Resurrection (The Inherited War) (24 page)

“I assure both of you,” Suns began, “that my intentions are honorable and will give my all to this mission.  If I don’t in some small way help to affect the release of Commander Cole, I will look at it as a failure on my part.”

Snow gave up on trying to be threatening and gave him her most seductive smiles.  “Good, I am glad we are on the same page.”  It was Suns turn to feel the icy fingers of fear run up and down his spine.  He had always wanted a pretty girl to give him a smile like that, but that was a smile that promised more than pleasure.  It was death looking on its latest victim.  He returned the smile with one forced on his face before standing and exiting the same door he had come in.

“For such a big guy you disappear in a room.  You scared the crap out of me when you spoke up.”  Snow got up and walked over to Jeth and playfully punched him on his massive arm.  “Make some noise every once in a while so I know your still there.”

“You can often accomplish more in silence than running your mouth.”  Jeth rumbled to her.

Snow looked at the big Worlder and gave him a genuinely affectionate smile.  “So what’s up with Thalo?  He lit out fast enough.”

“That is more complicated.”  Jeth looked at Snow as she crossed her arms and stood staring at him.  “I am not leaving here until I tell you, am I?”

“You got a better chance to be crowned King of the Wicker People than you do of leaving here with my curiosity peeked.”

Jeth locked his eyes on Snow’s for a moment before he admitted defeat to the diminutive female Nixa.  “Two of his four children have volunteered for duty on the Human ships.  His wife and two youngest just happen to be on board to visit his eldest.”

“Yeah, so?”

“As I said, it is complicated.  Thalo’s people mate for life and those who mate a member of, Qui Expectant or Those Who Wait often do not adjust to the separation well.  Those of us chosen to join the Qui Expectant feel it is an honor that cannot be refused.  It is also a secret that cannot be shared outside of the immediate family.  We, now that our people know of us and what we have sacrificed over the past twenty thousand years, are now treated as heroes.  Along with our spouses and families, but as hard as the journey has been for us, we often forget how hard it is on our loved ones.”  Jeth had said more in the last few breaths than she, or anyone for that matter, had heard from him in days.

“I still don’t get it.  Does she hate him or something for the choice he made?”

“No, well not that I am aware of but we do get periodic breaks to return to our homes and families.  Otherwise we wouldn’t have families to come home to.”  He eyed Snow.  “This remains between us.  If Thalo chooses to talk about it is his choice.  Do you understand me?”

Snow swallowed a lump in her throat and nervously shook her head.  “His youngest child is not his.  He treats her like his own and would kill anyone who said otherwise, but she is another’s.  There is much tension between the two and their being here at the same time is an unfortunate coincidence.  She would provide too great of a distraction on Thalo’s concentration, so he must go spend time with her and his youngest.  He must also spend time with his oldest who harbor resentment because he was gone most of their lives.”

Snow felt pangs of sadness for Thalo.  Something she never thought she would feel for the brash and arrogant Worlder.  “It’s so sad.  Is that why he acts the way he does?”

“Hahaha.”  The laugh surprised Snow.  “No. That is the way he has been since I have known him.  It is a common trait amongst males of his people.  They all tend to be loud and arrogant.  We are the balance.  My people are more thoughtful and introspective.”

Snow chewed on her lower lip for a few moments before throwing up her hands and wrapping them around the big Worlder.  “Thank you for telling me and I want you to know how much I appreciate what you and your group have done since the Purge War.  It means more to me now than it did before.”

Jeth gently returned the hug.  Snow stepped back and wiped her eyes dry with her sleeve.  “I am off for a snack and a nap.”

“I will show you to your quarters.”  Jeth preceded Snow out the door and led her down the companionway to her room.  He left with a nod of the head and a gentle reminder to keep the information he had imparted on her in confidence.  Snow decided to skip the snack and threw herself onto the small cot.  She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep warmed by the reminder of the gentle touch of Jeth's arms around her body.

~

Sky silently fumed.  She stood outside of the long range shuttle they were preparing for her mission, and ranted in her mind over the delays.  She had found her personal cabin after the meeting with Suns and Jeth.  She had eaten a small meal and lay down to take a nap.  She had assumed someone would wake her up when the shuttle was ready.  She had woken up ten hours later.  She cursed the new commander and his crew as she had scrambled to get her things ready and headed out the door.

