Last Flight of the Ark (9 page)

“How did you…?” She stopped and sniffed. “Stupid question. What are we going to do about it?”

“It doesn’t seem to adversely affect our health and there’s nothing to say it can’t be reversed. I have to run some tests first, but what good is being a geneticist if you don’t use the knowledge?”

“What if it isn’t reversible?”

“Then we evolve. We won’t be the first or last species to do it.” He held her gaze. “I’m sorry this happened. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have bitten you. I—it was like someone else had control. I needed….” He reached up, lacing his fingers into his hair. How could he tell her he’d—wanted, no—
needed
to mark her, to change her? That primitive programming had kicked in and demanded it.

“I understand better than you know,” she said.

He eyed her and inhaled again, picking up Jessica’s scent. His cock snapped to attention, growing hard enough to punch rivets into metal. He needed to focus on something else. Lives were at stake. He stared across the room at the security lights, doing his best not to look at her. She was so hot right now. Ready. Wet. Her scent called to him.

Focus
.

“I hate to say this, but it might be a solution to our problem,” he said. “I started looking for a cure and realized maybe it isn’t a cure we need, but a means to spread it. Did you see the reaction the imposters had to my wolf mutation?” Ever since he’d noticed the reaction the encroachers had to his canine DNA, a plan had begun to stir in his subconscious brain. No longer able to ignore the thoughts, he acted on them. Rather impulsively, but he lived by his gut and it told him not to wait.

“Is that what’s in the vial?” Melissa kept her gaze on his hand, avoiding eye contact. “Some kind of disease to infect the aliens?”

“Not just the aliens. Shit, I don’t know. All I know is that this alteration might be the only weapon we’ve got against them. I’m exploring a weakness.” He set the specimen down and picked up another, placing the glass tube next to the first. “I’ve found a way to infect the crew of the other ship through the air. I collected a sample of the flu virus from Lieutenant Jeffers and if I engineered everything correctly, the flu will serve as a catalyst for this wolf-human mutation. Once the flu subsides, the mutation will no longer be airborne. The strain is aggressive—hitting hard and fast, and should run full course in under twelve hours. I figured if it could be transferred through our blood and saliva, then there was a possibility the exchange could also occur through an airborne means. Well, if someone played with the DNA a bit. Funny thing, I didn’t have to tinker much.”

“You’re engineering a superbug? Do you really think that’s wise? That isn’t something you can control and the infection can spread to anyone who comes into contact with it. Your virus might kill everyone. Is that a chance you’re willing to take with two thousand lives?”

“To be honest, no, I don’t want to, but I can’t disregard what’s going on. I don’t believe this mutation will kill the crew. Actually, from what I’ve seen, it could cure them of any diseases they might carry. The hijackers might be another story. If they can’t handle being around us due to their evident canine allergy, there’s a good chance the mutation will kill them if the strain is directly introduced into their systems.”

“You need to think about this first. We still don’t know their intentions.”

“I’m pretty certain their intentions aren’t good. I think we’re all dead once they get what they want. I’d rather risk mutating two thousand people and spreading canine DNA all over that ship and Terra II, than to sit back and let them kill us, or worse. Have you gotten a good whiff of them?” He turned to her and finally met her gaze. Bolts of lust shot through his body. It would be so easy to forget what was important in favor of more primal needs.

Focus
.

Melissa gave her head a slow shake. “How do you know you’re not making a mistake?”

“They’re predators and we haven’t determined what they eat yet. What if it’s us? They could’ve dumped the entire crew, but they didn’t. Why’d they keep them?” He locked the lid down and hit a button, sending the vials into a spin.

“You’re creeping me out, sir.”

“Better than becoming a Melissa-burger. I checked my vitals. I’m healthier than I’ve been my entire life.” He picked up a digital clipboard and tossed it to her. “I used to have an ulcer. I used to have aches and pains in my joints. All gone. Even my damned craving for cigarettes is gone. I’ve been jonesing for a butt for eight months. Now the thought of smoking churns my innards. Aside from the incident in your room, nothing is negative about the mutation.”

“That’s a pretty extreme way to kick a habit.” Melissa crossed her arms. “Just what happened in my room?”

