Artemis is
too big to escape the locker,” Locke answered.

“But, he is”
Jay said, but he never got to finish his words.

“I suggest you
do not finish that sentence, Lancer. Artemis belongs to the
military. You cannot claim something just because you like it.”
Locke was not trying to be harsh, but the Lancer needed to know how
things worked while in the company of Titans.

“Yes sir!” the
Lancer replied. He was not going to push the subject with someone
like Captain Locke. It would not end well for him.

Locke continued
as if the exchange with Jay never happened. “The AIE will be given
one automaton to help with Artemis’ repairs. But its wireless chip
will be removed and its OS will be reprogrammed by Rivers to only
accept commands within certain parameters.”

“I am almost
done with the reprogramming. Roger will take care of the chip
removal,” Rivers added without being asked.

“And then
what?” Gray asked Locke.

Gray sighed
before he answered. “I am open to suggestions Willis.” Locke stood
upright and folded his arms, waiting for Willis to suggest their
next course of action.

“We take a few
days to get out of this mine field, and then we make our way back
to New Horizon. Perhaps on the way there that thing can shed some
light on all of the crap we just went through.”

“Why there?”
Locke asked.

“It is the
safest place for at least a hundred sectors in every direction. We
can re-arm and re-fuel there, get some repairs done to the Hyperion
and then go after the bastard who orchestrated all of this.”

“That sounds
very good. How long do we have before we can get back there?”

“Estimated time
would be ten to fourteen days, depending on the size of the
asteroid field. It’s larger than we thought, our scanners can’t see
outside of the field and this hinders our estimation,” Remy
answered from her position next to Gray, looking slightly better
than she did before the Wolves got back to the Hyperion.

Locke inclined
his head as Remy finished, accepting her estimation without
hesitation. The girl knew her math. “Then that is the plan,
Willis.”

“Agreed,” Gray
replied.

“Wolves
dismissed,” Locke said to his squad, he would speak to them once
they left the bridge. “Willis, I will be in the tanks for a few
days then we can interrogate the AIE together.”

“Looking
forward to it Gabriel.” The sarcasm was evident in Gray’s tone.

Locke said
nothing as he followed his squad, laughing under his breath at his
old friend’s candour.

Once the Wolves
entered the hallways outside the bridge Locke replaced his helmet
and spoke over the private squad channel. “Pyoter, Rivers and
Xander,” he said as all three of them stopped to listen to their
captain’s order. “Get the AIE moved to the armoury lockers, join up
with the FNG and myself at the recovery tanks once you are
done.”

The three
Wolves acknowledged their order without a word and broke away from
the rest of the squad, using a nearby walkway to make their way to
the docking bays of the Hyperion.

“Corporal
Joshua, report to Commander Sabian until we return. I will send for
you once we are operational again.” Locke moved past Jay as he
spoke, not stopping to look if Jay followed his order.

Jay did as he
was told, and taking a cue from the other Titans said nothing to
acknowledge the order.

Locke noticed
how quickly the Lancer was learning, and made a mental note of
it.

Christian
noticed Locke had not given him any orders, and just continued to
follow his captain in silence. He was nervous because of the
silence, but also excited because of their new destination.
Christian never got the chance to reply to Jessica’s message, but
now he would have the chance to say what needed to be said in
person. It would be better than saying he loved her over a message,
and she would appreciate the romantic motivation behind their next
meeting.

Or so he
hoped.

The engineers
and medical crew removed the armour in silence. The only sound in
the med-engineering chambers was the constant humming from the
recovery tanks. Every now and again the grinding of gears from
equipment unscrewing armour plating could be heard as the Wolves
were freed from their heroic suits.

None of the
Wolves looked at each other; instead they focused on a spot on the
opposite wall and waited for the painful removal of their suit
layers to finish, grimacing whenever a piece of plating was removed
by mechanically guided hands.

This was the
first time Christian’s suit would be removed and he did not know
what to expect. He risked glancing to the other Titans on either
side of him and saw that they were in the same kind of pain he was,
but they were more use to it than he was.

The pain he was
feeling grew in intensity as more and more of his plating and under
layer was removed from his tired body. Christian closed his eyes
and bit down hard, trying not to make a sound as two mechanical
arms removed his back plating.

As soon as it
was freed from his body a surge of exhaustion assaulted his body.
His muscles tensed as his eyes opened from the sudden fatigue
washing over his senses. Sleep deprivation became apparent the
moment his muscles relaxed, and it was then that he realized he had
been awake for far too long, never resting or sleeping since he
received his suit on New Horizon. It had been many days and he felt
it in his limbs as the last of his suit was removed.

Nano machines
and the suit’s systems kept operators awake for extended periods of
time, feeding them whatever they needed to keep going for longer
than humanly possible. This lack of sleep was one of the biggest
culprits in the body’s fight against damaging itself inside the
suit.