Sky had run almost the whole way to the hanger.  Only to be disappointed.  They had only just finished installing the main memory grid that the AI would inhabit for their trip.  They were currently running diagnostics on it with the AI that had volunteered for the mission.  The techs had assured her they were moving as fast as they could but these things just took time.  It took everything she had not to bite the head off of the senior tech in the hanger.

It wasn’t their fault that it was taking so long, they were working as fast as they could and she understood that the AI needed a stable home if it was going to help them penetrate to the surface of Chrysalis.  Still, she chaffed at the delay.  Every moment spent in idleness was one more moment Cole was being held prisoner.  She ached for his touch.  She longed to feel his arms around her again.  She wanted to talk to him, she wanted to hear his advice on how to handle the situation on her home.

Most of all, she wanted to tell him that she understood why he had planned to secretly draw the Nixa into his war.  She understood what he had done and was coming around to his point of view.  She was calm and serene on the outside but inside she seethed with anger and longing.

“It won’t go any faster if you stand here and watch.”  Thalo’s voice cut through the red fog of her anger.

“Shut up.”  She snapped.

“How much longer?”

“The tech said one hour.”  She absently responded.

Thalo took a cautious step closer to Sky.  “Everything is moving as fast as possible.”

Sky cut him off.  “How far past Split’s days are we now?”

“Now, three days.  Like I said earlier, I believe it wasn’t an attack in two days message, more like don’t come for at least two days.  I trust Split and Cole, they are fine.”

“Fine? Fine? How could you possibly know they are fine?” Sky rounded on Thalo and nearly screamed the last in his face.  “Have you received a new message that you haven’t told me about?  Tell me, Thalo, how do you know they are fine?”

Thalo placed his hands on either of her shoulders.  “I am not your enemy, Sky, I am your friend.  And Cole’s friend, if you need to vent then I will take any abuse you care to throw at me.  But privately and not within earshot of the crew.  You are our leader now and you must exude confidence.  Otherwise you lose the crew.  As for Cole’s wellbeing, I know because I haven’t received the ‘Dead’ message from Split.  Before he left when he told me about the point to point communicator he had with him, he told me that if he couldn’t rescue Cole or if Cole died before he could rescue him he would send a one word message.  ‘Dead.’  That would let me know that Cole had died and Split was about to sell his own life as early as possible.  I have not received that message yet so I know they are both alive.  Maybe not well but alive.”

Sky shuddered out a breath and hung her head for a moment to compose her.  “Sorry,” she whispered. 

“Now come with me until the ship is ready.”  He turned her and started her walking to the other end of the hangar.

“Where are we going now?  I would much rather wait here until they are done with the ship.”  Sky let him lead her to the far door.

“We are going to check on the one being everyone seems to have forgotten about.”  Thalo opened the door and lead Sky through it.

Sky let out a small gasp and covered her mouth with her hand.  “Hal.  I forgot all about him.”  She rushed forward into the room and ran up to the techs who were working the computers.  “How is he?  Is he awake yet?”

“Almost ma’am.  It is taking a lot longer to reconnect his power paths than previously expected.  The nanites drones are working out well and with the help of the other AI’s we are getting closer and closer to fixing him.  Although…”  He trailed off at this point.

“What? Just tell me,” she snapped.

“Well, ma’am no one is sure how much of Hal will still be there.  Once we have the power paths all fixed we have to check his neural relays.  If too many of them are damaged, well no one knows what that will mean to his personality or memory. Sorry ma’am, but this is all new to us and we are working closely with the other AI’s to expedite the process.”

“Thank you, it means everything to me that he is in your hands.  Now don’t let me distract you anymore.”  Sky walked forward and leaned over the railing around the gear and devices in the middle of the room.  “Hal, I don’t know if you can hear me but we could really use your help for this one.  I need you, Cole needs you even more.”  She turned around and saw Thalo and the tech staring at her.  “I am going back to the shuttle, collect my sister and Vinco, and bring them to the ship.  Please.”