“I’m not sure. I was excited. Whatever it was, it’s not uncontrollable. I stopped it.” But he didn’t want to. He wanted to fuck. Hard. Even as he spoke, his thoughts drifted to the top button on her uniform and how fast he could get her out of her clothing. He pushed the pornographic image away and centered his attention on the papers he’d spread out on the table.

“It doesn’t make it natural and it doesn’t mean we aren’t dangerous. I have the same issues. That’s a lot of chances to take. We could end up with a ship full of sex fiends. Or a planet.”

She touched his arm and he jumped from the jolt. Every muscle in his body tensed. Did she know what her touch did to him?

“When you consider what choices we have, this may be our only option. We don’t know if there are more of them out there. Releasing the mutation on the ship might kill the hijackers onboard, but if I don’t infect everyone, then what happens if reinforcements come? I need to protect that crew, and that means they all need the mutation. I need to stop the hijackers from taking our planet. Terra II is the only way we’re going to survive. We can’t sit up here forever.” The heat of her fingers burned through his shirt, sending his pulse skyrocketing. Kaleb’s mind began to wander to more pleasurable thoughts.

Focus
.

She dropped her hand, leaned a hip against the table, and crossed her arms in a defensive posture that sent testosterone roaring through his blood. “Let me get this right. Your idea is to change the entire crew of the
Genesis II
into werewolves and infest the planet with them.”

“Mutants—not werewolves, but yeah, that sounds about right. Plus, it would take humans out of the food chain, if that’s what our new friends eat.” He sighed. “Look, I’m not sure I want to do this. I just need a backup plan. A broken arrow.”

Snap
. Her scent went from lust to pissed in three seconds. It didn’t help his urge. It made it worse. God, she was sexy when she was angry. He took several steps away, collecting notes on the other side of the lab. Anything to put space between them.
Not now
. He needed to think.

“A broken arrow?” She raised a brow. “You really don’t know shit about military tactics, do you? When a commander calls fire down on his own men, he doesn’t have a choice. The enemy has usually overrun their position and they’re facing imminent destruction. We’re not facing that situation and you’re not calling for air support. We don’t even know what they want. They haven’t taken our ship, the crew of the
Genesis II
is alive, and we’ve got no reason to jump to the conclusion they’re going to eat us.”

He pressed his palms flat to the table’s surface and leaned forward, staring her in the eyes. “Get of whiff of them, then come back and tell me that again, Captain. They’ve overrun our position. What comes next? Do you want to sit around and observe them or create a contingency plan?”

“You’re not certain this is reversible or what the long-term effects will be. Anybody you infect might never be able to go home. They might not want to be mutants. You haven’t even asked them.”

“How do you propose I ask them?”

“I don’t know, sir. I don’t think it’s a good plan. Do you have any idea how it feels to have that choice taken from you?”

He flinched. Ouch. She’d raked him deep on that one, simultaneously cooling his libido several degrees and raising his hackles. “I’ve got a good idea, Captain. I’m also certain we can’t sit back and do nothing. We can’t wait for the cavalry to arrive or for fucking air support. We need to do something to save ourselves. Nobody is going to do it for us.”

“I think we should wait a little longer and find out what they’re doing.”

“If we wait, we could all be dead. That’s why a commander calls in a broken arrow.”

“You’re talking like this isn’t a contingency plan. It sounds like you’ve already decided.”

Damn, the woman should have been a lawyer.

“I’m not going to sit around and wait for them to kill us. I’m being proactive.”

“How can you take that chance, based on a pocketful of assumptions?” She leaned in until their noses almost touched. “That’s what you’ve got. Nothing more.”

Maybe he’d lost it, but something deep down told him it was the only way they’d make it out of this mess. “I think they’ve had their eyes on Earth, but man’s best friend got in the way. From their reactions, I’d say long-term exposure to canines is toxic to them. I can’t think of any other reason why they didn’t just take this ship and why their envoy was so small. They didn’t like coming over here.”

“Do one thing before you make that decision. Find a way to talk to the commander of the
Genesis II
. If he’s in, I’ll support your decision.”

“Are you telling me you won’t comply with the order if I give it?”