The recovery
tanks were more like sleep tanks than anything, accepting the spent
Titans into their watery cores whenever a Titan needed to rest. The
recovery tanks simulated extended sleep patterns by inducing
controlled comas, giving Titans days of sleep in mere hours of real
time.

Christian knew
how the tanks worked from what he was supplied with during his
training, only reading about the mechanisms and science used to
create the recovery tanks. This was to be his first time inside
one.

The pain
subsided for a few moments and he opened his eyes to look at Locke
beside him. Locke’s eyes were open but he was humming to himself,
as if he had simply disconnected his mind from the present and knew
nothing of what was happening.

Christian spoke
through the pain, aiming the words at his captain, hoping the hero
would hear him. “How long?” he asked. It was all he could manage
through the pain.

Locke’s eyes
focused and he craned his neck towards the rookie Titan. “For as
long as it takes. Some of us need more time, like your
brother.”

Christian
nodded and braced himself as he was lowered to the floor by the
mechanism that was holding him in the air during suit removal. The
moment his feet touched the cold decking his body almost crumpled
from the fatigue. He stopped himself from falling face first into
the hard deck with his weary hands. Christian felt as if he was
completely detached from his body, unable to lift himself up from
his hunched-over crouch.

Darkness built
up at the edges of his eyes and slowly it crept across his vision,
blurring everything he saw.

He felt hands
gripping onto his shoulders and neck as his body was pulled
backwards, his vision darkening further. His neck was going numb,
with the last of his body’s energy he locked eyes with his captain,
who was already being placed inside his recovery tank.

Captain Locke
said something, but Christian could not make out what he was trying
to say. He was about to ask his commanding officer what he was
saying when the darkness consumed all of his vision and he lost
consciousness.

The bright
chamber he was in a moment before was replaced by a sky of bubbling
dust, clouds of vile purple swirled through the ochre sky, carrying
curtains of grey sand on sickening winds over empty plains.

Christian sat
upright, noticing he felt no more pain. His lips were dry and he
was thirstier than he had ever been. He was clothed in old military
fatigues, complete with his standard issue belt and combat pack.
Christians instinctively moved his hand to the holster strapped to
his upper leg, but it was empty, his pistol missing from it.

He stood up and
surveyed the plains stretching out in front of him, using his hands
to dust the strangely textured sand from his non-distinct
uniform.

Christian heard
the thing move behind him before turning to see it.

It spoke before
Christian could spin around and face it. “Welcome,” it said. “I
wondered when you would visit me again.”

Christian
turned slowly, looking at the black figure he had seen in his
dreams during the last days of his training. He watched it as its
smokiness formed the lines of a human shape, but as soon as
Christian tried to focus on any specific part the smoke would shift
and the shapes would disappear. It was like looking at a shadow out
of the corner of his eye, never able to see its true form.

The thing
turned and motioned with a smoky limb for Christian to follow.

There was no
choice, and the rookie Wolf felt compelled to follow the thing
stalking through his mind.

Questions would
be answered soon, whether Christian liked it or not.

“
It was once a shining jewel in the star
kingdom of humankind. Millions of people inhabiting what our
ancestors called paradise. Oceans of sparkling water broke against
continents of deep emerald. It was once a proud and thriving world,
a bastion to all neighbouring sectors. Millions of souls journeyed
to Angelicas to seek riches and spiritual guidance from its many
temples, economical and religious alike. Perhaps it was more than
just a coincidence that it was the epicentre of our race’s
inevitable extinction. Many believe it was the universe’s way of
showing everything that inhabited the stars that something so
beautiful cannot last forever.”
-Excerpt from Mankind’s Demise: A journey from life to death, 2560
- 51 ASD

Christian
followed in the smoky stranger’s footsteps, climbing a steep dune
of grey sand. Every step seemed to drain energy from his already
fatigued body. He had asked the stranger many questions during the
journey, but the stranger had remained silent with every step they
took.

The destination
was unknown to Christian, but he hoped that they were drawing near
to wherever the thing was leading him to. He was growing more than
just tired, his anger was bubbling up underneath the surface of his
calm exterior.

The smoky
stranger reached the crest of the dune and stopped, its murky body
shifting as the winds howled through the sand. It said nothing,
turning and waiting for Christian to speak or reach the top,
whichever came first.

“What is this
place?” Christian asked the figure before joining it. A question he
had asked a few times before, this time he hoped he would get an
answer.

“You do not
recognize it?” the figure replied, its voice low and soft.

Christian
remained where he was, eager to take advantage of the stranger’s
break in silence. He looked at the figure for a moment as his mind
searched for an answer to the stranger’s question. He found nothing
within the tired recesses of his mind. Christian shook his head and
sighed, more secrets, he thought.

“It is the
place everyone fears, where death waits for all. It is where the
end of all things begun,” the smoky stranger said. “Look, you must
see it for yourself.” It pointed to the plains on the other side of
the dune.