“Sure thing, consider it done.”  Thalo offered her one of his sloppy salutes as he smartly turned and marched to the door.

Sky watched him go and tried to force a smile at his antics. Failing she turned to the tech.  “At least you get silence in your work.”  He offered her a genuine smile as she walked by.  Sky left the room that housed her friend and walked slowly across the deck to the ship.  She ignored the crewmen frantically working on loading the shuttle and preparing it for her mission.  She found the Captain’s cabin and closed the door behind her.  She locked it and collapsed onto the bed.  It was wearing her down, she didn’t know how much longer she could hold it together.  If they didn’t start out for Esii soon, she would take command and lead the way there herself.

CHAPTER 18

Cole led the way down the hallway off shoot.  Split was close behind him and Anastacia brought up the rear. All three had their helmets up and were ready for action at a moment’s notice.  It came faster than they thought it would.  Cole came to the junction with the main hallway and paused.  Right led back to the room they had been torturing him in, and left led deeper into the complex\ and closer to the machine.  Right would take them to potential allies, and left to hundred to one odds.  All three stopped and flattened themselves against the wall. 

Cole’s suit had a wireless link to the other two and he could see their vitals in his HUD.  His heart rate and breathing was rock steady, Splits slightly elevated with excitement, and Anastacias was very elevated.  “Take a breath, these suits will protect you better than any armor we had on Earth.  Mine is even better so I will try and stay between you and any action.”  She didn’t respond but Cole watched as her breathing leveled out and her heart rate dropped marginally.  “Ok, I am going to step around the corner and ping my sonar.  See if anyone is in the area.”

In the close confines of the system of underground caves and rooms, Cole was betting on the suits sonar system working better than the radar.  By pinging the sonar he emitted a high frequency “Ping” that was almost inaudible to most living things.  So he wasn’t worried about anyone hearing him.  Like all sonar’s, the suit gathered the reflected sound and made a map.  Superimposing the image over the map Split had made allowed any new features to stand out to Cole as he surveyed the route. 

Cole checked the charge on his plasma pistol and made sure it was set to maximum.  He slowly poked his head around the corner and looked left and right.  Seeing it was all clear he cautiously stepped out into the hallway.  One hundred feet down the corridor, stepping out of the room that had been Cole’s torture chamber, a group of Esii walked out at the exact same time.

Cole reacted before they even knew what was going on.  His battle sense kicked in.  Chemicals flooded his brain and multiplied his synapse response tenfold.  Time appeared to slow down for him.  He watched as the Esii slowly turned towards him, they hadn’t even recognized the threat yet.  His hands were already moving.  He was holstering his pistol with his right and grabbing for the small compact rifle with his left.  He had switched guns before the Esii had fully turned to meet him.  Cole brought his weapon up to a firing position and squeezed the trigger at the same time he began to back pedal and push Split and Anastacia back into the hallway they had just came out of.

Cole ripped of a good ten round burst and watched as his plasma blasts tracked down the hall and impacted on the closer Esii.  Then suddenly he was back behind the cover of the wall and time jolted back to full speed.  He had done it all in less than a few seconds, but it was only just fast enough.  As the last of his silhouette disappeared from the main hallway, a firestorm of plasma rounds impacted all over the junction.  Cole kept backpedaling and pushing all three of them out of the impact area.

“Shit.” Cole flattened himself against the wall and watched the corner of his hallway get chewed up by the blaster fire. He crept back to the corner and stuck his weapon around the corner and unloaded a full battery pack down the corridor.  The temp in the hallway was rising with all the super-hot plasma rolling up and down the corridor.  Cole rapidly reloaded his weapon and got his head around the corner this time and started to fire at targets with more precision.  He saw at least three Esii lying unmoving where they had exited the room they had been in and at least two more with weapons poked around the corner firing blindly down the hall in their general direction.  Cole pinged his sonar again.  “Shit,” he repeated himself.  Split had gotten between Cole and the opposite wall and was adding his fire to Cole’s.

“Reinforcements coming, a lot of reinforcements.”  His map was still building the image but it wasn’t good.  The hallway that continued on for one hundred feet past the torture room and ended in a T intersection was a solid wall of red blobs.   They were not in range yet but it wouldn’t be long.  “They have enough troops that they can overwhelm us faster than we can shoot them.”