“At the moment….no. What you’re planning could start a war with an alien species we know nothing about.”

“I didn’t start it. They did.” Now he had Melissa against him. The last thing he needed. The decision was difficult enough to make, but without his crew’s backing, it would be almost impossible to carry out. He needed their help. He needed to know they were behind him and believed that what he was doing was the right thing.

Melissa hopped off the table and exited the lab without another word, making the doom and gloom all the worse.

Am I doing the right thing?

***

“Sir, we’ve successfully tapped into the
Genesis II’s
mainframe. I was running diagnostics on the
Ark
and the link came through. I’m getting a ton of data I think you better look at.”

Kaleb glanced at the time. Four hours? Had it been that long since Melissa left his lab? “Anything out of the norm?”

“Everything.”

“Get everyone on deck.”

“Yes, sir.”

It hadn’t taken Melissa long to gather their small crew onto the main deck. When he entered they were already sitting around the conference table, except for Jessica, who leaned against the wall near the door. Kaleb could feel her restlessness. She’d pulled herself together on the outside, but on the inside she was about to boil over. Confusion, anger, hurt. Her emotions assaulted his senses. She turned and glared at him, pissed for a whole lot of reasons he couldn’t begin to delve into at the moment.

“Attention,” she said in a drone voice, lacking her usual military enthusiasm.

Everyone jumped to their feet. He snorted. He’d never get used to it. “At ease. Let’s get down to business.” He crossed the room and plopped down in his seat. “Show me what you’ve got, Captain Deluzio.” Melissa nodded and brought the data she’d collected, up on the com. The recording crackled and played through several minutes of data-stream on routine updates. He was practically about to go to sleep when a transmission from the commander of the
Genesis II
began playing. He sat forward and listened intently.

“Earth Command, this is Colonel Stone. We’ve had a power surge and lost an engine core. The insulators failed and should have absorbed the excess but something went wrong. Not sure if we have enough to make it back to Earth. Please advise.”

“Don’t return to port. The part you need is in inventory at Ursus Station. Confirm your position so we can relay the coordinates to Ursus Major.”

“Sector six, grid three.”

“Roger. That’s sector six, grid three. Sit tight. We’ll send a shuttle from the station with the parts.”

“Roger. Holding our position.”

Melissa forwarded to the next transmission between Earth command and the
Genesis II
. “Looks like there’s eleven hours between this and the last transmission.”

He nodded. “Play the next.”

Melissa pressed a button and started the transmission.

“Earth Command, this is Colonel Stone. We’ve received the parts and we’re back on course.”

Kaleb’s hair stood on end. Something wasn’t right.

“Roger,
Genesis II
. We’ve charted your position on the grid according to the coordinates you’ve relayed. The core switch has put you twelve hours behind schedule. Please notify the
Genesis I
of this schedule change.”

“Wilco. We’ll relay.”

He looked at Melissa. “You didn’t get a message about them being twelve hours behind?”

“No, sir.”

Captain James sat forward and handed him a digital pad. “Look at the reading I pulled up while you replayed that last transmission. The voice signature doesn’t match. Very slight, but not the same.”

“It’s not your commander on that recording,” Kaleb said.

“No.”

“I thought something was off. Show me what else they’ve been doing.”

Lieutenant Jeffers tapped the screen that stretched across the surface of the table, drawing Kaleb’s attention away from the recording. “This is a map of our ship. The hijackers stuck the crew on levels one through four. They control the top two levels and the deck, sir.”

“How the hell did they get on board?”

“They were on the shuttle from Ursus Major, bringing us the core. Once onboard, things went to hell quick. These people don’t play.”

He nodded. Yeah, a Trojan horse. “Do we know how long they’ve had control of the station?”

“Not exactly. But we believe they hijacked the station when the last shift switched out at least eleven months ago and they’ve been waiting for us to launch this mission. The personnel in the shift were our people and went back to their stations on Earth, so we know it wasn’t before that. They could have hijacked the shuttle as it moved between Ursus Major and Ursus Minor, but that would take some amazing technology way beyond our intelligence to do that in a wormhole. If that’s what they did, we don’t stand a chance against them.”