Split didn’t respond he just kept putting fire down the hallway.  Cole ducked back into their hallway and slammed his fist into his thigh.  He hadn’t recovered enough for this.  His brain was acting all sluggish and he couldn’t focus on a solution.  More fire joined the hectic shots being fired by the Esii trapped in the torture room.  The reinforcements were arriving.  More chunks of wall were being blasted to nothingness by their fire.  It wouldn’t be too long before the massed fire tore through their protective wall.  Cole needed time.  He watched as heavy plasma hit the opposite corner from him and Split.

Time, he needed time.  “Split do we have any heavy duty explosives?  Change places with me.”  Split ducked back into the hallway as Cole poked himself around the corner and started to fire again.

“Depends on what you want them to do.”  Split was taking his pack off and digging through it.

“Do we have anything with enough power to collapse the ceiling between us and them?”  Cole quickly reloaded his weapon and continued firing.  He felt a body press up behind him and saw out of his peripheral another weapon off to his left.  Anastacia had gotten tight behind him and was adding her firepower to his.

“Yes, we have a few bricks of compressed CX.  It is an explosive designed to direct its blast and can cut through most anything.  One or two bricks should bring down the passage.  That only leaves us with one way to go.” 

“I know but we don’t have a choice.  I would rather face the hundreds to the left than the thousands to our right.  What do you need us to do?”  Cole had slacked a little with his rate of fire to conserve ammo.  Cole could see the Esii down the hallway, they were stacking their dead and using them for cover.

“Nothing, just give us a second.”  Cole’s helmet gave him a nearly 360 degree view.  He watched as Split got behind Anastacia readied the explosive.  First he tossed a small round object down the hall towards the Esii.  It appeared to be a grenade to Cole and he was right.  It was a smoke grenade and the billowing white cloud quickly filled the hallway.  Next split moved back so he could see further down the corridor.  He held a small object in his hand.   It was about as long and wide as a dollar bill but was about two inches deep.  Cole watched as he depressed a button on the brick.  Suddenly a line shot out and extended down the hallway to latch onto the ceiling.  Cole assumed it had latched onto the ceiling because the smoke was too thick to be sure.

Split hit the button again and let go.  The brick shot away along the line to, again Cole assumed, the ceiling about fifty feet down the hallway.  Split set another line and released another of his bricks.  After the second one was away he ducked back into the hall.  “Move back, we don’t know if we got it far enough down the hallway.”  Cole and Anastacia ceased firing and followed Split back down the way they had come.  They flattened themselves against the wall and held their breaths.  There was a loud “crunk” sound and a pressure wave traveled up and down the hallway.  It had enough force to make it down the side passage the three were in and harden their suits impact protections.  Debris rained down the hallway and the smoke was quickly joined by dust.  The suits auditor dampeners had kicked in and had deadened the sound of the explosion to a safe level.

Cole waited a few moments until debris had stopped falling and things quieted down.  No one was shooting down the hallway any more, he thought that was a good sign.  Cautiously Cole crept down the hallway until he came to the intersection.  He poked his head around the corner and was greeted by a solid wall of caved in rock. He fully entered the main hallway and let out a low whistle.

“I am impressed Split, that’s a good explosive.”

  “Do not thank us, we didn’t invent the stuff we just use it.  Now, have you thought of a way out of here?”

“I thought we didn’t want to go to our left.  Weren’t there to many of them that way?”  Anastacia had held up well under fire and had proven herself to Cole and Split. 

“That was before we got caught ten feet from our hideout.  There were too many to our right.  We go the other way.  We try and catch them in small groups or take out large numbers at once.  We need to find
out what is in that giant area you couldn’t get into.  Possibly something in there that can help us.”  Cole looked at his HUD and double checked his ammo.  “Let’s go restock and try this again.  Everyone grab some of that explosive, we may need more.”  They all headed back down to their hideout and exchanged spent batteries for fresh ones.  “Take two.”  They headed out again, this time they took a left.

~

They got a good ways down the left branch of the main hallway before they stopped.  There was only one way to go from here on out.  Cole knew that and so did the Esii.  By now the ones guarding the machine had to know something was going on, and had taken up their defensive positions.  Cole looked over the map Split had made on his wanderings, they had set up the tunnels well.  Bottlenecks, narrow hallways, and little to no cover, that was their route.  A four man team could hold this passage for days, long enough for the others to tunnel through the wreckage behind them.

“Split,” Cole caught the Worlders attention through the com.

“Yes Commander,” they replied.

“I need a scout.  You up for the job?”

“We are more at home when we are undetected.”  With that Split faded into invisibility.  All traces of the Worlder were gone.  “Give us a five minute head start.”

“Will do.  No engaging the enemy, you are a recon asset only at this point.  Don’t needlessly endanger yourself.  Got it?”

Split grumbled his reply.  Cole pretended not to hear what the Worlder said in response to his orders.  Cole switched over to a channel only Anastacia could hear.

“You did really well back there.  How are you holding up?”

“Me, I am scared to death.  I really don’t want to die down here.”  Cole could hear the tension still lurking in her voice.

Cole reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder.  He gave her a gentle squeeze.  “Have faith in your armor, in myself, and Split.  I won’t lie to you, our chances of getting off of this rock are not high, but I will do everything I can to affect an escape.”  Cole retracted his helmet so she could see his face.  “I promise that they will not, under any circumstances, take us prisoner again.  I will see this whole world destroyed before that happens.”

Cole saw her armored head nod in acceptance.  He forced a smile on his face.  “Now, let’s go find Split.”  He reactivated his helmet and turned back down the tunnel.  He brought up the new information that Split was transmitting back.  Split had made it a good distance down the hall and hadn’t run into any resistance as of yet.  Cole activated the 360 degree view on his helmet cam so he could see Anastacia.  She had hesitated a few seconds before following Cole down the hall.  He smiled to himself and focused his attention back to the updating map.  Split had ducked into all the rooms and offshoots that connected with this hall and had found nothing. 

“We have found them.”  The message crackled over their intercom.  “They have abandoned their more forward positions in favor of a blocking position deeper in.”  Cole watched as the wire framed map on his HUD zoomed into an area of the hall that opened up into a large room.  He was getting real time info from Split.  The image changed from an open space, to show the hasty defensive positions that had been built up by the Esii guards.  The last information was of enemy personnel.  Cole counted twenty red dots as they appeared behind the barricades. “As you can see they are too tightly packed, we cannot go any further.”  Cole was still moving forward as he listened to Split and studied the map.

“Hold there, Split,” Cole ordered.  It took only a few minutes to get to the last bend in the hallway that kept them out of the line of sight of the room.  “How are they armed and armored?”

“They all have on Skins and plasma rifles.  Their barricades are made of armor grade alloys.  We cannot get behind them; we need to attack head on.”

“Shit, wait one.”  Cole leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.  He still wasn’t at one hundred percent and he knew it, there had to be a way through this mess.  He looked at the map again.  After rounding the last bend he had about fifty feet of open hall then twenty feet of open room before he got to the barricades.  No cover and nowhere to hide.  If he could just get Split behind them he could hit them from two sides and cause enough confusion that he might just win the skirmish.  The chances that the guards could be fooled were not high.  Due to their telepathic natures they probably knew exactly what was going on and were simply hunkering down and waiting for the cavalry to clear out the cave-in and ride to their rescue. 

No that wasn’t true at all.  They would sell their lives for time to ensure we don’t make it to the machine.  They knew the Esii trapped on the other side of the cave in didn’t give a damn about the lives of their fellow Esii down here.  Cole started to do a mental inventory of the weapons and gear they had brought with them.  Inspiration struck. 

“Anastacia, turn around.”  She complied immediately.  Cole opened up her rucksack and dug around until he found what he was looking for.  Then he helped her remove the pack.  “Split, get as close to their position as you can and hug the left wall.  I am going to pop smoke and flood the room.  Our vision is better than theirs and should give us the edge.  As soon as they are all focused on their front and firing at us hit them from the side and work your way to their rear.  Put up your ID tag so we can see where you are.”